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What does spiritual mindfulness mean in a medium defined by other people?

在其他人定义的媒介中，精神正念意味着什么？

Image: No Solutions (2009) by Sascha Braunig .

图片：萨沙·布劳尼格 (Sascha Braunig) 的《无解》(No Solutions) (2009)。

Courtesy Foxy Production , New York.

由纽约 Foxy Production 提供。

I was born in 1990, the year the first web browser was published, a leap forward in the evolution of communication unseen since the invention of the telephone.

我出生于 1990 年，那一年第一个网络浏览器发布了，这是自电话发明以来通信发展中从未有过的一次飞跃。

In 1995, my mother died.

1995年，我母亲去世了。

I was sent to live with my father, an ambitious, working class Haitian immigrant.

我被派去和父亲住在一起，他是一位雄心勃勃的工人阶级海地移民。

We owned a Compaq Presario , complete with dial-up internet service courtesy of the free trial disk from America Online that we received in the mail.

我们拥有一台 Compaq Presario，配有拨号互联网服务，由我们在邮件中收到的美国在线免费试用盘提供。

It sat on a broken desk in the dining room, whose only other furnishing was a brown, corduroy recliner.

它放在餐厅里一张破桌子上，餐厅唯一的其他家具是一张棕色灯芯绒躺椅。

While my father married several times and fathered more children, he was never sentimental about birthdays or holidays or childhood memories.

虽然我的父亲结过几次婚，生了更多的孩子，但他对生日、节日或童年记忆从不感伤。

I was lonely without my mother.

没有妈妈，我很孤独。

The convenient ability to connect across physical boundaries came at an opportune time in my life.

跨越物理界限的便捷连接能力在我生命中的恰当时机出现了。

By the time AOL Instant Messenger was released in 1997, I could read and write.

1997 年 AOL Instant Messenger 发布时，我已经可以读写了。

I do not remember the exact sequence of events but I imagine I exchanged usernames with one of my mother’s nieces or nephews during one of the visits my father rarely permitted.

我不记得事件的具体顺序，但我想在我父亲很少允许的一次访问期间，我与母亲的一位侄女或侄子交换了用户名。

Communication came easier.

沟通变得更加容易。

The summers I spent away from my mother’s family were spent in front of the computer.

我离开娘家的暑假都是在电脑前度过的。

I ate meals over its keyboard.

我在它的键盘上吃饭。

During the school years, I did my homework by the glow of its screen.

在上学的时候，我就靠着它的屏幕发光做作业。

My cousins and I talked about cartoons and cursed often, a freedom our parents didn’t allow.

我和表兄弟经常谈论卡通片并咒骂，这是我们父母不允许的自由。

They told me stories from when I was a baby, when my mother was alive.

他们给我讲了我小时候母亲还活着的时候的故事。

From them, I learned she was an amazing cook.

从他们那里，我了解到她是一位出色的厨师。

My favorite was the story of my aunt’s neighbors who built a fence after I gave all of their children chickenpox.

我最喜欢的是我姨妈的邻居在我让他们所有的孩子都感染水痘后建起了栅栏的故事。

Another aunt, my mother’s younger sister, used to say during my stretches of absence that we would always find each other.

另一位阿姨，我母亲的妹妹，在我不在的时候常常说我们总能找到彼此。

She did not know the unbreakable bond between us, which transcended time and distance, would be embodied through chatrooms and instant messages, first on AOL, then on MSN, where we played Uno like we did after dinner during the holidays.

她不知道我们之间超越时间和距离的牢不可破的联系会通过聊天室和即时消息体现出来，首先是在 AOL 上，然后是在 MSN 上，我们在那里玩 Uno，就像假期晚饭后那样。

When the Compaq died in 2002 I was without a computer for two years.

2002 年康柏停产后，我已经有两年没有电脑了。

It was the longest I had gone without speaking to my family since I left them as a toddler.

自从我还是个孩子的时候离开他们以来，这是我没有和家人说话的最长时间。

In 2004, my father connected a used Dell Tower to our old monitor, but while I regained access to the internet, I had forgotten all my usernames and passwords.

2004 年，我父亲将一台二手戴尔塔式电脑连接到我们的旧显示器上，但当我重新访问互联网时，我忘记了所有用户名和密码。

My family found me by chance after I joined Myspace.

我加入 Myspace 后，家人偶然发现了我。

Every person I lost came back to me: We were reconnected as we had been in my early childhood.

我失去的每个人都回到了我身边：我们像我童年时期一样重新建立了联系。

I was thrilled by each friend request and every comment on my profile.

我对我个人资料上的每一个好友请求和每一条评论都感到非常兴奋。

Each cousin held a distinguished spot in my “top eight.” It was not a hard decision: My circle of IRL friends was small.

每个表兄弟在我的“前八名”中都占有重要地位。这不是一个艰难的决定：我现实生活中的朋友圈子很小。

When I was bored, I spent my time perusing my cousins’ profiles.

当我无聊的时候，我就把时间花在阅读表兄弟的个人资料上。

I learned the faces of their best friends.

我认出了他们最好朋友的面孔。

When my older cousins, away at college, transitioned to Facebook, I followed suit.

当我在外上大学的堂兄弟们转向 Facebook 时，我也效仿了。

I wanted to see myself classified as family on their profiles.

我希望在他们的个人资料中看到自己被归类为家人。

I tagged myself in their albums of family vacations, weddings, and Thanksgiving dinners.

我在他们的家庭度假、婚礼和感恩节晚餐的相册中标记了自己。

Facebook was a digital representation of my belonging to people.

Facebook 是我对人们归属感的数字化表达。

It marked the end of my solitary life.

这标志着我孤独生活的结束。

My aunt said we would always find each other.

我姨妈说我们总会找到彼此的。

She didn’t know this unbreakable bond would be embodied through chatrooms and instant messages

她不知道这种牢不可破的联系会通过聊天室和即时消息体现出来

By 2009 I was a sophomore at Temple University.

2009年，我已经是坦普尔大学二年级学生了。

I lost scholarships, partly due to bad grades, partly to loss of funding.

我失去了奖学金，部分原因是成绩不好，部分原因是资金损失。

I commuted four hours each day to and from my aunt’s home in Willingboro, New Jersey to alleviate some of the financial burden.

我每天花四个小时往返于新泽西州威灵伯勒姨妈家，以减轻一些经济负担。

On days I didn’t have class, I worked part time at Bath and Body Works in Philadelphia.

在没有课的日子里，我在费城的 Bath and Body Works 做兼职。

Class.

班级。

Home.

家。

Work.

工作。

Home.

家。

This pattern repeated for a year.

这种模式重复了一年。

According to my profile, I joined Twitter in November 2010.

根据我的个人资料，我于 2010 年 11 月加入 Twitter。

My handle was pardonmyfrenchx.

我的账号是 pardonmyfrenchx。

My 20-year-old self was pleased with the unoriginal use of my childhood nickname, the extra letter added because pardonmyfrench, pardonmyfrench_, pardonmyfrench0, and pardonmyfrenchy were all spoken for.

20 岁的我对我童年昵称的非原创使用感到满意，添加了额外的字母，因为 pardonmyfrench、pardonmyfrench_、pardonmyfrench0 和 pardonmyfrenchy 都被使用了。

Twitter, like college, was then a miscellaneous and experimental environment, optimal for fostering self-construction.

推特就像大学一样，当时是一个杂项和实验环境，最适合促进自我建设。

Unlike Facebook, Twitter’s layout was ideal to proliferate beyond my familial fences.

与 Facebook 不同，Twitter 的布局非常适合超越我的家庭界限。

Twitter was informal.

推特是非正式的。

Its users wrote what they pleased.

它的用户写了他们喜欢的内容。

Posts about making dinner stacked between posts about wanting to die and a meme of crying Michael Jordan superimposed on a wedding cake.

关于做晚餐的帖子堆放在关于想死的帖子和婚礼蛋糕上叠加的迈克尔·乔丹哭泣的模因之间。

There was no order or rhyme or reason.

没有秩序、韵律或理由。

Interactions were open and simple, unless your profile was private.

互动是开放且简单的，除非您的个人资料是私人的。

Statements were digestible at 140 characters.

140 个字符的陈述易于理解。

This was important, because the feed moved fast.

这很重要，因为饲料移动得很快。

Through the interests of people I opted to follow, and the people they followed, the well of knowledge was bottomless.

通过我选择追随的人和他们追随的人的兴趣，知识的源泉是无底的。

I learned about skincare regimens for oily, eczema-prone skin, Caribbean inspired vegan recipes, and Amigurumi, the Japanese art of doll making.

我了解了针对油性、湿疹皮肤的护肤方案、加勒比风格的素食食谱以及日本娃娃制作艺术 Amigurumi。

In Philadelphia, where I live, there are a handful of black women writers.

在我居住的费城，有一些黑人女作家。

We were needles in a white male dominated haystack.

我们是白人男性主导的大海捞针。

Twitter connected us.

推特将我们联系在一起。

Through them, I learned about writing classes and fellowships.

通过他们，我了解了写作课程和奖学金。

Twitter was a form of communication and a resource.

Twitter 是一种交流形式和一种资源。

On Twitter and other social media platforms, as many critics have argued, users volunteer to be bombarded with the consciousnesses of hundreds of thousands of other people.

正如许多批评者所说，在推特和其他社交媒体平台上，用户自愿接受数十万其他人的意识轰炸。

What naysayers fail to realize is that this unique characteristic is what makes social media inherently mystical.

反对者没有意识到，正是这种独特的特征使得社交媒体本质上神秘。

As a first generation Haitian-American, spirituality has always been embedded in my world.

作为第一代海地裔美国人，灵性一直根植于我的世界中。

My mother’s father was a Christian minister.

我母亲的父亲是一位基督教牧师。

Her mother’s, my grande’s, every breath is a prayer.

她母亲的，我祖父的，每一次呼吸都是祈祷。

Her connection to God is her protection against diabs, devils, and evil spirits, as well as Voodoo priests who knew my grandfather.

她与上帝的联系是她对恶魔、魔鬼和邪灵的保护，以及对认识我祖父的伏都教牧师的保护。

My mother was a youth minister.

我的母亲是一名青年部长。

My aunts told me stories of her deep voice that filled the modest church house and inspired worshippers when she was 16.

我的阿姨们给我讲述了她 16 岁时那低沉的声音充满了简陋的教堂，并激励了信徒们的故事。

For a brief period in my adolescence, I was encouraged to be a minister like my mother.

在我青春期的一段短暂时期，我被鼓励像我母亲一样成为一名牧师。

Twitter, like college, was a miscellaneous and experimental environment optimal for fostering self-construction

Twitter 就像大学一样，是一个最适合促进自我建设的杂项和实验环境

I was skeptical of Christianity due to Manichean and sexist interpretations of the Bible.

由于摩尼教和性别歧视对圣经的解释，我对基督教持怀疑态度。

However, I believed in God, the Source, due entirely to my grande’s influence.

然而，我相信上帝，源头，完全是由于我的大人物的影响。

She survived child slavery in Haiti in the early 1900s, and journeyed with ten children from Haiti to the U.S., where she survived the death of her husband and a daughter.

1900年代初，她在海地遭受了儿童奴役，并与十个孩子一起从海地来到美国，在那里她的丈夫和一个女儿去世了，她幸免于难。

I had no doubt that through her prayer and belief, she tapped into a strength and wisdom beyond her petite frame.

我毫不怀疑，通过她的祈祷和信仰，她挖掘出了超越她娇小的身躯的力量和智慧。

My ideas on spirituality were fragmented: I knew what did not resonate with me, but I did not know what I was looking for until I found holistic practitioners and intuitive guides on Twitter.

我对灵性的想法是支离破碎的：我知道什么不能引起我的共鸣，但我不知道自己在寻找什么，直到我在 Twitter 上找到整体实践者和直观指南。

Francheska Medina, known best as @HeyFranHey, shares tips for holistic health and mental wellness on Twitter and Tumblr, as well as DIY videos on YouTube.

Francheska Medina（最出名的名字是@HeyFranHey）在 Twitter 和 Tumblr 上分享整体健康和心理健康的秘诀，并在 YouTube 上分享 DIY 视频。

She was unlike others in her field, who I thought could not understand my experiences.

她与她所在领域的其他人不同，我认为他们无法理解我的经历。

She reminded me of Denise from The Cosby Show , except health conscious.

她让我想起了《考斯比秀》中的丹妮丝，除了健康意识。

Her hair was long, wide, curly.

她的头发长、宽、卷曲。

She wore vibrant sweatshirts and sweaters.

她穿着充满活力的运动衫和毛衣。

Fifteen-minute videos about self-compassion, DIY body butter and almond milk, and non-toxic cosmetics.

关于自我慈悲、DIY 身体黄油和杏仁奶以及无毒化妆品的 15 分钟视频。

On my early morning trips to Philadelphia, the glow of my smartphone became like the willow leaves hanging from the Tree of Souls in Avatar , transporting wisdom from my timeline, my personal Eywa.

在我清晨前往费城的旅途中，我的智能手机发出的光芒就像《阿凡达》中灵魂之树上垂下的柳叶，传递着我的时间线、我个人的 Eywa 中的智慧。

Andrew Sullivan, in a recent New York magazine essay, wrote of forfeiting his smartphone at a temple for meditation.

安德鲁·沙利文 (Andrew Sullivan) 最近在《纽约》杂志上发表的一篇文章中写道，他在一座寺庙里因冥想而没收了自己的智能手机。

He argues that social media compels us to fill silence with content.

他认为社交媒体迫使我们用内容来填补沉默。

But it was through Twitter that I came to understand meditation itself, after reading a thread by Maryam Hasnaa , who tweets as @thatgirlhas.

但在阅读了 Maryam Hasnaa（她的推文为 @thatgirlhas）的帖子后，我是通过 Twitter 开始了解冥想本身的。

“With meditation the thing is not trying to get your mind free of all thought but, just to be the witness of it all,” she posted at 10:45pm, on an ordinary weeknight.

“冥想的目的并不是要让你的大脑摆脱所有的想法，而是要成为这一切的见证者，”她在一个平常的工作日晚上 10 点 45 分发帖说。

“A thought pops up and you simply notice, I’m having a thought.

“一个想法突然出现，你就会注意到，我正在思考。

Repeat this step over and over.

一遍又一遍地重复这个步骤。

Then, when your monkey mind has calmed down, notice your breathing.” I watched the tweets appear from the comfort of my pillow while still dressed in clothes from work.

然后，当你的猴子头脑平静下来时，注意你的呼吸。”我坐在舒适的枕头上看着这些推文出现，同时还穿着工作时的衣服。

On the timeline was the latest in the slew of deaths of black people by law enforcement caught on video.

时间线上是视频中执法部门造成的一系列黑人死亡的最新事件。

I was feeling a combination of sadness and paranoia.

我感到悲伤和偏执。

I had tried meditating before, using one of Deepak Chopra and Oprah’s “21-Day Meditation” challenges, but I’d assumed that distraction meant failure, and stopped for frustration of meditating incorrectly.

我之前曾尝试过冥想，使用了 Deepak Chopra 和 Oprah 的“21 天冥想”挑战之一，但我认为分心就意味着失败，并因冥想不正确而感到沮丧而停止了。

What Hasnaa’s tweets helped me understand is that the practice of meditation is about observing the mind and refocusing on the breath, consequently the present moment.

哈斯娜的推文帮助我理解，冥想的练习就是观察思想并重新关注呼吸，从而关注当下。

Her tweets instructed on how to operate in the discord of the feed that surrounded them.

她的推文指导了如何在周围的不和谐信息中进行操作。

Maryam Hasnaa is the daughter of Amina Wadud, a scholar of Islam, and mother of an adorable, chess-playing son, or Sun as she affectionately calls him.

玛丽亚姆·哈斯纳 (Maryam Hasnaa) 是伊斯兰教学者阿米娜·瓦杜德 (Amina Wadud) 的女儿，也是一个可爱的下棋儿子的母亲，她亲切地称他为“太阳”。

She uses her Twitter and Instagram to share spiritual texts, and her blog on Medium, Vibrational Medicine , for longer ruminations.

她使用 Twitter 和 Instagram 分享精神文本，并使用 Medium 振动医学博客进行更长时间的沉思。

To her 32,000-plus followers, her timeline is a comprehensive gateway to understanding the spiritual realm.

对于她的 32,000 多名追随者来说，她的时间线是了解精神领域的综合门户。

She discusses love and energetic self-mastery, and posts links to lectures on YouTube about spirituality.

她讨论了爱和充满活力的自我掌控，并在 YouTube 上发布了有关灵性的讲座链接。

She shares her monthly audio newsletter and meditations from Soundcloud and facilitates one-on-one therapy sessions.

她分享每月的音频通讯和来自 Soundcloud 的冥想，并促进一对一的治疗课程。

I inquired about Hasnaa’s intuitive guidance over the summer.

我询问了哈斯纳整个夏天的直觉指导。

I was meditating and embodying love by pouring love into myself.

我通过将爱倾注到自己身上来冥想和体现爱。

I felt good.

我感觉很好。

I could only benefit from personalized insight.

我只能从个性化的洞察中受益。

Each session is held over the phone or Skype audio, which offers the clearest connection.

每个会话都通过电话或 Skype 音频进行，这提供了最清晰的连接。

The conversation begins with the client’s emotional, mental, physical and spiritual state.

谈话从客户的情绪、心理、身体和精神状态开始。

Hasnaa asks the client some questions to be discussed during the call: Why did you decide to contact an intuitive guide?

哈斯娜向客户询问了一些在通话期间需要讨论的问题：您为什么决定联系直观的导游？

What is your intention for the session?

您参加本次会议的目的是什么？

Are there any areas in your body that hurt, feel uncomforted, need more love?

您身体上是否有任何部位受伤、感到不舒服、需要更多爱？

Rather than hindering humanity, social media has the potential to bring people into humanity

社交媒体不但没有阻碍人性，反而有潜力让人们了解人性

Hasnaa feels that social media can be used as an entry point to inspire people to explore deeper spiritual work.

哈斯纳认为社交媒体可以作为一个切入点来激励人们探索更深层次的精神工作。

“People can use social media as a way to connect to other people who are doing the work and to be reminded to stay on the path,” she explains.

“人们可以使用社交媒体作为与其他正在从事这项工作的人联系的方式，并被提醒坚持走下去，”她解释道。

“That is a blessing because at times one can feel disconnected from those around them when they truly commit to this path.” She asserts that true spiritual work is an inner journey and would really require someone to step away from all distractions, not only the internet.

“这是一种祝福，因为当一个人真正致力于这条道路时，有时会感到与周围的人脱节。”她断言，真正的精神工作是一种内在的旅程，确实需要有人远离所有干扰，而不仅仅是互联网。

Hasnaa uses Twitter to remind her followers to learn how to turn within, and commune with the silence.

哈斯娜使用 Twitter 提醒她的追随者学习如何转向内心，并与沉默进行交流。

She believes there are infinite possibilities for spirituality through social media.

她相信通过社交媒体获得灵性有无限的可能性。

“I take long breaks when needed to get reconnected to my spirit,” she explains.

“当需要重新与我的精神联系时，我会进行长时间的休息，”她解释道。

“I have learned how to become more resilient with my practice through being on social media.

“我学会了如何通过社交媒体使我的练习变得更有弹性。

For my own future I see me not being available through these mediums at some point.

对于我自己的未来，我认为在某些时候我无法通过这些媒介联系到我。

In the meantime, I’m excited to connect with others who value and benefit from my work.” Social media, which allows communication across physical boundaries, is a spiritual evolution, taking us a little closer to a collective consciousness.

与此同时，我很高兴能与那些重视我的工作并从我的工作中受益的人建立联系。”社交媒体允许跨越物理界限进行交流，是一种精神进化，让我们更接近集体意识。

Twitter has its limitations.

推特有其局限性。

It is two-dimensional; conversations are short and sometimes one-sided; it is vulnerable to trolling and harassment.

它是二维的；谈话很简短，有时甚至是片面的；它很容易受到恶意攻击和骚扰。

“The mania of our online lives reveals this: We keep swiping and swiping because we are never fully satisfied,” Andrew Sullivan writes.

“我们在线生活的狂热揭示了这一点：我们不断地刷卡，因为我们永远不会完全满足，”安德鲁·沙利文写道。

He describes his, and our, use of social media as an addiction.

他将他和我们对社交媒体的使用描述为一种瘾。

As escapists, addicts use their fixations to distract themselves from what haunts them — anxiety from lack of control, or mortality, or loneliness.

作为逃避现实的人，成瘾者利用他们的执着来分散自己对困扰他们的事情的注意力——由于缺乏控制、死亡或孤独而产生的焦虑。

The sickness is within the individual; the remedy is not forfeiting the smartphone on a digital Sabbath, but a consistent, conscious effort to understand the self, and define its purpose.

疾病是在个人内部的；补救措施不是在数字安息日放弃智能手机，而是持续、有意识地努力了解自我并定义其目的。

Dalai Lama, who joined Twitter in February 2009, has a following of 12.9 million.

达赖喇嘛于 2009 年 2 月加入 Twitter，拥有 1290 万粉丝。

Deepak Chopra, since adopting Twitter in July 2008, has accumulated a following of nearly 3 million, myself included.

Deepak Chopra 自 2008 年 7 月使用 Twitter 以来，已经积累了近 300 万粉丝，其中包括我自己。

“Interconnectivity of the mind isn’t good or bad; it’s neutral,” he explained in a 2012 Mashable interview.

“心灵的互联性没有好坏之分；它是中性的，”他在 2012 年 Mashable 采访中解释道。

“We can cause devastation worse than any war through making diabolical use of the social networks, or we could bring the world together in the direction of peace, harmony, sustainability and social justice.

“通过邪恶地利用社交网络，我们可以造成比任何战争更严重的破坏，或者我们可以让世界朝着和平、和谐、可持续发展和社会正义的方向团结起来。

It’s up to us.” Rather than hindering humanity, as Sullivan believes, Chopra believes social media, by transcending ethnic, racial, and geographic boundaries, has the potential to bring people into humanity.

这取决于我们。”乔普拉认为，社交媒体并没有像沙利文所认为的那样阻碍人性，而是通过超越民族、种族和地理界限，有潜力将人们带入人性之中。

Christina Puchalski, MD, director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health, contends that “spirituality is the aspect of humanity that refers to the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose and the way they experience their connectedness to the moment, to self, to others, to nature, and to the significant or sacred.” In trying to define spirituality for myself, I realize there’s no action more pretentious than defining spirituality.

乔治华盛顿灵性与健康研究所所长、医学博士克里斯蒂娜·普哈尔斯基认为，“灵性是人性的一个方面，指的是个人寻求和表达意义和目的的方式，以及他们体验与当下、与自我、与他人、与自然、与重要或神圣的联系的方式。”在试图为自己定义灵性时，我意识到没有什么比定义灵性更自命不凡的行为了。

It focuses on the soul.

它专注于灵魂。

Spirituality is a malleable practice.

灵性是一种可塑的实践。

It is to appreciate life for the marvel that it is.

就是欣赏生命的奇迹。

To recognize what connects you to the Source, to and others, and to connect to your purpose and your boundlessness.

认识到是什么将你与源头、与他人联系起来，并与你的目标和无限联系起来。