对生活的评注 3-56

THE SEA WAS calm and the horizon clear. It would be an hour or two before the sun would come up behind the hills, and the waning moon set the waters dancing; it was so bright that the neighbourhood crows were up and cawing, which wakened the cocks. Presently the crows and the cocks became silent again; it was too early even for them. It was a strange silence. It was not the silence that comes after noise, or the brooding stillness before a storm. It was not a ‘before and after’ silence. Nothing was moving, nothing stirring among the bushes was the totality of silence, with its penetrating intensity. It was not the hem of silence, but the very being of it, and wiped out all thought, all action. The mind felt this measureless silence and itself became silent – or rather it moved into silence without the resistance of its own activity. Thought was not evaluating, measuring, accepting silence, but it was itself silence. Meditation was effortless. There was no meditator, no thought pursuing an end; therefore silence was meditation. This silence had its own movement, and it was penetrating into the depths, into every corner of the mind. Silence was the mind; the mind had not become silent. Silence had planted its seed in the very heart of the mind, and though the crows and the cocks were again heralding the dawn this silence would never end. The sun wag now coming up beyond the hills; long shadows lay across the earth, and the heart would follow them all day.

大海平静，地平线清晰。一两个小时后，太阳会在山后升起，皎白的月光在水上跳舞。它如此明亮，以至于邻近的乌鸦起床并咕咕叫，唤醒了公鸡。现在，乌鸦和公鸡又安静了下来。即使对他们来说，时间也太早了。它是一种奇怪的静。它不是噪音之后的静，也不是暴风雨前沉闷的静。它不是‘前与后’的静默。没有任何东西在动，灌木丛中，没有任何东西搅扰完全地静，带着穿透性的强烈。它不是静的边缘，而是静本身，它扫除了所有思想、所有行动。头脑感觉到这种无限的静，它自己变得安静了 —— 或者更确切地说，它进入静，没有来自于它所拥有的活动的抵抗。思想没有评估、衡量、接纳静，因为它本身即是静。冥想毫不努力。没有冥想者，没有追求终点的思想；因此，静即是冥想。静有它自己的行动，它穿透深处，进入头脑的每一个角落。静即是头脑；头脑并没有变成静。静在头脑的心中种下了它的种子，虽然乌鸦和公鸡再次预报着黎明的到来，但这种静永远不会结束。太阳现在从山外上摆；长长的影子倒映在大地，心灵会整天跟着他们。

The woman who lived next door was quite young, and she had three children. Her husband would return from his office in the late afternoon, and after games they would all smile over the wall. One day she came with one of her children, purely out of curiosity. She hadn’t much to say, nor was there much to say. She talked of many things – of clothes, of cars, of education and drinking, of parties and club life. There was a whisper among the hills, but it disappeared before you could get to it. There was something beyond the words, but she hadn’t time to listen. The child became restless and fidgety.

住在隔壁的那个女人很年轻，有三个孩子。她的丈夫会在下午晚些时候从他的办公室回来，游戏结束后，他们都会在墙那边微笑。有一天，她带着她的一个孩子来了，纯粹是出于好奇。她没必要说什么，也没什么可说。她谈到了很多事情 —— 衣服、汽车、教育和饮酒、派对和俱乐部生活。山间有一声低语，但它在你到达之前，它就消失了。除了言语之外，还有别的东西，但她没有时间去听。孩子变得焦躁、坐立不安。

“I wonder why you waste your time on such people?” he inquired as he came in. “I know her, a social butterfly, good at cocktail parties, with a certain amount of taste and money. I am surprised she came to see you at all. A sheer waste of your time, but perhaps she will get something out of it. You must know that type of woman: clothes and jewels, with primary interest in herself. I really came to talk about something else, of course, but seeing her here rather upset me. Sorry to have talked about her.”

“我想知道你为什么把时间浪费在这样的人身上？” 他进来时问道， “我认识她，一只社交蝴蝶，擅长鸡尾酒会，有一定的品味和金钱。我很惊讶她来看你。这纯粹是浪费你的时间，但也许她会从中得到一些东西。你必须知道那种类型的女人：衣服和珠宝，对自己最感兴趣。当然，我真地是来谈论别的事情，但看到她在这里让我很不高兴。很抱歉，我说了她。”

A youngish man with good manners and a cultured voice, he was precise, orderly and rather fussy. His father was well-known in the political field. He was married and had two children, and was earning enough to make ends meet. He could make more money easily, he said, but it wasn’t worth it; he would put his children through college, and after that they would have to look after themselves. He talked about his life, the vagaries of fortune, the ups and downs of his existence.

他是一个年轻的男人，举止得体，说话有教养，他精确、有序、相当地挑剔。他的父亲在政治领域很出名。他结了婚，有两个孩子，收入足以维持生计。他说，他可以很容易地赚更多的钱，但不值得去做。他会让他的孩子上大学，之后他们将不得不照顾自己。他谈到了自己的生活，变幻莫测的财富，他生平的起伏。

“Living in town has become a nightmare to me,” he went on. “The noise of a big city bothers me beyond all reason. The rumpus of the children in the house is bad enough, but the roar of a city, with its buses, its cars and tram-cars, the hammering that goes on in the construction of new buildings, the neighbours with their blaring radios – this whole hideous cacophony of noise is most destructive and shattering. I can’t seem to adjust myself to it. It’s twisting my mind, and even physically it tortures me. At night I stuff something in my ears, but even then I know the noise is there. I’m not quite a ‘case’ yet, but I shall become one if I don’t do something about it.”

“住在城里对我来说已经成为一场噩梦，” 他继续说道。 “大城市的噪音困扰着我。房间里，孩子们的喧嚣已经够糟糕了，但整个城市在咆哮，有公交车、汽车和有轨电车，在建的新建筑物，不时发出的锤击声，邻居们和他们刺耳的收音机 —— 这整个可怕的噪音，是最具有破坏性和粉碎性的。我似乎无法适应它。它扭曲了我的头脑，甚至在身体上折磨着我。晚上，我把东西塞进耳朵，但即使这样，我知道噪音就在那儿。我还不是一个'病案'，但如果我不对此做些什么，我就会成为一个病案。”

Why do you think noise is having such an effect on you? Are not noise and quietness related to each other? Is there noise without quietness? “All I know is that noise in general is driving me nearly crazy.”

为什么噪音对你有这样的影响？噪音和安静不是相互关联的吗？没有安静，会有噪音吗？ “我所知道的是，总的来说，噪音让我几乎发疯。”

Suppose you hear the persistent barking of a dog at night. What happens? You set in motion the mechanism of resistance, do you not? You are fighting the noise of the dog. Does resistance indicate sensitivity? “I have many such fights, not only with the noise of dogs, but with the noise of radios, the noise of children in the house, and so on. We live on resistance, don’t we?”

假设你在晚上听到一只狗持续的吼叫。会发生什么？你启动了抵抗机制，不是吗？你正在与狗的叫声作斗争。抵抗是否代表敏感？ “我有很多这样的斗争，不仅有狗的噪音，还有收音机的噪音，家里孩子的噪音，等等。我们靠抵抗生活，不是吗？”

Do you really hear the noise, or are you only aware of the disturbance it creates in you, and which you resist? “I don’t quite follow you. Noise disturbs me, and one naturally resists the cause of one’s disturbance. Is not this resistance natural? We resist almost everything that is painful or sorrowful. And at the same time that is painful or sorrowful.”

你是真地听到了噪音，还是你只意识到它在你身上造成的干扰，以及你所产生的抵抗？ “我不太理解你。噪音打扰我，一个人自然会抵制干扰自己的源头。这种抵抗不是自然的吗？我们几乎抗拒一切痛苦或悲伤的事情。与此同时，那也是痛苦或悲伤。”

And at the same time we set about cultivating the pleasurable, the beautiful; we don’t resist that, we want more of it. It’s only the unpleasant, the disturbing things that we resist.

与此同时，我们开始培养快乐、美丽；我们不抗拒那些，我们想要更多。只有那些令人不快乐的、扰乱的事情，我们才会抗拒。

“But as I sad, isn’t this very natural? All of us do it instinctively.”

“但正如我所伤心的，这不是很自然吗？我们所有人都本能地这样做。”

I am not saying it is abnormal; it is so, an everyday fact. But in resisting the unpleasant, the ugly, the disturbing, and accepting only what is pleasurable, do we not bring about constant conflict? And does not conflict make for dullness, insensitivity? This dual process of acceptance and opposition makes the mind self-centred in its feelings and activities, does it not?

我不是在说它是不正常的；它就那样，一个日常的事实。但是，在抵制不快乐、丑陋、扰乱，只接受令人快乐的，难道我们不会带来持续的冲突吗？冲突难道不会带来沉闷、不敏感吗？这种接受和反对的二元过程使头脑在它的感受和活动中，以自我为中心，不是吗？

“But what is one to do?”

“但是该怎么办呢？”

Let’s understand the problem, and perhaps such understanding will bring about its own action in which there is no resistance or conflict. Doesn’t conflict, inner and outer, make the mind self-centred and therefore insensitive? “I think I understand what you mean by self-centredness, but what do you mean by sensitivity?”

让我们理解这个问题，也许这种理解会带来它自身的行动，其中没有抵抗或冲突。不论是内在的或外在的，冲突难道不会使头脑以自我为中心，从而变得不敏感吗？ “我想我明白你所说的以自我为中心是什么意思，但你所说的敏感是什么意思？”

You are sensitive to beauty, are you not?

你对美敏感，不是吗？

“That’s one of the curses of my life. It’s almost painful for me to see something lovely, to look at a sunset over the sea, or the smile of a child, or a beautiful work of art. It brings tears to my eyes. On the other hand, I loathe dirt, noise, and untidiness. At times I can hardly bear to go out into the streets. The contrasts tear me apart inwardly, and please believe me, I am not exaggerating.”

“这是我一生的诅咒之一。对我来说，看到一些可爱的东西，看到海上的日落，或者一个孩子的微笑，或者一件美丽的艺术品，几乎是痛苦的。它让我的眼睛流泪。另一方面，我讨厌污垢、噪音和不整洁。有时我几乎不能忍受走进街头。这种对比撕裂了我的内心，请相信我，我没有夸大其词。”

But is there sensitivity when the mind takes delight in the beautiful and stands in horror of the ugly? We are not now considering what is beauty and what is ugliness. When there is this contrasting conflict, this heightened appreciation of the one and resistance to the other, is there sensitivity at all? Surely, wherever there is conflict, friction, there is distortion. Is there not distortion when you lean towards beauty and shrink from ugliness? In resisting noise, are you not cultivating insensitivity?

但是，当头脑对美丽感到高兴，而对丑陋产生恐怖时，是否存在敏感？我们现在没有考虑什么是美，什么是丑陋。当存在这种对比鲜明的冲突，这种对一方的高度欣赏和对另一方的抵制时，是否存在敏感？当然，哪里有冲突、摩擦，哪里就有扭曲。当你倾向于美丽，从丑陋中退缩时，难道没有扭曲吗？在抵抗噪音时，你不是在培养不敏感吗？

“But how is one to put up with what is hideous? One cannot tolerate a bad smell, can one?”

“但是，一个人如何忍受可怕的事情呢？一个人不能忍受难闻的气味，不是吗？”

There is the dirt and squalor of a city street, and the beauty of a garden. Both are facts, actualities. In resting the one, do you not become insensitive to the other? “I see what you mean; but then what?”

这里有城市街道的肮脏和污秽，还有花园的美丽。两者都是事实、现实。当停留于一个地方时，对另一个地方来说，你难道不会变得不敏感吗？ “我明白你的意思。但那又如何呢？”

Be sensitive to both the facts. Have you tried listening to noise – listening to it as you would listen to music? But perhaps one never listens to anything at all. You cannot listen to what you hear if you resist it. To listen there must be attention, and where there is resistance there is no attention.

对这两个事实都要敏感。你有没有试过听噪音 —— 像听音乐一样听它？但也许一个人从来不听任何东西。如果你抗拒它，你就无法听到传过来的声音。听的时候，必须有注意，有抗拒的地方就没有注意。

“How am I to listen with what you call attention?”

“我该如何用你所谓的注意来听？”

How do you look at a tree, at a beautiful garden, at the sun on the water, or at a leaf fluttering in the wind? “I don’t know, I just love to look at such things.”

你如何看一棵树，一个美丽的花园，水面上的阳光，或者一片在风中飘扬的树叶？ “我不知道，我只是喜欢看这类的东西。”

Are you self-conscious when you look at something in that manner? “No.”

当你以这种方式看某个东西的时候，你有自我意识吗？“没有。”

But you are when you resist what you see.

但当你在抗拒你所看到的东西的时候，你就有。

“You are asking me to listen to noise as though I loved it, aren’t you? Well I don’t love it, and I don’t think it’s ever possible to love it. You cant love an ugly brutal character.”

“你让我听噪音，好像我喜欢它，不是吗？好吧，我不爱它，我认为永远不可能爱它。你不能爱一个丑陋的残酷的角色。”

That is possible and it has been done. I am not suggesting that you should love noise; but is it not possible to free the mind from all resistance, from all conflict? Every form of resistance intensifies conflict, and conflict makes for insensitivity; and when the mind is insensitive, then beauty is an escape from ugliness. If beauty is merely an opposite, it is not beauty. Love is not the opposite of hate. Hate, resistance, conflict do not engender love. Love is not a self-conscious activity. It is something outside the field of the mind. Listening is an act of attention, as observing is. If you do not condemn noise, you will find it ceases to disturb the mind.

那是可能的，而且已经做到了。我并不是说你应该爱噪音；但是，难道不可能将头脑从所有的抵抗中，从所有的冲突中解脱吗？各种形式的抵抗都会加剧冲突，而冲突导致不敏感；当头脑不敏感时，那么美就是对丑陋的逃避。如果美只是一个对立面，它就不是美。爱不是恨的对立面。恨、抵抗、冲突不会引发爱。爱不是一种自我意识的活动。它是头脑领域之外的东西。听，是一种注意的行为，就像看一样。如果你不谴责噪音，你会发现它不再打扰头脑。