IT WAS A small pond, but very beautiful. Grass covered its banks, and a few steps went down to it. There was a small, white temple at one end, and all around it were tall, slender palms. The temple was well built and well cared for; it was spotlessly clean, and at that hour, when the sun was well behind the palm grove, there was no one there, not even the priest, who treated the temple and its contents with great veneration. This small, decorative temple gave to the pond an atmosphere of peace; the place was so still, and even the birds were silent. The slight breeze that stirred the palms was dying down, and a few clouds floated across the sky, radiant with the evening sun. A snake was swimming across the pond, in and out among the lotus leaves. The water was very clear, and there were pink and violet lotuses. Their delicate scent clung close to the water and to the green banks. There was not a thing stirring now, and the enchantment of the place seemed to fill the earth. But the beauty of those flowers! They were very still, and one or two were beginning to close for the night, shutting out the darkness. The snake had crossed the pond, come up the bank, and was passing close by; its eyes were like bright, black beads, and its forked tongue was playing before it like a small flame, making a path for the snake to follow.
那是一个小池塘，但非常漂亮。 草覆盖着它的堤岸，跨几步就到了。 它的一旁有一座白色的小寺庙， 周围都是高大纤细的棕榈树。 寺庙建造得很好，照顾得很好。 它一尘不染，在那个时候， 当太阳在棕榈树林后面时， 那里没有人，甚至没有牧师， 他非常崇拜寺庙及其内容物。 这座小小的装饰性的寺庙给池塘带来了和平的气氛。 这个地方是如此寂静，甚至鸟儿也沉默了。 微轻拂的微风搅动着枯萎的蕉叶， 几朵云朵飘过天空，染上了夕阳的光彩。 一条蛇在池塘里游来游去，在荷叶间进进出出。 水很清澈，有粉红色和紫色的莲花。 它们细腻的香味紧紧地贴在水边和绿色的堤岸上。 现在没有任何东西在晃动，这个地方的魅力似乎充满了大地。 但是那些花的美丽！他们非常静止， 一两朵开始关闭过夜，将黑暗隔绝开来。 蛇已经越过池塘，来到了岸上，正从附近经过。 它的眼睛像明亮的黑色珠子， 分叉的舌头像小火焰一样在它面前玩耍， 为蛇开辟了一条道路。
Speculation and imagination are a hindrance to truth. The mind that speculates can never know the beauty of what is; it is caught in the net of its own images and words. However far it may wander in its image making, it is still within the shadow of its own structure and can never see what is beyond itself. The sensitive mind is not an imaginative mind. The faculty to create pictures limits the mind; such a mind is bound to the past, to remembrance, which makes it dull. Only the still mind is sensitive. Accumulation in any form is a burden; and how can a mind be free when it is burdened? Only the free mind is sensitive; the open is the imponderable, the implicit the unknown. Imagination and speculation impede the open, the sensitive.
推测和想象是真实的障碍。 推测的头脑永远无法知道真实的美； 它被自己的图像和文字的网捕获。 无论它在图像制作中徘徊得多么遥远， 它仍然在自己结构的阴影中， 永远无法看到超越自身的东西。 敏感的头脑不是一个富有想象力的头脑。 创造图片的能力限制了头脑； 这样的头脑与过去、记忆息息相关，这让它变得沉闷。 只有静止的头脑是敏感的。 任何形式的积累都是一种负担； 当一个头脑背负着重担时，它怎么能自由呢？ 只有自由的头脑是敏感的； 敞开是不可思议的、隐含的、未知的。 想象和推测阻碍了敞开、敏感。
He had spent many years, he said, in search of truth. He had been the round of many teachers, many gurus, and being still on his pilgrimage, he had stopped here to inquire. Bronzed by the sun and made lean by his wanderings, he was an ascetic who had renounced the world and left his own faraway country. Through the practice of certain disciplines he had with great difficulty learned to concentrate, and had subjugated the appetites. A scholar, with ready quotations, he was good at argument and swift in his conclusions. He had learned Sanskrit, and its resonant phrases were easy for him. All this had given a certain sharpness to his mind; but a mind that is made sharp is not pliable free.
他说，他花了很多年时间寻找真理。 他曾经四处拜访许多老师，许多导师， 并且仍然在他的朝圣中，他已经到了这里，停下来询问。 他被太阳弄得古铜色，在流浪中身体变瘦， 他是一个放弃世界并离开自己遥远国家的苦行僧。 通过修炼某些戒律， 他艰难地学会了控制注意力，并征服了欲望。 作为一名学者，怀着已经准备好的名言警句， 他善于论证，并迅速得出结论。 他学过梵文，梵文的共鸣短语对他来说很容易。 所有这一切使他的头脑有了一定的敏锐性。 但一个变得敏锐的头脑并不是柔韧而自由的。
To understand, to discover, must not the mind be free at the very beginning? Can a mind that is disciplined, suppressed, ever be free? Freedom is not an ultimate goal; it must be at the very beginning, must it not? A mind that is disciplined, controlled, is free within its own pattern; but that is not freedom. The end of discipline is conformity; its path leads to the known, and the known is never the free. Discipline with its fear is the greed of achievement.
去理解，去发现，头脑不是在一开始就处于自由吗？ 一个被戒律、被压抑的头脑，能自由吗？ 自由不是最终目标；它必须存在于一开始，不是吗？ 一个被管教、被控制头脑，在自己的模式中是自由的； 但那种不是自由。 戒律的终点是顺从；它的路径通向已知， 而已知永远是不自由的。 管教与它所产生的恐惧，即是对成功的贪婪。
“I am beginning to realize that there is something fundamentally wrong with all these disciplines. Though I have spent many years in trying to shape my thoughts to the desired pattern, I find that I am not getting anywhere.”
“我开始意识到 所有这些戒律都有一些根本性的错误。 虽然我花了很多年的时间试图将我的想法塑造成所需的模式， 但我发现我没有到达任何地方。”
If the means is imitation, the end must be a copy. The means makes the end, does it not? If the mind is shaped in the beginning, it must also be conditioned at the end; and how can a conditioned mind ever be free? The means is the end, they are not two separate processes. It is an illusion to think that through a wrong means the true can be achieved. When the means is suppression, the end also must be a product of fear.
如果手段是模仿，目的必定是复制品。 手段制造出目的，不是吗？ 如果头脑在开始时就被塑造，那么在终点，它也必定被限制； 一个受束缚的头脑怎么可能自由呢？ 手段就是目的，它们不是两个独立的过程。 认为通过错误的手段可以实现真实是一种错觉。 当手段是压制时，目的也一定是恐惧的产物。
“I have a vague feeling of the inadequacy of disciplines, even when I practice them, as I still do; they are now all but an unconscious habit. From childhood my education has been a process of conformity, and discipline has been almost instinctive with me ever since I first put on this robe. Most of the books I have read, and all the gurus I have been to, prescribe control in one form or another, and you have no idea how I went at it. So what you say seems almost a blasphemy; it is really a shock to me, but it is obviously true. Have my years been wasted?”
“我对纪律的不足有一种模糊的感觉， 即使我练习它们，我仍然在这样做； 他们现在几乎都成了一种无意识的习惯。 从孩提时代起，我的教育就是一个循规蹈矩的过程， 自从我第一次穿上这件长袍以来，纪律几乎变成了我的本能。 我读过的大多数的书籍，我也去拜访过的所有大师， 都以这样或那样的形式制定了控制，而你不知道我是怎么做到的。 所以你说的话似乎几乎是对神明的亵渎； 这对我来说真的是一个震惊，它却明显是真实的。我的岁月被浪费了吗？”
They would have been wasted if your practices now prevented understanding, the receptivity to truth, that is, if these impediments were not wisely observed and deeply understood. We are so entrenched in our own make-believe that most of us dare not look at it or beyond it. The very urge to understand is the beginning of freedom. So what is our problem? “I am seeking truth, and I have made disciplines and practices of various kinds the means to that end. My deepest instinct urges me to seek and find, and I am not interested in anything else.”
如果你的实践阻碍了对真理的理解和接受， 如果这些障碍没有被明智地观察和深刻地理解， 那么它们就被浪费了。 我们是如此根深蒂固地相信自己， 以至于我们大多数人都不敢看它或超越它。 理解的冲动是自由的开始。那么我们的问题是什么呢？ “我在寻求真理， 我把各种学科和实践作为达到这个目的的手段。 我最深的本能促使我去寻找和发现， 我对其他任何事情都不感兴趣。”
Let us begin near to go far. What do you mean by search? Are you looking for truth? And can it be found by seeking? To seek truth, you must know what it is. Search implies a fore knowledge, something already felt or known, does it not? Is truth something to be known, gathered and held? Is not the intimation of it a projection of the past and so not truth at all, but a remembrance? Search implies an outgoing or an inward process, does it not? And must not the mind be still for reality to be? Search is effort to gain the more or the less, it is negative or positive acquisitiveness; and as long as the mind is the concentration, the focus of effort, of conflict, can it ever be still? Can the mind be still through effort? It can be made still through compulsion; but what is made can be unmade.
要去远方，让我们从近处着手。 搜索是什么意思？你在寻找真理吗？ 通过寻找可以找到它吗？要寻求真理，你必须知道它是什么。 搜索意味着一种以前就有的，某个已经感觉到或知道的东西，不是吗？ 真理是需要认识、收集和抓住的东西吗？ 难道关于它的暗示，不正是过去的投射，所以根本不是真理，而是一种记忆吗？ 搜索意味着传出或向内过程，不是吗？ 难道头脑不必停下以使真实呈现吗？ 搜索是努力去获得更多或更少，它是消极或积极的获取； 只要头脑处于专注的状态， 有专注于努力，专注于冲突的焦点，它还能静止吗？ 头脑能通过努力而停下吗？ 它可以通过强迫而安静下来；但是这种人为的安静可以被败坏。
“But is not effort of some kind essential?”
“但是，某种努力难道不是必需的吗？”
We shall see. Let us inquire into the truth of search. To seek, there must be the seeker, an entity separate from that which he seeks. And is there such a separate entity? Is the thinker, the experiencer, different or separate from his thoughts and experiences? Without inquiring into this whole problem, meditation has no meaning. So we must understand the mind, the process of the self. What is the mind that seeks, that chooses, that is fearful, that denies and justifies? What is thought?
我们将会看见。让我们探究搜索的真相。 要寻求，必须有寻求者，一个与他寻求的东西分开的实体。 有没有这样一个单独的实体？ 思想者、体验者与他的思想和体验是不同的或分开的吗？ 如果不探究这整个问题，冥想就没有意义。 所以我们必须理头脑，理解自我的过程。 在寻求、选择的头脑，充满了恐惧、在拒绝和辩解的头脑是什么？ 什么是思想？
“I have never approached the problem in this way, and I am now rather confused; but please proceed.”
“我从来没有以这种方式处理过这个问题，我现在相当困惑; 但请继续。”
Thought is sensation, is it not? Through perception and contact there is sensation; from this arises desire, desire for this and not for that. Desire is the beginning of identification, the ‘mine’ and the ‘not-mine’. Thought is verbalized sensation; thought is the response of memory the word, the experience, the image. Thought is transient changing, impermanent, and it is seeking permanency. So thought creates the thinker, who then becomes the permanent; he assumes the role of the censor, the guide, the controller, the moulder of thought. This illusory permanent entity is the product of thought, of the transient. This entity is thought; without thought he is not. The thinker is made up of qualities; his dualities cannot be separated from himself. The controller is the controlled, he is merely playing a deceptive game with himself. Till the false is seen as the false, truth is not.
思想就是感觉，不是吗？ 通过捕获和接触，产生了感觉； 由此产生了欲望，想要这个而不是那个。 欲望是认同的开始，是‘我的’和‘不是我的’。 思想是言语化的感觉； 思想是对言词、体验、形象的回忆。 思想在短暂的变化，是无常的，它在寻求永恒。 因此，思想创造了思想者，然后他成为永久的； 他扮演着审查者、向导、控制者、思想的塑造者。 这个虚幻的永久实体是思想的产物，是短暂的产物。 这个实体是思想；没有思想，他就不存在。 思想者是由品质组成的；他的二元性不能与他自己分开。 控制者即是被控制的对象，他只是在和自己玩一个欺骗性的游戏。 直到虚假被看见之前，真理不会存在。
“Then who is the seer, the experiencer, the entity that says, ‘I understand’?”
“那么谁是观看者，体验者，说'我理解'的实体？”
As long as there is the experiencer remembering the experience, truth is not. Truth is not something to be remembered, stored up, recorded, and then brought out. What is accumulated is not truth. The desire to experience creates the experiencer, who then accumulates and remembers. Desire makes for the separation of the thinker from his thoughts; the desire to become, to experience, to be more or to be less, makes for division between the experiencer and the experience. Awareness of the ways of desire is self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is the beginning of meditation.
只要有体验者记住体验，真理就不在。 真理不是要记住、储存、记录，然后拿出来的东西。 积累的不是真理。对体验的渴望创造了体验者， 然后体验者就去积累并记住了体验。 欲望使思想者与他的思想分离； 对成为、体验、更多或更少的渴望， 制造出体验者和体验之间的划分。 对欲望方式的意识即是自我认识。 自我认识是冥想的开始。
“How can there be a fusion of the thinker with his thoughts?”
“思想者与他的思想怎么可能融合在一起？”
Not through the action of will, nor through discipline, nor through any form of effort, control or concentration, nor through any other means. The use of a means implies an agent who is acting, does it not? As long as there is an actor, there will be a division. The fusion takes place only when the mind is utterly still without trying to be still. There is this stillness, not when the thinker comes to an end, but only when thought itself has come to an end. There must be freedom from the response of conditioning, which is thought. Each problem is solved only when idea, conclusion is not; conclusion, idea, thought, is the agitation of the mind. How can there be understanding when the mind is agitated? Earnestness must be tempered with the swift play of spontaneity. You will find, if you have heard all that has been said, that truth will come in moments when you are not expecting it. If I may say so, be open, sensitive, be fully aware of what is from moment to moment. Don’t build around yourself a wall of impregnable thought. The bliss of truth comes when the mind is not occupied with its own activities and struggles.
不是通过意志的行动，也不是通过纪律， 也不是通过任何形式的努力、控制或专注，也不能通过任何其他手段。 手段的使用意味着代理人正在行动，不是吗？ 只要有行动者，就会有分裂。 只有当头脑完全静止而非试图静止时，融合才会发生。 有这种静止，不是在思想者走到尽头的时候， 而是在思想本身走到尽头的时候。 必须有摆脱条件反射的自由，也就是思想。 每个问题只有在想法、结论不在时才能解决； 结论，想法，思想，是头脑的躁动。 当头脑被激怒时，怎么会有理解呢？ 认真必须通过自发的迅捷的运动来缓和。 你会找到，如果你听过所有已经说过的话， 真理会在你没有期待它的时刻出现。 如果我可以这么说，要开放，敏感，充分意识到每时每刻的事情。 不要在自己周围建造一堵坚不可摧的思想之墙。 真理的快乐来自于头脑不被自己的活动和斗争所占据。