要想理解死亡，我们必须放下恐惧，因为恰是恐惧心虚构出来生、永生或转世等形形色色的理论。所以，东方人说，人有转世，有重生，一世世不断地获得新生——这就是灵魂，所谓的灵魂。
现在请你细听。真有灵魂这个东西吗？我们之所以愿意相信有灵魂，是因为它能给我们带来快乐，是因为灵魂是一种超越思想，超越语言，在不可知彼岸的东西，是一种永恒的、灵性的东西，永不毁灭，因而思维可以紧抓不放。但，所谓灵魂——超越时间，超越思想，超越人性，非人杜撰，非狡黠心智所臆造——这东西真地存在吗？因为我们在生活中看到了巨大的不确定、混乱，一切皆无常，没任何事物可持久——与太太的关系，与丈夫的关系，与工作的关系……无一是持久的，所以，大脑才虚构出某种永恒之物，并称之为灵魂。但，因为大脑可以思索它，思维可以思索它，因为灵魂可以被思考，所以它自然还落在时间范畴里。我若能思考某物，则它就是我思维的一部分，而我的思维是时间、经验与知识的产物，所以灵魂仍然落在时间范畴里。
所以，灵魂一次次转世、重生，延续不息——这种观念毫无意义，因为它是人心虚构出来的。人们内心充满恐惧，又充满渴望，寻求永恒从而获得长生，获得确定感，所以灵魂就成了希望的寄托。
——克里希那穆提《生命书：365观心日课》（The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti）
Is There Such a Thing as a Soul?
So to understand this question of death, we must be rid of fear, which invents the various theories of afterlife or immortality or reincarnation. So we say, those in the East say, that there is reincarnation, there is a rebirth, a constant renewal going on and on and on—the soul, the so-called soul.
Now please listen carefully. Is there such a thing? We like to think there is such a thing, because it gives us pleasure, because that is something that we have set beyond thought, beyond words, beyond; it is something eternal, spiritual, that can never die, and so thought clings to it. But is there such a thing as a soul, which is something beyond time, something beyond thought, something that is not invented by man, something that is beyond the nature of man, something that is not put together by the cunning mind? Because the mind sees such enormous uncertainty, confusion, nothing permanent in life—nothing. Your relationship to your wife, your husband, your job—nothing is permanent. And so the mind invents a something which is permanent, which it calls the soul. But since the mind can think about it, thought can think about it; as thought can think about it, it is still within the field of time—naturally. If I can think about something, it is part of my thought. And my thought is the result of time, of experience, of knowledge. So, the soul is still within the field of time…
So the idea of a continuity of a soul that will be reborn over and over and over again has no meaning because it is the invention of a mind that is frightened, of a mind that wants, that seeks a duration through permanency, that wants certainty, because in that there is hope.
NOVEMBER 19
