对生活的评注 3-13

SOMETHING WENT OFF with an explosive bang. It was half-past four in the morning, and still very dark. It wouldn’t be dawn for an hour or more. The birds were still asleep in the trees, and the violent noise didn’t seem to have disturbed them, but they would commence their quarrelsome chatter just as soon as it began to get light. There was a slight ground mist, but the stars were very clear. After the first explosion, several others followed in the distance; there was a period of quiet and then fireworks began going off all over the place. The festive day had begun. That morning, the birds didn’t carry on with their chatter as long as usual, but cut it short and rapidly scattered, for those violent sounds were frightening; but towards evening they would assemble again in the same trees, to tell each other noisily of their daily doings. The sun was now touching the treetops, and they were aglow with soft light; lovely in their quietude, they were giving shape to the sky. The single rose in the garden was heavy with dew. Though it was already noisy with fireworks, the town was slow and leisurely about waking up, for it was one of the great holidays of the year; there would be feasting and rejoicing, and both rich and poor would be giving things to each other.

随着一声巨响，什么东西爆炸了。时间是凌晨四点半，天还很黑。一小时或更长的时间都不会出现黎明。鸟儿们还在树上睡觉，猛烈的噪音似乎并没有打扰到它们，但是一旦天边开始变亮，它们就会开始吵闹。地面有轻微的雾气，但星星非常清晰。第一次爆炸后，其他几次紧随其后。有段时间很安静，接着烟花开始到处响起。节假日开始了。那天早上，鸟儿们没有像往常一样长时间地聊天，而是把它缩短并迅速地散开，因为那些猛烈的声音是可怕的。但到了傍晚，它们会再次在同一棵树上聚会，吵吵嚷嚷地告诉对方它们每天的所作所为。太阳已经升上了树梢，被柔和的阳光照亮。在这可爱的安祥中，它们正在雕刻天空。花园里的一朵玫瑰很沉，露水很重。虽然烟花已经很吵了，城镇却是迟缓的，悠闲地醒来，因为这是一年中很棒的假期之一。会有盛宴和欢乐，富人和穷人都会互相赠与东西。

As it grew dark that evening, the people began to assemble on the banks of the river. They were gently setting afloat on the water small, blunt-clay saucers full of oil, with a wick burning. They would say a prayer and let the lights go floating off down the river. Soon there were thousands of these points of light on the dark, still water. It was an astonishing sight to behold, the eager faces lit by the little flames, and the river a miracle of light. The heavens with their myriad stars looked down on this river of light, and the earth was silent with the love of the people.

那天晚上，夜幕降临，人们开始在河边集结。他们轻轻地，把装满了油、小而钝的粘土碟子放在水面，灯芯点亮了。他们会祈祷，让灯顺着河水漂流而下。不久，出现了成千上万的光点，在那黑暗而平静的水面上。这是一个惊奇的景象，小小的火焰点亮了热切的面孔，河流，是光的奇迹。天穹及其无数的星星，俯视着这条光之河，大地带着人们的爱而寂静。

There were five of us in that sunlit room: a man and his wife, and two other men. All of them were young. The wife seemed sad and forlorn, and the husband also was grave not given to smiles. The two young men sat shyly silent and let the others begin, but they would doubtless speak when the occasion arose and when their shyness had worn off a bit. “But why should it happen to us?” she asked. There was resentment and anger in her voice, but tears were beginning to fill her eyes and trickle down her cheeks. “We had been good to our son; he was so gay and mischievous, always ready to laugh, and we loved him. We had brought him up so carefully, and had planned a rich life for him...” Unable to go on talking, she stopped and waited till she was a little calmer. “Excuse me for being so upset in front of you,” she presently continued, “but it has all been too much for me. He was playing and shouting, and a few days later he was gone forever. It is very cruel, and why should it happen to us? We have led a decent life; we love each other, and we loved our boy even more. But he is gone now, and our life has become an empty thing – my husband in his office, and I in my house. It has all become so ugly and meaningless.” She would have gone on and on in her bitterness, but her husband gently stopped her. She was sobbing now, without any restraint, and presently was silent.

在那阳光明媚的房间里，我们五个人：一个男人和他的妻子，和另外两个男人。他们都很年轻。妻子看起来很伤心和凄凉，丈夫也很严肃，没有笑容。两个年轻人害羞地坐着，沉默不语，让其他人开始，但是，当机会出现，他们的害羞消退一点时，他们无疑会说话。 “但为什么会发生在我们身上？” 她问道。她的嗓音里有怨恨和愤怒，泪水却开始充盈她的眼睛，顺着她的脸颊流了下来。 “我们对儿子很好。他是如此的欢快和淘气，总是准备笑，我们爱他。我们小心翼翼地把他抚养长大，为他计划了丰富的人生……” 由于无法继续说话，她停下来，直到她缓和一些。 “请原谅我在你面前如此的沮丧，” 她现在继续说， “但这对我来说太沉重了。他一边玩耍，一边大喊大叫，几天后，他就永远地离开了。这非常的残忍，为什么会发生在我们身上？我们过着体面的生活；我们彼此相爱，我们更爱我们的孩子。但他现在已经走了，我们的生活变成了一件空洞的事情 —— 我丈夫在他的办公室里，我在家里。这一切都变得如此丑陋和毫无意义。” 她本来会在她的诉苦中不停地持续下去，但她的丈夫轻轻地阻止了她。她现在正在抽泣，没有任何抗拒，而现在，都沉默了。

This happens to all of us, doesn’t it? When you ask why it should happen to you, you really don’t mean that it should happen only to others and not to you. You share sorrow with the rest. “But what have we done to deserve it? What is our karma? Why didn’t he live? I would gladly have given my life for him.”

这些发生在我们所有人的身上，不是吗？当你问为什么它应该发生在你身上时，你不是在说它应该只发生在别人身上，而不是发生在你身上吗？你与其他人共同享有悲伤。“但是我们做了什么才遭受这种罪呢？我们的业力是什么？他为什么不能活？我很乐意为他献出我的生命。”

Will any explanation, any cunning argument or rationalized belief, fill that aching void? “I naturally want to be comforted, but not by mere words, and not by some future hope. As a result I just can’t find any comfort. My husband has tried to comfort me with the belief in reincarnation, but to no avail. And he too is suffering; even though he believes in reincarnation, sorrow is there. We are both caught up in it and twisted by it. It’s like some frightening, hideous nightmare.” Again her husband interfered to calm her rising feelings.

任何的解释，任何狡猾的论点或合理化的信仰，会填补那种痛苦的空缺吗？ “我自然地希望得到安慰，但不是仅仅通过言语，也不是某个对未来的希望。这种的结果，让我找不到任何安慰。我的丈夫试图用转世的信念来安慰我，但无济于事。他也在受苦。即使他相信转世，悲伤也在那里。我们都深陷其中，并被它折磨。它就像某种可怕的、丑陋的噩梦。” 她的丈夫再次干涉，以平息她不断上扬的情绪。

“I will be quiet and thoughtful, and I am sorry.” “Sir, we know so little of life, of death, so little of our own sorrow,” said her husband. “Since this event I seem to have suddenly matured, and can now ask serious questions. Before, life was gay, and we were constantly laughing; but most of the things that made us happy seem now so silly, so trivial. It has been like a wind-storm that uproots trees and puts sand in one’s food. Nothing will ever be the same again. Suddenly I find myself being dreadfully serious, wanting to know what it is all about and since our son’s death I have read more religious and philosophical books than I read in all my earlier life; but when there’s pain, mere words are not easy to accept. I know how easily belief becomes a slow poison. Belief dulls the sharp edge of thought, but it also dulls the pain, and without it the mind would become an open, sensitive wound. We came to hear you last evening. You gave us no comfort, which I see is right; but we still want to heal our wounds. Can you help us?”

“我会安静而周到，我很抱歉。” “先生，对于生命、死亡、以及自己的悲伤，我们知之甚少，” 她的丈夫说。 “自从这次事故以来，我似乎突然成熟了，现在可以问几个严肃的问题。以前，生活是欢快的，我们总是在欢笑；但大多数让我们快乐的事情，现在看起来都是那么傻，那么地微不足道。这就像一场暴风雨，将树木连根拔起，并将沙子放入食物中。没有什么会像从前一样了。突然间，我发现自己变得非常严肃，想知道这到底是怎么回事，自从我们儿子去世后，我读了比我早年读过的书籍还多的宗教和哲学书籍。但是当痛苦来临时，仅通过言语，是不容易接受的。我知道信仰是多么容易变成一种缓慢的毒药。信仰使思想尖锐的锋刃变得迟钝，但它也使痛苦变得钝化，没有它，头脑就会变成一个敞开的、敏感的伤口。我们昨晚来听过你的讲话。你没有给我们任何安慰，我认为这是对的。但我们仍然想治愈我们的伤口。你能帮帮我们吗？”

“The wound we all have,” put in one of the other two, “is not to be healed by words, by a comforting phrase. We have come here, not to collect another belief, but to search out the cause of our pain.”

“我们所有人都有的伤口，” 另外两人中的一个说， “不能用言语，用一句安慰的话来治愈。我们来到这里，不是为了收集另一种信仰，而是为了寻找我们痛苦的原因。”

Do you think that merely knowing the cause will free you from pain? “If once I know what causes my inward pain, I can put an end to it. I won’t eat something when I know it will poison me.”

你认为：只要知道原因，就能让你从痛苦中解脱吗？ “如果一旦我知道是什么原因导致我内心的痛苦，我就可以结束它。当我知道某些东西会毒害我时，我不会吃它。”

Do you think it is such an easy matter to wipe away the inward wound? Let’s go into it patiently, carefully. What is our problem?

你认为擦掉向内在的伤口是一件容易的事吗？让我们耐心地、仔细地进入它。我们的问题是什么？

“My problem,” the wife replied “is simple and clear. Why was my son taken away from me? What was the cause of it?”

“我的问题，” 妻子回答说，“简单明了。为什么我的儿子被带走了？它的原因是什么？”

Will any explanation satisfy you, however comforting it may be for the moment? Haven’t you to find out the truth of the matter for yourself? “How am I to set about it?” demanded the wife. “That’s also one of my problems,” said one of the other two. “How am I to find out what’s true in this bewildering confusion which is the ‘me’?”

任何解释会让你满意吗，无论它此刻多么地令人欣慰？难道你没有自己找出这件事情的真相吗？ “我该怎么着手呢？” 妻子问道。 “这也是我的问题之一，” 另外两个人中的一个说。 “昏沉的、困惑的‘我’，如何找出什么是真实的？”

“Was it our karma to suffer, to lose the one we most loved?” asked the husband. “Perhaps I might be able to bear the pain of my son’s death,” added the wife, “if I could just have the comfort of knowing why he was taken away.”

“遭受苦难，失去我们最爱的人，是我们的业力吗？” 丈夫问道。 “也许我能够忍受我儿子去世的痛苦，” 妻子补充说， “如果我能感到安慰，知道他为什么被带走。”

Comfort is one thing, and truth another; they lead away from each other. If you seek comfort, you may find it in an explanation, a drug or a belief; but it will be temporary, and sooner or later you will have to begin over again. And is there such a thing as comfort? It may be that you will first have to see this fact: that a mind which seeks comfort, security, will always be in sorrow. A satisfactory explanation, or a comforting belief, can put you soothingly to sleep; but is that what you want? Will that wipe away your sorrow? Is sorrow to be got rid of by inducing sleep?

安慰是一回事，真实是另一回事。它们彼此远离。如果你寻求安慰，你可能会在解释、毒品或信仰中找到它；但这将是暂时的，迟早你将不得不重新开始。有没有‘安慰’这样的东西？也许你必须首先看到这个事实：一个寻求安慰、安全感的头脑，将永远处于悲伤之中。一个令人满意的解释，或者一个令人欣慰的信念，可以让你宽心地入睡；但这是你想要的吗？这会消除你的悲伤吗？悲伤是通过催眠而消除的吗？

“I suppose what I really want,” went on the wife, “is to get back into the happy state I once knew – to have again the joy and the pleasure of it. As I can’t do that, I am torn with sorrow, and therefore seek comfort.”

“我想我真正想要的，” 妻子继续说， “是回到我曾经知道的快乐状态 —— 再次拥有它的喜悦和快乐。由于我不能那样做，我被悲伤撕裂了，因此寻求安慰。”

Do you mean that you don’t want to face the fact which you think causes sorrow, and so you try to escape from it? “Why shouldn’t I be comforted?”

你的意思是，你不想面对事实，那个你认为导致悲伤的事实，所以你试图逃避它吗？ “我为什么不应该得到安慰？”

But can you find lasting comfort? There may be no such thing. In seeking comfort, what we want is a state in which there will be no psychological disturbance whatsoever. And is there such a state? One may put together, by various means, a state of comfort, but life soon comes knocking at the door. This knocking at the door, this awakening, is called sorrow.

但是，您能找到持久的安慰吗？可能没有这样的东西。在寻求安慰时，我们想要一种状态里面不会有任何心理干扰。有这样的状态吗？人可以通过各种方式，捏造出一种舒适的状态，但生命很快就会来敲门。这个敲门声，这种清醒，被称之为悲伤。

“As you point this out, I see that it is so. But what am I to do?” insisted the wife.

“正如你所指出的，我看到它就是如此。但是我该做什么？” 妻子坚持道。

There is nothing to do but realize the truth of this fact, that a mind which seeks comfort security, will always be subject to sorrow. This realization is its own action. When a man realizes he’s a prisoner, he doesn’t ask what to do, but a whole series of actions, or inactions, come into being. From realization itself there is action. “But, sir,” put in the husband, “our wounds are real, and can we not heal them? Is there no healing process at all, but only a state of bitter hopelessness?”

除了意识到这个事实的真实性，什么都不做，一个寻求舒服的安全感的头脑，将永远受到悲伤的影响。这个意识有它自身的行动。当一个人意识到他是一个囚犯时，他不会问该怎么办，而一系列的行动，或不行动，就会出现。这个意识本身，就是行动，“但是，先生，” 丈夫接上来说， “我们的伤口是真实的，我们能不能医治它们吗？难道根本没有治愈的过程，只有一种痛苦的绝望的状态吗？”

The mind can cultivate any state it desires, but to find out the truth of this whole situation is quite another matter. Now, what is it that you are after? “No man in his senses would want to cultivate bitterness. There is certainly a philosophy of hopelessness, but I have no intention of pursuing that path. I do want to find out, however, what is the cause, the karma of our sorrow.”

头脑可以培养它想要的任何状态，但找出整个情况的真相是另一回事。现在，你追求的是什么？ “在他的感受中，没有人愿意培养苦涩。当然，有一种绝望的哲学，但我无意走这条路。然而，我确实想找出原因是什么，我们悲伤的业力是什么。”

Do you two also wish to go into this matter?

你们俩也想谈这件事吗？

“We most certainly do, sir. We have our own problems pertaining to the whole process of karma, and it would help us too if we could all consider it together.”

“我们当然想知道，先生。我们有自己的问题，涉及整个业力的过程，如果我们都能一起考虑，那也会对我们有所帮助。”

What is the root meaning of the word ‘karma’? “The root meaning of that word is ‘to act’,” replied the husband, and the others nodded in agreement. “Karma, as it is generally – and I think wrongly – understood, is action as a determining cause. The future is fixed by past action; as you sow, so shall you reap. I have done something in the past for which I shall pay, or from which I shall gain. If my son dies young, it is due to some cause hidden in a past life. There are many variations on this one general formula.”

“业力”这个词的根本含义是什么？ “这个词的根本含义是'采取行动'，” 丈夫回答说，其他人点头表示同意。“业力，正如它通常的 —— 我认为是错误的 —— 理解，是作为决定性因素的行动。未来是由过去的行动决定的；当你播种时，你也会收获。我过去做过一些事情，我将为此付出代价，或者我将从中受益。如果我的儿子英年早逝，那是由于隐藏在前世的某种原因。这个通用公式有很多种变体。”

All things arise and have their being through the chain of causes and effects, do they not? “That seems to be a fact,” replied one of the other two. “I am here in this world because of my father and mother and through other previous causes. I am a result of causes which stretch back infinitely into the past. Both thought and action are the result of various causes.”

万物都在生长，通过因果链而存在，不是吗？ “这似乎是一个事实，” 另外两个人中的一个回答。 “我来到这个世界，因为我的父亲和母亲，以及其余的以往的原因。我是追溯到无穷的过去的原因的结果。思想和行动都是各种原因的结果。”

Is effect separate from cause? Is there a gap, short or long, an interval of time between them? Is the cause fixed as well as the effect? If cause and effect are static, then the future is already established; and if this is so, there’s no freedom for man, he’s ever caught in a predetermined groove. But this is not so, as you can observe in everyday happenings, where circumstances are continuously influencing the course of actions. There is always a movement of change going on, whether immediate or gradual.

结果与原因是分开的吗？它们之间是否有短暂的或长期的间隔？原因和结果都是固定的吗？如果因果是静止的，那么未来已经确定；如果是这样的话，人就没有自由，他永远陷入到一个预定的凹槽内。但事实并非如此，正如你在日常事件中观察到的那样，环境不断影响着行为的进程。总是有一种变化的运动在发生，无论是直接的还是渐进的。

“Yes, sir, I see that; and it is an immense relief to me, who have been brought up in the one-cause and one-effect conditioning, to realize that we need not be slaves to the past.”

“是的，先生，我看到了。对于在这条因果链的制约中成长的人来说，意识到我们不必成为过去的奴隶，对我来说是一种巨大的解脱。”

The mind need not be held by its conditioning. The effect of a cause is not bound to follow the cause, it may be wiped away. There’s no everlasting hell. Cause and effect are not static, fixed; what was the effect becomes the cause of still another effect. Today is shaped by yesterday, and tomorrow by today. That is true, is it not? So cause and effect are not separate, they are a unitary process. A wrong means cannot be used to a right end, because the means is the end; the one contains the other. The seed contains the total tree. If one really feels the truth of this, then thought is action, there is no thinking first followed by action, with the inevitable problem of how to build a bridge between them. The total awareness of cause and effect as an indivisible unit puts an end to the maker of effort, the ‘I’ who’s everlastingly becoming something through some means.

头脑不需要被它的条件所束缚。一个原因的结果不一定遵循原因，它可能被抹去。没有永恒的地狱。因果关系不是静止的，不是固定的；所谓的结果，成为另一个结果的原因。今天是由昨天塑造的，明天是由今天塑造的。这是真的，不是吗？因此，因果关系不是分开的，它们是一个单一的过程。错误的手段不能用于正确的目的，因为手段就是目的；一个包含另一个。种子包含整棵树。如果一个人真的感受到了这一点的真实性，那么思想就是行动，没有先思考后行动，及其伴生的不可避免的问题：如何在它们之间架起一座桥梁。完整地意识到因果关系作为一个不可分割的单元终结了努力的制造者 —— 那个总是在通过某种手段变成某个人物的‘我’。

“Are you not giving your own meaning to karma?” asked the husband.

“你不是拿你自己的意思来解释业力吗？” 丈夫问。

Either it is true, or it is false. What is true needs no interpretation, and what is interpreted is not true. The interpreter becomes a traitor, for he is merely offering his opinion, and opinion is not truth. “The books say that each one of us starts this life with a certain amount of accumulated karma which has to be worked out,” went on the husband. “We are told that it is in the working out of this accumulated karma, whether in one life or through several lives, that there is the operation of free will. Is this so?”

要么它是真的，要么它是假的。真实不需要解释，而解释不是真实。解释者变成了叛徒，因为他只是提供了自己的意见，而意见不是真理。 “书上说，我们每个人初生之时，都累积了一定数量的业力，这些业力必须得到解决，” 丈夫继续说道。 “我们被告知，在解决这些累积的业力之后，无论是今生还是几世轮回，才有自由意志的运作。是这样吗？”

What do you think, apart from the authority of the books? “I don’t feel able to think it out for myself.”

抛开书本的权威性，你怎么看？ “我觉得自己无法想清楚。”

Let’s consider the matter together. One’s life in this present existence does start with a certain amount of conditioning, karma; every child is influenced by his environment to think within a certain pattern, and his future tends to be determined by this pattern. Either he follows, with a certain latitude, the dictates of the pattern, or he totally breaks away from it. In the latter case, that part of the mind which makes the effort to break away is also a result of conditioning, of karma; so in breaking away from one pattern, the mind creates another, in which it is again caught.

让我们一起考虑这个问题。一个人在当前的生命中，确实始于一定程度的条件限制，业力；每个孩子都受到环境的影响，在一定的模式内思考，他的命运往往由这种模式决定。要么他遵循，在一定的范围内，执行模式中的指令，要么他完全地脱离它。在后一种情况下，在努力挣脱的那部分头脑也是条件限制的产物，是业力的结果。因此，在打破一种模式时，头脑创造了另一种模式，并被它再次抓了进去。

“In that case, how can the mind ever be free? I see very clearly that the part of the mind that wishes to be free from the pattern, and the part that is caught in it, are both held, as it were, in a frame; the former thinks it is different from the latter, but essentially they have the same quality in that neither is totally free. Then what is freedom?” “Most people,” put in one of the young men, “assert that there is a super-soul, the Atman, which will act upon our conditioning and wipe it away through devotion and good works, and through concentration on the Supreme.”

“既然那样，头脑怎么可能自由呢？我非常清楚地看到，头脑中希望从模式中解脱出来的那部分，以及被关押着的其余部分，这两部分都像以前一样，被关在一个框架内；前者认为它与后者不同，但本质上它们具有相同的品质，因为两者都不是完全自由的。那么什么是自由？“ “大多数人，” 其中一个年轻人说， “断言有一个超级灵魂，阿特曼，它会根据我们的条件限制采取行动，并通过奉献和善行，以及专注于至高无上，突破限制。”

But the entity who is devoted, who does good works, is himself conditioned; and the Supreme on which he concentrates is a projection of his conditioning, is it not? “I see that,” said the husband eagerly. “Our gods, our religious concepts our ideals, are all within the pattern of our conditioning. Now that you point it out, it seems so obvious and factual. But then there’s no hope for man.”

但是，那个奉献的、行善的实体，就是被局限的他自己。他所专注的至高无上，是他所拥有的限制条件的投影，不是吗？ “我看到了，” 丈夫急切地说。 “我们的神、我们的宗教概念、我们的理想，都在我们受限的模式之内。既然你指出了这一点，它似乎是如此明显和事实。但是，人就没有希望了。”

To jump to a conclusion, and to start thinking from that conclusion, prevents understanding and any further discovery.

匆忙下结论，并从这个结论开始思考，阻止了理解和进一步的发现。

When the totality of the mind realizes that it’s held within a pattern, what takes place? “I don’t quite understand your question, sir.”

当整个头脑意识到它被控制在一个模式中时，会发生什么？ “我不太明白你的问题，先生。”

Do you realize that the totality of your mind is conditioned, including the part that is supposed to be the super-soul, the Atman? Do you feel it, know it to be a fact, or are you merely accepting a verbal explanation? What is actually taking place? “I cannot definitely say, for I have never thought out this matter to the end.”

你是否意识到，你头脑的一切都是受限的，包括被认为是超级灵魂的部分、阿特曼？你感觉到它，知道它是一个事实，还是你只是接受了言语上的解释？到底发生了什么？ “我不能肯定地说，因为我从来没有彻底想过这件事。”

When the mind realizes the totality of its own conditioning – which it cannot do as long as it is merely pursuing its own comfort, or lazily taking the easy course – then all its movements come to an end; it is completely still, without any desire, without any compulsion, without any motive. Only then is there freedom. “But we have to live in this world, and whatever we do, from earning a livelihood to the most subtle inquiry of the mind, has some motive or other. Is there ever action without motive?”

当头脑意识到它自身限制的整体时 —— 只要它追求自己的安慰，或者懒散地选择容易的路，它就意识不到 —— 那么它所有的移动走到了终点。它完全地停止，没有任何欲望，没有任何强迫，没有任何动机。只有这样，才有自由。 “但我们必须生活在这个世界上，无论我们做什么，从谋生到对头脑最微妙的调查，都有一些动机或其他动机。有不存在动机的行动吗？”