THE SUN HAD set behind the mountains, and the roseate glow was still on the rocky range to the east. The path led down, wandering in and out through the green valley. It was a calm evening, and there was a slight breeze among the leaves. The evening star was just visible high over the horizon, and presently it would be quite dark, for there was no moon. The trees, which had been open and welcoming, were withdrawing into themselves from the dark night. It was cool and silent among these hills and now the sky was full of stars and the mountains were clear and sharp against them. That smell peculiar to the night was filling the air, and far away a dog was barking It was a very still night, and this stillness seemed to penetrate into the rocks, the trees, into all the things about one, and the footsteps on the rough path did not disturb it.
太阳落在群山之后， 玫瑰色的光芒仍然在东边的岩壁上。 这条小路一直往下，在绿色的山谷中进进出出。 这是一个平静的傍晚，树叶之间有细弱的微风。 傍晚的星星刚好显露在地平线之上， 现在会非常黑暗，因为没有月亮。 那些开放的、友善的树木，正隐匿于漆黑的夜里。 在这些山丘之间，凉爽而寂静，现在，天空中充满了星星， 山脉在它们面前清晰而锐利。 空气中弥漫着那种奇特的氛围，远处有一只狗在吠叫， 它是一个非常寂静的夜晚， 这种静似乎穿透岩石、树木、 渗入一个人的一切事物中，而崎岖小路上的脚步声并没有打扰它。
The mind too was utterly still. After all, meditation is not a means to produce a result, to bring about a state which has been or which might be. If meditation is with intention, the desired result may be achieved, but then it is not meditation, it is only the fulfilment of desire. Desire is never satisfied, there is no end to desire. The understanding of desire, without trying to put a stop to it, or sustain it, is the beginning and the end of meditation.
头脑也完全静止了。 毕竟，冥想不是一种手段所产生的结果 —— 一个曾经拥有的或可能出现的状态。 如果冥想是有意的，那么预期的结果可能会实现， 那么，它就不是冥想，它只是欲望的满足。 欲望永远无法让人满意，欲望是无止境的。 理解欲望，而不是试图阻止它或维持它， 是冥想的开始和结束。
But there is something beyond this. It is strange how the meditator persists; he seeks to continue, he becomes the observer, the experiencer, a recollecting mechanism, the one who evaluates, accumulates, rejects. When meditation is of the meditator, it only strengthens the meditator, the experiencer. The stillness of the mind is the absence of the experiencer, of the observer who is aware that he is still. When the mind is still, there is the awakened state. You can be intently awake to many things, you can probe, seek, inquire, but these are the activities of desire, of will, of recognition and gain. That which is ever awake is neither desire nor the product of desire. Desire breeds the conflict of duality, and conflict is darkness.
但除此之外还有一些东西。 奇怪的是，冥想者是怎样地坚持。 他寻求继续，他变成观察者，体验者， 一台记录的机器人，一个评估、积累、反对的人。 当冥想属于冥想者，它只会强化冥想者，这个体验者。 头脑的宁静是体验者的缺席，是观察者的缺席， 观察者即是意识到自己处于静止的那个人。 当头脑静止时，就会有清醒的状态。 你能非常清醒地处理许多事情，你可以探究、寻找、探究， 但这些都是欲望、意志、认识和获取的活动。 那永远清醒的，既不是欲望，也不是欲望的产物。 欲望滋生了二元性的冲突，而冲突就是黑暗。
Well connected and rich, she was now on the hunt for the spiritual. She had sought out the Catholic masters and the Hindu teachers, had studied with the Sufis and dabbled in Buddhism. "Of course," she added, "I have also looked into the occult, and now I have come to learn from you."
人脉广阔、丰富的她，现在正在猎取灵性。 她曾寻找天主教大师和印度教教师， 与苏菲派一起学习，并涉足佛教。 “当然，” 她补充说， “我也研究过神秘学，现在我是来向你学习的。”
Does wisdom lie in the accumulation of much knowledge? If one may ask, what is it that you are seeking? "I have gone after different things at different periods of my life and what I have sought I have generally found. I have gathered much experience, and have had a rich and varied life. I read a great deal on a variety of subjects, and have been to one of the eminent analysts, but I am still seeking."
智慧在于对大量的知识的积累吗？ 如果有人可以问，你在寻找什么？ “我在人生的不同时期追求过不同的东西， 我所追求的东西一般是我能找到的。 我积累了很多体验，生活丰富多彩。 我读了很多关于各种主题的文章， 也拜访过一位杰出的分析师，但我仍在寻找。”
Why are you doing all this? Why this search, whether superficial or deep? "What a strange question to ask! If one did not seek, one would vegetate; if one did not constantly learn, life would have no meaning, one might just as well die."
你为什么要做这一切？ 为什么进行这种搜索，无论是肤浅的还是深层的？ “这真是一个奇怪的问题！如果一个人不寻求，他就会变成植物人； 如果一个人不持续地学习，生命就没有意义，他就如同死去一般。”
Again, what are you learning? In reading what others have said about the structure and behaviour of human beings, in analysing social and cultural differences, in studying any of the various sciences or schools of philosophy, what is it that you are gathering?
再说一遍，你在学习什么？ 在阅读其他人对人类的结构和行为所说的话时， 在分析社会和文化差异时， 在研究各种科学或哲学流派时， 您在收集什么？
"I feel that if only one had enough knowledge it would save one from strife and misery, so I gather it where I can. Knowledge is essential to understanding."
“我觉得， 只要一个人有足够的知识，就能使一个人免于冲突和痛苦， 所以我尽可能地收集它。知识对于理解至关重要。”
Does understanding come through knowledge? Or does knowledge prevent creative understanding? We seem to think that by accumulating facts and information, by having encyclopaedic knowledge, we shall be set free from our bondages. This is simply not so. Antagonism, hatred and war have not been stopped, though we all know how destructive and wasteful they are. Knowledge is not necessarily preventive of these things; on the contrary, it may stimulate and encourage them. So is it not important to find out why we are gathering knowledge?
理解来源于知识吗？ 还是知识阻碍了创造性的理解？ 我们似乎认为，通过积累事实和信息， 通过拥有百科全书式的知识，我们将从束缚中解脱。 事实却并非如此。 敌对、仇恨和战争没有停止， 尽管我们都知道它们是多么具有破坏性和挥霍性。 知识不一定能预防这些事情的发生； 相反，它可能会刺激和鼓励它们。 那么，找出我们为什么要收集知识，难道不重要吗？
"I have talked to many educators who think that if knowledge can be spread sufficiently widely it will dissipate man's hatred for man and prevent the complete destruction of the world. I think this is what most serious educators are concerned with."
“我曾与许多教育工作者交谈过， 他们认为，如果知识能够得到足够广泛的传播， 它将消除人与人之间的仇恨，并防止世界的彻底毁灭。 我认为这是大多数严肃的教育工作者所关心的。”
Though we now have so much knowledge in so many fields, it has not stopped man's brutality to man even among those of the same group, nation, or religion. Perhaps knowledge is blinding us to some other factor that is the real solution to all this chaos and misery. "What is that?"
现在，我们虽然在这么多的领域内，拥有了非常多的知识， 但它并没有阻止人对人的残酷行为，即使是在同一个团体、国家或宗教的人中也是如此。 也许知识正在蒙蔽我们， 让我们看不到某些其它的因素，那些因素也许才能真正解决所有这些混乱和痛苦。“那是什么？”
In what spirit are you asking that question? A verbal answer could be given, but it would only be adding more words to an already overburdened mind. For most people, knowledge is the accumulation of words or the strengthening of their prejudices and beliefs. Words, thoughts, are the framework in which the self concept exists. This concept contracts or expands through experience and knowledge, but the hard core of the self remains, and mere knowledge or learning can never dissolve it. Revolution is the voluntary dissolution of this core, of this concept, whereas action born of self-perpetuating knowledge can only lead to greater misery and destruction.
你在那种精神状态下问这个问题？ 可以提供一个言词上的答案， 但这只会给已经不堪重负的头脑增加更多的言词。 对大多数人来说，知识是言语的积累 或者说，是对他们的偏见和信仰的强化。 言语，思想，是自我概念之所以存在的骨架。 这个概念通过体验和知识而收缩或扩张， 但自我的硬核依然存留，仅靠知识或学习永远无法溶解它。 革命是这个核心、这个概念的自愿地消逝， 而具有延续性的知识所产生的行动 只能导致更大的痛苦和破坏。
"You suggested that there might be a different factor which is the true solution to all our miseries, and I am asking in all seriousness what that factor is. If such a factor exists and one could know and build one's whole life around it, a totally new culture might well be the outcome."
“你认为可能有一个不同的因素， 那是解决我们所有痛苦的真正办法， 我非常严肃地问那个因素是什么。 如果存在这样一个因素，并且人可以知道并围绕它建立自己的整个生活， 那么一个全新的文化很可能就会开花结果。”
Thought can never find it, the mind can never seek it out. You want to know and build your life around it; but the 'you' with its knowledge, its fears its hopes, frustrations and illusions, can never discover it; and without discovering it, merely to acquire more knowledge, more learning, will only act as a further barrier to the coming into being of that state.
思想永远找不到它，头脑永远寻求不到它。 你想知道并围绕它建立你的生活； 但是这个‘你’，携带着它的知识，它的恐惧，它的希望、挫折和幻想， 永远无法发现它； 如果发现不了它，仅仅去获取更多知识，更多地学习， 只会对这种状态的出现，造成进一步的阻碍。
"If you won't guide me to it, I shall have to seek it out for myself; and yet you imply that all search must cease."
“如果你不引导我去，我就得自己去寻找它。 然而，你却暗示所有的搜索都必须停止。”
If there were guidance, there would be no discovery. There must be freedom to discover, not guidance. Discovery is not a reward. "I am afraid I do not understand all this."
如果有指导，就不会有发现。 必须有自由，才能去发现，而不是指导。 发现不是一种奖励。 “恐怕我不明白这一切。”
You seek guidance in order to find; but if you are guided you are no longer free, you become a slave to the one who knows. He who asserts that he knows is already a slave to his knowledge, and he also must be free to find. Finding is from moment to moment, so knowledge becomes an impediment. "Would you please explain a little more?"
您在寻求引导，以便于找到它； 但是如果你被引导，你就不再自由，你就会成为那个知道的人的奴隶。 那些声称他知道的人已经成为他的知识的奴隶， 而他要去寻找，也必须有自由。 寻找是在每时每刻，所以知识成了一种障碍。 “你能再解释一下吗？”
Knowledge is always of the past. What you know is already in the past, is it not? You do not know the present or the future. The strengthening of the past is the way of knowledge. What may be uncovered may be totally new, and your knowledge, which is the accumulation of the past, cannot fathom the new, the unknown. "Do you mean that one must get rid of all one's knowledge if one is to find God, love or whatever it is?"
知识永远属于过去。 你所知道的已经过时了，不是吗？ 你不知道现在或未来。 强化过去，就是知识的前途。 被揭露的事物可能是全新的，而你的知识， 即过去的积累，无法理解新的、未知的。 “你的意思是，如果一个人要寻找上帝、爱或其他任何东西， 就必须摆脱所有的知识吗？”
The self is the past, the power to accumulate things, virtues, ideas. Thought is the outcome of this conditioning of yesterday, and with this instrument you are trying to uncover the unknowable. This is not possible. Knowledge must cease for the other to be.
自我是过去，是收集东西、美德、观念的能力。 思想是昨天加工出来的产物， 而拿着这把工具，你正试图发现不可知的事物。 这是不可能的。 知识必须消退，另一个才可能存在。
"Then how is one to empty the mind of knowledge?"
“那一个人如何清空属于知识的头脑呢？”
There is no 'how'. The practice of a method only further conditions the mind, for then you have a result, not a mind that is free from knowledge, from the self. There is no way, but only passive awareness of the truth with regard to knowledge.
不存在‘如何’。 实践一种方法，只会进一步制约头脑， 因为你这样做，就得到了一个结果，却并非一个从知识中解脱、从自我中解脱的头脑。 没有方法，只能被动地意识知识的本性。