给学校的信，1980年2月1日 - 看清事实
人们活在与日常生活无关的思想和信念中Cruelty is an infectious disease and one must strictly guard oneself against it. Some students seem to have this peculiar infection and they somehow gradually dominate the others. Probably they feel it is very manly, for their elders are often cruel in their words, in their attitudes,in their gestures, in their pride.This cruelty exists in the world. The responsibility of the student and please remember with what significance we are using that word - is to avoid any form of cruelty.
残忍是一种传染病，你必须严格防范它。一些学生似乎受到了这种特别的传染，会以某种方式逐渐支配别人。或许他们感到这非常有男子气概，因为他们的长辈经常在语言、态度、姿势和傲慢中表现出残忍。残忍存在于这个世界上。学生的责任——请记住我们通过“责任”这个词所表达的含义——就是避免任何形式的残忍。
Once many years ago I was invited to talk at a school in California and as I entered the school a boy of ten or so was passing me with a large bird, caught in a trap, whose legs were broken.I stopped and looked at the boy without saying a word. His face expressed fear and when I finished the talk and came out the boy - a stranger - came up to me with tears in his eyes and said, "`Sir, it will never happen again." He was afraid that I would tell the headmaster and there would be a scene about it and as I didn't say a word to either the boy or the headmaster about the cruel incident, his awareness of the terrible thing he had done made him realize the enormity of the act.
许多年以前，有一次我被邀请到加州的一所学校演讲。在我进入学校的时候，一个十来岁的男孩带着一只被夹断腿的大鸟走过。我停下来，注视着他，什么都没有说。他的脸上显示出恐惧。当我结束演讲出来，这个男孩，一个陌生人，走过来，眼含泪水说：“先生，那不会再发生了。”他担心我会告诉校长，而引起一场关于这件事的争吵。但是无论对男孩还是校长，关于这件残忍的事情，我什么都没有说。对自己做的这件可怕的事情的觉知，使他认识到这个行为的严重性。
It is important to be aware of one's own activities and if there is affection then cruelty has no place in our life at any time. In western countries you see the birds carefully nurtured and later in the season shot for sport and then eaten. The cruelty of hunting, killing small animals, has become part of our civilization, like war, like torture, and the acts of terrorists and kidnappers. In our intimate personal relationships there is also a great deal of cruelty, anger, hurting each other.
觉知我们的活动是非常重要的。无论什么时候，只要有热情，残忍在我们的生活中就没有位置。在西方国家，你会看到鸟儿被精心饲养，然后在狩猎季节为了取乐而被射杀并吃掉。狩猎、杀害小动物的残忍行为已经成了我们文明的一部分，就像战争、刑罚、恐怖和绑架一样。在我们亲密的私人关系中也存在着大量的残忍、愤怒和相互伤害。
The world has become a dangerous place in which to live and in our schools any form of coercion, threat, anger must be totally and completely avoided for all these harden the heart and mind, and affection cannot co-exist with cruelty.
You understand, as a student, how important it is to realize that any form of cruelty not only hardens your heart but perverts your thinking,distorts your actions. The mind, like the heart, is a delicate instrument, sensitive and very capable, and when cruelty and oppression touch it then there is a hardening of the self. Affection, love, has no centre as the self.
对生存来说，世界已经成了一个危险的地方。在我们的学校里，必须完全避免任何形式的强迫、恐吓、愤怒，因为所有这些都让心灵和头脑变得僵硬，而友爱和残忍是不能共存的。任何形式的残忍不仅让你的心灵僵硬，而且会扭曲你的思考，你的行为。你要知道，作为一个学生，认识到这一点是多么的重要。头脑和心灵一样，是个精密的仪器，既敏感又有能力，当残忍和压迫碰触到它时，就会导致自我的僵化。友爱、爱没有自我那样的中心。
Now having read this and having understood so far what is said, what will you do about it? You have studied what has been said, you are learning the content of these words; what then is your action? Your response is not merely to study and learn but also to act. Most of us know and are aware of all the implications of cruelty and of what it actually does both outwardly and inwardly, and leave it at that without doing anything about it - thinking one thing and doing just the opposite.This not only breeds a great deal of conflict but also hypocrisy. Most students do not like to be hypocrites; they like to look at facts but they do not always act. So the responsibility of the student isis to see the facts about cruelty and without any persuasion or cajoling understand what is implied and do something about it. The doing is perhaps a greater responsibility. People generally live with ideas and beliefs totally unrelated to their daily life and so this naturally becomes hypocrisy. So don't be a hypocrite - which doesn't mean you must be rude, aggressive or overly critical. When there is affection there is inevitably courtesy without hypocrisy.
那么，读过这些话，并且对它们有了相当的理解，你会做什么呢？你学习了前面说的东西，你正在领会这些话的内容。那么你的行动是什么呢？你的回应不仅是学习和领会，还要行动。我们大多数人都知道并且觉知到残忍的全部内容，以及它实际的影响，包括内在和外在。我们对此什么也没有做，我们的思想和行为是相反的。这不仅会导致大量的冲突，也会导致虚伪。大多数学生都不想成为虚伪的人，他们想看事实，但是他们不一定会行动。因此学生的责任是看到残忍的事实，去理解它的内涵，并且对它做些什么，而这不是因为任何的劝说和哄骗。做或许是更重要的责任。人们通常会容忍与如何处理日常生活毫不相关的想法和信念，这自然会变成虚伪。所以不要成为虚伪的人，这并不意味着你必须粗鲁、好斗或过分地批评。当你内心有友爱的时候，就必然会有不含虚伪的谦卑。
What is the responsibility of the teacher who has studied, learned, and acts toward the student? Cruelty has many forms. A look, a gesture, a sharp remark, and above all comparison. Our whole educational system is based on comparison. A is better than B and so B must conform to or imitate A. This in essence is cruelty, and ultimately its expression is examinations; so what is the responsibility of the educator who sees the truth of this? How will he teach any subject without reward and punishment, knowing that there must be some kind of report indicating the capacity of the student? Can the teacher do this? Is it compatible with affection? If the central reality of affection is there, has comparison any place at all? Can the teacher eliminate in himself the pain of comparison? Our whole civilization is based on hierarchical comparison both outwardly and inwardly which denies the sense of deep affection. Can we eliminate from our minds the better, the more, the stupid, the clever, this whole comparative thinking? If the teacher has understood the pain of comparison what is his responsibility in his teaching and in his action? A person who has really grasped the significance of the pain of comparison is acting from intelligence.
已经在学习、了解并且行动的教师，他对学生的责任是什么？残忍有多种形式：它能够存在于一瞥中，一个手势中，一个尖刻的评论中，特别是比较中。我们的教育制度是建立在比较之上的。我们说甲比乙好，因此乙必须符合或者模仿甲的样子，这本质上就是残忍，它最终表现在考试上。看到了这个真相，教育者的责任是什么？他将如何教授一门课程，而又不使用奖惩的手段，尽管他知道必须要对学生的能力有某种形式的报告？教师能这样做吗？它和友爱是相容的吗？如果友爱这个主要的事实在那里的话，还会有比较存在吗？教师能在自己内心消除比较的痛苦吗？我们的整个文明都建立在内在和外在的等级比较中，它否定了深刻的友爱。我们能否从我们的心中消除更好、更多、愚蠢的、聪明的，这整个的比较思维？如果教师了解比较的痛苦，那么在他的教学和行动当中，他的责任是什么呢？
真正了解了比较的痛苦，一个人就会从智慧中行动。
绿草园翻译工作室
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