WINDING FROM ONE side of the valley to the other, the path crossed over a small bridge where the swiftly-running water was brown from the recent rains. Turning north, it led on over gentle slopes to a secluded village. That village and its people were very poor. The dogs were mangy, and they would bark from a distance never venturing near, their tails down, their heads held high, ready to run. Many goats were scattered about on the hillside, bleating, and eating the wild bushes. It was beautiful country, green, with blue hills. The bare granite projecting from the tops of the hills had been washed by the rains of countless centuries. These hills were not high, but they were very old, and against the blue sky they had a fantastic beauty, that strange loveliness of measureless time. They were like the temples that man builds to resemble them, in his longing to reach the heavens. But that evening, with the setting sun on them, these hills seemed very close. Far to the south a storm was gathering, and the lightning among the clouds gave a strange feeling to the land. The storm would break during the night; but the hills had stood through the storms of untold ages, and they would always be there, beyond all the toil and sorrow of man.
这条小径从山谷的一侧蜿蜒到另一侧，穿过一座小桥， 那里湍急流淌的水流因最近的降雨而变成棕褐色。 向北转，它穿过缓坡，来到一个僻静的村庄。 那个村庄及其人民非常贫穷。 那些狗很癞皮，它们会从远处吠叫，从不冒险靠近， 尾巴向下，头高举起，准备奔跑。 许多山羊散落在山坡上，在野外的灌木丛中奔跑、啃食。 这是一个美丽的乡村、充满了绿色、带有蓝色的山丘。 从山顶伸出的裸露花岗岩 已被无数个世纪的雨水冲刷。 这些山丘并不高，但它们很古老， 在蓝天下，它们有着奇妙的美丽， 那种奇特的亘古的可爱。 它们就像人类建造的类似于它们的庙宇， 渴望到达天堂。 但那天晚上，夕阳西下，这些山丘似乎非常接近。 在遥远的南方，一场暴风雨正在汇聚， 云层中的闪电给这片土地带来了一种奇怪的感觉。 暴风雨会在夜间爆发。 但是山丘已经挺过了无数时光的风暴， 它们将永远在那里，超越人类所有的辛劳与悲伤。
The villagers were returning to their homes, weary after a day’s work in the fields. Soon you would see smoke rising from their huts as they prepared the evening meal. It wouldn’t be much; and the children, waiting for their meal, would smile as you went by. They were large-eyed and shy of strangers, but they were friendly. Two little girls held small babies on their hips while their mothers were cooking; the babies would slip down, and get jerked up onto the hips again. Though only ten or twelve years old, these little girls were already used to holding babies; and they both smiled. The evening breeze was among the trees, and the cattle were being brought in for the night.
村民们在田间劳作一天后，疲惫不堪地回家。 很快，你会看到在他们准备晚饭时，他们的小屋里冒出浓烟。 它不会太多；孩子们等着他们的饭，会微笑地看你走过。 他们睁大眼睛，对陌生人害羞，但他们很友好。 两个小女孩在母亲做饭时把小婴儿抱在髋部上； 婴儿会滑下来，又被快速地托起。 虽然只有十岁或十二岁， 但这些小女孩已经习惯了抱婴儿。她们都在微笑。 傍晚的微风在林间，牛被牵进来过夜。
On that path there was now no other person, not even a lonely villagers The earth seemed suddenly empty, strangely quiet. The new, young moon was just over the dark hills. The breeze had stopped, not a leaf was stirring; everything was still, and the mind was completely alone. It wasn’t lonely, isolated, enclosed within its own thought, but alone, untouched, uncontaminated. It wasn’t aloof and distant, apart from the things of the earth. It was alone, and yet with everything; because it was alone, everything was of it. That which is separate knows itself as being separated; but this aloneness knew no separation, no division. The trees, the stream, the villager calling in the distance, were all within this aloneness. It was not an identification with man, with the earth, for all identification had utterly vanished. In this aloneness, the sense of the passing of time had ceased.
在那条小径，现在没有其他人， 甚至没有一个孤独的村民，突然间，大地似乎空无一人，奇怪地安静。 新的、年轻的月亮挂在黑暗的山丘上。 微风停下，没有一片叶子在晃动。 一切静止，头脑完全地自在。 它不是孤独地、隔离地封闭在自己的思想中， 而是独立的、未被触碰的、未受污染的。 它不是冷漠和遥远的，没有与地球上的事物分开。 它自在，却与一切关联。因为它自在，一切都属于它。 分离的事物知道自己是被分离的； 但这种自在没有分离，没有划分。 树木、溪流、远处呼喊的村民， 都在这自在之中。 它不是一种对人类、对地球的认同， 因为所有的认同都已经完全消失了。 在这自在中，时间的流逝感消逝了。
There were three of them, a father, his son and a friends The father must have been in his late fifties, the son in his thirties, and the friend was of uncertain age. The two older men were bald, but the son still had plenty of hair. He had a well-shaped head, a rather short nose and wide-set eyes. His lips were restless, though he sat quietly enough. The father had seated himself behind his son and the friend, saying that he would take part in the talk if necessary, but otherwise would just watch and listen. A sparrow came to the open window and flew away again, frightened by so many people in the room. It knew that room, and would often perch on the window-sill, chirping softly, without fear.
他们三个人，一个父亲，一个儿子，一个朋友 父亲一定是五十多岁，儿子三十多岁， 朋友年龄不定。 两个年长的男人都秃顶了，但儿子还是留着很多头发。 他有一个良好的头型，一个相当短的鼻子和睁大的眼睛。 他的嘴唇不安分，尽管他坐得很安稳。 父亲坐在儿子和朋友的身后， 说如果有必要，他会参加谈话， 但除此之外，他只看和听。 一只麻雀来到打开的窗户前，又飞走了， 被房间里的这么多人吓坏了。 它知道那个房间，经常栖息在窗台上， 温柔地叽叽喳喳，没有恐惧。
“Though my father may not take part in the conversation,” the son began, “he wants to be in on it, for the problem is one that concerns us all. My mother would have come had she not been feeling so unwell, and she is looking forward to the report we shall make to her. We have read some of the things you have said and my father particularly has followed your talks from afar; but it is only within the last year or so that I have myself taken a real interest in what you are saying. Until recently, politics have absorbed the greater part of my interest and enthusiasm; but I have begun to see the immaturity of politics. The religious life is only for the maturing mind, and not for politicians and lawyers. I have been a fairly successful lawyer, but am a lawyer no longer, as I want to spend the remaining years of my life in something vastly more significant and worth whiles I am speaking also for my friend, who wanted to accompany us when he heard we were coming here. You see, sir, our problem is the fact that we are all growing old. Even I, though still comparatively young, am coming to that period of life when time seems to fly, when one’s days seem so short and death so near. Death, for the moment at least, is not a problem; but old age is.”
“虽然我父亲可能不会参与谈话，” 儿子开始说， “他想参与其中，因为这个问题是我们所有人关心的问题。 我母亲如果不是感觉很不舒服，她会来的， 她期待着我们向她报告。 我们读了你说的一些话， 我父亲特别从远处跟随着你的讲话。 但直到最近一年左右， 我自己才对你所说的话产生了真正的兴趣。 直到最近，政治还吸引了我大部分的兴趣和热情。 但我已经开始看到政治的不成熟。 宗教生活只适合成熟的头脑，而不是政治家和律师。 我是一个相当成功的律师，但现在不再是一名律师， 因为我想把我生命中余下的岁月花在更重要、更有价值的事情上， 而我也在为我的朋友说话， 当他听说我们要来这里时，他想陪我们一起。 你看，先生，我们的问题是，我们都在变老。 就连我，虽然还比较年轻，但面临着那个生命周期， 时光飞逝，一个人的日子似乎如此短暂，死亡却如此的近。 死亡，至少就目前而言，不是问题。但老龄却正在蔓延。”
What do you mean by old age? Are you referring to the aging of the physical organism, or of the mind? “The aging of the body is of course inevitable, it wears out through use and disease. But need the mind age and deteriorate?”
你说的‘老龄’是什么意思？ 你指的是物质有机体的衰老，还是头脑的衰老？ “身体的衰老当然是不可避免的，它会因使用和疾病而磨损。 但是头脑老化和恶化是必然的吗？”
To think speculatively is futile and a waste of time. Is the deterioration of the mind a supposition, or an actual fact? “It is a fact, sir. I am aware that my mind is growing old, tired; slow deterioration is taking place.”
猜测性地思考是徒劳的，也是浪费时间。 头脑的恶化是一种假设，还是一种真实的事实？ “这是事实，先生。我意识到我的头脑正在变老，疲倦； 正在缓慢地恶化。”
Is this not also a problem with the young, though they may still be unaware of it? Their minds are even now set in a mould; their thought is already enclosed within a narrow pattern. But what do you mean when you say that your mind is growing old? “It is not as pliable, as alert as sensitive as it used to be. Its awareness is shrinking; its responses to the many challenges of life are increasingly from the storage of the past. It’s deteriorating, functioning more and more within the limits of its own setting.”
这难道不也是年轻人的问题吗，尽管他们可能还没意识到？ 他们的头脑，甚至现在就被定格在一个模子里； 他们的思想已经被封闭在一个狭隘的规则中。 但是，你说你的头脑正在变老，你是指什么意思？ “它不像以前那样柔韧，像以前那样灵敏。 它的意识正在萎缩； 它对生活中许多挑战的回应越来越多地来源于过往的记忆。 它正在恶化，越来越多的运转于它设定好的局限内。”
Then what makes the mind deteriorate? It is self-protectiveness and resistance to change, is it not? Each one has a vested interest which he is consciously or unconsciously protecting, watching over, and not allowing anything to disturb.
那么，是什么让头脑恶化？ 是自我保护和对改变的抗拒，不是吗？ 每个人都有一个既得利益， 他在有意或无意地保护、监视着， 不允许它受任何事物的干扰。
“Do you mean a vested interest in property?”
“你是说财产上的既得利益吗？”
Not only in property, but in relationships of every kind. Nothing can exist in isolation. Life is relationship; and the mind has a vested interest in its relationship to people, to ideas, and to things. This self-interest, and the refusal to bring about a fundamental revolution within itself, is the beginning of the mind’s deterioration. Most minds are conservative, they resist changes Even the so-called revolutionary mind is conservative, for once it has gained its revolutionary success, it also resists change; the revolution itself becomes its vested interest.
不仅在财产方面，还在各种形式的关系里。 没有什么是孤立存在的。生活就是关系； 头脑在与人、思想和事物的关系中，拥有一个既得利益。 这种自私自利，以及拒绝在自身内部带来根本性的革命， 是头脑恶化的开端。 大多数头脑是保守的，他们抵制变革 甚至所谓的革命头脑也是保守的， 因为一旦它获得了革命的成功，它也抵制变革； 革命本身，变成了它的既得利益。
Even though the mind, whether it be conservative or so-called revolutionary, may permit certain modifications on the fringes of its activities, it resists all change at the centre. Circumstances may compel it to yield, to adapt itself, with pain or with ease, to a different pattern; but the centre remains hard, and it’s this centre that causes the deterioration of the minds. “What do you mean by the centre?”
尽管头脑，无论是保守的还是所谓的革命的， 可能允许在其活动的边缘进行某些修改， 但它抵制对中心的一切变革。 环境可能迫使它屈服， 带着痛苦或轻松，让自己去适应不同的模式； 但中心仍然是坚硬的， 正是这个中心导致了头脑的恶化。 “你说的中心是什么意思？”
Don’t you know? Are you seeking a description of it? “No, sir, but through the description I may touch it, get the feeling of it.”
你不知道吗？您是否正在寻找对它的描述？ “不，先生，但通过描述，我可能会触摸它，感觉到它。”
“Sir,” put in the father, “we may intellectually be aware of that centre, but actually most of us have never come face to face with its I have myself seen it cunningly and subtly described in various books, but I have never really confronted it; and when you ask if we know it, I for one can only say that I don’t. I only know the descriptions of it.” “It is again our vested interest,” added the friend, “our deep-rooted desire for security, that prevents us from knowing that centres I don’t know my own son, though I have lived with him from infancy, and I know even less that which is much closer than my son. To know it one must look at it, observe it, listen to it, but I never do. I am always in a hurry; and when occasionally I do look at it, I am at odds with it.”
“先生，” 父亲说，“我们可能在理智上意识到这个中心， 但实际上，我们大多数人从来没有正视过它， 我自己在各种书中看见对它的狡猾而巧妙的描述， 但我从来没有真正面对它； 当你问我们是否知道时，我只能说我不知道。 我只知道它的描述。” “它又是我们的一个既得利益，” 这位朋友补充说， “我们对安全的根深蒂固的渴望， 使我们无法知道这些中心 我不知道我自己的儿子，尽管从他的婴儿时期起，我就和他住在一起， 而且我所知道的，比离我的儿子更近的人还少。 要知晓它，人们必须看它、观察它、听它，但我从来不这样做。 我总是很着急；当我偶尔看到它时，我就与它格格不入。”
We are talking of the aging, the deteriorating mind. The mind is ever building the pattern of its own certainty, the security of its own interests; the words, the form, the expression may vary from time to time, from culture to culture, but the centre of self-interest remains. It is this centre that causes the mind to deteriorate, however outwardly alert and active it may be. This centre is not a fixed point, but various points within the mind, and so it’s the mind itself. Improvement of the mind, or moving from one centre to another, does not banish these centres; discipline, suppression or sublimation of one centre only establishes another in its place.
我们谈论的是变老，不断恶化的头脑。 头脑永远在建立自己的确定性的模式，巩固它所拥有的利益的安全； 文字、形式、表达方式可能会不时地变化，因文化而异， 但自我利益的中心依然还在。 正是这个中心导致头脑的恶化， 无论它在表面上有多么地警觉和活跃。 这个中心不是一个固定的点， 而是头脑内的各个点，所以，它就是头脑本身。 头脑的改进，或者，从一个中心转移到另一个中心，并不能驱逐这些中心； 对一个中心的管束、压制或升华，只会在它里面建立起另一个中心。
Now, what do we mean when we say we are alive? “Ordinarily,” replied the son, “we consider ourselves alive when we talk, when we laugh, when there’s sensation, when there’s thought, activity, conflict, joy.”
现在，当我们说我们还活着时，我们是什么意思？ “通常，” 儿子回答说， “当我们说话时，当我们笑的时候， 当我们有感觉时，当有思想、有活动、有冲突、有喜悦时，我们认为自己活着。”
So what we call living is acceptance or ‘revolt’ within the social pattern; it’s a movement within the cage of the mind. Our life is an endless series of pains and pleasures, fears and frustrations, wanting and graspings; and when we do consider the mind’s deterioration, and ask whether it’s possible to put an end to it, our inquiry is also within the cage of the mind. Is this living?
因此，我们所说的生活，是对社会模式的接受或‘反抗’； 它是一个在头脑的笼子里的移动。我们的生活 是无休止的痛苦和快乐、恐惧和沮丧、渴望和抓取； 当我们考虑头脑的恶化， 并询问是否有可能结束它时， 我们的询问也在头脑的笼子里。这是活着吗？
“I’m afraid we know no other life,” said the father. “As we grow older, pleasures shrink while sorrows seem to increase; and if one is at all thoughtful, one is aware that one’s mind is gradually deteriorating. The body inevitably grows old and knows decay; but how is one to prevent this aging of the mind?”
“恐怕我们不知道还有什么其他的生活，” 父亲说。 “随着年龄的增长，快乐在缩水，而悲伤似乎在增加； 如果一个人细致地考虑，他就会意识到自己的头脑正在逐渐恶化。 身体不可避免地会变老，知道腐烂； 但是如何防止这种头脑的衰老呢？”
We lead a thoughtless life, and towards the end of it we begin to wonder why the mind decays, and how to arrest the process. Surely, what matters is how we live our days, not only when we are young, but also in middle life, and during the declining years. The right kind of life demands of us far more intelligence than any vocation for earning a livelihood. Right thinking is essential for right living.
我们过着一种无知的生活， 在面对它的终点时，我们开始想知道为什么头脑会衰败， 以及如何阻止这个过程。 当然，重要的是我们每天是怎么生活的， 不仅在我们年轻的时候，而且在中年，以及在衰老的日子里。 正确的生活 要求我们比在任何谋生的岗位上都更聪明。 要正确的生活，正确的思考至关重要。
“What do you mean by right thinking?” asked the friend.
“你说的‘正确的思考’是什么意思？” 朋友问。
There’s a vast difference, surely, between right thinking and right thought. Right thinking is constant awareness; right thought, on the other hand, is either conformity to a pattern set by society, or a reaction against society. Right thought is static, it is a process of grouping together certain concepts, called ideals, and following them. Right thought inevitably builds up the authoritarian, hierarchical outlook and engenders respectability; whereas right thinking is awareness of the whole process of conformity, imitation acceptance, revolt. Right thinking, unlike right thought, is not a thing to be achieved; it arises spontaneously with self-knowledge, which is the perception of the ways of the self. Right thinking cannot be learnt from books, or from another; it comes through the mind’s awareness of itself in the action of relationship. But there can be no understanding of this action as long as the mind justifies or condemns it. So, right thinking eliminates conflict and self-contradiction, which are the fundamental causes of the mind’s deterioration.
当然，‘正确的思考’和‘正确的思想’之间，存在着巨大的差异。 正确的思考是不断的意识； 另一方面，正确的思想 要么是顺应社会设定的模式，要么是对社会的反抗。 正确的思想是静态的， 它是将某些特定的概念组合在一起，取名为理念，并遵循它们的过程。 正确的思想不可避免地会建立专制的、有等级的人生观， 并形成社会地位； 而正确的思考 是意识到顺从、模仿性的接受或反抗的整个过程。 正确的思考，与正确的思想不同，不是一个要获取的东西； 它随着自我认识而自发地产生， 也就是对自我运作方式的感知。 正确的思考不能从书本或他人身上学到； 它来源于在关系的行动中，头脑对它自身的意识。 但是，只要头脑对这种行动进行辩护或谴责， 它就不可能理解行动。 因此，正确的思考消除了冲突和自我矛盾， 而这些是头脑恶化的根本原因。
“Is not conflict an essential part of life?” asked the son. “If we did not struggle, we would merely vegetate.”
“冲突不是生活中必不可少的一部分吗？” 儿子问道。 “如果我们不挣扎，我们就只是植物人。”
We think we are alive when we are caught up in the conflict of ambition, when we are driven by the compulsion of envy, when desire pushes us into action; but all this only leads to greater misery and confusion. Conflict increases self-centred activity, but the understanding of conflict comes about through right thinking. “Unfortunately this process of struggle and misery, with some joy, is the only life we know,” said the father. “There are intimations of another kind of life, but they are few and far between. To go beyond this mess and find that other life is ever the object of our search.”
当我们陷入野心的冲突时， 当我们被嫉妒的冲动所驱使时， 当我们被欲望推动并采取行动时， 我们以为我们活着； 但所有这一切，只会导致更大的痛苦和困惑。 冲突加剧了以自我为中心的活动， 但对冲突的理解是通过正确的思考而来。 “不幸的是， 这个挣扎和痛苦的过程，附带的一些快乐，是我们唯一知道的生活，” 父亲说。“有另一种生活的暗示， 但它们很少，而且很远。 超越这种混乱，发现另外的生活永远是我们寻找的对象。”
To search for what is beyond the actual is to be caught in illusion. Everyday existence, with its ambitions, envies, and so on, must be understood; but to understand it demands awareness right thinking. There’s no right thinking when thought starts with an assumption, a bias. Setting out with a conclusion, or looking for a preconceived answer, puts an end to right thinking; in fact, there is then no thinking at all. So, right thinking is the foundation of righteousness.
寻找超越真实的东西，就是被幻觉所困。 每一天的存在，以及它的野心，羡慕等等，都必须被理解； 但要理解它，需要觉知正确的思考行动。 当思想从一个假设开始，一个偏见开始时，就没有正确的思考。 得出一个结论，或者寻找一个预知的答案，终结了正确的思考； 事实上，根本没有思考。 所以，正确的思考是公平的基础。
“It seems to me,” put in the son, “that at least one of the factors in this whole problem of the mind’s deterioration is the question of right occupation.”
“在我看来，” 儿子说， “在头脑恶化的整个问题中， 至少有一个因素是正确职业的问题。”
What do you mean by right occupation? “I have noticed, sir, that those who become wholly absorbed in some activity or profession soon forget themselves; they are too busy to think about themselves, which is a good thing.”
你说的职业是什么意思？ “我注意到了，先生 那些完全沉迷于某种活动或职业的人，很快就会忘记他们自己。 他们太忙了，无法思考他们自己，那其实是一件好事。”
But isn’t such absorption an escape from oneself? And to escape from oneself is wrong occupation; it is corrupting, it breeds enmity, division, and so on. Right occupation comes through the right kind of education, and with the understanding of oneself. Haven’t you noticed that whatever the activity or profession, the self consciously or unconsciously uses it as a means for its own gratification, for the fulfilment of its ambition, or for the achievement of success in terms of power?
但是，这种沉溺难道不是逃避自我吗？ 逃避自己是错误的职业； 它是腐败的，它滋生敌对、分裂、等等。 正确的职业来自正确的教育，以及对自己的理解。 你有没有注意到，无论什么活动或专业， 自我有意或无意地将它作为满足它自己的手段， 作为实现它的野心，或获取权力上的成功？
“That is so, unfortunately. We seem to use everything we touch for our own advancement.”
“不幸的是，事实就是那样。 我们似乎在利用我们接触到的一切，以提升自我。”
It is this self-interest, this constant self-advancement, that makes the mind petty; and though its activity be extensive, though it be occupied with politics science, art, research, or what you will, there is a narrowing down of thinking, a shallowness that brings about deterioration, decay. Only when there’s understanding of the totality of the mind, the unconscious as well as the conscious, is there a possibility of the mind’s regeneration.
正是这种自我利益，这种不断的自我提升，使头脑变得琐碎； 尽管它的活动是广泛的， 尽管它从事于政治、艺术、科研或你想做的任何职位， 但总有一种对思考的紧缩，一种引发恶化、衰败的浅薄。 只有理解头脑的整体性 —— 不论是无意识，还是有意识，头脑才有可能新生。
“Worldliness is the curse of the modern generation,” said the father. “It is carried away by the things of the world, and does not give thought to serious things.”
“世俗性，是现代人的诅咒，” 父亲说。 “它被世界上的东西带走了，不去考虑严肃的事情。”
This generation is like other generations. Worldly things are not merely refrigerators, silk shirts, airplanes, television sets, and so on; they include ideals, the seeking of power, whether personal or collective, and the desire to be secure, either in this world or the next. All this corrupts the mind and brings about its decay. The problem of deterioration is to be understood at the beginning, in one’s youth, not at the period of physical decline.
这一代人和其他几代人一样。 世俗的东西不仅仅是冰箱、丝绸衬衫、飞机、电视机等等； 它们包括理想、权力的追逐，无论是个人的还是集体的， 以及在这个世界或下一个世界对安全的欲望。 所有这些都腐蚀头脑，并带来它的衰败。 恶化的问题应该在一开始就被理解，在一个人的青年时期， 而不是在身体衰退的时期。”
“Does that mean there’s no hope for us?”
“这是否意味着我们没有希望了？”
Not at all. It’s more arduous to stop the mind’s deterioration at our age, that’s all. To bring about a radical change in the ways of our life, there must be expanding awareness, and a great depth of feeling which is love. With love everything is possible.
一点也不是。 在我们这个年纪，要阻止头脑的恶化，就更加艰巨，仅此而已。 要使我们的生活方式发生根本性的变革， 必须有膨胀的意识，和一种广大而深厚的感情，也就是爱。 有了爱，一切皆有可能。