对生活的评注 3-3

IT WAS A RATHER nice garden, with open, green lawns and flowering bushes, completely enclosed by wide-spreading trees. There was a road running along one side of it, and one often overheard loud talk, especially in the evenings, when people were making their way home. Otherwise it was very quiet in the garden. The grass was watered morning and evening, and at both times there were a great many birds running up and down the lawn in search of worms. They were so eager in their search, that they would come quite close without any fear when one remained seated under a tree. Two birds, green and gold, with square tails and a long, delicate feather sticking out, came regularly to perch among the rose-bushes. They were exactly the same colour as the tender leaves and it was almost impossible to see them. They had flat heads and long, narrow eyes, with dark beaks. They would swoop in a curve close to the ground, catch an insect, and return to the swaying branch of a rosebush. It was a most lovely sight, full of freedom and beauty. One couldn’t get near them, they were too shy; but if one sat under the tree without moving too much, one would see them disporting themselves, with the sun on their transparent golden wings.

这是一个很漂亮的花园，有开阔的绿色草坪和盛开的灌木丛，完全被广阔的树林所覆盖。有一条路沿着它的一侧延伸，人经常听到大声的谈话，特别是在晚上，当人们回家的时候。否则，花园非常安静。草坪在早上和傍晚浇水，这两段时期，都有很多鸟儿在草坪上跑来跑去，寻找虫子。他们在寻找时非常热切，以至于当一个人坐在树下时，他们会毫不畏惧地走近。两只鸟，绿色和金色，有方形的尾巴和一根长而细腻的羽毛伸出来，经常栖息在玫瑰花丛中。它们的色泽与嫩叶的色彩完全相同，几乎无法看见它们。它们有扁平的头和窄长的眼睛、黑色的喙。它们会以曲线俯冲的飞行轨迹靠近地面，捕捉昆虫，然后回到玫瑰丛中摇曳的枝头上。这是一个最可爱的景象，充满了自由和美丽。一个人无法靠近它们，它们太害羞了；但是，如果一个人坐在树下没有太多的动作，你会看见它们的戏耍，而阳光落在它们透明的金色翅膀上。

Often a big mongoose would emerge from the thick bushes, its red nose high in the air and its sharp eyes watching every movement around it. The first day it seemed very disturbed to see a person sitting under the tree, but it soon got used to the human presence. It would cross the whole length of the garden, unhurriedly, its long tail flat on the ground. Sometimes it would go along the edge of the lawn, close to the bushes, and then it would be much more alert, its nose vibrant and twitching. Once the whole family came out the big mongoose leading, followed by his smaller wife, and behind her, two little ones, all in a line. The babies stopped once or twice to play; but when the mother, feeling that they weren’t immediately behind her, turned her head sharply, they raced forward and fell in line again.

通常，一只大猫鼬会从茂密的灌木丛中出现，它的红鼻子高悬在空中，敏锐的眼睛看着周围每一个动作。第一天，看到一个人坐在树下似乎非常不安，但它很快就习惯了人类的存在。它会穿过花园的整个长度，不紧不慢地，它的长尾巴平放在地上。有时它会沿着草坪的边缘，靠近灌木丛，然后它会更加警觉，它的鼻子在振动和扭转。一旦全家人出来，大猫鼬就领头，紧随其后的是他娇小的妻子，在她身后，两个小宝宝，都排成一行。小宝宝们停下来戏耍了一两下；但当母亲，感到它们没有紧挨着她时，她急转过头，它们向前跑来，再次排成一行。

In the moonlight the garden became an enchanted place, the motionless, silent trees casting long, dark shadows across the lawn and among the still bushes. After a great deal of bustle and chatter, the birds had settled down for the night in the dark foliage. There was now hardly anyone on the road, but occasionally one would hear a song in the distance, or the notes of a flute being played by someone on his way to the village. Otherwise the garden was very quiet, full of soft whispers. Not a leaf stirred, and the trees gave shape to the hazy, silver sky.

在月光下，花园变成了一个迷人的地方，一动不动的沉默的树木在草坪和静止的灌木丛中，投下了长长的阴影。大量的喧嚣和喋喋不休之后，鸟儿们在黑乎乎的树叶中安顿下来过夜。现在，路上几乎没有人，但偶尔人会听到远处的一首歌，或者有人在去村子的路上吹笛子的音符。否则，花园非常安静，充满了柔和的耳语。没有一片叶子被搅动，树木烘托出朦胧的银灰色的天空。

Imagination has no place in meditation; it must be completely set aside, for the mind caught in imagination can only breed delusions. The mind must be clear, without movement, and in the light of that clarity the timeless is revealed.

想象在冥想中没有一席之地；它必须完全放在一边，因为陷入想象的头脑只会滋生虚妄。头脑必须是清明的，没有动静，在这种清晰的光芒下，那非时间的，被揭露。

He was a very old man with a white beard, and his lean body was scarcely covered by the saffron robe of a sannyasi. He was gentle in manner and speech, but his eyes were full of sorrow – the sorrow of vain search. At the age of fifteen he had left his family and renounced the world, and for many years he had wandered all over India visiting ashramas, studying, meditating, endlessly searching. He had lived for a time at the ashrama of the religious-political leader who had worked so strenuously for the freedom of India and had stayed at another in the south, where the chanting was pleasant. In the hall where a saint lived silently, he too, amongst many others, had remained silently searching. There were ashramas on the east coast and on the west coast where he had stayed, probing, questioning discussing. In the far north, among the snows and in the cold caves, he had also been; and he had meditated by the gurgling waters of the sacred river. Living among the ascetics, he had physically suffered, and he had made long pilgrimages to sacred temples. He was well versed in Sanskrit, and it had delighted him to chant as he walked from place to place.

他是一个有着白胡子老头，瘦削的身体刚好被藏红花色的僧袍遮盖。他举止和言语都很温柔，但他的眼睛里充满了悲伤 —— 徒劳地寻找的悲伤。十五岁时，他离开了家人，放弃了这个世界，多年来，他一直在印度各地游荡，拜访静修处、研究、冥想，无休止地寻找。他曾在宗教政治领袖的静修处生活过一段时间，这位宗教政治领袖为印度的自由付出了如此艰苦的努力，并住在南部的另一个地方，那里的诵经很愉快。在圣人默默生活的大厅里，他与很多其他人一样，也一直在默默寻找。在东海岸和西海岸的静修处，他都住过，他们在那里居住、探查、质疑性的讨论。在遥远的北方，在雪地之间，在寒冷的洞穴中，他也曾去过。他在圣河潺潺的流水旁冥想。他生活在苦行之中，身体上遭受了痛苦，他长途跋涉到神圣的寺庙。他精通梵文，当他从一个地方走到另一个地方时，他很高兴地吟唱。

“I have searched for God in every possible way from the age of fifteen, but I have not found Him, and now I am past seventy. I have come to you as I have gone to others, hoping to find God. I must find Him before I die – unless, indeed, He is just another of the many myths of man.”

“我从十五岁起就以各种可能的方式寻找上帝，但我没有找到他，现在我已经七十多岁了。我来到你面前，就像我来到别人那里一样，希望找到上帝。我必须在死前找到他 —— 除非他确实只是人类众多神话中的另一个。”

If one may ask, sir, do you think that the immeasurable can be found by searching for it? By following different paths, through discipline and self-torture, through sacrifice and dedicated service, will the seeker come upon the eternal? Surely, sir, whether the eternal exists or not is unimportant, and the truth of it may be uncovered later; but what is important is to understand why we seek, and what it is that we are seeking. Why do we seek?

如果人可以问的话，先生，你认为通过寻找，可以找到不可估量的东西吗？通过追随不同的道路，通过纪律和自我折磨，通过牺牲和奉献性的服侍，寻求者会碰见永恒吗？当然，先生，永恒是否存在并不重要，它的真相可能会在以后被发现。但重要的是理解我们为什么寻求，以及我们所寻求的东西是什么。我们为什么寻求？

“I seek because, without God, life has very little meaning. I seek Him out of sorrow and pain. I seek Him because I want peace. I seek Him because He is the permanent the changeless; because there is death, and He is deathless. He is order, beauty and goodness, and for this reason I seek Him.”

“我之所以寻求，是因为，没有上帝，生命就没有多少意义。我寻求他脱离悲伤和痛苦。我寻求他，因为我想要和平。我寻求他，因为他是永恒的、不变的。因为有死亡，而他是不死的。他是秩序、美丽和良善，因此我寻求他。”

That is, being in agony over the impermanent we hopefully pursue what we call the permanent. The motive of our search is to find comfort in the ideal of the permanent, and this ideal is born of impermanency, it has grown out of the pain of constant change. The ideal is unreal, whereas the pain is real; but we do not seem to understand the fact of pain, and so we cling to the ideal, to the hope of painlessness. Thus there is born in us the dual state of fact and ideal, with its endless conflict between what is and what should be. The motive of our search is to escape from impermanency, from sorrow, into what the mind thinks is the state of permanency, of everlasting bliss. But that very thought is impermanent, for it is born of sorrow. The opposite, however exalted, holds the seed of its own opposite. Our search, then, is merely the urge to escape from what is.

那就是说，对无常感到痛苦，我们希望追求我们称之为‘永恒’的东西。我们寻找的动机是在永恒的理想中找到安慰，而这个理想是从无常中诞生的，它在不断变化的痛苦中成长。理想是不真实的，而痛苦是真实的；但是我们似乎不理解痛苦的真实性，所以我们依附于理想，依附于没有痛苦的希望。因此，在我们里面诞生了事实和理想的双重状态，处于现状与‘应该是’之间的无休止的冲突之内。我们寻找的动机是逃避无常，逃离悲伤，逃进头脑所认为的永恒状态、永恒的幸福。但这种想法本身就是无常，因为它从悲伤中诞生。这个与之相对立的，无论有多么高尚，都蕴藏着自己对立面的种子。因此，我们的搜索只是逃避现状的冲动。

“Do you mean to say that we must cease to search?”

“你的意思是说我们必须停止搜索吗？”

If we give our undivided attention to the understanding of what is, then search, as we know it, may not be necessary at all. When the mind is free from sorrow, what need is there to search for happiness? “Can the mind ever be free from sorrow?”

如果我们拿出全部的关切，去理解现状，那么我们所知道的搜索可能根本是不必要的。当头脑从悲伤中解脱时，又何必去寻找快乐？ “头脑能从悲伤中解脱吗？”

To conclude that it can or that it cannot be free is to put an end to all inquiry and understanding. We must give our complete attention to the understanding of sorrow and we cannot do this if we are trying to escape from sorrow, or if our minds are occupied in seeking the cause of it. There must be total attention, and not oblique concern.

去断定它能或者不能解脱，就是结束一切调查和理解。要理解悲伤，我们必须给予完全的关注；如果我们试图逃离悲伤，或者如果我们的头脑忙于寻找悲伤的原因，我们就无法做到这一点。必须有完全的关注，而不是间接性的考虑。