Listening is an art which very few of us are capable of. We never actually listen. The word has a sound and when we do not listen to the sound, we interpret it, try to translate it into our own particular language or tradition. We never listen acutely, without any distortion. So, the speaker suggests, respectfully, that you so listen and not interpret what he says. When you tell a rather exciting story to a little boy, he listens with a tremendous sense of curiosity and energy. He wants to know what is going to happen, and he waits excitedly to the very end. But we grown-up people have lost all that curiosity, the energy to find out, that energy which is required to see very clearly things as they are, without any distortion. We never listen to each other. You never listen to your wife, do you? You know her much too well, or she you. There is no sense of deep appreciation, friendship, amity, which would make you listen to each other, whether you like it or not. But if you do listen so completely, that very act of listening is a great miracle.

傾聽(tīng)是一門(mén)我們很少有人能夠掌握的藝術(shù)，我們從不真正地傾聽(tīng)。詞語(yǔ)有自己的聲音，而當(dāng)我們不去傾聽(tīng)那個(gè)聲音時(shí)，我們就會(huì)詮釋它，試圖把它翻譯成我們自己特有的語(yǔ)言或者傳統(tǒng)。我們從不毫無(wú)扭曲、敏銳地傾聽(tīng)。所以講話(huà)者充滿(mǎn)敬意地建議你能夠這樣傾聽(tīng)，而不詮釋他說(shuō)的話(huà)。當(dāng)你給一個(gè)小男孩講一個(gè)非常有趣的故事時(shí)，他會(huì)帶一股極大的好奇心和活力去聽(tīng)。他想知道接下來(lái)會(huì)發(fā)生什么，他會(huì)一直興奮地等到最后。但我們成年人已經(jīng)完全失去了那份發(fā)現(xiàn)真相的好奇心和活力，那股非常清晰地、如實(shí)地、毫無(wú)扭曲地看到事物所需要的能量。我們從不傾聽(tīng)彼此。你從不傾聽(tīng)你的妻子，對(duì)嗎？你對(duì)她或者她對(duì)你都太熟悉了。你們之間沒(méi)有那股深深的理解、友誼、和睦，這些品質(zhì)足以讓你們傾聽(tīng)彼此，無(wú)論你是否喜歡。然而如果你確實(shí)能夠如此完全地傾聽(tīng)，那傾聽(tīng)的行為本身就是一個(gè)偉大的奇跡。

That listening, like seeing, observing, is very important. We never observe. We observe things that are convenient, friendly. We observe only if there is a reward or punishment. I do not know if you have noticed that our whole upbringing, all our education and our daily life is based on one principle: reward and punishment. We meditate in order to be rewarded, we ‘progress’ in order to be rewarded, and so on. When we seek a reward, physical or psychological, in that search for a reward there is also the punishment—if that reward is not satisfying. So could we listen to each other perse, for itself, not for something else? Could we listen, as we would listen to marvellous music or to the song of a bird, with our hearts, with our minds, with all the energy that we have? Then we can go very far.

這份傾聽(tīng)，就像看和觀察一樣，是非常重要的。我們從不觀察。我們只觀察方便的、友好的事物。只有存在獎(jiǎng)懲的時(shí)候我們才去觀察。我不知道你有沒(méi)有注意到，我們的整個(gè)成長(zhǎng)環(huán)境，我們所有的教育和我們的日常生活都基于同一個(gè)原則：獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)和懲罰。我們冥想是為了得到獎(jiǎng)賞，身體上的或者心理上的，而在這份對(duì)獎(jiǎng)賞的追求中同樣存在著懲罰——如果這份獎(jiǎng)賞不令人滿(mǎn)意的話(huà)。所以我們能不能為了傾聽(tīng)本身去傾聽(tīng)彼此，而不是為了別的東西？我們能不能用我們的心、我們的頭腦、我們的所有能量去傾聽(tīng)，就像我們聆聽(tīng)美妙的音樂(lè)或者聆聽(tīng)小鳥(niǎo)的歌唱一樣？那樣我們才能走得很遠(yuǎn)。