对生活的评注 2-43

THE STORM HAD lasted for several days, with high winds and torrential rains. The earth was soaking up the water, and the dust of many summers was being washed from the trees. In this part of the country it hadn't really rained for several years, but now it was making up for it, at least everyone hoped so, and there was gladness in the noise of the rain and the running waters. It was still raining when we all went to bed, and the patter of rain was very strong on the roof. It had a rhythm, a dance, and there was the murmur of many streams. Then what a lovely morning it was! The clouds were gone, and the hills all around were sparkling in the early morning sun; they had all been washed clean, and there was a benediction in the air. Nothing was yet stirring, and only the high hilltops were aglow. In a few minutes the noises of the day would begin; but now there was a deep peace in the valley, though the streams were gurgling and the cock had begun to crow. All the colours had come to life; everything was so vivid, the new grass and that enormous tree which seemed to dominate the valley. There was new life with abundance, and now the gods would receive their offering, gladly and freely given; now the fields would be made rich for the coming rice, and there would be no lack of fodder for the cows and the goats, now the wells would be full and marriages could be performed with gladness. The earth was red, and there would be rejoicing.

暴风雨持续了好几天，伴随着狂风和暴雨。大地正在吸纳水，许多夏天的灰尘正在从树上被冲走。在乡村的这片地区，几年来没有真正地下雨，但现在，它正在被弥补，至少每个人都希望如此，在雨滴和流水的声响中，有欢乐的气氛。当我们都上床睡觉时，雨还在下，屋顶上的雨声非常强烈。它有节奏，有舞蹈，有许多溪流的低语。然后，是一个多么可爱的早晨！云层消失了，周围的山丘在清晨的阳光下闪亮。它们都被洗干净了，空气中弥漫着祝福。没有任何扰动，只有高高的山顶有亮光。几分钟后，一天的噪动开始了。但现在山谷里一片平和，尽管溪流咕噜咕噜地叫着，公鸡已经开始打鸣。所有的色彩都充盈着朝气。一切都那么生动，清新的草叶和那棵巨大的、似乎主宰了山谷的树。有富饶的新生，现在，众神将接受他们的奉献，快乐和自由地给予；现在，田地将为即将到来的稻米而变得富有，牛和山羊的饲料将不会匮乏，井水将充满，结婚可以高兴地举行。大地披上了红妆，将会有欢乐。

"I am well aware of the state of my mind," he explained. "I have been to college and received a so-called education, and I have read fairly extensively. Politically I have been of the extreme left, and I am quite familiar with their literature. The party has become like any organized religion; it is what Catholicism was and continues to be, with the excommunications, the threats and deprivations. For a time I worked ambitiously in politics, hoping for a better world; but I have seen through that game, though I could have gone ahead in it. Long ago I saw that real reformation doesn't come through politics; politics and religion don't mix. I know it is the thing to say that we must bring religion into politics; but the moment we do, it is no longer religion, it becomes just nonsense. God doesn't talk to us in political terms but we make our own god in terms of our politics or economic conditioning.

“我很清楚自己的思想状态，” 他解释道。 “我上过大学，接受了所谓的教育，而且我读过相当广泛的书。在政治上，我一直是极左派，我对他们的文献非常熟悉。党派已经变得像任何有组织的宗教一样；它就是天主教过去和现在的样子，伴随着驱逐、威胁和剥夺。有一段时间，我雄心勃勃地于政治工作，希望有一个更美好的世界；但我已经看穿了那场比赛，尽管我本来可以在其中继续前进。很久以前，我看到真正的宗教改革不是通过政治来实现的；政治和宗教不能混为一谈。我知道，我们必须把宗教带入政治。但是，当我们这样做的那一刻，它就不再是宗教，它只是胡说八道。神不会用政治术语来跟我们讲话，而我们却用政治或经济术语，制造出我们自己的神。

"But I haven't come to talk politics with you, and you are quite right to refuse to discuss it. I have come to talk over something that is really eating me up. The other evening you said something about mediocrity. I listened but couldn't take it in, for I was too disturbed; but as you were talking, that word 'mediocrity' struck me very forcibly. I had never thought of myself as being mediocre. I am not using that word in the social sense, and as you pointed out, it has nothing to do with class and economic differences, or with birth."

“但我过来，不是与你谈论政治，你拒绝讨论它是完全正确的。我是来谈论一些真正吞噬我的事情。前几天晚上，你说了一些关于平庸的话语。我听了，但吸收不了，我感到太不安宁了。但就在你说话的时候，“平庸”这个词让我非常强烈地感到震撼。我从不认为自己平庸。我不是在社会意义上使用这个词，正如你所指出的，它与阶级和经济差异或出身无关。”

Of course. Mediocrity is entirely outside the field of arbitrary social divisions. "I see it is. You also said, if I remember rightly, that the truly religious person is the only revolutionary, and such a person is not mediocre. I am talking of the mediocrity of the mind, not of job or position. Those who are in the highest and most powerful positions, and those who have marvellously interesting occupations, may still be mediocre. I have neither an exalted position nor a particularly interesting occupation, and I am aware of the state of my own mind. It is just mediocre. I am a student of both western and eastern philosophy, and am interested in many other things, but in spite of this my mind is quite ordinary; it has some capacity for coordinated thinking, but it is still mediocre and uncreative."

当然。平庸完全超出了任何社会等级划分的领域。 “我看到了这点。你还说，如果我没记错的话，真正的宗教人士是唯一的革命者，这样的人并不平庸。我说的是头脑的平庸，而不是工作或职位的平庸。那些处于最高和最有权势的人，以及那些拥有非常多的收益的职业的人，可能仍然是平庸的。我既没有崇高的地位，也没有特特别多的收益的职业，我意识到自己的思想状态。它恰好是平庸的。我是西方与东方哲学的学生，对许多其他事物感兴趣，但尽管如此，我的头脑还是很普通的。它有一些协调性的思考能力，但它仍然是平庸的，没有创造力。”

Then what is the problem sir? "First, I am really quite ashamed of the state I am in, of my own utter stupidity, and I am saying this without any self pity. Deep down in myself, in spite of all my learning, I find that I am not creative in the most profound sense of that word. It must be possible to have that creativeness of which you spoke the other day; but how is one to set about it? Is this too blunt a question?"

那么问题出在哪里呢，先生？ “首先，我真的为我所处的状态感到很羞愧，为自己完全的愚蠢感到羞愧，我这样说没有任何自怜。在我自己内心深处，尽管我学到了很多东西，但我发现，我没有最深刻的意义上的创造力。必须有可能拥有你前几天谈到的那种创造性；但是如何开始呢？这这个问题是不是太生硬了？”

Can we think of this problem very simply? What is it that makes the mind-heart mediocre? One may have encyclopaedic knowledge, great capacity, and so on; but beyond all these superficial acquisitions and gifts, what makes the mind deeply stupid? Can the mind be, at any time, other than what it has always been? "I am beginning to see that the mind, however clever, however capable, can also be stupid. It cannot be made into something else, for it will always be what it is. It may be infinitely capable of reasoning, speculation, design calculation; but however expansible, it will always remain in the same field. I have just caught the significance of your question. You are asking whether the mind, which is capable of such astonishing feats, can transcend itself by its own will and effort."

我们能不能把这个问题想得很简单点？是什么让头脑，让心灵变得平庸？一个人可能具有百科全书式的知识，强大的能力，等等；但是，除了所有这些肤浅的收获和天赋之外，是什么使头脑变得很愚蠢呢？头脑在任何时候都会是它一直以来的样子吗？ “我开始看到，头脑，无论多么聪明，无论多么有能力，也可能是愚蠢的。它不能被制造成别的东西，因为它将永远是它本来的样子。它可以无限地推理、推测、设计；但无论多么地广阔，它将永远保持在同一个领域。我刚刚抓住了你的问题的意义。你是在问，能够做出如此惊人壮举的头脑，是否能够通过自己的意志和努力超越自己。”

That is one of the questions that arise. If, however clever and capable, the mind is still mediocre, can it through its own volition ever go beyond itself? Mere condemnation of mediocrity, with its wide scope of eccentricities, will in no way alter the fact. And when condemnation, with all its implications, has ceased, is it possible to find out what it is that brings about the state of mediocrity? We now understand the significance of that word, so let us stick to it. Is not one of the factors of mediocrity the urge to achieve, to have a result to succeed? And when we want to become creative, we are still dealing with the matter superficially, are we not? I am this, which I want to change into that, so I ask how; but when creativeness is something to be striven after, a result to be achieved, the mind has reduced it to its own condition. This is the process that we have to understand, and not attempt to change mediocrity into something else.

那是引发问题的一部分。如果，无论多么地聪明和有能力，头脑仍然是平庸的，它能通过自己的意志超越自己吗？仅仅谴责平庸及其广泛的怪癖，绝不会改变这一事实。当谴责及其所有影响已经停下时，是否有可能找出：是什么导致了平庸的状态？我们现在明白了这个词的意义，所以让我们坚持下去。平庸的因素之一难道不是追求成就，想要获取成功的果实的冲动吗？当我们想要变得有创造力时，我们仍然是在表面上处理这个问题，不是吗？我是这个样子，我想把它改成那个样子，所以我问该如何；但是，当创造力是一种需要努力去追求的东西，是要去实现的结果时，头脑就把它降格为它所拥有的条件。这才是我们必须理解的过程，而不是试图把平庸变成别的东西。

"Do you mean that any effort on the part of the mind to change what it is, merely leads to the continuation of itself in another form, and so there is no change at all?"

“你的意思是，思想在任何层面上，所做的任何努力，都只会导致自身以另一种形式延续，所以根本没有产生改变？”

That is so, is it not? The mind has brought about its present state through its own effort, through its desires and fears, through its hopes, joys and pains; and any attempt on its part to change that state is still in the same direction. A petty mind trying not to be, is still petty. Surely the problem is the cessation of all effort on the part of the mind to be something, in what ever direction.

就是那样，不是吗？头脑通过自己的努力，通过它的欲望和恐惧，通过它的希望、喜悦和痛苦，把它从现在的状态改变成另一种状态的任何尝试，仍然在同一个方向上。一个琐碎的头脑尝试去改革，可它依然是琐碎的。当然了，问题在于头脑停下一切的努力：停下那些在任何层面上，想成为某种人物的努力。

"Of course. But this does not imply negation, a state of vacuity, does it?"

“当然。但这并不意味着否定，一种空虚的状态，不是吗？”

If one merely hears the words without catching their significance, without experimenting and experiencing, then conclusions have no validity. "So creativeness is not to be striven after, It is not to be learnt, practiced, or brought about through any action, through any form of compulsion. I see the truth of that. If I may, I shall think aloud and slowly work this out with you. My mind, which has been ashamed of its mediocrity, is now aware of the significance of condemnation. This condemnatory attitude is brought about by the desire to change; but this very desire to change is the outcome of pettiness, so the mind is still what it was and there has been no change at all. So far I have understood."

如果一个人只是听到这些话而没有抓住它们的意义，没有实验，没有体验，那么结论就没有有效性。 “因此，创造力不是要追求的，不是要去学习，践行，也不是通过任何行动，通过任何形式的强迫来实现的。我看到了它的真实性。如果可以的话，我会大声思考，慢慢地和你一起解决这个问题。我的头脑一直为它的平庸感到羞耻，现在意识到谴责的意义。这种谴责的态度是由想改变的欲望而引发的；但这种改变的欲望是琐碎的产物，所以头脑依然是它原来的样子，根本没有改变。到目前为止，我已经理解了。”

What is the state of the mind when it is not attempting to change itself, to become something? "It accepts what it is."

当头脑不试图改变自己，成为某种人物的时候，它是什么状态？“它接受它的现状。”

Acceptance implies that there is an entity who accepts, does it not? And is not this acceptance also a form of effort in order to gain, to experience further? So a conflict of duality is set going, which is again the same problem, for it is conflict that breeds mediocrity of mind and heart. Freedom from mediocrity is that state which comes into being when all conflict has ceased. but acceptance is merely resignation. Or has that word 'acceptance' a different meaning to you?

接受意味着有一个实体接受，不是吗？这种接受不也是一种努力的形式，一种想要获取，进一步体验的手段吗？因此，一场二元性的冲突开始了，这样，又陷进了同样的问题，因为正是冲突滋生了头脑和心灵的平庸。解放平庸，就是当所有冲突都停止时而形成的状态。但接受只是听天由命。还是“接受”这个词对你来说有不同的含义？