THE SHADOWS WERE dancing on the green lawn; and though the sun was hot, the sky was very blue and soft. From across the fence a cow was looking at the green lawn and at the people. The gathering of people was strange to her, but the green grass was familiar, though the rains were long gone and the earth was burnt brown. A lizard was picking off flies and other insects on the trunk of an oak. The distant mountains were hazy and inviting.
影子在绿色的草坪上跳舞； 虽然天气炎热，但天空非常蓝和柔软。 穿过篱笆，一头牛看着绿色的草坪和人们。 人们的聚集对她来说很奇怪，但绿草是熟悉的， 尽管雨水早已消失，大地被烤成枯黄色。 一只蜥蜴在橡树的树干上捡起苍蝇和其他昆虫。 远处的山脉朦胧而诱人。
She said, under the trees after the talk, that she had come to listen in case the teacher of teachers spoke. She had been very earnest, but now that earnestness had become obstinacy. This obstinacy was covered over by smiles and by reasonable tolerance, a tolerance that had been very carefully thought out and cultivated; it was a thing of the mind and so could be inflamed into violent, angry intolerance. She was big and soft-spoken; but there lurked condemnation, nourished by her convictions and beliefs. She was suppressed and hard, but had given herself over to brotherhood and to its good cause. She added, after a pause, that she would know when the teacher spoke, for she and her group had some mysterious way of knowing it, which was not even to others. The pleasure of exclusive knowledge was so obvious in the way she said it, in the gesture and the tilt of the head.
在树下的讲话结束后，她说， 她过来听，以防老师的老师说话。 她一直很热心，但现在这种热心已经变成了固执。 这种固执被掩盖在微笑和合理的忍耐之下， 这种忍耐经过了深思熟虑和栽培。 它是一种头脑的产物，因此可能会被激化成暴力，愤怒的爆发。 她身材高大，说话轻柔。 但那里潜伏着谴责，受到了她的信念和信仰的滋养。 她压抑而强硬，却把自己交给了友爱和它的美好事业。 她补充道，停顿了一会儿之后，她知道老师会在什么时候说话， 因为她和她的团队有某些神秘的联络方式， 其他人是没有的。 从她的说话方式、手势和头部的倾斜中， 独家知识的乐趣表露得如此明显。
Exclusive, private knowledge offers deeply satisfying pleasure. To know something that others do not know is a constant source of satisfaction; it gives one the feeling of being in touch with deeper things which afford prestige and authority. You are directly in contact, you have something which others have not, and so you are important, not only to yourself, but to others. The others look up to you, a little apprehensively, because they want to share what you have; but you give, always knowing more. You are the leader, the authority; and this position comes easily, for people want to be told, to be led. The more we are aware that we are lost and confused, the more eager we are to be guided and told; so authority is built up in the name of the State, in the name of religion, in the name of a Master or a party leader.
独家的、私有的知识，提供了非常令人满意的乐趣。 知道别人不知道的，是一种获取满足的持久的源头； 它给了人一种与更深层次的东西接触的感觉， 这些东西提供了声望和权威。 你直接接触，你有别人没有的东西， 所以你很重要，不仅对自己，而且对别人。 其他人仰望你，怀揣着某些不安， 因为他们想分享你所拥有的；而你给予，却总是知道更多。 你是领导者，是权威； 这个地位来得容易，因为人们希望被告知，被领导。 我们越是意识到自己的迷茫和困惑， 我们就越渴望被领导和告知； 因此，权威以国家的名义、以宗教的名义、 以大师或党的领导人的名义而建立。
The worship of authority, whether in big or little things, is evil, the more so in religious matters. There is no intermediary between you and reality; and if there is one, he is a perverter(preventer), a mischief maker, it does not matter who he is, whether the highest saviour or your latest guru or teacher. The one who knows does not know; he can know only his own prejudices, his self-projected beliefs and sensory demands. He cannot know truth, the immeasurable. position and authority can be built up, cunningly cultivated, but not humility. Virtue gives freedom; but cultivated humility is not virtue, it is mere sensation and therefore harmful and destructive; it is a bondage, to be broken again and again.
对权威的崇拜，无论是大事还是小事上，都是邪恶的， 在宗教事务中更是如此。 你与真理之间，没有中介； 如果有一个中介，他是一个阻止器，一个捣乱者， 不管他是谁，无论是最高的救世主还是你最新的导师或老师。 知道的人不知道； 他能知道的东西仅仅是他自己的偏见，他自我投射的信念和感官需求。 他不能知道真理，那不可估量的东西。 地位和权威可以被建立，被狡猾地培养，但谦卑不能。 美德放任自由； 而被培养的谦卑，不是美德， 它只是感觉，因此是有害的和破坏性的； 它是一种束缚，会一次又一次地破灭。
It is important to find out, not who is the Master, the saint, the leader, but why you follow. You only follow to become something, to gain, to be clear. Clarity cannot be given by another. Confusion is in us; we have brought it about, and we have to clear it away. We may achieve a gratifying position, an inward security, a place in the hierarchy of organized belief; but all this is self-enclosing activity leading to conflict and misery. You may feel momentarily happy in your achievement, you may persuade yourself that your position is inevitable, that it is your lot; but as long as you want to become something, at whatever level, there is bound to be misery and confusion. Being as nothing is not negation. The positive or negative action of will, which is desire sharpened and heightened, always leads to strife and conflict; it is not the means of understanding. The setting up of authority and the following of it is the denial of understanding. When there is understanding there is freedom, which cannot be bought, or given by another. What is bought can be lost, and what is given can be taken away; and so authority and its fear are bred. Fear is not to be put away by appeasements and candles; it ends with the cessation of the desire to become.
重要的是找出， 不是去找谁是师父、圣人、领袖，而是问你为什么要去追随。 你追随，只不过是为了成为某种人物，为了获得，为了清明。 另一个人不能给你清明。困惑在我们内部； 我们已经把它带出来了，因而我们必须把它清除。 我们可以获取一个令人满意的位置，一种内在的安全， 一个组织化的信仰等级的地位； 但所有这些都是自我封闭的活动，导向冲突与痛苦。 你可能会对自己的成就感到短暂的快乐， 你可能会说服自己，你的地位是不可避免的，那是你命中注定的； 但只要你想成为某个人物，无论在什么层次上， 都会被痛苦与困惑纠缠。 ‘作为一个什么都不是的人’，并不是在拒绝。 主动或被动的意志行为，就是对欲望的打磨和提升， 总是导致争执与冲突；它不是理解的方式。 权威的创立及其追随，就是拒绝理解。 理解，即是自由，这是别人无法售卖或给予的。 买到的东西可以丢失，得到的东西可以拿走； 因此，滋长了权威及其恐惧。 恐惧不能通过缓解和蜡烛而清除； 它随着‘成为’的欲望的消逝而结束。