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. Are we ever alone? Or are we carrying with us all the burdens of yesterday?
生活中，我们通常很少有机会独处。即使当我们是一个人的时候，我们的生活也都挤满了太多的影响、知识、经验的记忆、焦虑、痛苦和冲突，以至于我们的头脑变得越来越迟钝，越来越不敏感，以毫无变化的、例行公事的方式运转。我们独处过吗？我们是不是一直背负着昨日的重担？
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.' 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. 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?' That is what we do. We carry our burdens all the time; we never die to them, we never leave them behind. 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.
有一个很好的故事。两个和尚在村间走路时遇到一个年轻的女孩坐在河岸上哭。一个和尚上前说：“姐姐，你哭什么？”女孩说，“你能看到河对面那栋房子吗？我今早从那边淌过来的，现在河水涨了我回不去了，又没有船。”“哦，”和尚说，“这不是问题。”他背起她过了河把她放在对岸。两个和尚继续前行。几个小时以后，另一个和尚说，“师兄，我们发过誓永远不碰女人。你刚才的所为犯了重罪。你碰女人的时候，觉得快乐、刺激吗？”而另一个和尚答道，“我两个小时前就把她放下了。你直到现在还没有放下，是不是？”这就是我们在做的事情。我们无时无刻背负着我们的重担；我们从未死于它们，从未将它们抛下。唯有当我们给予一个问题全部的注意力并立即解决它 －－ 不背负它到下一分钟、下一天 －－ 才能有独处。那时，就算我们住在一个拥挤吵闹的房子中、在公共汽车上，我们都是独处的。而这种独处意味着新鲜的头脑、单纯的心。
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. We may have political freedom but inwardly we are not free and therefore there is no space. No virtue, no quality that is worth while, can function or grow without this vast space within oneself. 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.
拥有内在的独处和空间非常重要，因为那意味着拥有自由去成为、去行动、去发挥作用、去飞翔。毕竟，善良只有在有空间的地方才能绽放，正如美德只有在有自由的时候才能绽放一样。我们可能有政治上的自由，但是内在的，我们不自由，因而就没有空间。当一个人的内在没有广阔的空间时，美德和有价值的特质就不能作用和生长。而空间和寂静是必要的，因为唯有当心是独处的、不受影响的、未经训练的、不被无尽的经验所控制的时候，全新的东西才能突然出现。
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. 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. 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? 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.
人们可以直接看到，唯有当头脑安静的时候，才有可能清晰。在东方，冥想的目的只是实现这样一个心灵状态 －－ 即，控制思想，就跟持续重复某个祷词企图让头脑安静下来希望能够获得对问题的理解一样。但是，除非人们奠定了基础，也就是说，从恐惧、悲伤、焦虑以及所有自设的陷阱中解脱了出来，否则，我看不到有任何可能心灵能够真正的安静。这是最难交流的事情之一。我们之间的交流是否意味着，不仅你必须要能够理解我所使用的单词，而且你和我两个人必须在此刻同时集中精力，早了或晚了都不行，并且，还要能够在同一层面遇见彼此？而当你还在用你的知识、快乐或意见来解释你正读到的内容，或者当你还在费力来理解的时候，这样的交流就不可能实现。
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. 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.
对我而言，生活中最大的绊脚石之一就是持续的想要去实现、达成、获取的挣扎。我们从儿时起就被训练要获取和达成 －－ 正是同样的脑细胞，创造和需求着这个达成的模式，为了拥有身体上的安全，但是心理上的安全不在达成的领域之内。我们在我们的所有关系、态度和活动中都要求安全，但是，就像我们已经看到的，实际上没有这种所谓的安全。你自己去弄明白，在任何关系中都没有任何形式的安全 －－ 去意识到心理上没有任何永恒的东西 －－ 会给你的生活一条完全不同的路径。当然，拥有外在的安全非常关键 －－ 住所、衣物、食品 －－ 但是外在的安全被内心安全的需要所破坏了。
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. 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.
空间和寂静对于超越意识的限制是必要的，但是，一个无止境地在自身兴趣中活动的头脑，如何能够安静呢？人可以约束、控制、塑造它，但是，这样的折磨不会让头脑安静下来；而仅仅只会让它迟钝。显然，仅去追求拥有一个安静的头脑的这种理想，是没有价值的，因为你越强迫它，它越狭隘、越停滞不前。任何形式的控制，例如压抑，都只会产生冲突。故，控制和外在的约束不是办法，过不受约束的生活也没有价值。
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. 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. 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.
我们大部分人的生活，外在地，受到社会的要求、家庭、我们自身的苦难、经验，受到服从某个特定的意识形态或事实模式的纪律约束 －－ 而这种纪律约束的形式就是最一成不变的东西。纪律必须没有控制、没有压抑、没有任何形式的恐惧。这种纪律约束如何发生？并不是说先有纪律后有自由；自由是在最初的，不是在最后。要理解这种自由，即从服从纪律中解脱出来，这种自由本身就是纪律。学习的行动本身就是纪律（毕竟“纪律”这个词的根义就是学习），学习这种行为本身就使人清晰。要理解控制、压抑和放纵的整个本质和结构，需要注意力。你不必为了研究它而强加纪律，但是学习的行为本身就会引起其自身的纪律，那里没有压抑。
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. 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. 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. 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.
为了否定权威（我们讨论的是心理上的权威，不是法律） －－ 要否定所有宗教组织、传统和经验的权威，需要看到为什么人一般情况下会遵循 －－ 实际地研究它。而要研究它，就必须有从谴责、判断、意见和接受中解脱出来的自由。接受权威同时又去研究它 －－ 是不可能的。要研究我们自身中的权威的整个心理结构，就必须要有自由。而当我们研究的时候，我们就是在否定整个结构，而当我们否定的时候，否定本身就是头脑的光，就是从权威中的解脱。否定任何一直被认为有价值东西，例如外在的纪律、领导、理想主义，就是去研究它；然后，这种研究的行动，不仅仅是纪律，还是对那种东西的否定，而正是这种否定，才是积极的行动。故我们否定了所有这些被认为是重要的事情，为了得到头脑的安静。
Thus we see it is not control that leads to quietness. Nor is the mind quiet when it has an object which is so absorb- ing 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.
故我们看到，不是控制导致了安静，也不是由于头脑中有一个目标，目标吸引人导致头脑迷失了所以安静。这就像给孩子一个有趣的玩具；孩子就变得非常安静，但是把玩具拿走她就会回归恶作剧。我们都有吸引我们的玩具，而我们认为我们非常安静，但若是因为他致力于某种特定形式的活动，科学、文学或不管是什么，仅仅是这个玩具吸引了他，实际上他完全没有安静。
The only silence we know is the silence when noise stops, the silence when thought stops - but that is not silence. 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.
我们所知的唯一的安静，是噪音停止的安静，思维停止的时候的安静 －－ 但那不是安静。安静是一种完全不同的东西，就像美丽，像爱。而这种安静不是安静头脑的产物，它不是在脑细胞理解了整个结构并说，“看在上帝的份上，安静下来吧”的产物；脑细胞自身产生的安静不是安静。安静也不是注意力的产物，在注意力中观者即所观之物；在其中没有摩擦，但那也不是安静。
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. 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 - 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.
你在等我为你描述安静是什么，你就可以比较它、解释它、带走并埋葬它。它不能被描述。可以描述的东西是已知的，而从已知中解脱出来的自由唯有当每天都死于已知、死于伤害、死于奉承，死于所有你制造的意象，死于所有的经验 －－ 每天都死，这样脑细胞本身就是鲜活的、年轻的、单纯无知的。但是这种单纯无知、这种鲜活、这种柔情和温柔的品质，不会产生爱；不是美或安静的品质。
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. But this you cannot understand verbally unless you have understood the whole struc- ture of consciousness and the meaning of pleasure, sorrow and despair, and the brain cells themselves have become quiet. 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.
这种寂静不是噪音终止的寂静，而只是一个小小的开始。就像穿过一个小洞到达广阔无垠的海洋、到达一种不可计量、没有时间的状态。但是这你不能通过语言来了解它，除非你理解了意识的整个结构和快乐、悲伤、绝望的意义，并且脑细胞自身变得安静下来。那时，可能你就会遇到这种神秘，这种神秘没有人能够揭示给你，没有东西可以毁灭它。活着的头脑是静止的头脑，活着的头脑是没有中心、因而也没有空间和时间的头脑。这样的头脑是没有限制的，这就是唯一的真理（truth），这就是唯一的真相（reality）。