给学校的信，1979年8月15日 - 文字
文字妨碍真实的感知The greatest art is the art of living, greater than all things that human beings have created, by mind or hand, greater than all the scriptures and their gods. It is only through this art of living that a new culture can come into being. It is the responsibility of every teacher, especially in these schools, to bring this about. This art of living can come only out of total freedom.
最伟大的艺术就是生活的艺术，它比人类用大脑或双手创造的任何东西都伟大，比所有的经典和它们的神明都伟大。只有通过生活的艺术，一种新的文化才会产生。实现它是每一位教师的责任，特别是在这些学校里。这种生活的艺术只能来自于完全的自由。
This freedom is not an ideal, a thing to take place eventually. The first step in freedom is the last step in it. It is the first step that counts, not the last step. What you do now is far more essential than what you do at some future date. Life is what is happening this instant, not an imagined instant, not what thought has conceived. So it is the first step you take now that is important. If that step is in the right direction, then the whole of life is open to you. The right direction is not towards an ideal, a predetermined end. It is inseparable from that which is taking place now. This is not a philosophy, a series of theories. It is exactly what the word philosophy means - the love of truth, the love of life.It is not something that you go to the university to learn. We are learning about the art of living in our daily life.
这种自由不是一个理想，一件最终要发生的事情。自由的第一步就是最后一步。重要的是第一步，而不是最后一步。你现在做什么远比你将来某个日子做什么重要。生活就是这个刹那发生的事情，不是想象的刹那，不是思想虚构的东西。因此重要的是你现在走出的第一步。如果这一步是朝着正确的方向，那么整个生活就会对你敞开。正确的方向不是朝着一个理想，一个预设的目标。它和现在正发生的事情是分不开的。这不是哲学，不是一套理论。它正是哲学这个词的确切意思——对真理的爱，对生活的爱。这不是你到大学里去学的东西。我们是在每天的生活中学习生活的艺术。
We live by words and words become our prison. The words are necessary to communicate but the word is never the thing. The actual is not the word but the word becomes all-important when it has taken the place of that which is. You may observe this phenomenon when the description has become the reality instead of the thing itself - the symbol we worship, the shadow we follow, the illusion we cling to. And so words, the language, shape our reactions. Language becomes the compelling force and our minds are shaped and controlled by the word. The word nation, state, God, family and so on envelop us with all their associations and so our minds become slaves to the pressure of words.
我们靠文字生活，文字成了我们的监狱。文字对交流来说是必要的，但是文字从来不是事物本身。事实不是文字，但是当文字代替了事实，文字就成了首要的。当对事物的描述——我们崇拜的符号，我们追随的影子，我们紧抓的幻象——成了代替事物本身的事实时，你可以观察到这个现象。文字、语言塑造了我们的反应。语言成了巨大的力量，我们的内心被文字塑造并控制。民族、国家、上帝、家庭等词汇携带着它们所有的联想包围着我们，于是我们的心灵变成了文字压力的奴隶。
Questioner: How is this to be avoided?
Krishnamurti: The word is never the thing. The word wife is never the person, the door is never the thing. The word prevents the actual perception of the thing or person because the word has many associations. These associations, which are actually remembrances, distort not only visual observation but psychological. Words then become a barrier to the free flow of observation. Take the words Prime Minister and clerk. They describe functions but the words Prime Minister have tremendous significance of power, status and importance whereas the word clerk has associations of unimportance, little status and no power. So the word prevents you from looking at both of them as human beings. There is ingrained snobbery in most of us, and to see what words have done to our thinking and to be choicelessly aware of it, is to learn the art of observation - to observe without association.
提问者：如何避免这样的情况呢？
克：文字绝不是那个东西。妻子这个词绝不是那个人，门这个词并不是门。文字妨碍了对事物或人的真实觉察，因为文字携带着很多联想。这些联想实际上就是记忆，它们不仅扭曲了视觉上的观察，也扭曲了心理上的观察。于是文字妨碍了观察的自由流动。例如“首相”和“职员”这两个词。他们描述的都是职务，但是首相这个词带有强烈的权力、地位和重要性的含义，而职员这个词则会产生不重要、地位卑微和没有权力的联想。因此，文字阻碍你将二者都作为人来看待。我们大多数人内心都存在着根深蒂固的势利。看到文字对我们的思维产生了什么样的影响，无选择地觉知它，就是学习观察的艺术——不带联想的观察。
Questioner: I understand what you say but again the speed of association is so instantaneous that the reaction takes place before one realizes it. Is it possible to prevent this?
Krishnamurti: Is this not a wrong question? Who is to prevent it? Is it another symbol, another word, another idea? If it is, then one has not seen the whole significance of the enslavement of the mind by words, language. You see, we use words emotionally;it is a form of emotional thinking, apart from the use of technological words such as metres, numbers, which are precise. In human relationship and activity, emotions play a great part. Desire is very strong, sustained by thought creating the image. The image is the word, is the picture, and this follows our pleasure, our desire. So the whole way of our life is shaped by the word and its associations. To see this entire process as a whole isis to see the truth of how thought prevents perception.
提问者：我理解你说的话。但联想的速度是如此之快，在你意识到它之前，反应已经发生了。有可能阻止它吗？
克：这难道不是一个错误的问题吗？谁要去阻止它？是另一个符号，另一个文字，另一个想法吗？如果是的话，那么你就没有看到文字、语言奴役心灵的完整意义。你知道，我们带着情绪使用文字，它是情绪化思考的一种形式，除了技术性词汇的使用之外，比如在数字或计量中，这样是精确的。在人类的关系和活动中，情绪扮演着重要的角色。被思想制造的形象支撑的欲望是非常强大的。形象就是文字、图案，它们紧随着我们的快感和欲望。因此，我们整个的生活方式都在被文字和与之相关的联想塑造着。将这些作为一个整体，看到它的全部过程，就是看到思想如何妨碍感知这个事实。
Questioner: Are you saying that there is no thinking without words?
Krishnamurti: Yes, more or less. Please bear in mind that we are talking about the art of living, learning about it, not memorizing the words. We are learning; not we teaching and you becoming a silly disciple. You are asking if there is thinking without words. This is a very important question. Our whole thinking is based on memory, and memory is based on words, images, symbols, pictures. All these are words.
提问者：你是说没有文字就没有思考？
克：对，差不多是这样。请记住我们是在谈论生活的艺术，学习它，不是要记住文字。我们是在学习，不是我来教导，而你成为一个愚蠢的门徒。你在问是否存在没有文字的思考，这是一个很重要的问题。我们全部思考都是基于记忆，而记忆是基于文字、形象、符号、图像，所有这些都是文字。
Questioner: But what one remembers is not a word; it is an experience, an emotional event, a picture of a person or a place. The word is a secondary association.
Krishnamurti: We are using the word to describe all this. After all, the word is a symbol to indicate that which has happened or is happening, to communicate or to evoke something. Is there a thinking without this whole process? Yes, there is,but it should not be called thinking. Thinking implies a cont- tinuation of memory but perception is not the activity of thought. It is really insight into the whole nature and movement of the word, the symbol, the image and their emotional involvements. To see this as a whole is to give the word its right place.
提问者：但是一个人记住的不是文字，它是经验，带有情绪的事件，一个人或场所的画面。文字是次一级的联想。
克：我们正在用文字描述所有这些东西。文字毕竟是一种符号，用来指示已经发生或正在发生的事情，用来表达或唤起什么。如果没有这整个的过程，还有没有思考？有，不过它不该被称为思考。思考意味着记忆的延续，但是感知不是思想的活动。它实际上是对文字、符号、形象以及它们的情绪化缠绕这整个运动的本质的洞察。整体地看待这些，就是给予文字一个恰当的位置。
[color=navy]Questioner: But what does it mean to see the whole? You say this often. What do you mean by it? [/color]
Krishnamurti: Thought is divisive because in itself it is limited. To observe wholly implies the non-interference of thought - to observe without the past as knowledge blocking the observation. Then the observer is not, for the observer is the past, the very nature of thought.
克：思想导致分裂，因为它本质上是有限的。整体的观察意味着没有思想的干涉，没有作为知识的过去的阻碍。此时观察者就不存在了，因为观察者是过去，而这正是思想的本质。
Questioner: Are you asking us to stop thought?
Krishnamurti: Again, if we may point out, that is a wrong question. If thought tells itself to stop thinking, it creates duality and conflict. This is the very divisive process of thought. If you really grasp the truth of this, then naturally thought is in abeyance. Thought then has its own limited place.Thought then will not take over the whole expanse of life, which it is doing now.
提问者：你在要求我们停止思想吗？
克：如果我们可以指出的话，那又是一个错误的问题。如果思想命令自己停止思考，它就制造了二元性和冲突。这正是思想引起分裂的过程。如果你真正理解了这个真相，那么思想自然就停息了。然后思想就拥有了自身有限的位置。思想就不会再像现在这样掌管生活的整个领域了。
Questioner: Sir, I see what extraordinary attention is needed. Can I really have that attention, am I serious enough to give my whole energy to this?
Krishnamurti: Can energy be divided at all? The energy expended in earning a livelihood, in having a family, and in being serious enough to grasp what is being said is all energy. But thought divides it and so we expend much energy on living and very little on the other. This is the art in which there is no division. This is the whole of life.
提问者：先生，我知道这需要非同寻常的注意力。我真的能拥有那种注意力吗？我能拥有足够的认真，对此投入我全部的能量吗？
克：能量能被分割吗？能量被消耗在谋生上面，在拥有一个家庭上面，也用在认真领会正在说的这些话上面。这都是能量。但是思想使它分裂，所以我们将很多能量用在谋生上面，而很少用在其他方面。这种生活的艺术就是没有分裂的艺术。这就是完整的生活。
绿草园翻译工作室
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