IT HAD BEEN raining quite heavily for several days, and the streams were swollen and noisy. Brown and dirty, they came from every gully and joined a wider stream that ran through the middle of the valley, and this in turn joined the river that went down to the sea some miles away. The river was high and fast-flowing, winding through orchards and open country. Even in summer the river was never dry, though all the streams that fed it showed their barren rocks and dry sands. Now the river was flowing faster than a man could walk, and on both banks people were watching the muddy waters. It was not often that the river was so high. The people were excited, their eyes sparkled, for the fast-moving waters were a delight. The town near the sea might suffer, the river might overflow its banks inundating the fields and the groves and damaging the houses; but here, under the lonely bridge, the brown waters were singing. A few people were fishing, but they could not have caught much, for the current was too strong, carrying with it the debris of all the neighbouring streams. It began to rain again, yet the people stayed to watch and to take delight in simple things.
这几天来，一直下着大雨，溪流汹涌澎湃而喧哗。 水呈棕色而浑浊，它们从每一条沟壑中流出， 汇入一条穿过了山谷的更宽阔的溪流中， 而这条溪流又汇入到几英里外的、流向大海的河流中。 这条河又高又急，蜿蜒着穿过果园和开阔的乡村。 即使在夏天，这条河也从未干涸过， 尽管所有喂养它的溪流都显露出贫瘠的岩石和干燥的沙子。 现在，这条河的流速比一个人走路的速度还要快， 在两岸，人们都在看着浑浊的水面。 河水并不总是这么高。 人们兴奋不已，眼睛闪闪发光，因为湍急的水流令人愉悦。 靠近大海的城镇可能会受到影响， 河流可能会溢出河岸，淹没田野和小树林，并损坏房屋； 但在这里，在孤独的桥下，棕色的水流在唱歌。 有几个人正在捕鱼，但他们抓不到多少， 因为水流太强了，带着所有邻近溪流的碎屑。 又开始下雨了，但人们停留下来，观看并享受这简单的事物。
"I have always been a seeker," she said. "I have read, oh, so many books on many subjects. I was a Catholic, but left that church to join another; leaving that too, I joined a religious society. I have recently been reading oriental philosophy, the teachings of the Buddha, and added to all this, I have had myself psychoanalysed; but even that hasn't stopped me from seeking, and now here I am talking to you. I nearly went to India in search of a Master, but circumstances prevented me from going."
“我一直是一个追寻者，” 她说。 “嗯，我读过很多关于许多主题的书。 我曾是一名天主教徒，但已经离开了那个教会，加入了另一个。 又离开另一个教会，我又加入了一个宗教团体。 我最近一直在阅读东方哲学，佛陀的教义， 除此之外，我还接受了精神分析。 但即便如此，也没有阻止我去追寻，现在我在这里和你说话。 我差点去印度追寻上师，但环境阻止了我。”
She went on to say that she was married and had a couple of children, bright and intelligent, who were in college; she wasn't worried about them, they could look after themselves. Social interests meant nothing any more. She had been seriously trying to meditate but got nowhere, and her mind was as silly and vagrant as before. "What you say about meditation and prayer is so different from what I have read and thought, that it has greatly puzzled me" she added. "But through all this wearisome confusion, I really want to find truth and understand its mystery."
她接着说，她已经结婚了， 有几个孩子，机灵又聪明，他们正在上大学。 她不担心他们，他们可以照顾自己。 社会利益不再意味着什么了。 她一直在认真地尝试冥想，但一无所获， 她的头脑和以前一样，愚蠢和游荡。 “你说的冥想和祈祷，与我读过的和我的想法非常不同， 这让我非常困惑，” 她补充说。 “但经历过了所有这些令人厌倦的困惑， 我真的想找到真相，理解它的奥秘。”
Do you think that by seeking truth you will find it? May it not be that the so-called seeker can never find truth? You have never fathomed this urge to seek, have you? Yet you keep on seeking going from one thing to another in the hope of finding what you want, which you call truth and make a mystery of. "But what's wrong with going after what I want? I have always gone after what I wanted, and more often than not I have got it."
你认为通过寻求真理，你会找到它吗？ 难道不是所谓的寻求者，永远都找不到真理吗？ 你从来没有理解过这种寻求的冲动，对吧？ 然而，你一直在追寻，从一个东西到另一个东西， 希望找到你想要的东西，你称之为真理，并使它变成一个谜。 “但是，追求我想要的东西有什么不对吗？ 我总是追求我想要的东西，而且我经常得到它。”
That may be; but do you think that you can collect truth as you would money or paintings? Do you think it is another ornament for one's vanity? Or must the mind that is acquisitive wholly cease for the other to be?
可能是那样； 但是你认为你可以像金钱或绘画一样，收集真理吗？ 你认为它是一个人虚荣心的另一件装饰品吗？ 还是必须使那个攫取性的头脑完全消退，以便于另一个出现？
"I suppose I am too eager to find it."
“我想我太急于找到它了。”
Not at all. You will find what you seek in your eagerness, but it will not be the real. "Then what am I supposed to do, just lie down and vegetate?"
一点也不急。 你会在你的渴望中找到你所寻求的东西，但它不会是真理。 “那我该怎么办，躺下来吃点蔬菜吧？”
You are jumping to conclusions, are you not? Is it not important to find out why you are seeking? "Oh, I know why I am seeking. I am thoroughly discontented with everything, even with the things I have found. The pain of discontent returns again and again; I think I have got hold of something, but it soon fades away and once again the pain of discontent overwhelms me. I have tried in every way I can think of to overcome it, but somehow it is too strong within me, and I must find something - truth, or whatever it is - that will give me peace and contentment."
你正在匆忙地下结论，不是吗？ 找出你为什么去追寻，难道不是很重要吗？ “哦，我知道我为什么要追寻。我对一切都非常不满， 甚至对我发现的东西也是如此。不满的痛苦一次又一次地回来； 我想我已经抓住了某些东西，但它很快就消失了， 不满的痛苦再次压倒了我。 我用我能想到的一切方式来克服它， 但不知何故，它在我的内心太强大了，我必须找到一些东西 —— 真理，或者无论它是什么 —— 给我带来平安和满足。”
Should you not be thankful that you have not succeeded in smothering this fire of discontent? To overcome discontent has been your problem, has it not? You have sought contentment, and fortunately you have not found it; to find it is to stagnate, vegetate. "I suppose that is really what I am seeking: an escape from this gnawing discontent."
难道你不应该感谢你没有成功地扼杀这一股不满的火苗吗？ 克服不满一直是你的问题，不是吗？ 你寻求满足，幸运的是你没有找到它； 找到它就是停滞不前、植物人。 “我想这就是我真正想要的：逃离这种令人痛苦的不满。”
Most people are discontented, are they not? But they find satisfaction in the easy things of life whether it is mountain climbing or the fulfilment of some ambition. The restlessness of discontent is superficially turned into achievements that gratify. If we are shaken in our contentment, we soon find ways to overcome the pain of discontent, so we live on the surface and never fathom the depths of discontent.
大多数人都不满足，不是吗？ 但是，他们在生活中常见的东西上，找到了满足， 无论是登山还是实现一些雄心。 不满的焦躁不安，在表面上变成了令人满意的成就。 如果我们的满足感被动摇， 我们很快就会找到克服这种不满的痛苦的方法， 所以我们活在表面上，从不去理解不满的深度。
"How is one to go below the surface of discontent?"
“一个人如何才能跌破不满的表面？”
Your question indicates that you still desire to escape from discontent, does it not? To live with that pain, without trying to escape from it or to alter it, is to penetrate the depths of discontent. As long as we are trying to get somewhere, or to be something, there must be the pain of conflict, and having caused the pain, we then want to escape from it; and we do escape into every kind of activity. To be integrated with discontent, to remain with and be part of discontent, without the observer forcing it into grooves of satisfaction or accepting it as inevitable, is to allow that which has no opposite, no second, to come into being.
你的问题表明，你仍然渴望逃离不满，不是吗？ 体验这种痛苦，不试图逃避它或改变它， 就是穿透不满的深渊。 只要我们试图到达某个地方，或者成为某种人物， 就一定有冲突的痛苦，引发的痛楚 使我们想逃离它；我们确实逃进了各种活动之中。 与不满融为一体，与不满待在一起，成为不满的一部分， 不让观察者强迫它进入满足的窠臼，不接受它是不可避免的， 就是允许没有对立面的、非时间的事物呈现。
"I follow what you are saying, but I have fought discontent for so many years that it is now very difficult for me to be part of it."
“我跟随着你说的话， 但我多年来一直在与不满作斗争， 以至于现在我很难成为其中的一部分。”
The more you fight a habit, the more life you give to it. Habit is a dead thing, do not fight it, do not resist it; but with the perception of the truth of discontent, the past will have lost its significance. Though painful, it is a marvellous thing to be discontented without smothering that flame with knowledge, with tradition, with hope, with achievement. We get lost in the mystery of man's achievement in the mystery of the church, or of the jet plane. Again, this is superficial, empty, leading to destruction and misery. There is a mystery that is beyond the capacities and powers of the mind. You cannot seek it out or invite it; it must come without your asking, and with it comes a benediction for man.
你越是与一个习惯作斗争，你给它的生命力就越强。 习惯是死的，不要跟它打架，别去抗拒它； 但随着对不满的真实性的感知，过去将失去它的意义。 虽然痛苦，但没有被知识、传统、希望、成就的火焰所窒息的不满， 是一个了不起的东西。 我们迷失在人类的成就中， 在教会或喷气式飞机的奥秘中。 同样，这些是肤浅的，空洞的，导致了破坏和悲伤。 这个超越了头脑的能力和力量的奥秘。 你不能去追寻它或邀请它； 它必须在你没有要求的情况下到来，随之而来的是对人的祝福。