THE FULL MOON was just coming up over the river; there was a haze which made her red, and smoke was rising from the many villages, for it was cold. There was not a ripple on the river, but the current was hidden, strong and deep. The swallows were flying low, and one or two wing tips touched the water, disturbing ever so little the placid surface. Up the river the evening star was just visible over a minaret in the distant, crowded town. The parrots were coming back to be near human habitation, and their flight was never straight. They would drop with a screech, pickup a grain, and fly sideways, but they were always moving forward towards a leafy tree, where they were gathering by the hundreds; then off they would fly again to a more sheltering tree, and as darkness came there would be silence. The moon was now well over the tops of the trees, and she made a silvery pathway on the still waters.
满月刚从河上升起。 一片雾霭使她发红， 雾气从许多村庄升起，那是由于天气冷。 河上没有涟漪，但水流深隐，强大而深沉。 燕子们低空飞翔，有一两个翼尖碰到了水面， 对平静的表面造成如此轻微的扰动。 在河的上游，傍晚的星星在遥远而拥挤的小镇上的尖塔上露面。 鹦鹉们回家了，在人类居住地的附近， 它们的飞行轨迹，从来都不是直线。 它们会发出尖叫声，捡起一粒谷物，然后侧身飞翔， 但它们总是朝着一棵枝繁叶茂的树前进， 在那里，它们聚集了数百只。 然后他们又飞到一棵更隐蔽的树上， 随着黑暗的到来，那里会静下来。 月亮现在已经越过了树顶， 她在平静的水面上铺上了一条银色的丝路。
"I see the importance of listening, but I wonder if I ever really listen to what you say," he remarked. "Somehow I have to make a great effort to listen."
“我看到听的重要性， 但我想知道我是否真的听过你说的话，”他说。 “不知何故，我必须付出很大的努力去听。”
When you make an effort to listen, are you listening? Is not that very effort a distraction which prevents listening? Do you make an effort when you listen to something that gives you delight? Surely, this effort to listen is a form of compulsion. Compulsion is resistance, is it not? And resistance breeds problems, so listening becomes one of them. Listening itself is never a problem. "But to me it is. I want to listen correctly because I feel that what you are saying has deep significance, but I can't go beyond its verbal meaning."
当你努力去听时，你在听吗？ 这种努力是一种分心，因此妨碍了听，难道不是吗？ 当你听到某些让你快乐的事情时，你会努力吗？ 当然，这种去听的努力，就是一种强迫。 强迫就是阻力，不是吗？ 阻抗滋生问题，所以，听就成了一个问题。 听，从来都不是一个问题。 “但对我来说是。 我想正确地听，因为我觉得你说的话有很深的意义， 但我不能超越它的口头意义。”
If I may say so, you are not listening now to what is being said. You have made listening into a problem, and this problem is preventing you from listening. Everything we touch becomes a problem, one issue breeds many other issues. perceiving this is it possible not to breed problems at all? "That would be marvellous, but how is one to come to that happy state?"
如果我可以这么说，你现在不是在听别人说话。 你已经把听变成了一个问题，而这个问题正在阻止你听。 我们把触碰到的一切，都变成问题，一个问题滋生出许多其他的问题。 抓住这一点，能不再去滋事吗？ “那会很棒，但是一个人怎么能达到那种快乐的状态呢？”
Again, you see, the question of 'how', the manner of achieving a certain state, becomes still another problem. We are talking of not giving birth to problems. If it may be pointed out, you must be aware of the manner in which the mind is creating the problem. You want to achieve the state of perfect listening; in other words, you are not listening, but you want to achieve a state, and you need time and interest to gain that or any other state. The need for time and interest generates problems. You are not simply aware that you are not listening. When you are aware of it, the very fact that you are not listening has its own action; the truth of that fact acts, you do not act upon the fact. But you want to act upon it, to change it, to cultivate its opposite, to bring about a desired state, and so on. Your effort to act upon the fact breeds problems, whereas seeing the truth of the fact brings its own liberating action. You are not aware of the truth, nor do you see the false as the false, as long as your mind is occupied in anyway with effort, with comparison, with justification or condemnation.
又来惹是生非了，你看，问“怎么”这种问题， 怎么去达成某种状态，就滋生出另一个问题。 我们交谈，不是为了滋生问题。 如果可以指出这一点： 你必须意识到头脑制造问题的运作方式。 你想达到完美地听的状态； 换句话说，你不是想听，而是你想获取一种状态， 你需要花费时间和兴趣，以获得那种或任何其它的状态。 由于需要花费时间和兴趣，就滋生出了问题。 你没有单纯地意识到‘你没有听’。 当你意识到它 —— ‘你没有听’的这个事实，就有自发的行动； 这个事实的真实性会行动，而你不必去对这个事实采取行动。 但是你想对它采取行动，想改变它，培养它的对立面， 带来一种理想的状态，等等。 你努力去对事实采取行动，滋生出了问题， 而看见事实的真实性，就带来了自发的解放行动。 你意识不到真实，你也没把假看成是假， 只要你的头脑被努力、比较、辩解或谴责所占据。
"All this may be so, but with all the conflicts and contradictions that go on within oneself, it still seems to me that it is almost impossible to listen."
“所有这一切可能就是如此， 但是由于自己内心发生的所有冲突和矛盾， 在我看来，仍然几乎不可能听到。”
Listening itself is a complete act; the very act of listening brings its own freedom. But are you really concerned with listening, or with altering the turmoil within? If you would listen, sir, in the sense of being aware of your conflicts and contradictions without forcing them into any particular pattern of thought, perhaps they might altogether cease. You see, we are constantly trying to be this or that, to achieve a particular state, to capture one kind of experience and avoid another, so the mind is everlastingly occupied with something; it is never still to listen to the noise of its own struggles and pains. Be simple, sir, and don't try to become something or to capture some experience.
听本身就是一个完整的行为； 听的行为本身，就带来了它自身的自由。 但事，你是真地关心听，还是想改变内心的动荡？ 先生，如果你愿意听， 去感受你的冲突和矛盾， 而不去强迫它们变成任何一种特定的思想模式， 也许，它们就会完全地消退。 你看，我们不断地试图成为这个或那个， 达到一种特定的状态， 捕捉一种体验并避免另一种体验， 所以头脑永远被某个东西所占据； 它永远不会停下，去听自己的挣扎与痛苦的噪音。 先生，简单点，不要试图成为某个人物或捕捉某种体验。