“So it’s necessary to be dead, Steppenwolf?”

“I think so, yes. My happiness fills me with content and I can bear it for a long while yet. But sometimes when happiness leaves a moment’s leisure to look about me and long for things, the longing I have is not to keep this happiness forever, but to suffer once again, only more beautifully and less meanly than before. I long for the sufferings that make me ready and willing to die.”

Hermine looked tenderly in my eyes with that dark look that could so suddenly come into her face. Lovely, fearful eyes! Picking her words one by one and piecing them together, and speaking slowly and so low that it was an effort to hear her, she said:

“I want to tell you something today, something that I have known for a long while, and you know it too; but perhaps you have never said it to yourself. I am going to tell you now what it is that I know about you and me and our fate. You, Harry, have been an artist and a thinker, a man full of joy and faith, always on the track of what is great and eternal, never content with the trivial and petty. But the more life has awakened you and brought you back to yourself, the greater has your need been and the deeper the sufferings and dread and despair that have overtaken you, till you were up to your neck in them. And all that you once knew and loved and revered as beautiful and sacred, all the belief you once had in mankind and our high destiny, has been of no avail and has lost its worth and gone to pieces. Your faith found no more air to breathe. And suffocation is a hard death. Is that true, Harry? Is that your fate?”

I nodded again and again.

“You have a picture of life within you, a faith, a challenge, and you were ready for deeds and sufferings and sacrifices, and then you became aware by degrees that the world asked no deeds and no sacrifices of you whatever, and that life is no poem of heroism with heroic parts to play and so on, but a comfortable room where people are quite content with eating and drinking, coffee and knitting, cards and wireless. And whoever wants more and has got it in him–the heroic and the beautiful, and the reverence for the great poets or for the saints–is a fool and a Don Quixote. Good. And it has been just the same for me, my friend. I was a gifted girl. I was meant to live up to a high standard, to expect much of myself and do great things. I could have played a great part. I could have been the wife of a king, the beloved of a revolutionary, the sister of a genius, the mother of a martyr. And life has allowed me just this, to be a courtesan of fairly good taste, and even that has been hard enough. That is how things have gone with me. For a while I was inconsolable and for a long time I put the blame on myself. Life, thought I, must in the end be in the right, and if life scorned my beautiful dreams, so I argued, it was my dreams that were stupid and wrong headed. But that did not help me at all. And as I had good eyes and ears and was a little inquisitive too, I took a good look at this so-called life and at my neighbors and acquaintances, fifty or so of them and their destinies, and then I saw you. And I knew that my dreams had been right a thousand times over, just as yours had been. It was life and reality that were wrong. It was as little right that a woman like me should have no other choice than to grow old in poverty and in a senseless way at a typewriter in the pay of a money-maker, or to marry such a man for his money’s sake, or to become some kind of drudge, as for a man like you to be forced in his loneliness and despair to have recourse to a razor. Perhaps the trouble with me was more material and moral and with you more spiritual–but it was the same road. Do you think I can’t understand your horror of the fox trot, your dislike of bars and dancing floors, your loathing of jazz and the rest of it? I understand it only too well, and your dislike of politics as well, your despondence over the chatter and irresponsible antics of the parties and the press, your despair over the war, the one that has been and the one that is to be, over all that people nowadays think, read and build, over the music they play, the celebrations they hold, the education they carry on. You are right, Steppenwolf, right a thousand times over, and yet you must go to the wall. You are much too exacting and hungry for this simple, easygoing and easily contented world of today. You have a dimension too many. Whoever wants to live and enjoy his life today must not be like you and me. Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours–”

http://www.american-buddha.com/harry.haller.4.htm#HARRY HALLERS RECORDS

動人的部分包括它做的各種深入訪談、以及這篇文章的開始與結束時的小故事。去年二月美國企業界與總統聚餐，眾人問歐巴馬問題，但歐巴馬卻問了蘋果的賈柏斯先生一個問題。「蘋果的 iPhone 要如何才能在美國製造？」（”what would it take to make iPhones in the United States?”）

Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.
Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,”（「那些工作再也不會回來了，總統先生。」賈柏斯這樣回答。） he said, according to another dinner guest.

紐時也做了互動的動畫來呈現故事。（請參考 iPhone 經濟學）是的，我當然想到的是動新聞的動畫故事。在製造業的消逝，出版業的故事則是這個影片當中的一個看不見的故事。

至於我最喜歡的「後台資訊」，這部影片是紐約時報與日舞學院（Sundance Institute）合作所製作的。

我在 facebook 上面做了一些觀察。

我很好奇這個 TED 的演講如何在極短時間「上架」（成為產品）？這個演講的舞台怎麼設定？觀眾怎麼坐？如何提醒講者時間？如果要做一個超級快速回應產品，他們為什麼挑 Clay Shirky？（可以講 SOPA/PIPA 的人有無限多人，為何挑他？）

接下來就可以享受 Clay Shirky 的「超強舉例攻擊法」了：媒體財閥的法律遊說，等同於小朋友生日蛋糕店的侵權問題。Perfect.

Audio Home Recording Act 區分正版與盜版。DMCA 走進你的機器裡面，設下盤查哨。SOPA/PIPA 意識到最重要的敵人是「你我」，要你我交出鑰匙…無論我們在哪裡/到哪裡。

老友說，台灣根本沒有觀眾與演講者。這就像非洲人都不穿鞋一樣，不是嗎？（笑）

很明顯，人通過自己的活動按照對自己有用的方式來改變自然物質的形態。例如，用木頭做桌子、木頭的形狀就改變了。可是桌子還是木頭，還是一個普通的可以感覺的物。但是桌子一旦作為商品出現，就變成一個可感覺而又超感覺的物了。它不僅用它的腳站在地上，而且在對其他一切商品的關係上用頭倒立著，從它的木腦袋裡生出比它自動跳舞還奇怪得多的狂想。

可見，商品的神祕性質不是來源於商品的使用價值。同樣，這種神祕性質也不是來源於價值規定的內容。因為，第一，不管有用勞動或生產活動怎樣不同，他們都是人體的機能，而每一種這樣的機能，不管內容和形式如何，實質上都是人的腦、神經、肌肉、感官等的耗費。這是一個生理學上的真理。第二，說到作為決定價值量的基礎的東西，即這種耗費的持續時間或勞動量，那麼，勞動的量可以十分明顯地同勞動的質區別開來。在一切社會狀態下，人們對生產生活資料所耗費的勞動時間必然是關心的，雖然在不同的發展階段上關心的程度不同。最後，一旦人們以某種方式彼此為對方勞動，他們的勞動也就取得社會的形式。

可是，勞動產品一採取商品形式就具有的謎一般的性質究竟是從哪裡來的呢？顯然是從這種形式本身來的。人類勞動的等同性，取得了勞動產品的等同的價值對象性這種物的形式；用勞動的持續時間來計算的人類勞動力的耗費，取得了勞動產品的價值量的形式；最後，勞動的那些社會規定藉以實現的生產者的關係，取得了勞動產品的社會關係的形式。

可見，商品形式的奧祕不過在於：商品形式在人們面前把人們本身勞動的社會性質，反映成勞動產品本身的物的性質，反映成這些物的天然的社會屬性，從而把生產者同總勞動的社會關係反映成存在於生產者之外的物與物之間的社會關係。由於這種轉換，勞動產品成了商品，成了可感覺而又超感覺的物或社會的物。正如一物在是神經中留下的光的印象，不是表現為視神經本身的主觀興奮，而是表現為眼睛外面的物的客觀形式。

《資本論》（第一冊），p.88-89

Chris Anderson: Where the newspaper industry is actually going to do over the next few years is exactly what all of you as companies are going to do, which is figure out what’s the premium to your free. Not to reject free, but to find someway to make money to sell, to sell to your free consumers, to take some fraction of your audience and upsell them on a paid service.

Premium, I would argue, is the first 21st century business model. Freemium phonetic is, you know, is free plus premium, and it’s the inversion of the free sample. Rather than giving away one percent of your muffins to sell 99 percent, you’re giving away 90 percent of your goods for free and selling, to sell 10 percent or 95 percent or 80 percent or the majority of what you make you give away, and you do that as a form of marketing to, to reach the largest possible audience. That audience is not just exposed to your message, they’re exposed to your product. They’re allowed to use their products, and if they choose to convert, if you’ve found someway to get them to start paying, they’re paying for the right reasons, which is that they get it. They understand it. They, they, they find out, they know what the value is. They figured out how it fits into their life, and they’re happy to pay. And when you look at the difference between services that force you to pay up front, and those who convert you to pay through freemium, the churn rates are much, much lower for the freemium models.

Because the people converted, converted with full knowledge of why this was a good deal, and they tend to pay more, the price incentive.

So, what does freemium mean for the “Wall Street Journal”? Al Murray, who runs, runs wallstreetjournal.com, gave these sort of five principles, and it’s, again, it’s kind of parochial. I’m talking about media, but I think you might be able to find some relevance in all of your own businesses. First of all, you’ve got to use free and paid. You need both. You absolutely need both. You can’t make it entirely paid, and entirely free has shown its limits as the advertising market has hit the skids.

Interestingly, the things they charge for, or rather they things they give away for free are maybe what you would, the opposite of what you would think. They give away their, their most popular stuff. So if you come to a story by Google News, that’s free. Much of the front page is free. Their exclusives are also free. Now, you would say, well, isn’t exclusive scarcity? Isn’t that exactly what you would charge for? It turns out that it’s just the opposite. If you don’t make your exclusives free, other people will, will report on your exclusives, and they’ll get all the traffic. So, you know, as TMZ exclusively reported last night, Michael Jackson has died, TMZ gets no traffic. Whoever was reporting it would get all the traffic. It turns out that, you know, to reference my last book, “The Long Tale”, you’ve got the head of the curve, the most popular stuff, that’s best to monetize with advertising. And then you’ve got the tail of the curve, the niche stuff, a very narrow, a, you know, more narrow interest, and there people become, and, and that’s best to monetize with direct payments because people, because there’s less competition in that space. People understood the value of that. They tend to be driven by professional interest, and they tend to become price insensitive.

And I, I, so again, maybe, you know, the stuff they’re charging for is niche stuff. It’s the archives. It’s the metal commodity trading stuff, etc., and they want to get very, very niche on that stuff. Again, less competition, clear value to the user, less price sensitivity. So give away the head, sell the tail is, is, is their model.

Now, I think the two most interesting markets to look at freemium business models and evolution are the video game markets and the Apple iPhone apps. Let’s start with video games. Video games are a fascinating, fascinating industry in transition. They’re going from a silver-disc business to an online business. Music did that whereas they moved from silver discs to online, the core product became free. Software, as it went from silver disc to online, software to service, the core product went to freemium. Most software service companies use the freemium model. Video games, as they go from a $50 box you buy in the store to an online model, are going to free to play. Now, this was started in Korea and then China, is moving to U.S., but what you’re seeing with free to play is a general, is the general, it’s a psychological, it’s a psychological endeavor, which is to say OK, free to play, at some point you want them to pay.

How do you entice them to do it? How do you make it non-punitive? You’re not saying, ding, time’s up, pay, but more sort of ooh, shiny, you could have that. (laughter) So, I, I showed a picture of “Maple Story”, which is a Korean game very popular with kids. But, it’s, it’s a good example of this. So what will people pay for? Well, they’ll pay to save time. When you die in “Maple Story”, as a free user, you have to, you got to get back to a respond point. You need to trudge your way back to where you were. Or you can buy a reincarnation stone, and you get reincarnated right there on the spot. If you want to go to another world, you have to wait for the bus as a free user, but if you’re, if you, if you bought a teleportation stone, you can get there instantaneously. And, you know, and if, if any of you have kids who are playing “Club Penguin”, “Club Penguin”’s also free to play. At some point, your kids, and my kids have done many times, will come to you and say, “Mom, can I, dad, can I have a credit card, can I have your credit card?” “Why?” “I want to become, I want to subscribe to Club Penguin.” “Why?” “I want a pet for my penguin.” (laughter)

Status. I want a, I want a better igloo. I want to go to this cooler land. I want hair, clothing, etc. These are psychological things. You can still play the game. It didn’t go, ding, time’s up, but you can play the game better or more faster or more, with better status if you become paid, if you’re a paid user. Now, this is a decision they only make after they decide they want to play the game more. But that, but they continue to reap the value in it. On “Second Life”, if you, it’s free to play. It’s not really a game, but you get the idea. It’s free to play. If, however, you want to put down roots, build something, you’ve to rent the land. You’re lowering your risk. It doesn’t disappear. You know, status is, is a classic example. You know, people will, you know, inaudible the Internet has largely shifted to a reputation economy, and reputation is about status. I use Ning, the, the, the social networking platform for one of my aerial robotic sites, DIY drums, and I pay them $35 a month to, you know, take the Ning branding off and take their ads off, and to otherwise make it look more professional, like a better site. It’s, I’m, I’m happy to do it because I’m so invested in that service. Ning is a classic freemium model.

And, and, you know, you could force people to pay. You know, time’s up, etc., but you know, that’s, that’s generally not best. The, the fermium models tend to fall under a couple categories. You have, you do have time limits. In 30 days, free. Then you pay. Not the best one. You have seat limited. Five seats free, more paid, better. You have feature limited. Flickr, Flickr Pro. You know, basic version free, more, cooler, better stuff paid. If you’re an engaged user, if you’re a power user, if you really, if you really get it, you’ll happily pay for that kind of stuff. It’s terrific, by the way, to be able to inaudible have your best customers self-identified by using a service and then upsell them on things that, that they value because these are not only happy, people who are happy to pay, but they are your evangelists. They are your, your best promoters. These are, these are the people who are driving the rest of the traffic to you with their heavy use of the service, and they’re also paying you for the, for the privilege. You can have, you know, storage and capacity. You can add more storage and capacity. Things like Gmail use that, that model, and I probably, you know, there’s probably others that I’m not thinking of. But those are the basic things that you will get people to, to pay for.

A simple think like the time money calculus that we see so often in games. You know, young people have more time than money. Fine. They’re free. But older people have more money than time. They’ll pay to save time. You know, we see this across the board. Open Source versus, inaudible Source is often a time money calculus. Open Source is free, but sometimes it’s more trouble, and Microsoft, I mean, I’m not just saying this because we’re enjoying their air conditioning. Microsoft will always tell you that, that Open Source is free like a puppy. You know. (laughter) That’s, that’s the time money calculus at work. Now, by the way, I’m a huge Open Source ad, advocate, and everything I do outside of my pay jobs is, is Open Source.

So, so I, I would say, I think it’s a little. I, I, I won’t fully endorse that theme, but there is, there is some truth, some truth at the core of that, which is, which is that, you know, you have to understand that you have the monetary economy and then you’ve got all these other economies. The attention economy, reputation economy, time economies. It’s true. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but only if you consider these other economies. With you and I have lunch, and you know, I pick up the tab. Lunch was free to you in a monetary economy, but it wasn’t free in time. It wasn’t free in reputation. It wasn’t free, maybe you passed some information to me which is worth much more than the cost of the lunch. If you consider these economies into the non-monetary economies, the books balance. You know, you know, it, it is, you know, ultimately, you do pay, but importantly, you’re not paying in money. And the question is how do you convert these reputation and attention credits back into cash one way or another.

「民國四十六年，筆者進入初中就讀。與國小不同的是，教課的老師大多是外省人，這些外省老師不管教國文、教公民或是教童子軍，常常講課講到一半，就大談八年抗戰。當時心裡只納悶，何以老師們這麼喜歡談八年抗戰？一直到很久很久以後，我才瞭解，八年抗戰雖然對我的年紀而言，與明朝清朝的事沒有兩樣，但對他們來說，卻是昨天的事，是他們人生刻骨銘心的一部分。

　其實，每一個社會都是不斷變動的，只因為變動通常是漸進的，所以一般男女察而不覺，很容易一直以自己的舊認知去面對新情境；只有具有敏銳歷史觀的人，才能夠洞察變動的內涵，調整處事的要領或方向。

　拿台灣來說，二二八事件是六十五年前的事，美麗島事件是三十三年前的事。這兩個政治事件，是臺灣歷史大事，但對現在三、四十歲的青壯年而言，在感覺上，卻跟荷據、明鄭時代的事體沒有兩樣。至於族群隔閡，從民國三十九年迄今，已新生三代，其中質變，不言可喻。」

資深前輩的吳豐山先生提醒不能以過去來看現在，不能忽視台灣早已有巨大的社會變遷。然而年輕如斯的 Chaowen 卻想說的是，我們必須要跟過去連結。

現在的大學生，更是如此。美麗島事件和二二八事件混淆不清，完全無感。我請他們去訪問自己的祖父母和父母，問這些事件對他們的影響，這些事件的影響力就出來了，也讓大學生多少體會一點自己與台灣歷史的關連。社會結構變了，可是並不是斷裂。「過去」一直在影響「當下」。不需要拘泥於過往的歷史解釋，但也不可能脫離被歷史限制的現實。

這個對話讓我想到了以前看過的一部電影：水之鄉（Waterland）。讓我引述一篇討論 Graham Swift 原著小說的碩士論文摘要。

「…小說主角湯姆為了處理中年危機，放棄傳統歷史課程，並藉由反覆不斷的說故事，重拾家鄉費恩蘭的河川土地、人物鬼魂、歷史及傳說，嘗試建構一個具有球莖本質的真實世界。湯姆的敘述宛如一種「戰爭機器」，藉其拼湊形式、疏離策略、時空倒置及感官刺激，提供聽者多種的詮釋「入口」及「出口」。即使湯姆在此循環過程中了解到敘述「最完整及最終版本」的不可能性…

也許要跟下一代溝通，我們不只需要「歷史史實」，還需要「面對歷史的觀點與方法」。例如這部歷史小說的敘事方式，讓我們理解了個人家庭故事跟歷史是交織在一起的。沒有歷史就沒有現在的我。而現在當下的我選擇用什麼方式去回溯過去，宛如鰻魚逆流而上，清點同時寬恕過去所發生的一切。才有辦法走向未來。

（寫的還不夠好，繼續努力中…）

在看起來真實的政府背後，坐著不必對人民宣示忠誠、也不認可對人民有任何責任的，那些戴著王冠的隱形政府。要摧毀這個隱形政府，染污（befoul）那腐敗企業與腐敗政治的「不神聖同盟」，是今日政治家的第一項任務。

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.

— Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 羅斯福（1906）

今天的金價如何？油價呢？失業率？你有沒有辦法預測歐債與歐元的未來？美國還能如此用美元綁架世界多久？中國經濟的泡沫迄今還沒以正式破掉。他們什麼時候才會硬/軟著陸？會影響多少人？

丹尼爾.史瓦雷茲（Daniel Suarez）的第一部小說完結篇中文版《守護程序II：自由之戰》（Freedom(TM)）已經即將付梓。這本書是一本新年手上值得捧著、陪伴你過年壓歲的精采作品。尤其是上下本一起，讓你反覆檢閱那初期的絢爛火光與殺戮，在後期的神奇轉向。在最後一刻，你得如同死而復生的探長一般回答索柏的終極問題……（雷）

在你心中，該………………（雷）嗎？這是每個人都得要面對的選擇問題。

我自己是在讀到第二本（kindle 英文版）農業抗爭的時候，才下定決心要帶《網路殺神》的讀書會的。期待以久的第二本出來時，我想我終於可以再次重開這個引擎，讓更多的人能夠領會我們這個時代的「現實語彙」（reality vocabulary）了。

要是沒有反轉的更新力量，這本小說充其量就會被歸類在一部黑暗「科幻」小說罷了。科幻嘛。用科技織就的主角，在意想不到之處有了生命，逃離了扁平化、教條陳述的宿命，真正在跟讀者的未來有所交織。無論裡面的正反派主角們，個個皆是如此。這是我為什麼那麼愛這兩部小說的原因。他們既扁平，又立體。無論你喜愛或排斥抗拒，這就是我們的「現實」 。每天看 facebook 更新的你，你的生命難道有比故事中主角更為立體嘛？

劇情是最大的亮點。人們可以知悉（零星的）抗爭，沒有意識到這些彼此的關聯性；在作者的故事中，這些被串連起來成為一個整體的世界。更進而廣闊散佈的是，不知道未來將通往何處的困惑。當你領導/參與/促成那眾人力量，推動歐巴馬上台之後，故事就結束了嘛？三隻小豬擦槍走火，成為一個感動人心的力量之後，人們該怎麼往下走下去？每個人都可以用自己的方式體會現在（我們又怎麼知道，我們是否不是被囚禁與困住了呢？），但是很少人能夠說一個關於「未來」的故事。

《守護程序II：自由之戰》是一個關於未來的故事。

閱讀的時候你該跟「維基解密」（Wikileaks）、網際網路新聞，媒體與技術的發展作對照，一如金價、油價與失業率；這些真實的故事場景，反證故事設計的深具意義。你可以看懂《東西的故事》（The Stuff of Things）簡化版小學生健康教育圖解，但是你不知道如何理解「維基洩密」後面所暴露出的，真正駭人與成人版的生命故事。

閱讀它，連結它。讓這些意義幫你編織一個朝向未來的新的行動方向。

最後我想要說一點我對譯本的看法。

首先是文句的書寫可能著重在「達」，而未能在每處讓你瞥見作者想要指涉真實世界的用心。如何用更通順的中文語氣來告訴讀者，這些故事就是發生在你的生活周遭，而不是讓他們誤以為這是一個高科技的「未來」故事。它是現在，甚至過去的故事（因為已經有點舊了）。

我希望書本不要忘了翻譯美國羅斯福總統（1906）的那段知名引言。身處於幻夢之中，沒有比那樣畫龍點睛的「引述」更能夠直指命題核心的。

最終是書名。希望以後能夠有人把 (TM) 加回去。因為是「自由(TM)」，不是「自由」。

因為台灣現在就是這樣的故事場景。只是你還不知道而已。

達賴喇嘛的訓練課程包括「五明」（醫方明、聲明、因明、工巧明和內明，對應世俗的分類範疇是醫術、梵文、因明、藝術和手工藝、以及形而上學和宗教哲學）跟「小五明」（戲劇、舞蹈和音樂、占星學、詩歌和修辭）。

高等教育課程則包括醫術、梵文、因明、藝術和手工藝、以及形而上學和宗教哲學〔編者按：即五明：醫方明、聲明、因明、工巧明和內明。〕。在這稱為「五門高等課程」中，最後一門最為重要，也最根本。內明與因明結合又分為五門。這五門梵文名為：「般若波羅蜜多」，即「般若學」;「摩陀耶彌迦」,即「中觀學」，著重離開極端的學說；「毗奈耶」，即寺院的戒律學；「阿毗達磨」，即形而上學；「頗羅曼那」，即因明與量論。嚴格地說，最後一門並非其中的分科，或者經書，而是包含在五部大論之內，著重於發展思維能力的邏輯的重要性，大乘佛教的密乘部分則不包括其中，而是分開來學的。

我很喜歡達賴喇嘛對於這樣訓練其意義的解說：

…這種宗教訓練給我帶來了心境的安寧，一當我踫到悲哀與折磨,這考驗便不期然地到來。

心靈為宗教的學習和實踐所控制的人，身臨此境，會富於耐心和自制力。而那些不遵循宗教的人會在他們認為的災難中崩潰，或者不可自拔，或者導致他人的不幸。人道主義和對一切眾生慈愛只可能來源於對宗教內容的覺悟。不論何種宗教，其理解與實踐的本質都是為了和平的心靈和由此而來的一個和平的世界。如果一個人自己沒有安寧，他就不可能把安寧帶給別人，因而，也就不會有安寧存在於個人以至民族與民族之間。

我在這裡必須對我們的信仰和我之作為達賴喇嘛的意義作一個簡介，因為當我們的困境到來時，這些信念對我和我的人民的作為都有著深刻的影響。但我必須解釋，在有限的篇幅之中，講解繁複的佛教教義是不可能的。所以，為了對這些內容很不熟悉的讀者起見，我對此只作一個概述。

在此達賴喇嘛解釋了佛教的世界觀：輪迴轉世。

我們理性地相信，所有不同形式的生物〔包括人和動物〕都是死後再生的。每一現世的痛苦和歡樂都是由他們前世的善惡行為所決定的。盡管他們通過現世的努力而使之有所改變。這就是眾所周知的業力法則。眾生在六道中輪迴升降，例如由畜生轉生為人，或者逆轉。最後，通過福德和開悟，他們就會到達「涅盤」的境界，即不複再生。涅盤境界裡也有不同等級的覺悟。最高的一級是無上正等正覺，亦即成佛。

輪迴的信仰應是博愛的根本，因為一切眾生在他們或我們自己的無量生之中，可能曾是我們親愛的父母、子女、兄弟姐妹和朋友們。而我們宗教信仰所推崇的美德包括寬容、忍耐、樂施、仁愛和慈悲，都是由博愛引生。

轉世者都是要不成就了涅盤的各種境界，或成就涅盤的最高階位—–諸佛菩薩和阿羅漢。他們投胎轉世，以幫助其他眾生到達涅盤境界，而菩薩們則通過這一善行本身也能成佛，阿羅漢也最終能夠成佛。諸佛僅為利益他人而轉世，因為他們本身已達到最高境界。他們並非以積極的意志來轉世；因為涅盤之內沒有如此積極的心靈過程。他們乃是通過賴以成佛的利益眾生的本願而轉世。他們在合適的條件下轉世，但並不是離開了涅盤境界。比如，在合適的條件下，月亮的影反照於寧靜的湖海，月亮本生則依然懸在高空的軌道上。同樣的比喻，月亮可以同時映照著不同的地方，一個佛也可以有許多不同的化身。我所講到過，所有這些化身，可以按照他們每一世的願望去影響他們所轉世的時間和地方。而一次轉世之後，他們都有一個保持下來的，能使他人確認他們的身份的對前世的記憶。

蔡英文廣告名導操刀　訴求「站在屋頂看國家」
2012年01月04日15:28 蘋果即時
民進黨總統候選人蔡英文競選辦公室，今天舉行記者會，公佈晚間將在各新聞台聯播的「屋頂篇」廣告，在長達兩分鐘的廣告中，透過在全台不同角落，素人各自站上自家屋頂，低頭看著腳下，訴求「國家就在我們腳下，需要我們來愛它與改變它」，旁白配上「仰望無能的政府，你不怕苦，但痛恨不公平，你不怕卑微，但痛恨不正義，現在我們要一個公平正義的國家」。

這支廣告由知名的廣告導演羅景壬拍攝，其作品曾獲倫敦、紐約、芝加哥、時報金像獎等國內外重要的廣告大獎。

很銳利的影像語言，撼動人心。導演羅景壬的作品包括：年度文藝大片，最感人的承諾：

有意思的是，在「屋頂篇」中，人們的背對著鏡頭，走向屋頂邊緣。敘事者保持冷靜的回溯敘事風格，背景音樂。

「站上你家的頂樓，已經多久，你沒有這樣做？
站上你家的頂樓，看看這個你成長工作的地方， 這裡是你的家園，
學生時代的上課路線，初戀約會的籃球場，
結婚放鞭炮的巷口，接小孩放學的人行道，
你的家園有山有海，有美麗的陽光，有浪漫的霧氣，
站上你家的頂樓，這裡是你的家園，這裡是你的國家，
國家偉大嗎？國家正在你腳下 需要你來愛他、呵護他！

站上你家的頂樓，這裡是你的國家，仰望無能的政府，
你不怕苦，但痛恨不公平，你不怕卑微，但痛恨不正義，
現在我們要一個公平正義的國家，
我們要工作權，我們要有房子住，
我們反霸凌，我們不要恐龍司法，
我們要救救流浪動物和美麗灣，
我們要非核家園，我們要幸福，
我門要讓孩子驕傲身為台灣人，
站上你家的頂樓，這裡是你的國家，
國家偉大嗎？國家正在你腳下，需要你來愛他、改變他！」

政治廣告最終畢竟還是想要射中、虜獲人心，卻在影像當中有很多散佚的心念岔路「機會」（或陷阱）。因為，任何人都可以站上屋頂、用他們的方式改變國家。你捕捉到一個很棒的時刻、很棒的對話點，但是你抓到的卻是「塞上牛羊空許約」：這就是符號文化的奧義弔詭之處—這不是「零和遊戲」。孫窮理就希望大家一起站在屋頂上：

「來，站在士林王家的屋頂上，看看這個國家。」

我於是想起廣告影片開始時，那敘事者講話時所細微牽動的記憶與感受來自何處。滾石，新樂園：〈老情人〉，張培仁。

「來唱一首情歌　為你的老情人吧
你唯一的情人　唯一不變心的情人
是你的故鄉　你的故鄉
當你腳踏別色土壤手捧異種鮮花
且醉倒在隔海的神話下時
憶起你的老情人吧

你的故鄉　必是你最忠貞的妻子
你的土壤　和上面的風
擁抱著你的眼淚和裡面的血

走過多少遍　不屬於你的土地
曬過多少別人的太陽
走過就忘掉吧
別人的土地踩不出腳印
太陽不屬於你就不叫太陽

回去親吻….你的土地　你的故鄉
你的情人和你的老母親吧
你親吻他們時也親吻了自己
親吻他們時也親吻了自己」

想要將文化（商品）的感動，轉換成政治的感動，需要更多的真實（authenticity）…