给学校的信，1983年11月15日- 唯有学习
学习带来人与人之间的平等By watching perhaps you learn more than from books. Books are necessary to learn a subject whether it be mathematics, geography, history, physics or chemistry. The books have printed on a page the accumulated knowledge of scientists, of philosophers, of archaeologists and so on. This accumulated knowledge, which one learns in school and then through college or university, if one is lucky enough to go to university, has been gathered through the ages, from the very ancient of days. There is great accumulated knowledge from India, from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Greeks, the Romans and of course the Persians.
通过观察，也许你能够比从书本学到的更多。书籍对于学习一门学科来说是必须的，无论它是数学，地理，历史，物理或者化学。书籍将那些科学家，哲学家，考古学家等等所积累的知识印制在纸张上。人们在学校里，通过学院或大学，如果你足够幸运地能够进入大学的话，所学到的这些积累起来的知识是从很久以前便开始的，通过很多个时代所收集起来的。有大量来源于印度，古埃及，美索不达米亚，希腊，罗马的知识，当然还有波斯。
In the Western world as well as in the Eastern world this knowledge is necessary to have a career, to do any job, whether mechanical or theoretical, practical or something that you have to think out, invent. This knowledge has brought about a great deal of technology, especially within this century. There is the knowledge of the so-called sacred books, the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bible, the Koran and the Hebrew Scriptures. So there are the religious books and pragmatic books, books that will help you to have knowledge, to act skilfully, whether you are an engineer, a biologist or a carpenter.
无论在东方还是西方，对于拥有一份职业或任何工作来说，无论它是机械性的，还是理论性的，实用性的或者需要你用脑去发明的, 知识都是必需的。这些知识带来了大量的技术，特别是在二十世纪。还有所谓的圣书的知识，吠陀，奥义书，圣经，古兰经和希伯来的经书。有宗教方面的书籍也有实用方面的书籍。书可以帮助你拥有知识，富有技巧地做事，无论是作为一个工程师，生物学家或是一名木匠。
Most of us in any school, and particularly in these schools, gather knowledge, information, and that is what schools have existed for so far: to gather a great deal of information about the world outside, about the heavens, why the sea is salty, why the trees grow, about human beings, their anatomy, the structure of the brain and so on. And also about the world around you, nature, the social environment, economics and so much else. Such knowledge is absolutely necessary but knowledge is always limited. However much it may evolve, the gathering of knowledge is always limited. Learning is part of acquiring this knowledge of various subjects so that you can have a career, a job that might please you, or one that circumstances, social demands may have forced you to accept though you may not like very much to do that kind of work.
在任何学校里，特别地说在这些学校里，我们中的大多数都在获取知识和信息。这就是到目前为止学校存在的目的，获取大量的信息，关于外面的世界，关于天空，为什么海是咸的，为什么树会成长，以及有关人类，他们的解剖结构，大脑的结构，等等，也有关于你周围世界的，自然界，社会环境，经济学，等等很多很多。这些知识是绝对必需的，但知识总是有限的。无论它将如何地演变，知识的收集永远是有限的。学习是获取这类各种学科知识过程的一部分，这样你才能拥有一份职业，或工作，也许它令你愉悦，也许那只是环境或社会需要强迫你接受的，尽管你可能不怎么喜欢那类工作。
But as we said, you learn a great deal by watching, watching the things about you, watching the birds, the tree, watching the heavens, the stars, the constellation of Orion, the Dipper, the Evening star. You learn just by watching not only the things around you but also by watching people, how they walk, their gestures, the words they use, how they are dressed. You not only watch that which is outside but also you watch yourself, why you think this or that, your behaviour, the conduct of your daily life, why parents want you to do this or that. You are watching, not resisting. If you resist you don't learn. Or if you come to some kind of conclusion, some opinion you think is right and hold on to that, then naturally you will never learn. Freedom is necessary to learn, and curiosity, a sense of wanting to know why you or others behave in a certain way, why people are angry, why you get annoyed.
正如我们曾说过的，你能够从观察中学到很多——观察有关你的事情，观察鸟，观察树，观察天空，繁星，猎户星座，北斗七星，这夜空的星。通过看，你就能学到东西, 不仅去看你周围的事, 也去看别人, 他们如何行走, 他们的姿势, 用语, 穿着。你不仅观察外部的东西，你还观察你自己，为什么你思考这个或者那个，你的举止，你的日常行为，为什么你的父母要你做这做那。
你在看, 而没有抵触。如果你在抵触, 你就不在学习。或者你得到某些结论，某个意见你觉着是正确的，并坚持不放，你自然就不再学习了。自由对于学习来说是必需的，好奇也是，你想要知道你或别人为何用某种方式行为处事的感觉，为什么人们会生气，为什么你感到烦恼。
Learning is extraordinarily important because learning is endless. Learning why human beings kill each other for instance. Of course there are explanations in books, all the psychological reasons why human beings behave in their own particular manner, why human beings are violent. All this has been explained in books of various kinds by eminent authors, psychologists and so on. But what you read is not what you are. What you are, how you behave, why you get angry, envious, why you get depressed, if you watch yourself you learn much more than from a book that tells you what you are.
学习非常的重要，因为学习是没有止境的。比如，学习为什么人们相互残杀。当然，书上有种种解释, 解释所有这些心理上的原因，为什么人们有某种特殊的行为方式，为什么人们是暴力的。所有这些都在各种书里被那些知名作家，心理学家等等人解释过了。但是你所读到的不是你。如果你观察自己，你是怎样的，你如何行为处事，为什么生气，嫉妒，为什么沮丧，你将学到比书本上告诉你的要多得多的东西。
But you see it is easier to read a book about yourself than to watch yourself. The brain is accustomed to gather information from all external actions and reactions. Don't you find it much more comforting to be directed, for others to tell you what you should do? Your parents, especially in the East, tell you whom you should marry and arrange the marriage, tell you what your career should be. So the brain accepts the easy way and the easy way is not always the right way.
但读一本关于你自己的书比观察自己更容易。大脑习惯于从外部的行为和反应里去收集所有的那些信息。你难道不觉着被指导，被别人告诉应该怎么做会更舒服吗？你的父母，特别是在东方，告诉你应该和谁结婚并安排这场婚姻，告诉你应该从事什么事业。所以大脑接受了这种容易的方式，但容易的方式并不一定是正确的方式。
I wonder if you have noticed that nobody loves their work any more, except perhaps a few scientists, artists, archaeologists. But the ordinary, average man seldom loves what he is doing. He is compelled by society, by his parents or by the urge to have more money. So learn by watching very, very carefully the external world, the world outside you, and the inner world; that is, the world of yourself.
我在想你是否注意到没有人还再喜欢他们自己的工作，可能除了少数科学家，艺术家和考古学家。一般普通人很少会喜欢他所作的事情。他被社会，被父母，被赚钱的渴望所驱使。所以要通过非常非常仔细的观察来学习，观察外在世界，即你之外的世界，观察内在世界，即你自己的世界。
There appear to be two ways of learning: one is acquiring a great deal of knowledge, first through study and then by acting from that knowledge. That is what most of us do. The second is to act, to do something and learn through doing, and that also becomes the accumulation of knowledge. Really both are the same: learning from a book or acquiring knowledge through action. Both are based upon knowledge, experience, and as we have said, experience and knowledge are always limited.
看起来有两种学习方式。第一种是先通过学习获取大量的知识，然后再从知识出发去行动。这是我们通常所作的。第二种是去行动，去做，然后在行动中学习；而那也变成了知识的积累。实际上二者是一样的——从书中学习和从行动里获取知识。二者都是基于知识，经验；而正如所说的，经验和知识一定是有限的。
So both the educator and the student should find out what actually learning is. For example you learn from a guru if he is at all the right kind, a sane guru, not the moneymaking guru, not one of those who want to be famous and trot off to different countries to gather a fortune through their rather unbalanced theories. Find out what it is to learn. Today learning is becoming more and more a form of entertainment.
所以老师和学生都应该去发现什么是真正的学习。例如，你可以向一个古鲁来学习，如果他的确是健全的——一个理性的古鲁，而不是一个赚钱的古鲁，不是那些想要通过他们那些杂七杂八的理论去获取名声和奔走于各个国家来聚敛财富的古鲁。去发现学习是什么。在今天，学习正在变得越来越像是一种娱乐。
In some Western schools when they have passed high school, secondary school, the students do not even know how to read and write. And when you do know how to read and write and learn various subjects you are all such mediocre people. Do you know what the word mediocrity means? The root meaning is to go half way up the hill, never reaching the top. That is mediocrity: never demanding the excellent, the very highest thing of yourself. And learning is infinite, it really has no end.
在一些西方的学校里，学生们甚至上完中学都还不知道如何去读和写；而当你学会如何读和写，并学习各种科目，你又成了彻头彻尾的平庸的人。你知道平庸这个词意味着什么吗？它词根的意思是登山走了一半，却从不去到达山顶。那就是平庸，从不渴求卓越，自己的最高的潜力。学习是无限的，没有止境的。
So from whom are you learning? From the books? From the educator? And perhaps, if your mind is bright, by watching? So far it appears you are learning from the outside: learning, accumulating knowledge and from that knowledge acting, establishing your career and so on. If you are learning from yourself or rather if you are learning by watching yourself, your prejudices, your definite conclusions, your beliefs, if you are watching the subtleties of your thought, your vulgarity, your sensitivity, then you become yourself the teacher and the taught. Then you do not depend inwardly on anybody, not on any book, not on the specialist though of course if you are ill and have some sort of disease you have to go to a specialist, that is natural, that is necessary. But to depend on somebody, however excellent he may be, prevents you from learning about yourself and what you are. And it is very, very important to learn what you are because what you are brings about this society which is so corrupt, immoral, where there is such enormous spreading of violence, this society which is so aggressive, each one seeking his own particular success, his own form of fulfilment. Learn what you are not through another but by watching yourself, not condemning, not saying `This is all right, I am that, I can't change' and carrying on. When you watch yourself without any form of reaction, resistance, then that very watching acts; like a flame it burns away the stupidities, the illusions that one has.
那么应该从谁那里学习呢？从书本吗？从教育者那里吗？也许是通过观察，如果你心灵聪慧的话？目前，看起来都是从外部世界学习的。你在学习，积累知识，并基于那些知识来行动，建立你的事业，等等。如果你向自己学习，或者更准确的说是通过观察你自己，你的偏见，你的固有的结论，你的信仰，如果你观察到你的思想的微妙，你的粗俗，你的敏感，那么你自己就成了教师和学生。于是你的内心不再依赖任何人，任何书和任何专家。
如果你感到不舒服，或得了某种疾病，你当然要去找一个专业人士，那很自然，也是必须的。但对某人的依赖，无论他是多么的优秀，都会妨碍你认识自己, 了解你真实的样子。而了解你真正的样子是非常非常地重要，因为你所是的存在造成了这个社会，它是那么的堕落和不道德；在这个社会里，那么多的暴力在传播；这个社会又是那么的具有攻击性，每个人都在追求他自己的某种成功，他自己某种形式的满足。学习你自己所是的，不是通过另一个人而是通过观察你自己；不是谴责，不是说“这样很好，我是就那样的，我无法改变”，然后继续老样子。当你不带任何形式抵抗和反应地观察自己时，正是那个观察本身就在行动。就像火焰一样它将愚蠢和幻想燃烧殆尽。
So learning becomes important. A brain that ceases to learn becomes mechanical. It is like an animal tied to a stick; it can move only according to the length of the rope, the tether that is tied to the stick. Most of us are tied to a peculiar stake of our own, an invisible stake and rope. You keep wandering within the dimensions of that rope and it is very limited. It is like a man who is thinking about himself all day, about his problems, his desires, his pleasures and what he would like to do. You know this constant occupation with oneself. It is very, very limited. And that very limitation breeds various forms of conflict and unhappiness.
所以学习是重要的。一个停止了学习的大脑将变得呆板。就像被拴在柱子上的动物，只能在绳子——那条绑在柱子上的系绳——允许的范围里活动。我们中的大多数都拴在我们自己的某个柱子上，一根看不见的柱子和一条看不见的绳子。你在绳子的范围里游走，它是那么的有限。就像一个人整天想着自己，他的问题，他的欲望，他的快感和他喜欢做什么。你们都知道这种对自己无休止的关注。它是非常非常有限的，而正是这个局限滋生了各种形式的冲突和痛苦。
The great poets, painters, composers are never satisfied with what they have done. They are always learning. It isn't after you have passed your exams and gone to work that you stop learning. There is a great strength and vitality in learning, especially about yourself. Learn, watch so that there is no spot that is not uncovered, looked at in yourself. This really is to be free from your own particular conditioning. The world is divided through its conditioning: you as an Indian, you as an American, you as a British, Russian, Chinese and so on. Out of this conditioning there are wars, the killing of thousands of people, the unhappiness and the brutality.
那些伟大的诗人，画家，作曲家，从不满足于已有的作品。他们永远在学习。在你通过考试和参加工作之后，不要停止学习。在学习里，特别是在对自己的学习里，有着巨大的力量和活力。学习，观察，不要留下任何没有被你翻开过的角落，看你自己。这就是从你自己的局限中解脱出来。这个世界被这种局限分成印度人，美国人，英国人，俄国人，中国人等等。由于这些局限，而又产生了战争，成千上万的人被杀害，产生了残酷和痛苦。
So both the educator and the educated are learning in the deeper sense of that word. When both are learning there is no educator or one to be educated. There is only learning. Learning frees the brain and thought of prestige, position, status. Learning brings about equality among human beings.
所以教育者和被教育者都在学习，这里用的是这个词更深刻的含义。当两者都在学习的时候，这里就不再有教育者和被教育者了；有的就只是学习。学习将心灵和思想从名望，身份，地位中解脱出来。学习带来人与人之间的平等。
绿草园翻译工作室 [i=s] 本帖最后由 笑红尘 于 2010-10-18 23:20 编辑 [/i]
the Evening star 译为昏星更为贴切，因为这是专有名词，特指黄昏太阳落山后出现在西方天空的行星，可能是金星或者水星。
美国传统词典
evening star
evening star
n.（名词）
A planet, especially Venus or Mercury, that crosses the local meridian before midnight and is prominent in the west shortly after sunset.
晚星：子夜前跨越当地子午线且日落前出现在西北边天空的一颗显著的行星，尤指金星或水星
现代英汉词典：
evening star
n.
昏星，（傍晚时看到的）金星
翻译时多查字典是非常重要的。
书我已经买了一本正版的，表示支持，辛苦了。
另外，译文中将guru 音译为古鲁，感觉不甚顺畅，其实可以用“上师”来译。
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