对生活的评注 3-29

THE CLOUDS WERE against the hills, hiding them and the mountains beyond. It had been raining all day, a soft drizzle which didn’t wash away the earth, and there was in the air the pleasant smell of the jasmine and the rose. The grain was ripening in the fields; among the rocks, where the goats fed, were low bushes, with here and there a gnarled old tree. There was a spring high up on the hillside that was always flowing, summer and winter, and the water made a pleasant sound as it ran down the hill, past a grove of trees, and disappeared among the open fields beyond the village. A small bridge of cut stone was being built over the stream by the villagers, under the supervision of a local engineer. He was a friendly old man, and they worked in a leisurely manner when he was about. But when he was not there, only one or two carried on; the rest of them, putting down their tools and their baskets, sat around and talked.

云层抵挡着山丘，把它们和远处的山都藏了起来。一整天都在下雨，一场软绵绵的毛毛雨，并没有冲走泥土，空气中弥漫着茉莉花和玫瑰的宜人香味。谷物在田间成熟；在岩石之间，山羊在低矮的灌木丛觅食，随处可见粗糙的老树。山坡上有一眼泉水，总是在流淌，无论夏冬，泉水欢快地流淌到山下，经过一片树林，消失于村外的开阔田野。村民们在溪流上建造了一座小石桥，有一位当地工程师在监管。他是一个友善的老人，当他在场的时候，他们以悠闲的方式工作。但是当他不在那里时，只有一两个人继续干活。其余的人放下工具和篮子，围坐在一起聊天。

Along the path by the stream came a villager with a dozen donkeys. They were returning from the nearby town with empty sacks. These donkeys had thin, graceful legs, and they were trotting along quite fast, pausing now and then to nibble the green grass on each side of the path. They were going home, and had not to be driven. All along the path there were little plots of cultivated land, and a gentle breeze wag stirring among the young corn. In a small house, a woman with a clear voice was singing; it brought tears to your eyes, not from some nostalgic remembrance, but from the sheer beauty of the sound. You sat under a tree, and the earth and the heavens entered your being. Beyond the song and the red earth was the silence, the total silence, in which all life is in movement. There were now fireflies among the trees and bushes, and in the gathering darkness they were bright and clear; the amount of light they gave was surprising. On a dark rock, the soft, flashing light of a single firefly held the light of the world.

沿着溪边的小路走来一个村民，带着十几头驴。它们带着空麻袋从附近的城镇回来。这些驴子有细而优美的腿，它们小跑得相当快，不时停下来啃咬小路两边的绿草。它们在回家的路上，不用人驱使。沿途有一小片耕地，一阵微风在年轻的玉米丛中搅动。在一栋小房子里，一个嗓音清脆的女人在唱歌；它给你的眼睛带来了泪水，那不是来自一些怀旧的记忆，而是来自声音纯净的美丽。你坐在一棵树下，大地和天空进入了你的生命。在歌声和红土之外，是寂静，那完全的寂静中，所有的生命都在运动。现在，在树林和灌木丛中，都有萤火虫，在聚集的黑暗中，它们明亮而清晰；它们提供的光量令人惊讶。在一块黑暗的岩石上，那只萤火虫柔和的、闪烁的光占据着这个世界的光。

He was young and very earnest, with clear, sharp eyes. Although in his thirties, he was not yet married; but sex and marriage were not a serious problem, he added. A well-built man, he had vigour in his gestures and in his walk. He was not given to much reading, but he had read a certain number of serious books, and had thought about things. Employed in some governmental office, he said his pay was good enough. He liked outdoor games, especially tennis, at which he was evidently quite good. He didn’t care for cinemas, and had but few friends. It was his practice, he explained, to meditate morning and evening for about an hour; and after hearing the previous evening’s talk, he had decided to come along to discuss the meaning and significance of meditation. As a boy, he often used to go with his father into a small room to meditate; he could bring himself to stay there for only ten minutes or so, and his father didn’t seem to mind. That room had a single picture on the wall, and no member of the family went into it except for the purpose of meditation. While his father had neither encouraged nor discouraged him in the matter, and had never told him how to meditate, or what it was all about, somehow, ever since he was a boy, he had liked to meditate. While he was in college, it had been difficult for him to keep regular hours; but later, once he got a job, he had meditated for an hour every morning and every evening, and now he wouldn’t miss those two hours of meditation for anything in the world.

他年轻，非常认真，眼睛清明锐利。虽然他三十多岁，但还没有结婚。但他补充说，性和婚姻并不是一个严重的问题。他是一个身材健壮的人，他的手势和走路都很有活力。他没有读太多的书，但他读过一定数量的严肃的书籍，并思考过一些事情。他受雇于一些政府部门，他说他的工资足够高。他喜欢户外运动，尤其是网球，他显然很擅长。他不关心电影院，朋友也很少。他解释说，这是他的练习，早晚冥想大约一个小时。在听了前一天晚上的讲话后，他决定过来讨论冥想的意义和重要性。小时候，他经常和父亲一起去一个小房间冥想；他只能使自己在那里呆上十分钟左右，而他的父亲似乎并不介意。那个房间的墙上有一幅画，除非到那里去冥想，否则没有一个家庭成员会进去。虽然他的父亲在这件事上既不鼓励也不劝阻他，也从未告诉他如何冥想，或者这到底是怎么回事，但不知何故，从他还是个小孩子的时候起，他就喜欢冥想。当他在大学时，他很难保持常规的时间。但后来，一旦他找到了工作，每天早上和晚上，他都冥想一个小时，现在他不会因为世上的任何事情，而错过那两个小时的冥想。

“I have come, sir, not to argue, or to defend anything, but to learn. Although I have read about the various types of meditation for different temperaments, and have evolved a way of controlling my thoughts I am not foolish enough to imagine that what I am doing is really meditation. However, if I am not mistaken, most authorities on meditation do advocate control of thought; that seems to be the essence of it. I have also practised a little yoga as a means of quieting the mind: special breathing exercises, repeating certain words and chants, and so on. All this is merely by way of introducing myself, and it may not be important. The point is, I am really interested in practising meditation, it has become vital to me, and I want to know more about it.”

“先生，我来这里不是为了争辩，也不是为了捍卫什么，而是为了学习。虽然我已经阅读了关于不同风格的各种类型的冥想，并且已经发展出一种控制我思想的方式，但我并没有愚蠢到想象我所做的真的是冥想。然而，如果我没有记错的话，大多数冥想权威确实主张控制思想；那似乎是它的本质。我还练习了一点瑜伽，作为使头脑安静下来的一种手段：特殊的呼吸练习，重复某些单词和圣歌，等等。所说的这一切，只是一个自我介绍，它可能并不重要。重点是，我对练习冥想真的很感兴趣，它对我来说已经变得至关重要，我想更多地了解它。”

Meditation has significance only when there’s an understanding of the meditator. In practising what you call meditation, the meditator is apart from the meditation, isn’t he? Why is there this difference, this gap between them? Is it inevitable, or must the gap be bridged? Without really understanding the truth or the falseness of this apparent division, the results of so-called meditation are similar to those which can be brought about by any tranquillizer that is taken to quiet the mind. If one’s purpose is to bring thought under domination, then any system or drug that produces the desired effect will do.

只有理解冥想者，冥想才有意义。在练习你所谓的冥想时，冥想者是与冥想分开的，不是吗？在它们之间，为什么会有这种差异、这种缝隙？这是必然的，还是必须弥合这种缝隙？没有真实地理解这种明显的划分的真伪，所谓的冥想的结果类似于任何镇静剂可以带来的结果，这些镇静剂被用来使头脑安静。如果一个人的意图是将思想置于支配之下，那么任何能产生预期效果的系统或药物都可以做到。

“But you wipe away at one stroke all the yogic exercises, the traditional systems of meditation that have been practised and advocated through the centuries by the many saints and ascetics. How can they all be wrong?”

“可是你一下子扫除了所有的瑜伽练习，这是许多圣徒和苦行僧几个世纪以来一直练习和倡导的传统冥想系统。它们怎么可能都错了呢？”

Why shouldn’t they all be wrong? Why this gullibility? Is not a tempered scepticism helpful in understanding this whole problem of meditation? You accept because you are eager for results, for success; you want to ‘arrive’. To understand what meditation is, there must be questioning, inquiry; and mere acceptance destroys inquiry. You have to see for yourself the false as the false, and the truth in the false and the truth as the truth; for none can instruct you concerning it. Meditation is the way of life, it is part of daily existence, and the fullness and beauty of life can only be understood through meditation. Without understanding the whole complexity of life, and the everyday reactions from moment to moment, meditation becomes a process of self-hypnosis. Meditation of the heart is the understanding of daily problems. You can’t go very far if you don’t begin very near.

为什么他们不应该都错了？为什么会有这种轻信？一种温和的怀疑，难道无助于理解冥想的整个问题吗？你接受是因为你渴望结果，渴望成功；你想要‘到达’。要理解什么是冥想，必须质疑、探究；仅仅接受就会破坏探究。你必须亲眼看见：伪即是伪，在伪中的真，真即是真。因为没有人能指导你关心它。冥想是生活方式，是日常生活的一部分，生活的丰盈和美丽只能通过冥想来理解。如果不理解生活的全部复杂性，以及每天每时每刻的反应，冥想就会变成一种自我催眠。心灵的冥想，即是理解日常生活的问题。如果你不从很近的地方开始，你就不能走得很远。

“I can understand that. One cannot climb the mountain without first going through the valley. I have endeavoured in my daily life to remove the obvious barriers, like greed, envy, and so on, and somewhat to my own surprise I have managed to put aside the things of the world. I quite see and appreciate that a right foundation must be laid, otherwise no building can stand. But meditation isn’t merely a matter of taming the burning desires and passions. The passions must be subjugated, brought under control; but surely, sir, meditation is something more than this, isn’t it? I am not quoting any authority, but I do feel that meditation is something far greater than merely laying the right foundation.”

“我能理解那点。如果不先穿过山谷，就无法爬山。我在日常生活中努力消除明显的障碍，如贪婪，嫉妒等等，有些令我自己惊讶的是，我设法把世界的事情放在一边。我非常明白并理解必须奠定正确的基础，否则任何建筑物都无法建立。但冥想不仅仅是驯服燃烧的欲望和激情。激情必须被征服，得到控制；但可以肯定的是，先生，冥想不止于此，不是吗？我没有引用任何权威，但我确实觉得冥想远比仅仅奠定正确的基础更伟大。”

That may be; but at the very beginning is the totality. It is not that one must first lay the right foundation, and then build, or first be free from envy, and then ‘arrive’. In the very beginning is the ending. There’s no distance to be covered, no climbing, no point of arrival. Meditation itself is timeless, it’s not a way of arriving at a timeless state. It is, without a beginning and without an ending. But these are mere words, and they will remain as such as long as you don’t inquire into and understand for yourself the truth and the falseness of the meditator.

那可能是；但在一开始，即是整体。它并不是说一个人必须首先打下正确的基础，然后建立，或者首先摆脱嫉妒，然后‘到达’。开始的时候，就是结束的时候。没有要去覆盖的距离，没有攀登，没有要到达的点。冥想本身是非时间的，它不是一条到达‘非时间状态’的路。它是，没有一个起点，也没有一个终点。但这些只是言词，只要你不去亲自探究和理解冥想者的真伪，它们就总会是言词。

“Why is that so important?”

“为什么那有如此重要？”

The meditator is the censor, the watcher, the maker of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ effort. He’s the centre, and from there he weaves the net of thought; but thought itself has made him; thought has brought about this gap between the thinker and the thought. Unless this division ceases, so-called meditation only strengthens the centre, the experiencer who thinks of himself as apart from the experience. The experiencer always craving more experience; each experience strengthens the accumulation of past experiences, which in turn dictates, shapes the present experience. Thus the mind is ever conditioning itself. So experience and knowledge are not the liberating factors that they are supposed to be.

冥想者是审查者，观察者，‘正确’和‘错误’的努力的制定者。他是这个中心，从这个点开始，他编织出思想之网；他却是思想的产物；思想带来了思想者和思想之间的缝隙。除非这种划分消退，所谓的冥想只会强化这个中心，这个认为自己与体验不同的体验者。体验者总是渴望更多的体验；每一次的体验都加强了过去积累下的众多体验，反过来，过去的体验又塑造了现在的体验。那样，头脑总是在限制自己。因此，体验和知识并不是我们以为的解放因素。

“I’m afraid I don’t understand all this,” he said, rather bewildered.

“恐怕我不明白这一切，” 他相当疑惑地说。

The mind is free only when it is no longer conditioned by its own experiences, by knowledge, by vanity, envy; and meditation is the freeing of the mind from all these things, from all self-centred activities and influences. “I realize that the mind must be free from all self-centred activities, but I do not quite follow what you mean by influences.”

当头脑不再受制于自己的体验、知识、虚荣、嫉妒时，只有那样，它才是自由的。冥想是头脑的解放，从这一切，从所有以自我为中心的活动和影响中解放出来。 “我意识到头脑必须摆脱所有以自我为中心的活动，但我并不完全明白你所说的影响。”

Your mind is the result of influence, isn’t it? From childhood your mind is influenced by the food you eat, by the climate you live in, by your parents, by the books you read, by the cultural environment in which you are educated, and so on. You are taught what to believe and what not to believe; your mind is a result of time, which is memory, knowledge. All experiencing is a process of interpreting in terms of the past, of the known, and so there’s no freedom from the known; there is only a modified continuity of what has been. The mind is free only when this continuity comes to an end.

你的头脑是影响的产物，不是吗？从孩提时代起，你的头脑就受到你吃的食物、你居住的环境、你的父母、你读过的书、你接受教育的文化环境，等等因素的影响。你被教导什么应该相信，什么不该相信；你的头脑是时间的结果，也就是是记忆、知识的产物。所有的体验都是用过去、用已知去解释的一种过程，所以，不存在从已知中解放出来的自由；只存在对发生过的事物的调整的延续。只有当这种延续物结束时，头脑才会自由。

“But how does one know that one’s mind is free?”

“但是，一个人怎么知道自己的头脑是自由的呢？”

This very desire to be certain, to be secure, is the beginning of bondage. It’s only when the mind is not caught in the net of certainty, and is not seeking certainty, that it is in a state of discovery. “The mind does want to be certain about everything, and I see now how this desire can be a hindrance.”

这种对确认和安全的欲望，是束缚的开始。只有当头脑没有陷入确定性的网罟中，也不再寻求确定性时，它才处于一种发现的状态。 “头脑确实想确认一切事物，我现在明白这种欲望是如何成为障碍的。”

What is important is to die to everything that one has accumulated, for this accumulation is the self, the ego, the ‘me’. Without the ending of this accumulation there is the continuity of the desire to be certain, as there is the continuation of the past.

重要的是去死，毁灭一个人所积攒的一切，因为这种积累就是我、自我、‘我’。不结束这种积累，就有这种延续物，这种想确认的欲望，如同过去还在眼前。

“Meditation, I am beginning to see, is not simple. Just to control thought is comparatively easy, and to worship an image, or to repeat certain words and chants, is merely to put the mind to sleep; but real meditation seems to be much more complex and arduous than I ever imagined.”

“冥想，我开始看到，并不简单。仅仅控制思想是相对容易的，而崇拜一个偶象，或重复某些话语和圣歌，只是为了让头脑入睡；但真正的冥想似乎比我想象的要复杂和艰巨得多。”

It is really not complex, though it may be arduous. You see, we don’t start with the actual, with the fact, with what we are thinking, doing, desiring; we start with assumptions or with ideals, which are not actualities, and so we are led astray. To start with facts, and not with assumptions, we need close attention; and every form of thinking not originating from the actual is a distraction. That’s why it is so important to understand what is actually taking place both within and around one.

它真的不复杂，尽管它可能很艰巨。你看，我们不是从实际出发，从事实开始，从我们的念想、行为、欲望开始；我们从假设或观念开始，而这些都不是事实，所以我们误入歧途。从事实开始，而不是从假设开始，我们需要近距离的关注；每一种不是源于真实的思考都是一种分心。那就是为什么去理解一个人的内在和周围正在发生的事情如此重要的原因。

“Are not visions actualities?”

“异象不是真实吗？”

Are they? Let’s find out. If you are a Christian, your visions follow a certain pattern; if you are a Hindu, a Buddhist, or a Moslem, they follow a different pattern. You see Christ or Krishna, according to your conditioning; your education, the culture in which you have been brought up, determines your visions. Which is the actuality: the vision, or the mind which has been shaped in a certain mould? The vision is the projection of the particular tradition which happens to form the background of the mind. This conditioning, not the vision which it projects, is the actuality, the fact. To understand the fact is simple; but it is made difficult by our likes and dislikes, by of the fact, by the opinions or judgments we have about the fact. To be free of these various forms of evaluation is to understand the actual, the what is.

它们是吗？让我们来一探究竟。如果你是基督徒，你的异象遵循某种模式；如果你是印度教徒、佛教徒或穆斯林，他们遵循不同的模式。你看到基督或克里须那，根据你自身的条件反射；你的教育、你成长的文化，决定了你的异象。哪一个是真实：异象，还是被塑造成某种模型的头脑？异象是特定传统的投影，这个传统恰好形成了头脑的背景。这种条件反射，而不是它所投射的异象，是真实，是事实。理解这个事实是简单的；但是，由于我们的喜好和讨厌，由于事实，由于我们对事实的观念或判断，使它变得困难。摆脱这些不同形式的评估，就是理解真实、现状。

“You are saying that we never look at a fact directly, but always through our prejudices and memories, through our traditions and our experiences based upon these traditions. To use your word, we are never aware of ourselves as we actually are. Again, I see that you are right, sir. The fact is the one thing that matters.”

“你是说，我们从不直接观看事实，而是总是通过我们的偏见和记忆，通过我们的传统和基于这些传统的体验。用你的话说，我们从来没有意识到我们自身实际的样子。我又看见，你是对的，先生。事实是最重要的。”

Let us look at the whole problem differently. What is attention? When are you attentive? And do you ever really pay attention to anything? “I pay attention when I am interested in something.”

让我们以不同的方式来看整个问题。什么是关注？你什么时候在关注？你真的关注过任何事物吗？ “当我对某个东西感兴趣时，我会去注意。”

Is interest attention? When you are interested in something, what’s actually happening to the mind? You are evidently interested in watching those cattle go by; what is this interest? “I am attracted by their movement, their colour, their form, against the green background.”

兴趣是关注吗？当你对某个东西感兴趣时，头脑到底发生了什么？很明显，你对那些刚路过的牛感兴趣；这种兴趣是什么？ “我被他们的动作、他们的颜色、他们的形状所吸引，在绿色的背景中。”

Is there attention in this interest? “I think there is.”

在这种兴趣中，是否有关注？“我认为是有的。”

A child is absorbed in a toy. Would you call that attention?

一个孩子被一个玩具吸引。你会说那是关注吗？

“难道它不是吗？”

The toy absorbs the interest of the child, it takes over his mind, and he’s quiet, no longer restless; but take away the toy, and he again becomes restless, he cries, and so on. Toys become important because they keep him quiet. It is the same with grownups. Take away their toys – activity, belief, ambition, the desire for power, the worshipping of gods or of the state, the championing of a cause – and they too become restless, lost, confused; so the toys of the grownups also become important. Is there attention when the toy absorbs the mind? The toy is a distraction, is it not? The toy becomes all-important, and not the mind which is taken over by the toy. To understand what attention is, we must be concerned with the mind, not with the toys of the mind.

玩具吸引了孩子的兴趣，它占据了他的头脑，他很安静，不再坐立不安；但拿走玩具，他又变得焦躁不安，他哭喊，等等。玩具变得重要，因为它们让他安静下来。成年人也是如此。拿走他们的玩具 —— 活动、信仰、野心、对权力的渴望、对神灵或国家的崇拜、对理由的捍卫 —— 他们也变得焦躁不安、迷失、困惑；因此，成年人的玩具也变得很重要。当玩具吸引头脑时，存在关注吗？玩具是一种消遣，它不是吗？玩具变得至关重要，而不是被玩具接管的头脑。要理解什么是关注，我们必须关心头脑，而不是头脑的玩具。

“Our toys, as you call them, hold the mind’s interest.”

“我们的玩具，正如你所说的那样，抓住了头脑的兴趣。”

The toy which holds the mind’s interest may be the Master, a picture, or any other image made by the hand or by the mind; and this holding of the mind’s interest by a toy is called concentration. Is such concentration attention? When you are concentrated in this manner and the mind is absorbed in a toy, is there attention? Is not such concentration a narrowing down of the mind? And is this attention?

吸引头脑兴趣的玩具可能是大师、图像，或由手或头脑制作的任何其他形象；这种通过玩具来吸引头脑的兴趣，被称为集中注意力。集中注意力是关注吗？当你以这种方式集中注意力，当头脑被一个玩具所吸引时，有没有关注？这种注意力难道不是对头脑的紧缩吗？这是关注吗？

“As I have practised concentration, it is a struggle to keep the mind fixed upon a particular point to the exclusion of all other thoughts, all distractions.”

“正如我练习集中注意力一样，将头脑固定在某个特定点上，排除所有其它思想、所有干扰、所有分心。”

Is there attention when there is resistance against distractions? Surely, distractions arise only when the mind has lost interest in the toy; and then there’s a conflict, isn’t there? “Certainly, there’s a conflict to overcome the distractions.”

在抗拒分心的时候，有关注吗？当然，只有当头脑对玩具失去兴趣时，才会出现分心。然后就有了冲突，不是吗？ “当然，产生了克服分心的冲突。”

Can you pay attention when there’s a conflict going on in the mind?

当头脑中发生冲突时，你能去关注吗？

“I am beginning to see what you are driving at, sir. Please proceed.”

“我开始看到你指出的方向，先生。请继续。”

When the toy absorbs the mind, there’s no attention; neither is there attention when the mind is struggling to concentrate by excluding distractions. As long as there’s an object of attention, is there attention? “Aren’t you saying the same thing, only using the word ‘object’ instead of ‘toy’?”

当玩具吸引头脑时，就不存在关注；当头脑通过排除杂念、努力集中注意力时，还是不存在关注。只要有一个关注的对象，有关注吗？ “你难道不是在说同样的东西吗，只是用'对象'这个词替换了'玩具'？”

The object, or toy, may be external; but there are also inward toys, are there not?

对象或玩具，可能是外在的；但也有内在的玩具，不是吗？

“Yes, sir, you have enumerated some of them. I am aware of this.”

“是的，先生，你已经列举了其中的一些。我意识到了这一点。”

A more complex toy is motive. Is there attention when there’s a motive to be attentive? “What do you mean by a motive?”

更复杂的玩具是动机。当有一个去关注的动机时，还有关注吗？ “你说的动机是什么意思？”

A compulsion to action; an urge towards self-improvement, based on fear, greed, ambition; a cause that drives you to seek; suffering that makes you want to escape, and so on. Is there attention when some hidden motive is in operation?

对动作的一个强迫；基于恐惧、贪婪、野心而触发的自我改进的一个冲动；一个驱使你去追求的理由；感受到痛苦时，你想逃离的想法，等等。当某些隐藏的动机在操控时，是否存在关注？

“When I am compelled to be attentive by pain or pleasure, by fear or the hope of reward, then there’s no attention. Yes, I see what you mean. This is very clear, sir, and I am following you.”

“当我被痛苦或快乐，恐惧或奖励的希望所驱使而注意时，就没有了关注。是的，我明白你的意思。这很清楚，先生，我跟着你。”

So there’s no attention when we approach anything in that manner. And does not the word, the name, interfere with attention? For example, do we ever look at the moon without verbalization, or does the word ‘moon’ always interfere with our looking? Do we ever listen to anything with attention, or do our thoughts, our interpretations, and so on, interfere with our listening? Do we ever really pay attention to anything? Surely attention has no motive, no object, no toy; no struggle, no verbalization. This is true attention, is it not? Where there is attention, reality is.

因此，当我们以这种方式处理任何事情时，就没有关注。难道这个词、这个名称，不会干扰关注吗？例如，我们是否曾经在没有言语的情况下看月亮，还是‘月亮’这个词总是在干扰我们的观看？我们可曾有关注的听？或者我们的思想、我们的解释、等等，干扰了我们的听？我们真的关注过任何事物吗？当然，关注没有动机，没有对象，没有玩具；没有挣扎，没有言语。这是真正的关注，不是吗？哪里有关注，真实即是。