给学校的信，1982年1月15日 - 共同思考
自由是共同思考的本质I think it is important to learn the art of thinking together. The scientists and the most uneducated human beings think. They think according to their profession, specialization, and according to their belief and experience. We all think objectively or according to our own particular inclination, but we never seem to think together, to observe together. We may think about something, a particular problem or a similar experience, but this thinking does not go beyond its own limitation. Thinking together not about a particular subject but the capacity to think together is entirely different. To think together is necessary when you are facing the great crisis that is taking place in the world, the danger, the terror, the ultimate brutality of war. To observe this, not as a capitalist, socialist, the extreme left or extreme right, but to observe it together demands that we comprehend not only how we have come to this rotten state,but also that we together perceive a way out. The business man or the politician looks at this problem from a limited point of view, whereas we are saying we must look at life as a whole not as British, French or Chinese.
我认为学习共同思考的艺术是很重要的。科学家和最没受过教育的人都会思考，他们依据自己的职业、专业、信仰和经验来思考。我们都会思考，或者客观，或者依据自己特殊的倾向，但是我们似乎从来不会共同思考，共同观察。我们或许会思考一个特殊的问题或经验，但是这种思考并没有超越它自身的局限。共同思考，不是关于一个特定的主题的思考，而是拥有共同思考的能力，这是完全不同的。在你面对世界上正在发生的重大危机、危险、恐怖，以及战争的极度残暴时，共同思考是必需的。观察这一点，不是作为一个资本主义者或社会主义者，从极左或极右出发，而是共同去观察它，这不仅需要理解我们如何达到了现在这种腐朽的状态，还要共同去发现摆脱它的方法。商人或政治家会从一个有限的观点来看待这个问题，但是我们要说的是，我们必须作为一个整体来看待生活，而不是作为英国人、法国人或中国人。
What does it mean to look at life as a whole? It means to observe the human being, ourselves, without any division of nationality, to see life as one single movement without a beginning and without an end, without time, without death. This is a difficult thing to understand because we think of the part not the totality. We divide, hoping to understand the whole from its part.
什么是“作为一个整体来看待生活”？它的意思是观察人类，我们自己，不带任何国家的分别，把生活看作一个统一的运动，没有开始，没有结束，没有时间，没有死亡。要理解这点是一件困难的事情，因为我们总是考虑局部，而非整体。我们划分，并希望从局部去理解整体。
The art of thinking together needs to be studied carefully, examined to see whether it is at all possible. Each one clings to his own way of thinking according to his own particular reactions, experience, prejudice. This is how we are conditioned, which prevents the capacity to think together. Thinking together does not mean to be of one mind. Our minds can come together about an ideal, an historical conclusion or some philosophic concept and work for that but this is essentially based on authority.
Freedom is the essence of thinking together. You must be free from your concept, prejudice and so on. I also must be free and we come together in this freedom. It means dropping all our conditioning. It implies complete attention without any past. The present world crisis demands that we totally abandon our tribal instincts that have become our glorified nationalisms. Thinking together implies that we totally abandon self-interest identified as the British, the Arab, the Russian and so on.
共同思考的艺术需要被仔细地研究和检查，看看它究竟有没有可能。每个人都依据自己特定的反应、经验、成见而固守自己的思维方式。我们就是这样被局限的，它阻碍了我们共同思考的能力。共同思考并不是指我们的想法完全一样。我们的心能够对于一个理想，一个历史定论，或某个哲学观念达成共识，并且为它去工作，但这根本上是基于权威。自由是共同思考的本质。你必须摆脱你的观念、偏见等等，我也必须是自由的，然后我们在这种自由中走到一起。它意味着丢掉我们所有的局限。它表示不带任何过去地完全地注意。当前世界的危机要求我们完全抛弃那已经被我们美化为爱国主义的部落本能。共同思考意味着我们要完全抛弃自私自利，以及将自己认同为英国人、阿拉伯人、俄国人等等。
Then what is a human being to do facing this danger of separatism, of self-interest? There is the expansionist movement of one power or another, economically, politically, or of one or two bigoted, neurotic leaders. What is a human being to do confronted with this? Either you turn away from it and withdraw into indifference, or you join some political activity, or take refuge in some religious group. You cannot escape from this. It is there.
面对这种自私的分裂性所导致的危险，你该做什么呢？由于一种经济或政治权力要凌驾于另一种之上，或因为一两个偏执的、神经质的领导而产生了扩张活动。面对这些，你该做什么呢？你或者置之不理、漠不关心，或者加入某种政治活动，或者到宗教团体中寻求庇护。你无法逃避它，它就在那儿。
What do I do? I refuse the present pattern of social structures, the nonsensical irreligious ways. I refuse all that. So I am totally isolated. This isolation is not an escape nor some form of ivory tower, some romantic illusion. Because I see the futility, the divisiveness, the pursuit of self-interest of nationalism, of expansionism, of the irreligious life, I reject the total destructiveness of this society. So I stand alone. As I am not contributing psychologically to the destructive consciousness of man, I am in the stream of that which is goodness, compassion and intelligence. That intelligence is acting, confronting the madness of the present world. That intelligence will be acting wherever the ugly is.
我该怎么做呢？我舍弃现有社会结构的模式，舍弃荒谬的非宗教道路，我舍弃所有那些，于是我完全孤立了。这种孤立不是逃进某种形式的象牙塔中，或某种浪漫的幻觉中。因为在对自我利益的追逐中，在爱国主义中，在对外扩张中，在非宗教性的生活中，我看到了徒劳和分裂，于是我舍弃了这个社会的全部破坏性。于是我独立了。由于我心理上不再助长人类的破坏意识，我就进入善、慈悲和智慧之流了。这份智慧在行动，在面对当今世界的疯狂。这份智慧会在任何存在丑陋的地方行动。
绿草园翻译工作室
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