I’m going to be nineteen, sir. My grandmother has left me something when I am twenty-one and perhaps before I go to the university I can travel and look around. But I will always carry this question with me wherever I am, whatever my future. I may marry, probably I will, and have children, and so the great question arises—what is their future? I am somewhat aware of what the politicians are doing right throughout the world. 

“我就要19岁了，先生。我的祖母留给了我一些财产，当我到了21岁，或者在我上大学之前，我可以去旅行，然后四处看看。但是无论到了哪里，我始终会带着这个问题：我的未来究竟会如何。我也许会结婚，很可能会，然后生儿育女，然后这个大问题就会出现——他们的未来会如何？我或多或少知道全世界的政客都在做些什么。

‘It is an ugly business as far as I am concerned, so I think I won’t be a politician. I’m pretty sure of that but I want a good job. I’d like to work with my hands and with my brain but the question will be how not to become a mediocre person like ninety-nine per cent of the world. So, sir, what am I to do? Oh, yes I am aware of churches and temples and all that; I am not attracted to them. I rather revolt against all that—the priests and the hierarchy of authority, but how am I going to prevent myself becoming an ordinary, average, mediocre person?’ 

“在我看来，那是一件丑陋的勾当，所以我想我不会成为一个政客。这一点我很清楚，但我想得到一份好工作。我想用我的双手和头脑去工作，但问题是，如何才能不像世上90%的人那样成为一个庸人。所以，先生，我该怎么办？噢，是的，我明白教堂和寺庙的那一套；它们对我没有吸引力。我相当反感那一切——教士和权威的等级体系，但我要如何才能防止自己成为一个普通的、寻常的、平庸的人呢？”

If I may suggest, never under any circumstances ask “how”. When you use the word “how” you really want someone to tell you what to do, some guide, some system, somebody to lead you by the hand so that you lose your freedom, your capacity to observe, your own activities, your own thoughts, your own way of life.  

如果我可以提议的话，请无论怎样都不要问“如何”。当你使用“如何”一词，你实际上是想让别人来告诉你该怎么办，让某个向导、某套体系或某个人手把手地引领你，那样的话，你就失去了观察的自由和能力，失去了你自己的行动、思想和生活之道。

When you ask “how” you really become a second-hand human being; you lose integrity and also the innate honesty to look at yourself, to be what you are and to go beyond and above what you are. Never, never ask the question “how”. We are talking psychologically, of course. You have to ask “how” when you want to put a motor together or build a computer. You have to learn something about it from somebody. 

当你问“如何”，你就变成了二手的人类，你就丧失了完整性，也失去了本有的诚实，无法诚实地看待自己、做真实的自己，也无法超越你实际的样子。所以，永远不要问“如何”这个问题。当然，我们现在讨论的是心理上的问题。当你要组装一辆汽车或制造一台电脑时，你需要问“如何”。这时你不得不向别人学习有关的知识。

But to be psychologically free and original can only come about when you are aware of your own inward activities, watch what you are thinking and never let one thought escape without observing the nature of it, the source of it. Observing, watching. One learns about oneself much more by watching than from books or from some psychologist or complicated, clever, erudite scholar or professor.

然而，只有当你觉知自己内心的各种活动，观察自己的所思所想，在观察到一个念头的本质和源头之前，决不让它逃走，这样你才能从心理上获得自由和创造性。要观察、要去看。通过观察，你对自己获得的了解，远远超过了从书本、从某些心理学家，或者从复杂、聪明、渊博的学者或者教授那里的所得。

It is going to be very difficult, my friend. It can tear you in many directions. There are a great many so-called temptations—biological, social, and you can be torn apart by the cruelty of society. Of course you are going to have to stand alone but that can come about not through force, determination or desire but when you begin to see the false things around you and in yourself: the emotions, the hopes. When you begin to see that which is false, then there is the beginning of awareness, of intelligence. You have to be a light to yourself and it is one of the most difficult things in life.

但这会很难，我的朋友，它可能会把你往各个方向撕扯。会有大量所谓的诱惑——身体上的、社会上的，你或许会被残忍的社会撕成碎片。毫无疑问，你必须孑然独立，但是，这无法借助强力、决心或者欲望来实现，而是当你开始看到自己周围和自己身上那些虚妄的东西——各种情绪和希望时，那份独立才会到来。当你开始看到何为虚假，那就是觉察和智慧的开端。你必须做自己的明灯，而这是生命中最难做到的事情之一。

‘Sir, you have made it all seem so very difficult, so very complex, so very awesome, frightening.’ 

“先生，你把这些说得太难了，太复杂了，太恐怖、太可怕了。”

I am just pointing all this out to you. It doesn’t mean that facts need frighten you. Facts are there to observe. If you observe them they never frighten you. Facts are not frightening. But if you want to avoid them, turn your back and run, then that is frightening. To stand, to see that what you have done may not have been totally correct, to live with the fact and not interpret the fact according to your pleasure or form of reaction, that is not frightening. 

我只是在向你指出所有的事实。这并不意味着事实会吓坏你。事实就在那里，等你去观察。如果你观察它们，它们绝不会吓到你。事实并不可怕。但是，如果你想避开它们，转身逃离它们，那才会可怕。你所做的也许并不完全正确，看到这一点，身处事实之中，与这个事实共存，而不根据你的好恶或者反应模式来诠释它，这并不可怕。

Life isn’t very simple. One can live simply but life itself is vast, complex. It extends from horizon to horizon. You can live with few clothes or with one meal a day, but that is not simplicity. So be simple, don’t live in a complicated way, contradictory and so on, just be simple inwardly... You played tennis this morning. I was watching and you seem to be quite good at it. Perhaps we will meet again. That is up to you.

生活没那么简单。你可以活得很简单，但生活本身是广阔的、复杂的。它的范围无边无际。你可以只靠很少几件衣服或者一日一餐而活，然而这并不是简单。所以，简单地活着，不要过一种复杂的、矛盾重重的生活，而只是保持内心的简单……你今天早上打网球了，我看到了，你看起来很擅长这项运动。也许我们还会再见面，那取决于你。

‘Thank you, sir.’

“谢谢你，先生。”

His Last Journal: Krishnamurti to Himself,  Brockwood Park, May 30, 1983 

《最后的日记》，布洛克伍德公园，1983年5月30日