THERE WAS HARDLY anyone on the long, curving beach. A few fishermen were going back to their village among the tall palms. As they walked they made thread, rolling the cotton on their naked thighs and winding it on the bobbin; it was a very fine thread, and strong. Some of them walked with ease and grace, and others with dragging feet. They were ill-fed, thin, and burnt dark by the sun. A boy passed by singing, with long, cheerful strides; and the sea came rolling in. There was no strong breeze, but it was a heavy sea, with thunderous waves. The moon, almost full was just rising out of the blue-green water, and the breakers were white against the yellow sands.
在长而弯曲的沙滩上，几乎没有人。 几个渔民穿过高大的棕榈树林，回到他们的村庄。 他们一边走路，一边弄线， 棉花在他们赤裸的大腿上滚动，被缠绕在线轴上； 这是一条非常细的线，而且很结实。 他们中的一些人轻松而优雅地走路，而另一些人则拖着脚步。 他们吃得不好，瘦弱，被太阳晒得黝黑。 一个男孩踏歌而行，步子长而欢快； 海水翻滚涌来。 这儿没有强风，却一片波涛汹涌的大海，涌动着雷鸣般的巨浪。 几乎盈满的月亮，刚刚从蓝绿色的水中升起， 在黄色的沙滩的映衬下，浪花雪白。
How essentially simple life is, and how we complicate it! Life is complex, but we do not know how to be simple with it. Complexity must be approached simply, otherwise we shall never understand it. We know too much, and that is why life eludes us; and the too much is so little. With that little we meet the immense; and how can we measure the immeasurable? Our vanity dulls us, experience and knowledge bind us, and the waters of life pass us by. To sing with that boy, to drag wearily with those fishermen, to spin thread on one’s thigh, to be those villagers and that couple in the car – to be all that, not as a trick of identity, needs love. Love is not complex, but the mind makes it so. We are too much with the mind, and the ways of love we do not know. We know the ways of desire and the will of desire, but we do not know love. Love is the flame without the smoke. We are too familiar with the smoke; it fills our heads and heats, and we see darkly. We are not simple with the beauty of the flame; we torture ourselves with it. We do not live with the flame, following swiftly wherever it may lead. We know too much, which is always little, and we make a path for love. Love eludes us, but we have the empty frame. Those who know that they do not know are the simple; they go far, for they have no burden of knowledge.
对生命而言，简单是多么地重要，而我们把它弄得多么复杂！ 生命是综合体，我们却不知道如何与之简单地相处。 综合的事物必须简单地着手，否则我们将永远无法理解它。 我们知道的太多了，那就是为什么生命逃避我们；而这种太多，却如此渺小。 带着那个渺小，我们面对无限；而我们怎么能衡量那不可衡量的？ 我们的虚荣心使我们迟钝，经验和知识缠绕着我们，生命的潮水从我们身边流过。 和那个男孩一起唱歌， 和那些渔民们一起疲惫地拖着沉重的脚步，在大腿上卷线， 和那些村民们以及车里的那对夫妇一起 —— 和那一切同在，而不是玩弄认同的诡计，需要爱。 爱不复杂，但头脑使它变得如此。 我们的这个头脑知道得太多，而爱的方式，我们却不知道。 我们知道欲望的方式和欲望的意愿，但我们不知道爱。 爱是没有烟雾的火焰。我们对烟雾太熟悉了。 它填满了我们的头脑和心灵，我们的眼前一片漆黑。 我们不简单地陪着火焰的美；我们用它来折磨我们自己。 我们不与这个火焰相处，不迅速地跟随它可能引向的任何地方。 我们知道得太多，它却总是渺小的，我们为爱打造一条路径。 爱避开了我们，我们却拥有这个空荡荡的框架。 那些知道他们不知道的人是简单的； 他们走得远，因为他们没有知识的负担。
He was a sannyasi of some repute; he had the saffron robe and the distant look. He was saying that he had renounced the world many years ago and was now approaching the stage when neither this world nor the other world interested him. He had practised many austerities, driven the body hard and fast, and had extraordinary control over his breathing and nervous system. This had given him a great sense of power, though he had not sought it.
他是一个享有盛誉的桑雅生，穿着藏红花长袍，带着遥远的眼神。 他说，多年前，他就已经放弃了这个世界， 现在正接近这个世界和另一个世界都不感兴趣的舞台。 他修习了许多艰苦的戒律，用苦行和禁食磨砺身体， 对自己的呼吸和神经系统有非凡的控制。 这给了他很大的权力感，尽管他没有去寻求它。
Is not this power as detrimental to understanding as the power of ambition and vanity? Greed, like fear, breeds the power of action. All sense of power, of domination, gives strength to the self, to the “me” and the “mine; and is not the self a hindrance to reality? “The lower must be suppressed or made to conform to the higher. Conflict between the various desires of the mind and the body must be stilled; in the process of control, the rider tastes power, but power is used to climb higher or go deeper. Power is harmful only when used for oneself, and not when used to clear the way for the supreme. Will is power, it is the directive; when used for personal ends it is destructive, but when used in the right direction it is beneficial. Without will, there can be no action.”
这种权力难道不是与雄心、虚荣心的权力一样，都有害于理解吗？ 贪婪，就像恐惧一样，滋生行动的权力。 一切的权力感、支配感，都在增强自我、‘我’和‘我的’。 自我难道不是一个真实的障碍吗？ “下级必须被压制或遵命于上级。 头脑和身体的各种欲望之间的冲突必须平息； 在控制过程中， 骑手尝到了权力，但权力是用来爬得更高或走得更深。 权力只有在被自我使用的时候，才是有害的， 而用来为至高无上者扫清道路时，它就没有害处。 意志就是权力，是指挥官；当用于个人目的时，它是破坏性的， 但是当用于正确的方向时，它是有益的。 没有意志，就不可能有行动。”
Every leader uses power as a means to an end, and so does the ordinary man; but the leader says that he is using it for the good of the whole, while the everyday man is just out for himself. The goal of the dictator, of the man of power, of the leader, is the same as that of the led; they are similar, one is the expansion of the other; and both are self-projections. We condemn one and praise the other; but are not all goals the outcome of one’s own prejudices, inclinations, fears and hopes? You use will, effort, power, to make way for the supreme; that supreme is fashioned out of desire, which is will. Will creates its own goal and sacrifices or suppresses everything to that end. The end is itself, only it is called the supreme, or the State, or the ideology.
每个领导人都把权力作为达到目的的手段，普通人也是如此。 但领导者说，他用它来造福全体， 而普通人只是为了他自己。 独裁者、权力者、领袖的目标，与被领导者的目标相同。 他们是相似的，一个是另一个的扩展；两者都是自我的投影。 我们谴责这一个，赞美另一个； 但是，难道不是所有的目标都是一个人自己的偏见、倾向、恐惧和希望的产物吗？ 你用意志、努力、力量，为至高无上者开路； 至高无上者出于欲望，也就是意志。 意志创造了它自己的目标，并为此而牺牲或压制一切。 目的就是意志，只是被它称之为‘至高无上者’，或‘政府’，或‘意识形态’。
“Can conflict come to an end without the power of will?”
结束吗？”
Without understanding the ways of conflict and how it comes into being, of what value is it merely to suppress or sublimate conflict, or find a substitute for it? You may be able to suppress a disease, but it is bound to show itself again in another form. Will itself is conflict, it is the outcome of struggle; will is purposive, directed desire. Without comprehending the process of desire, merely to control it is to invite further burning, further pain. Control is evasion. You may control a child or a problem, but you have not thereby understood either. Understanding is of far greater importance than arriving at an end. The action of will is destructive, for action towards an end is self-enclosing, separating, isolating. You cannot silence conflict, desire, for the maker of the effort is himself the product of conflict, of desire. The thinker and his thoughts are the outcome of desire; and without understanding desire, which is the self placed at any level, high or low, the mind is ever caught in ignorance. The way to the supreme does not lie through will, through desire. The supreme can come into being only when the maker of effort is not. It is will that breeds conflict, the desire to become or to make way for the supreme. When the mind which is put together through desire comes to an end, not through effort, then in that stillness, which is not a goal, reality comes into being.
如果不理解冲突的方式和它是如何产生的， 仅仅压制或升华冲突，或者寻找冲突的替代品，有什么价值呢？ 你也许能够抑制一种疾病，但它必然会以另一种形式再次显现。 意志本身就是冲突，它是挣扎的产物； 意志是具有目的性的、方向性的欲望。 不理解欲望的过程， 仅仅去控制它，就会导致进一步的烧毁，进一步的痛苦。 控制就是逃避。 你可能控制一个孩子或一个问题，但你并没有因此而产生理解。 理解远比达到目的更为重要。 意志的行动是破坏性的， 因为达到目的的行动是自我封闭的、破碎的、孤立的。 你不能使冲突、欲望安静， 因为努力的制造者本身就是冲突、欲望的产物。 思想者和他的思想，都是欲望的结果； 如果不理解欲望， 也就是处于每个层面上的自我，头脑就会陷入无知。 通往至高无上的道路不能通过意志、通过欲望。 只有当努力的创造者不存在时，至高无上者才能出现。 意志滋生出冲突、成为的欲望、为‘至高无上者’铺路的欲望。 当这个由欲望而聚合的头脑走到了尽头， 不是通过努力，那么，在那静止中，真实呈现。
“But is not simplicity essential for that stillness?”
静止不是必须的吗？”
What do you mean by simplicity? Do you mean identification with simplicity, or being simple? “You cannot be simple without identifying yourself with that which is simple, externally as well as inwardly.”
你说的‘简单’是什么意思？ 你的意思是认同简单，还是处于简单？ “如果不把你自己与简单的东西联系起来，你就不可能处于简单的状态， 无论是外在还是内在。”
You become simple, is that it? You are complex, but you become simple through identification, through identifying yourself with the peasant or with the monk’s robe. I am this, and I become that. But does this process of becoming lead to simplicity, or merely to the idea of simplicity? Identification with an idea called the simple is not simplicity, is it? Am I simple because I keep on asserting that I am simple, or keep on identifying myself with the pattern of simplicity? Simplicity lies in the understanding of what is, not in trying to change what is into simplicity. Can you change what is into something it is not? Can greed, whether for God, money or drink, ever become non-greed? What we identify ourselves with is always the self-projected, whether it is the supreme, the State or the family. Identification at any level is the process of the self.
你变简单了，那是简单吗？ 你是复杂的，但你通过认同， 通过与农民或僧侣的长袍认同而变得简单。 我是这个，而我成为那个。 但是，这个成为的过程是否会导向简单，或者只是导向一个关于‘简单’的观念？ 认同一个叫做‘简单’的观念不是简单，它是吗？ 我之所以简单，是因为我一直声称‘我是个简单的人’， 或者一直用简单的准则来规范自己吗？ 简单在于理解现状，而不是试图把现状变得简单。 你能把‘现状’变成‘非现状’吗？ 贪婪，无论是为了上帝、金钱还是为了酒水，会变成‘不贪婪’吗？ 我们所认同的东西，始终是自我的投影， 无论它是至高无上者、政府还是家庭。 任何层面上的认同，都是自我的动作。
Simplicity is the understanding of what is, however complex it may appear. The what is is not difficult to understand, but what prevents understanding is the distraction of comparison, of condemnation, of prejudice, whether negative or positive, and so on. It is these that make for complexity. What is is never complex in itself, it is always simple. What you are is simple to understand, but it is made complex by your approach to it; so there must be an understanding of the whole process of approach, which makes for complexity. If you do not condemn the child, then he is what he is and it is possible to act. The action of condemnation leads to complexity; the action of what is is simplicity.
简单就是理解现状，无论它看起来有多么的复杂。 现状不难理解， 但阻拦理解的是分心， 分心源于比较、谴责、偏见，无论是否定性的还是肯定性的，等等。 正是这些制造出复杂。 现状本身从来都不复杂，它总是简单的。 你的样子很容易理解，但你的着手方式使它变得复杂； 因此，必须理解这个着手方式的完整的运作过程。 如果你不责备这个小孩，那么他就是他，而他就有可能去行动。 责骂的动作导致了复杂；真实的行动就是简单。
Nothing is essential for stillness but stillness itself; it is its own beginning and its own end. No essential bring it about, for it is. No means can ever lead to stillness. It is only when stillness is something to be gained, achieved, that the means become essential. If stillness is to be bought, then the coin becomes important; but the coin, and that which it purchases, are not stillness. Means are noisy, violent, or subtly acquisitive, and the end is of like nature, for the end is in the means. If the beginning is silence, the end is also silence. There are no means to silence; silence is when noise is not. Noise does not come to an end through the further noise of effort, of discipline, of austerities, of will. See the truth of this, and there is silence.
对于静止来说，没有什么是必须的，只有静止它自己； 它是它自己的开始和它自己的结束。 它的出现不需要什么必备的前提条件，因为它本自具足。任何手段都不能导向静止。 只有当静止是可以获得和实现的东西时，手段才变得至关重要。 如果静止可以采购，那么硬币就变得很重要； 但是硬币，以及它购买的东西，不是静止。 手段是嘈杂的、暴力的或微妙而贪婪的， 目的就像它的本性一样，因为目的就在手段之中。 如果说开始是静，那么结束也是静。 没有办法抵达静；噪音不响，静即至。 噪音不会因为努力、纪律、简单和意志的进一步喧哗而结束。 看见这个事实，就有静。