THE ROAD LED south of the noisy, sprawling town, with its seemingly endless rows of new buildings. The road was crowded with buses, cars and bullock carts, and with hundreds of cyclists who were going home from their offices, looking worn out after a long day of routine work which held no interest for them. Many stopped at an open market on the roadside to buy wilted vegetables. As we went through the outskirts of the town, there were rich green trees on both sides of the road, recently washed by the heavy rains. The sun was setting to our right, a huge golden ball above the distant hills. There were many goats among the trees, and the kids were chasing each other. The curving road went past an eleventh-century tower, standing red and lofty amidst Hindu and Mogul ruins. Dotted about here and there were ancient tombs, and a splendid, ruined archway told of a glory that was long ago.
这条路通向南面嘈杂的、正在扩张的城镇， 仿佛有无穷无尽的新建筑物。 这条路上挤满了公共汽车、汽车和牛车， 还有数百名骑自行车的人，他们从办公室下班回家， 经过一天漫长的例行工作后，看起来很疲惫，他们无精打采。 许多人在路边的一个露天市场停下来买放蔫了的蔬菜。 当我们穿过城镇的郊区时， 道路两旁有茂密的绿树，最近被大雨冲刷过。 太阳落在我们的右边，一个巨大的金球，在远处的山丘上。 树丛中有许多山羊，孩子们互相追逐。 弯曲的道路经过一座十一世纪的塔楼， 矗立在印度和莫卧儿废墟中，红色而高耸。 周围的古墓点缀着它， 还有一座壮丽的、被毁坏的拱门，讲述着很久以前的荣耀。
The car was stopped, and we walked along the road. A group of peasants were returning from their work in the fields; all were women, and after a long day of toil, they were singing a lilting song. In that peaceful countryside their voices rang out, clear, resonant and gay. As we approached, they shyly stopped singing, but continued with their song as soon as we had passed.
汽车停了下来，我们沿着马路走。 一群农民从田间劳作回来。 她们都是女人，经过一整天的辛劳，她们唱着一首轻快的歌。 在那个平静的乡村里，她们的嗓声响亮、清晰、悠扬、欢乐。 当我们走近时，她们害羞地停止了唱歌， 但一旦我们经过，她们又继续唱歌。
The evening light was among the gently rolling hills, and the trees were dark against the evening sky. On a huge jutting rock stood the crumbling battlements of an ancient fortress. There was an astonishing beauty covering the land; it was all about us, filling every nook and corner of the earth, and the dark recesses of our hearts and minds. There is only love, not the love of God and the love of man; it is not to be divided. A big owl flew silently across the moon and a group of the educated villagers were talking loudly, debating whether or not to go to the cinema in the town; they were rowdy, and aggressively occupied half of the road.
黄昏的霞光铺在绵延起伏的山丘中， 树木的黑暗映衬着傍晚的天空。 在一块巨大而突出的岩石上，矗立着一座坍塌了的古堡城垛。 这片土地，有一种惊人的美； 这一切都与我们相关，填满了地球的每一个隐匿处和角落， 以及我们心灵和头脑的幽暗处。 只有爱，没有神的爱和人的爱。它是不可分割的。 一只大猫头鹰悄然地飞过月亮， 一群受过教育的村民们在大声说话， 争论着是否要去镇上的电影院； 他们吵吵闹闹，咄咄逼人地占据了一半的道路。
It was pleasant in the soft moonlight, and the shadows on the ground were clear and sharp. A lorry came rattling along the road, blowing its threatening horn; but it soon passed, leaving the countryside to the loveliness of the evening, and to the immense solitude.
在柔和的月光下，令人愉悦， 地面上的阴影清晰锐利。 一辆卡车在路上嘎嘎作响，吹响了威胁性的喇叭声。 但它很快就过去了， 乡野只剩下夜晚的爱，和巨大的寂寥。
He was a healthy and thoughtful young man, still in his thirties, and was employed in some government office. He was not too averse to his work, he explained, and everything considered, had a fairly good salary and a promising future. He was married and had a son of four whom he had wanted to bring along, but the boy’s mother had insisted that he would be a nuisance.
他是一个健康而有思想的年轻人，三十多岁， 受雇于某个政府办公室。 他解释说，他并不太反对自己的工作， 一切都考虑周到，他都有相当好的薪水和充满希望的未来。 他结了婚，有一个四岁的儿子，他想带他们一起来， 但孩子的母亲坚持认为他会是一个麻烦。
“I attended one or two of your talks,” he said, “and, if I may, I would like to ask a question. I have got into certain bad habits which are bothering me, and which I want to be free of. For several months now I have tried to get rid of them, but without success. What am I to do?”
“我参加了你的一两次讲话，” 他说， “如果可以的话，我想问一个问题。 我养成了一些困扰我的坏习惯，我想摆脱这些坏习惯。 几个月来，我一直试图摆脱它们，但没有成功。 我该做什么呢？”
Let us consider habit itself, and not divide it into good and bad. The cultivation of habit, however good and respectable, only makes the mind dull. What do we mean by habit? Let us think it out, and not depend on mere definition. “Habit is an oft-repeated act.”
让我们来考虑习惯本身，而不是把它分为好和坏。 习惯的养成，无论多么的好和体面，只会使头脑变得迟钝。 习惯是什么意思？让我们想一想，而不是仅仅依靠定义。 “习惯是一种经常重复的行为。”
It is a momentum of action in a certain direction, whether pleasant or unpleasant, and it may operate consciously or unconsciously, with thought, or thoughtlessly. Is that it? “Yes, sir, that’s right.”
它是朝着某个方向行动的动力，无论是愉快的还是不愉快的， 它都可以有意或无意地、自觉地或不自觉地运作， 是那样吗？“是的，先生，没错。”
Some feel the need of coffee in the morning, and without it they get a headache. The body may not have required it at first, but it has gradually got used to the pleasurable taste and stimulation of coffee, and now it suffers when deprived of it. “But is coffee a necessity?”
有些人觉得早上要喝咖啡，没有咖啡，他们会头疼。 身体起初可能并不需要它， 但它已经逐渐习惯了咖啡的愉悦味道和刺激， 现在当它被剥夺它时会痛苦。 “但是咖啡是必需品吗？”
What do you mean by a necessity? “Good food is necessary to good health.”
你说的必需品是什么意思？ “好食物是身体健康的必要条件。”
Surely; but the tongue becomes accustomed to food of a certain kind or flavour, and then the body feels deprived and anxious when it does not get what it’s used to. This insistence on food of a particular kind indicates – does it not? – that a habit has been formed, a habit based on pleasure and the memory of it. “But how can one break a pleasurable habit? To break an unpleasant habit is comparatively easy, but my problem is how to break the pleasant ones.”
当然；但是舌头习惯了某种食物或味道， 然后当身体没有得到它所习惯的东西时，身体就会感到被剥夺和焦虑。 这种对特定食物的坚持表明了 —— 不是吗？ —— 一个习惯已经养成，一个基于快乐和对它的记忆的习惯。 “但是，如何才能打破一个愉快的习惯呢？ 打破一个不愉快的习惯相对容易， 但我的问题是如何打破愉快的习惯。”
As I said, we aren’t considering pleasant and unpleasant habits, or how to break away from either of them, but we are trying to understand habit itself. We see that habit is formed when there is pleasure and the demand for the continuation of the pleasure. Habit is based on pleasure and the memory of it. An initially unpleasant experience may gradually become a pleasant and ‘necessary’ habit.
正如我所说，我们不是在考虑愉快和不愉快的习惯， 或者如何摆脱其中任何一个，但我们正试图理解习惯本身。 我们看到，当有快乐和对快乐的延续的需求时，习惯就形成了。 习惯是基于快乐和对它的记忆。 最初不愉快的体验，可能会逐渐成为一种愉快和‘必要’的习惯。
Now, let’s go a little further into the matter. What is your problem? “Amongst other habits, sexual indulgence has become a powerful and consuming habit with me. I have tried to bring it under control by disciplining myself against it, by dieting, practising various exercises, and so on, but in spite of all my resistance the habit has continued.”
现在，让我们进一步探讨这个问题。您的问题是什么？ “在其它习惯中，性放纵已经成为我一种强大而吞噬性的习惯。 我试图通过训练自己来控制它， 通过节食，实践各种练习等等， 但是，尽管我做了一切的抵制，这个习惯仍在继续。”
Perhaps there is no other release in your life, no other driving interest. Probably you are bored with your work, without being aware of it; and religion for you may be only a repetitious ritual, a set of dogmas and beliefs without any meaning at all. If you are inwardly thwarted, frustrated, then sex becomes your only release. To be inwardly alert to think anew about your work, about the absurdities of society, to find out for yourself the true significance of religion – it is this that will free the mind from being enslaved by any habit.
也许在你的生命中没有其他的释放，没有其他的有驱动性的兴趣。 也许你对你的工作感到厌倦，却没有意识到； 宗教对你来说可能只是一种重复的仪式， 一套教条和信仰，没有任何意义。 如果你内心受挫，沮丧，那么性就成了你唯一的释放。 要有内在的警觉，重新思考你的工作，重新思考社会的荒谬， 自己去找出宗教的真正意义 —— 正是这一点，才能使头脑从任何习惯的奴役中解脱。
“I used to be interested in religion and in literature, but I have no leisure for either of them now, because all my time is taken up with my work. I am not really unhappy in it, but I realize that earning a livelihood isn’t everything, and it may be that, as you say, if I can find time for wider and deeper interests, it will help to break down the habit which is bothering me.”
“我曾经对宗教和文学感兴趣， 但现在我没有闲暇给它们中的任何一个，因为我所有的时间都花在了我的工作上。 我对此并不是很不高兴，但我意识到谋生并不是一切， 而且正如你所说，如果我能找到时间，去寻找更广泛和更深层次的兴趣， 这将有助于打破困扰我的习惯。”
As we said, habit is the repetition of a pleasurable act brought about by the stimulating memories and images which the mind evokes. The glandular secretions and their results, as in the case of hunger, are not a habit, they are the normal process of the physical organism; but when the mind indulges in sensation, stimulated by thoughts and pictures, then surely the formation of habit is set going. Food is necessary, but the demand for a particular taste in food is based on habit. Finding pleasure in certain thoughts and acts, subtle or crude, the mind insists on their continuance thereby breeding habit. A repetitive act, like brushing one’s teeth in the morning, becomes a habit when attention is not given to it. Attention frees the mind from habit.
正如我们所说，习惯是对行为的重复 由头脑唤起的刺激记忆和图像所带来的愉快。 腺体分泌物及其结果，如饥饿的情况，不是一种习惯， 它们是物理有机体的正常过程； 但是，当头脑沉迷于感觉，受到思想和画面的刺激时， 那么习惯的形成肯定就开始了。 食物是必要的，但对食物中特定口味的需求是基于习惯的。 在某种思想和行为中寻找快乐，无论是微妙的还是粗暴的， 头脑坚持它们的延续性，从而滋生出习惯。 一个重复的行为，比如早上刷牙， 在没有关注的时候就成了习惯。 关注使头脑从习惯中解放出来。
“Are you implying that we must get rid of all pleasure?”
“你是在暗示我们必须摆脱所有的快乐吗？”
No, sir. We are not trying to get rid of anything, or to acquire anything; we are trying to understand the full implication of habit; and we have to understand, too, the problems of pleasure. Many sannyasis, yogis, saints, have denied themselves pleasure; they have tortured themselves and forced the mind to resist, to be insensitive to pleasure in every form. It is a pleasure to see the beauty of a tree, of a cloud, of moonlight on the water, or of a human being; and to deny that pleasure is to deny beauty.
不是，先生。我们不是要摆脱任何东西，或获得任何东西； 我们在尝试理解习惯的全部含义； 我们也必须理解快乐的问题。 许多桑雅生、瑜伽士、圣徒，都拒绝了他们自身的快乐； 他们折磨自己，强迫头脑去反抗，对各种形式的快乐不敏感。 看到一棵树，一朵云，水面上的月光或一个人的美丽是一种快乐； 拒绝那种快乐就是拒绝美。
On the other hand, there are people who reject the ugly and cling to the beautiful. They want to remain in the lovely garden of their own making, and shut out the noise, the smell and the brutality that exist beyond the wall. Very often they succeed in this; but you cannot shut out the ugly and hold to the beautiful without becoming dull, insensitive. You must be sensitive to sorrow as well as to joy and not eschew the one and seek out the other. Life is both death and love. To love is to be vulnerable, sensitive, and habit breeds insensitivity; it destroys love.
另一方面，有的人拒绝丑陋，执着于美丽。 他们想留在自己制造的美丽花园中， 隔离墙外存在的噪音、气味和残酷。 他们经常在这方面取得成功； 但你不可能 把丑陋拒之门外、紧紧抓住美丽的同时，却不变得迟钝、不敏感。 你必须对悲伤和欢乐保持敏感， 而不是回避一个而寻找另一个。生命既是死亡，也是爱。 去爱，就是处于脆弱、敏感， 而习惯滋生麻木不仁；它摧毁爱。
“I am beginning to feel the beauty of what you are saying. It is true that I have made myself dull and stupid. I used to love to go into the woods, to listen to the birds, to observe the faces of people in the streets, and I now see what I have allowed habit to do to me. But what is love?”
“我开始感受到你所说的美丽。 的确，我让自己变得迟钝和愚蠢。 我曾经喜欢走进树林，听鸟儿说话， 观察街上人们的面孔， 现在我看到，我允许习惯对我做了什么。但什么是爱呢？”
Love is not mere pleasure, a thing of memory; it’s a state of intense vulnerability and beauty, which is denied when the mind builds walls of self-centred activity. Love is life, and so it is also death. To deny death and cling to life is to deny love. “I am really beginning to have an insight into all this, and into myself. Without love, life does become mechanical and habit-ridden. The work I do in the office is largely mechanical, and so indeed is the rest of my life; I am caught in a vast wheel of routine and boredom. I have been asleep, and now I must wake up.”
爱不仅仅是快乐，一种记忆的东西； 它是一种强烈的脆弱和美丽的状态， 当头脑建立以自我为中心的活动之墙时，这种状态就被拒绝了。 爱就是生命，因此也是死亡。 拒绝死亡和执着生命就是拒绝爱。 “我真的开始对这一切以及我自己有了深刻的洞察。 没有爱，生命确实会变得机械化和习惯性。 我在办公室里所做的工作在很大程度上是机械的，我的余生也是如此。 我陷入了一个巨大的例行公事和无聊的车轮上。 我已经睡着了，现在我必须醒来。”
The very realization that you have been asleep is already an awakened state; there is no need of volition.
意识到你已经睡着了，这已经是一种觉醒的状态。 没有必要使用意志力。
Now, let’s go a little further into the matter. There is no beauty without austerity, is there? “That I don’t understand, sir.”
现在，让我们进一步探讨这个问题。 没有俭朴就没有美，是吗？ “我不明白，先生。”
Austerity does not lie in any outward symbol or act: wearing a loincloth or a monk’s robe, taking only one meal a day, or living the life of a hermit. Such disciplined simplicity, however rigorous, is not austerity; it is merely an outward show without an inner reality. Austerity is the simplicity of inward aloneness, the simplicity of a mind that is purged of all conflict, that is not caught in the fire of desire, even the desire for the highest. Without this austerity, there can be no love; and beauty is of love.
俭朴不在于任何外在的象征或行为： 穿着腰布或僧侣的长袍，每天只吃一顿饭，或者过着隐士的生活。 这种戒律上的简单，无论多么严谨，都不是俭朴； 它只是一个没有内在真实的外在表皮。 俭朴是内在独立的简单， 是一种头脑的简单，它清除了所有的冲突， 没有被卷入欲望的火焰中，甚至没有陷入对最高境界的渴望。 没有这种俭朴，就不可能有爱；而美，源于爱。