对生活的评注 3-1

THE HILLS ACROSS the lake were very beautiful, and beyond them rose the snow-covered mountains. It had been raining all day; but now, like an unexpected miracle, the skies had suddenly cleared, and everything became alive, joyous and serene. The flowers were intense in their yellow, red and deep purple, and the raindrops on them were like precious jewels. It was a most lovely evening, full of light and splendour. The people came out into the streets, and along the lake, children were shouting with laughter. Through all this movement and bustle there was enchanting beauty, and a strange, all-pervading peace.

湖对面的山丘非常美丽，在它们之外耸立着白雪皑皑的山脉。已经下了一整天雨。而现在，就像一个意外的奇迹，突然间，天气放晴了，一切都变得生机勃勃、欢乐而静谧。花儿的黄色、红色和深紫色，都很浓郁，它们身上的雨滴就像珍贵的珠宝。它是一个最可爱的夜晚，充满光明和辉煌。人们走上街道，沿着湖边，孩子们欢笑着大喊大叫。透过所有这些运动和喧闹，存在着迷人的美丽，以及一种奇怪的、四处弥漫的和平。

There were several of us on the long bench facing the lake. A man was talking in rather a high voice and it was impossible not to overhear what he was saying to a neighbour. “On an evening like this I wish I were far away from this noise and confusion, but my job keeps me here, and I loathe it.” People were feeding the swans, the ducks and a few stray seagulls. The swans were pure white and very graceful. There wasn’t a ripple on the water now, and the hills across the lake were almost black; but the mountains beyond the hills were aglow with the setting sun, and the vivid clouds behind them seemed passionately alive.

我们几个人坐在长凳上，面朝着湖。一个男人说话的声调相当高，不可能不偷听他对邻人说的话。 “在这样的夜晚，我希望我远离这种噪音和混乱，但我的工作让我留在这里，我讨厌它。” 人们正在喂天鹅、鸭子和一些流浪的海鸥。天鹅是纯白色的，非常优雅。现在水面上没有涟漪，湖对面的山丘几乎漆黑一片。但山丘外面的高山，随着夕阳夕照而明亮，背后鲜艳的云彩仿佛热恋般活泼。

“I am not sure I understand you,” my visitor began, “when you say that knowledge must be set aside to understand truth.” He was an elderly man, much travelled and well-read. He had spent a year or so in a monastery, he explained, and had wandered all over the world, from port to port, working on ships, saving money and gathering knowledge. “I don’t mean mere book knowledge,” he went on; “I mean the knowledge that men have gathered but have not put down on paper, the mysterious tradition that’s beyond scrolls and sacred books. I have dabbled in occultism, but that has always seemed to me rather stupid and superficial. A good microscope is vastly more beneficial than the clairvoyance of a man who sees super-physical things. I have read some of the great historians with their theories and their visions, but... Given a first-rate mind and the capacity to accumulate knowledge, a man should be able to do immense good. I know it isn’t the fashion, but I have a sneaking compulsion to reform the world, and knowledge is my passion. I have always been a passionate person in many ways, and now I am consumed with this urge to know. The other day I read something of yours which intrigued me, and when you said that there must be freedom from knowledge, I decided to come and see you – not as a follower, but as an inquirer.”

“我不确定我是否理解你，”我的访客开始说， “当你说必须把知识放在一边才能理解真理时。” 他是一个老人，经常旅行，读了很多书。他解释说，他在修道院里呆了一年左右，在世界各地游历，从一个港口到另一个港口，在船上工作、挣钱和收集知识。 “我指的不仅仅是书本知识，” 他接着说。 “而是人们所收集的，却没有写在纸上的知识，超越卷轴和神圣书籍的神秘传统。我涉足过神秘主义，但在我看来，这些都相当的愚蠢和肤浅。一个好的显微镜比一个看到超物质的人的透视能力要有益得多。我读过一些伟大的历史学家的理论和愿景，但是……如果一个人有一流的头脑和积累知识的能力，一个人应该能够做巨大的善事。我知道这不是时髦，但我有一种潜在的、想改造世界的冲动，知识是我的激情所在。在很多方面，我一直是一个充满激情的人，现在我被这种想要知道的冲动所吞噬。前几天，我读了你的一些让我感兴趣的内容，当你说必须有摆脱知识的自由时，我决定来见你 —— 不是作为追随者，而是作为询问者。”

To follow another, however learned or noble, is to block all understanding, isn’t it? “Then we can talk freely and with mutual respect.”

追随另一个人，无论多么有学问或高尚，阻碍着完整地理解，不是吗？ “那么，我们可以相互尊重地，自由地交谈。”

If I may ask, what do you mean by knowledge? “Yes, that’s a good question to begin with. Knowledge is everything that man has learnt through experience; it is what he has gathered by study, through centuries of struggle and pain, in the many fields of endeavour, both scientific and psychological. As even the greatest historian interprets history according to his learning and mood so an ordinary scholar like me may translate knowledge into action, either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Though we are not concerned with action at the moment, it is inevitably related to knowledge, which is what man has experienced or learnt through thought, through meditation, through sorrow. Knowledge is vast; it is not only written down in books, but it exists in the individual as well as in the collective or racial consciousness of man. Scientific and medical information, the technical ‘know-how’ of the material world, is rooted principally in the consciousness of western man, just as in the consciousness of eastern man there is the greater sensitivity of unworldliness. All this is knowledge, embracing not only what is already known, but what is being discovered from day to day. Knowledge is an additive, deathless process, there is no end to it, and it may therefore be the immortal that man is after. So I can’t understand why you say that all knowledge must be set aside if there is to be the understanding of truth.”

如果我可以问，你说的知识是什么意思？ “是的，这是一个很好的问题。知识是人类通过经验学到的一切；这是他通过研究，通过几个世纪的斗争和痛苦，在许多科学和心理学领域所收集到的。即使是最伟大的历史学家也会根据他的学习和心态来解释历史，所以像我这样的普通学者可能会将知识转化为行动，无论‘好’或‘坏’。虽然我们此刻并不关心行动，但它不可避免地与知识有关，这是人通过思想，通过冥想，通过悲伤所体会或学到的。知识是广阔的；它不仅写在书本上，而且存在于个人的集体或种族意识中。科学和医学信息，物质世界的技术‘诀窍’，主要植根于西方人的意识，就像在东方人的意识中，对非世俗的事物具有更大的敏感性一样。所有这些都是知识，不仅包括已经知道的东西，而且包括每天发现的东西。知识是一个叠加的、不死的进程，它没有尽头，因此，它可能是人类所追求的不朽。所以我不明白为什么你说，如果要理解真理，就必须把所有的知识都放在一边。”

The division between knowledge and understanding is artificial, it really doesn’t exist; but to be free of this division, which is to perceive the difference between them we must find out what is the highest form of thinking, otherwise there will be confusion.

知识与理解之间的划分是人为的，真的不存在这种划分；但是要摆脱这种分割，感知它们之间的差异，我们必须找出什么是思考的最高形式，否则就会困惑。

Does thinking begin with a conclusion? Is thinking a movement from one conclusion to another? Can there be thinking, if thinking is positive? Is not the highest form of thinking negative? Is not all knowledge an accumulation of definitions, conclusions and positive assertions? positive thought, which is based on experience, is always the outcome of the past, and such thought can never uncover the new.

思考是从一个结论开始的吗？思考是从一个结论到另一个结论的运动吗？如果思考是主动的，那么存在思考吗？思考的最高形式不是被动的吗？所有的知识都是积累起来的定义、结论和主动性的断言，难道不是吗？主动的思考，是基于经验之上的，永远是过去的结果，而这种思考永远无法发现新的。

“You are stating that knowledge is ever in the past, and that thought originating from the past must inevitably cloud the perception of that which may be called truth. However, without the past as memory, we could not recognize this object which we have agreed to call a chair. The word ‘chair’ reflects a conclusion reached by common consent, and all communication would cease if such conclusions were not taken for granted. Most of our thinking is based on conclusions, on traditions, on the experiences of others, and life would be impossible without the more obvious and inevitable of these conclusions. Surely you don’t mean that we should put aside all conclusions, all memories and traditions?”

“你说知识永远是过去的，而源于过去的思想必然会遮蔽对可能被称之为‘真理’的东西的感知。然而，如果没有作为记忆的曾经，我们就无法认出这个我们都认同的称之为‘椅子’的物体。 ‘椅子’一词反映了通过大家同意而得出的结论，如果这种结论不被认为是理所当然的，所有沟通都将停止。我们的大部分思考都是基于结论、传统、他人的经验，如果没有这些更明显和不可避免的结论，生活就不可能存在。当然，你不是在说我们应该把所有的结论、所有的记忆和传统都放在一边吧？”

The ways of tradition inevitably lead to mediocrity, and a mind caught in tradition cannot perceive what is true. Tradition may be one day old, or it may go back for a thousand years. Obviously it would be absurd for an engineer to set aside the engineering knowledge he has gained through the experience of a thousand others; and if one were to try to set aside the memory of where one lived it would only indicate a neurotic state. But the gathering of facts does not make for the understanding of life. Knowledge is one thing and understanding another. Knowledge does not lead to understanding; but understanding may enrich knowledge, and knowledge may implement understanding.

传统的方式不可避免地导致平庸，陷入传统的头脑无法感知什么是真实。传统可能只有一天的历史，也可能可以追溯到一千年前。显然，对于一个工程师来说，让他把通过一千人的经验所获得的工程知识放在一边是荒谬的；如果一个人试图把‘自己住在哪里’的记忆放在一边，那只能表明一种神经质的状态。但是，事实的收集并不能使人理解生活。知识是一回事，理解是另一回事。知识不会导向理解；但理解可以丰富知识，知识可能实现理解。

“Knowledge is essential and not to be despised. Without knowledge, modern surgery and a hundred other marvels could not exist.”

“知识是必不可少的，不能被鄙视。没有知识，现代外科手术和其它成百个奇迹，就不可能存在。”

We are not attacking or defending knowledge, but trying to understand the whole problem. Knowledge is only a part of life, not the totality, and when that part assumes all-consuming importance, as it is threatening to do now, then life becomes superficial, a dull routine from which man seeks to escape through every form of diversion and superstition, with disastrous consequences. Mere knowledge, however wide and cunningly put together, will not resolve our human problems; to assume that it will is to invite frustration and misery. Something much more profound is needed. One may know that hate is futile, but to be free of hate is quite another matter. Love is not a question of knowledge.

我们不是在攻击或捍卫知识，而是试图理解整个问题。知识只是生活的一部分，而不是整体，当这部分具有无所不包的重要性时，就像它现在威胁着要那样做，那么生活就会变得肤浅，变成一种沉闷的例行公事，在知识里面，人试图通过各种形式的转移和迷信来逃避，引发灾难性的后果。仅仅依赖知识，无论多么广泛地、狡猾地装配在一起，都无法解决我们人类的问题；想当然地认为它们能解决问题，那就会招致挫折与痛苦。需要有某种更深刻的东西。人可能知道仇恨是徒劳的，但摆脱仇恨，却是另一回事。爱不是知识的问题。

To go back, positive thinking is no thinking at all; it is merely a modified continuity of what has been thought. The outward shape of it may change from time to time, depending on compulsions and pressures, but the core of positive thinking is always tradition. positive thinking is the process of conformity and the mind that conforms can never be in a state of discovery.

回过头来看，主动性的思考根本不是思考；它只是在对曾经思考过的东西进行调整，以使其延续。它的外形，可能会随着时间而改变，这取决于内在的冲动和外部的压力，但主动性的思考核心始终是传统。主动性的思考是一种遵循的过程，遵循的头脑，永远不会处于发现的状态。

“But can positive thinking be discarded? Is it not necessary at a certain level of human existence?”

“但主动性的思考可以被抛弃吗？在人类存在的某个层面上，它难道不是必要的吗？”

Of course, but that’s not the whole issue. We are trying to find out if knowledge may become a hindrance to the understanding of truth. Knowledge is essential, for without it we should have to begin all over again in certain areas of our existence. This is fairly simple and clear. But will accumulated knowledge, however vast, help us to understand truth? “What is truth? Is it a common ground to be trodden by all? Or is it a subjective, individual experience?”

当然是，但这不是完全的。我们试图找出知识是否会成为理解真理的障碍。知识是必不可少的，因为没有它，我们就不得不在我们存在的某些领域内重新开始。这是相当简单和清楚的。但是，积累的知识，无论多么的浩瀚，有助于我们理解真理吗？ “什么是真理？它是所有人踩踏的土地吗？还是一种主观的、个人的体验？”

By whatever name it may be called, truth must ever be new, living; but the words ‘new’ and ‘living’ are used only to convey a state that is not static, not dead, not a fixed point within the mind of man. Truth must be discovered anew from moment to moment, it is not an experience that can be repeated; it has no continuity, it is a timeless state. The division between the many and the one must cease for truth to be. It is not a state to be achieved, nor a point towards which the mind can evolve, grow. If truth is conceived as a thing to be gained, then the cultivation of knowledge and the accumulations of memory become necessary, giving rise to the guru and the follower, the one who knows and the one who does not know.

无论它被叫成什么名字，真理必然永远是新的、活的；但是‘新’和‘活’这两个词只是用来传达一种状态 —— 它不是静态的，不是死的，不是头脑里面的某个固定点。真理必须每时每刻重新被发现，它不是一种可以重复的体验；它没有延续性，它是一种非时间的状态。 ‘多’和‘一’之间的划分必须消失，以便于真理的存在。它不是一个要抵达的状态，也不是一个头脑可以进化、成长的点。如果真理被设想为一种要获得的东西，那么知识的培养和记忆的积累就成为必要，从而产生了上师和追随者 —— 一个知道的人和一个不知道的人。

“Then you are against gurus and followers?” It’s not a matter of being against something but of perceiving that conformity, which is the desire for security, with its fears, prevents the experiencing of the timeless. “I think I understand what you mean. But is it not immensely difficult to renounce all that one has gathered? Indeed, is it possible?”

“那你就是在反对上师和追随者？” 这不是一个反对某个事情的问题，而是感知那种遵循，那种安全感，其中包含的恐惧，阻止了对那种非时间的东西的体验。 “我想我明白你的意思。但是，放弃一个人所收集的一切，难道不是非常困难吗？实际上，有这种可能吗？”