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给学校的信,1979年4月1日 - 能力

能力被欲望限制了

We are still concerned with the wholeness of the mind. The mind includes the senses, the erratic emotions, the capacity of the brain and ever-restless thought. All this is the mind, including various attributes of consciousness. When the whole mind is in operation it is boundless, it has great energy and action without the shadow of regret and promise of reward. This quality of mind, this wholeness, is intelligence. Can this intelligence be conveyed to the student and help her or him to quickly grasp its significance? Surely it is the responsibility of the educator to bring this about.

我们还是继续来关注心灵的整体。心包括感觉、动荡不定的情感、大脑的能力和永不安静的思想。所有这些都是心,包括意识的各个方面。当整个心灵都在运转的时候,它是无限的;它具有巨大的能量和行动,没有悔恨的阴影和对报偿的允诺。这种心灵的品质,这种完整,就是智慧。能否将这种智慧传达给学生并帮助他很快理解它的含义?这无疑是教育者的责任。

     The capacity of thought is shaped and controlled by desire and so the capacity is narrowed down. This capacity is limited by the movement of desire: desire is the essence of sensation. Ambition limits the capacity of the brain, which is thought. This capacity is restricted by social and economic demands or by one's own experience and motive. It is narrowed down by an ideal, by the sanctions of various religious beliefs, by unending fear. Fear is not separate from pleasure.

思考的能力受到欲望的影响和控制,因而被降低了。这种能力被欲望的活动所限制。欲望是感官感受的实质。野心限制了大脑,也就是思想的能力。社会和经济的需求,或者个人自己的经验和动机限制了这种能力。这种能力被理想,各种宗教信仰的影响,以及无尽的恐惧削弱了。恐惧和快感是分不开的。

     Desire - the essence of sensation - is shaped by environment, by tradition, by our own inclinations and temperament. And thus capacity or action that demands total energy is conditioned according to our comfort and pleasure. Desire is a compelling factor in our life, not to be suppressed or evaded, not to be cajoled and reasoned with, but rather to be understood. This understanding can only come into being through the investigation of desire and the observation of its movement. Knowing the impelling fire of desire, most religious and sectarian prohibitions have made it into something that must be suppressed, controlled or surrendered - handed over, as it were, to a deity or principle. The innumerable vows that people have taken totally to deny desire have in no way burned it out. It is there.

欲望——感官感受的实质,被环境、传统、我们自身的倾向和性格所影响,于是,需要全部能量的能力或行动被按照我们的舒适和快感局限了。欲望是我们生活中一个引人注目的因素。对于欲望,不是要去压抑或逃避,不是要去哄骗,也不是要用道理去说服,而是要去理解。只有通过对欲望的探究以及对它的活动的观察,这种理解才会到来。面对强烈的欲望之火,大多数宗教和派别的戒律都把它当成某种必须去压制、约束或奉献的东西——把它交给一个神灵或神圣的东西。人们为了完全拒绝欲望而立下的无数誓言并没有起作用。它还在那儿。

     So we must approach it differently, bearing in mind that intelligence is not awakened by desire. A desire to go to the moon brings about enormous technical knowledge, but that knowledge is limited intelligence. Knowledge is always specialized and therefore incomplete, whereas we are talking of intelligence which is the movement of the wholeness of the mind. It is with this intelligence that we are concerned and with the awakening of it in both educator and the student.

所以我们必须以不同的方式对待它,意识到智慧不是被欲望唤醒的。登上月球的欲望带来了庞大的专业知识,但是那种知识是有限的智慧。知识总是专门化的,因而是不完全的,但是我们在谈论智慧,它是心灵整体的运动。我们关心的是这种智慧,以及它在教师和学生内心的觉醒。

     As we said earlier, capacity is limited by desire. Desire is sensation, the sensation of new experience, of new forms of excitement, the sensation of climbing the highest peaks on earth, the sensation of power, of status.All this limits the energy of the brain. Desire gives the illusion of security, and the brain, which needs security, encourages and sustains every form of desire. So if we do not understand the place of desire, it brings about degeneration of the mind. This is really important to understand.

我们在前面说过,能力被欲望限制了。欲望就是感官感受,对新鲜的经验和刺激的感受,攀登地球最高峰的感受,对权力和地位的感受。所有这些限制了大脑的能量。欲望提供了安全的假象,需要安全的大脑则鼓励并维持着每一种形式的欲望。如果我们不理解欲望的位置,它就会引起心灵的退化。理解它是非常重要的。

     Thought is the movement of this desire. Curiosity to discover is urged by desire for greater sensations and the illusory certainty of security. Curiosity has brought about the enormous amount of knowledge which has its importance in our daily life. Curiosity has significance in observation.

思想是欲望的运动。想得到更多感受的欲望,以及对安全感那种虚幻的确定性的追求,驱动着我们发现的好奇心。好奇心带来大量的知识,这些知识在我们的日常生活中有它的重要性。好奇心在观察中具有重要意义。

     Thought may be the central factor of degeneration of the mind, whereas insight opens the door to the wholeness of action. We will go into the full meaning of insight in the next letter but for now we must consider whether thought is a destructive factor to the wholeness of the mind. We have made the statement that it is. Do not accept it until you have thoroughly, freely examined it.

思想可能是心灵退化的核心要素,而洞见则打开了完全行动的大门。我们将在另一封信中研究洞见的完整含义,但现在我们必须考虑,对完整心灵来说,思想是不是破坏性的。对此我们已经做过了肯定性的陈述,但是在你彻底地、自由地考察过它之前,不要接受这个结论。

     What we mean by wholeness of the mind is infinite capacity and its total emptiness in which there is immeasurable energy. Thought by its very nature being limited, imposes its narrowness on the whole, and so thought is always in the forefront. Thought is limited because it is the outcome of memory and knowledge accumulated through experience. Knowledge is the past and that which has been is always limited. Remembrance may project a future. That future is tied to the past, so thought is always limited. Thought is measurable - the more and the less, the larger, the smaller. This measurement is the movement of time: I have been, I shall be. So thought when it predominates, however subtle, cunning and vital, perverts the wholeness and we have given to thought the greatest importance.

我们所说的完整心灵意味着无限的能力,以及完全的空无,其中有无法估量的能量。正因为思想在本质上是有限的,它将它的狭隘强加于整体,因此思想总是在最前端。思想是有限的,因为它来自记忆和通过经验累积的知识。知识是过去,而过去的总是有限的。记忆可以投射一个未来,但那个未来是与过去捆在一起的。所以思想永远是有限的。思想是可以度量的,或多或少,或大或小。这种度量是时间的运动:我曾经如何,我将会如何。当思想占据支配地位的时候,无论它是多么地微妙、狡猾和有力,都会妨碍整体。但是我们已经给了思想最为突出的重要性。

     If one may ask, after having read this letter, have you grasped the significance of the nature of thought and the wholeness of the mind? And if you have, can you convey this to the student who is your total responsibility? This is a difficult matter.If you have no light you cannot help another to have it. You may explain very clearly or define it in chosen words, but it will not have the passion of truth.

如果可以这样问的话,在读完这封信之后,你是否领会了思想的本质以及完整心灵的含义? 如果你已经领会了,你能否将它传达给你负有完全责任的学生?这是一件困难的事情。如果你没有光,你就无法帮助别人拥有它。你可以非常清楚地解释它,或字斟句酌地定义它,但它不会具有真理的激情。

                                                       绿草园翻译工作室

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