愿力人生汕头大学毕业典礼致词
英文原文:https://www.lksf.org/to-do-and-to-be2017-shantou-university-commencement-ceremony/ 日期:2017 年 6 月 27 日
官方中文版
尊敬的陈云贤主席、莫言教授、各位校董、各位嘉宾、老师们、同学们:
每年参加汕大的毕业典礼,我内心总是充满喜悦。在湖堤散步,在真理钟下听同学们朗读志愿,历历在目,声声入耳,处处感到急不及待要朝理想出发的活力。
特别是今天,看到你们兴奋的脸,如果会堂内的正能量可以灌入瓶中,一定可让我精力再延长 90 年。感谢大家与我分享这快乐时刻。
我明年 90 岁啦,一生志在千里,也知似水流年;我年轻过,历尽困难试炼,我深刻知道成长之路是非常不容易的;在高增长机遇巨浪中,愚人见石,智者见泉。
因循的并发症是不思不想和无感无知,在人工智能世代中肯定过不了关;驾浪者的基本功,时时刻刻要灵敏、快知快明,要有独立思考悟力、能运用想象,把现实、数据、信息合组成新。
愚人只知道「为」(to do),智者有愿力,把「为」(to do)变「成为」(to be)。「愿力一族」是如何修炼?如何处世?如何存在?
愚人常常抱怨,变得墨守成规是被逼出来的,被制度营役、被繁文缛节捆绑、被不可承受的期望压至透不过气;他们渴望「赢在起跑在线」,希望有个富爸加上天赋的优越组合,认为「人能弘道」、改变尘世复杂和无可奈何的扭曲太负重,「道能弘人」肯定更舒服。
这样的心态,他们已「输在起跑在线」。传统中国智慧告诫我们命与运是互动交织的,拥有一切,也可以一无所有。懂得「善择」才是打造自己命运的保证。而命运大赢家的梦幻 DNA 组合,是科学心智与艺术心灵的觉醒,才可把潜能修炼为出众的人生。性格基础是意志力,自律的坚持和创意潜力相形相塑,才可达致拥有挪移心外喧哗的处世心力。
自律是铁杵成针的意志功夫。每个希望成为大舞蹈家的人,每天面镜,并非顾影自怜,而是不怕疲惫、不怕痛苦,一而再,再而三,修正追求举重若轻的完美,技巧内化自我之中。走到台前,「身与物化,意到图成」。
我今天为什么选择舞蹈幻灯为背景?诗人叶慈的提问,一矢中的,「怎样才能从舞蹈之中辨别真正的舞者?」舞蹈家个性魅力触动观众,凝住一瞬永恒,艺术映照人生,启迪感召每一个人逾越艰难、超越局限,追求更高的水平,开拓无限的可能。
最后,我想和大家分享,去年我和一位多年在汕头大学服务的老师的对话,当我感谢他多年孜孜不倦培育学生时,老师引用王阳明一语:「千圣皆过影,良知乃吾师。」良知是成就尊严和有存在意义的明灯。
各位同学,道力之限,要靠愿力突破,我知道,你们一定会怀着谦恭、感恩的心,以信心和想象力追求一个开放、进步的世界,建立一个关怀的社会,成为真正的舞者,今天你以汕大为荣,明天汕大必将以你为荣。再次祝贺你们!谢谢大家。
English Original
Chairman Chen, Professor Mo, Council Members, Distinguished Guests, Faculty and Graduates,
Thank you, Thank you.
Every year I am so happy to be back – strolling along the glowing golden flowers beside the embankment, listening to your eager confident voices bubbling over the chimes from the bell tower – if only I could bottle the positive energy in this auditorium today, I am certain it will last me another 90 years.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful moment with me.
I will be 90 next year, time is like a river, young I have been, resolute as I am, I have also become old. Hardships make you grow up fast. More than ever, in this exponential era, you need to grow up fast and it will be particularly hard to grow and succeed if you are blind to opportunities and can’t see the wood for the trees.
The wilful blind turn “possibles into impossibles”, unthinking and unfeeling, they will probably be the first to be disqualified. If you want to be an exponential power surfer in the oncoming AI age, you need to have the mindset of a deep thinker, the skillset of a speed understander, to be able to synthesise all facts, data and intelligence that capture your imagination into something new and to effect change.
Ever ready with excuses and armed with a litany of justifications, the wilful blind focuses on a life of “to do” and to get. “I am so crushed into conformity”, “I am hegemonized”, “I am straightjacketed inside culture” and “the unbearable weight of expectations is suffocating”. It is conceivable why the wilful blind all yearn to “win at the starting line”, to be in a world of associated privileges but don’t want the burden of carrying forward progress and development as exemplified in Confucius’ Analects; the other way around, to be born into family wealth or being gifted is much preferred.
Well, this mindset might not get you very far. Our traditional wisdom taught us that destiny is the confluence of fate and luck – where one’s own choice has material influence over the future you envision, even if you have everything wilful blindness can lead you to nothing.
The clear winners in life strive to give a meaningful account of why they do exist. In face of complex, adaptive changes, their “to do” DNA is to marry a high degree of structure and discipline with free thinking creativity, this “frame of mind” that is open to insight, to revelation and to greater clarity.
The thrivers know that life is a skill based on discipline and practice precedes perfection.
Like a soloist preparing for a dance, standing before a mirror, endless correction after correction; they struggle against fatigue and pain to achieve masterful perfection for the transcendent “to be” moment on stage where the master reveals himself.
Today I took inspiration from those lines of WB Yeats: “How can we know the dancer from the dance?” and chose ballet as the backdrop. It is the personality and virtuosity of great dancers that separate the dancer from the dance. They are the conscious agents that raise the achievable standard for everybody else and the mindful leaders that could shape new destiny.
Last but not least, I want to share with you a beautiful response from a long serving faculty when I thank him for his dedication to STU, “conscience is the true teacher of life”. The words of Wang Yang Ming is food for the soul.
My dear graduates, a mindful leader knows his limits but aspires to exceed them. I know each and everyone of you is ready to do and to be. Affective and driven, leap into the future with generosity and gratitude, with confidence and imagination. Live your life to its truest, in duty, in dignity and aspire a world of openness and change.
Today you are proud to be part of Shantou University. Tomorrow Shantou University will be proud to be part of you.
Good luck. Congratulations again. Thank you so much.