对生活的评注 2-9

IT BEGAN TO rain gently enough, but suddenly it was as though the heavens had opened and there was a deluge. In the street the water was almost knee-deep, and it was well over the pavement. There was not a flutter among the leaves, and they too were silent in their surprise. A car passed by and then stalled, water having gotten into its essential parts. People were wading across the street, soaked to the skin, but they were enjoying this down-pour. The garden beds were being washed out and the lawn was covered with several inches of brown water. A dark blue bird with fawn-colored wings was trying to take shelter among the thick leaves, but it got wetter and wetter and shook itself so often. The downpour lasted for some time, and then stopped as suddenly as it had begun. All things were washed clean.

雨开始下得足够轻柔，但突然间，好像天空已经打开，有一场洪水。在街上，水几乎是膝盖深的，而且远远超出了人行道。树叶之间没有颤动，他们也在惊讶中沉默。一辆汽车经过，然后停了，水已经进入了它的关键部位。人们涉水穿过街道，湿透了皮肤，但他们享受着这种倾盆大雨。花床被冲走了，草坪上覆盖着几英寸的棕色的泥水。一只有着小鹿色翅膀的深蓝色的鸟试图在厚厚的树叶中躲避，但它变得越来越湿润，时不时地打颤。倾盆大雨持续了一段时间，然后像开始时一样嘎然而止。所有的一切被清洗干净。

How simple it is to be innocent! Without innocence, it is impossible to be happy. The pleasure of sensations is not the happiness of innocence. Innocence is freedom from the burden of experience. It is the memory of experience that corrupts, and not the experiencing itself. Knowledge, the burden of the past, is corruption. The power to accumulate, the effort to become destroys innocence; and without innocence, how can there be wisdom? The merely curious can never know wisdom; they will find, but what they find will not be truth. The suspicious can never know happiness, for suspicion is the anxiety of their own being, and fear breeds corruption. Fearlessness is not courage but freedom from accumulation.

天真是多么地简单！没有天真，就不可能快乐。感觉的快感，不是纯真的快乐。纯真，摆脱了经历的重负。过往的经历，导致了腐败，而不是体验本身。知识，过去的负担，是腐朽的。积累的力量，成为的努力，毁灭了纯真；没有天真，怎么会有智慧呢？仅有好奇，永远不可能知道智慧。他们会找到，但他们找到的不是真理。疑惑的人永远不可能知道快乐，因为疑惑是他们自己存在的焦虑，恐惧滋生腐败。无畏不是勇气，而是从积累中解脱出来的自由。

“I have spared no effort to get somewhere in the world, and have become a very successful money-maker; my efforts in that direction have produced the results I wanted. I have also tried hard to make a happy affair of my family life, but you know how it is. Family life is not the same as making money or running an industry. One deals with human beings in business, but it is at a different level. At home there is a great deal of friction with very little to show for it, and one’s efforts in this field only seem to increase the mess. I am not complaining, for that is not my nature, but the marriage system is all wrong. We marry to satisfy your sexual urges, without really knowing anything about each other; and though we live in the same house and occasionally and deliberately produce a child, we are like strangers to each other, and the tension that only married people know is always there. I have done what I think is my duty, but it has not produced the best results, to put it mildly. We are both dominant and aggressive people, and it is not easy. Our efforts to cooperate have not brought about a deep companionship between us. Though I am very interested in psychological matters, it has not been of great help, and I want to go much more deeply into this problem.”

“我不遗余力地到达世界的某个地方，并成为一个非常成功的摇钱树。我在这方面的努力产生了我想要的结果。我也努力让我的家庭生活变得愉快，但你知道这是怎么回事。家庭生活与赚钱或经营一个行业是不一样的。一个人在商业中与人打交道，但它却处于不同的层面上。在家里，有大量的摩擦，几乎没有什么征兆，而一个人在这个领域的努力似乎只会增加混乱。我不是在抱怨，因为那不是我的本性，但婚姻制度都是错的。我们结婚是为了满足你的性冲动，而对彼此一无所知；虽然我们住在同一个房子里，偶然或故意生孩子，但我们彼此就像陌生人一样，这种紧张的关系，只有已婚人士知道，总是在那里。我认为我尽了我的责任，但委婉地说，它并没有产生最好的结果。我们夫妻俩，都具有支配欲和进取心的人，这并不好过。我们合作的努力，并没有给我们带来深厚的情谊。虽然我对心理问题非常感兴趣，但它并没有太大的帮助，我想更深入地研究这个问题。”

The sun had come out, the birds were calling, and the sky was clear and blue after the storm.

太阳出来了，鸟儿在呼唤，暴风雨过后，天空晴朗而湛蓝。

What do you mean by effort? “To strive after something. I have striven after money and position, and I have won both. I have also striven to have a happy family life, but this has not been very successful; so now I am struggling after something deeper.”

你所说的‘努力’是什么意思？ “努力追求一些东西。我努力追求金钱和地位，我斩获了两者。我也努力过着快乐的家庭生活，但这并没有很成功。所以现在我正在为更深层的事情而挣扎。”

We struggle with an end in view; we strive after achievement; we make a constant effort to become something, positively or negatively. The struggle is always to be secure in some way, it is always towards something or away from something. Effort is really an endless battle to acquire, is it not?

我们为愿景而挣扎；我们追求猎物；我们不断地努力，达成某种目标，无论是积极的还是消极的。这种抗争总是以某种方式来确保安全，它总是朝着某个东西或远离某个东西。努力真的是一场无休止的猎取的战斗，不是吗？

“Is it wrong to acquire?”

“获取是错的吗？”

We shall go into that presently; but what we call effort is this constant process of travelling and arriving, of acquiring in different directions. We get tired of one kind of acquisition, and turn to another; and when that is gathered, we again turn to something else. Effort is a process of gathering knowledge, experience, efficiency, virtue, possessions, power, and so on; it is an end less becoming, expanding, growing. Effort towards an end, whether worthy or unworthy, must always bring conflict; conflict is antagonism, opposition, resistance. Is that necessary?

我们现在将讨论这个问题。但是我们所说的努力是这种不断旅行和到达，在不同方向上获取的过程。我们厌倦了一种获取物，转向另一个品种；当这些被收集起来时，我们再次转向别的东西。努力即是收集知识、经验、效率、美德、财产、权力等的过程；它是一种无止境地成为、扩张、壮大的活动。为达到目的而努力，无论是否值得，必定带来冲突；冲突即是敌对、反抗、抵御。它是必要的吗？

“Necessary to what?”

“什么是必要的？”

Let us find out. Effort at the physical level may be necessary; the effort to build a bridge, to produce petroleum, coal, and soon, is or may be beneficial; but how the work is done, how things are produced and distributed, how profits are divided, is quite another matter. If at the physical level man is used for an end, for an ideal, whether by private interests or by the State, effort only produces more confusion and misery. Effort to acquire for the individual, for the State, or for a religious organization, is bound to breed opposition. Without understanding this striving after acquisition, effort at the physical level will inevitably have a disastrous effect on society.

让我们来发现。在物质层面上进行的努力可能是必要的；努力去建造桥梁，生产石油，挖煤等等，也许是有益的；但是，工作是如何完成的，东西是如何生产和运输的，利润是如何分配的，则是另一回事。如果在物质层面上，人被用于目的，用于理想，无论是出于私人利益还是国家，努力只会产生更多的混乱和痛苦。为了个人、为了国家或宗教团体而努力争取，必然会滋生对立。如果不理解这种争取行为，物质层面上的努力将不可避免地对社会产生灾难性的影响。

Is effort at the psychological level – the effort to be, to achieve, to succeed – necessary or beneficial? “If we made no such effort, would we not just rot, disintegrate?”

心理层面上的努力 —— 努力成为、实现、达成 —— 是必要的，还是有益的？ “如果我们没有做出这样的努力，我们难道不会腐烂、崩溃吗？”

Would we? So far, what have we produced through effort at the psychological level? “Not very much, I admit. Effort has been in the wrong direction. The direction matters, and rightly directed effort is of the greatest significance. It is because of the lack of right effort that we are in such a mess.”

我们会吗？到目前为止，我们通过心理层面的努力产生了什么？ “不是很多，我承认。努力的方向是错误的。方向很重要，正确指引的努力是最重要的。正是由于缺乏正确的努力，我们才陷入如此混乱的境地。”

So you say there is right effort and wrong effort, is that it? Do not let us quibble over words, but how do you distinguish between right and wrong effort? According to what criterion do you judge? What is your standard? Is it tradition, or is it the future ideal, the ‘ought to be’? “My criterion is determined by what brings results. It is the result that is important, and without the enticement of a goal we would make no effort.”

所以你说，有正确的努力和错误的努力，是吗？不要让我们在言语上争吵，但你如何区分正确与错误的努力？您根据什么标准进行判断？您的标准是什么？它是传统，还是未来的理想 —— 即所谓的‘应该是’？ “我的标准是根据结果来决定的。重要的是结果，如果没有目标的引诱，我们就不会做出任何的努力。”

If the result is your measure, then surely you are not concerned with the means; or are you? “I will use the means according to the end. If the end is happiness, then a happy means must be found.”

如果结果是你的衡量标准，那么你肯定不关心手段;你关心吗？ “我会根据目的使用手段。如果目的就是快乐，那么就必须找到快乐的手段。”

Is not the happy means the happy end? The end is in the means, is it not? So there is only the means. The means itself is the end, the result. “I have never before looked at it this way, but I see that it is so.”

快乐的手段不就意味着快乐的结果吗？目的在手段之中，不是吗？因此，只有手段。手段本身就是目的，是结果。 “我以前从未这样看待过它，但我看到它的确是这样的。”

We are inquiring into what is the happy means. If effort produces conflict, opposition within and without, can effort ever lead to happiness? If the end is in the means, how can there be happiness through conflict and antagonism? If effort produces more problems, more conflict, it is obviously destructive and disintegrating. And why do we make effort? Do we not make effort to be more, to advance, to gain? Effort is for more in one direction, and for less in another. Effort implies acquisition for oneself or for a group, does it not?

我们正在探究什么是快乐的手段。如果努力产生出了内在和外在的冲突、对立，那么努力能带来快乐吗？如果目的在手段之内，那么通过冲突和对抗，怎么会有快乐呢？如果努力产生出更多的问题，更多的冲突，那么它显然就是破坏性的和分裂性的。而我们为何要努力？我们可以不去争取更多，争取进步，争取利益吗？努力是为了在某个方向上获取更多，而在另一个方向上变得更少。努力意味着为自己或为一个群体谋利，难道不是吗？

“Yes, that is so. Acquiring for oneself is at another level the acquisitiveness of the State or the church.”

“是的，正是这样。为个人谋利，在另一个层面上，即是为国家或教会的谋利。

Effort is acquisition, negative or positive. What is it, then, that we are acquiring? At one level we acquire the physical necessities, and at another we use these as a means of self-aggrandizement; or, being satisfied with a few physical necessities, we acquire power, position, fame. The rulers, the representatives of the State, may live outwardly simple lives and possess but few things, but they have acquired power and so they resist and dominate.

努力是谋利，无论是消极的或积极的。那么，我们正在谋取的是什么东西？在一个层面上，我们获取了物质必需品，而在另一个层面上，我们利用这些作为自我膨胀的手段；或者，满意于少许的物质必需品，我们去谋取权力、地位和名声。统治者，国家的代表者，可能过着外表简单的生活，拥有的东西很少，但他们获得了权力，因此，他们在阻碍和支配。

“Do you think all acquisition is baneful?”

“你认为所有的获取，都是有害的吗？”

Let us see. Security, which is having the essential physical needs, is one thing, and acquisitiveness is another. It is acquisitiveness in the name of race or country, in the name of God, or in the name of the individual, that is destroying the sensible and efficient organization of physical necessities for the well being of man. We must all have adequate food, clothing and shelter, that is simple and clear. Now, what is it that we are seeking to acquire, apart from these things?

让我们来看。安全，拥有基本的物质需求，是一回事，而获取是另一回事。正是这种以种族或国家的名义，以上帝的名义，或以个人的名义的获取，在破坏建立起来的，为了人类的福祉而提供的实际物品的高效的机构。我们都必须有足够的食物、衣服和住所，这是简单而清晰的。现在，除了这些东西之外，我们还在寻求什么？

One acquires money as a means to power, to certain social and psychological gratifications, as a means to the freedom to do what one wants to do. One struggles to attain wealth and position in order to be powerful in various ways; and having succeeded in outer things, one now wants to be successful, as you say, with regard to inner things.

一个人获得金钱把它作为获取权力的手段，去实现某种社团和心理上的满足，作为一种能够自由去做自己想做的事情的手段。一个人为获得财富和地位而斗争，以便在各种方面变得强大；在外面取得成功之后，正如你所说，现在又想要在内心获取成功。

What do we mean by power? To be powerful is to dominate, to overcome, to suppress, to feel superior, to be efficient, and soon.

我们所说的权力是什么意思？强大就是支配、战胜、压制、感到优越、高效，等等。

Consciously or unconsciously the ascetic as well as the worldly person feels and strives for this power. power is one of the completest expressions of the self, whether it be the power of knowledge, the power over oneself, worldly power, or the power of abstinence. The feeling; of power, of domination, is extraordinarily gratifying. You may seek gratification through power, another through drink, another through worship, another through knowledge, and still another through trying to be virtuous. Each may have its own particular sociological and psychological effect, but all acquisition is gratification. Gratification at any level is sensation, is it not? We are making effort to acquire greater or more subtle varieties of sensation, which at one time we call experience, at another knowledge, at another love, at another the search for God or truth; and there is the sensation of being righteous, or of being the efficient agent of an ideology. Effort is to acquire gratification, which is sensation. You have found gratification at one level, and now you are seeking it at another; and when you have acquired it there, you will move to another level, and so keep going. This constant desire for gratification for more and more subtle forms of sensation, is called progress, but it is ceaseless conflict. The search after ever wider gratification is without end, and so there is no end to conflict antagonism, and hence no happiness.

有意或无意地，修道人和俗人都感受到并努力去争夺这种权力。权力是自我最完整的表现之一，无论是来源于知识的权力，自身的权力，世俗的权力，禁欲的权力。这种感觉；权力感，支配感，是非常令人满意的。你可以通过权力寻求满足，另一个人通过喝酒，另一个人通过崇拜，另一个人通过知识，还有一个人通过尝试培养贤德来寻求满足。每一种方式都有它特定的社会和心理效应，但所有的收获都是为了使人满意。任何层次的满意都属于感觉，不是吗？我们正在努力获得更大或更微妙的感觉，这些感觉在某个时候被称为体验，在有的时候，称之为知识，在另一个时候，称之为爱，而有时候，我们称之为寻求上帝或真理；还有一种感觉，被称之为正义，或者说是某种意识形态的高效代理人。努力是为了获取满意，也就是感觉。你已经在一个层面上找到了满意，现在你在另一个层面上寻求它；当你在那里获得它时，你会移动到另一个层次，所以在保持前进。这种对满意，对越来越微妙的感受的不断渴望，被称为进步，但它却是无休止的冲突。追求更广泛的满意是没有尽头的，因此冲突对立无法结束，也就不存在快乐。

“I see your point. You are saying that the search for gratification in any form is really the search for misery. Effort towards gratification is everlasting pain. But what is one to do? Give up seeking gratification and just stagnate?”

“我看到了你的观点。你是说，以任何形式寻找满足感，其实就是寻找痛苦。努力寻求满足是持续性的痛苦。但是人该怎么办呢？放弃寻求满足，而停滞不前吗？

If one does not seek gratification, is stagnation inevitable? Is the state of non-anger necessarily a lifeless state? Surely, gratification at any level is sensation. Refinement of sensation is only the refinement of word. The word, the term, the symbol, the image, plays an extraordinarily important part in our lives, does it not? We may no longer seek the touch, the satisfaction of physical contact, but the word, the image becomes very significant.

如果一个人不寻求满足，就会不可避免地停滞吗？没有愤怒的时候，就一定是毫无生机吗？当然，任何层次的满足感都是感觉。感觉的提炼只是文字的提炼。这些词，这些术语，这些符号，这些形象，在我们的生活中扮演着非常重要的角色，难道它不是吗？我们可能不再寻求触摸，身体接触的满足，但这些文字、形象，变得非常地重要。

At one level we gather gratification through crude means, and at another through means that are more subtle and refined; but the gathering of words is for the same purpose as the gathering of things, is it not? Why do we gather? “Oh, I suppose it is because we are so discontented, so utterly bored with ourselves, that we will do anything to get away from our own shallowness. That is really so – and it just strikes me that I am exactly in that position. This is rather extraordinary!”

在一个层面上，我们通过粗俗的手段来收获满足感，在另一个层面上，我们通过更微妙和精致的手段来获取；但对言词的收集与物质的聚敛，都是出于同样的目的，不是吗？我们为什么聚敛？ “哦，我想这是因为我们如此地不满，自己觉得非常地无聊，以至于我们会做任何事情来摆脱自己的浅薄。事实正是如此 —— 我只是觉得我正处在那个位置上。这也太离谱了！”

Our acquisitions are a means of covering up our own emptiness; our minds are like hollow drums, beaten upon by every passing hand and making a lot of noise. This is our life, the conflict of never-satisfying escapes and mounting misery. It is strange how we are never alone, never strictly alone. We are always with something with a problem, with a book, with a person; and when we are alone, our thoughts are with us. To be alone, naked, is essential. All escapes, all gatherings, all effort to be or not to be, must cease; and then only is there the aloneness that can receive the alone, the measureless.

我们的聚敛是掩盖我们自身空虚的一种手段; 我们的头脑就像空心的鼓，被每一只路过的手敲打，发出很大的噪音。这，就是我们的生命，挣扎于永不满足的逃避和日益加剧的痛苦之中。奇怪的是，我们从不独立，从不严格地自立。我们总是需要陪伴，不论这个同伴是要处理的问题，还是一本书、一个人；当我们独自一人时，我们有念想陪着。独立，赤条条地，是必不可少的。一切逃避，一切聚敛，一切达成或抗拒的努力，都必须消停；那么，唯有独立，才能承载寂寥、无量。