WE HAD DRIVEN through heavy traffic, and presently we turned off the main road into a sheltered lane. Leaving the car, we followed a path that wove through palm groves and along a field of green ripening rice. How lovely was that long, curving rice field, bordered by the tall palms! It was a cool evening, and a breeze was stirring among the trees with their heavy foliage. Unexpectedly, round a bend, there was a lake. It was long, narrow and deep, and on both sides of it the palms stood so close together as to be almost impenetrable. The breeze was playing with the water, and there was murmuring along the shore. Some boys were bathing, naked, unashamed and free. Their bodies were glistening and beautiful, well formed, slender and supple. They would swim out into the middle of the lake, then come back and start again. The path led on past a village, and on the way back the full moon made deep shadows; the boys had gone, the moonlight was upon the waters, and the palms were like white columns in the shadowy dark.
我们开车穿过拥堵的交通， 现在我们从主干道切换到了一条隐蔽的小巷。 下了车，我们沿着一条小路走 小路穿过于棕榈树林和一片绿油油的、成熟的稻田。 那一望无际的、起伏的稻田，和田埂上高大的棕榈树，真是太可爱了！ 那是一个凉爽的夜晚，一阵微风轻拂着树林，林中树叶翻动。 没想到，转了一个弯，碰见一个湖。 它又长又窄又深， 在它的两侧，棕榈树紧紧地站在一起，几乎无法穿透。 微风吹拂湖面，岸边传来低语。 有几个男孩在洗澡，光着身子、没有羞耻、自由自在。 他们的身体闪闪亮、美丽、体型好、苗条而柔软。 他们会游到湖中央，然后游回来，接着重新来过。 小路经过一个村庄，在回来的路上，满月留下了深深的阴影。 男孩们走了，月光照在水面上， 那朦胧的夜，棕榈树就像白色的立柱。
He had come from some distance, and was eager to find out how to subdue the mind. He said that he had deliberately withdrawn from the world and was living very simply with some relatives, devoting his time to the overcoming of the mind. He had practiced a certain discipline for a number of years, but his mind was still not under control; it was always ready to wander off, like an animal on a leash. He had starved himself, but that did not help; he had experimented with his diet, and that had helped a little, but there was never any peace. His mind was forever throwing up images, conjuring up past scenes, sensations and incidents; or it would think of how it would be quiet tomorrow. But tomorrow never came, and the whole process became quite nightmarish. On very rare occasions the mind was quiet, but the quietness soon became a memory, a thing of the past.
他从远处赶来，渴望找出如何制服头脑。 他说，他故意退出这个世界， 与一些亲朋一起生活得非常简单， 把时间花在征服头脑上。 他已经修行了好几年的戒律， 但他的头脑仍然没有得到控制。 它总是准备游荡，就像拴着缰绳的动物一样。 他使自己挨饿，但这无济于事。 他尝试了控制他的饮食，这有一点帮助， 但从来没有任何的和平。 他的头脑总是在冒出形像，唤起过去的场景、感觉和事件。 或者它会想，明天要如何安宁。 但明天从未到来，整个过程变得非常地恐怖。 在极少数情况下，头脑是安静的， 但这种安静很快就变成了一种记忆，成了过去。
What is overcome must be conquered again and again. Suppression is a form of overcoming, as are substitution and sublimation. To desire to conquer is to give birth to further conflict. Why do you want to conquer, to calm the mind? “I have always been interested in religious matters; I have studied various religions, and they all say that to know God the mind must be still. Ever since I can remember I have always wanted to find God, the pervading beauty of the world, the beauty of the rice field and the dirty village. I had a very promising career, had been abroad and all that kind of thing; but one morning I just walked out to find that stillness. I heard what you said about it the other day, and so I have come.”
被克服的，必须一次又一次地被征服。 压制是一种战胜形式，替代和升华也是如此。 征服的欲望催生进一步的冲突。 你为什么想征服，使头脑的平静？ “我一直对宗教感兴趣。我研究过各种宗教， 他们都说要认识上帝，头脑必须是安宁的。 从我记事起，我就一直想找到上帝， 遍及于世界的、无所不在的美、稻田的美丽和肮脏的村庄。 我有一个非常有前途的职业，去过国外等等。 但有一天早上，我出发，并去找寻那种安宁。 我突然听到了你前几天说的话，所以我过来了。”
To find God, you try to subdue the mind. But is calmness of mind a way to God? Is calmness the coin which will open the gates of heaven? You want to buy your way to God to truth, or what name you will. Can you buy the eternal through virtue, through renunciation, through mortification? We think that if we do certain things, practice virtue, pursue chastity, withdraw from the world, we shall be able to measure the measureless; so it’s just a bargain, isn’t it? Your ‘virtue’ is a means to an end.
为了找到上帝，你试图制服头脑。 但是，头脑的冷静是通往上帝的一种方式吗？ 冷静是打开天堂之门的硬币吗？ 你想买一张机票，抵达上帝或真理，不管你怎么称呼它。 通过美德、通过放弃、通过禁欲，你就能买到永恒吗？ 我们认为，如果我们做某些事情： 实践美德，追求贞洁，归隐山林， 我们就能够衡量无量；所以这只是一个讨价还价，难道不是吗？ 你的“美德”是达到目的的手段。
“But discipline is necessary to curb the mind, otherwise there is no peace. I have just not disciplined it sufficiently; it’s my fault, not the fault of the discipline.”
“但戒律是必要的，以遏制头脑，否则就没有和平。 我只是没有充分地管教它；这是我的错，不是戒律的错。”
Discipline is a means to an end. But the end is the unknown. Truth is the unknown, it cannot be known; if it is known, it is not truth. If you can measure the immeasurable, then it is not. Our measurement is the word, and the word is not the real. Discipline is the means; but the means and the end are not two dissimilar things, are they? Surely, the end and the means are one; the means is the end, the only end; there is no goal apart from the means. Violence as a means to peace is only the perpetuation of violence The means is all that matters, and not the end; the end is determined by the means; the end is not separate, away from the means.
纪律是达到目的的手段。但目的是未知的。 真理是未知的，它不可能被知道；如果它可知，就不是真理。 如果你能衡量不可估量的事物，那么它就不是无量。 我们的衡量标准是文字，而文字不是真实。 纪律是手段；但手段和目的不是两样东西，不是吗？ 当然，目的和手段是同一个东西。手段是目的，是唯一的目的； 没有手段，就没有目的。 暴力作为实现和平的手段，只是使暴力得以永存。 手段才是最重要的，而不是目的； 目的由手段决定；目的并没有与手段分开，并没有远离手段。
“I will listen and try to understand what you are saying. When I don’t, I will ask.”
“我会听并试图理解你在说什么。当我不这样做，我就会问。”
You use discipline, control, as a means to gain tranquillity, do you not? Discipline implies conformity to a pattern; you control in order to be this or that. Is not discipline, in its very nature, violence? It may give you pleasure to discipline yourself, but is not that very pleasure a form of resistance which only breeds further conflict? Is not the practice of discipline the cultivation of defence? And what is defended is always attacked. Does not discipline imply the suppression of what is in order to achieve a desired end? Suppression, substitution and sublimation only increase effort and bring about further conflict. You may succeed in suppressing a disease, but it will continue to appear in different forms until it is eradicated. Discipline is the suppression, the overcoming of what is. Discipline is a form of violence; so through a ’wrong’ means we hope to gain the ‘right’ end. Through resistance, how can there be the free, the true? Freedom is at the beginning, not at the end; the goal is the first step the means is the end. The first step must be free, and not the last. Discipline implies compulsion, subtle or brutal, outward or self-imposed; and where there is compulsion, there is fear. Fear, compulsion, is used as a means to an end, the end being love.
你用戒律，控制，作为获得安宁的手段，不是吗？ 纪律意味着服从一种模式；你去控制，是想要成为这个或那个。 纪律就其本质而言，难道不是暴力吗？ 管束自己，可能会给你带来快乐， 但这种快乐难道不是一种只会滋生进一步冲突的抵抗形式吗？ 对戒律的实践，不就是在培养抵抗吗？ 被捍卫的东西总是受到攻击。 纪律难道不是意味着，为了达到预期的目的而压制现状吗？ 压制、替代和升华，只会增加努力， 并带来进一步的冲突。 你可以成功地抑制一种疾病， 但它将继续以不同形式出现，直到它被根除。 纪律是压制，是战胜现状。 管束是一种暴力形式；因此，通过‘错误’的手段，我们希望获得‘正确’的目的。 通过抵抗，怎么会有自由、真实？ 自由存在于一开始，而不在终点； 目的是第一步，手段即是目的。 第一步必须是自由，而不是最后一步。 纪律意味着强迫，不论它是微妙的，还是残酷的，是外在的，还是自我强加的； 哪里有强迫，哪里就有恐惧。 恐惧，强迫，被当作一种手段去实现目的，而目的即是‘爱’。
Can there be love through fear? Love is when there is no fear at any level. “But without some kind of compulsion, some kind of conformity, how can the mind function at all?”
通过恐惧，会有爱吗？ 爱存在的时候，在任何层面上，都没有恐惧。 “但是，如果没有某种强迫，没有某种顺从， 头脑怎么能发挥作用？”
The very activity of the mind is a barrier to its own understanding. Have you never noticed that there is understanding only when the mind, as thought, is not functioning? Understanding comes with the ending of the thought process, in the interval between two thoughts. You say the mind must be still, and yet you desire it to function. If we can be simple in watchfulness, we shall understand; but our approach is so complex that it prevents understanding. Surely, we are not concerned with discipline, control, suppression, resistance, but with the process and the ending of thought itself. What do we mean when we say that the mind wanders? Simply that thought is everlastingly enticed from one attraction to another, from one association to another, and is inconstant agitation. Is it possible for thought to come to an end?
头脑的活动本身就是理解自身的障碍。 你有没有注意到， 只有当作为思想的头脑不起作用时，才有理解？ 理解的光临， 伴随着思考的消亡，在两个思想之间的空隙里。 你说头脑必须静止，但你却希望它发挥作用。 如果我们能简单地保持警惕，我们就会理解； 但是我们的方法非常复杂，以至于无法理解。 当然，我们关心的不是纪律、控制、压制、抵抗， 而是思想本身的流程和消亡。 当我们说头脑在游荡，我们是指什么意思？ 很简单，那个想法总是被引诱，从一个诱饵到另一个诱饵， 从一个结到另一个结，处在无常的躁动。 思想有可能消亡吗？
“That is exactly my problem. I want to end thought. I can see now the futility of discipline; I really see the falseness, the stupidity of it, and I won’t pursue that line any more. But how can I end thought?”
“这正是我的问题。 我想结束思想。我现在可以看到戒律的徒劳无益。 我真的看到了它的虚假性，愚蠢性，我不会再追求那条线路了。 但是我怎么能结束思考呢？”
Again, listen without prejudice, without interposing any conclusions, either your own or those of another; listen to understand and not merely to refute or accept. You ask how you can put an end to thought. Now, are you, the thinker, an entity separate from your thoughts? Are you entirely dissimilar from your thoughts? Are you not your own thoughts? Thought may place the thinker at a very high level and give a name to him, separate him from itself; yet the thinker is still within the process of thought, is he not? There is only thought, and thought creates the thinker; thought gives form to the thinker as a permanent, separate entity. Thought sees itself to be impermanent, in constant flux, so it breeds the thinker as a permanent entity apart and dissimilar from itself. Then the thinker operates on thought; the thinker says, “I must put an end to thought”. But there is only the process of thinking, there is no thinker apart from thought. The experiencing of this truth is vital, it is not a mere repetition of phrases. There are only thoughts, and not a thinker who thinks thoughts.
同样，听，没有偏见， 不参入任何一个结论，无论是你自己的，还是别人的； 听，是为了理解，而不仅仅是为了反驳或接受。 你问，你怎么能够结束思想。 现在，你，这个思考者，是一个与你的思想分离的实体吗？ 你和你的想法完全的不同吗？你不就是你的思想吗？ 思想可能将思考者吹捧到一个非常高的地位， 并给他一个名字，将他与自身分开； 然而，思考者仍然在思想的进程之内，他不在吗？ 只有思想，思想创造了思考者； 思想赋予了思考者的样子 —— 作为一个永久的、分离的实体。 思想看见自己是无常的，在不断的变化， 所以它把思考者作为一个与自己分开的、不同的、永久性的实体来培养。 然后，思考者依照思想进行操作；思考者说，“我必须结束思想”。 但只有‘思考’ —— 这是唯一的进程，没有与思想分离的思考者。 体验这个真实，是至关重要的，它不仅仅是言语的重复。 只有思想，没有所谓的在思考的思想者。
“But how did thought arise originally?”
“可是思想最初是怎么产生的？”
Through perception, contact, sensation, desire and identification; ‘I want’, ‘I don’t want’, and so on. That is fairly simple, is it not? Our problem is, how can thought end? Any form of compulsion, conscious or unconscious, is utterly futile, for it implies a controller, one who disciplines; and such an entity, as we see, is nonexistent. Discipline is a process of condemnation, comparison, or justification; and when it is clearly seen that there is no separate entity as the thinker, the one who disciplines, then there are only thoughts, the process of thinking. Thinking is the response of memory, of experience, of the past. This again must be perceived, not on the verbal level, but there must be an experiencing of it. then only is there passive watchfulness in which the thinker is not, an awareness in which thought is entirely absent. The mind, the totality of experience, the self-consciousness which is ever in the past, is quiet only when it is not projecting itself; and this projection is the desire to become.
通过捕获、接触、感知、欲望和识别； “我想要”，“我不想要”，等等。这相当简单，不是吗？ 我们的问题是，思想怎么结束？ 任何形式的强迫，无论是有意识的还是无意识的，都完全是徒劳的， 因为它意味着一个控制者，一个教官； 而这种实体，正如我们所见，是不存在的。 纪律是一个谴责、比较或辩护的流程； 当清楚地看见没有单独的实体，没有所谓的思考者、导师， 那么只有思想，思考的流程。 思考是回忆，是体验和过往的沉浮。 这，同样必须被感知，却并非在言词上，而是必须处于一种体验之下。 那么，只剩下被动的警觉，其中没有思想者， 一种思想完全不存在的意识。 头脑，这个装满了体验、自我意识、过往一切的大管家， 要得以安息，只有当它不去投射出自己的时候； 而这种投射，即是想要‘成为’的欲望。
The mind is empty only when thought is not. Thought cannot come to an end save through passive watchfulness of every thought. In this awareness there is no watcher and no censor; without the censor, there is only experiencing. In experiencing there is neither the experiencer nor the experienced. The experienced is the thought, which gives birth to the thinker. Only when the mind is experiencing is there stillness, the silence which is not made up, put together; and only in that tranquillity can the real come into being. Reality is not of time and is not measurable.
只有当思想不见了，头脑才是空的。 思想无法安息，除非被动地觉知每一个念头。 在这种意识中，没有旁观者，也没有临照者； 不存在居高临下的指引者，只有体验的状态。 在体验的行动中，既没有体验者，也没有被体验的事物。 被体验到的，即是思想，是它孕育了思想者。 只有当头脑处于体验中，才会有安宁， 那是没有动过手脚的宁静； 只有在这种宁静中，真理才会呈现。 真理与时间无关，是无法衡量的。