「 As a Man Thinketh 」を現代の米国英語で、中学3年生レベルの語彙と文法をコンセプトに英訳を作成しています。
第二章「EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES-4」です。原文と日本語解説もつけています。
Effect of Thought on Circumstances-4 (Modernized Version)
① People’s lives are complicated. Thoughts are deeply rooted, and what makes someone happy is very different from person to person. So, we can’t judge someone’s inner state based only on the external aspects of his life.
A person might be honest in some respects, but still face hardships. Another person might be dishonest in some respects, but still become rich. But the conclusion that the honest person fails because of honesty, and the dishonest person succeeds because of dishonesty, is a surface-level judgment.
In reality, the dishonest person might have some good characteristics the honest one doesn’t, and the honest person might have bad habits the other doesn’t. The honest person gets good results from being honest, but he also suffers because of his bad actions. The dishonest person does too, in the same way.
② It flatters human pride to believe that one’s suffering comes from virtue. But a person cannot truly know that his pain comes from being good, and not from being bad, until he removes every unhealthy and impure thought from his mind, and clears every wrong mark from his soul.
On the way to becoming perfect—even though he is still far from it—he will discover a great truth: there is a fair law that gives good for good, and bad for bad. When he has this understanding, and looks back at his past lack of understanding and blindness, he will realize that his life has always been fair.
All his good and bad experiences were the fair results of the person he was becoming, even though he had not yet changed fully.
③ Good thoughts and actions never lead to bad results. Bad thoughts and actions never lead to good results. This is just like saying that corn can only grow corn, and nettles can only grow nettles.
People understand this rule in nature and follow it. But not many people understand it in the world of thinking and morals, even though it works there in the same simple and steady way. So, they don’t try to live in harmony with it.
④ Suffering always comes from wrong thought in some way. It shows that a person is not in harmony with himself or with the law of his life.
The main purpose of suffering is to clean the mind and remove all that is bad or not needed. Suffering stops for the person who is pure. There is no reason to burn gold again after all the dirt is taken out. In the same way, a person who is completely pure and wise does not suffer.
⑤ A person encounters painful situations because his mind is not in harmony. A person encounters peaceful and happy situations because his mind is in harmony. True happiness, not material possessions, shows that a person has right thought. Wretchedness, not a lack of material possessions, shows wrong thought.
A person may be cursed and rich, or blessed and poor. True happiness and wealth go together only when the wealth is used rightly and wisely. And a poor person falls into wretchedness only when he believes his life is unfair and too heavy to carry.
Effect of Thought on Circumstances-4 (Original text)
(Based on As a Man Thinketh by James Allen)
① Circumstances, however, are so complicated, thought is so deeply rooted, and the conditions of happiness vary so, vastly with individuals, that a man’s entire soul-condition (although it may be known to himself) cannot be judged by another from the external aspect of his life alone.
A man may be honest in certain directions, yet suffer privations; a man may be dishonest in certain directions, yet acquire wealth; but the conclusion usually formed that the one man fails because of his particular honesty, and that the other prospers because of his particular dishonesty, is the result of a superficial judgment, which assumes that the dishonest man is almost totally corrupt, and the honest man almost entirely virtuous.
In the light of a deeper knowledge and wider experience such judgment is found to be erroneous. The dishonest man may have some admirable virtues, which the other does, not possess; and the honest man obnoxious vices which are absent in the other. The honest man reaps the good results of his honest thoughts and acts; he also brings upon himself the sufferings, which his vices produce. The dishonest man likewise garners his own suffering and happiness.
circumstances（状況） rooted（根ざした） vary（異なる） vastly（非常に） soul-condition（魂の状態） aspect（側面） privations（困窮） superficial（表面的な） assume（仮定する） corrupt（堕落した） virtuous（徳のある） erroneous（誤った） admirable（称賛に値する） possess（所有する） obnoxious（不快な） vices（悪徳） reap（刈り取る） garner（集める） prosper（成功する） characteristic（特性）
② It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that one suffers because of one’s virtue; but not until a man has extirpated every sickly, bitter, and impure thought from his mind, and washed every sinful stain from his soul, can he be in a position to know and declare that his sufferings are the result of his good, and not of his bad qualities; and on the way to, yet long before he has reached, that supreme perfection, he will have found, working in his mind and life, the Great Law which is absolutely just, and which cannot, therefore, give good for evil, evil for good.
Possessed of such knowledge, he will then know, looking back upon his past ignorance and blindness, that his life is, and always was, justly ordered, and that all his past experiences, good and bad, were the equitable outworking of his evolving, yet unevolved self.
pleasing（心地よい） vanity（虚栄心） virtue（美徳） extirpated→extirpate（根絶する） sickly（病的な） impure（不純な） stain（汚点） sinful（罪深い） supreme（最高の） perfection（完全さ） equitable（公平な） outworking（発現・結果） evolving→evolve（進化する） unevolved（未発達の） ignorance（無知）
③ Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles.
Men understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do not co-operate with it.
operation（働き、作用） undeviating（ゆるぎない） co-operate→cooperate（協力する）
④ Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction. It is an indication that the individual is out of harmony with himself, with the Law of his being. The sole and supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure. Suffering ceases for him who is pure. There could be no object in burning gold after the dross had been removed, and a perfectly pure and enlightened being could not suffer.
effect（結果） harmony（調和） supreme（最高の） purify（浄化する） cease（止む） dross（不純物） enlightened（悟った）
⑤ The circumstances, which a man encounters with suffering, are the result of his own mental inharmony. The circumstances, which a man encounters with blessedness, are the result of his own mental harmony. Blessedness, not material possessions, is the measure of right thought; wretchedness, not lack of material possessions, is the measure of wrong thought. A man may be cursed and rich; he may be blessed and poor. Blessedness and riches are only joined together when the riches are rightly and wisely used; and the poor man only descends into wretchedness when he regards his lot as a burden unjustly imposed.
encounter（直面する） blessedness（祝福） possession（所有物） wretchedness（悲惨） cursed（呪われた） descend（落ちる） burden（重荷） impose（押しつける） measure（尺度）
和訳の要約
現代英語版は、中学レベルの英語ですが、分かりにくい部分があるかもしれません。
ここでアウトラインを掴んでおくとスッと頭に入るはずです！
これは名言と思える箇所は太字にしておきます。
思考と人生の関係は単純ではない
人の暮らしは複雑で、思考は深く根ざし、幸福のかたちは人それぞれ異なります。
正直な人が苦しみ、不正直な人が栄えることもあるでしょう。しかし、そこに浅い判断を下してはなりません。
誰の中にも善と悪はあり、それぞれの思いと行いが、その人自身の幸や苦しみを招いているのです。
苦しみの意味と、内に働く法則
人はよく、苦しみを自らの善のゆえと考えたがりますが、それは心の弱さにすぎません。
心の奥から不純な思いをすべて清めてこそ、初めて人は、自らの苦しみが善によるものかどうかを知ることができます。
清らかな人には、人生に働く公平な法則が見えてきます。
そして、自らの過去のすべてが、ふさわしく与えられたものであったと悟るのです。
幸福と不幸は、思考のあらわれ
正しい思いから悪は生まれず、誤った思いから善は生まれません。
自然界の法則のように、この真理もまた確かなものです。苦しみは心の乱れのあらわれであり、祝福は心の調和のしるしです。
真の幸福とは、物質的なものではなく、清らかな思いの中にあるのです。
まとめ
本ブログのポイントは、原文を読みやすい現代英語でリライトした英訳版です。
現代英語版は英語勉強に最適です。覚えるぐらい繰り返し読んで欲しいです。
これをしっかり読み込めば自己啓発の根本である「思考は現実化する」「人は考えた通りの人になる」が理解できるようになります。
2-5に続きます。
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