..續本文上一頁 we should regularly ask ourselves whether we still have control over them, whether we can give them up or alter them at will. We can answer this question for ourselves in two ways: by attending to our habitual actions mindfully for a certain period of time, and second, by actually giving them up temporarily in cases where this will not have any harmful or disturbing effects upon ourselves or others. If we turn on them the light of direct vision, looking at them or performing them as if for the first time, these little routine activities, and the habitual sights around us, will assume a new glow of interest and stimulation. This also holds good for our professional occupation and its environment, and for our close human relationships if they should have become stale by habit. The relationship to one”s marriage partner, to friends, to colleagues, may thus receive a great rejuvenation. A fresh and direct vision will also reveal that one can relate to people or do things in a different and more beneficial way than one did before by force of habit.

　　An acquired capacity to give up minor habits will prove its worth in the fight against more dangerous proclivities. It will also come to our aid at times when we are faced with serious changes in our life which forcefully deprive us of fundamental habits. Loosening the hardened soil of our routine behavior and thoughts will have an enlivening effect on our vital energy, our mental vigor, and our power of imagination. But what is most important, into that loosened soil we shall be able to plant the seeds of vigorous spiritual progress.

　　ASSOCIATIVE THOUGHT

　　Mental Habituation to standard reactions, to sequences of activity, to judgments of people or things proceeds by way of associative thinking. From the objects, ideas, situations and people that we encounter, we select certain distinctive marks, and associate these marks with our own response to them. If these encounters recur, they are associated first with those marks selected earlier, and then with our original or strongest response. Thus these marks become a signal for releasing a standard reaction, which may consist of a long sequence of connected acts or thoughts familiar through repeated practice or experience. This way of functioning makes it unnecessary for us to apply new effort and painstaking scrutiny to each single step in such a sequence. The result is a great simplification of life, permitting us to release energy for other tasks. In fact, in the evolution of the human mind, associative thinking was a progressive step of decisive importance. It enabled us to learn from experience, and thus led up to the discovery and application of causal laws.

　　Yet along with these benefits, associative thinking can also bring many grave dangers if it is applied faultily or thoughtlessly and not carefully controlled. Let us draw up a partial list of these danger points:

　　1. Associative thinking, recurring again and again in similar situations, may easily perpetuate and strengthen faulty or incomplete initial observations, errors of judgment, and emotional prejudices such as love, hate and pride.

　　2. Incomplete observations and restricted viewpoints in judgment, sufficient to deal with one particular situation, may prove quite inadequate and entail grave consequences if mechanically applied to changed circumstances.

　　3. Due to misdirected associative thinking, a strong instinctive dislike may be felt for things, places or persons which in some way are merely reminiscent of unpleasant experiences, but actually have no connection with them.

　　These briefly-stated instances show how vital it is for us to scrutinize from time to time the mental grooves of our associative thoughts, and to review the various habits and stereotype reactions derivin…

《The Power of Mindfulness:An Inquiry into the Scope of Bare Attention and the Principal Sources of its Strength》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…