给学校的信，1978年10月15日 - 恐惧
善不会在恐惧的土壤中绽放It appears that most people spend a great deal of time in discussing mere verbal clarity and they do not seem to grasp the depth and content beyond the word. In trying to search out verbal clarity they make their minds mechanical, their life superficial and very often contradictory.In these letters we are not concerned with verbal understanding but with the daily facts of our lives. This is the central fact of all these letters: not the verbal explanation of the but the fact itself. When we are concerned with verbal clarity, and so a clarity of ideas, our daily life is conceptual and not factual.All the theories the principles, the ideals are conceptual. Concepts can be dishonest, hypocritical and illusory. One can have any number of concepts or ideals but they have nothing whatsoever to do with the daily happenings of our life. People are nurtured on ideals; the more fanciful they are, the more they are considered noble; but again the understanding of daily events is far more important than ideals. If one's mind is cluttered with concepts, ideals and so on, the fact,the actual happening can never be faced. The concept becomes a block. When all this is very clearly understood - not an intellectual, conceptual understanding - the great importance of facing a fact, the actual, the now, becomes the central factor of our education.
大部分人花费大量时间似乎只是为了讨论字面上的清晰，他们好象并没有领会文字背后的内容和深意。在努力寻求文字清晰的过程中，他们让自己的心变得机械，让自己的生活变得肤浅并常常充满矛盾。在这些信中，我们关心的不是字面上的理解，而是我们日常生活中的事实。所有这些信的核心要点是：它们不是对事实的文字说明，而是事实本身。当我们关注语言和思想的清晰时，我们每天的生活是观念化的，是不真实的。所有的理论、原则、理想都是观念化的。而观念可能是不诚实的、伪善的和虚幻的。你可能有很多观念或理想，但是它们和我们每天正在进行的生活毫不相干。人们都是被理想培养的，理想越是华丽，就越受推崇。但是，对于日常生活的理解远比理想重要得多。如果内心堆满了观念、理想之类的东西，你就永远不会去面对正在发生的事实，观念就成了障碍。当这一切都被清楚地理解（不是理智上、观念上的理解），那么至关重要的事情——面对真相、事实、现在，就会成为教育的核心内容。
Politics is some kind of universal disease based on concepts, and religion is romantic, imaginary emotionalism. When you observe what is actually going on, all this is an indication of conceptual thinking and an avoidance of the daily misery, confusion and sorrow of our life.
政治是建立在观念上的一种通病，而宗教则是浪漫、虚幻的感情主义。如果你去观察正在发生的一切，你就会发现，所有这些都显示了我们的观念化思维，以及对日常生活中的痛苦、困惑和忧伤的逃避。
Goodness cannot flower in the field of fear. In this field there are many varieties of fear, the immediate fear and the fears of many tomorrows. Fear is not a concept, but the explanation of fear is conceptual and these explanations vary from one pundit to another or from one intellectual to another. The explanation is not important but what is, is the facing of the fact of fear.
善不可能在恐惧的土壤中绽放。恐惧有很多种，当前的恐惧，对许多个明天的恐惧等等。恐惧不是观念，但对恐惧的解释是观念化的，这些解释在不同的专家或学者那里各有不同。解释并不重要，重要的是面对恐惧这个事实。
In all our schools the educator and those responsible for the students, whether in the class, the playing field or their rooms, have the responsibility to see that fear in any form does not arise. The educator must not arouse fear in the student.This is not conceptual because the educator himself understands, not only verbally,that fear in any form cripples the mind,destroys sensitivity, shrinks the senses. Fear is the heavy burden which man has always carried. From this fear arise various forms of superstition - religious, scientific and imaginary. One lives in a make-believe world, and the essence of the conceptual world is born of fear. We said previously that man cannot live without relationship,and this relationship is not only his own private life but, if he is an educator, he has a direct relationship with the student. If there is any kind of fear in this, then the teacher cannot possibly help the student to be free of it.The student comes from a background of fear, of authority, of all kinds of fanciful and actual impressions and pressures.The educator too has his own pressures,fears.He will not be able to bring about the understanding of the nature of fear if he himself has not uncovered the root of his own fears.It is not that he himself must first be free of his own fears in order to help the student to be free, but rather that in their daily relationship, in conversation, in the class, the teacher will point out that he himself is afraid, as is the student too, and so together they can explore the whole nature and structure of fear.
在我们的学校里，教师和那些需要对学生负责的人，无论是在课堂、操场还是自己的房间，都有责任不让恐惧以任何形式出现。教师一定不要引起学生的恐惧。这不是观念，因为教师自己明白，不只在口头上，任何形式的恐惧都会损害心智，破坏敏感性，钝化感官。恐惧是人一直都在背负的重担。由于恐惧，产生了各种形式的迷信——宗教的、科学的和想象的。我们生活在谎言的世界里，而观念世界的实质就是恐惧。我们曾经说过，人活着不能没有关系，这个关系不仅是指他的私人生活。如果他是一位教师，他就和学生有一种直接的关系。如果这种关系中存在任何形式的恐惧，那么教师就无法帮助学生从中解脱出来。学生来自于一个充满恐惧、权威以及各种想象的和现实的印象和压力的背景。教师同样有他自己的压力和恐惧。如果他尚未揭露自身恐惧的根源，就无法引导学生去了解恐惧的本质。这并不是说，为了帮助学生从恐惧中解脱，他必须首先从自己的恐惧中解脱出来。而是说，在他们每天的关系中，在交谈中，在课堂上，教师会表明自己和学生一样也有忧虑，这样他们就能共同探究恐惧的整个本质和结构。
It must be pointed out that this is not a confessional on the part of the teacher. He is just stating a fact without any emotional, personal emphasis. It is like having a conversation between good friends. This requires a certain honesty and humility. Humility is not servility. Humility is not a sense of defeatism; humility knows neither arrogance nor pride. So the teacher has a tremendous responsibility, for it is the greatest of all professions. He is to bring about a new generation in the world, which again is a fact not a concept. You can make a concept of a fact, and so get lost in concepts, but the actual always remains. Facing the actual, the now, and the fear, is the highest function of the educator - not to bring about only academic excellence - but what is far more important, the psychological freedom of the student and himself.
需要指出的是，这并不是教师的一种忏悔。他只是在陈述事实，没有任何的情绪和个人色彩。就象好朋友之间进行的一次交谈，这需要某种诚实和谦逊。谦逊不是屈从，不是一种失败的感觉，其中既没有自大也没有傲慢。因此教师肩负着巨大的责任。在所有的职业当中，教育是最伟大的。教师将为这个世界造就一代新人，这是一个事实，而不是观念。你可以制造一个关于事实的观念，并迷失在里面，但事实却一直都在。教师的最高职责是面对事实、现在和恐惧。不只是要带来学术上的优秀，更为重要的是带来学生和他自己心灵的自由。
When the nature of freedom is understood, then you eliminate all competition; on the playing field, in the classroom. Is it possible to eliminate altogether the comparative evaluation, academically or ethically? Is it possible to help the student not to think competitively in the academic field and yet to have excellence in his studies, his actions and his daily life? Please bear in mind that we are concerned with the flowering of goodness which cannot possibly flower where there is any competition. Competition exists only when there is comparison, and comparison does not bring about excellence. These schools fundamentally exist to help both the student and the teacher to flower in goodness. This demands excellence in behaviour, in action and in relationship. This is our intent and why these schools have come into being; not to turn out mere careerists but to bring about the excellence of spirit.
当你了解了自由的本质，你就消除了运动场和课堂上的所有竞争。有没有可能完全消除学术上和道德上的比较性评价呢？有没有可能帮助学生在学术领域里不再竞争性地思考，而在学习、行动和每天的生活中依然保持优秀？请记住，我们关心的是善的绽放，而善不可能在有竞争的地方绽放。有比较就会有竞争，而比较不能带来优秀。这些学校存在的根本目的，就是为了帮助学生和教师在善中绽放。这要求完美的行为、行动和关系。这就是我们的目的，也是学校存在的理由。它不只是要培养专业人员，而且要带来心灵的完美。
In our next letter we will continue with the nature of fear; not the word fear but the actual happening of fear.
绿草园翻译工作室
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