寻找通往自己的道路，找到内心的笃定，探索前进的道路，不管它通向何方

原文

Each man has his “function” but none which he can choose himself, define, or perform as he pleases. It was wrong to desire new gods, completely wrong to want to provide the world with something.

An enlightened man had but one duty —— to seek the way to himself, to reach inner certainty, to grope his way forward, no matter where it led.

The realization shook me profoundly, it was the fruit of this experience. I had often speculated with images of the future, dreamed of roles that I might be assigned, perhaps as poet or prophet or painter, or something similar. All that was futile. I did not exist to write poems, to preach or to paint, neither I nor anyone else. All of that was incidental.

Each man had only one genuine vocation -to find the way to himself. He might end up as poet or madman, as prophet or criminal -that was not his affair, ultimately it was of no concern. His task was to discover his own destiny —— not an arbitrary one —— and live it out wholly and resolutely within himself.

Everything else was only a would-be existence, an attempt at evasion, a flight back to the ideals of the masses, conformity and fear of one’s own inwardness.

The new vision rose up before me, glimpsed a hundred times, possibly even expressed before but now experienced for the first time by me.

I was an experiment on the part of Nature, a gamble within the unknown, perhaps for a new purpose, perhaps for nothing, and my only task was to allow this game on the part of primeval depths to take its course, to feel its will within me and make it wholly mine. That or nothing!

I had already felt much loneliness, now there was a deeper loneliness still which was inescapable.

翻译

每个人都有自己的「职责」，但人自己并不能选择，转让或随意掌管这一职责。呼唤新的神灵是谬误，意图给予这个世界什么，更是完全的谬误！

一个有识之士，只有一项责任：寻找通往自己的道路，找到内心的笃定，探索前进的道路，不管它通向何方。

这一认识深深震撼了我，对我而言，这就是我在此番经历中的收获。我常常幻想未来的景象，梦想自己可能会成为的角色，或许是诗人、预言者、画家等等。然而这些都不算什么。我存在的意义并不是为了写诗，预言或作画，任何人生存的意义都不应是这些。这些只是旁枝末节。

对每个人而言，真正的职责只有一个：找到自我。无论他的归宿是诗人还是疯子，是先知还是罪犯——这些其实和他无关，毫不重要。他的职责只是找到自己的命运——而不是他人的命运——然后在心中坚守其一生，全心全意，永不停息。

所有其他的路都是不完整的，是人的逃避方式，是对大众理想的懦弱回归，是随波逐流，是对内心的恐惧。

新的境界在我心中冉冉升起，森然，神圣，我曾无数次有模糊的预感，甚至还曾将其以语言道出，但直到此刻，我才真正体会了它的意思。

我是自然的尝试，是自然向未知世界迈进的一次尝试，或许它会打开新境界，或许会一无所成，然而，让这一尝试从远古的深渊中诞生，让我的心感受到它的意志，并将其转换为我的意志，这就是我的职责！

我已经尝过孤独的滋味，但直到此刻我才知道，世上还有更刻骨铭心、无法回避的孤独。

出处

《德米安（Demian）》，赫尔曼·黑塞（Hermann Hesse，1877-1962），德国作家，诗人。黑塞一生曾获多种文学荣誉，比较重要的有：冯泰纳奖、诺贝尔文学奖、歌德奖。爱好音乐与绘画，是一位漂泊、孤独、隐逸的诗人。作品多以小市民生活为题材，表现对过去时代的留恋，也反映了同时期人们的一些绝望心情。

解读

听智者再多的箴言，也不及迈出探索最粗浅一步。

这个世界几乎给我们提供了一切，我们可以选择了解怎样的故事、聆听怎样的忠告、忠于怎样的信念，走上怎样的道路，而唯一没有提供给我们的，就是如何找到自我。

我们的人生，要么就是蒙着眼睛随大流前行，要么就是睁着眼睛走在别人设计好的路上，而我们自以为这就是自己选择的路，却忘记了自己从来未曾做过选择。

人并非生来就要成为什么，人本身就是目的，而我选择成为怎样的我，就是一个人最最重要的课题，没有人可以帮我，能够踏上通往自我道路的，只有我自己。

当然，这一定是一条艰难的路，一定是那个窄的门，一定是一段孤独的旅程。但是，我们真的能找得到除此之外任何其他的路么？

我们根本就无路可逃。

所以还是乔帮主说的好：

Remembering that I'll be dead soon, is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death. Leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
提醒自己的生命有限，令我的一生受益匪浅。这使我能明智地在人生重大问题上做出抉择。因为一切的一切，一切追求，一切荣耀，一切惶恐，一切挫折，在死亡面前，都显得微不足道。剩下的才是最重要的事情。记住自己总会死去是避免自己被羁绊的最好方法。
你已经一无所有，还有什么理由不追随自己的内心呢？
史蒂夫·乔布斯（Steve Jobs）

总结

Follow your heart, and become yourself.

跟随你的内心，成为你自己。

拓展阅读

Each man's life represents a road toward himself, an attempt at such a road, the intimation of a path. No man has ever been entirely and completely himself. Yet each one strives to become that -- one in an awkward, the other in a more intelligent way, each as best he can.
每个人的生命都是通向自我的征途，是对一条道路的尝试，是一条小径的悄然召唤。从来没有一个人完全是他自己，可是每一个人都尽全力做到这一点，只不过有的人笨拙，有的人更聪明。
《德米安（Demian）》赫尔曼·黑塞（Hermann Hesse）