IT WAS A lovely morning, pure after the rains. There were tender new leaves on the trees, and the breeze from the sea had set them dancing. The grass was green and lush, and the cattle were hungrily eating it up, for after a few months there would not be a blade of it left. The fragrance of the garden filled the room, and children were shouting and laughing. The palm trees had golden coco-nuts, and the banana leaves, large and swaying, were not yet torn by age and wind. How beautiful the earth was, and what a poem of colour! Fast the village, beyond the big houses and the groves, was the sea, full of light and with thunderous waves. Far out there was a small boat, a few logs tied together, with a solitary man fishing.

这是一个可爱的早晨，雨后清纯。 树上有柔软的新叶，海边的微风让他们跳舞。 草是绿色和郁郁葱葱的，牛群饥饿地吃掉了它， 因为几个月后，这里就没有一片草叶了。 花园的香味弥漫在房间里，孩子们大喊大叫、欢笑着。 棕榈树上有金色的坚果， 蕉叶宽大，随风摇曳，还没有被岁月和风撕裂。 大地多么美丽、多彩的诗！ 在村庄的远方，远离高大的房屋和树林， 是大海，充满了光彩和雷鸣般的海浪。 远处有一艘小船，几根原木绑在一起，一个孤独的人在垂钓。

She was quite young, in her twenties, and recently married, but the passing years were already leaving their mark upon her. She said she was of good family, cultured and hard working; she had taken her M.A. with honours, and one could see that she was bright and alert. Once started, she spoke easily and fluently, but she would suddenly become self-conscious and silent.

她很年轻，二十多岁，最近刚结婚， 但岁月的流逝已经在她身上留下了印记。 她说她有一个良好的家庭，有教养，工作勤奋； 她以优异的成绩获得了硕士学位，一个人可以看出她的聪明、警觉。 一旦开始，她说起话来，轻松流利， 但她会突然变得自我意识和沉默。

She wanted to unburden herself, for she said she had not talked to anyone about her problem, not even to her parents. Gradually, bit by bit, her sorrow was put into words. Words convey meaning only at a certain level; they have a way of distorting, of not giving fully the significance of their symbol, of creating a deception that is entirely unintentional. She wanted to convey much more than merely what the words meant, and she succeeded; she could not speak of certain things, however hard she tried, but her very silence conveyed those pains and unbearable indignities of a relationship that had become merely a contract. She had been struck and left alone by her husband, and her young children were hardly companions. What was she to do? They were now living apart, and should she go back?

她想卸下自己的负担， 因为她说，她没有与任何人谈论过她的问题，甚至没有与她的父母谈过。 渐渐地，一点一点地，她的悲伤被语言表达了出来。 词语只在某种程度上传达出含义； 它们有一种扭曲，无法完全传递它们所代表的含义， 创造出一种完全无意的欺骗。 她想传达的不仅仅是这些话的意思，而她做到了； 无论她怎么尝试，她都无法谈论某些事情， 但她的沉默，传达出一段关系的痛楚和难以忍受的侮辱， 这种关系已经变成一种契约。 她被丈夫打击并独自一人，她与年幼的孩儿们几乎从不见面。 她该怎么办？他们现在分居了，她该回去吗？

What a strong hold respectability has on us ! What will they say? Can one live alone, especially a woman, without their saying nasty things? Respectability is a cloak for the hypocrite; we commit every possible crime in thought, but outwardly we are irreproachable. She was courting respectability, and was confused. It is strange how, when one is clear within oneself, whatever may happen is right. When there is this inward clarity, the right is not according to one’s desire, but whatever is is right. Contentment comes with the understanding of what is. But how difficult it is to be clear!

我们有多么强烈的自尊心！ 他们会说什么？ 一个单独的人，特别是一个女人，能不能不被他们说脏话？ 尊严，是伪君子的外衣； 我们在思想上犯下了一切可能的罪行，但从表面上看，我们却无可指责。 她恭敬地讨好，并感到困惑。 奇怪的是，当一个人内心清明时，无论发生什么，都是恰当的。 当有了这种内在的清明， 这种恰当不是跟从一个人的欲望，而一切却恰到好处。 满足源于理解现实。 但是，要处于清明的状态，有多么困难！

“How am I to be clear about what I should do?”

么才能清明？”

Action does not follow clarity: clarity is action. You are concerned with what you should do, and not with being clear. You are torn between respectability and what you should do, between the hope and what is. The dual desire for respectability and for some ideal action brings conflict and confusion, and only when you are capable of looking at what is, is there clarity. What is is not what should be, which is desire distorted to a particular pattern; what is is the actual, not the desirable but the fact. Probably you have never approached it this way; you have thought or cunningly calculated, weighing this against that, planning and counter-planning, which has obviously led to this confusion which makes you ask what you are to do. Whatever choice you may make in the state of confusion can only lead to further confusion. See this very simply and directly; if you do, then you will be able to observe what is without distortion. The implicit is its own action. If what is is clear, then you will see that there is no choice but only action, and the question of what you should do will never arise; such a question arises only when there is the uncertainty of choice. Action is not of choice; the action of choice is the action of confusion.

行动不追随清明：清明即是行动。 你关心的是你应该做什么，而不是处于清明之中。 在自尊和‘你应该做什么’之间，在希望和现实之间，你摇摆不定。 在自尊和‘某种理想的行动’的双重渴望下，你引出了冲突和困惑， 只有当你能够看到现状，才有清明。 现状不是‘应该是’，不是被某种规则所扭曲的欲望； 现状是真实的，不是你想要的，而是这个现实。 可能你从来没有以这种方式接近过它； 你已经思考或狡猾地计算，权衡这个与那个，计划与打破计划， 这些，显然导致了困惑，而困惑又使你去询问：你应该做什么。 在困惑的状态下，无论你做出怎样的选择，都只会导致进一步的困惑。 单纯而直接地看见这一点； 如果你这么做，那么你将能够观看到没被扭曲的现状。 那隐含的，有它自己的行动。 如果现状是清晰的，那么你会看到：没有选择，只有行动， ‘你应该做什么’的问题，永远不会出现； 只有出现了选择的不确定性，才会出现这个的问题。 行动与选择无关； 选择的行动，就是困惑的行动。

“I am beginning to see what you mean: I must be clear in myself, without the persuasion of respectability, without self-interested calculation, without the spirit of bargaining. I am clear, but it is difficult to maintain clarity, is it not?”

“我开始明白你所说的意思： 我必须自己清明，没有高尚的自尊， 没有自私自利的计算，没有讨价还价的灵性。 我清楚了，但很难维持清明，不是吗？”

Not at all. To maintain is to resist. You are not maintaining clarity and opposing confusion: you are experiencing what is confusion, and you see that any action arising from it must inevitably be still more confusing. When you experience all this, not because another has said it but because you see it directly for yourself, then the clarity of what is is there; you do not maintain clarity, it is there.

一点也不。 维持就是抗拒。你别去维持清明、反对困惑： 你正在体验什么是困惑， 你看到：由此产生的任何行动，必然导致更大地困惑。 当你体验到这个， 不是因为别人说过，而是因为你亲自直接地看见它， 那么现状的清明就在这儿。你不必维持清明，它就在这里。

“I quite see what you mean. Yes, I am clear; it is all right. But what of love? We don’t know what love means. I thought I loved, but I see I do not.”

“我完全明白你的意思。是的，我清楚了；它没关系。 但是爱呢？我们不知道爱意味着什么。 我以为我爱，但我发现我不是。”

From what you have told me, you married out of fear of loneliness and through physical urges and necessities; and you have found that all this is not love. You may have called it love to make it respectable, but actually it was a matter of convenience under the cloak of the word “love”. To most people, this is love, with all its confusing smoke: the fear of insecurity, of loneliness, of frustration, of neglect in old age, and so on. But all this is merely a thought process, which is obviously not love. Thought makes for repetition, and repetition makes relationship stale. Thought is a wasteful process, it does not renew itself, it can only continue; and what has continuity cannot be the new, the fresh. Thought is sensation, thought is sensuous, thought is the sexual problem. Thought cannot end itself in order to be creative; thought cannot become something other than it is, which is sensation. Thought is always the stale, the past, the old; thought can never be new. As you have seen, love is not thought.

根据你对我说过的话， 你结婚是出于对孤独的恐惧、生理的冲动和物质必需品； 你发现这一切都不是爱。 你可能把它叫做爱，让它变得受人尊敬， 而实际上，‘爱’这个词，作为一件外衣，下面覆盖着一种便宜行事。 对大多数人来说，这就是爱，它里面有所有的困惑的烟雾 —— 不安、孤独、挫折、变老后疏于照料等等的恐惧。 但这一切，只是一个思考的过程，显然不是爱。 思想导致重复，重复导致关系的僵化。 思想是一种耗散，它不会更新它自己，它只能延续； 那延续下来的，不可能是崭新的、鲜活的。 思想是感觉，思想是感官性的，思想是性爱的问题。 思想不能为了创新而结束它自己； 思想不能变成别的东西，无论它怎么变，它仍是感觉。 思想总是陈旧的、过时的、古老的； 思想永远不可能是新的。 正如你所看到的，爱不是思想。

Love is when the thinker is not. The thinker is not an entity different from thought; thought and the thinker are one. The thinker is the thought.

当思想者不在的时候，爱在。 思想者不是一个不同于思想的实体； 思想和思想者是同一个东西。 思想者，就是思想。

Love is not sensation; it is a flame without smoke. You will know love when you as the thinker are not. You cannot sacrifice yourself, the thinker, for love. There can be no deliberate action for love, because love is not of the mind. The discipline, the will to love, is the thought of love; and the thought of love is sensation, Thought cannot think about love, for love is beyond the reaches of the mind. Thought is continuous, and love is inexhaustible. That which is inexhaustible is ever new, and that which has continuance is ever in the fear of ending. That which ends knows the eternal beginning of love.

爱不是感觉；它是一种没有烟雾的火焰。 当作为思想者的你不存在的时候，你就会知道爱。 你不能为了爱而牺牲你自己，你这个思考者。 爱不能有刻意的行动，因为爱不属于头脑。 纪律、爱的意愿，是有关爱的思想； 而爱的思想，就是感觉， 思想不能思索爱，因为头脑无法触及爱。 思想是延续性的，而爱是取之不尽、用之不竭的。 取之不尽、用之不竭的，永远是新的， 而那种延续性的，永远处于对结束的恐惧之中。 那具有结束性的，知道爱的永恒的发轫。