IT WAS A long, wide canal, leading from the river into lands that had no water. The canal was higher than the river, and the water which entered it was controlled by a system of locks. It was peaceful along that canal; heavy-laden barges moved up and down it, and their white triangular sails stood out against the blue sky and the dark palms. It was a lovely evening, calm and free, and the water was very still. The reflections of the palms and of the mango trees were so sharp and clear that it was confusing to distinguish the actual from the reflection. The setting sun made the water transparent, and the glow of evening was on its face. The evening star was beginning to show among the reflections. The water was without a movement, and the few passing villagers, who generally talked so loud and long, were silent. Even the whisper among the leaves had stopped. From the meadow came some animal; it drank, and disappeared as silently as it had come. Silence held the land, it seemed to cover everything.
它是一条又长又宽阔的运河，从这条河流延伸到没有水的内陆。 运河比河流的水位高，进入运河的水由船闸系统控制。 那条运河的水面平和；满载重物的驳船在它的上下游往返， 白色的三角形帆在蓝天和黑暗的棕榈树上脱颖而出。 这是一个愉快的夜晚，平静而自在，水面很是静止。 棕榈树和芒果树的倒影如此地锐利、清晰， 以致于真实与倒影难以辨别、令人困惑。 夕阳使水变得透明，西下的余辉洒在它脸上。 晚空的星星开始嵌入到倒影之间。 水没有一丝晃动， 一些路过的村民，他们的说话声通常很是响亮和冗长，也沉默了。 就连树叶间的悄悄话也停下了。 从草地上冒出某只动物； 它喝完水，像它来时一样，悄然离去。 寂静守着这片土地，它似乎覆盖了一切。
Noise ends, but silence is penetrating and without end. One can shut oneself off from noise, but there is no enclosure against silence; no wall can shut it out, there is no resistance against it. Noise shuts all things out, it is excluding and isolating; silence includes all things within itself. Silence, like love, is indivisible; it has no division of noise and silence. The mind cannot follow it or be made still to receive it. The mind that is made still can only reflect its own images, and they are sharp and clear, noisy in their exclusion. A mind that is made still can only resist, and all resistance is agitation. The mind that is still and not made still is ever experiencing silence; the thought, the word, is then within the silence, and not outside of it. It is strange how, in this silence, the mind is tranquil, with a tranquillity that is not formed. As tranquillity is not marketable, has no value, and is not usable, it has a quality of the pure, of the alone. That which can be used is soon worn out. Tranquillity does not begin or end, and a mind thus tranquil is aware of a bliss that is not the reflection of its own desire.
噪音结束了，但寂静正在穿透，没有终点。 一个人能封闭自己，以隔绝噪音，却没有外壳来抵御寂静； 没有一堵墙能把它拒之门外，没有阻力来抗拒它。 噪音把所有的东西都关在外面，它具有排斥性和隔绝性； 寂静把所有的东西都包容在它里面。寂静，就像爱，是无分别的； 它没有区分噪音和寂静。 头脑不能跟随它，也不能变得静止，以便于接受它。 被静止的头脑只能倒影出它自己的形象， 它们锐利、清晰、嘈杂，在它们的排斥状态中。 一个被静止的头脑只能抵抗，所有的抵抗都是躁动。 这个静止的头脑，不是被静止的，总是在体验寂静； 这思想、言词，就在寂静里面，而不在它的外面。 奇怪的是，在这寂静中，头脑是平静的，有一种无形的宁静。 由于这宁静没有痕迹，没有价值，也没有用处， 它就具有纯洁、独立的品质。那可被利用的东西很快就被损耗。 宁静没有开头或结尾， 因此宁静的头脑意识到一种至乐，那不是它自身欲望的倒影。
She said she had always been agitated by something or other; if it was not the family, it was the neighbour or some social activity. Agitation had filled her life, and she had never been able to find the reason for these constant upheavals. She was not particularly happy; and how could one be with the world as it was? She had had her share of passing happiness, but all that was in the past and now she was hunting for something that would give a meaning to life. She had been through many things which at the time seemed worth while, but which afterwards faded into nothingness. She had been engaged in many social activities of the serious kind; she had ardently believed in the things of religion, had suffered because of death in her family, and had faced a major operation. Life had not been easy with her, she added, and there were millions of others in the world like herself. She wanted to go beyond all this business, whether foolish or necessary and find something that was really worth while.
她说，她总是被某个东西或别的东西所搅扰。 如果不是家庭，就是邻居或一些社交活动。 焦虑充斥着她的生命， 她一直无法找到这些不断动荡的原因。 她不是特别地幸福； 一个人应该怎么与这个世界相处呢？ 她曾经有过短暂的幸福，但那一切已成过往 现在她正在寻找能给生命带来一个意义的东西。 她经历了很多东西，那些东西在当时似乎是有价值的， 但后来却消逝在虚无中。 她参加了许多严肃性的社交活动。 她曾热切地相信宗教事务， 为家人的死亡而受苦，并做了一次重大的手术。 生命对她并不轻松，她补充道，而世界上还有数百万像她这样的人。 她想超越所有这些事务，无论是愚蠢的还是必要的， 并寻找真正有价值的东西。
The things that are worth while are not to be found. They cannot be bought, they must happen; and the happening cannot be cunningly planned. Is it not true that anything that has deep significance always happens, it is never brought about? The happening is important, not the finding. The finding is comparatively easy, but the happening is quite another matter. Not that it is difficult; but the urge to seek, to find, must wholly stop for the happening to take place. Finding implies losing; you must have in order to lose. To possess or be possessed is never to be free to understand.
那有价值的，不能被找不到。 它们不能被买到，它们必须发生；而那种场景不能被狡猾地算计。 那具有深刻意义的任何事物总在发生，难道不是吗， 它从未露面吗？ 这种发生是重要的，而不是寻找。 寻找是相对容易的，但这种发生，却是另一回事。 也不是说它困难； 但是，搜索、寻找的冲动必须完全地停下，以便于这种发生出现。 寻找意味着失去；你必须拥有，才能失去。 拥有或被拥有，是不自由的 —— 而没有自由，就无法理解。
But why has there always been this agitation, this restlessness? Have you seriously inquired into it before? “I have attempted it half-heartedly, but never purposely. I have always been distracted.”
但是，为什么一直有这种焦虑，这种不安呢？ 你可曾认真调查过？ “我偶尔尝试过，却不是很用心。我总是处于分心的状态。”
Not distracted, if one may point out; it is simply that this has never been a vital problem to you. When there is a vital problem, then there is no distraction. Distraction does not exist; distraction implies a central interest from which the mind wanders; but if there is a central interest, there is no distraction. The mind’s wandering from one thing to another is not distraction, it is an avoidance of what is. We like to wander far away because the problem is very close. The wandering gives us something to do, like worry and gossip; and though the wandering is often painful, we prefer it to what is.
不是分心，如果一个人可以指出的话； 它只是简单地表明：对你来说，那从来都不是一个至关重要的问题。 当有一个至关重要的问题时，就不会分心。 分心是不存在的； 分心意味着有一个核心兴趣，而头脑在那里游荡； 但如果这是一个核心兴趣，这里就不存在分心。 这个头脑从一个东西徘徊到另一个东西，并不是分心，而是对现状的一种逃避。 我们喜欢游荡到远方，因为这个问题离我们很近。 这种游荡，给了我们某些事情去做，比如担忧和闲聊； 虽然游荡往往是痛苦的，但比起现状，我们更喜欢它。
Do you seriously wish to go into all this, or are you merely playing around with it? “I really want to go through to the very end of it. That is why I have come.”
你是真的想进入这一切，还是只想在它的周边游荡？ “我真的很想走进它，并抵达它的尽头。那就是我来这儿的原因。”
You are unhappy because there is no spring that keeps the well full, is that it? You may once have heard the whisper of water on the pebbles, but now the riverbed is dry. You have known happiness, but it has always receded, it is always a thing of the past. Is that spring the thing you are groping after? And can you seek it, or must you come upon it unexpectedly? If you knew where it was, you would find means to get to it; but not knowing, there is no path to it. To know it is to prevent the happening of it. Is that one of the problems?
你不高兴，因为没有找到那个能使泉水盈满的泉眼，那是它吗？ 你可能听过鹅卵石上泉水的低语，但是现在，河床已经干涸。 你曾经有过幸福，但它总是在褪色，它总是一个过时的事物。 你是在摸索那个泉眼吗？ 你能找到它，还是必须意外地碰见它？ 如果你知道它在哪儿，你就会寻找各种手段，以抓住它； 可是不知道，没有通往它的路。 知道它，就是在阻碍它的发生。那是这个问题吗？
“That definitely is. Life is so dull and uncreative, and if that thing could happen one wouldn’t ask for anything more.”
“绝对是。 生命是如此地沉闷和没有创造性， 如果那会发生，一个人就不会再要求任何东西了。”
Is loneliness a problem? “I don’t mind being lonely, I know how to deal with it. I either go out for a walk, or sit quietly with it till it goes. Besides, I like being alone.”
孤独是一个问题吗？ “我不介意孤独，我知道如何处理它。 我要么出去散步，要么安静地坐着，直到它消失。 此外，我喜欢独处。”
We all know what it is to be lonely: an aching, fearsome emptiness that cannot be appeased. We also know how to run away from it, for we have all explored the many avenues of escape. Some are caught in one particular avenue, and others keep on exploring; but neither are in direct relationship with what is. You say you know how to deal with loneliness. If one may point out, this very action upon loneliness is your way of avoiding it. You go out for a walk, or sit with loneliness till it goes. You are always operating upon it, you do not allow it to tell its story. You want to dominate it, to get over it, to run away from it; so your relationship with it is that of fear.
我们都知道孤独是什么： 一种痛苦，无法安抚的、可怕的空虚。 我们也知道如何逃避它，因为我们都摸索出很多逃跑线路。 有些人被困在一条特定的道路上，而另一些人则继续摸索； 但两者都与这个现状没有直接的关系。 你说：你知道如何处理孤独。 如果一个人可以指出：这种对孤独所采取的行动，正是你避免孤独的方式。 你出去散步，或者孤独地坐着，直到它消失。 你总是在对它进行操作，你不允许它讲述它的故事。 你想主宰它，克服它，逃避它； 因此，你与它的关系，就是那个恐惧。
Is fulfilment also a problem? To fulfil oneself in something implies the avoidance of what one is, does it not? I am puny; but if I identify myself with the country, with the family, or with some belief, I feel fulfilled, complete. This search for completeness is the avoidance of what is. “Yes, that is so; that is also my problem.”
满足也是一个问题吗？ 一个人对某个东西感到满足，意味着逃避他自己的现状，不是吗？ 我是渺小的；但是，如果我认同这个国家、这个家庭，或者某种信仰， 我就感到满足、完整。 这种对完整的搜寻，就是避免现状。 “是的，就是那样。那也是我的问题。”
If we can understand what is, then perhaps all these problems will cease. Our approach to any problem is to avoid it; we want to do something about it. The doing prevents our being in direct relationship with it, and this approach blocks the understanding of the problem. The mind is occupied with finding a way to deal with the problem, which is really an avoidance of it; and so the problem is never understood, it is still there. For the problem, the what is, to unfold and tell its story fully, the mind must be sensitive, quick to follow. If we anaesthetize the mind through escapes, through knowing how to deal with the problem, or through seeking an explanation or a cause for it, which is only a verbal conclusion, then the mind is made dull and cannot swiftly follow the story which the problem, the what is, is unfolding. See the truth of this and the mind is sensitive; and only then can it receive. Any activity of the mind with regard to the problem only makes it dull and so incapable of following, of listening to the problem. When the mind is sensitive – not made sensitive, which is only another way of making it dull – then the what is, the emptiness, has a wholly different significance.
如果我们能理解现状，那么，也许所有这些问题都会消逝。 我们对任何问题的处理方式，就是避免它；我们想对它做些什么。 这种做法阻止了我们与它的直接关联， 这种处理方式阻拦着对问题的理解。 头脑忙于寻找一种方法，以处理这个问题，这实际上是对它的一种回避； 因此，问题永远没有被理解，它依然在这儿。 为了让这个问题，这个现状，彻底地展开并讲述它的故事， 这个头脑必须是灵敏的，快速地跟随。 如果我们用各种逃避方式来麻醉头脑：通过知道如何处理问题， 或者通过寻找它的一种解释或原因，也就是一个言语上的结论， —— 那么，这个头脑就弄得迟钝， 不能迅速地跟上这个故事，也就是这个问题，这个正在展开的现状。 看这个现实，同时，头脑处于灵敏的状态；唯有如此，它才能接受。 头脑对这个问题所做的任何活动，只会把头脑搞得迟钝， 因此没有能力跟随、倾听这个问题。 当头脑是灵敏的 —— 不是变得灵敏，这只是另一种让它变得迟钝的方式 —— 那么这个现状，这个空虚，就有了完全不同的意义。
Please be experiencing as we go along, do not remain on the verbal level.
真实地体验，别停留在言语的层面上。
What is the relationship of the mind to what is? So far, the what is has been given a name, a term, a symbol of association, and this naming prevents direct relationship, which makes the mind dull, insensitive. The mind and what is are not two separate processes, but naming separates them. When this naming ceases, there is a direct relationship: the mind and the what is are one. The what is is now the observer himself without a term, and only then is the what is transformed; it is no longer the thing called emptiness with its associations of fear, and so on. Then the mind is only the state of experiencing, in which the experiencer and the experienced are not. Then there is immeasurable depth, for he who measures is gone. That which is deep is silent, tranquil, and in this tranquillity is the spring of the inexhaustible. The agitation of the mind is the usage of word. When the word is not, the measureless is.
头脑与现状的关系是什么？ 到目前为止，现状被赋予了一个名字、一个术语、一个关联的符号， 而这种命名阻碍着直接的关系，使得头脑沉闷、不灵敏。 这个头脑与现状不是两个分离的过程，但命名分开了它们。 当这种命名消逝，就有一种直接的关系：这个头脑与现状是一。 这个现状就是这个观察者他自身，一个术语都没有，只有这样，现状才能被转变； 它不再是所谓的‘空虚’以及与它关联的‘恐惧’等称谓。 那样，这个头脑只是处于体验的状态，其中不存在体验者和体验到的东西。 那么，就有无法衡量的深邃，因为衡量者离去了。 那深邃，就是寂静，宁静， 这宁静中，有取之不尽、用之不竭的泉眼。 那头脑的躁动，是词语的使用方法。当词语不在，那无法衡量的就在。