They were chanting in the temple. It was a clean temple of carved stone, massive and indestructible. There were over thirty priests, naked to the waist; their pronunciation of the Sanskrit was precise and distinct, and they knew the meaning of the chant. The depth and sound of the words made those walls and pillars almost tremble, and instinctively the group that was there became silent. The creation, the beginning of the world was being chanted, and how man was brought forth.

寺院里，他們正在唱著頌歌。這是一座潔凈的寺院，用切割好的堅(jiān)不可摧的巨大石頭建成。那里有三十多位僧侶，上身袒露；他們的梵音精確而清晰，而且他們熟知頌歌的含義。那些詞句的力度和音調(diào)幾乎使墻壁和柱子震顫，恰好在那里的人們本能地變得安靜。世界的起源、創(chuàng)世、人類是如何被創(chuàng)造的，所有這些正在被唱頌。

The people had closed their eyes, and the chant was producing a pleasant disturbance: nostalgic remembrances of their childhood, thoughts of the progress they had made since those youthful days, the strange effect of Sanskrit words, delight in hearing the chant again. Some were repeating the chant to themselves, and their lips were moving. The atmosphere was getting charged with strong emotions, but the priests went on with the chant and the gods remained silent.

人們合上雙眼，頌歌營(yíng)造出一種令人愉悅的悸動(dòng)：對(duì)童年時(shí)光的追憶，對(duì)于自青年時(shí)期以來(lái)所取得的進(jìn)步的思考，梵文詞句的奇妙作用，重溫這些頌歌的喜悅。一些人正在跟唱，他們的嘴唇蠕動(dòng)著?？諝饫镅笠缰鴱?qiáng)烈的情感，而僧侶們繼續(xù)唱頌，諸神依然沉默。

How we hug to ourselves the idea of progress. We like to think we shall achieve a better state, become more merciful, peaceful and virtuous. We love to cling to this illusion, and few are deeply aware that this becoming is a pretence, a satisfying myth. We love to think that someday we shall be better, but in the meantime we carry on. Progress is such a comforting word, so reassuring, a word with which we hypnotize ourselves. The thing which is cannot become something different; greed can never become non-greed, any more than violence can become non-violence.

我們是多么執(zhí)著于進(jìn)步的觀念?。∥覀兿矚g認(rèn)為我們應(yīng)該達(dá)到更好的狀態(tài)，變得更仁慈、安靜而高尚。我們喜歡執(zhí)著于這個(gè)幻象，幾乎沒(méi)有人深刻地覺知到這是一場(chǎng)騙局，是一個(gè)讓人滿意的神話。我們喜歡想象有朝一日我們將變得更好，但是同時(shí)我們繼續(xù)混著日子。進(jìn)步是這樣一個(gè)讓人舒服、讓人安心的詞，一個(gè)我們借以自我催眠的詞。實(shí)然所“是”的東西不可能變成別的東西，貪婪永遠(yuǎn)不可能變成不貪婪，就像暴力也不可能變成非暴力。

You can make pig iron into a marvellous, complicated machine, but progress is illusion when applied to self-becoming. The idea of the 'me' becoming something glorious is the simple deception of the craving to be great. We worship the success of the State, of the ideology, of the self, and deceive ourselves with the comforting illusion of progress. Thought may progress, become something more, go towards a more perfect end, or make itself silent; but as long as thought is a movement of acquisitiveness or renunciation, it is always a mere reaction. Reaction ever produces conflict, and progress in conflict is further confusion, further antagonism.

你可以把生鐵塊做成一部龐大復(fù)雜的機(jī)器，但是當(dāng)牽涉到“我要成為”的時(shí)候，進(jìn)步就只是一個(gè)幻覺。“我”要變成某種光彩奪目的東西的想法,只是那個(gè)想要變得“偉大”的欲望耍的一個(gè)小花招。我們崇拜國(guó)家的勝利，意識(shí)形態(tài)的勝利，自我的勝利，并且用令人舒服的進(jìn)步的幻覺來(lái)欺騙自己。思想也許可以進(jìn)步，變得更豐富，走向更完美的目標(biāo)，或者讓它自己沉默；但是只要思想是一種獲得或放棄的活動(dòng)，它就永遠(yuǎn)只是反應(yīng)。反應(yīng)永遠(yuǎn)在制造沖突，而沖突中的進(jìn)步只是進(jìn)一步的混亂，進(jìn)一步的敵視。

Commentaries on Living, 'Progress and Revolution'

《生命的注釋》之“進(jìn)步與革命”