This is a dialogue between us, a conversation between two friends. So this is not a lecture to instruct, inform or guide you. We are going to talk over together many things, certainly not to convince you of anything, or to inform you of new ideas, new concepts, conclusions or ideals. We are going to look together at the whole world as it is, at what is happening not only in this part of the world but also in the rest of the world. Together. And the speaker means together. You and he are going to observe, without any bias, without any prejudice, what is happening globally.

這是我們之間的一場對話，是兩個朋友間的一場交談，所以這不是一場用來指導(dǎo)你或者向你灌輸?shù)闹v座。我們要一起來探討某些事情，而絕不是要說服你相信什么，也不是向你灌輸新想法、新觀念、新結(jié)論或新理想。我們要一起來看看整個世界的現(xiàn)狀，不僅看看世界的這個部分，而且也看看世界的其他地方發(fā)生著什么。一起來看看。講話者說的是“一起”。你和他一起來觀察全球正在發(fā)生的事情，不帶有任何先入之見，也不帶有任何偏見。

So this is a serious talk, not something intellectual, emotional or devotional. So we must exercise our brains. We must have scepticism, doubt; we must question and not accept anything that anybody says—including all your gurus and sacred books. We have come to a crisis in the world. The crisis is not merely economic; rather it is psychological. We have lived on this earth for over a million years and, during that long period of time, we have passed through every kind of catastrophe, every kind of war. Civilizations have disappeared; so have cultures that shaped the behaviour of human beings. We have had a great many leaders, political and religious, with all the tricks that they have played on human beings. And after this enormous evolution of the human brain, we are what we have been— rather primitive, barbarous, cruel, and always preparing for war. Every nation now is storing up armaments. And we human beings are caught in this wheel of time. We have not changed very much; we are still barbarians, with all kinds of superstitions and beliefs. At the end of it all, where are we?

所以說這是一場嚴(yán)肅的講話，而不是一件智力上、情感上或者信仰上的事情，因此我們必須運(yùn)用我們的大腦。我們必須抱有懷疑和質(zhì)疑精神，必須質(zhì)疑而不是接受任何人說的任何事情——包括你所有的古魯和圣典。一場世界性的危機(jī)已經(jīng)來到我們面前，這場危機(jī)不僅僅是經(jīng)濟(jì)上的，而且是心理上的。我們已經(jīng)在這個地球上生活了一百萬年，在時間的長河中，我們歷經(jīng)了各種各樣的災(zāi)難，各種各樣的戰(zhàn)爭。無數(shù)文明曾經(jīng)消失過，塑造了人類行為的無數(shù)文化也遭受過同樣的命運(yùn)。我們有過無數(shù)的政治或宗教領(lǐng)袖，他們都在人類身上玩過不計其數(shù)的把戲。而在人類的大腦經(jīng)過了這番非同尋常的進(jìn)化之后，我們還是過去的那副樣子——原始、野蠻、殘忍，總是在為戰(zhàn)爭做準(zhǔn)備。每個國家都在囤積軍備。而我們?nèi)祟惥捅焕г诹藭r間的車輪之中。我們從來都沒有改變多少，我們依然是野蠻人，有著各式各樣的迷信和信仰。在這一切的最后，我們又到了哪里呢？

Please, we are talking over things together. It is not that the speaker is explaining all this; it is so obvious. You and the speaker are together examining very carefully, diligently, what we have become, what we are. And we ask: Will time change us? Will time, that is, another fifty thousand or a million years change the human mind, the human brain? Or is time not important at all? We are going to talk about all these things.

請注意，我們是在一起探討問題，并不是講話者在解釋一切，這一點(diǎn)再明顯不過了。你和講話者是在一起非常仔細(xì)、孜孜不倦地審視我們變成了什么樣子，我們現(xiàn)在究竟如何。而我們問：時間會改變我們嗎？時間，也就是再花上五萬年或者一百萬年，會改變?nèi)祟惖男闹?、人類的大腦嗎？我們要來一起探討所有這些事情。