SEATED ON A raised platform, he was playing a seven-stringed instrument to a small audience of people who were familiar with this type of classical music. They were sitting on the floor in front of him; while from a position behind him another instrument, with only four strings, was being played. He was a young man, but completely the master of the seven strings and of the complex music. He would improvise before each song; then would come the song, in which there would be more improvisation. You would never hear any song played twice in the same way. The words were retained, but within a certain frame there was great latitude, and the musician could improvise to his heart’s content; and the more the variations and combinations the greater the musician. On the strings, words were not possible; but all who sat there knew the words, and they went into ecstasies over them. With nodding heads and gracefully gesturing hands, they kept perfect time, and there would be a gentle slap on the thigh at the end of the rhythm. The musician had closed his eyes and was completely absorbed in his creative freedom, and in the beauty of the sound; his mind and his fingers were in perfect coordination. And what fingers! Delicate and rapid, they seemed to have a life of their own. They would be still only at the end of the song in that particular frame, and then they would be quiet and reposed; but with incredible rapidity they would begin another song within a different frame. They almost mesmerized you with their grace and swiftness of movement. And those strings, what melodious sounds they gave! They were pressed by the fingers of the left hand to the proper tension, while the fingers of the right hand plucked them with masterly ease and control.
坐在一个凸起的平台上， 他向一小群熟悉这种古典音乐的人们演奏七弦乐。 他们坐在他面前的地板上。 在他身后的一个位置，另一种只有四根弦的乐器在演奏。 他是个年轻人，却完全是七弦乐和复杂乐曲的大师。 他会在每首曲子之前即兴创作； 然后是这首曲子，其中会有更多的即兴创作。 你永远不会听到任何一首乐曲以同样的方式演奏第二次。 这些词被保留了下来，但却在一定的框架内有很大的自由度， 音乐家可以即兴发挥他内心的感受； 变化和组合越多，音乐家就越伟大。 在这些弦上，言语是不可能描述的； 但所有坐在那里的人都知道这些言语，他们为此而狂喜。 他们点头，优雅地打手势，保持完美的节拍， 在节奏结束时，大腿上会有一个温柔的巴掌。 这位音乐家闭上眼睛， 完全沉浸在他创作的自由和声音的美丽中； 他的头脑和手指完美协调。 那是怎样的手指！细腻而迅速，它们似乎有着自己的生命。 它们仍然留在那乐曲末尾处的框架中， 然后它们会安静并放下； 但是，以令人难以置信的速度，它们会在不同的框架内开始另一首曲子。 它们几乎用它们的优雅而敏捷的动作迷住了你。 还有那些琴弦，它们发出的悠扬的乐音！ 它们被左手的手指按压到适当的张力， 而右手手指则以巧妙的轻松和控制来拔动。
The moon was bright outside, and the dark shadows were motionless; through the window, the river was just visible, a flow of silver against the dark, silent trees on the other bank. A strange thing was going on in the space which is the mind. It had been watching the graceful movements of the fingers, listening to the sweet sounds, observing the nodding heads and the rhythmical hands of the silent people. Suddenly the watcher, the listener, disappeared; he had not been lulled into abeyance by the melodious strings, but was totally absent. There was only the vast space which is the mind. All the things of the earth and of man were in it, but they were at the extreme outer edges, dim and far off. Within the space where nothing was, there was a movement, and the movement was stillness. It was a deep, vast movement, without direction, without motive, which began from the outer edges, and with incredible strength was coming towards the centre – a centre that is everywhere within the stillness, within the motion which is space. This centre is total aloneness, uncontaminated, unknowable, a solitude which is not isolation, which has no end and no beginning. It is complete in itself, and not made; the outer edges are in it but not of it. It is there, but not within the scope of man’s mind. It is the whole, the totality, but not approachable.
外面的月亮皎白，暗影一动不动。 透过窗户，河流清晰可见，如一练银白的流光， 倒影出对岸漆黑而寂静的树木。 一件奇怪的事情在这个空间、这个头脑里发生了。 它一直在观察手指优美的动作，聆听甜美的声音， 观察沉默的人点头和有节奏的拍手。 突然间，观察者，听众，消失了； 他没有被悠扬的琴弦滞留在旋律中，而是彻底消失了。 只有那片浩瀚的空间，那个头脑。 大地和人的所有一切都在其中， 但它们处于外缘的延伸处，昏暗而遥远。 在一无所有的空间里，有一个运动，这个运动是静止的。 这是一场深沉而巨大的运动，没有方向，没有动机， 从外缘开始， 以令人难以置信的力量向中心前进 —— 那里面到处都是静止的，里面的运动即是空无。 这个中心，完全地自在、清廉、未知， 一种并非孤独的寂寥，没有尽头，没有开始。 它本身是完整的，而不是被造的；外缘在其中，却不属于它。 它就在那里，却不在人的头脑的范围之内。 它是所有、是整体，却不可触及。
There were four of them, all boys of about the same age, sixteen to eighteen. Rather shy, they needed coaxing, but once started, they could hardly stop, and their eager questions came tumbling out. You could see that they had talked it all over among themselves beforehand, and had prepared written questions; but after the first one or two, they forgot what they had written, and their words flowed freely from their own spontaneous thoughts. Though not of well-to-do parents, they were clean and neat in their dress.
他们有四个人，年龄差不多，十六到十八岁。 他们相当害羞，需要哄骗， 可一旦开始，他们几乎无法停下，他们急切的问题就滚滚而出。 你可以看出，他们事先已经互相讨论过， 并把要问的问题写在纸条上； 但是，在前一两个问题之后，他们忘了自己写的是什么， 他们的话语从他们拥有的自发的思想中自由地流出。 虽然没有富裕的父母，但他们的衣服干净整洁。
“Sir, when you talked to us students two or three days ago,” began the nearest one, “you said something about how necessary right education is if we are to be able to face life. I wish you would again explain to us what you mean by right education. We have talked it over amongst ourselves, but we don’t quite understand it.”
“先生，两三天前，当你和我们学生交谈时，” 靠得最近的开始说，“你说，如果我们要有能力面对生活， 正确的教育是多么的必要。 我希望您能再次向我们解释，您所说的‘正确的教育’是什么意思。 我们已经在自己之间讨论了这个问题，但我们不太理解它。”
What kind of education do you all have now? “Oh, we are in college, and we are being taught the usual things which are necessary for a given profession,” he replied. “I am going to be an engineer; my friends here are variously studying physics, literature and economics. We are taking the prescribed courses and reading the prescribed books, and when we have time we read a novel or two; but except for games, we are at our studies most of the time.”
你们现在都有什么样的教育？ “哦，我们在上大学， 我们被教导了特定专业所必需的通常的东西，” 他回答说。“我要成为一名工程师； 我在这里的朋友正在学习物理学、文学和经济学。 我们正在参加规定的课程并阅读规定的书本， 当我们有时间时，我们读一两本小说； 但除了游戏外，我们大部分时间都在学习。”
Do you think this is enough to be rightly educated for life? “From what you have said, sir, it is not enough,” replied the second one. “But that’s all we get, and ordinarily we think we are being educated.”
为了面对生活，你认为接受这些就是够了吗？ “从你说的话来看，先生，这还不够，” 第二个回答。 “但这就是我们得到的一切，通常我们认为我们正在接受教育。”
Just to learn to read and to write, to cultivate memory and pass some examinations, to acquire certain capacities or skills in order to get a job – is that education? “Is not all this necessary?”
只是为了学习阅读和写作， 培养记忆力并通过一些考试， 获得某些能力或技能，以便于找到工作 —— 那是教育吗？“这些道不是必须的吗？”
Yes, to prepare for a right means of livelihood is essential; but that’s not all of life. There is also sex, ambition, envy, patriotism, violence, war, love, death, God, man’s relationship to man, which is society-and so many other things. Are you being educated to meet this vast affair called life? “Who is to so educate us?” asked the third one. “Our teachers and professors seem so indifferent. Some of them are clever and well-read, but none of them give any thought to this kind of thing. We are pushed through, and we shall consider ourselves lucky if we take our degrees; everything is getting to be so difficult.”
是的，为正当的谋生方式作准备是基本的；但那还不是生活的全部。 还有性、野心、嫉妒、爱国主义、暴力、战争、爱、死亡、上帝、 人与人的关系，也就是社会 —— 以及许多其它的东西。 你是否正在接受教育，去迎接这个叫做‘生活’的宏大的事情？ “谁来教育我们？” 第三个人问道。 “我们的老师和教授似乎无动于衷。 他们中的一些人很聪明，很有文化， 但他们都没有考虑过这种事情。 我们被推了出去，如果我们拿到学位，我们会认为自己是幸运的； 一切都变得如此地困难。”
“Except for our sexual passions, which are fairly definite,” said the first one, “we know nothing about life; all the rest seems so vague and far off. We hear our parents grumbling about not having enough money, and we realize they are stuck in certain grooves for the rest of their days. So who can teach us about life?”
“除了我们的性激情，这是相当明确的，” 第一个说， “我们对生活一无所知；其余的似乎都那么模糊和遥远。 我们听到父母抱怨没有足够的钱， 我们意识到他们的余生被困在某些凹槽中。 那么，谁能教我们生活呢？”
No one can teach you, but you can learn. There’s a vast difference between learning and being taught. Learning goes on throughout life, whereas being taught is over in a few hours or years – and then, for the rest of your life, you repeat what you have been taught. What you have been taught soon turns to dead ashes; and then life, which is a living thing, becomes a battleground of vain efforts. You are thrown into life without the ease or the leisure to understand it; before you know anything about life, you are already right in the middle of it, married, tied to a job, with society pitilessly clamouring around you.
没有人能教你，但你可以学习。 学习和被教导之间有很大的区别。 学习贯穿一生，而被教导会在几个小时或几年内结束 —— 然后，在你的余生中，你重复你被教导的东西。 你所受的教导很快就会化为灰烬； 然而生活，这一个活生生的东西，变成了徒劳的、挣扎的战场。 你被扔进生活，没有轻松或闲暇去理解它； 在你对生活一无所知之前，你已经处于生活之中， 结婚、被工作绑在一起，社会无情地在你耳边呵斥。
One has to learn about life from early childhood on, not at the last moment; when one is all but grown up, it is almost too late.
人必须从童年的早期开始学习生活，而不是在最后一刻； 当一个人几乎长大成人时，几乎为时已晚。
Do you know what life is? It extends from the moment you are born to the moment you die, and perhaps beyond. Life is a vast, complex whole; it’s like a house in which everything is happening at once. You love and you hate; you are greedy, envious, and at the same time you feel you shouldn’t be. You are ambitious, and there is either frustration or success, following in the wake of anxiety, fear and ruthlessness; and sooner or later there comes a feeling of the futility of it all. Then there are the horrors and brutality of war, and peace through terror; there is nationalism, sovereignty, which supports war; there is death at the end of life’s road, or anywhere along it. There is the search for God, with its conflicting beliefs and the quarrels between organized religions. There is the struggle to get and keep a job; there are marriage, children, illness, and the dominance of society and the State. Life is all this, and much more; and you are thrown into this mess. Generally you sink into it, miserable and lost; and if you survive by climbing to the top of the heap, you are still part of the mess. This is what we call life: everlasting struggle and sorrow, with a little joy occasionally thrown in. Who is going to teach you about all this? Or rather, how are you going to learn about it? Even if you have capacity and talent, you are hounded by ambition, by the desire for fame, with its frustrations and sorrows. All this is life, isn’t it? And to go beyond all this is also life.
你知道生活是什么吗？ 它从你出生的那一刻延伸到你死去的那一刻，也许甚至更远。 生活是一个庞大而复杂的整体； 它就像一栋房子，一切都在同时发生。 你爱、你恨；你贪婪、嫉妒，同时你觉得你不应该那样。 你雄心勃勃，要么沮丧，要么成功， 伴随着清醒后的焦虑、恐惧、绝情； 迟早会有一种感觉：这一切都是徒劳的。 然后是战争的恐怖和残酷，以及高压恐怖下的和平； 民族主义、主权政府，都在支持战争； 在生活之路的尽头，或它走过的任何地方，都有死亡。 有对上帝的追求， 伴生出宗派之间的各种信仰之间的冲突和争吵。 有寻找和保住工作的挣扎； 有婚姻、孩子、疾病，有社会和政府的统治。 生活就是这一切，还有更多；你被扔进这个烂摊子里。 一般来说，你深陷其中，痛苦而迷茫； 如果你通过爬到草堆的顶端，并幸存下来，你仍然是那个混乱的一部分。 这就是我们所说的生活：永恒的挣扎与悲伤，偶尔会投下一丝欢乐。 谁来教你这一切？ 或者更确切地说，你将如何学习它？ 即使你有能力和天赋， 你也会被野心、对名声的渴望、及其挫折和悲伤所困扰。 这一切都是生活，不是吗？ 超越这一切，也是生活。
“Fortunately, we still know only very little of that whole struggle,” went on the first one, “but what you tell us of it is already in us potentially. I want to be a famous engineer, I want to beat them all; so I must work hard and get to know the right people; I must plan, calculate for the future. I must make my way through life.”
“幸运的是，我们仍然对整个挣扎知之甚少，” 第一个接着说， “但你告诉我们的话，已经潜入了我们的内心。 我想成为一名著名的工程师，我想打败他们所有人； 所以我必须努力工作，去认识正确的人； 我必须计划，为未来计算。 我必须通关我的生活。”
That is just it. Everyone says that he must make his way through life; each one is out for himself, whether in the name of business, religion or the country. You want to become famous, and so does your neighbour, and so does his neighbour; and so it is with everyone, from the highest to the lowest in the land. Thus we build a society based on ambition, envy and acquisitiveness, in which each man is the enemy of another; and you are ‘educated’ to conform to this disintegrating society, to fit into its vicious frame.
就是那样。 每个人都说，他必须闯出自己的生活； 每个人都为自己而战，无论是以商业、宗教，还是以国家的名义。 你想出名，你的邻居也一样，他的邻居也一样。 每个人都是如此，从地球上的最高处到最低点。 因此，我们建立了一个以野心、嫉妒和贪婪为基础的社会， 在这个社会中，每个人都是另一个人的敌人； 你被‘教育’去顺应这个正在崩溃的社会， 去适应它邪恶的框架。
“But what are we to do?” asked the second one. “It seems to me that we must conform to society, or be destroyed. Is there any way out of it, sir?”
“但是我们该怎么办？” 第二个人问道。 “在我看来，我们必须顺应社会，否则就会被毁灭。 有什么办法可以摆脱它吗，先生？”
At present you are so-called educated to fit into this society; your capacities are developed to enable you to make a living within the pattern. Your parents, your educators, your government, are all concerned with your efficiency and financial security, are they not? “I don’t know about the government, sir,” put in the fourth one, “but our parents spend their hard-earned money to enable us to have a college degree, so that we can earn a livelihood. They love us.”
目前，你所接受的‘教育’是适应这个社会； 你的能力被开发，以使你能够在这种模式中谋生。 你的父母们、你的教育工作者们、你的政府， 都关心你的效率和财务安全，不是吗？ “我不了解政府，先生，” 第四个， “但是我们的父母花掉了他们辛苦赚来的钱， 让我们拥有大学学位，这样我们就可以谋生。 他们爱我们。”
Do they? Let’s see. The government wants you to be efficient bureaucrats to run the State, good industrial workers to maintain the economy, and capable soldiers to kill ‘the enemy; isn’t that so? “I suppose the government does. But our parents are more kind; they think of our welfare and want us to be good citizens.”
他们是吗？让我们来看看。 政府希望你们成为高效的官员以管理国家， 成为优秀的产业工人以维持经济， 成为有能力的士兵以杀死‘敌人’；难道不是这样吗？ “我想政府是这样做的。但是我们的父母更善良； 他们考虑我们的福利，希望我们成为好公民。”
Yes, they want you to be ‘good citizens’, which means being respectably ambitious, everlastingly acquisitive, and indulging in that socially accepted ruthlessness which is called competition, so that you and they may be secure. This is what constitutes being a so-called good citizen; but is it good, or something very evil? You say that your parents love you; but is it so? I am not being cynical. Love is an extraordinary thing; without it, life is barren. You may have many possessions and sit in the seat of power, but without the beauty and greatness of love, life soon becomes misery and confusion. Love implies – doesn’t it? – that those who are loved be left wholly free to grow in their fullness, to be something greater than mere social machines. Love does not compel either openly or through the subtle threat of duties and responsibilities. Where there’s any form of compulsion or exertion of authority, there’s no love.
是的，他们希望你成为‘好公民’， 也就意味着要有受人尊敬的雄心壮志，永远的贪婪， 沉迷于社会所接受的残忍 —— 被称之为‘竞争’， 这样你和他们就可能安全。 这就是构成所谓的好公民的要素。 但它是好的，还是非常邪恶的东西？ 你说你的父母爱你；但事实是那样吗？ 我不是在发疯。 爱是一个非同寻常的东西；没有它，生活就是贫瘠。 你可能拥有许多财产，坐在权力的座位上， 但没有爱的美丽和伟大，生活很快就会变得悲惨和困惑。 爱意味着 —— 不是吗？ —— 那些被爱的人完全自由地成长， 成为比单纯的社会机器更伟大的东西。 爱不会以公开地，或通过义务和责任的微妙的威胁手段来强迫。 哪里有任何形式的强迫或对权威的行使，哪里就没有爱。
“I don’t think this is quite the kind of love my friend was talking about,” said the third one. “Our parents love us, but not in that way. I know a boy who wants to be an artist, but his father wants him to be a business man, and he threatens to cut him off if he doesn’t do his duty.”
“我不认为这是我的朋友所说的那种爱，” 第三个说。“我们的父母爱我们，但不是以那样的方式。 我认识一个想成为艺术家的男孩，但他的父亲希望他成为一名商人， 他威胁说，如果他不完成自己的学业，就把他砍掉。”
What parents call duty is not love, it’s a form of compulsion; and society will support the parents, for what they are doing is very respectable. The parents are anxious for the boy to find a secure job and earn some money; but with such an enormous population, there are a thousand candidates for every job, and the parents think the boy can never earn a livelihood through painting; so they try to force him to get over what they regard as his foolish whim. They consider it a necessity for him to conform to society, to be respectable and secure. This is called love. But is it love? Or is it fear, covered over by the word ‘love’?
父母所说的‘学业’，不是爱，而是一种强迫的形式； 社会会支持父母，因为他们正在做的事情是非常受人尊敬的。 父母急于让男孩找到一份稳定的工作，赚点钱； 但人口如此庞大，每一份工作都有一千名候选人， 父母认为男孩永远无法通过绘画谋生； 所以他们试图强迫他，去克服他们认为的他愚蠢的心血来潮。 他们认为，他必须顺应社会，成为受人尊敬和安全的人。 这就是所谓的爱。 但这是爱吗？还是被‘爱’这个词所掩盖的恐惧？
“When you put it that way, I don’t know what to say,” replied the third one.
“当你这样说的时候，我不知道该说什么，” 第三个回答。
Is there any other way of putting it? What has just been said may be unpleasant, but it is a fact. The so-called education that you have now obviously does not help you to meet this vast complex of life; you come to it unprepared, and are swallowed up in it. “But who is there to educate us to understand life? We have no such teachers, sir.”
还有其他的表述方式吗？ 刚才说的话可能令人不高兴，但它是事实。 你现在拥有的所谓的教育 显然不能帮助你应对这个巨大的、复杂的生活； 你毫无准备地进来，并被它吞噬。 “但是谁来教育我们理解生活呢？我们没有那样的老师们，先生。”
The educator has to be educated also. The older people say that you, the coming generation, must create a different world, but they don’t mean it at all. On the contrary, with great thought and care they set about ‘educating’ you to conform to the old pattern with some modification. Though they may talk very differently, teachers and parents, supported by the government and society in general see to it that you are trained to conform to tradition, to accept ambition and envy as the natural way of life. They are not at all concerned with a new way of life, and that is why the educator himself is not being rightly educated. The older generation has brought about this world of war, this world of antagonism and division between man and man; and the newer generation is following sedulously in its footsteps.
教育者也必须接受教育。 老年人说，你们作为下一代，必须创造一个不同的世界， 但他们根本不是这个意思。 相反，经过深思和细心地考虑， 他们下手‘教育’你，通过某些调整去适应旧模式。 虽然他们的说法可能非常的不同， 但在政府和整个社会的支持下，老师们和家长们确保你被训练 去顺从传统，并接受野心和嫉妒是自然的生活方式。 他们根本不关心一种新的生活方式， 那就是为什么教育者自己没有受到正确的教育。 上一代的人带来了这个战争的世界， 这个人与人之间对抗和分裂的世界； 新一代的人正在坚定地追随它的脚步。
“But we want to be rightly educated, sir. What shall we do?”
“但我们希望得到正确的教育，先生。我们该怎么办？”
First of all, see very clearly one simple fact: that neither the government, nor your present teachers, nor your parents, care to educate you rightly; if they did, the world would be entirely different, and there would be no wars. So if you want to be rightly educated, you have to set about it yourself; and when you are grown up, you will then see to it that your own children are rightly educated.
首先，要非常清楚一个简单的事实： 政府、你现在的老师们、你的父母，都不关心对你进行正确的教育。 如果他们这样做，世界将完全地不同，就不会有战争。 因此，如果你想接受正确的教育，你必须自己动手； 当你长大后， 你将确保你自己的孩子们受到正确的教育。
“But how can we rightly educate ourselves? We need someone to teach us.”
“但是，我们怎样才能正确地教育自己呢？我们需要有人来教我们。”
You have teachers to instruct you in mathematics, in literature, and so on; but education is something deeper and wider than the mere gathering of information. Education is the cultivation of the mind so that action is not self-centred; it is learning throughout life to break down the walls which the mind builds in order to be secure, and from which arises fear with all its complexities. To be rightly educated, you have to study hard and not be lazy. Be good at games, not to beat another, but to amuse yourself. Eat the right food, and keep physically fit. Let the mind be alert and capable of dealing with the problems of life, not as a Hindu, a Communist, or a Christian, but as a human being. To be rightly educated, you have to understand yourself; you have to keep on learning about yourself. When you stop learning, life becomes ugly and sorrowful. Without goodness and love, you are not rightly educated.
你有老师们教你数学、文学等等； 但教育是比仅仅收集信息更深刻、更广泛的东西。 教育是头脑的培养，以使行动不以自我为中心； 在生活中学习打破碉堡 —— 那座头脑为了安全而建造的碉堡，里面产生出恐惧及其所有的复杂性。 要接受正确的教育，你必须努力学习，而不是懒惰。 擅长游戏，不是为了打败别人，而是为了自己的乐趣。 吃正确的食物，保持身体健康。 让头脑保持警醒，能处理生活中的问题， 不要当印度教徒、共产主义者或基督徒，而是当一个人类。 要接受正确的教育，你必须理解自己； 你必须不断学习你自己。 当你停止学习时，生活就会变得丑陋和忧郁。 没有善良和爱，你就没有正确地受到教育。