敬畏生命[畢淑敏作品]

《敬畏生命》是一篇文章，作者為畢淑敏。

原文

我是一個生命，生命的意願是生存，在生命的中途，她願意活著。在我的生命意識中，帶著對毀滅和痛苦的懼怕，渴望著更廣闊的生存和快樂；我的周遭圍繞著同樣的生命意識，無論她在我面前表達自己還是保持沉默。生命意識到處展現，在我自身也是同樣。如果我是一個有思維的生命，我必須以同等的敬畏來尊敬其他生命，而不僅僅限於自我小圈子，因為我明白：她深深地渴望圓滿和發展的意願，跟我是一模一樣的。所以，我認為毀滅、妨礙、阻止生命是極其惡劣的。尊敬生命，在實際上和精神上兩個方面，我都保持真實。根據同樣的理由，盡我所能，挽救和保護生命達到她的高度發展，是盡善盡美的。在我內部，生命意識懂得了其他的生命意識。她渴望透過自身達到整合，成為一個整體。我只能堅持這樣一個事實，生命意識透過我展示了她自己：成為與其他生命意識相互依存的一員。我經驗過向一切生命意識表達同等敬畏的不可遏止的衝動，如同尊敬自身的一樣。通過這種經驗形成了我的倫理觀。一個人遵從這種衝動，去幫助所有他能夠幫助的生命，並且畏懼傷害任何活著的生靈，這個人才是符合倫理的。如果我把一個昆蟲從泥坑救出來，我的生命對另一個生命做出貢獻，那么對立於生命自身的生命分隔現象就消失了。不論何時不論何種方式，我的生命對另一個生命貢獻出他自身，我的生命意識就經歷了一個從有限到無限的融合的願望，在這個願望中，所有的生命是一個整體。絕對倫理要求在生命中創造完美。她不可能完全實現；這一點倒無所謂。對生命敬畏的感覺是絕對的倫理。它使生命序列的保持和提升順利運作。不論在什麼情況下，毀滅和傷害生命都如同惡魔一樣有罪。在實踐中，我們真的被迫選擇。我們經常必須武斷地決定何種形式的生命，甚至何種特殊的人，我們應該挽救，何種我們應該毀滅。儘管如此，敬畏生命的原則仍然是完整的和毋庸置疑的。這種倫理並不因為人們的倫理觀牴觸現象而失效，農民在牧場割草餵牛割下了一千棵花，可是他必須注意，在回家的路上，不要因為沉浸在消遣心情里而劃掉路旁的花朵，因為這樣做是不必要，是對生命犯下罪行。

不知是否知道科教頻道的紀錄片，或者說是電影《螞蟻不好惹》，這在其中都向我們人類展現，說明：生命值得敬畏，像畢淑敏說的：“生命的意願是生存……毀滅和傷害生命都如同惡魔一樣有罪。”這又會談到電影片，大多都有講到外星生物來到地球企圖毀滅人類，侵占資源。可我們是不是該捫心自問：他們也是生存，和我們一樣。

英文

I am life which wills to live, in the midst of life which wills to live. As in my own will-to-live there is a longing for wider life and pleasure, with dread of annihilation and pain; so is it also in the will-to-live all around me, whether it can express itself before me or remains dumb. The will-to-live is everywhere present, even as in me. If I am a thinking being, I must regard life other than my own with equal reverence, for I shall know that it longs for fullness and development as deeply as I do myself. Therefore, I see that evil is what annihilates, hampers, or hinders life. And this holds true whether I regard it physically or spiritually. Goodness, by the same token, is the saving or helping of life, the enabling of whatever life I can to attain its highest development.

In me the will-to-live has come to know about other wills-to-live. There is in it a yearning to arrive at unity with itself, to become universal. I can do nothing but hold to the fact that the will-to-live in me manifests itself as will-to-live which desires to become one with other will-to-live.

Ethics consist in my experiencing the compulsion to show to all will-to-live the same reverence as I do my own. A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives. If I save an insect from a puddle, life has devoted itself to life, and the division of life against itself has ended. Whenever my life devotes itself in any way to life, my finite will-to-live experiences union with the infinite will in which all life is one.

An absolute ethic calls for the creating of perfection in this life. It cannot be completely achieved; but that fact does not really matter. In this sense reverence for life is an absolute ethic. It makes only the maintenance and promotion of life rank as good. All destruction of and injury to life, under whatever circumstances, it condemns as evil. True, in practice we are forced to choose. At times we have to decide arbitrarily which forms of life, and even which particular individuals, we shall save, and which we shall destroy. But the principle of reverence for life is nonetheless universal and absolute.

Such an ethic does not abolish for man all ethical conflicts but compels him to decide for himself in each case how far he can remain ethical and how far he must submit himself to the necessity for destruction of and injury to life. No one can decide for him at what point, on each occasion, lies the extreme limit of possibility for his persistence in the preservation and furtherance of life. He alone has to judge this issue, by letting himself be guided by a feeling of the highest possible responsibility towards other life. We must never let ourselves become blunted. We are living in truth, when we experience these conflicts more profoundly.

Whenever I injure life of any sort, I must be quite clear whether it is necessary. Beyond the unavoidable, I must never go, not even with what seems insignificant. The farmer, who has mown down a thousand flowers in his meadow as fodder for his cows, must be careful on his way home not to strike off in wanton pastime the head of a single flower by the roadside, for he thereby commits a wrong against life without being under the pressure of necessity

畢淑敏

畢淑敏，祖籍山東，1952年生於新疆伊寧，就讀於北京外語學院附屬學校。17歲赴西藏高原阿里地區當兵，服役11年。歷任衛生員，助理軍區，軍醫，1980年轉業回北京，1990年任中國有色金屬工業總公司作家。