Freedom is a state of mind - not freedom from something but a sense of freedom, a freedom to doubt and question everything and therefore so intense, active and vigorous that it throws away every form of dependence, slavery, conformity and acceptance. Such freedom implies being completely alone. But can the mind brought up in a culture so dependent on environment and its own tendencies ever find that freedom which is complete solitude and in which there is no leadership, no tradition and no authority?
自由是一種心智狀態(tài)，不是從什么東西中解脫，而是一種自由的感覺，自由地質(zhì)疑一切事物，因而熱情、活躍、生機勃勃，丟棄了所有形式的依賴、奴役、遵從和接受。這種自由意味著完全地單獨。但是，在如此依賴環(huán)境和自身傾向的文化中長大的這顆心，能夠發(fā)現(xiàn)那完全獨立的自由嗎？其中沒有領(lǐng)袖，沒有傳統(tǒng)，也沒有權(quán)威。
This solitude is an inward state of mind which is not dependent on any stimulus or any knowledge and is not the result of any experience or conclusion. Most of us, inwardly, are never alone. There is a difference between isolation, cutting oneself off, and aloneness, solitude. We all know what it is to be isolated - building a wall around oneself in order never to be hurt, never to be vulnerable, or cultivating detachment which is another form of agony, or living in some dreamy ivory tower of ideology. Aloneness is something quite different.
這種單獨是一種內(nèi)在的心智狀態(tài)，它不依靠任何刺激或知識，也不是任何經(jīng)驗或結(jié)論的結(jié)果。我們大多數(shù)人內(nèi)在從未單獨過。隔絕、孤立和單獨、獨立是不同的。我們都知道孤立是什么——在自己周圍建一堵墻，讓自己永遠不受傷害和攻擊；或者培養(yǎng)超脫——另一種形式的痛苦；或者活在某種虛幻的意識形態(tài)的象牙塔里。但單獨是某種完全不同的東西。
You are never alone because you are full of all the memories, all the conditioning, all the mutterings of yesterday; your mind is never clear of all the rubbish it has accumulated. To be alone you must die to the past. When you are alone, totally alone, not belonging to any family, any nation, any culture, any particular continent, there is that sense of being an outsider. The man who is completely alone in this way is innocent and it is this innocency that frees the mind from sorrow.
你從未單獨，因為你被所有的記憶、所有的限制、所有昨日的嘀嘀咕咕填滿了；你的心從未清空它收集到的垃圾。要獨立就必須對過去死亡。當你獨立的時候——完全地獨立，不再屬于任何家庭、任何民族、任何文化、任何特定的地域——你就會有一種局外人的感覺。這樣完全獨立的人才是純真的，正是這樣的純真讓心能夠從悲哀中解脫。
Freedom From the Known, Chapter 8
《從已知中解脫》，第8章
