对生活的评注 3-12

THE RAINS HAD washed the skies clean; the haze that had hung about was gone, and the sky was clear and intensely blue. The shadows were sharp and deep, and high on the hill a column of smoke was going straight up. They were burning something up there, and you could hear their voices. The little house was on a slope, but well-sheltered, with a small garden of its own to which loving care had been given. But this morning it was part of the whole of existence, and the wall around the garden seemed so unnecessary. Creepers grew on that wall, hiding the rocks, but here and there they were exposed; they were beautiful rocks, washed by many rains, and they had a growth of green-grey moss on them. Beyond the wall was a bit of wilderness, and somehow that wilderness was part of the garden. From the garden gate a path led to the village, where there was a dilapidated old church with a graveyard behind it. Very few came to the church, even on Sundays, mostly the old; and during the week no one came, for the village had other amusements. A small diesel locomotive with two carriages, cream and red, went to the larger town twice a day. The train was almost always filled with a cheerful, chattering crowd. Beyond the village another path led round to the right, gently going up the hill. On that path you would meet an occasional peasant carrying something, and with a grunt he would pass you by. On the other side of the hill, the path led down into a dense wood where the sun never penetrated; and going from the brilliant sunlight into the cool shadow of the wood was like a secret blessing. Nobody seemed to pass that way, and the wood was deserted. The dark green of the thick foliage was refreshing to the eyes and to the mind. One sat there in complete silence. Even the breeze was still; not a leaf moved, and there was that strange quietness which comes in places not frequented by human beings. A dog barked in the distance, and a brown deer crossed the path with easy leisure.

雨水洗净了天空。笼罩着周围的阴霾已经消失，天空清澈湛蓝。阴影锐利而深厚，在山的高处，一股烟雾笔直地向上冲起。他们在那里烧什么东西，你可以听到他们的声音。小房子在斜坡上，但护理得很好，带有一个小花园，得到了温柔而细心的照料。但今天早上，它是整个存在的一部分，花园四周的墙壁似乎如此地没有必要。爬藤在那堵墙上生长，遮蔽了石块，但总有一些暴露在外；它们是美丽的石块，被很多雨水冲刷，上面长满了绿灰色的苔藓。墙外是一片荒野，不知何故，荒野是花园的一部分。花园的门口有一条小路通往村庄，那里有一座破旧的老教堂，它的后面有一个墓地。很少有人来教堂，甚至在星期天，大多数是老人。在这一周里，没有人来，因为村里有其它的娱乐活动。一辆有两节车厢的小型柴油车，奶白色和红色，每天两次前往较大的城镇。车上几乎总是挤满了欢快、喋喋不休的人群。在村外，另一条小路向右转，缓缓地往山上延伸。在那条路上，你偶尔会遇到一个农民带着某个东西，他会咕哝着从你身边经过。在山的另一边，这条小路通向一片茂密的树林，阳光从未穿透过它；从灿烂的阳光进入树林的冷影，就像是一个秘密的祝福。似乎没有人走过那条路，树林被遗弃了。厚厚的树叶呈深绿色，使眼睛和头脑清明。一个人完全沉默地坐在那里。就连微风也停止了。没有一片叶子移动，有一种奇怪的安静，这种安静来自人类不经常光顾的地方。远处有一只狗在叫，一只棕色的鹿轻松而悠闲地穿过小路。

He was an elderly man, pious, and eager for sympathy and blessing. He explained that he had been going regularly for several years to a certain teacher in the north to listen to his explanatory discourses on the Scriptures, and was now on his way to join his family in the south. “A friend told me that you were giving a series of talks here, and I stayed over to attend them. I have been listening with close attention to all that you have been saying, and I am aware of what you think of guides and of authority. I do not entirely agree with you, for we human beings need help from those who can offer it, and the fact that one eagerly accepts such help does not make one a follower.”

他是一个老人，虔诚，渴望同情和祝福。他解释说，几年来，他经常去北方的某位老师那里，听他对圣经的解释性讲述，现在他正在去南方的路上，与他的家人团聚。 “一个朋友告诉我，你在这里做了一系列的讲话，我留了下来参加。我一直在认真地听你所说的一切，我知道你对指导和权威的看法。我不完全同意你的看法，因为我们人类需要那些能够提供帮助的人的帮助，而一个人热切地接受这种帮助，并不会使这个人成为追随者。”

Surely, the desire for guidance makes for conformity, and a mind that conforms is incapable of finding the true. “But I am not conforming. I am not credulous, nor do I follow blindly; on the contrary, I use my mind, I question all that’s said by this teacher I go to.”

当然会，对指导的欲望使人顺从，而顺从的头脑无法找到真实。 “但我不是在顺从。我不是轻信的，也不是盲目的跟随；相反，我用我的头脑，我质疑我去听的这位老师所说的一切。”

To look for light from another, without self-knowledge, is to follow blindly. All following is blind. “I do not think I am capable of penetrating the deeper layers of the self, and so I seek help. My coming to you for help does not make me your follower.”

在没有自我认识的情况下从另一个人那里寻找光明，就是盲目地跟随。所有的跟随都是盲目的。 “我不认为我有能力穿透自我的深层，所以我寻求帮助。我来找你帮忙，并不能使我成为你的追随者。”

If it may be pointed out, sir, the setting up of authority is a complex affair. Following another is merely an effect of a deeper cause, and without understanding that cause, whether one outwardly follows or not has very little meaning. The desire to arrive to reach the other shore, is the beginning of our human search. We crave success, permanency, comfort, love, an enduring state of peace, and unless the mind is free of this desire, there must be following in direct or devious ways. Following is merely a symptom of a deep longing for security.

先生，如果可以指出的话，权威的建立是一件复杂的事情。追随另一个人，只是一个更深层原因的结果，如果不理解这个原因，无论一个人在外是否追随，都没什么意义。到达彼岸的欲望，是我们人类寻找的开始。我们渴望成功、永恒、舒适、爱、持久的和平状态，除非头脑摆脱这种欲望，就必定在以直接的或狡猾的方式追随。追随仅仅是对安全的深切渴望的症状。

“I do want to reach the other shore, as you put it, and I will take any boat that will carry me across the river. To me the boat is not important, but the other shore is.”

“正如你所说，我确实想到达彼岸，我会乘坐任何能带我过河的船。对我来说，船并不重要，但彼岸很重要。”

It is not the other shore that is important, but the river, and the bank you are on. The river is life, it is everyday living with its extraordinary beauty, its joy and delight, its ugliness, pain and sorrow. Life is a vast complex of all these things, it is not just a passage to be got through somehow, and you must understand it, and not have your eyes on the other shore. You are this life of envy, violence, passing love, ambition, frustration, fear; and you are also the longing to escape from it all to what you call the other shore, the permanent the soul, the Atman, God, and so on. Without understanding this life, without being free of envy, with its pleasures and pains, the other shore is only a myth, an illusion, an ideal invented by a frightened mind in its search for security. A right foundation must be laid, otherwise the house, however noble, will not stand.

重要的不是彼岸，而是河流和你所在的此岸。河流是生命，它就是每天的生活，以及它非凡的美丽，它的喜悦和欢乐，它的丑陋、痛苦和悲伤。生命是所有这些事物的一个巨大的综合体，它不只是以要穿越的一段过道，你必须理解它，而不是把眼睛盯着彼岸。你就是这个生命，带着你的嫉妒、暴力、逝去的爱、野心、挫折、恐惧；你也渴望逃离这一切，逃到你所谓的彼岸、永恒的灵魂、阿特曼、上帝，等等。不理解这条命，不摆脱嫉妒及其带来的快乐和痛苦，彼岸只是一个神话、一种幻觉、一个受惊的头脑在寻求安全感的途中所发明的一个理想。必须奠定一个正确的基础，否则这栋房子，无论有多么的高贵，都修不起来。

“I am already frightened, and you add to my fear, you do not take it away. My friend told me that you are not easy to understand, and I can see why you are not. But I think I’m in earnest, and I do want something more than mere illusion. I quite agree that one must lay the right foundation; but to perceive for oneself what is true and what is false is another matter.”

“我已经很害怕了，你却在增添我的恐惧，却不把它拿走。我的朋友告诉我，你不容易理解，我看到了这个原因。但我认为我是认真的，我确实想要的不仅仅是幻觉。我完全同意，一个人必须奠定正确的基础；但是，‘自己去感知什么是真的，什么是假的’是另一回事。”

Not at all, sir. The conflict of envy, with its pleasure and pain, inevitably breeds confusion, both outwardly and within. It is only when there is freedom from this confusion that the mind can discover what is true. All the activities of a confused mind only lead to further confusion.

一点也不是，先生。嫉妒中的冲突，以及它的快乐和痛苦，不可避免地会滋生困惑，无论是外在还是内在。只有从这种困惑中解脱，头脑才能发现什么是真实的。一个迷茫的头脑的所有活动只会导致进一步的困惑。

“How am I to be free from confusion?”

“我如何才能从困惑中解脱出来？”

The ‘how’ implies gradual freedom; but confusion cannot be cleared up bit by bit, while the rest of the mind remains confused, for that part which is cleared up soon becomes confused again. The question of how to clear up this confusion arises only when your mind is still concerned with the other shore. You do not see the full significance of greed, or violence, or whatever it is; you only want to get rid of it in order to arrive at something else. If you were wholly concerned with envy, and its resultant misery, you would never ask how to get rid of it. The understanding of envy is a total action, whereas the ‘how’ implies a gradual achievement of freedom, which is only the action of confusion.

‘如何’意味着渐进的自由；但困惑是不能一点一点地被清除，却放任其余的部分仍处于困惑之中，因为那被清除的部分，很快就会再次变得困惑。 ‘如何清除这种困惑’ —— 这个的问题只有在你的头脑还在关心彼岸的时候，才会出现。你没有看见贪婪、暴力或其余任何现状的全部意义。你只想摆脱它，以便抵达别的地方。如果你完全关心嫉妒，以及它带来的痛苦，你永远不会问如何处理它。理解嫉妒，就是一种完整的行动，而‘如何’意味着自由的渐进的达成，这只是一种困惑的行动。

“What do you mean by total action?”

“你所说的‘完整的行动’是什么意思？”

To understand total action, we must explore the division between the thinker and his thought. “Is there not a watcher who is above both the thinker and his thought? I feel there is. For one blissful moment, I have experienced that state.”

为了理解完整的行动，我们必须探索思想者和他的思想之间的划分。 “难道没有一个观察者既凌驾于思想者之上，又超越于思想之上吗？我觉得有。在一个幸福的时刻，我体验过那种状态。”

Such experiences are the result of a mind that has been shaped by tradition, by a thousand influences. The religious visions of a Christian will be quite different from those of a Hindu or a Moslem, since all are essentially based on the mind’s particular conditioning. The criterion of truth is not experience, but that state in which neither the experiencer nor the experience any longer exists.

这种体验是头脑的一种产物，那个头脑是由传统、一千种影响塑造的。基督徒的宗教视野与印度教徒或穆斯林的宗教视野，截然不同，因为所有这些，在本质上都是基于头脑的特定的局限。真理的标准不是体验，而是体验者和体验都不再存在的状态。

“You mean the state of Samadhi?”

“你是说三摩地的状态？”

No, sir; in using that word, you are merely quoting the description of another’s experience. “But is there not a watcher beyond and above the thinker and his thought? I most definitely feel that there is.”

不，先生；你引用的这个词，只是在描述别人的经历。 “但是，难道没有一个超越思想者和他的思想的观察者吗？我觉得绝对有。”

To start with a conclusion puts a stop to all thinking, doesn’t it? “But this is not a conclusion, sir. I know, I have felt the truth of it.”

从结论开始，就停止了所有的思考，不是吗？ “但这不是一个结论，先生。我知道，我已经感受过它的真实。”

He who says he knows does not know. What you know or feel to be true is what you have been taught; another, who happens to have been taught differently by his society, by his culture, will assert with equal confidence that his knowledge and experience show him that there is no ultimate watcher. Both of you, the believer and the non-believer, are in the same category, are you not? You both start with a conclusion, and with experiences based on your conditioning, don’t you?

说他知道的人不知道。你所知道或感觉到的真实，就是你所被教导的；另一个人，碰巧被他的社会、他的文化以不同的方式教导，会同样自信地断言，他的知识和体验向他表明：没有终极的观察者。你们俩，相信者和不信者，都属于同一类人，不是吗？你们俩都是从结论开始，都是从基于你们受限的体验开始的，不是吗？

“When you put it that way, it does seem to put me in the wrong, but I am still not convinced.”

“当你这样说的时候，我似乎确实是错了，但我仍然不相信。”

I am not trying to put you in the wrong, or to convince you of anything; I am only pointing out certain things for you to examine. “After considerable reading and study, I imagined I had thought out pretty thoroughly this question of the watcher and the watched. It seems to me that as the eye sees the flower, and the mind watches through the eye, so, behind the mind, there must be an entity who is aware of the whole process, that is of the mind, the eye, and the flower.”

我没有试图把你放在错误的一边，也不是要说服你相信任何事情；我只是指出某些事情，供你检查。 “经过大量的阅读和研究，我想我已经非常彻底地思考了监视者和被监视者的问题。在我看来，当眼睛看到花朵，头脑通过眼睛观察时，那么，在头脑的背后，一定有一个实体意识到整个过程，意识到头脑、眼睛和花朵。”

Let us inquire into it without assertiveness, without haste or dogmatism.

让我们在没有断定、毫不匆忙或教条主义的情况下，来调查它。

How does thinking arise? There is perception, contact, sensation, and then thought, based on memory, says, “That is a rose.” Thought creates the thinker; it is the thinking process that brings the thinker into being. Thought comes first, and later the thinker; it is not the other way round. If we do not see this to be a fact, we shall be led into all kinds of confusion.

思考是如何产生的？捕捉、接触、感觉，然后思考，根据记忆，说， “那是一朵玫瑰。” 思想创造了思想者；正是思考过程使思想者产生。思想先出来，然后是思想者；而不是相反。如果我们没看见这个事实，我们就会陷入各种困惑。

“But there is a division, a gap, narrow or wide, between the thinker and his thought; and does this not indicate that the thinker came into being first?”

“但是，在思想者和他的思想之间有一个裂口，一个空隙，不论宽窄；这难道没有表明思想者是首先形成的吗？”

Let’s see. perceiving itself to be impermanent, insecure, and desiring permanency, security, thought brings into being the thinker, and then pushes the thinker on to higher and higher levels of permanency. So there is seemingly an unbridgeable gap between the thinker and his thought, between the watcher and the watched; but this whole process is still within the area of thought, is it not? “Do you mean to say, sir, that the watcher has no reality, that he is as impermanent as thought? I can hardly believe this.”

我们看看。思想感受到了它自己的无常、不安全，渴望永恒和安全感，它就引入并制造出思想者，并把思想者推向了越来越高级的永恒的台阶上。因此，在思想者和他的思想之间，在观察者和被看见的东西之间，似乎存在着一个不可逾越的鸿沟。但这整个过程，还是在思想领域之内，不是吗？ “先生，你的意思是说，观察者没有真实性，他和思想一样，都是无常的吗？我简直不敢相信。”

You may call him the soul, the Atman, or by what name you will, but the watcher is still the product of thought. As long as thought is related in some way to the watcher, or the watcher is controlling, shaping thought, he is still within the field of thought, within the process of time. “How my mind objects to this! Yet, in spite of myself, I am beginning to see it to be a fact; and if it is a fact then there’s only a process of thinking, and no thinker.”

你可以称他为灵魂、阿特曼，或者随便你怎么称呼他，但观察者依然是思想的产物。只要思想以某种方式与观察者相关联，或者观察者在控制、塑造思想，他就仍然在思想领域之内，在时间的过程中。 “我的头脑有多么地反对这个！然而，尽管我自己，我开始看见这个事实。如果这是一个事实，那么只存在一个思考的过程，却没有思考者。”

That is so, isn’t it? Thought has bred the watcher the thinker, the conscious or unconscious censor who is everlastingly judging, condemning, comparing. It is this watcher who is ever in conflict with his thoughts, ever making an effort to guide them.

就是那样，不是吗？思想孕育了观察者，思想者，有意或无意的审查者，他们永远在评判、谴责、比较。正是这个观察者，总是与他的思想发生冲突，总是在努力引导它们。

“Please go a little slower; I really want to feel my way through this. You are indicating – aren’t you? – that every form of effort, noble or ignoble, is the result of this artificial, illusory division between the thinker and his thoughts. But are you trying to eliminate effort? Isn’t effort necessary to all change?”

“请慢一点；我真的很想通过这种方式感受自己的方式。你是在暗示 —— 不是吗？—— 任何形式的努力，无论是高尚的还是卑鄙的，都是思想者和他的思想之间这种伪造的、虚幻的划分的产物。但是，您在试图消除努力？所有的改变都需要努力，难道不是吗？”

We shall go into that presently. We have seen that there’s only thinking, which has put together the thinker, the watcher, the censor, the controller. Between the watcher and the watched there is the conflict of effort made by the one to overcome or at least to change the other. This effort is vain, it can never produce a fundamental change in thought, because the thinker, the censor, is himself part of that which he wishes to change. One part of the mind cannot possibly transform another part, which is but a continuity of itself. One desire may, and often does, overcome another desire. But the desire that is dominant breeds still another desire, which in its turn becomes the loser or the gainer, and so the conflict of duality is set going. There’s no end to this process.

我们现在来进入这个问题。我们已经看到，只有思考，它捏造出所谓的‘思考者’、‘监视者’、‘审判长’、‘操控者’。在监视者和被监视者之间，一方努力去战胜，或者改变另一方，这样就出现了冲突。这种努力是徒劳的，它永远不会从根本上改变思想，因为‘思考者’，‘审判长’，本来就是他想要改变的东西的一部分。头脑的一部分不可能变成另一部分，它这么去做，却使它自己得以延续。一个欲望可能，而且经常会，战胜另一个欲望。但是，占支配地位的欲望孕育了另一个欲望，从而使这个欲望反过来又变为失败者或成功者，因此二元性的冲突开始了。这个过程永无休止。

“It seems to me you are saying that only through the elimination of conflict is there a possibility of fundamental change. I don’t quite follow this. Would you kindly go into it a little further?”

“在我看来，你是说，只有通过消除冲突，才有可能实现根本性的改变。我不太理解这一点。你能不能再深入一点？”

The thinker and his thought are a unitary process, neither has an independent continuance; the watcher and the watched are inseparable. All the qualities of the watcher are contained in his thinking; if there’s no thinking, there’s no watcher, no thinker. This is a fact, is it not? “Yes, so far I have understood.”

思想者和他的思想是一个单一的过程，两者都不能独自继续；观察者和被观看的事物是密不可分的。观察者的所有品质都包含在他的思想过程之中；如果不思考，就没有观察者，没有思考者。这是事实，不是吗？ “是的，到目前为止，我理解。”

If understanding is merely verbal, intellectual, it is of little significance. There must be an actual experiencing of the thinker and his thought as one, an integration of the two. Then there’s only the process of thinking. “What do you mean by the process of thinking?”

如果理解仅仅是口头的、智力的，那么它就没有什么意义。必须真切地体验思想者和他的思想是同一个东西，两者是一个整体。然后只剩下思想过程。 “你说的‘思想过程’是什么意思？”

The way or direction in which thought has been set going: personal or impersonal, individualistic or collective, religious or worldly, Hindu or Christian, Buddhist or Moslem, and so on. There is no thinker who is a Moslem, but only thinking which has been given a Moslem conditioning. Thinking is the outcome of its own conditioning. The process or way of thinking must inevitably create conflict, and when effort is made to overcome this conflict through various means, it only builds up other forms of resistance and conflict.

思想设定的方式或方向有：私人的或非私人的，个人的或集体的，宗教的或世俗的，印度教的或基督教的，佛教的或穆斯林的，等等。不存在所谓的穆斯林思想者，而是思想过程限制了穆斯林人。思想是它所拥有的限制条件的产物。思想的过程或方式，必然会制造出冲突，而当通过各种手段，去努力克服这种冲突时，它只会建立其它形式的抵抗和冲突。

“That’s clear, at least I think so.”

“这很清楚，至少我认为是这样。”

This way of thinking must wholly cease, for it breeds confusion and misery. There’s no better or nobler way of thinking. All thinking is conditioned. “You seem to imply that only when thought ceases is there a radical change. But is this so?”

这种思考方式必须完全地消失，因为它滋生出困惑与痛苦。不存在更好或更崇高的思考方式。所有的思考都是受限的。 “你似乎在暗示，只有当思想消失时，才会发生根本性的变化。是这样吗？”

Thought is conditioned. The mind, being the storehouse of experiences, memories, from which thought arises, is itself conditioned; and any movement of the mind, in any direction, produces its own limited results. When the mind makes an effort to transform itself, it merely builds another pattern, different perhaps, but still a pattern. Every effort of the mind to free itself is the continuance of thought; it may be at a higher level, but it is still within its own circle, the circle of thought, of time.

思想是受限的。头脑，作为体验、记忆的仓库，从中冒出了思想，拥有它自身的局限性；头脑在任何方向的任何运动，加工出它拥有的局限性的产物。当这个头脑努力改变自己时，它只是建立了另一种模式，也许是不同的，但仍然是一种模式。头脑为解放自己所做的一切努力，都是思想的延续；它可能处于更高的层面，但它仍然在它自己的圈子里，在思想的圈子里、时间的圈子里。

“Yes, sir, I am beginning to understand. please proceed.”

“是的，先生，我开始理解了。请继续。”

Any movement of any kind on the part of the mind only gives strength to the continuance of thought, with its envious, ambitious, acquisitive pursuits. When the mind is totally aware of this fact, as it is totally aware of a poisonous snake, then you will see that the movement of thought comes to an end. Then only is there a total revolution, not the continuance of the old in a different form. This state is not to be described; he who describes it is not aware of it.

头脑的任何运动，都只会增强思想的延续性，伴生出它的嫉妒、雄心和贪婪的追逐。当头脑完全意识到这个事实，如同它完全意识到一条毒蛇，那么你会看到：思想运动走到了终点。那么，只剩一场完全的革命，不是旧的以不同的形式延续。这个状态是不可描述的；描述它的人意识不到它。