第九章 · 心理时间，死亡就是让内心清空

I AM TEMPTED TO repeat a story about a great disciple going to God and demanding to be taught truth. This poor God says, `My friend, it is such a hot day, please get me a glass of water.' So the disciple goes out and knocks on the door of the first house he comes to and a beautiful young lady opens the door. The disciple falls in love with her and they marry and have several children.

Then one day it begins to rain, and keeps on raining, raining, raining - the torrents are swollen, the streets are full, the houses are being washed away. The disciple holds on to his wife and carries his children on his shoulders and as he is being swept away he calls out, 'Lord, please save me', and the Lord says, `Where is that glass of water I asked for?'

我想复述这样一个故事，一个出色的信徒去上帝那里，想要被传授真相。这个可怜的上帝说：“我的朋友，天这么热，请给我拿杯水。”于是信徒出去了，遇到了第一个房子，前去敲门，一个漂亮的年轻女子打开了门。信徒和她相爱，结婚，有了几个孩子。

有一天，开始下雨，雨一直下，洪流如注，街道被淹了，房子正在被冲走，信徒紧紧抱住他的妻子，把孩子们托在肩上，正当他被冲走的时候，他大喊：“上帝，请救救我”。上帝说：“我要的那杯水在哪里呢？”

It is rather a good story because most of us think in terms of time. Man lives by time. Inventing the future has been a favourite game of escape.

这是一个很好的故事，因为我们中的大多数人都是以时间来思考。人活在时间中。发明未来是一个颇受欢迎的逃避游戏。

We think that changes in ourselves can come about in time, that order in ourselves can be built up little by little, added to day by day. But time doesn't bring order or peace, so we must stop thinking in terms of gradualness. This means that there is no tomorrow for us to be peaceful in. We have to be orderly on the instant.

我们认为，自己内心的变化可以通过时间来发生，内心的秩序可以一点一点地搭建，每天增加一点。但时间不能带来秩序或平静，所以我们必须得停止这种渐进的思维方式。这意味着不存在一个可以平静的明天；我们必须得即刻变得有序。

When there is real danger time disappears, doesn't it? There is immediate action. But we do not see the danger of many of our problems and therefore we invent time as a means of overcoming them. Time is a deceiver as it doesn't do a thing to help us bring about a change in ourselves. Time is a movement which man has divided into past, present and future, and as long as he divides it he will always be in conflict.

当真实的危险发生的时候，时间消失了，不是吗？行动即刻发生。但我们看不到自己很多问题的危险，因此我们发明了时间来作为一种逾越问题的方式。时间是个骗子，它什么也做不了，不能帮我们带来内心的变化。时间是一场运动，人类把它划分成过去、现在和未来，只要人划分时间，人就总在冲突中。

Is learning a matter of time? We have not learnt after all these thousands of years that there is a better way to live than by hating and killing each other. The problem of time is a very important one to understand if we are to resolve this life which we have helped to make as monstrous and meaningless as it is.

学习是一件跟时间有关系的事情吗？数千年以来，我们还没有学到一种比互相仇恨和杀戮更好的生活方式。时间是一个很重要的要理解的问题，如果我们想要解决这个人人有份、可怕且毫无意义的人生。

The first thing to understand is that we can look at time only with that freshness and innocency of mind which we have already been into. We are confused about our many problems and lost in that confusion.

Now if one is lost in a wood, what is the first thing one does? One stops, doesn't one? One stops and looks round. But the more we are confused and lost in life the more we chase around, searching, asking, demanding, begging.

So the first thing, if I may suggest it, is that you completely stop inwardly. And when you do stop inwardly, psychologically, your mind becomes very peaceful, very clear. Then you can really look at this question of time.

第一个要理解的事情就是只有我们的内心是新鲜且没有伤痕（innocency) 的时候，我们才可以观察时间。我们对很多问题充满了困惑并在困惑中迷失。

如果一个人在森林中迷路，他应该做的第一件事情是什么？停下来，对不对？一个人停下来，环顾四周。但是我们越是困惑，越是在人生中迷失，我们越是追逐、搜索、问询、索求、乞讨。

所以第一件事情，如果我可以建议的话，就是你内心完全地停下来。当你内心停下来，你的内心变得非常平静，非常清晰，那时，你才能真正去探索时间这个问题。

Problems exist only in time, that is when we meet an issue incompletely. This incomplete coming together with the issue creates the problem. When we meet a challenge partially, fragmentarily, or try to escape from it - that is, when we meet it without complete attention - we bring about a problem. And the problem continues so long as we continue to give it incomplete attention, so long as we hope to solve it one of these days.

问题只存在于时间中，也就是当我们不能完全地面对问题的时候。这种不完全和问题本身制造了真正的问题。当我们局部地、片面地应对挑战的时候，或者尝试逃避它—— 也就是，当我们没有用完全的注意力去迎接挑战的时候 —— 我们制造了真正的问题。只要我们不拿出完全的注意力，只要我们还希望有一天能解决它，那问题就会一直持续。

（译注：如果这颗心即刻拿出完全的注意力，它不会想着有一天去解决它，这个问题即刻解决。“这个问题”指的是内心的问题，内心没问题，才能去解决外面的问题；内心有问题，外面的问题，根本看不到。带着内心的问题，“解决”外面的问题，结果，各种的不明智，让问题更多。）

Do you know what time is? Not by the watch, not chronological time, but psychological time? It is the interval between idea and action. An idea is for self- protection obviously; it is the idea of being secure.

Action is always immediate; it is not of the past or of the future; to act must always be in the present, but action is so dangerous, so uncertain, that we conform to an idea which we hope will give us a certain safety.

你知道什么是时间吗？不是手表上的，不是物理时间，而是心理时间，也就是想法和行动的间隔。很明显，想法是用来自我保护；是“变得安全”这个想法。

行动总是即时的，既不是过去的，也不是未来的；行动肯定总是在当下，但行动是如此地危险，如此地不确定，所以我们依附于一个想法，希望它能带来一定程度的安全感。

Do look at this in yourself. You have an idea of what is right or wrong, or an ideological concept about yourself and society, and according to that idea you are going to act. Therefore the action is in conformity with that idea, approximating to the idea, and hence there is always conflict. There is the idea, the interval and action. And in that interval is the whole field of time. That interval is essentially thought.

When you think you will be happy tomorrow, then you have an image of yourself achieving a certain result in time. Thought, through observation, through desire, and the continuity of that desire sustained by further thought, says, `Tomorrow I shall be happy. Tomorrow I shall have success. Tomorrow the world will be a beautiful place.' So thought creates that interval which is time.

请在你自己身上观察这一点。你有对错的观念，或者关于你自己和社会的一个意识形态的概念，根据那个想法，你来行动。因此行动遵循想法，去逼近想法，因此总是存在冲突。在想法和行动之间，存在间隔，那个间隔就是时间。这个间隔实际上就是想法。

当你认为你明天会快乐，那么你就有了关于自己的一个画面，在时间里面，取得了某种结果。想法——通过联想，通过欲望，那种欲望又进一步被想法延续下来——说：“明天我将快乐。明天我将成功。明天世界将变成一个美好的地方。”这样想法创造了那个间隔，就是时间。

（译注：只要活在想法里，行动由想法驱使，来逼近想法 —— 来实现想法中的那个画面，这本身就是挣扎。观察自己，要么拖延，要么强迫，这本身就是内心冲突的表现。一个正常的生命体，它的行动来自整个神经系统的感知，是完整的，不是想法的驱动。想法是局部的，活在想法里，这颗心的行动来自各种想法的盘算，“我该这样，我该那样”，这都是想法的移动，这就是心理时间。）

Now we are asking, can we put a stop to time? Can we live so completely that there is no tomorrow for thought to think about? Because time is sorrow. That is, yesterday or a thousand yesterday's ago, you loved, or you had a companion who has gone, and that memory remains and you are thinking about that pleasure and that pain - you are looking back, wishing, hoping, regretting, so thought, going over it again and again, breeds this thing we call sorrow and gives continuity to time.

现在我们要问，我们能否让心理时间停止？我们能否全然地活在当下，没有任何的明天可以考虑；因为时间就是伤悲。也就是说，昨天，或者一千个昨天之前，你爱过的，或者曾陪伴过你的，那个记忆仍然在，你在想这其中的愉悦和痛苦—— 你在回顾、祝福、寄托、后悔，所以想法一遍又一遍地玩味它，滋生了我们叫做伤悲的东西，并让心理时间持续着。

So long as there is this interval of time which has been bred by thought, there must be sorrow, there must be continuity of fear. So one asks oneself can this interval come to an end? If you say, `Will it ever end?', then it is already an idea, something you want to achieve, and therefore you have an interval and you are caught again.

只要存在由想法滋生的心理时间的间隔，必定存在伤悲，必定存在恐惧的延续。所以一个人得问自己，这个（心理时间的）间隔能否停止？如果你说“它能停止吗？”，那么这已经是一个想法了，一个你想实现的东西，因此你便有了间隔，你又被困住了。

Now take the question of death which is an immense problem to most people. You know death, there it is walking every day by your side. Is it possible to meet it so completely that you do not make a problem of it at all?

In order to meet it in such a way all belief, all hope, all fear about it must come to an end, otherwise you are meeting this extraordinary thing with a conclusion, an image, with a premeditated anxiety, and therefore you are meeting it with time.

现在说说死亡的问题，对于大多数人来说，这是一个严峻的问题。你知道死亡，每天都在与你同行。有没有可能去全然地面对它，而不生出任何的问题？

能够这样去面对死亡，那所有关于死亡的信仰、希望、恐惧必须终止，要不然你就会带着一个结论、一个画面、预先的焦虑来面对这个非凡的东西，因此你就带着心理时间来面对死亡。

Time is the interval between the observer and the observed. That is, the observer, you, is afraid to meet this thing called death. You don't know what it means; you have all kinds of hopes and theories about it; you believe in reincarnation  or  resurrection, or  in  something called  the  soul, the  atman,  a spiritual entity which is timeless and which you call by different names.

Now have you found out for yourself whether there is a soul? Or is it an idea that has been handed down to you? Is there something permanent, continuous, which is beyond thought?

If thought can think about it, it is within the field of thought and therefore it cannot be permanent because there is nothing permanent within the field of thought. To discover that nothing is permanent is of tremendous importance for only then is the mind free, then you can look, and in that there is great joy.

心理时间是观察者和被观察者之间的间隔。也就是说，观察者，你，害怕去面对死亡，你不知道死亡意味着什么，你有各种各样的关于死亡的寄托和理论，你相信转世或者复活，或者相信叫做灵魂的东西，一种精神实体，永恒的，有无数的名字。

现在你是否已亲自发现究竟有没有灵魂？或者它就是一个传承到你这里的想法？在想法之外，有没有一种永恒且连续的东西？

如果想法可以思考它，它仍在想法的范畴内，因此它不可能永恒，因为在想法的领域内，没有什么是永恒的。去发现没有什么是永恒的是极其的重要，因为只有那时，内心才是自由的，然后你才可以观察，其中有莫大的喜悦。

（译注：“心理时间是观察者和被观察者之间的间隔”，观察者就是那个思考者，这个观察者觉得被观察的和它不是一回事。那这里面意味着心理时间。怎么讲呢？因为这个观察者是什么？仔细体会一下，是不是各种过去的集合？这本身都是时间。正是因为有了心理时间，才构建了这样一个观察者，让观察者和被观察者有了距离，那个距离就是观察者的各种分析、正当化、谴责、评判，这都是想法的移动，这都是心理时间。观察者息止，这就是面对死亡。）

You cannot be frightened of the unknown because you do not know what the unknown is and so there is nothing to be frightened of. Death is a word, and it is the word, the image, that creates fear. So can you look at death without the image of death? As long as the image exists from which springs thought, thought must always create fear. Then you either rationalize your fear of death and build a resistance against the inevitable or you invent innumerable beliefs to protect you from the fear of death.

Hence there is a gap between you and the thing of which you are afraid. In this time-space interval there must be conflict which is fear, anxiety and self-pity. Thought, which breeds the fear of death, says, `Let's postpone it, let's avoid it, keep it as far away as possible, let's not think about it' - but you are thinking about it. When you say, `I won't think about it', you have already thought out how to avoid it. You are frightened of death because you have postponed it.

你不可能害怕未知的东西，因为你不知道未知是什么，所以没有什么可害怕的。死亡只是一个词语，而正是这个词语、这个画面制造了恐惧。所以你能否不带有关于死亡的画面来观察死亡？只要画面存在，便衍生想法，想法肯定总是制造恐惧。那么，你要么把对死亡的恐惧做合理的解释，来抗拒这个不可避免的东西；或者发明无数的信仰来让你免受死亡的恐惧。

因此，在你和你害怕的那个东西之前存在一个间隔。在这个心理时间-空间的间隔中，冲突不可避免，也就是恐惧、焦虑和自怜。那个滋生对死亡恐惧的想法，说，“让我们推后它，避免它，让它尽量离我们远远的，让我们不要想它。”但你一直在想它。当你说，“我不再想它”的时候，你已经想出了如何避免它。你害怕死亡，因为你已经推迟了它。

We have separated living from dying, and the interval between the living and the dying is fear. That interval, that time, is created by fear. Living is our daily torture, daily insult, sorrow and confusion, with occasional opening of a window over enchanted seas. That is what we call living, and we are afraid to die, which is to end this misery.

We would rather cling to the known than face the unknown - the known being our house, our furniture, our family, our character, our work, our knowledge, our fame, our loneliness, our gods - that little thing that moves around incessantly within itself with its own limited pattern of embittered existence.

我们总是把活着和死亡区分开来，活着和死亡之间的间隔就是恐惧。那个间隔，那个心理时间，就是由恐惧创造的。活着是我们日常的痛苦，日常的侮辱、伤悲和困惑，偶尔打开窗户来欣赏一下令人陶醉的大海。这就是所谓的活着，我们害怕死去，也就是去结束这场痛苦。

我们宁可依附于已知的，也不愿意去面对未知 —— 已知的是我们的房子、家具、家庭、性格、工作、知识、名声、孤独、上帝—— 这个躁动的狭隘的东西，有它局限且令人痛苦的存在模式。

We think that living is always in the present and that dying is something that awaits us at a distant time. But we have never questioned whether this battle of everyday life is living at all. We want to know the truth about reincarnation, we want proof of the survival of the soul, we listen to the assertion of clairvoyants and to the conclusions of psychical research, but we never ask, never, how to live - to live with delight, with enchantment, with beauty every day. We have accepted life as it is with all its agony and despair and have got used to it, and think of death as something to be carefully avoided.

But death is extraordinarily like life when we know how to live. You cannot live without dying. You cannot live if you do not die psychologically every minute. This is not an intellectual paradox. To live completely, wholly, every day as if it were a new loveliness, there must be dying to everything of yesterday, otherwise you live mechanically, and a mechanical mind can never know what love is or what freedom is.

我们认为活着总是在此刻，而死亡是在遥远的未来等待我们的事情。但我们从来没有去质疑过，这种日常生活的挣扎究竟算不算活着。我们想知道关于转世的真相，我们想要得到灵魂存在的证明，我们听从先知们的断言，听从心理研究的结论，但我们却从来没有问过，从来没有，如何活着？每天，欣喜地，陶醉地，美美地活着。我们已经接受了人生就这样，各种的痛苦和绝望，已经适应了这种人生，把死亡当作是一种可以小心避免的东西。

但当我们知道如何活着的时候，死亡和活着是如此之像。没有死亡，你不可能活着。若每一刻你不在内心里死去，你就无法活着。这不是一个智识上的悖论。要能够每天全然地活着，完整地活着，好像是每天都是新的美好，那必须得挥别过去的一切，要不然你只能机械地活着，一个机械的内心不可能知道什么是爱，什么是自由。

Most of us are frightened of dying because we don't know what it means to live. We don't know how to live, therefore we don't know how to die. As long as we are frightened of life we shall be frightened of death. The man who is not frightened of life is not frightened of being completely insecure for he understands that inwardly, psychologically, there is no security.

When there is no security there is an endless movement and then life and death are the same. The man who lives without conflict, who lives with beauty and love, is not frightened of death because to love is to die.

我们中的大多数人害怕死去，因为我们不知道活着意味着什么。我们不知道如何活着，所以我们不知道如何死去。只有我们害怕活着，我们就害怕死亡。一个不惧怕活着的人，也不惧怕完全地不安全，因为他理解内在的、心理上，没有任何的安全。

当（心理）安全不存在的时候，（这个我完全不在），这颗心才能感受到一个永无息止的动态（这整个数以千亿计神经元的造化），那时活着和死去是一样的。一个活着没有任何冲突的人，一个带着美和爱生活的人，不惧怕死亡，因为爱就是消亡。

If you die to everything you know, including your family, your memory, everything you have felt, then death is a purification, a rejuvenating process; then death brings innocence and it is only the innocent who are passionate, not the people who believe or who want to find out what happens after death.

如果你能在内心挥别你所知道的一切，包括你的家庭，你的记忆，你感受到的一切，那么死亡就变成了净化，一个复苏的过程。那么死亡带来了天真，只有天真的人才充满热情，而不是那些相信或者想要发现死后会发生什么的人。

To find out actually what takes place when you die you must die. This isn't a joke. You must die - not physically but psychologically, inwardly, die to the things you have cherished and to the things you are bitter about.

If you have died to one of your pleasures, the smallest or the greatest, naturally, without any enforcement or argument, then you will know what it means to die.

To die is to have a mind that is completely empty of itself, empty of its daily longing, pleasure; and agonies. Death is a renewal, a mutation, in which thought does not function at all because thought is old. When there is death there is something totally new. Freedom from the known is death, and then you are living.

去发现当你死亡的时候，实际上发生了什么，那么你必须得死。这不是一个笑话。你必须得死 —— 不是肉体上的，而是心理上的、内在的，对所有你珍藏的和你痛苦的事情死去。

如果你已经对你的任何一种愉悦死心，无论是最小的，还是最大的，自然地死心，没有任何的强制或者争辩，那么你就会知道死亡意味着什么。

死亡就是让内心清空，清空每天的渴望、愉悦和痛苦。死亡是一种更新，一种突变，在那里，想法没有用武之地，因为想法是旧的。当死亡发生的时候，完全崭新的东西就会出现。从已知中解脱就是死亡，然后你才真正在活。