So we first begin with what our brain is. The speaker is not a brain specialist, but he has talked with brain specialists. The brain, which is inside the skull, is a most extraordinary instrument. It has acquired tremendous knowledge about almost everything. It has invented the most incredible things like the computer, the means of quick communication, and instruments of war. And here it is entirely free to investigate, invent, research. It starts with knowledge, and accumulates more and more knowledge. If a certain theory does not work, it is dropped. But the brain is not equally free to inquire into the self. It is conditioned, shaped, programmed—to be a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and so on. Like a computer, the human brain is programmed—that you must have war, that you belong to a certain group, that your roots are in this part of the world, and so on. This is correct; this is not an exaggeration. All of us are programmed by tradition, by the constant repetition in newspapers and magazines, by thousands of years of pressure. The brain is free in one direction: in the world of technology. But that very brain, which is so extraordinarily capable, is limited by its own self-interest. Our brain, which is amazingly free in one direction, is psychologically a cripple.
那么我们首先从探讨我们的大脑是什么开始。讲话者不是一个大脑专家，但他跟一些大脑专家交谈过。头颅内的大脑，是一个极其非凡的工具，它获得了几乎关于一切的海量知识。它发明了最不可思议的东西，比如计算机、快捷的通讯手段以及各种战争武器。在这些方面它可以完全自由地探索、发明、研究。它从知识出发，然后累积了越来越多的知识。如果某种理论行不通，它就会将其放弃。但大脑在探究自我方面就没有那么自由了。它被制约、塑造和程式化了——成了一名印度教徒、穆斯林、基督教徒、佛教徒等等。就像计算机一样，人类的大脑被程式化了——你必须发动战争，你要属于某个团体，你的根就扎在世界的这个地方，等等。这是事实，并非夸张。我们所有人都被传统所程式化，被报纸杂志不停地重复宣传、被几千年来的压力所程式化。大脑在某个方向上——在科技世界中是自由的。但正是这个大脑，这个极其能干的大脑，被它自身的自私所局限了。我们的大脑，在某个方向上出奇地自由，在心理上却严重残疾。
Is it possible for the human brain to be entirely free so that there is tremendous energy?—not to do more mischief, not to have more money, or power— though you must have money—but to inquire, to find out a way of life in which there is no fear, no loneliness, and no sorrow, and to inquire into the nature of death, meditation, and truth. Is it possible for the human brain, which has been conditioned for thousands of years, to be entirely free? Or must human beings everlastingly be slaves, never knowing what freedom is?—not freedom in the abstract but freedom from conflict, because we live in conflict. One fact common to all human beings—from childhood till they die—is this constant struggle, seeking security and therefore never finding it, or being insecure, wanting security. So is it possible for human beings in the modern world with all its complexities to live without a shadow of conflict? Because conflict distorts the brain, lessens its capacity, its energy, and the brain soon wears itself out. You can observe in yourself as you grow older this perpetual conflict.
人类的大脑有可能完全自由，因而拥有惊人的能量吗？——不是为了制造更多的伤害，不是为了获取更多的金钱或权力——尽管你必须有钱——而是为了去探究，为了找到一条没有恐惧、没有孤独、没有悲伤的生活之道，为了探究死亡、冥想和真理的本质。人类的大脑已经被制约了数千年，它有可能彻底自由吗？还是说，人类永远都是奴隶，永远都不会知道自由是什么？——不是抽象的自由，而是摆脱了冲突的自由，因为我们就生活在冲突之中。对所有人类来说有一个共同的事实，那就是这种不断的冲突从孩童时代一直持续到他们死去的那一刻——寻求保障却因此从来都找不到，或者感觉不安全于是追求安全感。那么，当今这个极其复杂的世界中的人类，有可能活得没有一丝冲突的阴影吗？因为冲突会扭曲大脑，削弱它的能力和能量，于是大脑很快就会消耗殆尽。随着你年纪渐长，你从自己身上就可以观察到这种永无止境的冲突。
