IT WAS A pleasant group; most of them were eager, and there were a few who listened to refute. Listening is an art not easily come by, but in it there is beauty and great understanding. We listen with the various depths of our being, but our listening is always with a preconception or from a particular point of view. We do not listen simply; there is always the intervening screen of our own thoughts, conclusions and prejudices. We listen with pleasure or resistance, with grasping or rejection, but there is no listening. To listen there must be an inward quietness, a freedom from the strain of acquiring, a relaxed attention. This alert yet passive state is able to hear what is beyond the verbal conclusion. Words confuse, they are only the outward means of communication; but to commune beyond the noise of words, there must be in listening an alert passivity. Those who love may listen; but it is extremely rare to find a listener. Most of us are after results, achieving goals, we are forever overcoming and conquering, and so there is no listening. It is only in listening that one hears the song of the words.
这是一个愉快的团体； 他们中的大多数人都很热切，其中有一小部分人在反驳。 听，是一门不容易入门的艺术，但其中有美和伟大的理解。 我们用我们存在的各种深度去听， 但我们的听，总是带有成见或特定的视角。 我们不单纯地听； 总会插入出某些片段：我们自己的思想、结论和偏见。 在听的时候，我们夹带着快乐或抵抗、抓取或拒绝， 但这不是听。 听，要有一种内在的安静， 一种毫无压抑的自由，一种轻松的关注。 这种警觉而被动的状态，能听到言语化的结论之外的东西。 言语是混淆不清的，它们只是交流的外在手段； 但是，交融超越了言语的噪音， 听的时候，必须有一种警醒的被动性。 那有爱的人可以听；却很难找到一个听众。 我们大多数人，都在追求结果、猎取目标， 我们永远在超越和征服，所以不去听。 唯有在听的时候，一个人才能听到言语的歌声。
“Is it possible to be free of all desire? Without desire, is there life? Is not desire life itself? To seek to be free of desire is to invite death, is it not?”
“有可能摆脱所有的欲望吗？没有了欲望，还谈什么生活？ 难道生活本身不就是欲望吗？寻求摆脱欲望，就是邀请死亡，不是吗？”
What is desire? When are we aware of it? When do we say we desire? Desire is not an abstraction, it exists only in relationship. Desire arises in conflict, in relationship. Without contact, there is no desire. Contact may be at any level, but without it there is no sensation, no response, no desire. We know the process of desire, the way it comes into being: perception, contact, sensation, desire. But when are we aware of desire? When do I say I have a desire? Only when there is the disturbance of pleasure or of pain. It is when there is an awareness of conflict, of disturbance, that there is the cognizance of desire. Desire is the inadequate response to challenge. The perception of a beautiful car gives rise to the disturbance of pleasure. This disturbance is the consciousness of desire; The focusing of disturbance, caused by pain or by pleasure, is self-consciousness. Self-consciousness is desire. We are conscious when there is the disturbance of inadequate response to challenge. Conflict is self-consciousness. Can there be freedom from this disturbance, from the conflict of desire?
什么是欲望？ 我们什么时候意识到它？在哪一个时候，我们说我们想要？ 欲望不是一种抽象，它只存在于关系中。 欲望在冲突中升起，在关系中发芽。 没有触碰，就没有欲望。 触碰可能出现在任何层面上，但缺了它，就没感觉、没回应、没欲望。 我们知道欲望的运转过程， 它成长的过程：捕捉，触碰，感受，欲望。 但是，我们什么时候意识到欲望？我什么时候说我有一个欲望？ 只有当快乐或痛苦来搅扰的时候。 当意识到了冲突、扰动的时候， 才认出了欲望。 欲望是对挑战的不充分回应。 捕捉一辆靓车，升起一团快乐的搅扰。 这种扰动，使人意识到欲望； 聚焦这个由疼痛或快乐引起的扰动，就是自我意识。 自我意识，就是欲望。 当出现了对挑战的不充分回应，而产生出扰动的时候，我们就有了意识。 冲突，就是自我意识。 能从这种扰动中解脱，从欲望的冲突中解放出来吗？
“Do you mean freedom from the conflict of desire, or from desire itself?”
冲突中解脱，还是从欲望中解放出来？”
Are conflict and desire two separate states? If they are, our inquiry must lead to illusion. If there were no disturbance of pleasure or pain, of wanting, seeking, fulfilling, either negatively or positively, would there be desire? And do we want to get rid of disturbance? If we can understand this, then we may be able to grasp the significance of desire. Conflict is self-consciousness; the focusing of attention through disturbance is desire. Is it that you want to get rid of the conflicting element is desire, and keep the pleasurable element? Both pleasure and conflict are disturbing, are they not? Or do you think pleasure does not disturb?
冲突和欲望是两种独立的状态吗？ 如果它们是，我们的调查必然会导致幻觉。 如果没有快乐或痛苦的扰动，没有渴望、追寻、达成的扰动， 无论是被动的还是主动的，会有欲望吗？ 我们想摆脱扰动吗？ 如果我们能理解这一点，那么我们也许就能抓住欲望的意义。 冲突，就是自我意识； 透过扰动而聚焦的注意力，就是欲望。 你想摆脱冲突的元素， 并留下快乐的元素吗？ 快乐和冲突，都是令人不安的，不是吗？ 还或者，你会认为快乐不会打扰到你吗？
“Pleasure is not disturbing.”
“快乐不是令人不安的。”
Is that true? Have you never noticed the pain of pleasure? Is not the craving for pleasure ever on the increase, ever demanding more and more? Is not the craving for more as disturbing as the urgency of avoidance? Both bring about conflict. We want to keep the pleasurable desire, and avoid the painful; but if we look closely, both are disturbing. But do you want to be free from disturbance?
那是真的吗？你从来没有注意到快乐的痛苦吗？ 对快乐的渴求，难道不是总在增长，总在不断地索取吗？ ‘渴求更多’与‘慌忙的逃避’，难道没有令人不安吗？ 两者都带来了冲突。 我们要保留快乐的欲望，逃避里面的痛苦； 但如果我们近距离地观看，两者都令人不安。 但是你想摆脱这种扰乱吗？
“If we have no desire we will die; if we have no conflict we will go to sleep.”
“如果我们没有欲望，我们就会死； 如果我们没有冲突，我们就会睡觉。”
Are you speaking from experience, or have you merely an idea about it? We are imagining what it would be like to have no conflict and so are preventing the experiencing of whatever that state is in which all conflict has ceased. Our problem is, what causes conflict? Can we not see a beautiful or an ugly thing without conflict coming into being? Can we not observe, listen without self-consciousness? Can we not live without disturbance? Can we not be without desire? Surely, we must understand the disturbance, and not seek a way of overcoming or exalting desire. Conflict must be understood, not ennobled or suppressed.
你是根据体会而说出的，还是你对它有一种想法？ 我们正在想象：没有了冲突，会是什么样子？ 那个想象，正好阻挡了体验所有的冲突消停的状态。 我们的问题是，什么导致了冲突？ 难道没有冲突，我们就看不见一个美丽或丑陋的东西吗？ 难道没有自我意识，我们就不能看，不能听吗？ 难道没有冲突，我们就不能活吗？ 难道没有欲望，我们就消失了吗？ 当然，我们必须理解这种扰动， 而不是寻求一种超越或提升欲望的方法。 冲突必须被理解，而不是被提升或压制。
What causes conflict? Conflict arises when the response is not adequate to the challenge; and this conflict is the focusing of consciousness as the self. The self, the consciousness focused through conflict, is experience. Experience is response to a stimulus or challenge; without terming or naming, there is no experience. Naming is out of the storehouse, memory; and this naming is the process of verbalizing, the making of symbols, images, words, which strengthens memory. Consciousness, the focusing of the self through conflict, is the total process of experience, of naming, of recording.
冲突的起因是什么？ 当回应不足以应对挑战时，就产生了冲突； 而这个冲突，是意识的聚焦，也就是自我。 自我，这个冲突而产生聚焦的意识，就是体验。 体验是对刺激或挑战的回应； 不去术语化或命名，就没有体验。 命名发源于仓库 —— 记忆的仓库； 这个取名字的过程，就是言语化的加工流程： 加工符号、图像、文字，也就是强化记忆。 意识，这种由冲突而产生的自我聚焦， 就是体验、命名、记录的整个流程。
“In this process, what is it that gives rise to conflict? Can we be free from conflict? And what is beyond conflict?”
“在这个流程中，是什么导致了冲突？ 我们能摆脱冲突吗？超越了冲突的东西是什么？”
It is naming that gives rise to conflict, is it not? You approach the challenge, at whatever level, with a record, with an idea, with a conclusion, with prejudice; that is, you name the experience. This terming gives quality to experience, the quality arising out of naming. Naming is the recording of memory. The past meets the new; challenge is met by memory, the past. The responses of the past cannot understand the living, the new, the challenge; the responses of the past are inadequate, and from this arises conflict, which is self-consciousness. Conflict ceases when there is no process of naming. You can watch in yourself how the naming is almost simultaneous with the response. The interval between response and naming is experiencing. Experiencing, in which there is neither the experiencer nor the experienced, is beyond conflict. Conflict is the focusing of the self, and with the cessation of conflict there is the ending of all thought and the beginning of the inexhaustible.
命名引起了冲突，不是吗？ 在应对挑战时，无论这个挑战在哪个层面上， 你派遣一条记录、一个想法、一个结论、偏见，去回应它； 也就是说，您命名这个体验。 这种言语化，赋予了体验的材质，这种材质发源于命名。 命名，就是记忆的刻录。 过去遇见新的；挑战碰到了记忆、过去。 过去的回应无法理解这个活的、新的挑战； 它们不能理解这活泼的、崭新的挑战。 过去的回应是不充分的， 由此而产生冲突，也就是自我意识。 当不去命名的时候，冲突就停止了。 您可以自己观察，命名几乎与回应是同时发生的。 回应和命名之间的空白，即是体验的状态。 在体验的状态中， 既没有体验者，也没有被体验的事物，这样就超越了冲突。 冲突是自我的聚焦，随着冲突的停止， 所有的思想随之终结，开启了那取之不尽、用之不竭的。