HE WAS A scholar, spoke many languages, and was addicted to knowledge as another is to drink. He was everlastingly quoting the sayings of others to bolster up his own opinions. He dabbled in science and art, and when he gave his opinion it was with a shake of the head and a smile that conveyed in a subtle way that it was not merely his opinion, but the final truth. He said he had his own experiences which were authoritative and conclusive to him. “You have your experiences too, but you cannot convince me,” he said. “You go your way, and I mine. There are different paths to truth, and we shall all meet there some day.” He was friendly in a distant way, but firm. To him, the Masters, though not actual, visible gurus, were a reality, and to become their disciple was essential. He, with several others, conferred discipleship on those who were willing to accept this path and their authority; but he and his group did not belong to those who, through spiritualism, found guides among the dead. To find the Master you had to serve, work, sacrifice, obey and practise certain virtues; and of course belief was necessary.
他是一个学者，会说多种语言， 沉迷于知识，如同另一个人沉溺于酒。 他总是引用别人的话，来支持自己的观点。 他涉足科学和艺术，当他发表他的观点时， 他摇着头，并报以微笑 以一种微妙的方式传达出：这不仅仅是他的观点，而是最终的真理。 他说他有自己的体验，这些体验对他来说是权威的和决定性的。 “你也有你的体验，但你无法说服我，”他说。 “你走你的路，我走我的路。 通往真理有不同的道路，总有一天我们都会在那里相遇。” 他以一种遥远的方式友好，却很坚决。 对他来说，那些大师们，虽然不是活着的、可见的导师，却是真实存在， 成为他们的弟子是至关重要的。 他和其他几个人一起， 把门徒身份，授予那些愿意接受这条道路和他们的权威的人。 但是他和他的团队 不属于那些通过灵性主义，在亡灵中寻找向导的人。 要找到师父，你必须服务、工作、牺牲、服从和实践某些美德。 当然，信仰是必要的。
To rely on experience as a means to the discovery of what is, is to be caught in illusion. Desire, craving, conditions experience; and to depend on experience as a means to the understanding of truth is to pursue the way of self-aggrandizement. Experience can never bring freedom from sorrow; experience is not an adequate response to the challenge of life. The challenge must be met newly, freshly, for the challenge is always new. To meet the challenge adequately, the conditioning memory of experience must be set aside, the responses of pleasure and pain must be deeply understood. Experience is an impediment to truth, for experience is of time, it is the outcome of the past; and how can a mind which is the result of experience, of time, understand the timeless? The truth of experience does not depend on personal idiosyncrasies and fancies; the truth of it is perceived only when there is awareness without condemnation, justification, or any form of identification. Experience is not an approach to truth; there is no “your experience” or “my experience,” but only the intelligent understanding of the problem.
依靠体验，作为发现真实的手段，就是陷入幻觉。 欲望，渴望，限制了体验； 依靠体验作为理解真理的手段， 就是追求自我扩张的方式。 体验永远不能带来从悲伤中解脱的自由； 体验不是对生活挑战的充分回应。 挑战必须以新的、全新的方式迎接，因为挑战总是新的。 为了充分应对挑战，必须抛开作为体验的受限的记忆， 必须深刻理解快乐和痛苦的回应。 体验是真理的障碍， 因为体验归属于时间，它是过去的产物； 作为体验、时间的结果 —— 头脑怎么能理解非时间的事物呢？ 体验真理，并不取决于个人的特质和幻想； 只有不带谴责、辩解或任何形式的认同， 才能意识并感知真理。 体验不是一种接近真理的方法； 没有‘你的体验’或‘我的体验’， 只存在智慧地理解这个问题。
Without self-knowledge, experience breeds illusion; with self-knowledge, experience, which is the response to challenge, does not leave a cumulative residue as memory. Self-knowledge is the discovery from moment to moment of the ways of the self, its intentions and pursuit, its thoughts and appetites. There can never be “your experience” and “my experience; the very term “my experience” indicates ignorance and the acceptance of illusion. But many of us like to live in illusion, because there is great satisfaction in it; it is a private heaven which stimulates us and gives a feeling of superiority. If I have capacity, gift or cunning, I become a leader, an intermediary, a representative of that illusion; and as most people love the avoidance of what is there is built up an organization with properties and rituals, with vows and secret gatherings. Illusion is clothed according to tradition, keeping it within the field of respectability; and as most of us seek power in one form or another, the hierarchical principle is established, the novice and the initiate, the pupil and the Master, and even among the Masters there are degrees of spiritual growth. Most of us love to exploit and be exploited, and this system offers the means, whether hidden or open.
没有自我认识，体验就会滋生幻觉； 有了自我认识，体验，对挑战的回应， 不会留下作为记忆的残渣。 自我认识是每时每刻发现自我的方式： 它的意图和追求、它的思想和欲望。 永远不存在‘你的体验’和‘我的体验’； ‘我的体验’这个词本身就表明了无知和对幻觉的接受。 但是我们中的许多人喜欢生活在幻觉中，因为其中有很大的满足感； 这是一个私有天堂，刺激我们，给人一种优越感。 如果我有能力、有天赋或很狡猾， 我就成为一个领导者，一个中间人，一个这种幻觉的代言人； 正如大多数人所钟爱的逃避现实的方式那样， 建立一个有财产和仪式的组织机构，配备发誓和神秘聚会。 幻觉是按照传统来装饰的，把它保存在受人尊敬的领域里； 同时，由于我们大多数人都以这样或那样的形式在寻求权力， 于是，等级原则就确立了： 新手和初学者、学生和大师， 甚至在大师中，也有灵性成长的等级。 我们大多数人都喜欢剥削和被剥削， 而这个系统，提供了隐匿的或开放的手段。
To exploit is to be exploited. The desire to use others for your psychological necessities makes for dependence, and when you depend you must hold, possess; and what you possess, possesses you. Without dependence, subtle or gross, without possessing things, people and ideas, you are empty, a thing of no importance. You want to be something, and to avoid the gnawing fear of being nothing you belong to this or that organization, to this or that ideology, to this church or that temple; so you are exploited, and you in your turn exploit. This hierarchical structure offers an excellent opportunity for self-expansion. You may want brotherhood, but how can there be brotherhood if you are pursuing spiritual distinctions? You may smile at worldly titles; but when you admit the Master, the saviour, the guru in the realm of the spirit, are you not carrying over the worldly attitude? Can there be hierarchical divisions or degrees in spiritual growth, in the understanding of truth, in the realization of God? Love admits no division. Either you love, or do not love; but do not make the lack of love into a long-drawn-out process whose end is love. When you know you do not love, when you are choicelessly aware of that fact, then there is a possibility of transformation; but to sedulously cultivate this distinction between the Master and the pupil, between those who have attained and those who have not, between the saviour and the sinner, is to deny love. The exploiter, who is in turn exploited, finds a happy hunting-ground in this darkness and illusion.
剥削就是被剥削。 利用他人作为心理必需品的欲望会产生依赖性， 当你依赖时，你必须把持、占据；而你所占有的，就占据了你。 没有依赖，不论是微妙的或粗暴的，没有占据的东西，无论是人或观念， 你就是空虚的，一个无关紧要的人物。 你想成为某个人物，以避免那种‘你什么都不是’的吞噬性的恐惧， 你属于这个或那个组织，属于这个或那个意识形态， 属于这个教会或那座庙宇。 所以你被剥削了，而你反过来剥削。 这种等级框架，为自我扩张提供了极好的机会。 你可能想要友爱， 但如果追逐灵性等级的区分，怎么会有友爱呢？ 你可能会对世俗的头衔付之一笑； 但是，当你承认大师、救世主、灵性领域的导师时， 你难道不是背负着世俗的态度吗？ 在属灵成长、对真理的理解、对上帝的认识中， 是否存在等级划分或程度？ 爱不承认任何分裂。你要么爱，要么不爱； 但不要把缺爱变成一个漫长的、终点是爱的旅程。 当你知道你不爱，当你无选择地意识到这个事实， 那么就有了转变的可能性； 但是，在师父和学生之间，在那些已经获得的人和那些没有获得的人之间， 在救主和罪人之间，诡悯地培养这种区别，就是拒绝爱。 剥削者反过来被剥削， 在这黑暗与幻觉之中，找到了一个快乐的狩猎场。
Separation between God or reality and yourself is brought about by you, by the mind that clings to the known, to certainty, to security. This separation cannot be bridged over; there is no ritual, no discipline, no sacrifice that can carry you across it; there is no saviour, no Master, no guru who can lead you to the real or destroy this separation. The division is not between the real and yourself; it is in yourself, it is the conflict of opposing desires. Desire creates its own opposite; and transformation is not a matter of being centred in one desire, but of being free from the conflict which craving brings. Craving at any level of one’s being breeds further conflict, and from this we try to escape in every possible manner, which only increases the conflict both within and without. This conflict cannot be dissolved by someone else, however great, nor through any magic or ritual. These may put you pleasantly to sleep, but on waking the problem is still there. But most of us do not want to wake up, and so we live in illusion. With the dissolution of conflict, there is tranquillity, and then only can reality come into being. Masters, saviours and gurus are unimportant, but what is essential is to understand the increasing conflict of desire; and this understanding comes only through self-knowledge and constant awareness of the movements of the self.
上帝或真理，与你自己之间的分离是由你带来的， 是由执着于已知、确定性、安全感的头脑带来的。 这种分离无法弥合。 仪式、纪律、牺牲，无法带你穿越它； 没有救主，没有师父，没有上师可以带领你走向真理或摧毁这种分离。 分割不在真实和你自己之间； 它在你自己身上，它是相互对立的欲望所造成的冲突。 欲望创造了自己的对立面； 转变不是一种以欲望为中心的事件， 而是摆脱由渴望所引发的冲突。 人身上的任何层次的渴望，都会滋生进一步的冲突， 处于冲突的我们，试图以各种可能的方式逃脱， 这只会增加内在与外在的冲突。 这种冲突不能被别人化解 —— 无论这个人多么伟大，也不能通过任何魔法或仪式来化解。 这些可能会让你愉快地入睡，但醒来时，问题依然还在。 但我们大多数人都不想醒，所以我们生活在幻觉中。 随着冲突的解体，才有安宁， 才有真实的形成。 大师、救世主和导师并不重要， 但重要的是理解在欲望中不断增长的冲突； 而这种理解的出现，只有通过 自我认识，以及对自我运动的不断地意识。
Self-awareness is arduous, and since most of us prefer an easy, illusory way, we bring into being the authority that gives shape and pattern to our life. This authority may be the collective, the State; or it may be the personal, the Master, the saviour, the guru. Authority of any kind is blinding, it breeds thoughtlessness; and as most of us find that to be thoughtful is to have pain, we give ourselves over to authority.
自我意识是艰巨的， 由于我们大多数人更喜欢容易的、虚幻的方式， 我们引入了权威，为我们的生活提供了礼仪和规则。 这个权威可能是集体、政府； 或者它可能是个人、大师、救世主、导师。 任何形式的权威都是盲目的，它滋生出轻率； 当我们大多数人发现深思熟虑是痛苦的时候， 我们就把自己交给了权威。
Authority engenders power, and power always becomes centralized and therefore utterly corrupting; it corrupts not only the wielder of power, but also him who follows it. The authority of knowledge and experience is perverting, whether it be vested in the Master, his representative or the priest. It is your own life, this seemingly endless conflict, that is significant, and not the pattern or the leader. The authority of the Master and the priest takes you away from the central issue, which is the conflict within yourself. Suffering can never be understood and dissolved through the search for a way of life. Such a search is mere avoidance of suffering, the imposition of a pattern, which is escape; and what is avoided only festers, bringing more calamity and pain. The understanding of yourself, however painful or passingly pleasurable, is the beginning of wisdom.
权威产生权力， 权力总是变得集中化，因此完全地腐败； 它不仅败坏了掌权者，也败坏了追随权力的人。 知识和体验的权威，是堕落， 不管戴在哪位大师、代表，还是牧师的头上。 你自身的生活，这个看似无休止的冲突，才是重要的， 而不是规则或领袖。 大师和牧师的权威 带你摆脱了中心问题，也就是你自己内在的冲突。 痛苦永远无法通过寻找一种生活方式来理解和化解。 这种搜寻只不过是避免痛苦，强加一种规则，也就是逃避； 而被避免的东西只会腐烂生蛆，带来更多的灾难和痛苦。 理解你自己， 无论多么地痛苦或畅快，是智慧的开端。
There is no path to wisdom. If there is a path, then wisdom is the formulated, it is already imagined, known. Can wisdom be known or cultivated? Is it a thing to be learnt, to be accumulated? If it is, then it becomes mere knowledge, a thing of experience and of the books. Experience and knowledge are the continuous chain of responses and so can never comprehend the new, the fresh, the uncreated. Experience and knowledge, being continuous, make a path to their own self-projections, and hence they are constantly binding. Wisdom is the understanding of what is from moment to moment, without the accumulation of experience and knowledge. What is accumulated does not give freedom to understand, and without freedom there is no discovery; and it is this endless discovery that makes for wisdom. Wisdom is ever new, ever fresh, and there is no means of gathering it. The means destroys the freshness, the newness, the spontaneous discovery.
没有通往智慧的道路。 如果有一条路，那么智慧就是公式化的，它已经被想象了出来，是已知的。 智慧可以被认识或培养吗？它是一件需要被学习、需要被积累的事情吗？ 如果它是，那么它就变成了纯粹的知识、一种体验和书本的东西。 体验和知识是回应的不断延伸的锁链， 因此永远无法理解新的、鲜的、未创造的。 体验和知识，在延展，为它们拥有的自我投影开辟了一条道路， 因此它们在持续地缠绕。 智慧是每时每刻地理解现实， 没有体验和知识的积累。 积累的东西不会给理解带来自由， 没有自由，就无法发现； 正是这种无尽的发现造就了智慧。 智慧永远是崭新的，永远是清明的，却没有办法收集它。 手段破坏了清鲜、崭新、自在的发现。
The many paths to one reality are the invention of an intolerant mind; they are the outcome of a mind that cultivates tolerance. “I follow my path, and you follow yours, but let us be friends, and we shall eventually meet.” Will you and I meet if you are going north and I south? Can we be friendly if you have one set of beliefs and I another, if I am a collective murderer and you arc peaceful? To be friendly implies relationship in work, in thought; but is there any relationship between the man who hates and the man who love? Is there any relationship between the man in illusion and the one who is free? The free man may try to establish some kind of relationship with the one in bondage; but he who is in illusion can have no relationship with the man who is free.
通往一个真理的许多路径，是不宽容的头脑的一种发明； 它们是头脑在培养宽容的时候而产生的。 “我走我的路，你走你的路，但让我们做朋友，我们终将相遇。” 如果你向北走，我向南走，你和我见面了吗？ 如果你有一套信仰，而我有另一套信仰， 如果我是一个集体杀人犯，而你是平和的，我们能友好吗？ 友好意味着在工作中，在思想上建立关系； 但是怨恨的人和爱的人之间，有什么关系？ 幻觉中的人和自由的人之间，有什么关系？ 自由的人可以试图与被奴役的人建立某种关系； 但是处于幻觉中的人不可能与自由的人有任何关系。
The separate, clinging to their separateness, try to establish a relationship with others who are also self-enclosed; but such attempts invariably breed conflict and pain. To avoid this pain, the clever ones invent tolerance, each looking over his self-enclosing barrier and attempting to be kind and generous. Tolerance is of the mind, not of the heart. Do you talk of tolerance when you love? But when the heart is empty, then the mind fills it with its cunning devices and fears. There is no communion where there is tolerance.
分离的人，坚持他们的分离， 试图与那些同样自我封闭的人建立一种关系； 但这种尝试，总是滋生冲突与痛苦。 为了避免这种痛苦，聪明人发明了宽容， 每个人都看着他自己在周围堆砌的围墙，并试图变得善良和慷慨。 宽容属于是头脑，而不是心灵。 当你爱的时候，你会谈论宽容吗？ 但是，当心灵空虚，那么头脑就会用它狡猾的装置和恐惧来填充它。 有宽容，就没有共融。
There is no path to truth. Truth must be discovered, but there is no formula for its discovery. What is formulated is not true. You must set out on the uncharted sea, and the uncharted sea is yourself. You must set out to discover yourself, but not according to any plan or pattern, for then there is no discovery. Discovery brings joy – not the remembered, comparative joy, but joy that is ever new. Self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom in whose tranquillity and silence there is the immeasurable.
没有通往真理的道路。 真理必须被发现，但没有发现它的公式。 制定化的公式，不是真的。 你必须向未知的大海启航，而未知的海洋就是你自己。 你必须着手去发现你自己， 但不要按照任何计划或规则，因为那样做，就没有发现。 发现带来的欢乐 —— 不是记忆中的、比较性的欢乐，而是永远崭新的欢乐。 自我认识，是智慧的开始， 其中的安宁和灵静是不可估量的。