HE HAD PRACTISED a number of years what he called meditation; he had followed certain disciplines after reading many books on the subject, and had been to a monastery of some kind where they meditated several hours a day. He was not sentimental about it, nor was he blurred by the tears of self-sacrifice. He said that, though after these many years his mind was under control, it still sometimes got out of control; that there was no joy in his meditation; and that the self-imposed disciplines were making him rather hard and arid. Somehow he was very dissatisfied with the whole thing. He had belonged to several so-called religious societies, but now he had finished with them all and was seeking independently the God they all promised. He was getting on in years and was beginning to feel rather weary.
他已经练习了很多年，他称之为冥想； 阅读了许多关于这个主题的书籍之后，他遵循了某些戒律， 并且去过某种修道院，在那里他们每天冥想几个小时。 他对此并不感伤，也没有被自我牺牲的眼泪所模糊。 他说，虽然经过这么多年， 他的头脑处于控制之下，但有时仍会失控。 在他的冥想中没有欢乐； 而自我强加的戒律，使他相当坚硬和枯竭。 不知何故，他对这一切非常不满。 他曾属于几个所谓的宗教团体， 但现在他已经脱离了所有这些团体， 并且正在独自寻求他们所应许的上帝。 他已经寻找了很多年，开始感到相当地疲惫。
Right meditation is essential for the purgation of the mind, for without the emptying of the mind there can be no renewal. Mere continuity is decay. The mind withers away by constant repetition, by the friction of wrong usage, by sensations which make it dull and weary. The control of the mind is not important; what is important is to find out the interests of the mind. The mind is a bundle of conflicting interests, and merely to strengthen one interest against another is what we call concentration, the process of discipline. Discipline is the cultivation of resistance, and where there is resistance there is no understanding. A well-disciplined mind is not a free mind, and it is only in freedom that any discovery can be made. There must be spontaneity to uncover the movements of the self, at whatever level it may be placed. Though there may be unpleasant discoveries, the movements of the self must be exposed and understood; but disciplines destroy the spontaneity in which discoveries are made. Disciplines, however exacting, fix the mind in a pattern. The mind will adjust itself to that for which it has been trained; but that to which it adjusts itself is not the real. Disciplines are mere impositions and so can never be the means of denudation. Through self-discipline the mind can strengthen itself in its purpose; but this purpose is self-projected and so it is not the real. The mind creates reality in its own image, and disciplines merely give vitality to that image.
正确的冥想对于头脑的净化至关重要， 因为没有头脑的清空，就不可能有更新。 仅存的延续物，是腐败。 头脑的枯萎是由于不断的重复， 因错误使用而产生的摩擦，以及使它变得乏味和疲倦的感觉所造成。 重要的不是控制头脑； 重要的是找出头脑的兴趣。 头脑是一堆相互冲突的兴趣， 加强一种兴趣，对抗其余的兴趣， 就是我们所谓的专注、自律。 对自律的培养，源于抵抗， 有抵抗的地方就没有理解。 一个训练有素的头脑，不是一个自由的头脑， 只有在自由中，才能有所发现。 必须由自发性 来揭示自我的运动，无论它处于哪一个层面上。 虽然可能有不愉快的发现， 但自我的运动必须被揭露和理解； 但是自律破坏了发现所需要的自发性。 戒律，无论多么地精确，总会以一种模式固定头脑。 头脑将适应它所接受的训练模式； 但它对自己的调整是不真实的。 纪律仅仅是强迫，因此永远不可能成为揭露的手段。 通过自律，头脑可以强化自己的意图； 但这个意图是自我的投影，因此它是不真实的。 头脑以自己的投影创造真实， 而纪律只是为这个影子赋予了活力。
Only in discovery can there be joy – the discovery from moment to moment of the ways of the self. The self, at whatever level it is placed, is still of the mind. Whatever the mind can think about is of the mind. The mind cannot think about something which is not of itself; it cannot think of the unknown. The self at any level is the known; and though there may be layers of the self of which the superficial mind is not aware, they are revealed in the action of relationship; and when relationship is not confined within a pattern, it gives an opportunity for self-revelation. Relationship is the action of the self, and to understand this action there must be awareness without choice; for to choose is to emphasize one interest against another. This awareness is the experiencing of the action of the self, and in this experiencing there is neither the experiencer nor the experienced. Thus the mind is emptied of its accumulations; there is no longer the “me,” the gatherer. The accumulations, the stored-up memories are the “me; the “me” is not an entity apart from the accumulations. The “me” separates itself from its characteristics as the observer, the watcher, the controller, in order to safeguard itself, to give itself continuity amidst impermanency. The experiencing of the integral, unitary process frees the mind from its dualism. Thus the total process of the mind, the open as well as the hidden, is experienced and understood – not piece by piece, activity by activity, but in its entirety. Then dreams and everyday activities are ever an emptying process. The mind must be utterly empty to receive; but the craving to be empty in order to receive is a deep-seated impediment, and this also must be understood completely, not at any particular level. The craving to experience must wholly cease, which happens only when the experiencer is not nourishing himself on experiences and their memories.
只有在发现中，才能有欢乐 —— 每时每刻发现自我的方式。 自我，无论它处于什么层面，仍然属于头脑。 无论思考什么，都属于头脑。 头脑不能思考某种不属于他的东西。它无法思考未知。 任何层次的自我都是已知； 虽然有一些自我的层次，可能是浅表层的头脑所不知道的， 它们在关系中被揭露； 当关系不局限于一种模式时， 它为自我揭露提供了机会。 关系是自我的行为， 要理解这种行为，必须不拣择地意识； 因为选择是强调一种兴趣，抗拒另一种兴趣。 这种意识，即体验自我的行为， 在这体验中，没有体验者，也没有体验的场景。 因此，头脑清空了它的积累物； 不再有‘我’，那个收东西的。 堆积物，存留的记忆，即是‘我’； ‘我’不是一个与堆积物分离的实体。 ‘我’分裂它自己，从它的特性中， 分裂出观察者、监视者、控制者， 以保护它自己，在无常中给自己带来延续性。 体验这个整体的、统一的运转过程，头脑就从它的二元论中解放了。 因此，头脑的整个过程， 无论是开放的还是隐藏的，都是被体验和理解 —— 不是一点一点地，一个活动接一个活动地，而是整体性的。 那么，在睡梦中和日常活动中，永远是一个倒垃圾的过程。 头脑必须完全地虚无，才能接受； 但是，渴望变得虚无以便于能接受，成为一种根深蒂固的障碍， 这也必须彻底地理解，而不仅仅是在任何特定的层面上。 对体验的渴望必须彻底消亡， 它只出现于 体验者不再用体验及他的记忆，去喂养他自己。
The purgation of the mind must take place not only on its upper levels, but also in its hidden depths; and this can happen only when the naming or terming process comes to an end. Naming only strengthens and gives continuity to the experiencer, to the desire for permanency, to the characteristic of particularizing memory. There must be silent awareness of naming, and so the understanding of it. We name not only to communicate, but also to give continuity and substance to an experience, to revive it and to repeat its sensations. This naming process must cease, not only on the superficial levels of the mind, but throughout its entire structure. This is an arduous task, not to be easily understood or lightly experienced; for our whole consciousness is a process of naming or terming experience, and then storing or recording it. It is this process that gives nourishment and strength to the illusory entity, the experiencer as distinct and separate from the experience. Without thoughts there is no thinker. Thoughts create the thinker, who isolates himself to give himself permanency; for thoughts are always impermanent.
头脑的净化不仅必须发生在它的上表层， 而且必须发生在它隐藏的深处。 只有结束命名或术语化，才会发生。 命名只会强化和延续 体验者、永生的渴望、某部分记忆的特性。 命名的过程必须要静悄悄地意识，从而理解它。 我们命名不仅是为了交流， 也是为了给某种体验带来延续性和实质性， 让它鲜活，重复它带来的感觉。 这个命名过程必须消亡， 不仅在头脑的表层上，而且是在整个结构中。 这是一项艰巨的任务，不能被轻易地理解，或肤浅地体验； 因为我们的整个意识过程是： 先取名字或把体验言语化，再保存或记录它。 正是这个过程，滋养和增强了这个虚幻的实体， 这个凸显的体验者，这个与体验分离的一小块。 没有思想，就没有思考者。 思想创造了思考者，他隔离他自己，使他自己永生； 因为思想总是无常的。
There is freedom when the entire being, the superficial as well as the hidden, is purged of the past. Will is desire; and if there is any action of the will, any effort to be free, to denude oneself, then there can never be freedom, the total purgation of the whole being. When all the many layers of consciousness are quiet, utterly still, only then is there the immeasurable, the bliss that is not of time, the renewal of creation.
当这整个存在，无论是肤浅的还是隐秘的， 把过去的一切都净化了，就有自由。 意志是欲望；如果有任何意志的行为， 任何争取自由、贬低自己的行为， 那么就永远不可能有自由，不可能有对整个存在的全面净化。 当所有的、各层次的意识都安静下来，完全静止， 只有这样，才有那不可估量的，与时间无关的至乐，创造性的更新。