Before we go any further I would like to ask you what is your fundamental, lasting interest in life? Putting all oblique answers aside and dealing with this question directly and honestly, what would you answer? Do you know?
在我们继续前进之前，我想问你，你的生活中最基本的、持久的兴趣是什么？将所有那些拐弯抹角（oblique）的答案放到一边，我们来直接地诚实地对待这个问题，你的答案会是什么？你知道吗？
Isn't it yourself? Anyway, that is what most of us would say if we answered truthfully. I am interested in my progress, my job, my family, the little corner in which I live, in getting a better position for myself, more prestige, more power, more domination over others and so on. I think it would be logical, wouldn't it, to admit to ourselves that that is what most of us are primarily interested in - 'me' first?
难道不是你自己吗？不管怎样，这会是我们大多数人的答案，如果我们如实回答的话。我对我的进步、我的工作、我的家庭、我生活于其中的小角落、为自己谋得更好的职位、更高的声望、更多的权力、对他人更多的支配等等感兴趣。“我”字当先，就是我们大多数人的首要兴趣所在，我认为对我们自己承认这一点会是合乎逻辑的，会不会？
Some of us would say that it is wrong to be primarily interested in ourselves. But what is wrong about it except that we seldom decently, honestly, admit it? If we do, we are rather ashamed of it. So there it is - one is fundamentally interested in oneself, and for various ideological or traditional reasons one thinks it is wrong. But what one thinks is irrelevant. Why introduce the factor of its being wrong? That is an idea, a concept. What is a fact is that one is fundamentally and lastingly interested in oneself.
我们当中的一些人可能会说，首先对自己感兴趣这样做是不对的。但是除了我们很少体面地、诚实地承认它之外，首先对自己感兴趣还有什么是不对的呢？如果我们是这样，我们非常羞于承认。故结论就是这样 －－ 人的基本兴趣是自己，而由于种种观念或传统的原因，他认为这样是不对的。但是，人怎么认为是无关紧要的。为什么要引入“这不对”这样的因素呢？这是一种观念、概念。事实则是，人最基本的、持久的兴趣就是自己。
You may say that it is more satisfactory to help another than to think about yourself. What is the difference? It is still self-concern. If it gives you greater satisfaction to help others, you are concerned about what will give you greater satisfaction. Why bring any ideological concept into it? Why this double thinking? Why not say, `What I really want is satisfaction, whether in sex, or in helping others, or in becoming a great saint, scientist or politician'? It is the same process, isn't it? Satisfaction in all sorts of ways, subtle and obvious, is what we want. When we say we want freedom we want it because we think it may be wonderfully satisfying, and the ultimate satisfaction, of course, is this peculiar idea of self-realization. What we are really seeking is a satisfaction in which there is no dissatisfaction at all.
你可能会说，帮助别人比考虑自己会带来更多的满足感。有什么不同吗？这仍然是自私自利（self-concern）。若是帮助别人给了你更大的满足感，你关心的是什么会给你更大的满足感。为什么要将观念性的概念掺入其中呢？为什么要这样双重思考呢？为什么不说，“我真正想要的是满足感，不管是性、还是帮助他人方面，亦或是变成更伟大的圣徒、科学家或政治家”呢？都是同样的过程，不是吗？经由所有途径的满足感，不管这途径微妙还是明显，都是我们想要的。当我们说，我们想要自由，我们想要是因为我们认为会极为满足，而终极满足当然就是自我实现这种古怪的想法。我们真正在寻找的，是一种满足感，其中完全没有任何的不满。
Most of us crave the satisfaction of having a position in society because we are afraid of being nobody. Society is so constructed that a citizen who has a position of respect is treated with great courtesy, whereas a man who has no position is kicked around. Everyone in the world wants a position, whether in society, in the family or to sit on the right hand of God, and this position must be recognized by others, otherwise it is no position at all. We must always sit on the platform. Inwardly we are whirlpools of misery and mischief and therefore to be regarded outwardly as a great figure is very gratifying. This craving for position, for prestige, for power, to be recognized by society as being outstanding in some way, is a wish to dominate others, and this wish to dominate is a form of aggression. The saint who seeks a position in regard to his saintliness is as aggressive as the chicken pecking in the farmyard. And what is the cause of this aggressiveness? It is fear, isn't it?
我们大多数人渴望在社会中有一席之地，因为我们害怕籍籍无名（being nobody）。社会就是这样构造的，处于受人尊敬地位的公民被以礼相待，而没有地位的人则被粗暴对待。世界上的每个人都想要地位，不管是社会地位、家庭地位还是坐在上帝的右手边，而这个地位必须被别人所认可，否则就不是地位。我们必须总是坐在台上。在内心里我们是苦难和伤害的漩涡，因而在外表上我们被当做大人物对待会令我们非常满足。这种对地位、对声望、对权力、以某种方式的杰出被社会认可的渴望，是一种控制别人的愿望，这种控制的愿望是一种侵略的形式。寻求圣洁性的地位的圣徒，跟农家院里啄食的小鸡一样富于攻击性。而这种攻击性的导因是什么？就是恐惧，是不是？
Fear is one of the greatest problems in life. A mind that is caught in fear lives in confusion, in conflict, and therefore must be violent, distorted and aggressive. It dare not move away from its own patterns of thinking, and this breeds hypocrisy. Until we are free from fear, climb the highest mountain, invent every kind of God, we will always remain in darkness.
恐惧是生活中最大的问题之一。陷于恐惧的心智，生活在困惑、冲突中，因而必然是暴力、扭曲和富于攻击性的。这种心智不敢摆脱它自己的思考模式，这就滋生了伪善（hypocrisy）。在我们不再受恐惧影响、爬上最高的山峰、发明各种形式的上帝之前，我们会一直处于黑暗之中。
Living in such a corrupt, stupid society as we do, with the competitive education we receive which engenders fear, we are all burdened with fears of some kind, and fear is a dreadful thing which warps, twists and dulls our days.
在我们这样一个腐败、愚蠢的社会中生活，接受着引起恐惧的竞争性的教育，我们都身负着某些种类的恐惧，而恐惧是一种可怕的东西，使我们的日子乖戾、扭曲和无趣。
There is physical fear but that is a response we have inherited from the animals. It is psychological fears we are concerned with here, for when we understand the deep-rooted psychological fears we will be able to meet the animal fears, whereas to be concerned with the animal fears first will never help us to understand the psychological fears.
有身体的恐惧，但是身体的恐惧是我们从动物身上遗传而来的。我们这里关心的是心理（精神）上的恐惧，因为当我们理解了根深蒂固的心理上的恐惧之后，我们就能够与动物性的恐惧不期而遇，而考虑动物性的恐惧永远不会帮助我们理解心理上的恐惧。
We are all afraid about something; there is no fear in abstraction, it is always in relation to something. Do you know your own fears - fear of losing your job, of not having enough food or money, or what your neighbours or the public think about you, or not being a success, of losing your position in society, of being despised or ridiculed - fear of pain and disease, of domination, of never knowing what love is or of not being loved, of losing your wife or children, of death, of living in a world that is like death, of utter boredom, of not living up to the image others have built about you, of losing your faith - all these and innumerable other fears - do you know your own particular fears? And what do you usually do about them? You run away from them, don't you, or invent ideas and images to cover them? But to run away from fear is only to increase it.
我们都害怕某些东西；没有恐惧是抽象的，恐惧总是与事物相关联。你知道你自己的恐惧吗 －－ 害怕失业，害怕没有足够的食物或金钱，或是你的邻居或公众怎么看待你，或者在社会上不成功、失去你的地位，或是被轻视或嘲笑 －－ 害怕疼痛或疾病，害怕被控制，害怕永远不知道爱是什么或不被爱，害怕失去妻子或孩子，害怕死亡，害怕活在如死亡般的世界中，害怕彻底厌倦，害怕达不到他人对你的想象（image），害怕失去信念 －－ 所有这些，以及不计其数的其他恐惧 －－ 你知道你自己的恐惧吗？你通常怎么对待这些恐惧？你躲开它们，是不是，或者发明一些理念和意象（image）来掩盖它们？但是躲开恐惧只会助长它。
One of the major causes of fear is that we do not want to face ourselves as we are. So, as well as the fears themselves, we have to examine the network of escapes we have developed to rid ourselves of them. If the mind, in which is included the brain, tries to overcome fear, to suppress it, discipline it, control it, translate it into terms of something else, there is friction, there is conflict, and that conflict is a waste of energy.
恐惧的一个主要导因，是我们不想面对我们自己的本来面目。故，不仅要检视恐惧，还要检视我们发展出来的这个将自己从恐惧中摆脱出来的逃避网络。如果心智，包括大脑，企图克服恐惧、压制它、约束它、控制它、将其翻译成某种其他术语，那么就会有摩擦，就会有冲突，这种冲突就会浪费能量。
The first thing to ask ourselves then is what is fear and how does it arise? What do we mean by the word fear itself? I am asking myself what is fear not what I am afraid of.
那么我们首先要问自己的就是，恐惧是什么以及恐惧是如何升起的？我们所说的“恐惧”这个词本身是什么意思？我在问我自己“恐惧”是什么，而不是在问我害怕什么东西。
I lead a certain kind of life; I think in a certain pattern; I have certain beliefs and dogmas and I don't want those patterns of existence to be disturbed because I have my roots in them. I don't want them to be disturbed because the disturbance produces a state of unknowing and I dislike that. If I am torn away from everything I know and believe, I want to be reasonably certain of the state of things to which I am going. So the brain cells have created a pattern and those brain cells refuse to create another pattern which may be uncertain. The movement from certainty to uncertainty is what I call fear.
我过着某种类型的生活；以某种模式来思考；有某种信仰和教条，而且我不想我生存的那些模式被干扰，因为在其中有我的根基。我不想它们被干扰因为干扰产生了一种无知（unknowing）的状态而我不喜欢这种状态。如果我的每件所知和所信的东西都被拿走，那么我理所当然就想要确定我将要达到的状态是什么样的。故脑细胞已经建立了一种模式，那些脑细胞拒绝创造另一种不确定的模式。从确定性到不确定性的这种运动，就是被我叫做“恐惧”的东西。
At the actual moment as I am sitting here I am not afraid; I am not afraid in the present, nothing is happening to me, nobody is threatening me or taking anything away from me. But beyond the actual moment there is a deeper layer in the mind which is consciously or unconsciously thinking of what might happen in the future or worrying that something from the past may overtake me. So I am afraid of the past and of the future. I have divided time into the past and the future. Thought steps in, says, Be careful it does not happen again', or Be prepared for the future. The future may be dangerous for you. You have got something now but you may lose it. You may die tomorrow, your wife may run away, you may lose your job. You may never become famous. You may be lonely. You want to be quite sure of tomorrow.'
在真实的这一刻，我坐在这里，我没有害怕；眼下我没有害怕，没有任何事情发生在我身上，没有人在威胁我，或者从我这里拿走任何东西。但是超越了眼前真实的这一刻，我的头脑中有一个更深的层次，有意识地或无意识地认为未来可能会发生什么或者担心过去的某件事情会压倒我。思想进入了，说，“要小心不要让它再次发生”，或“为未来做好准备。未来对你来说可能很危险，你已经拥有了一些东西，但是你可能失去它。你可能明天死去，你的妻子可能会出轨，你可能会失业。你可能永远不会出名。你可能会孤独。你想要对明天相当确定”。
Now take your own particular form of fear. Look at it. Watch your reactions to it. Can you look at it without any movement of escape, justification, condemnation or suppression? Can you look at that fear without the word which causes the fear? Can you look at death, for instance, without the word which arouses the fear of death? The word itself brings a tremor, doesn't it, as the word love has its own tremor, its own image? Now is the image you have in your mind about death, the memory of so many deaths you have seen and the associating of yourself with those incidents - is it that image which is creating fear? Or are you actually afraid of coming to an end, not of the image creating the end? Is the word death causing you fear or the actual ending? If it is the word or the memory which is causing you fear then it is not fear at all.
现在，找到你自己特有的恐惧的模式。看着它。观察你对它的反应。你能看着它而不逃避、不判断、不谴责、不压制吗？你能看着恐惧而不加上那些导致恐惧的字眼吗？例如，你能看着死亡，而心里不升起对死亡的恐惧吗？“死亡”这个字眼本身都能带来战栗，是不是？就像“爱”这个字眼也有其自己的战栗、自己的意象？那么，是你的这个意象中关于死亡、关于你看到的那么多的死亡以及那些事故与你自己的关联的这种意象 －－ 是不是这种意象在创造恐惧？还是你真的害怕终结，而不是害怕这个创造了终结的意象？是“死亡”这个字眼导致你恐惧还是真正的终结导致你恐惧？如果是字眼或者记忆导致你恐惧的话，那么那完全不是恐惧。
You were ill two years ago, let us say, and the memory of that pain, that illness, remains, and the memory now functioning says, Be careful, don't get ill, again'. So the memory with its associations is creating fear, and that is not fear at all because actually at the moment you have very good health. Thought, which is always old, because thought is the response of memory and memories are always old - thought creates, in time, the feeling that you are afraid which is not an actual fact. The actual fact is that you are well. But the experience, which has remained in the mind as a memory, rouses the thought, Be careful, don't fall ill again'.
我们打个比方，两年前你病了，那病痛的记忆保存下来，现在这个记忆说，“小心，不要再病了”。所以记忆和与记忆相关联的东西在创造恐惧，而这完全不是恐惧，因为事实上在眼前你非常健康。想法（thought）总是旧的，因为想法是记忆的反应（response），而记忆总是旧的 －－ 想法在时间中创造了“你害怕”这种感觉，而这种感觉不是真正的事实。真正的事实是，你很健康。但是经验留在脑海中形成了记忆，激起了想法，“小心，不要再生病了。”
So we see that thought engenders one kind of fear. But is there fear at all apart from that? Is fear always the result of thought and, if it is, is there any other form of fear? We are afraid of death - that is, something that is going to happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, in time. There is a distance between actuality and what will be. Now thought has experienced this state; by observing death it says, `I am going to die.' Thought creates the fear of death, and if it doesn't is there any fear at all? Is fear the result of thought? If it is, thought being always old, fear is always old. As we have said, there is no new thought. If we recognise it, it is already old. So what we are afraid of is the repetition of the old - the thought of what has been projecting into the future. Therefore thought is responsible for fear. This is so, you can see it for yourself. When you are confronted with something immediately there is no fear. It is only when thought comes in that there is fear.
于是我们看到了，想法造成了一种类型的恐惧。但是除这种类型的恐惧之外，还有没有恐惧了？如果恐惧总是想法的结果，如果是这样的话，有没有其他形式的恐惧？我们害怕死亡 －－ 也就是害怕某种明天或后天将会发生的事情，在时间中的事情。在“现实”（actuality）和“将要”之间存在距离。现在想法经历了这个状态；通过观察死亡，它说，“我将会死去”。想法创造了对死亡的恐惧，而如果没有创造的话，还有任何的恐惧吗？恐惧是想法造成的吗？如果是的话，由于想法总是旧的，那么恐惧也总是旧的。就像我们已经说过的，不存在“新”的想法。如果我们认出这一点，它（“认出”这个想法）就已经是旧的了。所以，我们害怕的就是重复旧的东西 －－ 关于“什么一直在向未来投射”的想法。因而想法应对恐惧负责。就是这样，你能自己看到这一点。当你直接（immediately）面对某件事物的时候，是没有恐惧的。只有当想法进来时才有恐惧。
Therefore our question now is, is it possible for the mind to live completely, totally, in the present? It is only such a mind that has no fear. But to understand this, you have to understand the structure of thought, memory and time. And in understanding it, understanding not intellectually, not verbally, but actually with your heart, your mind, your guts, you will be free from fear; then the mind can use thought without creating fear.
因而我们的问题现在就成了，心智是否可能完全地、完整地活在当下？只有这样的心智，才没有恐惧。但是要理解这一点，你必须理解思想的结构、记忆和时间。而这个过程中，不是理性的、在语言上的理解，而是用你的内心、你的思维、你的肺腑，实际地去理解，你就不会再受恐惧的影响；那时你的心智（mind）就能“使用”思想（thought）而不同时创造恐惧了。
Thought, like memory, is, of course, necessary for daily living. It is the only instrument we have for communication, working at our jobs and so forth. Thought is the response to memory, memory which has been accumulated through experience, knowledge, tradition, time. And from this background of memory we react and this reaction is thinking. So thought is essential at certain levels but when thought projects itself psychologically as the future and the past, creating fear as well as pleasure, the mind is made dull and therefore inaction is inevitable.
当然，想法跟记忆一样，是日常生活需要的。想法是我们沟通、工作等等的唯一的工具。想法是记忆的反应，记忆是经由经验、知识、传统、时间积累而成的。而从记忆的这个背景下，我们反应，这种反应就是思考。故想法在特定的层次是必要的，但是当想法在心理上将其自身投射为过去和未来的时候，就会创造恐惧也创造快乐，心智就变得迟钝，因而怠惰（inaction）就不可避免了。
So I ask myself, `Why, why, why, do I think about the future and the past in terms of pleasure and pain, knowing that such thought creates fear? Isn't it possible for thought psychologically to stop, for otherwise fear will never end?'
于是我问自己，“为什么，为什么，我知道了这样的想法会创造恐惧，我为什么还在思考过去和未来，还在快乐和痛苦？”
One of the functions of thought is to be occupied all the time with something. Most of us want to have our minds continually occupied so that we are prevented from seeing ourselves as we actually are. We are afraid to be empty. We are afraid to look at our fears.
思想的一个功能就是随时被某物占据。我们大多数人想要让我们的思想持续地被占据，从而就能防止我们看到自己本来的样子了。我们害怕空虚。我们害怕直视恐惧。
Consciously you can be aware of your fears but at the deeper levels of your mind are you aware of them? And how are you going to find out the fears that are hidden, secret? Is fear to be divided into the conscious and the subconscious? This is a very important question. The specialist, the psychologist, the analyst, have divided fear into deep superficial layers, but if you follow what the psychologist says or what I say, you are understanding our theories, our dogmas, our knowledge, you are not understanding yourself. You cannot understand yourself according to Freud or Jung, or according to me. Other people's theories have no importance whatever. It is of yourself that you must ask the question, is fear to be divided into the conscious and subconscious? Or is there only fear which you translate into different forms? There is only one desire; there is only desire. You desire. The objects of desire change, but desire is always the same. So perhaps in the same way there is only fear. You are afraid of all sorts of things but there is only one fear.
在意识层面你能够知道你的恐惧，但是在你的心智的更深层面，你知道你的恐惧吗？你将如何弄清那些隐藏的秘密的恐惧？恐惧可以分成意识的和潜意识的吗？这是个非常重要的问题。专家、心理学家、（精神）分析师们，将恐惧分成深层和表层，但如果你也跟随他们所说，或者跟随我所说，那么你就是在理解我们的理论、我们的教条，我们的知识，你没有理解你自己。你不能根据弗洛伊德或者荣格或者我，来理解你自己。其他人的理论不管是什么都不重要。你自己必须要问自己这个问题，恐惧是分成意识和潜意识的吗？还是只有一种恐惧，你把它转换了成不同的形式？只有一种欲望；只是有欲望。你有欲望。欲望的对象改变，但是欲望总是相同的。所以，或许同理，只是有恐惧。你害怕各种各样的东西，但只有一种恐惧。
When you realize that fear cannot be divided you will see that you have put away altogether this problem of the subconscious and so have cheated the psychologists and the analysts. When you understand that fear is a single movement which expresses itself in different ways and when you see the movement and not the object to which the movement goes, then you are facing an immense question: how can you look at it without the fragmentation which the mind has cultivated?
当你意识到恐惧不能被分割，你会发现，你已经完全将“潜意识”这个问题放到一边了，这个问题欺骗了心理学家和分析师。当你理解了恐惧是一个（而非多个不同形式的）活动（movement），它（只是）以不同方式表达自己；当你看到了这个活动，而不是看到了这个活动的目标对象；那么，你就面临着一个重大的问题：你如何完整地看它，而不是用你的心智培养起来的那种片段化的方式看？
There is only total fear, but how can the mind which thinks in fragments observe this total picture? Can it? We have lived a life of fragmentation, and can look at that total fear only through the fragmentary process of thought. The whole process of the machinery of thinking is to break up everything into fragments: I love you and I hate you; you are my enemy, you are my friend; my peculiar idiosyncrasies and inclinations, my job, my position, my prestige, my wife, my child, my country and your country, my God and your God - all that is the fragmentation of thought. And this thought looks at the total state of fear, or tries to look at it, and reduces it to fragments. Therefore we see that the mind can look at this total fear only when there is no movement of thought.
只有整体的恐惧，但是心智如何才能用它那片段化的方式，观察到这完整的图像？能吗？我们过着片段化的生活，只有通过碎片化的思维过程来看整体的恐惧。思考的整个机械化的过程已经将所有东西都打破成片段：我爱你，我恨你；你是我的敌人，你是我的朋友；我的独特个性和倾向，我的工作，我的地位，我的声望，我的生活，我的孩子，我的国家你的国家，我的上帝你的上帝 －－ 所有这些都是片段化的想法。而这个想法看着恐惧的整个状态，或者试图去看，并将其退化成片段。因而我们看到心智只有在没有思维在活动的时候，才能够看这完整的恐惧。
Can you watch fear without any conclusion, without any interference of the knowledge you have accumulated about it? If you cannot, then what you are watching is the past, not fear; if you can, then you are watching fear for the first time without the interference of the past.
你能看着恐惧吗，不下结论、也没有你累积的关于恐惧的知识的干预？如果你不能，那么你在看的东西实际上是过去，而不是恐惧；如果你能，那么你就第一次在没有过去干预的情况下看着恐惧了。
You can watch only when the mind is very quiet, just as you can listen to what someone is saying only when your mind is not chattering with itself, carrying on a dialogue with itself about its own problems and anxieties. Can you in the same way look at your fear without trying to resolve it, without bringing in its opposite, courage - actually look at it and not try to escape from it? When you say, `I must control it, I must get rid of it, I must understand it', you are trying to escape from it.
只有在你的心智非常安静的时候，你才能看着（恐惧），正好像你只有在你的心智没有喋喋不休、唠叨它自己的问题和焦虑的时候，你才能听人说话一样。你能以同样的方式看恐惧吗，不试图解决它，不引入它的相反面，勇气 －－ 实实在在地看它，不试图逃避它？当你说，“我必须控制它，我必须摆脱它，我必须理解它”的时候，你是在试图逃避它。
You can observe a cloud or a tree or the movement of a river with a fairly quiet mind because they are not very important to you, but to watch yourself is far more difficult because there the demands are so practical, the reactions so quick. So when you are directly in contact with fear or despair, loneliness or jealousy, or any other ugly state of mind, can you look at it so completely that your mind is quiet enough to see it? Can the mind perceive fear and not the different forms of fear - perceive total fear, not what you are afraid of? If you look merely at the details of fear or try to deal with your fears one by one, you will never come to the central issue which is to learn to live with fear.
你能怀着非常平静的心境观察一朵云或一棵树或河水的流动，是因为它们对你不重要，但是要看着你自己就困难得多，因为你的需求如此实际，你的反应如此迅速。故当你与恐惧或绝望、孤独或嫉妒、或心智的任何其它丑陋状态直接地接触的时候，你能完全地看以至于你的心智足够安静，真正地看到这些状态吗？心智能够观察到（perceive）恐惧而不是那些不同形式的恐惧吗 －－ 即观察到完整的恐惧，而不是你所害怕的东西吗？如果你仅仅是看着恐惧的细节或者试图一个接一个地处理恐惧，你永远不能到达问题的中心，即学习与恐惧共处。
To live with a living thing such as fear requires a mind and heart that are extraordinarily subtle, that have no conclusion and can therefore follow every movement of fear. Then if you observe and live with it - and this doesn't take a whole day, it can take a minute or a second to know the whole nature of fear - if you live with it so completely you inevitably ask, 'Who is the entity who is living with fear? Who is it who is observing fear, watching all the movements of the various forms of fear as well as being aware of the central fact of fear? Is the observer a dead entity, a static being, who has accumulated a lot of knowledge and information about himself, and is it that dead thing who is observing and living with the movement of fear? Is the observer the past or is he a living thing?' What is your answer? Do not answer me, answer yourself. Are you, the observer, a dead entity watching a living thing or are you a living thing watching a living thing? Because in the observer the two states exist.
要与活的东西，如恐惧，共处，需要一颗极端细腻的心，这颗心里没有结论，因而能跟上恐惧的所有运动。那么如果你观察恐惧并与之共处 －－ 而了解恐惧的全部本质不会花费一整天的时间，而是一分钟或一秒钟 －－ 如果你完整地与之共处你不可避免地会问，“与恐惧共处的这个实体是谁？观察恐惧、注视着各种形式的恐惧并且了解恐惧的中心事实的这个人是谁？这个观察者是一个累积了大量的关于自己的知识和信息的死的实体、静态的存在吗？是不是这个死的东西在观察并与恐惧的运动共处？观察者是过去呢，还是活生生的东西？”你的答案是什么？不要回答我，回答你自己。你，观察者，是一个死的实体来看着活的东西，还是一个活的东西看着活的东西？因为在观察者这边，两种状态都存在。
The observer is the censor who does not want fear; the observer is the totality of all his experiences about fear. So the observer is separate from that thing he calls fear; there is space between them; he is forever trying to overcome it or escape from it and hence this constant battle between himself and fear - this battle which is such a waste of energy.
观察者就是这个不想恐惧的督查（censor）；观察者是他关于恐惧的全部经验的汇总。故观察者被与他称之为恐惧的东西分离开来；在他们之间有了空间；他永远在试图克服它或逃避它，因而有了他和恐惧之间这个持续的战斗 －－ 就是这个战斗如此地浪费能量。
As you watch, you learn that the observer is merely a bundle of ideas and memories without any validity or substance, but that fear is an actuality and that you are trying to understand a fact with an abstraction which, of course, you cannot do. But,in fact, is the observer who says, `I am afraid', any different from the thing observed which is fear? The observer is fear and when that is realized there is no longer any dissipation of energy in the effort to get rid of fear, and the time-space interval between the observer and the observed disappears. When you see that you are a part of fear, not separate from it - that you are fear - then you cannot do anything about it; then fear comes totally to an end.
随着你观察，你了解了观察者仅仅是一些观点和记忆的组合，没有任何的效用和实质，但是那恐惧却是实际存在的而你在试图用抽象的概念理解事实，你当然无法做到。但是，说“我害怕”的观察者与他观察的恐惧事实上有差别吗？观察者就是恐惧，当意识到这一点的时候，就不再会在摆脱恐惧的努力中耗费能量了，而观察者和被观察者之间的时空间隔也消失了。当你看到你是恐惧的一部分，而不是与它分离的 －－ 即你就是恐惧 －－ 你不能做任何事情的时候；这时恐惧就完全终结了。