给学校的信 - 传统
Revolt against the past brings only another conformity对过去的反叛只会带来另外一种顺从
One of the most important things that all of us have to understand is the tremendous weight of tradition, especially in this country [India] where it is looked upon as a most sacred thing. The word tradition means to surrender, to deliver. When one surrenders oneself to the past, the mind is shaped or conditioned by that which has been. The past then becomes tremen¬dously important, in contrast, in opposition, to the present.
对于我们所有人来说，最重要的事情之一便是理解传统的巨大重负，特别是在印度这个国家，传统被看作是一件无比神圣的事情。传统这个词意味着臣服，意味着交付。一个人让自己臣服于过去时, 那心灵就被过去的东西塑形或制约。于是相比于现在，相对于现在，过去变得无比的重要。
The past is cultivated through rituals, through the so-called sacred books, through religious propaganda. This conditions the mind and so limits it. In that limitation the tradi¬tionalist seeks freedom. This is like a prisoner who extends the walls of his prison: he is still in prison however large the yard he walks in. These customs that have been so carefully cultivated by past generations are handed down through the family, through literature, through environ¬mental influences; what matters is not the culture of the mind, but rather to control the mind by patterns established in the past, which it is hoped will bring about order. That is the purpose of tradition.
过去通过种种仪式，通过所谓的圣典，通过宗教的宣传得以培育。这制约了心灵，也因此使它变得有限。在那些局限里，传统主义者们在寻找着自由。这就像一个囚犯扩建了他监狱的围墙：不论他在多大的院子里走动，他仍旧呆在监狱里。这些被过去世代精心培养的习俗又通过家庭，通过文学作品， 通过环境的影响而传递下来；重要的不是心灵的培养，相反是通过过去所建立起来的种种模式来对心灵进行控制，以期带来秩序。这就是传统的目的。
Against this weight of tradition all the young generations, from Socrates down, have rebelled—the hippies, the beatniks and others, with their uniforms of long hair, beards, and so on. This revolt against the past brings about only another type of conformity, and it indicates, doesn't it, a great protest against the established order of things and against the past generation, which is responsible for wars, for the disorders in society, for the division of mankind into nationalities and religious groups?
为了对抗传统的沉重，所有年轻的一代，从苏格拉底开始，都在反叛——嬉皮士，披头士，还有其他的，清一色的长发，留胡子，等等。这些对过去的反叛只会带来另外一种从众，它表明了对已有的秩序， 对老一辈大规模抗议，因为它们对战争，对社会的混乱，对人类分裂成国家和宗教群体， 负有责任。
Freedom from the past is not revolt against the past, but rather the understanding of how the past—tradition, custom—has shaped our minds and hearts. In studying this conditioning, which is critical awareness of oneself, in seeing oneself as a prisoner in this world of great sorrow which one has created, comes freedom. Without this freedom you cannot possibly act in the present. The active present is the only action.
从过去中解脱不是对过去的反叛，而是去弄明白过去——传统，习惯——是如何塑造我们的头脑和心灵的。在对这些局限的学习里，也就是对自己的谨慎的觉知中，通过意识到我们正是这个自己创造的极度苦难的世界的囚徒，自由就会到来。没有这种自由，你便无法在现在行动。这个活生生的现在是唯一的行动。
Either you are going to repudiate the past completely or you are going to be swallowed up by society, which is to surrender to society, to deliver yourself over to society, with its traditions, with its wars, and so on. That is, you will become the established order for your children, who will revolt against you if they are at all intelligent. The revolt of the young has been going on for thousands of years. Each generation destroys the young through wrong education and ideologies that have no value at all. To break this chain is the major purpose of education, not just to cultivate a strong memory which will function to help earn a livelihood. Right education is to help the student not merely to pass examinations in technical subjects, but to understand the whole field of existence, which is your life. Not only the educator but also the student must demand this kind of education; and through questioning, through discussions, through the general assembly of the school in which the relationship between the educator and the student is not one of authority, they must see that this education is maintained.
In tradition no goodness can flower, and the continuity I of tradition is not goodness.
要不你就与过去彻底绝断，要不你就被社会吞没，臣服于社会，把自己交付给社会，以及它的传统，战争，等等。也就是说，你将成为你孩子的既有秩序，而他们也将反叛你，如果他们有一点聪明的话。年轻人的反叛已经进行了几千年。每一代都在用错误的教育和完全没有任何意义的意识形态来毁灭年轻人。
教育的主要目的便是要打断这根链条，而不仅仅去培养一个强大的记忆力来帮助谋生。正确的教育不只是帮助学生通过技术科目的考试，而是理解整个存在的领域，那就是我们的生活。不仅是教育者，而且学生也应该要求这样的教育；并且通过质疑，通过讨论，通过学校召集的大会——此时，教育者和学生的关系里不再有权威，他们一定要保证这样的教育在延续。
在传统中善无法绽放，而传统的延续性不是善。
绿草园翻译工作室
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