FLYING AT 41,000 feet from one continent to another you see nothing but snow, miles of snow; all the mountains and the hills are covered with snow, and the rivers too are frozen. You see them wandering, meandering, all over the land. And far below, the distant farms are covered with ice and snow. It is a long, tiresome flight of eleven hours. The passengers were chattering away. There was a couple behind one and they never stopped talking, never looked at the glory of those marvellous hills and mountains, never looked at the other passengers. Apparently they were absorbed in their own thoughts, in their own problems, in their chatterings. And at last, after a tedious, calm flight, in the dead of winter, you land at the town on the Pacific.
飞行在四万一千英尺的高空，从一个大洲到另外一个，除了绵延不绝的积雪，你什么也看不到； 所有的山脉和丘陵都被积雪覆盖，河流也冰封了。 它们蜿蜒曲折，蔓延在大地上。 在远方，遥远的农场也被冰雪覆盖。 这是一个长达十一小时的、乏味的航班。乘客们在聊天。 有一对夫妇坐在后面，他们一直在不停地说话， 完全没有留意壮美的山脉，完全没理睬其他的乘客。 很显然，他们沉浸在他们抱持的思想中，他们的问题里，他们的话语里。 终于，经过一次乏味而平稳的长途飞行，在冬季的尽头，你抵达了这个位于太平洋边上的城镇。
After the noise and the bustle, you leave that ugly, sprawling, vulgar, shouting city and the endless shops selling almost all the same things. You leave all that behind as you go round the coast highway of the blue Pacific, following the seashore, on a beautiful road, wandering through the hills, meeting the sea often; and as you leave the Pacific behind and enter into the country, winding over various small hills, peaceful, quiet, full of that strange dignity of the country, you enter the valley. You have been there for the last sixty years, and each time you are astonished to enter into this valley. It is quiet, almost untouched by man. You enter into this valley which is almost like a vast cup, a nest. Then you leave the little village and climb to about 1,400 feet, passing rows and rows of orange orchards and groves. The air is perfumed with orange blossom. The whole valley is filled with that scent. And the smell of it is in your mind, in your heart, in your whole body. It is the most extraordinary feeling of living in a perfume that will last for about three weeks or more. And there is a quietness in the mountains, a dignity. And each time you look at those hills and the high mountain, which is over 6,000 feet, you are really surprised that such a country exists. Each time you come to this quiet, peaceful valley there is a feeling of strange aloofness, of deep silence and the vast spreading of slow time.
经过一阵喧嚣与忙乱，你离开了那个丑陋的、贪婪的、粗俗的、吵嚷的城市， 以及那无尽的商店，却售卖着几乎相同的东西。 当你沿着蓝色太平洋的滨海高速公路驶去，把那些抛在身后， 沿着海岸，沿着一条美丽的公路，穿行于山间，时常与大海碰面； 当远离了太平洋，你进入乡间， 路在山间盘旋，那种祥和、安静，洋溢着乡野陌生的庄严，你进入了那个山谷。 你在那里待了六十年，你每次进入这个山谷，都很惊讶。 它那样的安静，几乎没有被人触碰过。你进入这个山谷，如同一个巨大的杯子，一个巢穴。 接着，你离开小村庄，爬升到1400英尺的高度，经过一片接一片的橘树林和灌木丛。 空气中弥漫的橘花的香气。整个山谷充盈着花香。 这芬芳渗入到你的头脑、你的心灵、你的整个身体。 生活在一种持续三周以上的香氛下，是最奇妙的感觉。 大山里有一种安静、一种庄严。 每一次，你看见那些山丘和那六千多英尺的高山， 你讶异于有那样一个乡野存在。 每一次，你来到这个安静的、平和的山谷， 都会有一种奇怪的超脱、深邃的安静和时间缓流的广袤的绵延感。
Man is trying to spoil the valley but it has been preserved. And the mountains that morning were extraordinarily beautiful. You could almost touch them. The majesty, the vast sense of permanency is there in them. And you enter quietly into the house where you have lived for over sixty years and the atmosphere, the air, is, if one can use that word, holy; you can feel it. You can almost touch it. As it has rained considerably, for it is the rainy season, all the hills and the little folds of the mountain are green, flourishing, full - the earth is smiling with such delight, with some deep quiet understanding of its own existence.
人正试图破坏这个山谷，但它受到了保护。 那天清晨，这些大山非凡的美丽。你几乎可以触碰到它们 —— 这种庄严、亘古长存的氛围。 你安静地进入那个你住了六十多年的房子， 这里的气氛，这空气中，如果一个人可以用那个词，神圣；你能感觉它。 你几乎能触摸它。 恰值雨季，下了足够多的雨， 所有的山丘和大山的峰峦，都是绿的、丰润的、充溢的 —— 这片大地正在微笑，带着靓丽的容颜，带着对它自身的深邃而寂然地理解。
`You have said over and over again that the mind, or if you prefer it, the brain, must be quiet, must empty itself of all the knowledge it has gathered, not only to be free but to comprehend something that is not of time or thought or of any action. You have said this in different ways in most of your talks and I find this awfully difficult, not only to grasp the idea, the depth of it but the feeling of quiet emptiness, if I can use that word. I never could feel my way into it. I have tried various methods to end the chattering of the mind, the endless occupation with something or other, this very occupation creating its problems. And as one lives one is caught up in all this. This is our daily life, the tedium, the talk that goes on in a family, and if there isn't talking there is always the television or a book. The mind seems to demand that it should be occupied, that it should move from one thing to another, from knowledge to knowledge, from action to action with the everlasting movement of thought.'
"你已经一遍又一遍地说过，这颗头脑，或者大脑 —— 如果你喜欢用它， 必须安静，必须虚无，必须清空所它积累的一切知识， 不只是解脱，还要理解那些不属于时间、思想或任何行为的东西。 在你大部分的讲话中，你以不同的方式说到了这个，而我发现这异常地困难， 不仅要抓住这个说法，它的深度，还要感觉这安静的虚无，如果我能用那个词。 我从未以任何方式感觉到它。我已经尝试过各种方法去结束头脑的这种嘈杂， 这无休止的占据，不论是某些东西或其它，正是这种占据制造出了它的问题。 只要一个人还活着，一个人就被这一切深陷。 这是我们的命，这枯燥，这总是在家庭中持续的话语， 如果无话可说，那么总会开电视或打开书本。 这颗头脑似乎在要求：它自己应该被占据，应该从一件事情移动到另一件事情， 从一个知识到另一个知识，从一个行动到另外一个行动，并伴随着不断的思想活动。"
`As we pointed out, thought cannot be stopped by determination, by a decision of the will, or the urgent pressing desire to enter into that quality of quiet, still emptiness.' 'I find myself envious for something which I think, which I feel, to be true, which I would like to have, but it has always eluded me, it has always gone beyond my grasp. I have come, as I have often come, to talk with you: why in my daily life, in my business life, is there not the stability, the endurance of that quietness? Why isn't this in my life? I have asked myself what am I to do. I also realize I cannot do much, or I can't do anything at all about it. But it is there nagging. I can't leave it alone. If only I could experience it once, then that very memory will nourish me, then that very remembrance will give a significance to a really rather silly life. So I have come to enquire, to probe into this matter: why does the mind - perhaps the word brain may be better - demand that it should be occupied?'
“正如我们所指出的， 思想无法被停止，不论是被决心、被意志的判定， 或被那种想要进入那安静、虚无的品质的迫切冲动。” “我发现自己羡慕某个东西，某个我想要的，我感觉是真实的东西， 而它总是在引诱我，它总是在我的掌控之外。 我经常来，如同我经常与你交谈： 为什么在我的日常生命中，在我的职业生涯中，没有属于那安静的这种稳定、这种长久？ 为何这不在我的生命中？ 我问过自己该怎么办。我也意识到我不可能做得更多，或者说，我不能对它做任何事情。 但它总在唠叨。我不能放任它不管。 如果我能体验一次它，那么，那个记忆将会滋养我， 那么，那个记忆会给一个相当愚蠢的生命带来一种意义。 因此我过来询问，来探索这个事情： 为什么这颗听您 —— 也许用‘大脑’这个词更恰当一些 —— 要求它应该被占据？”