Full Commencement Address by Jim Carrey

Begin with being inspired

數周前, 在網路上看到Jim Carrey節錄的演講內容, 聽到了一句話,

You can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.

也因為這句話, 讓我想要好好理解他在畢業演講上想要傳達給聽眾的哲學. 於是我在MUM的網站找到了他的full speech以及scripts. 心想, thanks God, 這樣我就能逐字理解了. 然而似乎不是這麼一回事, 一段句子就算我聽的再多遍, 似乎也不能理解他所要表達的意思, 在反覆思考其中的哲理時, 慢慢的我愈嚼愈有興趣, 於是我興起了翻譯的念頭, 目的就是在於…能夠讓更多的人理解這麼有趣的一個演講.

我並沒有全部翻譯, 而是選擇從約第10分鐘開始(不過前10分鐘也頗好笑的就是了). 以下我會把中英都放上去, 因為有些句子我也不知道這樣翻對不對, 也害怕會加入太多主觀的理解進去裡頭, anyway let’s get started.

熱情或是恐懼?

Fear is going to be a player in your life, but you get to decide how much. You can spend your whole life imagining ghosts, worrying about your pathway to the future, but all there will ever be is what’s happening here, and the decisions we make in this moment, which are based in either love or fear.

恐懼將會扮演你生命中的其中一個角色, 但是你可以自己決定他的重要性. 你可以費其一生被自己想像的恐懼環繞, 並且擔心著通往未來的道路是否存在, 但是這些道路其實就在你們身邊, 取決於你們是用熱情或是恐懼來作決定.

出自於恐懼而選擇了實際的道路?

So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality. What we really want seems impossibly out of reach and ridiculous to expect, so we never dare to ask the universe for it. I’m saying, I’m the proof that you can ask the universe for it — please! (applause) And if it doesn’t happen for you right away, it’s only because the universe is so busy fulfilling my order. It’s party size! (laughter)

我們常選擇所謂的”實際”的道路, 但其實這是一個出自於懼怕的抉擇. 我們真正想要的看似不可觸及, 荒謬, 以及不可期待, 所以我們壓根兒不敢向祈求宇宙心中所愛. 我想說的是, 我就是一個你可以跟宇宙祈求的最好的證明, 拜託請一定要這樣做. 如果再你祈求之後仍未達成你所想, 那可能只是祂仍忙於實現我的要求吧! 我的要求可是很多的!

Jim Carrey的爸爸對他的影響

My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that was possible for him and so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant, and when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job and our family had to do whatever we could to survive.

我爸爸本來有能力成為一個偉大的喜劇演員的, 但他不相信他有能力, 他覺得那是一個奢求, 所以他做了一個保守的決定. 他選擇了一個安全的會計師工作. 但當我12歲時, 他被迫使離開那個安全的工作, 然後我們全家必須要竭盡所能地為生存而奮鬥.

I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.

我在他身上學到許多, 很重要的一點是, 如果你都可以在最不喜歡的選擇中失敗, 那為什麼不找尋一個可以做自己喜歡的事的機會呢?

找到自己的志向

That’s not the only thing he taught me though: I watched the effect my father’s love and humor had on the world around me, and I thought, “That’s something to do, that’s something worth my time.”

但這不是他教我唯一的事. 我看著我父親的愛以及幽默感在我的世界裡發酵, 我想著, “那就是我想做的事, 那就是我值得花時間投入的事!”

It wasn’t long before I started acting up. People would come over to my house and they would be greeted by a 7 yr old throwing himself down a large flight of stairs. (laughter) They would say, “What happened?” And I would say, “I don’t know — let’s check the replay.” And I would go back to the top of the stairs and come back down in slow motion. (Jim reenacts coming down the stairs in slow-mo) It was a very strange household. (laughter)

於是不久後我便開始付諸行動, 有些人來我們家的時候會看到一個七歲的小孩連滾帶爬的掉下樓梯. 他們會問說, “發生什麼事了?” 然後我回答, “阿災, 我們可能要看看重播畫面.” 於是我會爬上樓梯的頂端, 然後在用慢動作表演一次摔下樓梯的過程.

My father used to brag that I wasn’t a ham — I was the whole pig. And he treated my talent as if it was his second chance. When I was about 28, after a decade as a professional comedian, I realized one night in LA that the purpose of my life had always been to free people from concern, like my dad. When I realized this, I dubbed my new devotion, “The Church of Freedom From Concern” — “The Church of FFC” — and I dedicated myself to that ministry.

我老爸常常說我的表演要嘛不是太過火, 就是亂演一通.(ps.這裡可能翻得不太對) 他將我的才能當做他一個能夠重來的機會看待. 我28歲那年, 在洛杉磯的一個晚上, 在我當了10來年的專業喜劇演員後, 我突然明白了一直以來我總是替人們紓解擔憂, 就像我爸爸一樣. 當我理解了這點以後, 我有了新的志向, 那就是成為人們的”無憂教堂”, 並且努力實現.

What’s yours? How will you serve the world? What do they need that your talent can provide? That’s all you have to figure out. As someone who has done what you are about to go do, I can tell you from experience, the effect you have on others is the most valuable currency there is.

你們的志向是什麼? 你如何將自己貢獻給這個世界? 這個世界需要什麼, 是你的天賦能提供的? 你們必須要自己找出答案. 當某些人已經做了你正要去做的事, 我的經驗可以告訴你們, 你們所創造的影響力將會是最難能可貴的.

探索你的內心, 與自己對話

Everything you gain in life will rot and fall apart, and all that will be left of you is what was in your heart. My choosing to free people from concern got me to the top of a mountain. Look where I am — look what I get to do! Everywhere I go — and I’m going to get emotional because when I tap into this, it really is extraordinary to me — I did something that makes people present their best selves to me wherever I go. (applause) I am at the top of the mountain and the only one I hadn’t freed was myself and that’s when my search for identity deepened.

任何在你生命中得到的東西終將腐敗或是分崩離析, 最終留下的只有那些一開始便存在於你內心的東西. 我那替人們紓解憂慮的志向帶我邁向頂峰, 並且讓我看看我身處何處, 看看我最需要做些什麼. 每當我到一個地方, 講到這個我可能會變得非常激動, 我打從心底覺得意義非凡, 因為我無論去到哪裡, 總能讓那裡的人們展現出最真實的心靈. 我仿若處在一望無際的高山上, 周遭皆如此清晰, 但當我想要深入探索自己最真實的心靈時, 我卻發現唯一無法獲得釋放的是自己的內心.

我是誰?

I wondered who I’d be without my fame. Who would I be if I said things that people didn’t want to hear, or if I defied their expectations of me? What if I showed up to the party without my Mardi Gras mask and I refused to flash my breasts for a handful of beads? (laughter) I’ll give you a moment to wipe that image out of your mind. (laughter)

我曾思考著, 如果我沒沒無聞的話, 我到底是誰. 若是我講的話沒人想聽, 或是我總是違抗他們的期待將會如何? 若是我沒有帶上我的Mardi Gras(紐澳良的一個狂歡節日)面具以及珠子去參加派對的話將會如何? 我先給你們一點時間讓你們忘掉那些畫面.

大膽地讓你認為最了不起的那一面被看見

But you guys are way ahead of the game. You already know who you are and that peace, that peace that we’re after, lies somewhere beyond personality, beyond the perception of others, beyond invention and disguise, even beyond effort itself. You can join the game, fight the wars, play with form all you want, but to find real peace, you have to let the armor fall. Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this world. Don’t let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form. Risk being seen in all of your glory. (A sheet drops and reveals Jim’s painting. Applause.)

但你們每個人已經非常超前這一切了, 你們已經知道你們是誰. 那些我們所追求的真正的平靜, 是存在於某些超越我們所認知的自己, 別人所知曉的事物之中. 那些真實的平靜是無法被創造, 被假扮, 甚至可能無法努力就能找到的. 你可以費盡一切做任何你想作的事, 但如果要找到真實的平靜, 你得卸下你重重的心防. 你對被認同的渴望, 會反而讓你彷彿消失在這世界一樣. 你必須大膽地讓你認為自己最了不起的那一面被看見, 別讓任何事屏蔽了自己賦予自己的榮光.

當畫被揭開的時刻, 以及什麼時刻能讓你忘卻煩惱?

(Re: the painting) It’s not big enough! (kidding) This painting is big for a reason. This painting is called “High Visibility.” (laughter) It’s about picking up the light and daring to be seen. Here’s the tricky part. Everyone is attracted to the light. The party host up in the corner (refers to painting) who thinks unconsciousness is bliss and is always offering a drink from the bottles that empty you; Misery, below her, who despises the light — can’t stand when you’re doing well — and wishes you nothing but the worst; The Queen of Diamonds who needs a King to build her house of cards; And the Hollow One, who clings to your leg and begs, “Please don’t leave me behind for I have abandoned myself.”

(看著畫說著) 這畫好像還不夠大喔! 這畫必須要這麼大是有原因的. 這幅畫我稱為”高能見度”. 他描述著每個人不怕被看見而紛紛靠近光的所在. 有趣的地方在於, 每個人都被光吸引著. 在上方角落的是派對的主人, 他總是認為喪失意識便是一種幸福, 所以總是提供讓你喝完趕到空虛的飲料. “苦難”在他的下方, 鄙視著中間的光線, 總是無法忍受你過得很好, 總是希望你過得再糟不過. 在苦難下方的是鑽石皇后, 他需要一個國王來為她建個紙牌屋. 在最下方雙頰凹陷的人, 扒著你的腳不放哭求希望你不要丟下他, 因為他已經放棄自己了.

Even those who are closest to you and most in love with you; the people you love most in the world can find clarity confronting at times. This painting took me thousands of hours to complete and — (applause) thank you — yes, thousands of hours that I’ll never get back, I’ll never get them back (kidding) — I worked on this for so long, for weeks and weeks, like a mad man alone on a scaffolding — and when I was finished one of my friends said, “This would be a cool black light painting.”

你可能會了解到, 有時你最親近的人, 或是你最愛的人, 可能也會成為你的阻礙. 我像個孤單的傻子坐在畫架前, 花了上千的小時才完成這幅畫, 對沒錯, 上千個我無法拿回的小時. 但當我完成時, 我朋友跟我說, 這會是一個很酷的光影畫.

So I started over. (All the lights go off in the Dome and the painting is showered with black light.) Whooooo! Welcome to Burning Man! (applause) Some pretty crazy characters right? Better up there than in here. (points to head) Painting is one of the ways I free myself from concern, a way to stop the world through total mental, spiritual and physical involvement.

所以我重新把他畫過. 裡面瘋狂的人物比現在站在這裡的酷吧! 繪畫對我來說, 不但是一種讓我忘卻憂愁, 也是一種在心靈上真切地停止外界世界轉動的方法.

But even with that, comes a feeling of divine dissatisfaction. Because ultimately, we’re not the avatars we create. We’re not the pictures on the film stock. We are the light that shines through it. All else is just smoke and mirrors. Distracting, but not truly compelling.

即便如此, 強烈的不滿足感仍然存在. 畢竟我們都不是自己創造的虛構人物. 我們也不是影帶裡的圖片. 我們只是投射在上面的光線, 所有留下的都只是過眼雲煙幻. 也許能夠暫時引開我們的注意力, 但並無法完全解除真正的擔憂.

不用擔心力猶未逮

I’ve often said that I wished people could realize all their dreams of wealth and fame so they could see that it’s not where you’ll find your sense of completion. Like many of you, I was concerned about going out in the world and doing something bigger than myself, until someone smarter than myself made me realize that there is nothing bigger than myself!

我常提到, 我多麼希望人們都可以實現追求到他們想要的名聲跟財富. 如此一來他們便可能明瞭取得那些東西並不會使他們找到使命感. 我就像你們一樣, 總是擔心著走出這個世界後面臨許多力猶未逮的事, 然而當我真正走出去了, 遇到了些比我聰明的人之後, 我才明白到沒有什麼事是真正力猶未逮的.

讓這個世界感受到你的存在

My soul is not contained within the limits of my body. My body is contained within the limitlessness of my soul — one unified field of nothing dancing for no particular reason, except maybe to comfort and entertain itself. (applause) As that shift happens in you, you won’t be feeling the world you’ll be felt by it — you will be embraced by it.

我的靈魂並不被我身體的侷限困住, 我的身體卻是被我的沒有極限的靈魂所困住. 我的靈魂就好像一個虛無的能量, 獨自舞動, 安撫, 或娛樂自己. 當你發現你有這種改變的時候, 你並非感覺到你”只是”存在於這個世界的, 而是這個世界將會感受到你的存在, 你會被這個世界所緊緊擁抱著.

最原始的腳本是你所寫

Now, I’m always at the beginning. I have a reset button called presence and I ride that button constantly. Once that button is functional in your life, there’s no story the mind could create that will be as compelling. The imagination is always manufacturing scenarios — both good and bad — and the ego tries to keep you trapped in the multiplex of the mind. Our eyes are not only viewers, but also projectors that are running a second story over the picture we see in front of us all the time. Fear is writing that script and the working title is, ‘I’ll never be enough.’

現在我的內心總是處在最原始的狀態. 我經常使用一個能夠讓我維持這種狀態的按鈕, 叫做”現實”. 若是你發現你的這個按鈕, 在你的生活中也有同樣的功能, 那麼任何由你心靈虛構出來的事物都不再那麼有說服力. 我們的想像力總是在創造各種情節, 無論是好的壞的. 我們的那些自負, 總是讓我們陷入各種虛幻的場景中. 我們的眼睛看到的不僅是眼前所發生的一切, 但同時也憑空投影著事情另外可能的腳本. 我們的恐懼寫著那些腳本, 而腳本的標題是, “我永遠不會得到滿足”.

You look at a person like me and say, (kidding) “How could we ever hope to reach those kinds of heights, Jim? How can I make a painting that’s too big for any reasonable home? How do you fly so high without a special breathing apparatus?” (laughter)

你可能會看著像我一樣的人說, “我要怎麼才能達到跟你一樣的高度?”, “我要怎麼才能在不那麼大的房子內畫出如此巨大的畫?”, “我若沒有呼吸輔助器, 要怎麼飛的高一點?”

不要過於聆聽自負的聲音

This is the voice of your ego. If you listen to it, there will always be someone who seems to be doing better than you. No matter what you gain, ego will not let you rest. It will tell you that you cannot stop until you’ve left an indelible mark on the earth, until you’ve achieved immortality. How tricky is the ego that it would tempt us with the promise of something we already possess.

這是你的那些自尊心在訴說給你聽的事情. 如果你聆聽這些聲音, 那麼你永遠會覺得總是有人做得比你好. 無論你得到了什麼, 自負將不會讓你休息. 它會告訴你, 你無法停止追尋, 除非你已在世界上留下了無法抹滅的功績時, 或是你已達到了永生. 自負最妙的地方在於, 他總將會用各種”可以得到某些事情”的承諾誘惑著我們, 然而我們卻早已有了那些事情卻渾然未知.

祈求

So I just want you to relax — that’s my job — relax and dream up a good life! (applause) I had a substitute teacher from Ireland in the second grade that told my class during Morning Prayer that when she wants something, anything at all, she prays for it, and promises something in return and she always gets it. I’m sitting at the back of the classroom, thinking that my family can’t afford a bike, so I went home and I prayed for one, and promised I would recite the rosary every night in exchange. Broke it — broke that promise.

所以我的工作, 就只是希望你們放輕鬆. 以輕鬆的心情來追尋美好的一生的夢想. 我的一個來自愛爾蘭的代課老師曾在晨禱上告訴我, 每當她想要任何事情發生時, 她將以某些事物當做回報以祈求其發生, 她這招總是屢試不爽. 我當時想著, 我的家人沒有能力買給我一台單車, 但當我返家時, 我開始祈求, 祈求若是我能得到一台的話, 我將每晚都乖乖背誦著祈禱文. (拜託不要亂承諾…)

Two weeks later, I got home from school to find a brand new mustang bike with a banana seat and easy rider handlebars — from fool to cool! My family informed me that I had won the bike in a raffle that a friend of mine had entered my name in, without my knowledge. That type of thing has been happening ever since, and as far as I can tell, it’s just about letting the universe know what you want and working toward it while letting go of how it might come to pass.

兩個禮拜過後, 我返家時發現一台全新的越野單車在那裡等著我, 有著香蕉般黃色的坐墊, 還有個非常好控制的把手. (禱告的行為)原本看似很傻, 但現在看來酷斃了! 我的家人告訴我, 這是我的朋友在我不知情的狀況下, 將我的名字寫在摸彩卷上而換來的. 這類的事情發生到多到數不清了. 這僅僅只是告訴宇宙你真得很想要一件事情的發生, 並且自己賣力地使它發生, 不要管它會用什麼形式出現在你的生命中!

勇敢的走向門的另一端

Your job is not to figure out how it’s going to happen for you, but to open the door in your head and when the doors open in real life, just walk through it. Don’t worry if you miss your cue. There will always be another door opening. They keep opening.

你的職責並非找出一切會怎麼發生在你身上, 而是打開你內心的那扇門. 而當現實生活中真的有那麼一道門被開啟時, 就走過去吧. 不用擔心是否你錯過了門已被打開的線索, 總是會有其他門正被開啟, 他們總是開著的.

讓每個選擇產生最豐富的結果

And when I say, “life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you.” I really don’t know if that’s true. I’m just making a conscious choice to perceive challenges as something beneficial so that I can deal with them in the most productive way. You’ll come up with your own style, that’s part of the fun!

其實當我說著, “生命不是就這麼發生的, 它是為你而發生的. ” 我根本不知道那是否是真的, 但我只是想要讓自己清楚地做出每一個生命中的選擇, 這是為了把每個挑戰當做是最正面的, 並且讓每個選擇能夠產生最豐富的結果. 你們將會找到一個最適合你們的方法(來迎向挑戰), 這也是有趣的一部分!

”期盼”以及”信仰”

Oh, and why not take a chance on faith as well? Take a chance on faith — not religion, but faith. Not hope, but faith. I don’t believe in hope. Hope is a beggar. Hope walks through the fire. Faith leaps over it.

喔對了, 也給自己一個機會, 跟隨著信念來做決擇吧. 是跟隨一種信念, 而非一種信仰, 也並非一種期盼. 我不相信期盼, 期盼就像是乞丐一般. 期盼只會讓你從火堆旁走過, 然而信仰能夠使你跳過火堆.

選擇熱愛, 忘掉恐懼

You are ready and able to do beautiful things in this world and after you walk through those doors today, you will only ever have two choices: love or fear. Choose love, and don’t ever let fear turn you against your playful heart.

在今日過後, 你們已經有能力實行許多美好的事情. 你們將只會有兩種選擇, 選擇熱愛, 或是選擇恐懼. 選擇熱愛吧, 不要讓恐懼背叛了你的內心.

Thank you. Jai Guru Dev. I’m so honored. Thank you.

謝謝你們, 我感到非常榮耀, 謝謝!