给学校的信，1979年6月15日 - 地位
自私是我们生活的根本问题Most human beings are selfish. They are not conscious of their own selfishness; it is the way of their life. And if one is aware that one is selfish,one hides it very carefully and conforms to the pattern of society which is essentially selfish.The selfish mind is very cunning. Either it is brutally and openly selfish or it takes many forms. If you are a politician the selfishness seeks power, status and popularity; it identifies itself with an idea,a mission and all for the public good. If you are a tyrant it expresses itself in brutal domination. If you are inclined to be religious it takes the form of adoration, devotion, adherence to some belief, some dogma. It also expresses itself in the family; the father pursues his own selfishness in all the ways of his life and so does the mother.
大多数人都是自私的。他们意识不到自己的自私，那是他们的生活方式。如果一个人意识到他是自私的，他会非常小心地隐藏它，以符合社会的规范，那本质上也是自私。自私的心是非常狡猾的。它或者残酷而公开地自私，或者采取各种各样的形式。如果你是一位政客，自私就会寻求权力、地位和声望。它将自身等同于一个理念，一个使命，一切都是为了公众利益。如果你是一个独裁者，它就会通过野蛮的控制来表现自己。如果你有宗教倾向，它采取的形式就会是对信仰或教义的崇拜、奉献和坚持。它也在家庭中表现自己，父亲在他的生活方式中追求自己的自私，母亲也一样。
Fame, prosperity, good looks form a basis for this hidden creeping movement of the self. It is in the hierarchical structure of the priesthood, however much they may proclaim their love of God, their adherence to the self-created image of their particular deity. The captains of industry and the poor clerk have this expanding and benumbing sensuality of the self. The monk who has renounced the ways of the world may wander the face of the world or may be locked away in some monastery but has not left this unending movement of the self. They may change their names, put on robes or take vows of celibacy or silence, but they burn with some ideal, with some image, some symbol.
名望、富贵、美貌构成了这种自我的隐蔽运作的基础。它也存在于牧师的等级结构中，无论他们如何宣称他们对上帝的爱，那是他们对自己制造的神祗形象的忠诚。大企业的首脑和贫穷的雇员都有这种不断扩张和令人麻木的自我癖性。宣布放弃世俗生活的出家人可以在世界上流浪，或者把自己锁在寺院里，但是他们并没有离开这种无休止的自我运动。他们可以改换名字，穿上僧袍，发誓独身或静默，但却被某种理想、形象、符号所煎熬。
It is the same with the scientists, with the philosophers and the professors in the university. The doer of good works, the saints and gurus, the man or the woman who works endlessly for the poor - they all attempt to lose themselves in their work but the work is part of it. They have transferred the egotism to their labours. It begins in childhood and continues to old age. The conceit of knowledge, the practised humility of the leader, the submitting wife and dominating man, all have this disease. The self identifies with the State, with endless groups, with endless ideas and causes but it remains what it was at the beginning.
科学家、哲学家和大学教授也是如此。那些做善事的人，圣徒们和古鲁们，不停为穷人工作的男人或女人们，他们都试图在工作中忘记自我，但工作正是自我的一部分。他们将自我中心转移到他们的劳动中。它从童年开始，一直持续到老年。知识带来的自欺，领导者故意实践的谦卑，屈从的妻子和专横的丈夫，都有这种疾病。自我可以认同于国家，认同于无数的团体，认同于无数的理想和事业，但它实际上并没有改变。
Human beings have tried various practices, methods, meditations to be free of this centre which causes so much misery and confusion, but like a shadow it is never captured. It is always there and it slips through your fingers,through your mind. Sometimes it is strengthened or becomes weak according to circumstances. You corner it here, it turns up there.
人类尝试各种各样的练习、方法、冥想，以摆脱这个引发了诸多苦恼和困惑的自我中心，但是它就像影子一样从未被捕捉到。它一直在那儿，却从你的指缝里，从你的心里溜走了。根据情况的不同，它有时被强化，有时被弱化。你在这里堵住它，它却出现在那里。
One wonders if the educator, who is so responsible for a new generation, understands non-verbally what a mischievous thing the self is,how corrupting, distorting, how dangerous it is in our lives. He may not know how to be free of it, he may not even be aware it is there but once he sees the nature of the movement of the self can he or she convey its subtleties to the student? And is it not his responsibility to do this? The insight into the working of the self is greater than academic learning. Knowledge can be used by the self for its own expansion, its aggressiveness, its innate cruelty.
我在想，教育者，对下一代负有责任的人，是否真正理解，而不仅是口头上理解，自我是一个多么有害的东西，它对我们的生活是多么的败坏、扭曲和危险。他也许不知道如何摆脱它，甚至也许意识不到它的存在，但是一旦看到了自我运作的本质，他能否向学生描述它的微妙？这难道不是教师的责任吗？深入洞察自我的运作远比学业更为重要。知识也可以被自我用于它的扩张、侵略和固有的残忍。
Selfishness is the essential problem of our life. Conforming and imitation are part of the self, as is competition and the ruthlessness of talent. If the educator in these schools takes this question to his heart seriously, which I hope he does,then how will he help the student to be selfless? You might say it is a gift of the strange gods or brush it aside as being impossible. But if you are serious, as one must be, and are totally responsible for the student, how will you set about freeing the mind from this ageless binding energy? - the self which has caused so much sorrow?
自私是我们生活的根本问题。顺应和模仿是自我的一部分，竞争和才能带来的冷酷无情也是。在这些学校里，如果教师把这个问题认真地放在心里，这是我的希望，那么他会如何帮助学生成为无私的呢？你或许会说它是碰运气的事，或者认为那是不可能的而置之不理。但是如果你是严肃的，而一个人应该如此，并对学生完全地负责，你会如何开始让心灵从这个古老的、制约的能量，这个导致了那么多苦难的自我中解脱出来呢？
Would you not, with great care - which implies affection - explain in simple words what the consequences are when he speaks in anger, or when he hits somebody, or when he is thinking of his own importance? Is it not possible to explain to him that when he insists "this is mine" or boasts "I did it" or avoids through fear a certain action, he is building a wall, brick by brick, around himself? Is it not possible when his desires, his sensations overpower his rational thinking, to point out that the shadow of self is growing? Is it not possible to say to him that where the self is,in any guise, there is no love?
在学生带着怒气说话的时候，在他打人的时候，在他考虑自己的重要性的时候，你会不会带着巨大的关怀，那意味着慈爱，用简单的话语解释那样做的后果？当他坚持“这是我的”，或炫耀“那是我做的”，或由于恐惧而逃避某个行动时，向他解释他正在一点点地在自己周围建造一堵墙，难道不是可能的吗？当他的欲望，他的激情压倒了他的理性，指出自我的阴影正在扩大，难道不是可能的吗？告诉他，无论如何伪装，有自我的地方就没有爱，难道不是可能的吗？
But the student might ask the educator, "Have you realized all this or are you just playing with words"? That very question might awaken your own intelligence and that very intelligence will give you the right feeling and the right words as answer.
但是学生可能会问教师，“你领悟所有这些了吗，还是你只是在玩弄文字？” 可能恰恰是这个问题唤醒了你自己的智慧，而那个智慧会给你准确的感觉和语言做出回答。
As an educator you have no status; you are a human being with all the problems of life like a student. The moment you speak from status you are actually destroying the human relation. Status implies power and when you are seeking this, consciously or unconsciously, you enter a world of cruelty. You have a great responsibility, my friend, and if you take this total responsibility which is love, then the roots of the self are gone. This is not said as an encouragement or to make you feel that you must do this, but as we are all human beings, representing the whole of mankind, we are totally and wholly responsible whether we choose to be or not. You may try to evade it but that very movement is the action of the self. Clarity of perception is freedom from the self.
作为一个教师，你没有特别的地位。你是一个人，带着所有生活的问题，和学生一样。一旦你出于地位来说话，你就在破坏人与人的关系。地位意味着权力，当你有意或无意地寻求它的时候，你就进入了一个残酷的世界。你拥有巨大的责任，我的朋友，如果你承担这完全的责任，也就是爱，那么自我的根基就消失了。这样说不是在鼓励你，或者让你觉得你必须这么做，但是因为我们都是人，代表着全体人类，我们负有完全的责任，无论我们是否这样选择。你可以试图回避它，但那个活动恰恰是自我的行为。清晰的感知就是从自我的解脱。
绿草园翻译工作室
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