I have a question for you: Are you religious?
我有一个问题要问下在坐的各位：你们有宗教信仰吗？
Please raise your hand right now if you think of yourself as a religious person.
如果你认为自己有宗教信仰，请你们举下手。
Let's see, I'd say about three or four percent. I had no idea there were so many believers at a TED Conference.
让我看下。大概有百分之三或四的人。我没料到在TED大会上居然有这么多信教者。
Okay, here's another question: Do you think of yourself as spiritual in any way, shape or form?
这里还有一个问题：你们认为自己有精神个体么？任何种类，任何形式的。
Raise your hand. Okay, that's the majority.
请举手。好的，这次是绝大多数。
My Talk today is about the main reason, or one of the main reasons,
我今天演讲的主题就是关于这个问题的主要原因，或者说是主要原因之一，
why most people consider themselves to be spiritual in some way, shape or form.
就是为什么大多数人认为自己在某些形式上是超越物质的精神个体。
My Talk today is about self-transcendence.
因此，我今天演讲的主题就是关于自我超越。
It's just a basic fact about being human that sometimes the self seems to just melt away.
这是一个人类最基本的事实，就是有的时候自我意识似乎消失。
And when that happens, the feeling is ecstatic and we reach for metaphors of up and down to explain these feelings.
当这发生的时候，这种感觉就是忘我的欣喜的境界，我们寻找各种言词来表达这种内心的悸动。
We talk about being uplifted or elevated.
好比说“无比振奋”或是“达到忘我的境界”。
Now it's really hard to think about anything abstract like this without a good concrete metaphor.
光看字面实在是很难想象这到底是什么样的感受。
So here's the metaphor I'm offering today.
所以我提供一个比喻来解释。
Think about the mind as being like a house with many rooms, most of which we're very familiar with.
想象你的大脑是个大房子，我们很熟悉大多数的房间。
But sometimes it's as though a doorway appears from out of nowhere and it opens onto a staircase.
但有时候，会有一道门在我们面前突然出现，打开后是向上的阶梯。
We climb the staircase and experience a state of altered consciousness.
我们走上阶梯，感受到一股强烈的心灵悸动。
In 1902, the great American psychologist William James wrote about the many varieties of religious experience.
在1902年，美国伟大的心理学家威廉·詹姆斯写了有关各式的宗教经验。
He collected all kinds of case studies. He quoted the words of all kinds of people who'd had a variety of these experiences.
他搜集自各种个案研究，引用人们口中多种的宗教体验。
One of the most exciting to me is this young man, Stephen Bradley, had an encounter, he thought, with Jesus in 1820.
其中有个例子非常有趣，这个年轻人，史蒂芬·布拉德利，在1820年，自认遇见了耶稣。
And here's what Bradley said about it.
以下是Bradley的口述。
I thought I saw the savior in human shape for about one second in the room, with arms extended, appearing to say to me, "Come."
我见到道成肉身的救世主了，差不多有一秒钟的时间，在房里张开双臂，彷彿对我说：“到我这来。”
The next day I rejoiced with trembling. My happiness was so great that I said I wanted to die.
隔天我兴奋到发抖。那无比的快乐让我想立刻死去。
This world had no place in my affections. Previous to this time, I was very selfish and self-righteous.
我不再留恋世俗的一切。在这之前，我是个自私自利的人。
But now I desired the welfare of all mankind and could, with a feeling heart, forgive my worst enemies.
但现在我心中充满了大爱，得以有颗饱富情感的心，能原谅我的敌人。
So note how Bradley's petty, moralistic self just dies on the way up the staircase.
所以注意到布拉德利的小我与私心在登上那段台阶后都消失了。
And on this higher level he becomes loving and forgiving.
在这更高的层次里，他变得有爱，有怜悯。
The world's many religions have found so many ways to help people climb the staircase.
世界上，各宗教都有自己的方法来帮助人们登上这道阶梯。
Some shut down the self using meditation. Others use psychedelic drugs.
有人坐禅来忘我。有人用迷幻药。
This is from a 16th century Aztec scroll showing a man about to eat a psilocybin mushroom and at the same moment get yanked up the staircase by a god.
这是16世纪阿兹提克手绘图中的男子正在吃迷幻菇，同时，神来将他拽上阶梯。
Others use dancing, spinning and circling to promote self-transcendence.
另外有的用跳舞、转圈和绕圈来达到自我升华的境界。
But you don't need a religion to get you through the staircase.
但你不需经由信仰来自我升华。
Lots of people find self-transcendence in nature. Others overcome their self at raves.
许多人在大自然里找到方式。其他人则可以在狂欢中得到解放。
But here's the weirdest place of all: war.
但其中最奇怪的管道是：战争。
So many books about war say the same thing, that nothing brings people together like war.
许多关于战争的书籍都提过世界上没有任何方法能像战争把人紧密的凝聚在一起。
And that bringing them together opens up the possibility of extraordinary self-transcendent experiences.
这种群体意识加强了人们超脱自我的体验。
I'm going to play for you an excerpt from this book by Glenn Gray.
我将从格伦·加里的书中摘出一段作为例子。
Gray was a soldier in the American army in World War II.
加里当时是二战的美国军人。
And after the war he interviewed a lot of other soldiers and wrote about the experience of men in battle.
战后他去拜访了许多当时参战的军人，之后写了关于军人在战场的经验。
Here's a key passage where he basically describes the staircase.
在里面有个重要段落，描述他达到那境界的过程。
Many veterans will admit that the experience of communal effort in battle has been the high point of their lives.
许多退役军人都承认，在战场上，大家是荣辱与共的，而这也是他们人生的高峰。
"I" passes insensibly into a "we," "my" becomes "our" and individual faith loses its central importance.
“我”变成“我们”，“我的”变成“我们的”，而个人价值失去了意义。
I believe that it is nothing less than the assurance of immortality that makes self-sacrifice at these moments so relatively easy.
我相信，没有什么比永恒不朽的荣誉更能让自我牺牲奉献变得容易。
I may fall, but I do not die, for that which is real in me goes forward and lives on in the comrades for whom I gave up my life.
我也许会死，但我的意念不会，我的意念会传承给那些和我有过命之交的好伙伴们。
So what all of these cases have in common is that the self seems to thin out, or melt away,
这些例子都有一个共通点，自我变得渺小，甚至不重要，
and it feels good, it feels really good, in a way totally unlike anything we feel in our normal lives. It feels somehow uplifting.
但却让人们自我感觉更良好，这些都是我们平常生活中很难感受到的。这是一种升华的感觉。
This idea that we move up was central in the writing of the great French sociologist Emile Durkheim.
这观点在法国著名社会学家爱米尔·涂尔干的著作中十分重要。
Durkheim even called us Homo duplex, or two-level man. The lower level he called the level of the profane.
涂尔干甚至称我们为双面人或双阶人。他说低阶那面是世俗的。
Now profane is the opposite of sacred. It just means ordinary or common.
世俗是超然的反面，意思是平凡或普通。
And in our ordinary lives we exist as individuals.
在日常生活中，我们都是独立生活的。
We want to satisfy our individual desires. We pursue our individual goals.
我们都希望满足自我的欲望。追求自己的目标。
But sometimes something happens that triggers a phase change.
但有时一些事情的发生改变了这个型态。
Individuals unite into a team, a movement or a nation, which is far more than the sum of its parts.
人与人开始联合，形成队伍、社会运动或国家，所产生的力量大于个人的总和。
Durkheim called this level the level of the sacred
涂尔干称这为超然的阶段，
because he believed that the function of religion was to unite people into a group, into a moral community.
因为他深信宗教的作用就是把一群人聚在一起，最终变成道德社群。
Durkheim believed that anything that unites us takes on an air of sacredness.
涂尔干相信任何凝聚人群的因素都会无形中被视为神圣。
And once people circle around some sacred object or value, they'll then work as a team and fight to defend it.
当人们围绕着神圣的东西或价值观，他们会一起合作保护它。
Durkheim wrote about a set of intense collective emotions that accomplish this miracle of E pluribus unum, of making a group out of individuals.
涂尔干提到一股强烈的集体情绪，可以让人奇迹般的合而为一，将个人组织成团体。
Think of the collective joy in Britain on the day World War II ended.
想一想二战结束时，英国普世欢腾的气氛。
Think of the collective anger in Tahrir Square, which brought down a dictator.
想一想当时在埃及解放广场的集体怒气，导致独裁者被推翻。
And think of the collective grief in the United States that we all felt, that brought us all together, after 9/11.
还有美国在9/11后那种集体悲伤，让我们团结一心。
So let me summarize where we are. I'm saying that the capacity for self-transcendence is just a basic part of being human.
所以让我来总结下我们已经讨论的。超脱自我其实只是人类的基本能力。
I'm offering the metaphor of a staircase in the mind.
我给大家作了一个比喻，就好比是我们头脑中的楼梯。
I'm saying we are Homo duplex and this staircase takes us up from the profane level to the level of the sacred.
我又说了我们都是双重人，而且这个楼梯把我们从世俗的层面提升到神圣的层面。
When we climb that staircase, self-interest fades away, we become just much less self-interested,
当我们在爬上这座楼梯的时候，自我利益的意识慢慢淡化，我们变得不那么自私，
and we feel as though we are better, nobler and somehow uplifted.
而且我们觉得我们似乎变得更好，更高尚，甚至更振奋。
So here's the million-dollar question for social scientists like me:
有一个非常重要的问题，尤其对于像我这样的社会学家：
Is the staircase a feature of our evolutionary design? Is it a product of natural selection, like our hands?
上述所说的楼梯，是我们进化过程中的一个设计吗？它是不是像我们的手一样是自然选择的产物？
Or is it a bug, a mistake in the system -- this religious stuff is just something that happens when the wires cross in the brain
又或者，这是整个体系中的一个小故障，这种宗教信仰就好比是在大脑血管堵塞时突然发生的，
Jill has a stroke and she has this religious experience, it's just a mistake?
吉尔中风时也有过宗教信仰的经历，这仅仅是一个错误吗？
Well many scientists who study religion take this view.
很多研究宗教学的科学家持有这样的观点。
The New Atheists, for example, argue that religion is a set of memes, sort of parasitic memes,
比如新无神论者，他们认为宗教是一系列模因，一种寄生模因，
that get inside our minds and make us do all kinds of crazy religious stuff, self-destructive stuff, like suicide bombing.
存在于我们的大脑里面，而且迫使我们做各种各样疯狂的宗教事情，各种自毁的事情，比如自杀爆炸事件。
And after all, how could it ever be good for us to lose ourselves?
但是最终，“失去自我”又怎么会对我们有好处呢？
How could it ever be adaptive for any organism to overcome self-interest? Well let me show you.
任何有机体是怎么学会适应克服自私的？让我来告诉你们。
In "The Descent of Man," Charles Darwin wrote a great deal about the evolution of morality
在《人类的起源》一书中，查尔斯·达尔文写了很多关于道德演化的内容，
where did it come from, why do we have it.
比如道德从何而来，为什么我们会有。
Darwin noted that many of our virtues are of very little use to ourselves, but they're of great use to our groups.
达尔文认为我们很多美德几乎不用在我们自己身上，但是它们用在我们的团体组织中。
He wrote about the scenario in which two tribes of early humans would have come in contact and competition.
他描述了一个情景：有两个早期人类部落，他们互相联系和竞争。
He said, "If the one tribe included a great number of courageous, sympathetic and faithful members
他说：“如果一个部落拥有足够多的勇气，同情心以及具有强烈信念的部落成员，
who are always ready to aid and defend each other, this tribe would succeed better and conquer the other."
他们总是时刻准备着互相帮助互相保卫，那么这个部落成功的几率就比较大，并最终打败另一方”。
He went on to say that "Selfish and contentious people will not cohere, and without coherence nothing can be effected."
他接着阐述了：“自私和好辩的人不能和谐相处，那么如果缺乏这种凝聚性，就没什么能影响他们”。
In other words, Charles Darwin believed in group selection.
换句话说，查尔斯·达尔文相信这种群体选择理论。

Now this idea has been very controversial for the last 40 years,
然而这个观点40多年来一直备受争议，
but it's about to make a major comeback this year, especially after E.O. Wilson's book comes out in April,
但是这个观念在今年又将“重出江湖”，尤其在生物学家E.O.威尔逊的书4月出版发行后，
making a very strong case that we, and several other species, are products of group selection.
会带来很震撼的实例，我们和其他物种都是群体选择理论的产物。
But really the way to think about this is as multilevel selection.
但认真的思考下去，这就像是族群选择。
So look at it this way: You've got competition going on within groups and across groups.
所以让我们这样来看：你们要在群体内部以及群体之间相互竞争。
So here's a group of guys on a college crew team. Within this team there's competition.
这是一支大学划艇队，在这支团队中存在竞争。
There are guys competing with each other. The slowest rowers, the weakest rowers, are going to get cut from the team.
这些人将互相竞争。最慢的或是最弱的划手都将被淘汰出局。
And only a few of these guys are going to go on in the sport.
这些人中只有几个人会入选体育比赛团队。
Maybe one of them will make it to the Olympics. So within the team, their interests are actually pitted against each other.
可能他们中只有一个人能进军奥运会。所以在这个团队中，利益事实上是相互冲突的，从而构成竞争。
And sometimes it would be advantageous for one of these guys to try to sabotage the other guys.
但是有时这也有利，因为这些人中的某个人会尝试努力破坏其他人。
Maybe he'll badmouth his chief rival to the coach.
比如可能他会向教练打小报告。
But while that competition is going on within the boat, this competition is going on across boats.
但是当竞争在自己组内存在的同时，也存在于与其他船队比赛时。
And once you put these guys in a boat competing with another boat,
一旦把这些人放在一条船上与别的船队竞争，
now they've got no choice but to cooperate because they're all in the same boat.
那么他们就别无选择，只有合作，因为他们同命相连。
They can only win if they all pull together as a team.
只有他们组成一个团队，他们才能赢。
I mean, these things sound trite, but they are deep evolutionary truths.
这些东西听起来有点陈词滥调，但是却是进化论的核心真理。
The main argument against group selection has always been that, well sure, it would be nice to have a group of cooperators,
反对群体选择的主要论据是，群体合作固然很好，
but as soon as you have a group of cooperators, they're just going to get taken over by free-riders,
但当一个群体只剩下合作团结者，他们将会被投机者取代，
individuals that are going to exploit the hard work of the others.
这些个体会利用其他人的辛勤成果。
Let me illustrate this for you. Suppose we've got a group of little organisms -- they can be bacteria, they can be hamsters;
让我来给你们举一个例子。假如我们有这样一组小小的有机体，可能是细菌，可能是仓鼠的，
it doesn't matter what -- and let's suppose that this little group here, they evolved to be cooperative. Well that's great.
这都无关紧要，假设这群组织演化成互相合作的模式。那很好。
They graze, they defend each other, they work together, they generate wealth.
它们会互相磨合，保卫对方，它们一起工作，一起创造财富。
And as you'll see in this simulation, as they interact they gain points, as it were, they grow,
你们可以在模拟中看到，在互相交流中它们都获了利，迅速成长。
and when they've doubled in size, you'll see them split, and that's how they reproduce and the population grows.
当它们长大2倍大的时候，你看见它们分裂，这就是它们如何繁殖，数量是如何增加的。
But suppose then that one of them mutates.
但是假如它们其中一个产生突变。
There's a mutation in the gene and one of them mutates to follow a selfish strategy. It takes advantage of the others.
一种基因突变，而其中的这一个往自私的方向突变，它总是占别人便宜。
And so when a green interacts with a blue, you'll see the green gets larger and the blue gets smaller.
所以当你看到绿色与蓝色交流时，你会发现绿色变的越来越大，蓝色越来越小。
So here's how things play out. We start with just one green, and as it interacts it gains wealth or points or food.
这就是事情是如何发展而结束的。我们只是从一个小小的绿色开始，当它在与其蓝色互动中，它得到了财富，食物以及其他想要的东西。
And in short order, the cooperators are done for. The free-riders have taken over.
但是很快，这些合作者就不中用了，而被那些投机者所取代。
If a group cannot solve the free-rider problem then it cannot reap the benefits of cooperation and group selection cannot get started.
如果一个群体不能解决这样投机者的问题，那就不能从合作中得到好处，那么群体选择也将不能够进行下去。
But there are solutions to the free-rider problem. It's not that hard a problem.
但是有很多方法可以解决投机者的问题。这不是一个很困难的问题。
In fact, nature has solved it many, many times. And nature's favorite solution is to put everyone in the same boat.
事实上，自然界已经解决它好多次了。自然界最喜欢用的方法就是把所有人放在同一条船上。
For example, why is it that the mitochondria in every cell has its own DNA, totally separate from the DNA in the nucleus?
比如，为什么每个细胞内的线粒体都有它自己的DNA，与核中的DNA完全分开？
It's because they used to be separate free-living bacteria and they came together and became a superorganism.
那是因为它们曾经就一直是独立的自生细菌，然后它们聚集在一起，变成了超个体。
Somehow or other -- maybe one swallowed another; we'll never know exactly why
可能一个吞了另一个，我们永不知道为什么，
but once they got a membrane around them, they were all in the same membrane, now all the wealth-created division of labor,
但是一旦它们周围有了一层薄膜，它们就都在同一个薄膜里，现在，所有的劳动财富分配，
all the greatness created by cooperation, stays locked inside the membrane and we've got a superorganism.
所有由合作带来的伟大性，都被密封在薄膜里面，于是我们有了这样一个超个体。
And now let's rerun the simulation putting one of these superorganisms into a population of free-riders,
现在让我们回到这个模型中来，把这些超个体中的一个放到一个投机者、
of defectors, of cheaters and look what happens. A superorganism can basically take what it wants.
背叛者、骗子的群体中，让我们来看一下会发生什么。一个超个体可以索取它们所想的。
It's so big and powerful and efficient that it can take resources from the greens, from the defectors, the cheaters.
这是一个如此有强大和高效的个体，它可以利用一切资源，从这些绿色的、背叛者、骗子当中获取所要的。
And pretty soon the whole population is actually composed of these new superorganisms.
过不了多久，整个群体实际上就由这些超个体组成了。
What I've shown you here is sometimes called a major transition in evolutionary history.
我在这里展示给你们的，在进化历史上有时被称为一次重大的转变。
Darwin's laws don't change, but now there's a new kind of player on the field and things begin to look very different.
达尔文的定律没有改变，但是现在有一些新的东西在这个领域产生，并且这些东西看起来非同寻常。
Now this transition was not a one-time freak of nature that just happened with some bacteria.
这种自然界的转变不是一次性的，反自然的，或者是只发生在一些细菌身上的。
It happened again about 120 or a 140 million years ago when some solitary wasps began creating little simple, primitive nests, or hives.
在约1亿2千万或1亿4千万年前，当一些独居的黄蜂开始建立一些简单、原始的巢穴或者说是蜂房时就发生了。
Once several wasps were all together in the same hive, they had no choice but to cooperate,
一旦好多个黄蜂在同一个蜂房聚集起来时，它们别无他法，只能合作，
because pretty soon they were locked into competition with other hives.
因为它们很快就要陷入与别的蜂房竞争的状况了。
And the most cohesive hives won, just as Darwin said.
最后正如达尔文所说的，最具凝聚力的蜂房获胜。
These early wasps gave rise to the bees and the ants that have covered the world and changed the biosphere.
这些早期黄蜂的模式，后来被蜜蜂，蚂蚁等引用，逐渐传布到整个世界，并改变了整个生物圈。
And it happened again, even more spectacularly, in the last half-million years when our own ancestors became cultural creatures,
而这种状况再次发生，甚至更加壮观，是在最近的50万年间，当我们的祖先变成了具有文化特征的生物，下我今天演讲的内容 在最后3分钟内 以更完整的角度展现出来。
they came together around a hearth or a campfire, they divided labor, they began painting their bodies,
他们聚集在火炉边或者篝火边，他们分工劳作，他们彩绘自己的身体，
they spoke their own dialects, and eventually they worshiped their own gods.
说自己的方言，到最后敬拜自己的神。
Once they were all in the same tribe, they could keep the benefits of cooperation locked inside.
一旦他们在同一个部落，他们就可以把获得的利益锁在部落里。
And they unlocked the most powerful force ever known on this planet,
他们会解锁一股前所未有的最强大的力量，
which is human cooperation -- a force for construction and destruction.
这就是人类的合作，一种可以建设世界，同时可以毁坏世界的强大力量。
Of course, human groups are nowhere near as cohesive as beehives.
当然，人类群体的凝聚力远不如蜂房。
Human groups may look like hives for brief moments, but they tend to then break apart.
人类群体像蜂房那样团结的时间很短，不久后就趋向分裂与毁灭。
We're not locked into cooperation the way bees and ants are.
我们的团体模式并不像蜜蜂或蚂蚁般坚固。
In fact, often, as we've seen happen in a lot of the Arab Spring revolts, often those divisions are along religious lines.
事实上，就如我们在阿拉伯春天运动所见，我们的团体大多被宗教划分。
Nonetheless, when people do come together and put themselves all into the same movement, they can move mountains.
然而当人们凝聚在一起，投入到同一项行动当中时，大山都可被铲平。
Look at the people in these photos I've been showing you.
看看这些照片里的人。
Do you think they're there pursuing their self-interest?
你觉得他们是在追寻自己的利益吗？
Or are they pursuing communal interest, which requires them to lose themselves and become simply a part of a whole?
还是为追求族群的利益，舍去自我，成为大群体中的一份子？
Okay, so that was my Talk delivered in the standard TED way.
好，以上就是我的演讲，照着TED的标准方式呈现。
And now I'm going to give the whole Talk over again in three minutes in a more full-spectrum sort of way.
现在我要把所有重点，用更全面的角度，在三分钟内重复一次。
We humans have many varieties of religious experience, as William James explained.
我们人类有各种各样的宗教体验，正如哲学家威廉·詹姆斯所解释的。
One of the most common is climbing the secret staircase and losing ourselves.
其中最大的共同点是登上隐藏的阶梯，舍去自我。
The staircase takes us from the experience of life as profane or ordinary upwards to the experience of life as sacred, or deeply interconnected.
这阶梯引领我们，从世俗的、平凡的人生升华到神圣的境界，且紧密的与他人连结。
We are Homo duplex, as Durkheim explained. And we are Homo duplex because we evolved by multilevel selection, as Darwin explained.
如涂尔干所言，我们人类是双重的。就像达尔文所说的，我们会变成这样是因多层级的演化筛选。
I can't be certain if the staircase is an adaptation rather than a bug,
我无法断言这阶梯的存在是演化或是随机变异，
but if it is an adaptation, then the implications are profound.
但如果它果真是演化，这含义极其深远。
If it is an adaptation, then we evolved to be religious.
若这是演化，我们势必要成为虔诚的生物。
I don't mean that we evolved to join gigantic organized religions. Those things came along too recently.
我不是说我们演化是为了参加庞大的宗教团体。这种东西是近代的产物。
I mean that we evolved to see sacredness all around us and to join with others into teams and circle around sacred objects, people and ideas.
我是说我们进化出一种天性，能赋予自然神圣的含义，然后加入其他的群体，一同群聚在这神圣物品、人物或想法的周围。
This is why politics is so tribal. Politics is partly profane, it's partly about self-interest,
这也是为什么政治是如此具有集团意识。政治在某中程度上是世俗的，是多少与自我利益有关的。
but politics is also about sacredness. It's about joining with others to pursue moral ideas.
但是政治也具有神圣性，它是与其他人一起追求精神上的统一观点。
It's about the eternal struggle between good and evil, and we all believe we're on the good team.
它也是关于在善与邪恶之间永久的斗争，而且我们都相信我们处在善的一队。
And most importantly, if the staircase is real, it explains the persistent undercurrent of dissatisfaction in modern life.
最重要的是，如果这个楼梯是真实的，它解释了对现代生活当中持续的暗流的不满。
Because human beings are, to some extent, hives creatures like bees.
因为人类，在某种程度上说，是像蜜蜂一样的生物。
We're bees. We busted out of the hive during the Enlightenment.
我们是蜜蜂。我们在启蒙运动中从蜂房中解脱出来。
We broke down the old institutions and brought liberty to the oppressed.
我们打破了旧系统，自由取代了原来的压迫。
We unleashed Earth-changing creativity and generated vast wealth and comfort.
我们释放出了那些改变地球的想象力，并创造了大量的财富和安康。
Nowadays we fly around like individual bees exulting in our freedom.
现今，我们像蜜蜂一样四处翱翔，因自由而狂喜。
But sometimes we wonder: Is this all there is? What should I do with my life? What's missing?
但有时，我们自问：难道就是这样了？我的生命的目的是什么？是否缺少了什么？
What's missing is that we are Homo duplex, but modern, secular society was built to satisfy our lower, profane selves.
作为双重性的我们少了些什么？但是现代的，世俗的社会满足了我们较低的世俗的层次。
It's really comfortable down here on the lower level. Come, have a seat in my home entertainment center.
处在这样较低的层次中会感觉非常安逸舒适。就像我们常说的：来我家的娱乐中心玩玩。
One great challenge of modern life is to find the staircase amid all the clutter
我们现代生活中的一个重要挑战，就是在纷繁世俗中找到通往更高层次的楼梯，
and then to do something good and noble once you climb to the top.
当你爬到了顶端后，做一些善事、一些高尚的事情。
I see this desire in my students at the University of Virginia.
我在我的弗吉尼亚大学的学生中看到了这种渴望。
They all want to find a cause or calling that they can throw themselves into.
他们都想找寻一个诱因或是一个召唤，可以带他们找到这个楼梯。
They're all searching for their staircase. And that gives me hope because people are not purely selfish.
他们都在找寻他们自己的楼梯。这些都给予了我希望，因为人们不完全都是自私的。
Most people long to overcome pettiness and become part of something larger.
大多数人渴望克服自己心胸狭窄的气量，成为一个更大组织中的一部分。
And this explains the extraordinary resonance of this simple metaphor conjured up nearly 400 years ago.
而下面这句话用了一个简单的比喻，来解释了我们这种大约在400年前就已被召唤出来的特别的共鸣。
"No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." Thank you.
“人不是岛，本身并不完备，每个人是大洲的一小块，大陆的一部分。”谢谢。