FOR MOST OF US, our whole life is based on effort, some kind of volition. We cannot conceive of an action without volition, without effort; our life is based on it. Our social, economic and so-called spiritual life is a series of efforts, always culminating in a certain result. And we think effort is essential, necessary.
对于我们大多数人来说，我们的整个生活都是基于努力，某种意志。 我们不能想象没有意志、没有努力的行动；我们的生活就是以此为基础的。 我们的社会、经济和所谓的灵性生活是一系列的努力， 总是在某一个的结果中抵达高潮。 我们认为努力是必不可少的，是必要的。
Why do we make effort? Is it not, put simply, in order to achieve a result, to become something, to reach a goal? If we do not make an effort, we think we shall stagnate. We have an idea about the goal towards which we are constantly striving; and this striving has become part of our life. If we want to alter ourselves, if we want to bring about a radical change in ourselves, we make a tremendous effort to eliminate the old habits, to resist the habitual environmental influences and so on. So we are used to this series of efforts in order to find or achieve something, in order to live at all.
我们为什么要努力？ 简单地说，难道不是为了达到一个结果，成为某种人物，达到一个目标吗？ 如果我们不作出努力，我们认为我们将停滞不前。 我们对我们不断努力的目标有一个想法； 而这种努力已经成为我们生活的一部分。 如果我们想改变自己，如果我们想给自己带来彻底的改变， 我们付出了巨大的努力来消除旧习惯，抵制习惯性环境影响等等。 所以我们习惯了这一系列的努力，为了找到或实现一些东西，为了生活。
Is not all such effort the activity of the self? Is not effort self-centred activity? If we make an effort from the centre of the self, it must inevitably produce more conflict, more confusion, more misery. Yet we keep on making effort after effort. Very few of us realize that the self-centred activity of effort does not clear up any of our problems. On the contrary, it increases our confusion and our misery and our sorrow. We know this; and yet we continue hoping somehow to break through this self-centred activity of effort, the action of the will.
所有这些努力不都是自我的活动吗？ 努力不就是以自我为中心的活动吗？ 如果我们从自我的中心努力， 它必然会产生更多的冲突、更多的混乱、更多的痛苦。 然而，我们不断努力。 我们中很少有人意识到，以自我为中心的努力活动并不能解决我们的任何问题。 相反，它增加了我们的困惑、痛苦和悲伤。 我们知道这一点； 然而，我们仍然希望以某种方式突破这种以自我为中心的努力活动，即意志的行动。
I think we shall understand the significance of life if we understand what it means to make an effort. Does happiness come through effort? Have you ever tried to be happy? It is impossible, is it not? You struggle to be happy and there is no happiness, is there? Joy does not come through suppression, through control or indulgence. You may indulge but there is bitterness at the end. You may suppress or control, but there is always strife in the hidden.
我想，如果我们明白努力意味着什么，我们就会明白生命的意义。 快乐是通过努力而来的吗？你有没有试过处于快乐的状态？ 它是不可能的，不是吗？ 你挣扎着要快乐，就没有快乐，有吗？ 开心不是通过压抑、控制或放纵而来的。 你可以放纵，但最后会有苦涩。 你可以压制或控制，但背后总有冲突。
Therefore happiness does not come through effort, nor joy through control and suppression; and still all our life is a series of suppressions, a series of controls, a series of regretful indulgences. Also there is a constant overcoming, a constant struggle with our passions, our greed and our stupidity. So do we not strive, struggle, make effort, in the hope of finding happiness, finding something which will give us a feeling of peace, a sense of love? Yet does love or understanding come by strife? I think it is very important to understand what we mean by struggle, strife or effort.
因此，快乐不是通过努力而获得的，快乐也不是通过控制和压制而来的； 然而，我们的一生都是一系列的压抑，一系列的控制，一系列令人遗憾的放纵。 还有一种不断的克服，与我们的激情、贪婪和愚蠢的不断斗争。 因此，我们难道不是在为了寻找快乐而抗争、奋斗、努力吗？ 找到一些能给我们带来和平、爱的感觉的东西？ 然而，爱或理解来自于冲突吗？ 我认为理解我们所说的挣扎、冲突或努力的含义非常重要。
Does not effort mean a struggle to change what is into what is not, or into what it should be or should become? That is we are constantly struggling to avoid facing what is, or we are trying to get away from it or to transform or modify what is. A man who is truly content is the man who understands what is, gives the right significance to what is. That is true contentment; it is not concerned with having few or many possessions but with the understanding of the whole significance of what is; and that can only come when you recognize what is, when you are aware of it, not when you are trying to modify it or change it.
努力难道不意味着努力将现有的东西变成不是的东西，或者变成它应该是或应该成为的东西吗？ 那就是说，我们一直在努力避免面对现实， 或者我们正试图摆脱它，或者改变或修改‘什么是’。 一个真正满足的人是理解‘什么是’，赋予什么是正确的意义的人。 这才是真正的知足； 它不关心拥有很少或更多的财产 而是理解什么是的全部意义； 这只能出现在你认识到‘什么是’，当你意识到它时， 而不是当你试图修改或改变它时。
So we see that effort is a strife or a struggle to transform that which is into something which you wish it to be. I am only talking about psychological struggle, not the struggle with a physical problem, like engineering or some discovery or transformation which is purely technical. I am only talking of that struggle which is psychological and which always overcomes the technical. You may build with great care a marvellous society, using the infinite knowledge science has given us. But so long as the psychological strife and struggle and battle are not understood and the psychological overtones and currents are not overcome, the structure of society, however marvellously built, is bound to crash, as has happened over and over again.
因此，我们看到努力是一种冲突或斗争，将事物转化为你希望它成为的东西。 我只是在谈论心理上的挣扎，而不是身体问题的挣扎， 比如工程或一些纯粹是技术性的发现或改造。 我说的只是心理上的斗争，它总是战胜技术上的。 你可以非常小心地建立一个奇妙的社会，利用科学给我们的无限知识。 但只要心理冲突和斗争和战斗不被理解 心理的色彩和潮流没有被克服， 社会结构，无论多么奇妙地建立，都注定会崩溃，就像一次又一次发生的那样。
Effort is a distraction from what is. The moment I accept what is there is no struggle. Any form of struggle or strife is an indication of distraction; and distraction, which is effort, must exist so long as psychologically I wish to transform what is into something it is not.
努力会分散对现状的注意力。当我接受现状的那一刻，就没有挣扎了。 任何形式的斗争或冲突都是分心的表现; 而分心， 也就是努力，只要在心理上我希望将‘什么是’转化为它不是的东西，就必定存在。
First we must be free to see that joy and happiness do not come through effort. Is creation through effort, or is there creation only with the cessation of effort? When do you write, paint or sing? When do you create? Surely when there is no effort, when you are completely open, when on all levels you are in complete communication, completely integrated. Then there is joy and then you begin to sing or write a poem or paint or fashion something. The moment of creation is not born of struggle.
首先，我们必须自由地看到，开心和快乐不是通过努力而来的。 通过努力，有创造吗，还是只有停止努力是才能创造？ 你什么时候写作、绘画或唱歌？ 你什么时候创作？ 當然，當沒有努力時，當你完全開放時， 当在各个层面上，您都处于完全的沟通中，完全融合。 然后是开心，然后你开始唱歌或写一首诗或绘画或塑造一些东西。 创造的时刻不是从挣扎中诞生的。
Perhaps in understanding the question of creativeness we shall be able to understand what we mean by effort. Is creativeness the outcome of effort, and are we aware in those moments when we are creative? Or is creativeness a sense of total self-forgetfulness, that sense when there is no turmoil, when one is wholly unaware of the movement of thought, when there is only a complete, full, rich being? is that state the result of travail, of struggle, of conflict, of effort? I do not know if you have ever noticed that when you do something easily, swiftly, there is no effort, there is complete absence of struggle; but as our lives are mostly a series of battles, conflicts and struggles, we cannot imagine a life, a state of being, in which strife has fully ceased.
也许在理解创造性问题时 我们将能够理解我们所说的努力是什么意思。 创造力是努力的结果吗？我们是否意识到自己有创造力的那些时刻？ 或者创造力是一种完全忘我的感觉，那种没有动荡的感觉， 当一个人完全没有意识到思想的运动时，当只有一个彻底的、完整的、丰富的存在时？ 这种状态是艰辛、斗争、冲突和努力的结果吗？ 我不知道你有没有注意到 当你轻松、迅速地做某件事时，就没有努力，完全没有挣扎； 但是，由于我们的生活大多是一系列的战斗，冲突和挣扎， 我们无法想象一种生活，一种冲突完全消停的存在状态。
To understand the state of being without strife, that state of creative existence, surely one must inquire into the whole problem of effort. We mean by effort the striving to fulfil oneself, to become something, don't we? I am this, and I want to become that; I am not that, and I must become that. In becoming `that', there is strife, there is battle, conflict, struggle. In this struggle we are concerned inevitably with fulfilment through the gaining of an end; we seek self-fulfilment in an object, in a person, in an idea, and that demands constant battle, struggle, the effort to become, to fulfil. So we have taken this effort as inevitable; and I wonder if it is inevitable - this struggle to become something?
要理解没有冲突的状态，那种创造性存在的状态， 当然，我们必须探究整个努力问题。 我们的意思是努力实现自己，成为某种人物，不是吗？ 我就是这个，我想成为那个； 我不是那样，我必须成为那样的人。 在成为“那个”的过程中，有冲突，有战斗，冲突，斗争。 在这场斗争中，我们不可避免地关心通过达到目的来实现； 我们在一个对象、一个人、一个想法中寻求自我实现， 这需要不断的战斗，斗争，努力成为，实现。 因此，我们认为这种努力是不可避免的； 我想知道这是否是不可避免的 —— 这种成为某个人物的挣扎？
Why is there this struggle? Where there is the desire for fulfilment, in whatever degree and at whatever level, there must be struggle. Fulfilment is the motive, the drive behind the effort; whether it is in the big executive, the housewife, or a poor man, there is this battle to become, to fulfil, going on.
为什么会有这种挣扎？ 哪里有成就的欲望，无论在什么程度和什么层次上，都必定有挣扎。 成就感是动机，这种努力的驱动机； 无论是大高管、家庭主妇，还是穷人， 这是一场成为，斩获，英勇前进的战斗。
Now why is there the desire to fulfil oneself? Obviously, the desire to fulfil, to become something, arises when there is awareness of being nothing. Because I am nothing, because I am insufficient, empty, inwardly poor, I struggle to become something; outwardly or inwardly I struggle to fulfil myself in a person, in a thing, in an idea. To fill that void is the whole process of our existence. Being aware that we are empty, inwardly poor, we struggle either to collect things outwardly, or to cultivate inward riches. There is effort only when there is an escape from that inward void through action, through contemplation, through acquisition, through achievement, through power, and so on. That is our daily existence. I am aware of my insufficiency, my inward poverty, and I struggle to run away from it or to fill it. This running away, avoiding, or trying to cover up the void, entails struggle, strife, effort.
现在，为什么会有满足自己的欲望呢？ 显然，当意识到什么都没有时，就会产生这种去实现，去成为某种人物的欲望。 因为我什么都不是，因为我不足，空虚，内心贫穷，我努力成为某种人物； 从外在或内在，我努力在一个人、一件事、一个想法中实现我自己。 填补这一空白，就是我们存在的整个过程。 意识到我们是空虚的，内在是贫穷的， 我们要么努力向外收集东西，要么努力培养内在的财富。 只有通过行动、通过沉思、通过获取、通过成就、通过权力等等来逃避内在的空虚时， 才会去努力。 这就是我们的日常生活。 我意识到我的不足，我内在的贫穷，我挣扎着逃避它或填补它。 这种逃避、回避或试图掩盖空虚，就需要挣扎、抗争和努力。
Now if one does not make an effort to run away, what happens? One lives with that loneliness, that emptiness; and in accepting that emptiness one will find that there comes a creative state which has nothing to do with strife, with effort. Effort exists only so long as we are trying to avoid that inward loneliness, emptiness, but when we look at it, observe it, when we accept what is without avoidance, we will find there comes a state of being in which all strife ceases. That state of being is creativeness and it is not the result of strife. But when there is understanding of what is, which is emptiness, inward insufficiency, when one lives with that insufficiency and understands it fully, there comes creative reality, creative intelligence, which alone brings happiness.
现在，如果一个人不努力逃跑，会发生什么？ 一个人活在那种孤独，那种空虚中； 并接受这种空虚 一个人会发现，出现了一种创造性的状态，与冲突无关，与努力无关。 只有当我们试图避免内在的孤独、空虚、 但是当我们看着它，观察它，当我们接受，而不回避它时， 我們會發現存在一種存在狀態，在這種狀態中，所有的衝突都停止了。 这种存在状态是创造性的，它不是冲突的结果。 理解‘什么是’，也就是理解空虚，内在的匮乏， 当一个人生活在这种匮乏中，并完全理解它时， 有创造性的现实，创造性的智慧，只有它才能带来快乐。
Therefore action as we know it is really reaction, it is a ceaseless becoming, which is the denial, the avoidance of what is; but when there is awareness of emptiness without choice, without condemnation or justification, then in that understanding of what is there is action, and this action is creative being. You will understand this if you are aware of yourself in action. Observe yourself as you are acting, not only outwardly but see also the movement of your thought and feeling. When you are aware of this movement you will see that the thought process, which is also feeling and action, is based on an idea of becoming. The idea of becoming arises only when there is a sense of insecurity, and that sense of insecurity comes when one is aware of the inward void.
因此，我们所知道的行动实际上是反应， 它是一种不停的成为，这是对‘什么是’的拒绝，逃避; 但是，当意识到空虚而没有选择，没有谴责或辩解时， 那么在对什么是的理解中 有行动，这个行动是创造性的生命。 如果你在行动中意识到你自己，你就会理解这一点。 在你行动时观察你自己，不仅要向外看，还要看你的思想和感觉的运动。 当你意识到这个运动时 你会看到思想过程， 还会看到感觉和行动，这种基于一个想法的成为过程。 只有当有不安全感时，才会出现成为的想法， 当一个人意识到内在的空虚时，这种不安全感就会出现。
If you are aware of that process of thought and feeling, you will see that there is a constant battle going on, an effort to change, to modify, to alter what is. This is the effort to become, and becoming is a direct avoidance of what is. Through self-knowledge, through constant awareness, you will find that strife, battle, the conflict of becoming, leads to pain, to sorrow and ignorance. It is only if you are aware of inward insufficiency and live with it without escape, accepting it wholly, that you will discover an extraordinary tranquillity, a tranquillity which is not put together, made up, but a tranquillity which comes with understanding of what is. Only in that state of tranquillity is there creative being.
如果你意识到这种思想和感觉的过程， 你将看到，一场持续不断的战斗正在进行，一种去改变，去修改，去改变‘什么是’的努力。 这就是成为的努力，成为是对现实的直接回避。 通过自我认识，通过不断的觉知， 你會發現衝突、戰鬥、成為的衝突，導致痛苦、悲傷和無知。 只有当你意识到内在的匮乏，并无逃避地与它共存，完全接受它时， 你会发现一个非凡的宁静， 一种宁静，不是拼凑在一起的，不是编造的，而是随着对事物的理解而来的宁静。 只有在这种宁静的状态下，才有创造性的生命。