Again there are many questions. Every day they are piling up and we cannot possibly answer all those questions. It would probably take a couple of months, but I am sure you wouldn't like to sit here, nor I, for a couple of months answering these questions.
As we said yesterday, the answers are not important, but the questions are. Whether we put those questions seriously or flippantly or casually - if the questions are put seriously, a problem that is really disturbing one's mind and one's heart then those questions are worthwhile answering, or enquiring into those questions. So please we have chosen some of the questions, not according to what we like or dislike but which may be worthwhile discussing, going into generally. And in reading these questions we are together examining, not only the questions but the outcome of those questions and whether it affects our daily life, which is what matters.
1st QUESTION: I have a son whom I dearly love. Can I prevent the world from corrupting him? How can I give him a right education?
第一个问题：我有一个我挚爱的儿子。我是否能够防止这个世界腐蚀他？我要怎样才能给他正确的教育？
I hope the question interests you.
我希望你感兴趣这个问题。
They are discovering, the scientists, and those who are concerned with babies and children, that babies are very alert, learn, watchful. And they can know, or realize or sense when the mother is liked or disliked by others. They are testing all this out especially in America. And from the moment he is born, or she is born, the parents are already conditioning him. The parents, their relatives, the people around him, are already shaping his mind, his brain. And so from the moment he is born conditioning takes place. And as he grows older this conditioning is strengthened by the society he lives in, by the parents, by other boys and girls and so on. And in schools, colleges, university - if they are lucky enough to go to universities - the conditioning academically goes on. Knowledge has become extraordinarily important, to act skilfully, to earn a good livelihood in daily life. And most of the parents, educators are concerned that their children, the students, the college graduates and so on, pass academically with high marks. They neglect, both the parents, the educators, totally the whole psychological world of the student. So when we ask, what is right education, is it not, not only academically, to have a good brain, to know the world in which we live, the whole technological development, learn all about it skilfully so that he can have a good job and so on. The parents are concerned that he should quickly marry and settle down. Get a job, with a wife, and screwed down for the rest of his life. That is what the parents are concerned with.
And society is concerned that he should be a good citizen, accept more or less things as they are, both religiously, politically, economically and status quo should remain. The Conservatists politically on the right only want to conserve, and the Liberals and Labour, left, want to change things. So the battle goes on between the political parties and the poor child who has grown in this chaotic world doesn't quite know what to do, what to think, and slips into something quite easy, which is to have a family, job, and for the rest of one's life for fifty, sixty years go to the office and back and forth. Right? This is what we call education. This is what is happening actually in the world, whether in America, or here or in India or Asia. And apparently the vast majority of human beings throughout the world seem satisfied with things as they are. Or dissatisfied because they have no money, want a better position, more power, money - and when you get money, power, position, the world is quite safe, though there are terrorists whose function is to terrorize.
Now what is right education? Knowing all this is going on around the child, around the student as he grows up, that the mother and the father are concerned with themselves, with their careers, with their ambitions, with their separate successes, and so where does the child come into all this? Obviously as in Asia, as one has watched, the babies are cuddled, held by the mother closely. They have no nursing homes, nor batteries of children in a hospital. There, being very, very poor, the children have to remain with the mother, there is no Social Security, therefore they must have more children, more children are necessary to earn a livelihood when they are old because there is no Social Security in the East. So the pattern is repeated over and over and over again.
Now the questioner asks: the parent loves his child and what is right education? You cannot possibly keep the child at home and educate him because he will meet other children and the group instinct is so strong they will condition him in spite of you. You may talk, urge, point out all the conditioning, the absurdities, the cruelties but the spirit of the gang, the group, the other children have far greater influence as one observes on your particular child. Right? These are all facts. If one is aware of all this, wars, brutality, the emphasis on acquiring knowledge academically and each one wanting to find out a job in which he will be comfortable, give him some assurance, and the whole process of all that is modern education.
One is quite sure that you know all about this. If you have looked at the world, if you have looked at your own children, at what is happening, this is the pattern, the mode of modern society. Is that right education? Which is: to emphasize and cultivate academic knowledge, technological knowledge, how to be an engineer, psychologist, doctor and so on, and there end. Or the cultivation of the whole of the human being, not only the academic side but also understanding the depth of the psychological world. Is this possible to do in a school - both? Not only attend to the academics but also help the student to understand his whole psychological nature, the conflicts, the confusion, the fears, the anxieties. And if it is a boy, he enters the army, specially in Europe, not in America or England, for two years, trained to kill, prepare for war and the parents say, "I dearly love my child". That is, you are preparing for the child to be ready to kill and be killed. This is modern civilization. They talk about beauty, love, god, and the hierarchical structure of society, all preparing for war. And this has been going on for five, ten thousand years, and we, ordinary citizens, accept all this. And we say, "What can we do?" What can one, or a group of people do when the whole monstrous structure is geared to war? Probably you cannot do anything; but to be aware of this, to be aware that wars are caused by national divisions, racial divisions, economic divisions, communal divisions, divisions brought about by ideals, beliefs and so on, to be aware of all this. And if one is aware, that very awareness is bringing about its own action. It isn't that you have to do something - join a political party, or this or that, but if one is really, deeply concerned, if one really loves one's children. But I am afraid that is not possible because most parents in the world are very selfish. They want to fulfil themselves. You know all that is happening. The woman has to go out and earn money because she wants a better carpet, better refrigerator, or whatever it is, and the husband wants to climb the ladder of success, so they are absorbed in themselves and the child has very little part in their lives. So the educators take them over and condition them to the desired pattern.
But being aware of all this, not intellectually, but deep in one's heart, in one's feeling, if one really loves one's child, is it possible to educate him, or have a school where he is educated not only academically but much more psychologically, to understand his whole being, to be free of his own problems, to face the problems and end them, not carry on day after day, day after day. So that demands educators who understand all this, who understand what the world is, what society has become, what the culture of which we are all so very proud, which has become so utterly destructive and an educator who realizes his utter total responsibility to bring about a good human being. We are using the word 'good' in the sense of holistic, or whole human being, not a divided, broken up human being, fragmented and therefore perpetually in conflict with himself. That demands a teacher who understands all this. But unfortunately throughout the world the teachers are the least respected, the least paid. The teachers are the most important people in the world because they are bringing about a new generation of people, therefore they must be respected, paid well, looked after as in the old Asiatic world where the teacher was the most important person in society. Such teachers perhaps do exist in some of the schools in which we are connected, but it is a tremendous task because the parents don't want something whole. Society doesn't want it. So if those who are really concerned with education and the right kind of education, if they can come together, put all their resources into this.
One of the parents in a group discussion said, "Why should I sacrifice myself, give up my drinking, smoking, pot, drugging, for my child?", you understand? So they are not concerned, and so we perpetuate this terrible society in which we live.
So right education is the cultivation of the whole of the brain, not part of it. When that cultivation of the whole of the brain comes about there is holistic action in which there is no conflict. And such a human being is a good, compassionate human being. And it is up to you, if you want such a school.
所以，正确的教育是培养完整的头脑，而不是头脑的一部分。当培育完整的头脑得以实现时，就有了完整的行为，其中没有冲突。这样的一个人是一个好的，慈悲的人。而这取决于你，如果你想要这样的一个学校。作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-27 15:04
K: Take, if one has this total feeling of responsibility then what is your responsibility with regard to your children? It means education. Are you educating them to bring about a mind that conforms to the pattern which the society has established, which means you accept the immorality of the society that is. If you feel totally responsible you are responsible from the moment its born until the moment it dies. The right kind of education, not the education of making the child conform, the worship of success and the division of nationalities which brings about war. You follow, all that you are responsible for, not just in a particular direction. Even if you are in a particular direction, I'm responsible for my act, what is your action based on? How can you be responsible, when you, your action is the result of a formula that has been handed down to you?
克：举个例子，如果你有这种完全的责任感，那么你对你的孩子的责任是什么？那意味着教育。你对他们的教育，是不是为了造就他们遵从现有社会模式的心智，也就意味着你接受了现有社会的不道德。如果你感觉到要完全负责任，你就会从他出生的那一刻到他死亡的那一刻都负责到底。正确的教育，不是让孩子遵从的教育，不是让孩子崇拜成功的教育，不是带来战争的民族分别的教育。你明白吗，所有这些你都得负责，不是只负责某个特定的方面。即使你处于某个特定的方向，我对我的行为负责，而你的行为是以什么为基础的？当你，你的行为只是你因循传承下来的模式的产物，你怎么可能是负责任的？
出处：SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA 19TH FEBRUARY 1974 4TH CONVERSATION WITH DR. ALLAN W. ANDERSON 'RESPONSIBILITY AND RELATIONSHIP'作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-27 15:04
K: When you feel responsible, feel responsible for education of your children, not only your's, children. Are you educating them to conform to a society, are you educating them to merely acquire a job? Are you educating them to the continuity of what has been? Are you educating them to live in abstractions, as we are doing now? So what is your responsibility as a father, mother, it doesn't matter who you are, responsible in education, for the education of a human being. That's one problem. What is your responsibility, if you feel responsible, for human growth, human culture, human goodness? What's your responsibility to the earth, do you follow? It is a tremendous thing to feel responsible. ...And also, you see, with responsibility goes love, care, attention.
克：如果你感觉有责任，对你的孩子的教育有责任，不只是你的孩子，所有孩子。你是教育他们去遵从社会吗，教育他们仅仅是为了找到一份工作？或者教育他们继续现存的一切？你是教育他们活在抽象的概念里面吗，像我们一样？所以，作为一个父亲，一个母亲，不管你是谁，你的责任是什么，在教育中负责，对一个人类的教育负责。这是同一个问题。如果你觉得要对人类的发展，人类的文化，人类的良善负责，那么你的责任是什么？你对地球的责任是什么？你明白吗？感觉到有责任是极其了不起的一件事。...而且，你看，伴随着责任感，就有了爱，关怀，关注。
（出处同上）作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-27 15:05
K: Yes, but one has to find out what is the relationship of the teacher to the student.
克：是的，但是你得先去发现老师和学生之间的关系是什么。
A: Yes, yes. I quite see that.
安：是的，是的。我很清楚这点。
K: What is the relationship? Is he merely an informer, giving information to the child? Any machine can do that.
克：那关系是什么？他只是个教导者，给孩子知识吗？机器都能做到这点。
A: Oh yes, the library is filled with it.
安：哦是的，图书馆里到处都是（知识）。
K: Any machine can do that. Or what is his relationship? Does he put himself on a pedestal, up there and his student down there. Or is the relationship between the teacher and the student, is it a relationship in which there is learning on the part of the teacher as well as the student. Learning.
克：机器都能做到这点。那么他的关系是什么？是不是就是他把自己搁讲台上，他在上边，学生在下边？还是老师和学生之间的关系，其中不只是学生在学习而且老师也在学习？学习。
A: Yes.
安：是的。
K: Not I have learned and I am going to teach you. Therefore in that there is a division between the teacher and the student. But when there is learning on the part of the teacher as well as on the part of the student there is no division. Both are learning.
克：不是我学到了，我要教给你。那么其中就有了师生之间的分离。但是当学生学习的同时老师也在学习的话，就没有这种分离。都在学习。
A: Yes.
安：是的。
K: And therefore that relationship brings about a companionship.
克：那么这种关系就带来了一种友谊。
A: A sharing.
安：一种分享。
K: A sharing.
克：一种分享。
A: A sharing. Yes.
安：是的，一种分享。
K: Taking a journey together. And therefore an infinite care on both sides. So it means how is the teacher to teach mathematics, or whatever it is, to the student and yet teach it in such a way that you awaken the intelligence in the child, not simply about mathematics.
克：一起踏上旅程。因而双方都有一种无限的关怀。所以就意味着，老师要如何向学生教授数学，或者别的科目，同时在这种教授的方式中，你在唤醒孩子身上的智慧，而不只是简单地教数学。
A: No, no of course not. No. Yes.
安：不，当然不是。不。是的。
K: And how do you bring this act of teaching in which there is order, because mathematic means order, the highest form of order is mathematics - now how will you convey to the student in teaching mathematics that there should be order in his life? Not order according to a blueprint. That's not order.
克：要怎样带来这样的教学行为，其中有秩序，因为数学本身就意味着秩序，最高形式的秩序是数学----那么你要怎样在教数学的过程中传达给学生们，他的生活也应该是有秩序的？不是根据蓝图的秩序。那不是秩序。
（出处同上）作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-27 17:42
K: Sir, from this arises, can one educate a student to live a life of non comparison - bigger car, lesser car, you follow?
克：先生，从这里提出一个问题，一个人能不能教育学生过一种没有比较的生活----大一些的车，小一点的车，你明白吗？
A: Yes.
安：是的。
K: Dull, you are clever, I am not clever. What happens if I don't compare at all? Will I become dull?
克：愚笨，你聪明，我不聪明。如果我根本不比较那会发生什么？我还会变笨吗？
A: On the contrary.
安：正相反。
K: I'm only dull, I know I'm dull only through comparison. If I don't compare, I don't know what I am. Then I begin from there.
克：只有通过比较我才会变笨，我才知道自己笨。如果我不比较，我就不知道我是怎样的。然后我就从那里开始。
A: Yes, yes. The world becomes infinitely accessible.
安：是的，是的。整个世界就变得无限可及。
K: Oh, then the whole thing becomes extraordinarily different. There is no competition, there is no anxiety, there is no conflict with each other.
克：哦，然后整件事就变得格外不同。没有竞争，没有焦虑，没有彼此间的冲突。
A: This is why you use the word total often, isn't it.
安：这就是为什么你经常用完整这个词，对不对。
K: Yes.
克：是的。
出处：SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA 20TH FEBRUARY 1974 5TH CONVERSATION WITH DR. ALLAN W. ANDERSON 'ORDER'作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-27 18:51
As an educator, can you explain this to a student: to have no values whatsoever but to live with clarity which is not a value? This can be brought about when the educator himself has felt deeply the truth of this.If he has not, then it becomes merely a verbal explanation without any deep significance. This has to be conveyed not only to the older students but also to the very young. The older students are already heavily conditioned through the pressure of society and of parents with their values; or they themselves have projected their own goals which become their prison. With the very young what is most important is to help them to free themselves from psychological pressures and problems. Now the very young are being taught complicated intellectual problems; their studies are becoming more and more technical; they are given more and more abstract information; various forms of knowledge are being imposed on their brains, thus conditioning them right from childhood. Whereas what we are concerned with is to help the very young to have no psychological problems, to be free of fear, anxiety, cruelty,to have care, generosity and affection. This is far more important than the imposition of knowledge on their young minds. This does not mean that the child should not learn to read, write and so on, but the emphasis is on psychological freedom instead of the acquisition of knowledge, though that is necessary. This freedom does not mean the child doing what he wants to do but helping him to understand the nature of his reactions, his desires.
This requires a great deal of insight on the part of the teacher. After all, you want the student to be a complete human being without any psychological problems; otherwise he will misuse any knowledge he is given. Our education is to live in the known and so be a slave to the past with all its traditions, memories, experiences. Our life is from the known to the known, so there is never freedom from the known. If one lives constantly in the known there is nothing new, nothing original, nothing uncontaminated by thought. Thought is the known. If our education is the constant accumulation of the known then our minds and hearts become mechanical without that immense vitality of the unknown. That which has continuity is knowledge, is everlastingly limited. And that which is limited must everlastingly create problems. The ending of the continuity - which is time - is the flowering of the timeless.
出处：LETTERS TO SCHOOLS VOLUME ONE 1ST OCTOBER, 1979作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-27 18:51
LETTERS TO SCHOOLS VOLUME ONE
1ST FEBRUARY, 1980
Cruelty is an infectious disease and one must strictly guard oneself against it. Some students seem to have this peculiar infection and they somehow gradually dominate the others. Probably they feel it is very manly, for their elders are often cruel in their words, in their attitudes,in their gestures, in their pride. This cruelty exists in the world. The responsibility of the student and please remember with what significance we are using that word - is to avoid any form of cruelty. Once many years ago I was invited to talk at a school in California and as I entered the school a boy of ten or so was passing me with a large bird, caught in a trap, whose legs were broken. I stopped and looked at the boy without saying a word. His face expressed fear and when I finished the talk and came out the boy - a stranger - came up to me with tears in his eyes and said, "`Sir, it will never happen again." He was afraid that I would tell the headmaster and there would be a scene about it and as I didn't say a word to either the boy or the headmaster about the cruel incident, his awareness of the terrible thing he had done made him realize the enormity of the act. It is important to be aware of one's own activities and if there is affection then cruelty has no place in our life at any time. In western countries you see the birds carefully nurtured and later in the season shot for sport and then eaten. The cruelty of hunting, killing small animals, has become part of our civilization, like war, like torture, and the acts of terrorists and kidnappers. In our intimate personal relationships there is also a great deal of cruelty, anger, hurting each other. The world has become a dangerous place in which to live and in our schools any form of coercion, threat, anger must be totally and completely avoided for all these harden the heart and mind, and affection cannot co-exist with cruelty.
You understand, as a student, how important it is to realize that any form of cruelty not only hardens your heart but perverts your thinking,distorts your actions. The mind, like the heart, is a delicate instrument, sensitive and very capable, and when cruelty and oppression touch it then there is a hardening of the self. Affection, love, has no centre as the self.
Now having read this and having understood so far what is said, what will you do about it? You have studied what has been said, you are learning the content of these words; what then is your action? Your response is not merely to study and learn but also to act. Most of us know and are aware of all the implications of cruelty and of what it actually does both outwardly and inwardly, and leave it at that without doing anything about it - thinking one thing and doing just the opposite. This not only breeds a great deal of conflict but also hypocrisy. Most students do not like to be hypocrites; they like to look at facts but they do not always act. So the responsibility of the student is to see the facts about cruelty and without any persuasion or cajoling understand what is implied and do something about it. People generally live with ideas and beliefs totally unrelated to their daily life and so this naturally becomes hypocrisy. The doing is perhaps a greater responsibility. So don't be a hypocrite - which doesn't mean you must be rude, aggressive or overly critical. When there is affection there is inevitably courtesy without hypocrisy.
What is the responsibility of the teacher who has studied, learned, and acts toward the student? Cruelty has many forms. A look, a gesture, a sharp remark, and above all comparison. Our whole educational system is based on comparison. A is better than B and so B must conform to or imitate A. This in essence is cruelty, and ultimately its expression is examinations; so what is the responsibility of the educator who sees the truth of this? How will he teach any subject without reward and punishment, knowing that there must be some kind of report indicating the capacity of the student? Can the teacher do this? Is it compatible with affection? If the central reality of affection is there, has comparison any place at all? Can the teacher eliminate in himself the pain of comparison? Our whole civilization is based on hierarchical comparison both outwardly and inwardly which denies the sense of deep affection. Can we eliminate from our minds the better, the more, the stupid, the clever, this whole comparative thinking? If the teacher has understood the pain of comparison what is his responsibility in his teaching and in his action? A person who has really grasped the significance of the pain of comparison is acting from intelligence.
研究过也了解了残忍的含义并将要对学生有所作为的老师，他的责任是什么呢？残忍有很多种形式，一个眼神，一个手势，一句尖刻的评论，尤其是比较。我们整个教育体制都是以比较为基础的。A比B好，所以B必须服从A或者仿效A。这在本质上就是残忍，其终极的表现形式是考试。所以，看到了这些真相后，教育者的责任是什么？他怎么样才能不用通过奖惩来教一门课，同时知道有某种方式能够表明学生的能力？教师能做到这点吗？这与慈爱是共容的吗？如果有爱这个核心事实在，还会有比较吗？我们的整个文明体系都是以等级式的内在外在比较为基础的，这就否定了深切的慈爱感。我们能从脑子里清除更好，更多，愚笨，聪明，这整个比较式的思维吗？如果老师理解了比较的痛苦，那么他在教学和行为中要起到怎样的责任？一个真正领会了比较的痛苦意味着什么的人，就会依智慧而行动。作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-27 18:53
LETTERS TO SCHOOLS VOLUME ONE
15TH MAY, 1979
(Excerpts)
……
In these schools he that gives and he that receives are both responsible and so they can never indulge in this peculiar quality of separateness. The egotistic separateness is perhaps the very root of the degeneration of the wholeness of the mind with which we are deeply concerned. This does not mean that there is no personal relationship, with its affection, with its tenderness, with its encouragement and support. But when the personal relationship becomes all-important and responsible only to the few, then the mischief has begun; the reality of this is known to every human being. This fragmentation of relationship is the degenerating factor in our life. We have broken up relationship so that it is to the personal, to a group, to a nation, to certain concepts and so on. That which is fragmented can never comprehend the wholeness of responsibility. From the little we are always trying to capture the greater. The better is not the good and all our thought is based on the better, the more - better at exams, better jobs, better status, better gods, nobler ideas.
The better is the outcome of comparison. The better picture, the better technique, the greater musician, the more talented, the more beautiful and the more intelligent depend on this comparison. We rarely look at a painting for itself,or at a man or woman for themselves. There is always this inbred quality of comparison. Is love comparison? Can you ever say you love this one more than that one? When there is this comparison, is that love? When there is this feeling of the more, which is measurement, then thought is in operation. Love is not the movement of thought. This measurement is comparison. We are encouraged throughout our life to compare. When in your school you compare B with A you are destroying both of them.
So is it possible to educate without any sense of comparison? And why do we compare? We compare for the simple reason that measuring is the way of thought and the way of our life. We are educated in this corruption. The better is always nobler than what is, than what is actually going on. The observation of what is, without comparison, without the measure, is to go beyond what is.
When there is no comparison there is integrity. It is not that you are true to yourself, which is a form of measurement, but when there is no measurement at all there is this quality of wholeness. The essence of the ego, the me, is measurement. When there is measurement there is fragmentation. This must be profoundly understood not as an idea but as an actuality. When you read this statement you may make an abstraction of it as an idea, a concept, and the abstraction is another form of measurement. That which is has no measurement. Please give your heart to the understanding of this. When you have grasped the full significance of this, your relationship with the student and with your own family will become something quite different. If you ask if that difference will be better, then you are caught in the wheel of measurement. Then you are lost. You will find the difference when you actually test this out. The very word difference implies measurement but we are using the word non-comparatively. Almost every word we use has this feeling of measurement so the words affect our reactions and reactions deepen the sense of comparison. The word and the reaction are interrelated and the art lies in not being conditioned by the word, which means that language does not shape us. Use the word without the psychological reactions to it.
没有了比较才有完整。不是说你要忠于自己，这也是一种衡量，而是，如果根本没有了衡量，就有了完整这项品质。自我的本质，这个我，是衡量。有衡量就有分裂。我们必须深刻理解这一点，不是当作一个概念，而是作为一项事实来理解。当你读到这句话你把它抽象成了一个想法，一个概念，而这种抽象是另一种形式的衡量。事实里是没有衡量的。请用心来理解这一点。当你完整地领会了这点的重要性，你和学生的关系，和你家庭的关系就会变得完全不同。如果你问这种不同会不会更好，那么你又陷在衡量的车轮里了。你就迷失了。当你真正检验它们的时候，你会发现这些不同的。不同这个词本身，意味着衡量，但是，我们是在不进行比较地用这个词。几乎所有我们用的词都有衡量的意味，所以这些词影响了我们的反应，我们的反应又加深了这种比较的感觉。词语和反应相互关联，生活的艺术就在于不被词语所限，也就是说不让语言塑造我们。使用词语，但是不对它们产生心理反应。作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-27 18:54
LETTERS TO SCHOOLS VOLUME ONE
15TH SEPTEMBER, 1979
(Excerpts)
Basically measurement is involved in it - the more and the less, the greater and the smaller - which is essentially comparison. One is always comparing oneself with another, comparing one painting with another; there is comparison between the greater power and the lesser, between the timid and the aggressive. It begins almost at birth and continues throughout life - this constant measurement of power, position, wealth. This is encouraged in schools, colleges and universities. Their whole system of gradation is this comparative value of knowledge. When A is compared to B, who is clever, bright, assertive, that very comparison destroys A. This destruction takes the form of competition, of imitation and conformity to the patterns set by B. This breeds, consciously or unconsciously, antagonism, jealousy, anxiety and even fear; and this becomes the condition in which A lives for the rest of his life, always measuring, always comparing psychologically and physically.
This comparison is one of the many aspects of violence. The word "more" is always comparative, as is the word "better". The question is, can the educator put aside all comparison, all measurement, in his teaching? Can he take the student as he is, not as what he should be, not make judgements based on comparative evaluations? It is only when there is comparison between the one called clever and the one called dull that there is such a quality as dullness. The idiot - is he an idiot because of comparison or because he is incapable of certain activities? We set certain standards which are based on measurement and those who do not come up to them are considered deficient. When the educator puts aside comparison and measurement, then he is concerned with the student as he is and his relationship with the student is direct and totally different. This is really very important to understand. Love is not comparative. It has no measurement. Comparison and measurement are ways of the intellect. This is divisive. When this is basically understood,not the verbal meaning but the actual truth of it - the relationship of teacher and student undergoes a radical change. The ultimate tests of measurement are the examinations with their fear and anxieties which deeply affect the future life of the student. The whole atmosphere of a school undergoes a change when there is no sense of competition, comparison.
这种比较是暴力的诸多表现形式之一。“更多”这个词是比较式的，“更好”这个词也是。问题是，教育者能不能在他的教学中把所有的比较所有的衡量都放在一边呢？他能不能接受学生现在的样子，而不是认为他应该如何，不基于比较式的评估进行判断？有人被称为聪明有人被称为愚笨，只有这种比较存在的时候才有愚笨这种品质存在。一个笨蛋，是因为比较他才成为笨蛋呢，还是因为他不能做某些事情？我们基于衡量设定了某些标准，那些不符合标准的就被认为是有缺陷的。如果教育者把比较和衡量放在一边，那么他才是真正地关心学生现在的情况，他和学生的关系才是直接的，完全不同的。理解这一点，真的很重要。爱不是比较，它没有衡量。比较和衡量是智力运作的方式，这会导致分裂。如果完全理解了这一点，不是理解了字面意思，而是理解了这项事实，老师和学生的关系将会发生根本的转变。充满着恐惧和焦虑的考试是衡量的终极表现形式，会深刻地影响学生未来的一生。如果没有竞争和比较，学校的整体氛围就会发生转变。作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-27 18:55
LETTERS TO SCHOOLS VOLUME ONE
15TH JANUARY, 1980
(Excerpts)
……You have to begin with yourself, to understand yourself, and in relation to that, what is the first step? Is it not affection? Probably when you are young you have this quality but very quickly we seem to lose it. Why? Is it not because of the pressure of studies, the pressure of competition, the pressure of trying to reach a certain standing in your studies,comparing yourselves with others and perhaps being bullied by other students? Do not all these many pressures force you to be concerned with yourself? And when you are so concerned with yourself, you inevitably lose that quality of affection. It is very important to understand how gradually circumstances, environment, the pressure of your parents or your own urge to conform, narrows the vast beauty of life to a small circle of yourself. And if you lose this affection while you are young there is a hardening of the heart and mind. It is a rare thing to keep this affection throughout life, without corruption. So this is the first thing you must have. Affection implies care, a diligent care in whatever you are doing; care in your speech, in your dress, in the manner of your eating, how you look after your body; care in your behaviour without the distinctions of superior or inferior; how you consider people.
Politeness is consideration for others and this consideration is care, whether it is for your younger brother or oldest sister. When you care, violence in every form disappears from you - your anger, your antagonism and your pride. This care implies attention. Attention is to watch, observe, listen,learn. There are many things you can learn from books but there is a learning which is infinitely clear, quick and without any ignorance. Attention implies sensitivity and this gives depth to perception which no knowledge, with its ignorance can give. This you have to study, not in a book, but, with the help of the educator, learn to observe things around you - what is happening in the world. What is happening with a fellow student, what is happening in that poor village or slum and to the man who is struggling along that dirty street.
Observation is not a habit. It isn't a thing you train yourself to do mechanically. It is the fresh eye of interest, of care, of sensitivity. You cannot train yourself to be sensitive. Again, when you are young you are sensitive, quick in your perceptions, but again this fades as you grow older. So you have to study yourself and perhaps your teacher will help you. If he doesn't it doesn't matter for it is your responsibility to study yourself and so learn what you are. And when there is this affection your actions will be born out of its purity. All this may sound very hard but it is not. We have neglected all this side of life. We are so concerned with our careers, with our own pleasures, With our own importance, that we neglect the great beauty of affection.
观察不是一个习惯。它不是你机械地训练自己做的一件事。它是充满兴趣，关注和敏感的新鲜目光。你不能把自己训练得敏感。同样，你年轻时的觉察是敏感的快速的，但是这敏感在你变老时就褪去了。所以你们得了解自己，也许你们的老师可以帮你。如果他不帮你们，那没关系，因为研究自己并了解你自己是什么，是你的责任。有这种爱的时候，你的行为就会从它的纯净中诞生。这些听起来也许很难，但实际上不难。我们忽视了生命的这一面。我们太关心我们的事业，我们的娱乐，我们的重要性，以致于忽视了巨大的爱之美。作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-27 18:55
LETTERS TO SCHOOLS VOLUME ONE
1ST JANUARY, 1979
致学校的信 第一卷 1979年1月1日
It appears that as we are concerned with education, there are two factors we must bear in mind at all times. One is diligence and the other is negligence. Most religions have talked about the activity of the mind, to be controlled, shaped by the will of God, or by some exterior agency; and devotion to some deity, made by the hand or by the mind, needs a certain quality of attention in which emotion, sentiment and romantic imagination are involved. This is the activity of the mind which is thought. The word diligence implies care, watchfulness, observation and a deep sense of freedom. Devotion to an object a person or a principle denies this freedom. Diligence is attention which brings about naturally infinite care, concern and the freshness of affection. All this demands great sensitivity. One is sensitive to one's own desires or psychological wounds, or one is sensitive to a particular person, watching his desires and responding quickly to his needs; but this kind of sensitivity is limited and can hardly be called sensitive. The quality of sensitivity of which we are talking comes about naturally when there is total responsibility which is love. Diligence has this quality.
Negligence is indifference, sloth; indifference towards the physical organism, towards the psychological state and indifference to others. In indifference there is callousness. In this stage the mind becomes sluggish, the activity of thought slows down, quickness of perception is denied and sensitivity is a thing that is incomprehensible. Most of us are sometimes diligent but most often negligent. They are not really opposites. If they were, diligence would still be negligence. Is diligence the outcome of negligence? If it is, it is still part of negligence and therefore not truly diligent. Most people are diligent in their own self-interest, whether that self-interest is identified with the family, with a particular group, sect, or nation. In this self-interest there is the seed of negligence although there is constant preoccupation with oneself. This preoccupation is limited and so it is negligence This preoccupation is energy held within a narrow boundary. Diligence is the freedom from self-occupation and brings an abundance of energy. When one understands the nature of negligence the other comes into being without any struggle. When this is fully understood - not just the verbal definitions of negligence and diligence - then the highest excellence in our thought, action, behaviour will manifest itself. But unfortunately we never demand of ourselves the highest quality of thought, action and behaviour. We hardly ever challenge ourselves and if we ever do, we have various excuses for not responding fully. This indicates does it not, an indolence of mind, the feeble activity of thought? The body can be lazy but never the mind with its quickness of thought and subtlety. Laziness of the body can easily be understood. This laziness may be because one is overworked or over-indulged, or has played games too hard. So the body requires rest which may be considered laziness though it is not. The watchful mind, being alert, sensitive, knows when the organism needs rest and care.
In our schools it is important to understand that the quality of energy which is diligence requires the right kind of food, the right kind of exercise,and enough sleep. Habit, routine, is the enemy of diligence - the habit of thought,of action, of conduct. Thought itself creates its own pattern and lives within it. When that pattern is challenged either it is disregarded or thought creates another pattern of security. This is the movement of thought - from one pattern to another, from one conclusion, one belief, to another. This is the very negligence of thought. The mind that is diligent has no habit; it has no pattern of response. It is endless movement, never coalescing into habit, never caught in conclusions. Movement has great depth and volume when it has no boundary brought about by the negligence of thought.
As we are now concerned with education, in what manner can the teacher convey this diligence with its sensitivity, with its abundant care in which laziness of the spirit has no place? Of course it is understood that the educator concerned with this question and sees the importance of diligence throughout the days of his life. If he is, then how will he set about cultivating this flower of diligence? Is he deeply concerned with the student? Does he really take the total responsibility for these young people who are in his charge? Or is he merely there to earn a livelihood, caught in the misery of having little? As we pointed out in previous letters, teaching is the highest capacity of man. You are there and you have the students before you. Is it that you are indifferent? Is it that your own personal troubles at home are wasting your energy?
To carry psychological problems from day to day is an utter waste of time and energy, indicating negligence. A diligent mind meets the problem as it arises, observes the nature of it and resolves it immediately. The carrying over of a psychological problem does not resolve the problem. It is a wastage of energy and the spirit. When you solve the problems as they arise, then you will find there are no problems at all.
So we must come back to the question: as an educator in these or any other schools, can you cultivate this diligence? It is only in this that the flowering of goodness comes into being. It is your total, irrevocable responsibility, and in it is this love which will naturally find a way of helping the student.
所以我们必须回到这个问题上：作为这些学校或者其他学校里的一个教育者，你能不能培养这种勤奋？只有在这种勤奋中善良之花才能盛放。这是你无法改变的全部责任，其中有爱，这爱会自然地发现帮助学生的方法。作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-27 20:02
K: Sir, that's why when I have talked at various universities and so on, I've always felt what are we being educated for? To just become glorified clerks?
克：先生，这就是为什么我要在各个大学做讲话，等等，我总是觉得，我们受教育到底是为了什么？只是要成为光荣的小职员吗？
A: That's what it turns out to be.
安：现实的结果就是这样。
K: Of course it is. Glorified business men and god knows what else. What for? I mean if I had a son that would be a tremendous problem for me. Fortunately, I haven't got a son, but it would be a burning question to me: what am I to do with the children that I have? To send to all these schools, where they are taught nothing but just how to read, and write a book, and how to memorize, and forget the whole field of life? They are taught about sex and reproduction and all that kind of stuff. But what? ... It is a burning question: what is it that we are doing with our children? Making them into robots or into other clever, cunning clerks, great scientists who invent this or that and then be ordinary, cheap, little human beings, with shoddy minds. You follow, sir?
克：当然如此。光荣的商人，老天知道还有什么。为了什么？我的意思是，我要是有个儿子，这对我来说会是个巨大的难题。幸运的是，我没有儿子，但是这对我来说是个燃眉之急的问题：我该拿我的孩子怎么办？把他们送到这些学校，除了只是学习如何读书写字，如何背诵，其他什么都学不到，忘掉了整个宽阔的生命领域？他们被教会了性和繁衍，所有这些东西。但是还有什么？...这是个非常迫切的问题：我们要拿孩子们怎么办？把他们变成机器人，还是变成聪明狡猾的小职员，还是发明点这个那个的伟大的科学家，然后变成平庸的卑俗的琐碎的人类，拥有卑劣的头脑？你明白吗，先生？
A: I am, I am.
安：是的，我明白。
K: So, when you talk about beauty, can we, can a human being tell another, educate another to grow in beauty, grow in goodness, to flower in great affection and care? Because if we don't do that we are destroying the earth, as it is happening now, polluting the air. We human beings are destroying everything we touch. So this becomes a very, very serious thing when we talk about beauty, when we talk about pleasure, fear, relationship, order and so on, all that, none of these things are being taught in any school.
克：所以，当你谈到美，我们能不能，一个人能不能告诉别人，教育另一个人在美中成长，在善良中成长，在巨大的爱和关怀中绽放？因为如果我们不这么做，我们就是在破坏地球，就像现在发生着的一样，污染空气。我们人类在破坏我们接触的所有东西。所以这就变成一件非常，非常严肃的事情，当我们探讨美，当我们探讨欢愉，恐惧，关系，秩序，等等，所有这些，这些东西没有任何学校教过。
出处：SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA 22ND FEBRUARY 1974 9TH CONVERSATION WITH DR. ALLAN W. ANDERSON 'INWARD OR TRUE BEAUTY'作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-28 11:54
K: Look sir, it's much deeper than that, isn't' it? From childhood the parents compare the child with another child.
克：先生你看，要比那深刻的多，不是吗？从孩童时代开始，父母就把孩子跟别的孩子比较。
A: That's when that thought arises.
安：那思想升起的时候就是这样。
K: There it is. When you compare you are hurting.
克：是的。你比较的时候，你就是在伤害。
A: Yes.
安：是的。
K: No, but we do it.
克：不，但是我们却这么做。
A: Oh yes, of course we do it.
安：哦是的，当然我们这么做了。
K: Therefore is it possible to educate a child without comparison, without imitation? And therefore never get hurt in that way. And one is hurt because one has built an image about oneself. The image which one has built about oneself is a form of resistance, a wall between you and me. And when you touch that wall at its tender point I get hurt. So not to compare in education, not to have an image about oneself. That's one of the most important things in life, not to have an image about oneself. If you have you are inevitably going to be hurt. Suppose one has an image that one is very good, or that one should be a great success, or that one has great capacities, gifts, you know the images that one builds, inevitably you are going to come and prick it. Inevitably accidents and incidents happen that's going to break that, and one gets hurt.
克：所以，有没有可能不比较地不仿效地教育一个孩子？那么就永远不会有那种伤害。一个人受伤害是因为他为自己建造了一个形象。一个人为自己建立的形象是一种阻抗，你我之间的一堵墙。如果你触到了那堵墙的脆弱点，我就受伤了。所以在教育中不要比较，不要抱有自我形象。这是生命中最重要的一件事，不要抱有自我形象。如果你有自我形象，那么你就不可避免地会受伤。假设一个人有个自我形象，我很好，或者我必须非常成功，或者我有巨大的能力，天分，你知道一个人建立的那些形象，不可避免地你会过来刺伤它们。不可避免地会发生很多意外事件打破这些形象，然后这个人就受伤了。
出处：SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA 25TH FEBRUARY 1974 11TH CONVERSATION WITH DR. ALLAN W. ANDERSON 'THE NATURE OF HURT'作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-28 11:55
K: Yes, yes. So can a child be educated never to get hurt? And I have heard professors, scholars, say, a child must be hurt in order to live in the world. And when I asked him, do you want your child to be hurt, he kept absolutely quiet. He was just talking theoretically. Now unfortunately through education, through social structure and the nature of our society in which we live, we have been hurt, we have images about ourselves which are going to be hurt, and is it possible not to create images at all?
克：是的，是的。所以一个孩子能不能从不受伤地接受教育？我曾听教授们，学者们说，一个孩子必须要受伤害才能活在这个世界上。然后当我问他，你想让你的孩子受伤害吗，他就完全不说话了。他只是从理论上谈论。现在不幸的是，通过教育，通过我们生活其中的社会结构和我们社会的本质，我们受伤害，我们对自己抱有自我形象，这形象是要被伤害的，那么，有没有可能完全不建立这种形象？
K: And parents haven't got love for their children. They may talk about love. Because the moment they compare the younger to the older they have hurt the child. Your father was so clever, you are such a stupid boy. There you have begun. In school where they give you marks it is a hurt, not marks, it is a deliberate hurt. And that is stored, and from that there is violence, there is every kind of aggression, you know all that takes place. So a mind cannot be made whole, or is whole, unless this is understood very, very deeply.
克：而父母对他们的孩子没有爱。他们也许会谈论爱。因为他们把年幼的和年长的比较的那一刻，他们就伤害了那孩子。你的父亲那么聪明，而你是这么笨的一个男孩。你就这么开始了。在学校里，他们给你分数，那就是伤害，那不是分数，那是种故意的伤害。这些都被记忆了下来，从那里就有了暴力，有了各种各样的攻击性，你知道发生的这所有一切。所以，一颗心灵是不可能变完整的，或者是完整的，除非你非常，非常深切地理解了所有这些。
出处同上。作者: Sue 时间: 2009-12-28 11:56
A: A child is born to a hurt parent, sent to a school where it is taught by a hurt teacher. Now you are asking, is there a way to educate this child so the child recovers.
安：一个受伤的父母生下一个孩子，把他送到学校，受教于一个受伤的老师。现在你问，是不是有一种教育这个孩子的方式，让孩子能够痊愈。
K: I say it is possible, sir.
克：我说这是可能的，先生。
A: Yes, please.
安：是的，请说说。
K: That is, when the teacher realizes, when the educator realizes he is hurt and the child is hurt, he is aware of his hurt and he is aware also of the child's hurt then the relationship changes. Then he will in the very act of teaching, mathematics, whatever it is, he is not only freeing himself from his hurt but also helping the child to be free of his hurt. After all that is education: to see that I, who am the teacher, I am hurt, I have gone through agonies of hurt, and I want to help that child not to be hurt, and he has come to the school being hurt. So I say, all right, we both are hurt my friend, let us see, let's help each other to wipe it out. That is the act of love.
克：那就是，当老师意识到，教育者意识到，他受过伤，孩子受过伤，他明白自己的伤害也懂得孩子的伤害，那么关系就改变了。然后他就会在那教学行为中，教数学或者别的什么，不仅把自己从伤害中解脱出来，也帮助孩子从伤害中解脱出来。这才是教育：看到，我，作为老师，我受伤了，我经历过伤害的痛苦，我想帮那孩子不再受伤，他来学校的时候已经受伤了。所以我说，好吧，我们都受过伤，我的朋友，让我们看看，让我们帮助彼此把伤害消除。这就是爱的行动。
K: See sir, this is what happens if I were in a class that's the first thing I would begin with, not some subject. I would say, look, you are hurt and I am hurt, we are both of us hurt. And point out what hurt does, how it kills people, how it destroys people; out of that there is violence, out of that there is brutality, out of that I want to hurt people. You follow? All that comes in. I would spend ten minutes talking about that, every day, in different ways, till both of us see it. Then as an educator I would use the right word and the student will use the right word, there will be no gesture, we are both involved in it. But we don't do that. The moment we come into class we pick up a book and there it goes off. If I was an educator, whether with the older people, or the younger people, I would establish this relationship. That's my duty, that's my job, that's my function, not just to transmit some information.
克：先生你看，会发生什么，如果我在课堂上，我开始做的第一件事，不是教某个科目。我会说，看，你受过伤，我受过伤，我们都受过伤。然后指出伤害都做了些什么，它怎样残杀人们，如何摧毁人类；伤害催生暴力，催生残忍，受伤后我想去伤害别人。你明白吗？这些都来了。每天我会花十分钟讲这个，以不同的方式，直到我们都看清了这一点。然后作为教育者我会使用正确的词语，学生们也使用正确的词语，不装腔作势，我们都沉浸其中。但是我们并没有这么做。进到教室的那一刻，我们就抓起一本书，然后事情就变质了。如果我是个教育者，不管面对的是成年人还是年轻人，我必须建立这种关系。这是我的责任，这是我的工作，这是我的职责，而不只是传递某些知识信息。
