工作——小我存在與否

很多人都有不受小我控制的時(shí)刻。在某些領(lǐng)域有特殊成就的人，就有可能在他們工作的時(shí)候，完全或是大部分地從小我中解脫。他們可能毫不知情，但是他們的工作本身已經(jīng)成為一種靈性的修持了。他們大多數(shù)都是在工作的時(shí)候非常的臨在，而在日常生活中又會(huì)落回到比較無(wú)意識(shí)的狀態(tài)。這意味著他們臨在的狀態(tài)只是暫時(shí)地局限于生活中的一個(gè)領(lǐng)域而已。我接觸過(guò)一些老師、藝術(shù)家、護(hù)士、醫(yī)生、科學(xué)家、社會(huì)工作者、服務(wù)生、美發(fā)師、企業(yè)老板還有銷(xiāo)售人員，他們工作時(shí)并沒(méi)有在追尋自我，而是完全順應(yīng)當(dāng)時(shí)之所需，令人敬佩。他們與工作合一，也與當(dāng)下合一了，也與當(dāng)時(shí)他們服務(wù)的人或是任務(wù)合而為一。這些人對(duì)于其他人的影響，遠(yuǎn)超過(guò)他們提供的功能所帶來(lái)的影響。每個(gè)和他們接觸的人都會(huì)感覺(jué)到自己小我的緩減。即使那些小我強(qiáng)烈的人，都會(huì)開(kāi)始放松，放下防衛(wèi)，并且在互動(dòng)中不再做角色扮演。理所當(dāng)然的是，這些工作時(shí)不帶小我色彩的人，在他們的工作中都有杰出的表現(xiàn)。任何與他所做之事合一的人，就是在創(chuàng)建一個(gè)新的世界。

我也接觸過(guò)一些人，他們也許技術(shù)上非常到位，但是他們的小我卻時(shí)時(shí)地破壞他們的成果。他們的注意力只有一部分是放在工作上，其他的部分都是在自己身上。他們的小我需要得到個(gè)別的關(guān)注，如果得不到足夠認(rèn)可的話（可能永遠(yuǎn)都不夠），他們會(huì)浪費(fèi)很多能量在怨懟上面：“有其他的人獲得比我還多的關(guān)注嗎？”此外，這些人主要關(guān)注的焦點(diǎn)也許是利益或權(quán)力，而他們的工作只不過(guò)是為了達(dá)到目標(biāo)的手段。當(dāng)工作變成不過(guò)是達(dá)到目標(biāo)的手段時(shí)，它就不會(huì)是高質(zhì)量的。當(dāng)工作中有障礙或困難的時(shí)候，當(dāng)事情不如預(yù)期順利的時(shí)候，當(dāng)其他人或是環(huán)境不給予助力或合作時(shí)，他們不但不會(huì)立刻與這個(gè)新的狀況合一，而針對(duì)當(dāng)下的情況采取必要的措施，反倒會(huì)起而抗拒新的狀況，而讓自己與它分開(kāi)。在這里，有一個(gè)“我”覺(jué)得個(gè)人受到了侵犯或是覺(jué)得怨恨，而且大量的能量會(huì)在無(wú)用的反抗或怒氣中燃燒殆盡，而這些能量如果沒(méi)有被小我錯(cuò)誤地使用的話，其實(shí)是可以用來(lái)解決問(wèn)題的。尤有甚者，這股反抗的能量會(huì)創(chuàng)造新的障礙、新的反對(duì)勢(shì)力。很多人真的是自己最大的敵人。

當(dāng)有些人不幫助其他人、不與其他人分享資訊或是陷害別人，免得別人會(huì)比“我”成功或是比“我”得到更多的榮譽(yù)時(shí)，這反而是不自覺(jué)地傷害了自己的工作。對(duì)小我來(lái)說(shuō)，合作是個(gè)陌生的名詞，除非有暗藏的其他動(dòng)機(jī)。小我不知道，你愈是把別人包容進(jìn)來(lái)，事情會(huì)進(jìn)行得愈加順利，而且各種事物會(huì)愈容易流向你。當(dāng)你不給別人幫助，或是只給別人一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)幫助，或是在別人的路上制造障礙，宇宙（以人、事、物的形式）也不會(huì)給你幫助，或是只給你一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)幫助，因?yàn)槟惆炎约簭恼w之中切割開(kāi)了。小我無(wú)意識(shí)的核心感受就是“不夠”，所以它對(duì)別人成功的反應(yīng)，覺(jué)得好像是他們從“我”這里拿走了什么。小我不知道，你對(duì)其他人成功的怨懟，反而會(huì)阻礙你自己成功的機(jī)會(huì)。為了要吸引成功，不論你在哪里看到它都要隨時(shí)歡迎它。

WORK – WITH AND WITHOUT EGO

Most people have moments when they are free of ego. Those who are exceptionally good at what they do may be completely or largely free of ego while performing their work. They may not know it, but their work has become a spiritual practice. Most of them are present while they do their work and fall back into relative unconsciousness in their private life. This means their state of Presence is for the time being confined to one area of their life. I have met teachers, artists, nurses, doctors, scientists, social workers, waiters, hairdressers, business owners, and salespeople who perform their work admirably without any self-seeking, fully responding to whatever the moment requires of them. They are one with what they do, one with the Now, one with the people or the task they serve. The influence such people have upon others goes far beyond the function they perform. They bring about a lessening of the ego in everyone who comes into contact with them. Even people with heavy egos sometimes begin to relax, let down their guard, and stop playing their roles when they interact with them. It comes as no surprise that those people who work without ego are extraordinarily successful at what they do. Anybody who is one with what he or she does is building the new earth.

I have also met many others who may be technically good at what they do but whose ego constantly sabotages their work. Only part of their attention is on the work they perform; the other part is on themselves. Their ego demands personal recognition and wastes energy in resentment if it doesn't get enough – and it's never enough. “Is someone else getting more recognition than me?” Or their main focus of attention is profit or power, and their work is no more than a means to that end. When work is no more than a means to an end, it cannot be of high quality. When obstacles or difficulties arise in their work, when things don't go according to expectation, when other people or circumstances are not helpful or cooperative, instead of immediately becoming one with the new situation and responding to the requirements of the present moment, they react against the situation and so separate themselves from it. There is a “me” that feels personally offended or resentful, and a huge amount of energy is burned up in useless protest or anger, energy that could be used for solving the situation if it were not being misused by the ego. What is more, this “anti”-energy creates new obstacles, new opposition. Many people are truly their own worst enemy.

People unknowingly sabotage their own work when they withhold help or information from others or try to undermine them lest they become more successful or get more credit than “me.” Cooperation is alien to the ego, except when there is a secondary motive. The ego doesn't know that the more you include others, the more smoothly things flow and the more easily things come to you. When you give little or no help to others or put obstacles in their path, the universe – in the form of people and circumstances – gives little or no help to you because you have cut yourself off from the whole.

The ego's unconscious core feeling of “not enough” causes it to react to someone else's success as if that success had taken something away from “me.” It doesn't know that your resentment of another person's success curtails your own chances of success. In order to attract success, you need to welcome it wherever you see it.