In the life we generally lead, there is very little solitude. Even when we are alone, our lives are crowded by so many influences, so much knowledge, so many memories of so many experiences, so much anxiety, misery and conflict that our mind become duller and duller, more and more insensitive, functioning in a monotonous routine.
在生活中，我们少有单独的时刻。 即便独自一人，我们的生命也受到很多影响 —— 积压着无数的知识、经历、焦虑、痛苦和冲突， 以至于我们的头脑越来越迟钝，越来越不敏感， 在单调的重复中打转。
Are we ever alone? Or are we carrying with us all the burdens of yesterday?
我们可曾独立？ 或者，我们背着昨日的各种负担？
There is a rather nice story of two monks walking from one village to another, and they come upon a young girl sitting on the bank of a river, crying. And one of the monks goes up to her and says, `Sister, what are you crying about?' She says, "You see that house over there across the river? I came over this morning early and had no trouble wading across, but now the river has swollen and I can't get back. There is no boat."
有一个相当好的故事：两个和尚从一个村庄徒步到另一个村庄， 途中遇见一个坐在河边哭泣的年轻女子。 一个和尚上前对她说：“妹子，你哭什么？” 她说：“你看到河对岸的那所房子了吗？ 今天早上我一早过来，过河时毫不费力， 但现在河水上涨了，我回不去了。没船。”
`Oh,' says the monk, `that is no problem at all', and he picks her up and carries her across the river and leaves her on the other side. And the two monks go on together.
“哦，”这个和尚说，“这根本不是问题”， 于是他抱起她，把她抱过河，留她在对岸。 然后两个和尚继续一起赶路。
After a couple of hours, the other monk says, "Brother, we have taken a vow never to touch a woman. What you have done is a terrible sin. Didn't you have pleasure, a great sensation, in touching a woman?" and the other monk replies, "I left her behind two hours ago. You are still carrying her, aren't you?"
几个小时后，另一个和尚说： “兄弟，我们发过誓永不碰女人。你所做的是可怕的罪过。 你碰那个女人时，有没有快乐、很爽的感受呢？” 另一个和尚回答说：“我两小时前就把她放下了。你还在背着她，不是吗？”
That is what we do. We carry our burdens all the time, we never die to them, we never leave them behind.
这就是我们所做的。 我们总是背着我们的负担，我们从未让它们死去，从未放下它们。
It is only when we give complete attention to a problem and solve it immediately - never carrying it over to the next day, the next minute - that there is solitude. Then, even, if we live in a crowded house or are in a bus, we have solitude. And that solitude indicates a fresh mind, an innocent mind.
只有当我们全然注意一个问题并立即解决 —— 从不把它拖到第二天、下一分钟 —— 才会有单独。 那时，即便在拥挤的房子里或公交车上，我们也有单独。 那种单独指示出一个清新的、纯真的头脑。
To have inward solitude and space is very important, because it implies freedom to be, to go, to function, to fly. After all, goodness can only flower in space, just as virtue can flower only when there is freedom.
拥有内在的单独和虚无非常重要， 因为它意味着可以自由地停留、走动、运转、飞翔。 毕竟，仁善只能在虚无中开花，就像美德只能在自由时开花。
We may have political freedom, but inwardly we are not free. And therefore there is no space. No virtue, no quality that is worthwhile, can function or grow without this vast space within oneself.
我们也许有政治自由，但我们里面并不自由。 因此就没有虚无。 一个人的里面没有这种巨大的虚无，任何美德、任何有价值的品质都无法运作或成长。
And space and silence are necessary, because it is only when the mind is alone, uninfluenced, untrained, not held by infinite varieties of experience, that it can come upon something totally new.
虚无和安静是必要的， 因为只有当头脑是独立的、不受影响的、未经训练的、未被无穷的经历所束缚， 它才能遇到全新的东西。
One can see directly that it is only when the mind is silent that there is a possibility of clarity. The whole purpose of meditation in the East is to bring about such a state of mind - that is, to control thought, which is the same as constantly repeating a prayer to quieten the mind and in that state hoping to understand one's problems.
一个人能直接看到：只有当头脑安静时，才有可能清晰。 东方冥想的整个目的就是为了产生这样的状态 —— 那就是，控制思想，不断重复祷告，使头脑安静， 并在那种状态中，希望理解自己的问题。
But unless one lays the foundation, which is to be free from fear, free from sorrow, anxiety and all the traps one lays for oneself, I do not see how it is possible for a mind to be actually quiet.
但除非一个人打下这个基础， 即解散恐惧、悲伤、焦虑以及自己为自己设下的所有陷阱， 否则我看不出头脑怎么可能安静。
This is one of the most difficult things to communicate. Communication between us implies, doesn't it? that not only must you understand the words I am using, but that we must both, you and I, be intense at the same time, not a moment later or a moment sooner, and capable of meeting each other on the same level.
这是最难沟通的一个东西。 我们之间的沟通意味着，不是吗？你不仅要理解我使用的言词， 你我双方还必须同时保持张力，不早也不晚，在同一水平上相遇。
And such communication is not possible when you are interpreting what you are reading according to your own knowledge, pleasure or opinions, or when you are making a tremendous effort to comprehend.
而当你根据自己的知识、快乐或观点来解读你所读到的内容， 或者当你付出巨大的努力去理解时，就不可能有那样的沟通。
It seems to me that, one of the greatest stumbling blocks in life, is this constant struggle to reach, to achieve, to acquire. We are trained from childhood to acquire and to achieve. The very brain cells themselves create and demand this pattern of achievement in order to have physical security, but psychological security is not within the field of achievement. We demand security in all our relationships, attitudes and activities. But, as we have seen, there is actually no such thing as security.
在我看来， 不断挣扎着去触及、成就、获得，是生命中最大的一块绊脚石。 我们从童年起，就被训练去获得和成就。 脑细胞本身为了获得身体的安全，也创造并要求这种模式， 但心理的安全并不在成就的领域之内。 在所有的关系、态度和活动中，我们都在要求安全。 但是，正如我们所见，实际上并没有‘安全’这种东西。
To find out for yourself that there is no form of security in any relationship - to realize that psychologically there is nothing permanent - gives a totally different approach to life. It is essential, of course, to have outward security - shelter, clothing, food - but that outward security is destroyed by the demand for psychological security.
亲自去发现：在任何关系中，都没有任何形式的安全 —— 意识到心理上没有任何东西是永恒的 —— 会产生一种完全不同的对待生命的方式。 当然，有外在的安全 —— 住所、衣服、食物 —— 是必要的， 然而，对心理安全的要求，摧毁了外在的安全。
Space and silence are necessary to go beyond the limitations of consciousness, but how can a mind which is so endlessly active in its self-interest be quiet? One can discipline it, control it, shape it, but such torture does not make the mind quiet, it merely makes it dull.
要超越意识的限制，虚无和安静是必需的。 但是一颗始终算计着自身利益的头脑怎么可能安静呢？ 一个人可以训练它、控制它、塑造它，但这种折磨无法让头脑安静，只会使它迟钝。
Obviously, the mere pursuit of the ideal of having a quiet mind is valueless. Because the more you force it, the more narrow and stagnant it becomes. Control in any form, like suppression, produces only conflict. So control and outward discipline are not the way, nor has an undisciplined life any value.
显然，仅仅去追求‘拥有一个安静的头脑’的理想是毫无价值的。 因为你越是强迫它，它就变得越狭隘、越凝滞。 任何形式的控制，比如压抑，只会产生冲突。 所以控制和外在的训练没用，毫无纪律的生命也没任何价值。
Most of our lives are outwardly disciplined by the demands of society, by the family, by our own suffering, by our own experience, by conforming to certain ideological or factual patterns - and that form of discipline is the most deadening thing.
我们的大部分生活都是被训练出来的， 受训于社会需求、家庭、自身的遭遇、经验、服从某种意识形态或物理模式 —— 那种模式化的训练是最令人窒息的东西。
Discipline must be without control, without suppression, without any form of fear. How is this discipline to come about? It is not discipline first and then freedom, freedom is at the very beginning, not at the end.
纪律的训练必须摆脱控制、压抑及一切恐惧形式。 这种纪律如何产生？ 不是先有纪律后有自由，自由在一开始，而不是在终点。
To understand this freedom, which is the freedom from the conformity of discipline, is discipline itself. The very act of learning is discipline (after all, the root meaning of the word discipline is to learn), the very act of learning becomes clarity. To understand the whole nature and structure of control, suppression and indulgence demands attention. You don't have to impose discipline in order to study it, but the very act of studying brings about its own discipline, in which there is no suppression.
理解这种自由 —— 摆脱对纪律的服从 —— 才是真正的纪律。 学习即纪律，毕竟，纪律这个词的词根是“学习”， 越学习，越清明。 要理解控制、压抑和放纵的整个性质和结构，需要注意力。 你不需要为了研究而强迫自己， 因为当你在研究时，自然就有它自己的纪律。
In order to deny authority (we are talking of psychological authority, not the law) - to deny the authority of all religious organizations, traditions and experience, one has to see why one normally obeys - actually study it.
为了否定权威，我们说的是心理权威，而不是法律 —— 否定所有宗教组织、传统和经验的权威， 一个人必须看到自己为何服从 —— 实际地研究它。
And to study it, there must be freedom from condemnation, justification, opinion or acceptance. Now we cannot accept authority and yet study it - that is impossible.
而要研究它，就必须脱离谴责、辩护、意见或接受。 我们不能一边接受权威一边研究它 —— 那是不可能的。
To study the whole psychological structure of authority within ourselves, there must be freedom. And when we are studying, we are denying the whole structure. And when we do deny, that very denial is the light of the mind that is free from authority.
要研究我们自己内在权威的整个心理框架，就必须自由。 当我们研究时，我们正在否定整个框架。 而当我们确实否定了，那种否定即是解散权威的头脑之光。
Negation of everything that has been considered worthwhile, such as outward discipline, leadership, idealism, is to study it. Then that very act of studying is not only discipline, but the negative of it, and the very denial is a positive act. So we are negating all those things that are considered important to bring about the quietness of the mind.
否定所有那些被认为有价值的东西， 如外在的纪律、领导力、理想主义，就是去研究它们。 那么，那个研究行为本身不仅是纪律，也是对纪律的否定， 而否定本身正是一个肯定的行动。 所以，我们正在否定所有那些被认为对头脑的安静至关重要的东西。
Thus we see it is not control that leads to quietness. Nor is the mind quiet when it has an object which is so absorbing that it gets lost in that object. This is like giving a child an interesting toy, he becomes very quiet, but remove the toy and he returns to his mischief-making. We all have our toys which absorb us and we think we are very quiet, but if a man is dedicated to a certain form of activity, scientific, literary or whatever it is, the toy merely absorbs him and he is not really quiet at all.
因此我们看到，控制无法导向安静。 当头脑有一个吸引它的对象、以至于沉溺其中时，头脑并非真的安静。 这就像给孩子一个有趣的玩具，他变得很安静， 但拿走玩具，他又会去捣蛋。 我们都有自己的玩具，它们吸引着我们，我们以为自己很安静， 如果一个人投身于某种活动，无论是科学、文学还是别的什么， 那么他只是被玩具吸引，根本没有真正的安静。
The only silence we know is the silence when noise stops, the silence when thought stops - but that is not silence.
我们所知道的唯一安静是噪音停止时的安静、思想停止时的安静 —— 但那不是安静。
Silence is something entirely different, like beauty, like love. And this silence is not the product of a quiet mind, it is not the product of the brain cells which have understood the whole structure and say, "For God's sake, be quiet", then the brain cells themselves produce the silence, and that is not silence. Nor is silence the outcome of attention in which the observer is the observed, then there is no friction, but that is not silence.
安静是完全不同的东西，就像美、就像爱。 这种安静不是一个安静的头脑的产物， 也不是那种理解了整个结构后，说“看在上帝的份上，安静！”， 然后脑细胞本身制造出的安静，那不是安静。 安静也不是那种观者即所见的注意力产物，那时没有摩擦，那也不是安静。
You are waiting for me to describe what this silence is, so that you can compare it, interpret it, carry it away and bury it.
你在等着我描述这种安静吗？， 那样你就可以比较它、解释它、带走它、埋葬它。
It cannot be described. What can be described is the known, and the freedom from the known can come into being only when there is a dying every day to the known, to the hurts, the flatteries, to all the images you have made, to all your experiences.
它无法被描述。能够被描述的是已知， 只有每天让已知、伤害、奉承、你所造的一切形象、一切经历都死去时， 才能带来脱离已知的自由。
Dying every day so that the brain cells themselves become fresh, young, innocent. But that innocency, that freshness, that quality of tenderness and gentleness, does not produce love, it is not the quality of beauty or silence.
每天去死，那么脑细胞们变得清新、年轻、纯真。 但那种纯真、清新、温柔而亲和的品质，并不产生爱， 它不是这种美或安静的品质。
That silence which is not the silence of the ending of noise is only a small beginning. It is like going through a small hole to an enormous, wide, expansive ocean, to an immeasurable, timeless state.
那种安静 —— 不是噪音结束的安静 —— 只是一个小小的开始。 它就像穿过一个小洞，来到无边无际的、浩瀚的海洋，进入一种无法衡量、超越时间的状态。
But this you cannot understand verbally, unless you have understood the whole structure of consciousness and the meaning of pleasure, sorrow and despair, and the brain cells themselves have become quiet.
但你无法从言词上理解这， 除非你理解意识的整个结构以及快乐、悲伤和绝望的意义， 并且脑细胞本身已经变得安静。
Then perhaps you may come upon that mystery which nobody can reveal to you and nothing can destroy. A living mind is a still mind, a living mind is a mind that has no centre and therefore no space and time. Such a mind is limitless and that is the only truth, that is the only reality.
然后，或许你会遇到那个没有人能揭示、没有什么能摧毁的神秘之物。 一个活泼的头脑是一个静止的头脑， 一个活泼的头脑是一个没有中心、因此没有空间和时间的头脑。 这样的头脑是无限的，那是唯一的真理，唯一的真实。