Embracing otherness. When I first heard this theme, I thought, well embracing otherness is embracing myself. And the journey to that

place of understanding and acceptance has been an interesting one for me, and it's given me an insight into the whole notion of self, which I think is worth sharing with you today. We each have a self, but I don't think that we're born with one. You know how newborn babies believe they're part of everything; they're not separate. Well that fundamental sense of oneness is lost on us very quickly. It's like that initial stage is over -- oneness: infancy, unformed, primitive. It's no longer valid or real. What is real is separateness. And at some point in early babyhood, the idea of self starts to form. Our little portion of oneness is given a name, is told all kinds of things about itself. And these details, opinions and ideas become facts, which go towards building ourselves, our identity. And that self becomes the vehicle for navigating our social world. But the self is a projection based on other people's projections. Is it who we really are? Or who we really want to be, or should be? 拥抱他人。当我第一次听到这个主题时，我觉得拥抱他人，就是拥抱我自己。对于我来说，通往理解和接纳的路是十分有意思的，并且让我对“自我”这一概念有了深刻的理解。我想这值得在今天和你们分享。 我们都有一个自我，但我并不认为这是与生俱来的。你看那些刚出生的小婴儿，他们认为自己属于任何事物，他们并不是脱离的。这种最基本的同一性会很快从我们身上消失，如同最初始的状态已经结束。同一性：婴儿期、未成形的、原始的，将不复存在，取而代之的是分离。在婴儿期的某一点，关于自我的意识开始萌芽。我们同一性的一小部分被赋予了一个名字，被告知关于它自己的任何事情。这些细节、观点和想法变成事实，这些都帮我们形成自我，以及自己的身份。然后这个自我就成为一个工具，用来探索周围的这个世界。但是这个自我实际上是一个以其他人的投影为基础的投影。这就是真正的我们吗？是我们真正想成为，或者应该成为的人吗？

I grew up on the coast of England in the 70s. My dad is white from

Cornwall, and my mom is black from Zimbabwe. Even the idea of us as a family was challenging to most people. But nature had its wicked way, and brown babies were born. But from about the age of five, I was aware that I didn't fit. I was the black atheist kid in the all-white

catholic school run by nuns. I was an anomaly. And my self was rooting around for definition and trying to plug in. Because the self likes to fit, to see itself replicated, to belong. That confirms its existence and its

importance. And it is important. It has an extremely important function. Without it, we literally can't interface with others. We can't hatch plans and climb that stairway of popularity, of success. But my skin color wasn't right. My hair wasn't right. My history wasn't right. My self

became defined by otherness, which meant that, in that social world, I didn't really exist. And I was other before being anything else -- even before being a girl. I was a noticeable nobody.

我于上世纪七十年代生长在英格兰的海岸边。我父亲是来自康沃尔的白人，我母亲是来自津巴布韦的黑人。对于许多人来说，是无论如何也想不到我们是一家人。但大自然自有意想不到的一面，棕色的孩子出生了。但自从五岁开始，我就察觉出我的格格不入。我是一个信奉无神论的黑人孩子，在一个由修女运转的白人天主学校，我是一个另类。我的自我在不断寻找一个定义，并试图将自己套入定义。因为自我都是愿意去融入，看到自己被复制，有归属感。那能确认自我的存在感和重要性，这很重要。这有一个极端重要的功能。没有一个对自我的定义，我们简直不能和其他人交流。我们无法制定计划，无法爬上潮流和成功的阶梯。但我的肤色不对。我的发色不对。我的来历不对。我的自我被他人定义，这意味着在社会上 我并不存在。我首先被定义为一个另类，甚至先于被定义为一个女孩。我是一个引人注意的没有人。

We've created entire value systems and a physical reality to support the worth of self. Look at the industry for self-image and the jobs it creates, the revenue it turns over. We'd be right in assuming that the self is an actual living thing. But it's not; it's a projection, which our clever brains create in order to cheat ourselves from the reality of death. But there is something that can give the self ultimate and

infinite connection -- and that thing is oneness, our essence. The self's struggle for authenticity and definition will never end unless it's

connected to its creator -- to you and to me. And that can happen with awareness -- awareness of the reality of oneness and the projection of self-hood. For a start, we can think about all the times when we do lose ourselves. It happens when I dance, when I'm acting. I'm earthed in my essence, and my self is suspended. In those moments, I'm

connected to everything -- the ground, the air, the sounds, the energy from the audience. All my senses are alert and alive in much the same way as an infant might feel -- that feeling of oneness.

我们创造了整个价值系统，以及一个客观的现实，用以支持自我的价值。看看由个人形象带动的产业，还有它提供的工作，以及它创造的价值。我们可能会假设，这个自我是真实存在的。但我们错了；这只是一个投影，是由我们聪明的大脑创造出来的，来欺骗我们自己无需面对死亡的现实。 但总有一些事，能赋予自我终极无尽的联系，那就是同一性，我们的本源。自我对于真实性和定义的挣扎永远不会停止，除非自我能够与创造者相连——与你，与我。这和意识的觉醒一同存在，意识到同一性的现实，以及自我的投影。一开始，我们可以想想那些我们失去自我的时候，当我跳舞时，表演时。我根植于我的本源，我的自我被抑制了。在那些时刻，我与万物相连——大地，空气 声音，观众的能量。我的所有感官都是警觉和鲜活的，如同一个婴儿感受到的一般——那种同一性的感觉。

And when I'm acting a role, I inhabit another self, and I give it life for a while. Because when the self is suspended so is divisiveness and

judgment. And I've played everything from a vengeful ghost in the time of slavery to Secretary of State in 2004. And no matter how other these selves might be, they're all related in me. And I honestly believe the key to my success as an actor and my progress as a person has been the very lack of self that used to make me feel so anxious and insecure. I always wondered why I could feel others' pain so deeply, why I could recognize the somebody in the nobody. It's because I didn't have a self to get in the way. I thought I lacked substance, and the fact that I could feel others' meant that I had nothing of myself to feel. The thing that was a source of shame was actually a source of enlightenment. And when I realized and really understood that my self is a projection and that it has a function, a funny thing happened. I stopped giving it so much authority. I give it its due. I take it to therapy. I've become very familiar with its dysfunctional behavior. But I'm not ashamed of my self. In fact, I respect my self and its function. And over time and with

practice, I've tried to live more and more from my essence. And if you can do that, incredible things happen.

当我表演一个角色时，我进入了另一个自我，我在一段时间内赋予其生命。当自我被抑制时，它的多样性和判断也会一同被抑制。我出演过许多角色，从奴隶时代想要复仇的鬼魂到20xx年的国务卿。无论这些角色是多么的不同，他们全都与我相连。我诚恳地认为，我作为一个演员能够成功的关键，以及作为一个不断进步的人，是因为自我的缺失让我觉得非常焦虑和不安。我总是在想，为什么我能如此深切地感受到他人的痛苦，为什么我能辨认出一个被忽视的人。那是因为我没有一个自我挡在中间。我想我缺少一种介质，我能

够感受他人这个事实说明我感受不到我自己。这曾经导致了我的羞愧，其实是给我启蒙的源头。

Crucially, we haven't been figuring out how to live in oneness with the Earth and every other living thing. We've just been insanely trying to figure out how to live with each other -- billions of each other. Only we're not living with each other; our crazy selves are living with each other and perpetuating an epidemic of disconnection. Let's live with each other and take it a breath at a time. If we can get under that heavy self, light a torch of awareness, and find our essence, our connection to the infinite and every other living thing. We knew it from the day we were born. Let's not be freaked out by our bountiful nothingness. It's more a reality than the ones ourselves have created. Imagine what kind of existence we can have if we honor inevitable death of self,

appreciate the privilege of life and marvel at what comes next. Simple awareness is where it begins.

关键在于，我们尚未找出怎样与地球和万物一起，生活在同一性中。我们一直在疯狂地寻找怎样和数十亿的其他人一起生活。我们并非只是和其他人一起生活。我们疯狂的自我们在一起生活， 与他人的隔断也如同传染病一般蔓延。 让我们生活在一起，歇一口气，慢慢来。如果我们能进入那沉重的自我，点燃一支觉察的火炬，寻找我们的本源，我们和永恒以及万物的联系，我们从出生那天就知道的联系。我们无须因为大量的空虚而慌张。相比于我们创造出的那些，这空虚更加真实。想像我们能有怎样的存在方式，当我们正视自我不可避免的死亡，感恩生命的权利，惊异于即将到来的事物。这些都来自于简单的觉察。