给学校的信 - 一种不同的教育
The essence of culture is complete harmony文化的精髓就是完全的和谐
Although the word education has misapplied meanings, it must be used to convey generally what is going on in the world. The use of that word, whether in the East or the West, implies attending classes from childhood through to university, taking degrees and accumulating a great deal of information about various subjects—from theoretical physics to the growing of vegetables, from music to medicine, and so on. This cultivation of memory has become a necessity in the present social and economic structure. To have a good job in the field of education or in the field of politics or in business, a degree is considered essential. To acquire this degree you must conform to the structure of knowledge and to the established order of society or of the State—whether that State be socialist, communist or capitalist. In acquiring these varieties of knowledge, the brain must retain a great deal of facts, experience and tradition. Through the course of many years in squiring information, and applying it in practice, the brain inevitably must be conditioned and so it becomes mechanical, though it has freedom to function within its limited area. The whole of existence is aimed at the earning of a livelihood, to conform to a pattern and to living with the known.
尽管教育这个词常被错误地使用，但我们又必须用它来表达世界上通常看到的实际情况。无论在东方还是西方，这个词都意味着去上学，从孩提时代到大学，取得学位，积累各种学科众多的信息——从理论物理到蔬菜的成长，从音乐到医药，等等。在目前的社会和经济结构里，这种对于记忆的培养已然成为一种必须。要在教育领域，或是政治，商业方面取得一份好工作，学位被认为是必不可少的。而要获得这个学位，你就必须顺从于这个知识体系和已有的社会或国家秩序——无论这个国家是社会主义的，共产主义的或者是资本主义的。在获取这些各种各样的知识的过程里，大脑必须记住大量的事实，经验和传统。我们用很多年的时间来吸收知识，再将其应用于实践，在这个过程里，大脑不可避免地会被制约，也因而变得麻木，尽管它能够在有限的范围里自由的运作。整个生活的目的就是要养活自己，顺从于一个模式并生活在已知里。
The exercise of the brain is confined to the field of knowledge, the known. The known is the past, as is knowledge, and from that the future or the present is built. However intricate and subtle knowledge is, it is always within the field of time, the known. And thought has its roots in the past. Thought may go very far, explore many fields into the past or into the future, into abstract science or into anthropology; it may explore space.
大脑的使用被禁锢在知识的范围里，也就是已知当中。已知就是过去，也就是知识，并由此建立起现在或是未来。无论知识是多么的复杂或精妙，它一直都局限在时间，已知的领域里。思想植根于过去。思想可以走得很远，去探索很多领域，过去，未来，抽象科学或是人类学；它也可以探索太空。
From childhood the brain is trained to be competitive, to be ambitious, to worship success, which gives importance to the "me", the self, the ego; and so the essence of co-operation is destroyed. All this is generally what is called education even in the higher forms which give status in society, which has become more important than function. Throughout the world this is what is called education, and therefore one be¬gins to question or doubt that very word.
从孩提时代起，我们的大脑便被训练去竞争，崇拜成功，野心勃勃，而这也给了“我”，自己，自我以重要性；所以合作的本质被毁坏了。而这就是我们通常所说的教育，甚至是那些更高形式的教育，它能给人们带来社会地位，因而这种教育的重要性已经超越了纯粹的功能。纵观整个世界，这就是所谓的教育，因此我们不禁要怀疑和质问这个词。
Culture is something totally different. The word implies not only the cultivation of knowledge, but also the total essence of man, both inner and outer. This division is artifi¬cial; complete harmony in which there is no division is the real. The present cultures of the world are fast fading, and because they are disappearing they are being replaced by knowledge and not by wisdom. The essence of culture is complete harmony. This harmony is the very core of the religious mind. Without religion there is no culture; but not the religion of organized propaganda, which all religions are, nor the personal search for some vast experience. The religious mind is not based on any belief, faith or authority; it is the total absence of the self. When, in the disintegration of any culture, sex, gurus and authority with its followers spring up—like mushrooms in a damp field of rotting forest—then tradition and the book become all-important. This is what is happening basically, deep down in the human mind, when fanciful mysticism, pleasing visions, self-projected gods and saviours are pursued. When knowledge, the known, has become of supreme importance, then the mind searches out mysteries, runs after the experiences of others and establishes new gods.
文化是某种完全不同的东西。这个词不只意味着知识的培养，还意味着完整的人的精髓，无论内在的还是外在的。这个区分是人为的；完全的和谐才是真实，在那里没有区分。现代世界的文化正在快速地衰退，因为它正在消失，它正在被知识而不是智慧所取代。文化的精髓全的和谐。和谐是宗教之心的根本核心。没有宗教便没有文化；但这不是指那种作为“有组织的宣传”的宗教，事实上所有的宗教都是如此，也不是指个人去寻求某些浩瀚的体验。宗教之心不是基于任何信念，信仰或权威；它是自我的彻底消失。在任何文化崩溃的时候，性，古鲁和权威以及他们的追随者都会兴起——就像一个腐败森林里潮湿地带的那些蘑菇——那时传统和书籍变得无比重要。这就在人类内心深处正在发生的事情，我们会去追逐奇异的神秘主义，令人愉悦的幻想，自我投射的神和救世主。当知识和已知变得无比重要的时候，心灵便会去寻求神秘，追逐别人的体验并去创造新的众神。
Culture is the door to reality, which is not in philosophies, psychology and analysis. Without the beauty of religion, cul¬ture has no meaning. It is like a lovely flower without the per¬fume, and we tear the flower to pieces to find the perfume.
Love is harmony, which cannot be cultivated, as know¬ledge can be, so there is a widening gap between the known and the harmony of perception. The seeing is the doing, but knowledge, because of its time quality, prevents instant action. The religious mind has this quality of immediate action.
文化是通往真实之门，它不是哲学，心理学或是分析。没有宗教之美，文化便没有意义。就好象是一朵可爱的花没有芳香，而我们把花撕碎来寻找芳香。
爱是和谐，它无法被培养，知识可以，所以在已知和观察的和谐之间就有一道不断扩展的鸿沟。看就是做，但是知识，由于它时间性的品质，阻碍了立即的行动。而宗教之心则有着立即行动的品质。
A different kind of education is necessary. It is not the mere cultivation of memory with all its emphasis on compul¬sion, conformity, imitation, leading to violence, but the total culture of man in which the "you" and the "me" disappear and are not replaced by the State or by a new figure of sanctity. This different education is concerned with know¬ledge, with freedom, with what is, and to go beyond what is.
Wisdom is not in any book or in the perfection of knowledge. It is in the movement of freedom in learning. There is no end to learning; and wisdom is the ending of sorrow.
另外一种教育是必要的。它不再是仅仅对于记忆的培养，以及所有那些对于强迫，服从，模仿的强调，这些都会导致暴力，而是关于人的完整的文化，在那里“你”和“我”消失了，同时也不会被国家或某个新的圣像所取代。这种不同的教育会关注知识，自由，“事实”，以及去超越“事实”。
智慧不存在于任何本书中，也不存在于知识的完善中。它存在于学习的自由运动里。学习没有止境，而智慧是苦难的终结。
绿草园翻译工作室
页:
[1]