我们究竟恐惧事实本身，还是恐惧关于事实的观念？我们究竟恐惧事物的真实面目，还是恐惧我们心中的臆想面目？以死亡为例，我们究竟是恐惧死亡本身，还是恐惧关于死亡的观念？事实是一码事，而关于事实的观念是另一码事。究竟我是恐惧“死亡”这个词，还是恐惧死亡本身？因为我恐惧“死亡”这个词，恐惧死亡的观念，所以我们从未理解死亡本身，从未审视死亡的真相，从未与真实的死亡有直接关联。唯有与事实产生全然的交融，我们才心无恐惧。如果我不能与事实交融，就会心存恐惧；只要心中抱持着观念、见解、理论，那么我心与事实就没有交融。所以，我究竟是恐惧名相、观念，还是恐惧事实？对此必须心下了然。如果我能直面事实，那么就没什么东西等我去理解，因为事实就摆在那里，我可以直接应对；如果我恐惧的是名相，那么我必须理解那词语，深入探究那个词语、术语的全部内涵。
在我看来，制造恐惧的，恰恰是关于事实的见解、观念、经验和知识。只要将事实落入言诠，给事实冠名贴标签，进而认同或谴责之；只要心头之念自诩为“能观心”，对事实评头论足，那么内心就必有恐惧。心念，是过去的产物，它只能通过言诠、符号、意象而存在。只要思维心在思虑或诠释事实，就必生恐惧。
——克里希那穆提《生命书：365观心日课》（The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti）
Face-to-Face with the Fact
Are we afraid of a fact or of an idea about the fact? Are we afraid of the thing as it is, or are we afraid of what we think it is? Take death, for example. Are we afraid of the fact of death or of the idea of death? The fact is one thing and the idea about the fact is another. Am I afraid of the word death or of the fact itself? Because I am afraid of the word, of the idea, I never understand the fact, I never look at the fact, I am never in direct relation with the fact. It is only when I am in complete communion with the fact that there is no fear. If I am not in communion with the fact, then there is fear, and there is no communion with the fact so long as I have an idea, an opinion, a theory, about the fact; so I have to be very clear whether I am afraid of the word, the idea, or the fact. If I am face-to-face with the fact, there is nothing to understand about it: the fact is there, and I can deal with it. If I am afraid of the word, then I must understand the word, go into the whole process of what the word, the term, implies.
It is my opinion, my idea, my experience, my knowledge about the fact, that creates fear. So long as there is verbalization of the fact, giving the fact a name and therefore identifying or condemning it, so long as thought is judging the fact as an observer, there must be fear. Thought is the product of the past; it can only exist through verbalization, through symbols, through images. So long as thought is regarding or translating the fact, there must be fear.
MARCH 26
