"I HAVE MANY SERIOUS problems, and I seem to make them more tortuous and painful by trying to solve them. I am at my wit's end, and I do not know what to do. Added to all this, I am deaf and have to use this beastly thing as an aid to my hearing. I have several children and a husband who has left me. I am really concerned over my children, as I want them to avoid all the miseries I have been through."
“我有很多严重的问题， 我似乎在尝试解决它们的时候，造成了更多的折磨与痛楚。 我处于机智的尽头，我不知道该怎么办。 除此之外，我耳朵还有点聋，不得不用这个讨厌的东西来帮助我的听力。 我有几个孩子和一个离开我的丈夫。 我真的很关心我的孩子， 因为我希望他们能够避免我所经历的所有痛苦。”
How anxious we are to find an answer to our problems! We are so eager to find an answer that we cannot study the problem; it prevents our silent observation of the problem. The problem is the important thing, and not the answer. If we look for an answer, we will find it; but the problem will persist, for the answer is irrelevant to the problem. Our search is for an escape from the problem, and the solution is a superficial remedy, so there is no understanding of the problem. All problems arise from one source, and without understanding the source, any attempt to solve the problems will only lead to further confusion and misery. One must first be very clear that one's intention to understand the problem is serious, that one sees the necessity of being free of all problems; for only then can the maker of problems be approached. Without freedom from problems, there can be no tranquillity; and tranquillity is essential for happiness, which is not an end in itself. As the pool is still when the breezes stop, so the mind is still with the cessation of problems. But the mind cannot be made still; if it is, it is dead, it is a stagnant pool. When this is clear, then the maker of problems can be observed. The observation must be silent and not according to any predetermined plan based on pleasure and pain.
我们多么急于找到问题的答案！ 我们如此渴望找到答案，以至于我们无法研究这个问题； 它阻止了我们对问题的无声观察。 问题是重要的，而不是答案。 如果我们寻找答案，我们会找到它； 但问题将会持续存在，因为，答案与问题无关。 我们的寻找不过是对问题的逃避， 而解决方案是肤浅的补救措施，因此并没有理解问题本身。 所有问题，都来自一个地方，如果不理解源头， 任何解决问题的尝试，都只会导致进一步的困惑与痛苦。 首先，一个人必须非常清楚那一点： 一个人理解问题的意图是严肃的， 一个人看到了摆脱一切问题的必要性； 因为只有这样，才能接近问题的制造者。 不从问题中解放，就不得安宁； 安宁是幸福的基石。而幸福，并不是它的终点。 正如水塘在微风停止时，依旧平静， 因而头脑在问题消退时，依然安宁。 但是，头脑不能被强迫安静。 如果它被迫，它就死了，它就是了一个停滞的水塘。 当这一点很清楚时，就可以观察到问题的制造者。 观察必须安然， 而不是根据任何基于快乐和痛苦的预定好的计划。
"But you are asking the impossible! Our education trains the mind to distinguish, to compare, to judge, to choose, and it is very difficult not to condemn or justify what is observed. How can one be free of this conditioning and observe silently?"
“但你是在要求不可能的事情！ 我们的教育训练头脑去区分、比较、去判断、选择， 而且很难不谴责或辨识所观察到的。 一个人怎么才能摆脱这种制约，并安静地观察呢？”
If you see that silent observation, passive awareness is essential for understanding, then the truth of your perception liberates you from the background. It is only when you do not see the immediate necessity of passive and yet alert awareness that the "how," the search for a means to dissolve the background varies. It is truth that liberates, not the means or the system. The truth that silent observation alone brings understanding, must be seen; then only are you free from condemnation and justification. When you see danger, you do not ask how you are to keep away from it. It is because you do not see the necessity of being passively aware that you ask "how." Why do you not see the necessity of it?
如果你看到安静的观察、被动的意识，对于理解是必不可少的， 那么你感知到的真实，就会把你从背景中解放。 只有当你没有看到被动而警觉的意识的即刻的必要性时， 那个“如何”，那种寻找一种溶解背景的方法就会幻化而来。 正是真实在绽放，而不是手段或系统。 真实，那独立地静默地观察，带来理解，必须被看见； 只有那样，你才能免于谴责和辨别。 当你看到危险时，你不会问你如何远离它。 正是因为你没有看到被动地意识的必要性，你才问“如何”。 你为什么没有看到它的必要性？
"I want to, but I have never thought along these lines before. All I can say is that I want to get rid of my problems, because they are a real torture to me. I want to be happy, like any other person."
“我想，但我以前从未想过这些。 我只能说，我想摆脱我的问题， 因为它们对我来说是一种真正的折磨。 我想要快乐，像其他人一样。”
Consciously or unconsciously we refuse to see the essentiality of being passively aware because we do not really want to let go of our problems; for what would we be without them? We would rather cling to something we know, however painful, than risk the pursuit of something that may lead who knows where. With the problems, at least, we are familiar; but the thought of pursuing the maker of them, not knowing where it may lead, creates in us fear and dullness. The mind would be lost without the worry of problems; it feeds on problems, whether they are world or kitchen problems, political or personal, religious or ideological; so our problems make us petty and narrow. A mind that is consumed with world problems is as petty as the mind that worries about the spiritual progress it is making. Problems burden the mind with fear, for problems give strength to the self, to the "me" and the "mine." Without problems, without achievements and failures, the self is not.
有意或无意地，我们拒绝去看被动地意识的必要性， 因为我们真的不愿意放弃我们的问题； 因为没有了它们，我们会是什么样子？ 我们宁愿依附于我们所知道的东西，无论它有多么痛苦， 也不愿冒险追求一些可能导向不知道去哪儿的东西。 对于这些问题，至少，我们是熟悉的； 但是，追寻它们的制造者的这种想法， 由于不知道它可能导向哪个地方，在我们的心里制造出恐惧和苦闷。 没有了问题可忧虑，头脑就会迷失； 它以问题为食，无论是世界问题还是厨房问题，政治问题还是个人问题，宗教问题还是意识形态问题； 因此，我们的问题使我们变得琐碎与狭隘。 一个被世界问题所消耗的头脑， 如同一个忧虑它在灵性等级提升上所达成的头脑，同样地微不足道。 问题使头脑背负着恐惧， 因为问题赋予‘自我’以力量，把能量给了‘我’和‘我的’。 没有了问题，没有了成就与失败，就没有了自我。
"But without the self, how can one exist at all? It is the source of all action." As long as action is the outcome of desire, of memory, of fear, of pleasure and pain, it must inevitably breed conflict, confusion and antagonism. Our action is the outcome of our conditioning, at whatever level; and our response to challenge, being inadequate and incomplete, must produce conflict, which is the problem. Conflict is the very structure of the self. It is entirely possible to live without conflict, the conflict of greed, of fear, of success; but this possibility will be merely theoretical and not actual until it is discovered through direct experiencing. To exist without greed is possible only when the ways of the self are understood.
“但是没有自我，一个人怎么能存在呢？它是一切行动的源泉。” 只要行动是出于欲望、记忆、恐惧、快乐和痛苦， 它就必然滋生冲突、困惑和敌对。 我们的行动出于我们所受的束缚，无论这束缚在哪个层面上； 我们对挑战所作出的回应，是不充分和不完整的， 它必定导致冲突，这就是问题的症结所在。 冲突本身就是自我的骨架。 没有贪婪、没有因恐惧与成功所引发的冲突，没有冲突地活着，是完全有可能的。 但这种可能性只是在理论上， 并非真实，除非通过直接地体验而被发现。 只有理解自我的方式，才有可能不贪婪地存在。
"Do you think my deafness is due to my fears and repressions? Doctors have assured me that there is nothing structurally wrong, and is there any possibility of recovering my hearing? I have been suppressed, in one way or another, all my life; I have never done anything that I really wanted to do."
“你认为我的耳聋是由于我的恐惧和压抑吗？ 医生向我保证，在构造上没有任何问题， 是否有可能恢复我的听力？ 我的一生都以这样或那样的方式受到了压抑。 我从来没有做过我真正想做的事情。”
Inwardly and outwardly it is easier to repress than to understand. To understand is arduous, especially for those who have been heavily conditioned from childhood. Although strenuous, repression becomes a matter of habit. Understanding can never be made into a habit, a matter of routine; it demands constant watchfulness, alertness. To understand, there must be pliability, sensitivity, a warmth that has nothing to do with sentimentality. Suppression in any form needs no quickening of awareness; it is the easiest and the stupidest way to deal with responses. Suppression is conformity to an idea, to a pattern, and it offers superficial security, respectability. Understanding is liberating, but suppression is always narrowing, self-enclosing. Fear of authority, of insecurity, of opinion, builds up an ideological refuge, with its physical counterpart, to which the mind turns. This refuge, at whatever level it may be placed, ever sustains fear; and from fear there is substitution, sublimation or discipline, which are all a form of repression. Repression must find an outlet, which may be a physical ailment or some kind of ideological illusion. The price is paid according to one's temperament and idiosyncrasies.
从内在和外在来看，压抑比理解更容易。 理解是艰巨的，特别是对于那些从小就受到严重束缚的人来说。 尽管很费劲，压抑却变成了一种习惯。 理解永远无法变成一种习惯，一种例行公事； 它需要持续的警戒、醒觉。 要理解，必须有柔韧性，敏感性，一种与多愁善感无关的温暖。 任何形式的束缚都不需要敏捷地意识； 通过条件反射来处理问题，是最简单、最愚蠢的方法。 束缚即是服从一个想法、一种模式，而它提供了肤浅的安全感和尊严。 理解是解放，但束缚总是在缩减，固步自封。 出于对权威的恐惧，对不安、对观念的恐惧， 建立起一个意识形态的避难所，同时给它搭配上相应的物质，而头脑转向了这个避难所。 这个避难所，无论放在什么水平上，总在供养恐惧； 在恐惧之中，有更替、升华或戒律，这些都属于束缚的某种形式。 受束缚的人必须找到一个出口， 它可能是一种身体上的疾病，也可能是某种意识形态上的幻觉。 这种代价，是根据一个人的脾气和特性来支付的。
"I have noticed that whenever there is something unpleasant to be heard, I take refuge behind this instrument, which thereby helps me to escape into my own world. But how is one to be free from the repression of years? Will it not take a long time?"
“我注意到，每当听到一些令人不快的事情时， 我就会躲在这个仪器后面，从而帮助我逃到自己的世界。 但是，一个人如何才能摆脱岁月的束缚呢？这不会花很长时间吧？”
It is not a question of time, of dredging into the past, or of careful analysis; it is a matter of seeing the truth of repression. By being passively aware, without any choice, of the whole process of repression, the truth of it is immediately seen. The truth of repression cannot be discovered if we think in terms of yesterday and tomorrow; truth is not to be comprehended through the passage of time. Truth is not a thing to be attained; it is seen or it is not seen, it cannot be perceived gradually. The will to be free from repression is a hindrance to understanding the truth of it; for will is desire, whether positive or negative, and with desire there can be no passive awareness. It is desire or craving that brought about the repression; and this same desire, though now called will, can never free itself from its own creation. Again, the truth of will must be perceived through passive yet alert awareness. The analyser, though he may separate himself from it, is part of the analysed; and as he is conditioned by the thing he analyses, he cannot free himself from it, again, the truth of this must be seen. It is truth that liberates, not will and effort.
它不是一个时间问题、一个疏浚过去或仔细分析的问题； 它是一个看到束缚的真实性的问题。 不作任何挑拣，通过被动地意识整个束缚过程， 它的真实性被立即看到。 如果我们从昨天和明天的角度来思考，就不可能发现束缚的真实性。 真实不是通过时间的流逝来理解的。 真实不是一件需要获取的东西； 要么看见，要么没看见，它不能逐渐地被感知。 摆脱束缚的意愿是理解真实的障碍； 因为意愿就是欲望，无论是主动性的还是被动性的， 而有了欲望，就不可能有被动的意识。 正是这个欲望或渴望带来了束缚； 它仍然是欲望，虽然现在被称之为‘意愿’，却永远无法从自己的创造物中解脱。 同样，意愿的真实性必须通过被动而警醒的意识来理解。 分析者虽然可能将自己与分析物分开，他却是分析物的一部分； 当他被他所分析的事物所束缚时，他就无法从中解脱， 同样，必须看到这一点的真实性。 真理本身在绽放，而不是意愿和努力。