对生活的评注 3-18

THE SEA WAS very calm that morning, more so than usual, for the wind from the south had ceased blowing, and before the north-easterly winds began, the sea was taking a rest. The sands were bleached by the sun and salt water, and there was a strong smell of ozone, mixed with that of seaweed. There wasn’t anyone yet on the beach, and one had the sea to oneself. Large crabs, with one claw much bigger than the other, moved slowly about, watching, with the large claw waving in the air. There were also smaller crabs, the usual kind, that raced to the lapping water, or darted into round holes in the wet sand. Hundreds of seagulls stood about, resting and preening themselves. The rim of the sun was just coming out of the sea, and it made a golden path on the still waters. Everything seemed to be waiting for this moment – and how quickly it would pass! The sun continued to climb out of the sea, which was as quiet as a sheltered lake in some deep woods. No woods could contain these waters, they were too restless, too strong and vast; but that morning they were mild, friendly and inviting.

那天早上，大海非常平静，比平时更平静，因为来自南方的风已经停止了，在东北风开始之前，大海正在休息。沙子被太阳和带着咸味的海水漂白，有一股强烈的臭氧味，与海藻混合在一起。海滩上还没有人，一个人独自拥有大海。大螃蟹们，一只钳子比另一只钳子大得多，慢慢地移动，观看，大钳子在空中挥舞。还有较小的螃蟹，平常的那种，它们冲向拍打的海水，或者在潮湿的沙里挖圆洞。数百只海鸥站在那里，休息着，用喙整理羽毛。太阳的轮廓刚刚从海里出来，它在静止的海水上形成了一条金色的路。一切似乎都在等待这一刻 —— 而它会以多快的速度走过！太阳继续爬出大海，大海像在密林中隐秘的湖泊一样安静。没有树林可以容纳这些水，它们太躁动、太强壮、太广阔了；但那天早上，它们温和、友好而诱人。

Under a tree above the sands and the blue water, there was going on a life independent of the crabs, the salt water and the seagulls. Large, black ants darted about, not making up their minds where to go. They would go up the tree, then suddenly scurry down for no apparent reason. Two or three would impatiently stop, move their heads about, and then, with a fierce burst of energy, go all over a piece of wood which they must have examined hundreds of times before; they would investigate it again with eager curiosity, and lose interest in it a second later. It was very quiet under the tree, though everything about one was very much alive. There was not a breath of air stirring among the leaves but every leaf was abundant with the beauty and light of the morning. There was an intensity about the tree – not the terrible intensity of reaching, of succeeding, but the intensity of being complete, simple, alone and yet part of the earth. The colours of the leaves, of the few flowers, of the dark trunk, were intensified a thousandfold, and the branches seemed to sustain the heavens. It was incredibly clear, bright and alive in the shade of that single tree.

在树下的沙滩上和蓝色海水，有一种独立于螃蟹、咸水和海鸥的生命。黑色的大蚂蚁们四处乱窜，没有下定决心去哪里。他们会爬上树，然后突然无缘无故地窜下来。两三个只会不耐烦地停下来，四处移动他们的头，然后，带着一股强烈的能量，在一块木头上走来走去，他们以前一定已经检查过数百次了；他们会带着热切的好奇心再次检查它，并在一秒钟后对它失去兴趣。树下非常安静，虽然一个人的一切都非常活跃。空中没有气息在树叶间搅动，但每片叶子都充满了早晨的美丽和光明。这棵树有一种强烈 —— 不是达成或成功那样可怕的强烈，而是完整、简单、独立却属于大地的一部分的强烈。叶片、花儿、深暗的树干的颜色，都被增强了一千倍，而树枝似乎支撑着天空。那棵树的阴影中，非常地清晰、明亮和生动。

Meditation is an intensification of the mind which is in the fullness of silence. The mind is not still like some tamed, frightened or disciplined animal; it is still as the waters are still many fathoms down. The stillness there is not like that on the surface when the winds die. This stillness has a life and a movement of its own which is related to the outer flow of life, but is untouched by it. Its intensity is not that of some powerful machine which has been put together by cunning, capable hands; it is as simple and natural as love, as lightning, as a full-flowing river.

对处于寂静的充实中的头脑的强化，即是冥想。头脑不是像某些被驯服、恐吓或训练的动物那样，静止不动；它的静，如同深渊中的静水。这种静，不是无风时，水面上的平静。这种静，有它自己的生命和运动，它与生命的外在流动关联，却无法触碰到它。它的强烈不是由狡猾的、能干的双手组装起来的；它简单而自然，像爱，像闪电，像一条盈盈流动的江水。

He said he had been in politics up to his ears. He had done the usual things to climb the ladder of success – cultivated the right people, got on familiar terms with the leaders who had themselves climbed the very same ladder – and his climbed had been rapid. He had been sent abroad on many of the important committees, and was regarded with respect by those who count; for he was sincere and incorruptible albeit as ambitious as the rest of them. Added to all this he was well-read, and words came easily to him. But now, by some fortunate chance, he was tired of this game of helping the country by boosting himself and becoming a very important person. He was tired of it, not because he couldn’t climb any higher, but because, through a natural process of intelligence, he had come to see that man’s deep betterment does not lie entirely in planning, in efficiency, in the scramble for power. So he had thrown it all overboard, and was beginning to consider anew the whole of life.

他说，他一直忙于政务。他做了一些平常的事情来攀登成功的梯子 —— 培养合适的人，与那些在爬同一个梯子的领导者们打成一片 —— 而且，他攀爬的速度很快。他被派往国外，加入许多重要的委员会，并受到那些重要的委员们的尊重；因为他是真诚的、清廉的，尽管他和其他人一样雄心勃勃。除此之外，他读书很好，文书对他来说很容易。但现在，由于幸运的机会，他已经厌倦了这种游戏 —— 通过提升自己并成为一个非常重要的人来帮助国家。他厌倦了它，不是因为他爬不动了，而是因为，通过一个自然的理智过程，他开始看到：人的深刻改善完全不在于计划、效率、对权力的争夺。所以他把一切都扔到了船舷外，并开始重新考虑整个生命。

What do you mean by the whole of life? “I have spent many years on a branch of the river, as it were, and I want to spend the remaining years of my life on the river itself. Although I enjoyed every minute of the political struggle, I am not leaving politics regretfully; and now I wish to contribute to the betterment of society from my heart and not from the ever-calculating mind. What I take from society must be returned to it at least tenfold.”

你说的‘整个生命’是什么意思？ “这就如同我在河的一条支流上度过了很多年，我想在河上度过我的余生。尽管我享受政治斗争的每一分钟，但我并没有带着遗憾而离开它；现在，我希望从我的内心而不是从不断计算的头脑出发为社会的改善做贡献。我从社会上拿走的东西，必须至少要十倍的回报。”

If one may ask, why are you thinking in terms of giving and taking? “I have taken so much from society; and all that it has given me I must give back to it many times.”

如果有人可以问，你为什么使用‘给予’和‘拿走’这两个词来思考？ “我从社会上拿走了很多东西；它给予了我的一切，我必须数倍地归还。”

What do you owe to society? “Everything I have: my bank account, my education my name-Oh, so many things!”

你对社会有什么亏欠？ “我拥有的一切：我的银行账户、我的教育、我的名字 —— 噢，有很多东西！”

In actuality, you have not taken anything from society, because you are part of it. If you were a separate entity, unconnected with society, then you could give back what you have taken. But you are part of society, part of the culture which has put you together. You can return borrowed money; but what can you give back to society as long as you are part of society?

事实上，你没有从社会中拿走任何东西，因为你是其中的一部分。如果你是一个分离的实体，与社会没有联系，那么你可以归还你所拿走的东西。但你是社会的一部分，是文化的一部分，是它捏造了你。您可以退还借来的钱；但是，只要你是社会的一部分，你能归还什么东西给它呢？

“Because of society I have money, food, clothing, shelter, and I must do something in return. I have profited by my gathering within the framework of society, and it would be ungrateful of me to turn my back on it. I must do some good work for society – good work in the large sense, and not as a ‘do-gooder’.”

“因为这个社会，我有了钱、食物、衣服、住所，我必须做点什么，来回报它。在社会框架内，我通过收集而从中受益，如果背弃它，那就是我忘恩负义。我必须为社会做一些好事 —— 广义上的做好事，却不做一个‘好人’。

I understand what you mean; but even if you returned all you have gathered, would that absolve you from your debt? What society has yielded through your efforts is comparatively easy to return; you can give it to the poor, or to the State. And then what? You still have your ‘duty’ to society, for you are still part of it; you are one of its citizens. As long as you belong to society identify yourself with it, you are both the giver and the taker. You maintain it; you support its structure, do you not?

我理解你的意思；但即使你归还了你收集到的所有东西，这能免除你的债务吗？通过你的努力，归还社会所产生的东西相对地容易；你可以把它给穷人，或者给国家。然后呢？你仍然对社会负有‘责任’，因为你仍然是社会的一部分。你是它的公民之一。只要你属于社会，你自己认同于它，你既是给予者又是拿走者。您维护它；你支持它的结构，你不是吗？

“I do. I am, as you say, an integral part of society; without it, I am not. Since I am both the good and the bad of society, I must remove the bad and uphold the good.”

“是的。正如你所说，我是整个社会的一份子; 没有它，我什么都不是。而社会中的我，既好又坏，所以我必须除掉坏的，维护好的。”

In any given culture or society, the ‘good’ is the accepted, the respectable. You want to maintain that which is noble within the structure of society; is that it? “What I want to do is to change the social pattern in which man is caught. I mean this most earnestly.”

在任何特定的文化或社会中，‘好’是被接受的，是可敬的。你想在社会结构中维护高尚的东西；是这样吗？ “我想做的是改变这个把人困住的社会模式。我是极其认真的。”

The social pattern is set up by man; it is not independent of man, though it has a life of its own, and man is not independent of it; they are interrelated. Change within the pattern is no change at all; it is mere modification, reformation. Only by breaking away from the social pattern without building another can you ‘help’ society. As long as you belong to society, you are only helping it to deteriorate. All societies including the most marvellously utopian, have within them the seeds of their own corruption. To change society, you must break away from it. You must cease to be what society is: acquisitive, ambitious, envious, power-seeking, and so on.

社会模式是由人建立的；它不是独立于人，尽管它有自己的生命，而人也不是独立于它；它们是相互关联的。模式内的变化根本不是变化；它只是修改，改革。只有脱离社会模式而不建立另一个社会模式，你才能‘帮助’社会。只要你属于社会，你只是在帮助它恶化。所有社会，包括最奇妙的乌托邦，它们里面都播撒着自己腐败的种子。要改变社会，你必须脱离它。你必须消除你的社会性质：贪婪、雄心勃勃、嫉妒、追求权力，等等。

“Do you mean I must become a monk, a sannyasi?”

“你是说我必须成为一名僧侣，一名桑雅生吗？”

Certainly not. the sannyasi has merely renounced the outer show of the world, of society, but inwardly he is still a part of it; he is still burning with the desire to achieve, to gain, to become. “Yes, I see that.”

当然不是，桑雅生只是放弃了这个世界和社会的外在表皮，但在内心深处，他依然是它的一部分。他依然在燃烧着达成、获取、成为的欲望。 “是的，我看到了那一点。”

Surely, since you have burnt yourself in politics, your problem is not only to break away from society, but to come totally to life again, to love and be simple. Without love, do what you may, you will not know the total action which alone can save man.

当然，既然你在政治中烧毁了自己，你的问题不仅在于脱离社会，还在于再次完全地进入生命，去爱和处于简单。没有爱，做你所能做的一切，你都不会知道那种完整的、能拯救人的行动。

“That is true, sir: we don’t love, we aren’t really simple.”

“那是真的，先生：我们不爱，我们真的不简单。”

Why? Because you are so concerned with reforms, with duties, with respectability with becoming something with breaking through to the other side. In the name of another, you are concerned with yourself; you are caught in your own cockle-shell. You think you are the centre of this beautiful earth. You never pause to look at a tree, at a flower, at the flowing river; and if by some chance you do look, your eyes are filled with the things of the mind, and not with beauty and love.

为什么？因为你如此关心改革、责任、尊严，关心成为某种人物，关心突破而抵达彼岸。以别人的名义，你关心自己；你被困在你自己的蛤壳里。你认为你是这个美丽地球的中心。你永远不会停下来看一棵树，一朵花，看流动的河流；如果某个时刻，你真地在看，你的眼睛里充满了头脑的东西，却不是美和爱。