返回列表 发帖

给学校的信,1978年11月15日 - 责任

一个人就是整个人类

The word responsibility should be understood in all its significance. It comes from to respond, to respond not partially but wholly. The word also implies to refer back: respond to your background, which is to refer back to your conditioning. Responsibility is the action, as it is generally understood,of one's human conditioning. One's culture, the society in which one lives, naturally condition the mind, whether that culture is native or foreign. From this background one responds and this response limits our responsibility. If one is born in India, Europe, America or wherever, one's response will be according to religious superstition - all religions are superstitious structures - or nationalism, or scientific theories. These condition one's response and they are always limited, finite. And so there is always contradiction, conflict and the arising of confusion. This is inevitable and it brings about division between human beings. Division in any form must bring about not only conflict and violence but ultimately war.

我们需要理解责任这个词的全部意义。它的本意是反应,不是部分地而是全面地反应。这个词还意味着回过来:对你的背景的反应,回头看你的局限性。一般意义上所理解的责任,是发自人的局限性的行动。一个人的文化和他所处的社会自然会局限他的心灵,无论这个文化是本土的还是外来的。他基于这个背景作出反应,而这个反应限制了我们的责任。如果一个人出生在印度、欧洲、美国或无论什么地方,他都会根据宗教的迷信——所有宗教都是某种迷信的结构,或民族主义,或科学理论进行反应。这些限制了他的反应,它们总是受制约的、有限的,因此总会出现矛盾、冲突和困惑。这是必然的,它导致人与人之间的分割。任何形式的分割都必定会带来冲突和暴力,并最终带来战争。

If one understands the actual meaning of the word responsible and what goes on in the world today, one sees that responsibility has become irresponsible. In understanding what is irresponsible we will begin to comprehend what is responsibility. Responsibility is for the whole, as the word implies, not for oneself, not for one's family, not for some concepts or beliefs,but for the whole of mankind.

如果你了解责任这个词的真正含义,以及现在世界上正发生着什么,你就会看到,责任已经变成了不负责任。通过理解什么是不负责任,我们将会开始领会什么是责任。责任是对于整体的,正如这个词所隐含的,它不是对自己的,不是对自己家庭的,不是对某种观念或信仰的,而是对整个人类的。

Our various cultures have emphasized separateness, called individualism, which has resulted in each one doing what he desires or being committed to his own particular little talent, however profitable or useful that talent may be to society. This does not mean what the totalitarians want one to believe, that only the State and the authorities who represent the State are important, not human beings The State is a concept, but a human being, though he lives in it, is not a concept. Fear is an actuality not a concept.

我们的各种文化都在强调分别,并称之为个人主义,这导致每个人都在做他想做的事,或致力于自己特殊的微小才能,无论这个才能对社会多么有益或实用。我的意思不是指极权主义者想让你相信的想法,即只有国家和代表国家的政府才是重要的,而不是人。国家是一个概念,而人,虽然生活在国家里面,却不是一个概念。恐惧是一个事实,而不是概念。

A human being psychologically is the whole of mankind. He not only represents it but he is the whole of the human species. He is essentially the whole psyche of mankind. On this actuality various cultures have imposed the illusion that each human being is different. In this illusion mankind has been caught for centuries and this illusion has become a reality. If one observes closely the whole psychological structure of oneself one will find that as one suffers, so all mankind suffers in various degrees. If you are lonely,the whole humankind knows this loneliness. Agony, jealousy, envy and fear are known to all. So psychologically, inwardly, one is like another human being. There may be differences physically, biologically. One is tall,or short and so on but basically one is the representative of all mankind.

从心理上说,一个人就是整个人类。他不只是代表人类,他就是人类这个物种的全部。本质上,他就是人类的整个心智。各种文化在这个事实上强加了“每个人都是不同的”这个幻觉。人类已经在这个幻觉中束缚了许多个世纪,这幻觉已经变成了现实。如果仔细观察自己的整个心理结构,你就会发现,正如你会痛苦,整个人类都会在不同的程度上痛苦。如果你是孤独的,整个人类都知道这种孤独。痛苦、嫉妒、羡慕和恐惧也都被所有人熟知。因此从心理上说,内在地说,你和别人是一样的。在生理上、生物学意义上或许存在差异——高或矮,等等——但是从根本上说,你就是整个人类的代表。

So psychologically you are the world; you are responsible for the whole of mankind, not for yourself as a separate human being, which is a psychological illusion. As the representative of the whole human race, your response is whole not partial. So responsibility has a totally different meaning. One has to learn the art of this responsibility.If one grasps the full significance that one is psychologically the world, then responsibility becomes overpowering love. Then one will care for the child, not just at the tender age, but see that he understands the significance of responsibility throughout his life. This art includes behaviour, the ways of one's thinking and the importance of correct action. In these schools of ours responsibility to the earth, to nature and to each other is part of our education not merely the emphasis on academic subjects though they are necessary.

因此在心理上,你就是这个世界。你对整个人类负有责任,而不是作为个体对自己负有责任,那是一个心理上的幻觉。作为整个人类物种的代表,你的反应是整体的,而不是局部的。于是责任具有了一种完全不同的含义。你必须学习这种责任的艺术。如果你完全理解了“心理上,个人就是世界”这个事实的含意,那么责任就会变成无法遏制的爱。然后你就会关爱儿童,不只在他们年幼时,还要让他们终生都能理解责任的意义。这门艺术包括行为、思考方式以及正确行动的重要性。在我们这些学校里,对地球、对自然以及对彼此的责任是教育的一部分,不是只强调学业,尽管它们也是必要的。

Then we can ask what is the teacher teaching and what is the pupil receiving, and more widely - what is learning? What is the educator's function? Is it to teach merely algebra and physics or is it to awaken in the student - and so in himself - this enormous sense of responsibility? Can the two go together? That is, the academic subjects which will help in a career and this responsibility for the whole of mankind and life. Or must they be kept separate? If they are separate, then there will be contradiction in his life;he will become a hypocrite and unconsciously or deliberately keep his life in two definite compartments. Mankind lives in this division. At home he is one way and in the factory or the office he assumes a different face. We have asked if the two can move together.Is this possible?

然后我们可以问,教师要教什么?学生要学什么?以及更广泛的问题,什么是学习?教育者的职责是什么?是只教代数和物理,还是在学生以及他自己的内心唤醒那份巨大的责任感?这两者能够并存吗,我是说,对职业有帮助的学业课程和对整个人类和生命负责?还是说它们是分离的?如果是分离的,那么这个学生的生活中就会有矛盾,他会成为一个虚伪的人,有意识或无意识地把他的生活划分为两个明确的部分。人就生活在这种分割中。他在家里是一套,在工厂或办公室则呈现一副截然不同的面孔。这两者有可能和谐并存吗?

When a question of this kind is put one must investigate the implications of the question and not whether it is or it is not possible. So it is of the greatest importance how you approach this question. If you approach it from your limited background-and all conditioning is limited, then it will be a partial grasp of the implications in this You must come to this question afresh. Then you will find the futility of the question itself because, as you approach it afresh, you will see that these two meet like two streams making a formidable river which is your life, your daily life of total responsibility.

当这样一个问题提出来,你需要去研究它的含义,而不仅仅是回答可能或不可能。因此,你如何对待这个问题才是最重要的。如果你从自己受限的背景去对待它——所有的制约都是受限的——那么你对它的理解将会是不完整的。你需要从一个全新的角度去对待它,于是你发现这个问题是没有意义的,因为当你全新地对待它时,你就会看到这两者就象两股溪流汇入一条巨大的河流,那就是你的生活,你负有全部责任的每日生活。

Is this what you are teaching, realizing that the teacher has the greatest of all professions? These are not mere words but an abiding actuality not to be slurred over. If you do not feel the truth of this then you really should have another profession. Then you will live in the illusions that mankind has created for itself.

意识到教师是最伟大的职业,你会向学生传达这一切吗?这些不只是文字,而是一个不应被忽略的重要事实。如果你没有感受到这个事实,那你真的应该换一个职业,否则你将活在人类为自己制造的幻想中。

So we can again ask: what are you teaching and what is the pupil learning? Are you creating that strange atmosphere in which actual learning takes place? If you have understood the enormity of responsibility and beauty of it, then you are totally responsible for the student - what he wears, what he eats, the manner of his talk and so on.

所以我们再问一次:什么是你要教给学生的和学生要学习的?你是不是在创造那个能够让真正的学习发生的特殊氛围?如果你理解了责任的巨大和它的美,那么你就会对学生完全地负责——他穿什么,他吃什么,他谈话的方式等等。

From this question arises another, what is learning? Probably most of us have not even asked that question, or if we have asked it, our response has been from tradition, which is accumulated knowledge, knowledge which functions with skill or without skill to earn our daily living.This is what one has been taught, for which all the usual schools, colleges, universities,etc exist. Knowledge predominates, which is one of our greatest conditionings, and so the brain is never free from the known. It is always adding to what is already known, and so the brain is put into a straight-jacket of the known and is never free to discover a way of life which may not be based on the known at all. The known makes for a wide or narrow rut and one remains in that rut thinking there is security in it. That security is destroyed by the very finite known.This has been the way of human life up to now.

由这个问题带来了另一个问题,什么是学习?我们大多数人可能甚至没有问过这个问题,或者我们问过,但我们的回答来自传统,即累积的知识,我们将这些知识熟练或不熟练地运用于谋生。这就是人们通常被教导的东西,这就是所有通常的学校、学院、大学等等存在的目的。知识占据主导地位,这是我们最大的局限之一,所以头脑从未摆脱已知。它总是在已知上添加,因此陷入了已知的束缚,从来没能自由地去发现一种完全不基于已知的生活方式。已知导致一种宽阔或狭隘的定势,一个人停留在这个定势中并认为这是安全的;而安全恰恰是被有限的已知破坏的。这就是人类一直延续至今的生活方式。

So is there a way of learning which does not make life into a routine, a narrow groove? Then what is learning? One must be very clear about the ways of knowledge: first to acquire knowledge and then act from that knowledge - technological and psychological, or act, and from that action acquire knowledge? Both are acquisitions of knowledge. Knowledge is the past always. Is there a way of acting without the enormous weight of man's accumulated knowledge? There is. It is not learning as we have known it; it is pure observation - observation which is not continuous and which then becomes memory, but observation from moment to moment. The observer is the essence of knowledge and he imposes on what he observes that which he has acquired through experience and various forms of sensory reaction. The observer is always manipulating that which he observes, and what he observes is always reduced to knowledge. So he is always caught in the old tradition of habit-forming.

那么,有没有一种学习方式,它不会把生活变成一种惯性模式,一种狭隘的常规?什么是学习?我们需要非常清楚地了解知识的模式。我们获得技术上或心理上的知识,然后按照那个知识去行动;或者先去行动,再从行动中获得知识。二者都是获取知识。知识永远属于过去。有没有这样一种行动方式,它不再携带人类知识的重负?有,但它不是我们已经熟悉的那种学习,它是纯然的观察。它不是那种不断累积、随即变成记忆的观察,而是一刻接一刻的观察。观察者是知识的本质,他把自己通过经验与各种感官反应所获得的东西强加在他观察到的事物上。观察者总是在操纵他所观察到的,而他的观察所得总是被转化为知识。所以他总是陷在制造习惯的古老传统中。

So learning is pure observation - not only of the things outside you but also of that which is happening inwardly; to observe without the observer.

因此,学习是纯然的观察,不仅是对外界,也包括内心正在发生的事情——没有观察者的观察。

                                                                 绿草园翻译工作室

返回列表 回复 发帖