IT WAS A beautiful evening. The sky was flaming red behind the rice fields, and the tall, slender palms were swaying in the breeze. The bus loaded with people was making a lot of noise as it climbed the little hill, and the river wound round the hill as it made its way to the sea. The cattle were fat, the vegetation was thick, and there was an abundance of flowers. plump little boys were playing in a field, and the little girls looked on with astonished eyes. There was a small shrine nearby, and someone was lighting a lamp in front of the image. In a solitary house the evening prayers were being said, and the room was lighted by a lamp which was not too bright. The whole family had gathered there, and they all seemed to be enjoying their prayers. A dog was fast asleep in the middle of the road, and a cyclist went round it. It was getting dark now, and the fireflies lit up the faces of the people who silently passed by. One was caught in a woman’s hair, giving her head a soft glow.

这是一个美丽的黄昏。 稻田后面的天空火红，高大纤细的芭蕉树在微风中摇曳。 满载的公交车在爬山坡，发出很多噪音， 蜿蜒于群山之间的这条河，奔向大海。 牛肥，植被茂密，花儿丰富。 圆胖的小男孩们在田野里玩耍，小女孩们用惊讶的眼神看着。 附近有一个小庙，有人在图像前点燃一盏灯。 在一间孤立的房间里，祈祷者正在晚祷， 房间被一盏不太亮的灯照耀。 全家人都聚集在那里，他们似乎都喜欢他们的祈祷。 一只狗在路的中央彻底地睡着了，一个骑自行车的人绕着它划了一个弧圈。 天色渐黑， 萤火虫照亮了那些默默经过的路人的脸庞。 有一只被一个女人的头发缠住，使她的头产生出柔和的光。

How kind we naturally are, especially away from the towns, in the fields and the small villages! Life is more intimate among the less educated, where the fever of ambition has not yet spread. The boy smiles at you, the old woman wonders, the man hesitates and passes by. A group stops its loud talk and turns to look with surprised interest, and a woman waits for you to pass her. We know so little of ourselves; we know, but we do not understand; we know, but we have no communion with another. We do not know ourselves. And how can we know another? We can never know another, we can only commune with another. We can know the dead, but never the living; what we know is the dead past, not the living. To be aware of the living, we must bury the dead in ourselves. We know the names of trees, of bird, of shops, but what do we know of ourselves beyond some words and appetites? We have information, conclusions about so many things; but there is no happiness, no peace that is not stagnant. Our lives are dull and empty, or so full of words and activity that it blinds us. Knowledge is not wisdom, and without wisdom there is no peace, no happiness.

自然地生长的我们，是多么善良， 特别是在那远离城镇的田野和小村庄里！ 那较少被教育的人，生活得更亲密， 在那里，野心的狂热尚未蔓延。 男孩对你微笑，老妇人惊奇，男人犹豫地经过。 一群人停止了大声的说话， 转过身来，带着惊讶的兴趣观看，而一个女人等着你从她身旁经过。 我们对我们自己知之甚少。 我们知道，却不去理解； 我们知道，但我们与另一个没有交融。 我们不理解我们自己。我们怎么能知道另一个呢？ 我们永远无法知道另一个，我们只能与另一个交融。 我们可以知道那个死的，但永远不能知道那个活的。 我们所知道的是死了的过去，而不是那个活的。 要意识到那个活的，我们必须埋葬我们里面的死东西。 我们知道树、鸟、商店的名字， 但是除了一些言语和味道之外，对于我们自己，我们还知道些什么？ 我们有关于很多东西的信息和结论； 却没有快乐，没有那不腐的和平。 我们的生活沉闷而空虚，或者充满了言语和活动 —— 它们蒙蔽了我们。 知识不是智慧，而没有智慧就没有和平，没有快乐。

He was a young man, a professor of some kind, dissatisfied, worried and burdened with responsibilities. He began by narrating his troubles, the weary lot of man. He had been well educated, he said – which was mostly a matter of knowing how to read and gathering information from books. He stated that he had been to as many of the talks as he could, and went on to explain that for years he had been trying to give up smoking, but had never been able to give it up entirely. He wanted to give it up because it was expensive as well as stupid. He had done everything he could to stop smoking, but had always come back to it. This was one of his problems, among others. He was intense, nervous and thin.

他是一个年轻人，某个专业的的教授， 他不满意、忧虑，并负担着责任。 他首先讲述了他的烦恼、人类的讨厌的宿命。 他说，他受过良好的教育 —— 知道了如何阅读，并从书本中收集信息。 他说，他参加了尽可能多的讲话， 并继续解释说，多年来他一直试图戒烟， 但从来没有完全地戒除。 他想放弃它，因为它既昂贵又愚蠢。 他尽了一切努力戒烟，但总是又犯。 这是他的问题之一。 他显得紧张、神经质、瘦弱。

Do we understand anything if we condemn it? To push it away, or to accept it, is easy; but the very condemnation or acceptance is an avoidance of the problem. To condemn a child is to push him away from you in order not to be bothered by him; but the child is still there. To condemn is to disregard, to pay no attention; and there can be no understanding through condemnation. “I have condemned myself for smoking, over and over again. It is difficult not to condemn.”

如果我们谴责任何一个东西，我们就能理解它吗？ 推开它，或者接受它，是容易的； 但是，谴责或接受的行为，就是对这个问题的一种逃避。 去谴责一个孩子， 就是把他从你身边推开，以免被他打扰。 但孩子依然在那儿。 谴责就是无视、不关心； 通过谴责，就不能理解。 “我一遍又一遍地谴责我自己的吸烟行为。 不去谴责它是很困难的。”

Yes, it is difficult not to condemn, for our conditioning is based on denial, justification, comparison and resignation. This is our background, the conditioning with which we approach every problem. This very conditioning breeds the problem, the conflict. You have tried to rationalize away the smoking, have you not? When you say it is stupid, you have thought it all out and come to the conclusion that it is stupid. And yet rationalization has not made you give it up. We think that we can be free from a problem by knowing its cause; but the knowing is merely information, a verbal conclusion. This knowledge obviously prevents the understanding of the problem. Knowing the cause of a problem and understanding the problem are two entirely different things.

是的，很难不去谴责， 因为我们接受的训练就是基于拒绝、辩解、比较和顺从。 这是我们的背景，在这种局限下，我们处理每一个问题。 正是这种局限，滋生出这个问题，这个冲突。 你在试图找出戒烟的理由，你不是吗？ 当你说：‘它是愚蠢的’， 你已经想出了这个理由，得出了这个结论：它是愚蠢的。 然而，理由并没有使你放弃它。 我们认为，知道了问题的原因，我们就可以从问题中解脱； 但这种知道，只不过是信息，一个言语上的结论。 这个知识，明显地阻碍了对这个问题的理解。 知道一个问题的原因和理解这个问题 是两个完全不同的东西。

“But how else can one approach a problem?”

可以处理问题呢？”

That is what we are going to find out. When we discover what the false approach is, we shall be aware of the only approach. The understanding of the false is the discovery of the true. To see the false as the false is arduous. We look at the false through comparison, through the measure of thought; and can the false be seen as the false through any thought process? Is not thought itself conditioned and so false?

那就是我们要去寻找的。 当我们发现了那些虚假的处理方式，我们将会意识到那唯一的处理方式。 理解虚假，就是发现真实。 看见假即是假，是艰巨的。 我们通过比较，通过思想的衡量来看虚假； 通过任何思想过程，能看见假即是假吗？ 这个思想本身就被局限，因而是虚假的，不是吗？

“But how can we know the false as the false without the thought process?”

过程，我们怎么能知道假即是假？”

This is our whole trouble, is it not? When we use thought to solve a problem, surely we are using an instrument which is not at all adequate; for thought itself is a product of the past, of experience. Experience is always in the past. To see the false as the false, thought must be aware of itself as a dead process. Thought can never be free, and there must be freedom to discover, freedom from thought.

这就是我们的整个麻烦所在，不是吗？ 当我们用思想来解决一个问题的时候， 当然，我们在使用一个根本就不适用的工具； 因为思想它本身就是一个过去的、体验的产物。 体验总是属于过去。 看见假即是假，思想必须意识到它自己是一个已经死亡的过程。 思想永远不可能自由， 而要去发现，必须有自由，有解放思想的自由。

“I don’t quite see what you mean.”

。”

One of your problems is smoking. You have approached it with condemnation, or you have tried to rationalize it away. This approach is false. How do you discover that it is false? Surely, not through thought, but by being passively watchful of how you approach the problem. Passive watchfulness does not demand thought; on the contrary, if thought is functioning there can be no passivity. Thought functions only to condemn or justify, to compare or accept; if there is a passive watchfulness of this process, then it is perceived as what it is.

你其中的一个问题是吸烟。 你以谴责的态度处理它，或者你试图找到放弃吸烟的理由。 这种处理方式是假的。 你是怎么发现它是假的？ 当然，不是通过思考，而是被动地警觉到你处理这个问题的方式。 被动的警觉不需要思想； 相反，如果思想在运转，就不可能有被动性。 思想的作用，只是谴责或辩护、比较或接受； 如果在这个过程中，有一个被动性的警觉， 那么，就被动地感知到它的现状。

“Yes, I see that; but how does this apply to my smoking?”

“是的，我看到那了；但这如何应用于我的戒烟？”

Let us experiment together to find out if one can approach the problem of smoking without condemnation, comparison, and so on. Can we look at the problem afresh, without the past overshadowing it? It is extremely difficult to look at it without any reaction, is it not? We seem unable to be aware of it passively, there is always some kind of response from the past. It is interesting to see how incapable we are of observing the problem as though it were new. We carry along with us all our past efforts, conclusions, intentions; we cannot look at the problem except through these curtains.

让我们一起来做实验，来找出 如果一个人不去谴责、比较等等，是否能够处理关于吸烟的这个问题。 我们能重新观看这个问题，而不让它被过去的阴影遮掩吗？ 在没有任何反应的情况下观看它，是极其困难的，不是吗？ 我们似乎没有能力去被动地意识它， 总是有某种源于过去的回应。 有趣的是看到： 观察这个问题，好像它是崭新的 —— 对于我们来说，是多么地无能！ 我们背负着我们所有的过去的努力、结论和意图； 我们无法观看问题，除非透过这些窗帘。

No problem is ever old, but we approach it with the old formulations, which prevent our understanding it. Be passively watchful of these responses. Just be passively aware of them, see that they cannot solve the problem. The problem is real, it is an actuality, but the approach is utterly inadequate. The inadequate response to what is breeds conflict; and conflict is the problem. If there is an understanding of this whole process, then you will find that you will act adequately with regard to smoking.

任何一个问题都不是旧的，我们却用旧的方式来处理它， 这就阻碍了我们对它的理解。 被动地警觉这些回应。 只是被动地意识到它们，看见它们不能解决这个问题。 问题是真实的，它是一个现实，但这种处理方式是完全不恰当的。 这个对现状的不恰当回应，滋生出冲突； 而冲突就是这个问题。 如果理解这整个过程， 那么，你将发现：你会有恰当的行动来处理吸烟。