给学校的信，1983年2月15日- 知识的局限
我们并未从战争中吸取经验，依旧重复着残忍和兽行Intelligence is not the consequence of discipline. It is not a by-product of thought. Thought is the result of knowledge and ignorance. There can be no discipline without love. The discipline of thought, though it has certain values, leads to conformity. Conformity is the way of discipline as it is generally understood to imitate and follow a pattern. Discipline really means to learn, not to bow down to a standard; from childhood we are told to mould ourselves according to a religious or social structure, to control ourselves, to obey. Discipline is based on reward and punishment. Discipline is inherent in every subject: If you want to be a good golfer or tennis player, it demands that you pay attention to every stroke, to respond quickly and gracefully. The very game has its intrinsic natural order. This instructive order has gone out of our life, which has become chaotic, ruthless, competitive, seeking power with all its pleasures.
智慧并非纪律的结果，也不是思想的副产品。思想是知识与愚昧的结果。思想的纪律——思想当然有它一定的价值——只会导致模仿。我们普遍上所理解的纪律的方式便是一致性，去模仿和遵循某种模式。但纪律真正的意思是去学习，而非屈从于某一标准。没有爱便没有纪律。
从孩提时，我们便被告知要去按照某种宗教或是社会的结构来塑造自己，要去控制自己，要去服从。那种纪律是基于奖励和惩罚的。纪律是每个学科所固有的。如果你想成一个好的高尔夫运动员或是网球手，这需要你注意每一次击打，反应迅速并优雅；这游戏有着它内在的自然的秩序。这种良好的秩序却在我们的生活里消失了，它变得混乱，无情并充满了竞争，在其中我们寻求权力，以及与之相伴的各种快感。
Discipline implies, does it not, learning the whole complex movement of life social, personal and beyond personal? Our life is fragmented and we try to understand each fragment or integrate the fragments. Recognizing all this, the mere imposition of discipline and certain concepts becomes rather meaningless, but without some form of control most of us go berserk. Certainly inhibitions hold us, compel us to follow tradition.
纪律难道不是隐含着这样的意思么，即对于生活的整个复杂的运动的学习——社会的，个人的和非个人的？我们的生活支离破碎，而我们试图去了解每一个碎片或是去整合他们。如果我们认清这一切，那么那些仅仅是强加上一些纪律以及观念就变得非常没有意义。而如果没有某种形式的控制的话，我们中的大多数会变得狂暴。一些束缚控制着我们，强制我们去遵循传统。
One realizes that there must be a certain order in our life and is it possible to have order without any form of compulsion, without any pressure and essentially without reward or punishment? The social order is chaotic; there is injustice, the rich and poor and so on. Every reformer tries to bring about social equality, and apparently not one of them has succeeded. Governments try to impose order by force, by law, by subtle propaganda. Though we may put a lid on all this, the pot is still boiling.
So we must approach the problem differently. We have tried in every sort of way to civilize, to tame man and this too has not been very successful. Every war indicates barbarism, whether it is a holy war or a political war. So we must come back to the question: can there be order that is not the result of contriving thought?
我们识到在生活中需要有某种秩序。如果没有任何形式的强迫，没有任何压力，并且从根本上，没有奖赏和惩罚，秩序是否可能存在？社会的秩序是混乱的。这里有着不公正——贫穷和富有，等等。每一个改革者都试图带来社会的平等，但是很显然他们都没有成功。政府也试图通过武力，法律和巧妙的宣传来施加某种秩序。这不过是在自欺欺人。所以我们必须以非常不同的方式来着手这个问题。我们也曾试过各种方式来教化人们，去驯化他，而这，也不是很成功。每一场战争都是野蛮的，无论是宗教的圣战，还是由政治而引起的战争。所以我们必须回到这个问题：有没有这样一种秩序，它不是思想人为制造的。
Discipline means the art of learning. For most of us learning means storing up memory, reading a great many books, being able to quote from various authors, collecting words so as to write, speak or convey other people's ideas or one's own. It is to act efficiently as an engineer or a scientist, a musician or a good mechanic. One may excel in the knowledge of these things and thus make oneself more and more capable of having money, power and position. This is generally accepted as learning: to accumulate knowledge and to act from that; or, through action, to accumulate knowledge, which comes to the same. This has been our tradition, our custom, and so we are always living and learning in the field of the known. We are not suggesting there is something unknown but to have an insight into the activities of the known, its limitations, its dangers and its endless continuity. The story of man is this. We do not learn from wars: we repeat wars, and brutality and bestiality continue with their corruption.
到这个问题：有没有这样一种秩序，它不是思想人为制造的。
纪律意味着学习的艺术。多于我们大多数人来说，学习意味着存储记忆，读一大堆书，可以引用不同作者的话，收集词汇去写作，讲话或者传达他人或自己的主张，从而可以作为一个工程师，科学家，音乐家和好的技工而表现得卓有成效。我们能够在这些方面的知识里表现得很优秀，也因此让自己变得越来越能够获得金钱，权力和地位。这就是被普遍所接受的学习的含义——积累知识并基于此来行动，或者通过行动来积累知识，其结果都是一样的。这就是我们的传统，我们的习俗，因此我们永远生活并学习在已知的领域里。我们不是建议说有某个未知的东西，而是说要对已知的活动有一种洞见，它的局限，它的危险和它永无休止的的连续性。人类的故事就是如此。我们并未从战争里吸取教训，我们重复着战争；而残忍和兽行仍在带着它们的腐朽继续着。
Only if we actually see the limitation of knowledge that the more we pile up, the more barbarous we are becoming can we begin to enquire into what is order that is not imposed externally or self-imposed, for both imply conformity and so endless conflict. Conflict is disorder. The apprehension of all this is attention, not concentration, and attention is the essence of intelligence and love. This naturally brings the order which has no compulsion.
只有当我们真切地认识到知识的局限时——我们积累得越多，我们其实是在变得越野蛮——我们才能开始询问什么是秩序，它既非外部强加的也非自我的强制，因为那都意味着顺从和无休止的冲突。冲突就是混乱。对这些的完整的理解便是注意，它不是专注，注意就是智慧与爱的本质。它很自然地带来没有强迫的秩序。
Now as educators, as parents which is the same is it not possible for us to convey this to our students and children? They may be too young to understand all that we have just read. We see the difficulties and these very difficulties will prevent us from grasping the greater issue. So I am not making this into a problem: I am just very much aware of what is chaos and what is order. These two have no relation to each other. One is not born out of the other. And I am not denying one or accepting the other. But the flowering seed of perception will bring right, correct action.
现在，作为教育者和作为父母，他们是一样的，我们不能把这传达给我们的学生和孩子吗？也许他们还太年轻以至于无法理解我们刚刚所读的全部。我们看到了这些困难，而正式这些困难阻碍我们去掌握更重要的主题。我没把这制造成一个问题；我只是非常清楚地觉知到什么是混乱，什么是秩序。这两者没有关系。一个不出自另一个；我也不是在拒绝一个而接受另一个。
清晰观察的种子的绽放将会带来正确的行动。
绿草园翻译工作室
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