THE MAN IN the opposite seat began by introducing himself, as he wanted to ask several questions. He said that he had read practically every serious book on death and the hereafter, books from ancient times as well as the modern ones. He had been a member of the Psychical Research Society, had attended many séances with excellent and reputable mediums, and had seen many manifestations which were in no way faked. Because he had gone into this question so seriously, on several occasions he himself had seen things of a super-physical nature; but of course, he added, they might have been born of his imagination, though he considers that they were not. However, in spite of the fact that he had read extensively, had talked to many people who were well informed, and had seen undeniable manifestations of those who were dead, he was still not satisfied that he had understood the truth of the matter. He had seriously debated the problem of belief and not-belief; he had friends among those who firmly believed in one’s continuity after death, and also among those who denied the whole thing and held that life ended with the death of the physical body. Though he had acquired considerable knowledge and experience in physic matters, there remained in his mind an element of doubt; and as he was getting on in years he wanted to know the truth. He was not afraid of death, but the truth about it must be known.
坐在对面座位上的人开始介绍自己， 因为他想问几个问题。他说， 他读了几乎所有关于死亡和后世的严肃书籍， 古代和现代的书籍。 他曾是心灵研究学会的成员， 参加过许多具有优秀和规范的降神会， 并见过许多绝不是伪造的场景。 因为他已经非常认真地探讨了这个问题， 所以他自己也曾几次看到过超物质性的东西。 但是，当然，他补充说， 它们可能是由他的想象力产生的，尽管他认为它们不是。 然而，尽管他阅读广泛， 与许多消息灵通的人交谈过， 并看到亡者的不可否认的表现， 但他仍然不满意他所理解的事情真相。 他认真辩论过信与不信的问题。 他的有些朋友，坚信人死后还有延续性， 也有些朋友持完全否定的态度， 认为生命随着肉体的死亡而结束。 虽然他在物质事件上获得了相当多的知识和体验， 但他的脑海中仍然存在着怀疑的成分。 经过了这几年的探究之后，他想知道真相。 他不怕死，但必须知道死亡的真相。
The train had come to a stop, and just then a two-wheeled carriage was passing, drawn by a horse. On the carriage was a human corpse, wrapped in an unbleached cloth and tied to two long green bamboo poles, freshly cut. From some village it was being taken to the river to be burnt. As the carriage moved over the rough road, the body was being brutally shaken, and under its clothes the head was obviously getting the worst of it. There was only one passenger in the carriage besides the river; he must have been a near relative, for his eyes were red with much crying. The sky was the delicate blue of early spring, and children were playing and shouting in the dirt if the road. Death must have been a common sight, for everyone went of with what they were doing. Even the inquirer into death did not see the carriage and its burden.
火车停了下来， 就在那时，一辆两轮马车正好经过，由一匹马拉着。 马车上有一具人类尸体，用未漂白的布包裹， 绑在两根刚砍下来的长长的绿竹竿上。 它从某个村庄，被带到河边烧毁。 当马车在崎岖不平的道路上行驶时，尸体被残忍地摇晃着， 在它的布下，头部显然最为糟糕。 沿着河边走，马车上只有一为乘客。 他一定是近亲，因为他哭得很厉害，眼睛都红了。 天空是早春的淡蓝， 孩子们在泥泞的道路上玩耍和喊叫。 死亡一定是一种常见的景象，因为每个人都在做他们正在做的事情。 甚至对死亡的询问者，也没有去看马车和上面载的东西。
Belief conditions experience, and experience then strengthens belief. What you belief, you experience. The mind dictates and interprets experience, invites or rejects it. The mind itself is the result of experience, and it can recognize or experience only that with witch it is familiar, which it knows, at whatever level. The mind cannot experience what is not already known. The mind and its response are of greater significance then the experience; and to rely on experience as a means of understanding truth is to be caught in ignorance and illusion. To desire to experience truth is to deny truth; for desire conditions, and belief is another cloak of desire. Knowledge, belief, conviction, conclusion and experience are hindrances to truth; they are the very structure of the self. The self cannot be if there is no cumulative effect of experience; and the fear of death is the fear of not being, of not experiencing. If there were the assurance, the certainty of experiencing, there would be no fear. Fear exists only in the relationship between the known and the unknown. The known is ever trying to capture the unknown; but it can capture only that which is already known. The unknown can never be experienced by the known; the known, the experienced must cease for the unknown to be.
信念限制了体验，体验然后加强信念。 你所相信的，就是你所体验的。 头脑决定和解释体验，邀请或拒绝它。 头脑本身是体验的结果， 它所能认识或体验到的， 只可能是他熟悉的、知道的东西，无论在哪一个层面上。 头脑无法体验到尚未被认识的东西。 头脑及其回响比体验更重要。 依靠体验作为理解真理的手段， 就是陷入无知与幻想之中。 渴望体验真理，就是拒绝真理； 因为欲望是局限，信念是另一种欲望的外衣。 知识、信念、信仰、结论和体验，是真理的障碍； 它们是自我的结构。 如果没有体验的累积效应，自我就不可能存在； 对死亡的恐惧，就是对不存在、不能体验的恐惧。 如果有保证，有体验的确定性，就不会有恐惧。 恐惧只存在于已知与未知之间的关联中。 已知总是试图捕捉未知； 但它只能捕获已经知道的东西。 未知永远不能被已知体验到。 已知的，体验过的东西必须消失，未知才能出现。
The desire to experience truth must be searched out and understood; but if there is motive in the search, then truth does not come into being. Can there be search without a motive, conscious or unconscious? With a motive, is there search? If you already know what you want, if you have formulated an end, then search is a means to achieve that end, which is self-projected. Then search is for gratification, not for truth; and the means will be chosen according to the gratification. The understanding of what is needs no motive; the motive and the means prevent understanding. Search, which is choiceless awareness, is not for something; it is to be aware of the craving for an end and of the means to it. This choiceless awareness brings an understanding of what is.
体验真理的欲望，必须被探索并理解； 但是，如果在探索中有动机，那么真理就不会产生。 不论是浅意识或无意识层面上，存在没有动机的探索吗？ 有了一个动机，还有探索吗？ 如果你已经知道你想要什么，如果你已经制定了一个目的， 那么探索就是实现这个目的的一种手段，这就是自我投影。 那么，探索是为了满意，而不是为了真理。 手段将根据满意的程度进行选择。 理解现状，不需要动机； 动机和手段妨碍理解。 探索，是无选择地意识，而不是为了某个目的； 是意识到对目的的渴望和达到它的手段。 这种无选择的意识，带来了对现状的理解。
It is odd how we crave for permanency, for continuity. This desire takes many forms, from the crudest to the most subtle. With the obvious forms we are well acquainted: name, shape, character, and so on. But the subtler craving is much more difficult to uncover and understand. Identity as idea, as being, as knowledge, as becoming, at whatever level, is difficult to perceive and bring to light. We only know continuity, and never non-continuity. We know the continuity of experience, of memory, of incidents, but we do not know that state in which this continuity is not. We call it death, the unknown, the mysterious, and so on, and through naming it we hope somehow to capture it – which again is the desire for continuity.
奇怪的是，我们多么渴望永恒，渴望延续。 这种欲望有多种形式，从最粗糙到最微妙的。 对于明显的形式，我们非常熟悉：名字、形态、性格等等。 但更微妙的渴望更难以发现和理解。 它被当作成观念、存在、知识、成为，无论在哪个层面上， 都很难被感知和揭示。 我们只知道延续物，而从来不知道非延续物。 我们知道体验、记忆、事件的延续物， 但我们不知道那种没有延续物的状态。 我们称之为死亡、未知、神秘，等等， 通过命名它，我们希望以某种方式捕捉它 —— 这又是对延续物的渴望。
Self-consciousness is experience, the naming of experience, and so the recording of it; and this process is going on at various depths of the mind. We cling to this process of self-consciousness in spite of its passing joys, its unending conflict, confusion and misery. This is what we know; this is our existence, the continuity of our very being, the idea, the memory, the word. The idea continues, all or part of it, the idea that makes up the “me; but does this continuity bring about freedom, in which alone there is discovery and renewal?
自我意识是体验，体验的命名，以便于记录； 这种流水化生产线，正在头脑的不同深处进行。 我们紧紧地依附于自我意识， 尽管它引发了飞逝的欢乐、无休止的冲突、困惑和痛苦。 这就是我们所知道的； 这就是我们的存在，我们的现在、观念、记忆、言语组成的延续物。 这个观念延续下来，全部或部分的，构成了‘我’； 但是，这种延续物是否能带来自由，以及其中独有的发现与更新？
What has continuity can never be other than that which it is, with certain modifications; but these modifications do not give it a newness. It may take on a different cloak, a different colour; but it is still the idea, the memory, the word. This centre of continuity is not a spiritual essence, for it is still within the field of thought, of memory, and so of time. It can experience only its own projection, and through its self-projected experience it gives itself further continuity. Thus, as long as it exists, it can never experience beyond itself. It must die; it must cease to give itself continuity through idea, through memory, through word. Continuity is decay, and there is life only in death. There is renewal only with the cessation of the centre; then rebirth is not continuity; then death is as life, a renewal from moment to moment. This renewal is creation.
具有延续性的东西，永远不是其它的东西，尽管它有一定的修改； 但这些修改并没有给它带来新鲜感。 它可能具有不同的斗篷、不同的颜色； 但它仍然是思想、记忆、文字。 这种延续物的中心不是一种灵性本质， 因为它仍然在思想、记忆等时间的领域之内。 它只能体验自己的投射， 通过自我投射的体验，它给自己带来了进一步的延续物。 因此，只要它存在，它就永远无法超越自身。 它必须死； 它必须停止通过观念、记忆、文字而赋予它自己以延续性。 延续物是腐败品，只有在死亡中才有生命。 只有随着中心的停止，才能得到更新。 那么重生就不是延续物； 那么死亡就像生命一样，每时每刻都在更新。这种更新即是创造。