Chapter 5 THE STATE OF PRESENCE

第五章临在状态

IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT IS

不是你想的那回事

You keep talking about the state of presence as the key. I think I understand it intellectually, but I don't know if I have ever truly experienced it. I wonder — is it what I think it is, or is it something entirely different?

你一再地说临在状态才是关键。在知性上我了解，可是我不知道自己是不是真的经验过它。我纳闷的是它是我想的那回事吗？还是完全两码事？

It's not what you think it is! You can't think about presence, and the mind can't understand it. Understanding presence is being present.

它不是你想的那回事！你既不能思考临在，心智也无法了解它。了解临在就是处于临在。

Try a little experiment. Close your eyes and say to yourself: "I wonder what my next thought is going to be." Then become very alert and wait for the next thought. Be like a cat watching a mouse hole. What thought is going to come out of the mouse hole? Try it now.

你可以做个小实验。闭上眼睛对自己说：“我想知道我的下一个念头是什么？”然后就戒慎戒惧地等着下一个念头。要像一只守着老鼠洞的猫一样。看看什么念头会从鼠洞里边窜出来？现在就试。

Well?

怎么样？

I had to wait for quite a long time before a thought came in.

我等了好久才窜出一个念头。

Exactly. As long as you are in a state of intense presence, you are free of thought. You are still, yet highly alert. The instant your conscious attention sinks below a certain level, thought rushes in. The mental noise returns; the stillness is lost. You are back in time.

完全正确。当你处于深刻的临在状态时，你就从思想里解脱了。你万念俱息，然而却处于高度的警觉中。你有意识的专注——沉落到某一个层面的那一刻，念头便蜂拥而入。心智的杂音又回来了；你便失去了宁静。你又回到了时间里。

To test their degree of presence, some Zen masters have been known to creep up on their students from behind and suddenly hit them with a stick. Quite a shock! If the student had been fully present and in a state of alertness, if he had "kept his loin girded and his lamp burning," which is one of the analogies that Jesus uses for presence, he would have noticed the master coming up from behind and stopped him or stepped aside. But if he were hit, that would mean he was immersed in thought, which is to say absent, unconscious.

据闻一些禅师为了测试门徒的临在度，经常出其不备地赏以当头棒喝。相当震撼！如果门徒能像耶稣对临在所做的比喻一样：“把他的腰腹束紧，把他的灯点亮。”也就是全然临在，处于警觉状态的话。他就会察觉到师父溜过来，而及时地阻挡他或者闪开。万一他挨了棒子，那就表示他沉溺在思想里。也就是不临在，无意识的意思。

To stay present in everyday life, it helps to be deeply rooted within yourself otherwise, the mind, which has incredible momentum, will drag you along like a wild river.

日常生活中保持临在，有助于你往内在扎根；否则你就会被拥有大量动能的心智，像湍急的河水一样，把你拖进激流里了。

What do you mean by "rooted within yourself"?

你说“往内在扎根”是什么意思？

It means to inhabit your body fully. To always have some of your attention in the inner energy field of your body. To feel the body from within, so to speak. Body awareness keeps you present. It anchors you in the Now.

就是全然地进驻在身体里的意思。始终把你一部分的注意力，摆在你体内的能场上。换言之，就是从里面感觉你的身体。身体的觉知使你临在。它把你锚定在当下。（参见第六章）

THE ESOTERIC MEANING OF "WAITING"

“等待”的奥秘

In a sense, the state of presence could be compared to waiting. Jesus used the analogy of waiting in some of his parables. This is not the usual bored or restless kind of waiting that is a denial of the present and that I spoke about already. It is not a waiting in which your attention is focused on some point in the future and the present is perceived as an undesirable obstacle that prevents you from having what you want. There is a qualitatively different kind of waiting, one that requires your total alertness. Something could happen at any moment, and if you are not absolutely awake, absolutely still, you will miss it. This is the kind of waiting Jesus talks about. In that state, all your attention is in the Now. There is none left for daydreaming, thinking, remembering, anticipating. There is no tension in it, no fear, just alert presence. You are present with your whole Being, with every cell of your body. In that state, the "you" that has a past and a future, the personality if you like, is hardly there anymore. And yet nothing of value is lost. You are still essentially yourself. In fact, you are more fully yourself than you ever were before, or rather it is only now that you are truly yourself.

就某一意义来说，等待可以比喻做临在状态。耶稣在他一些寓言里，常用等待做比喻。这不是我提过的否定当下的无聊，或坐立不安的等待。也不是把注意力集中在未来的某一个点上，而把当下感知为阻止你得到所欲，把它当成障碍的那种等待。这是一种不同品质的等待，一种要求你全然警觉的等待。状况随时都会发生，如果你不是绝对地清醒、绝对地宁静，你就会错失掉它。这就是耶稣所说的等待。在这种状态下，你全副的注意力都在当下。没有做白日梦、思考、回忆和期盼的余地。里面没有张力、恐惧，只有警觉的临在。你与整个本体，与每一个细胞临在。在这种状态之下，那有一个过去和一个未来的“你”，你喜欢说人格也可以，几乎不存在了。可是，任何有价值的都不会减损。本质上你还是你自己。事实上，你比之前更是十足的你自己，或者说，只有当下的你才是你真正的自己。

"Be like a servant waiting for the return of the master," says Jesus. The servant does not know at what hour the master is going to come. So he stays awake, alert, poised, still, lest he miss the master's arrival. In another parable, Jesus speaks of the five careless (unconscious) women who do not have enough oil (consciousness) to keep their lamps burning (stay present) and so miss the bridegroom (the Now) and don't get to the wedding feast (enlightenment). These five stand in contrast to the five wise women who have enough oil (stay conscious).

“要像仆从等待主人回来一样，”耶稣说。仆人并不知道主人几时回来。所以他保持着清醒、警觉、镇定、宁静，以免错过了主人的到来。耶稣还在另一个比喻里，提到五个粗心大意（无意识）的女人。由于她们没有足够的油（意识），点亮她们的灯（保持临在），因此错过了她们的新郎（当下），而不能参加婚礼（开悟）。他用这五个女人，来对比另外五个有足够灯油（保有意识）的女智者。

Even the men who wrote the Gospels did not understand the meaning of these parables, so the first misinterpretations and distortions crept in as they were written down. With subsequent erroneous interpretations, the real meaning was completely lost. These are parables not about the end of the world but about the end of psychological time. They point to the transcendence of the egoic mind and the possibility of living in an entirely new state of consciousness.

即使写福音书的作者，都不懂这些寓言的意义。因此在他们下笔的那一刻，便埋下了第一个误解和扭曲。以讹传讹的结果，它的真义便荡然无存了。这些寓言指的不是世界末日，而是心理时间的终结。它们指出了我执心智的超越，和彻底地活在一个新意识状态里的可能性。

BEAUTY ARISES IN THE STILLNESS OF YOUR PRESENCE

美发生在你临在的宁静里

What you have just described is something that I occasionally experience for brief moments when I am alone and surrounded by nature.

你刚才描述的情形，在我独处或置身大自然的时候，偶而有过短暂的经验。

Yes. Zen masters use the word satori to describe a flash of insight, a moment of no-mind and total presence. Although satori is not a lasting transformation, be grateful when it comes, for it gives you a taste of enlightenment. You may, indeed, have experienced it many times without knowing what it is and realizing its importance. Presence is needed to become aware of the beauty, the majesty, the sacredness of nature. Have you ever gazed up into the infinity of space on a clear night, awestruck by the absolute stillness and inconceivable vastness of it? Have you listened, truly listened, to the sound of a mountain stream in the forest? Or to the song of a blackbird at dusk on a quiet summer evening? To become aware of such things, the mind needs to be still. You have to put down for a moment your personal baggage of problems, of past and future, as well as all your knowledge; otherwise, you will see but not see, hear but not hear. Your total presence is required.

是的。禅师都用三摩地（samadhih)来描述无心和全然临在时的灵光乍现。三摩地虽然不是持续性的转化，不过它发生的时候你要感恩。因为它让你体会到开悟的滋味。你也许经验过许多次，却不知所以然，也体会不到它的重要性。想要觉知于大自然的美、壮观、和神性，临在是需要的。你可曾在明朗的夜晚，凝视无垠的天空，而惊惧于它绝对的宁静和浩瀚？你可曾听过，真正的聆听过森林里的山溪？或是夏日薄暮时分，一只鸟秋的啼叫？心智宁静的时候，你才能觉察到这一类的事物。你得暂时放下问题的包袱，过去和未来的包袱，和知识的包袱；否则你只是视而不见、听而不闻。你需要全副的临在。

Beyond the beauty of the external forms, there is more here: something that cannot be named, something ineffable, some deep, inner, holy essence. Whenever and wherever there is beauty, this inner essence shines through somehow. It only reveals itself to you when you are present. Could it be that this nameless essence and your presence are one and the same? Would it be there without your presence? Go deeply into it. Find out for yourself.

这些外相之美，只是其一而已：还有那个不可名、不可状、在深处、在内在、神圣的本质。凡美之所在，内在的本质之光便由内外烁。它只是在你临在的时候把自己显示给你而已。会不会这个无以名状的本质，和你的临在是合而为一的？没有了你的临在，它是不是还在呢？深入它。自己找答案。

When you experienced those moments of presence, you likely didn't realize that you were briefly in a state of no-mind. This is because the gap between that state and the influx of thought was too narrow. Your satori may only have lasted for a few seconds before the mind came in, but it was there; otherwise, you would not have experienced the beauty. Mind can neither recognize nor create beauty. Only for a few seconds, while you were completely present, was that beauty or that sacredness there. Because of the narrowness of that gap and a lack of vigilance and alertness on your part, you were probably unable to see the fundamental difference between the perception, the thought-less awareness of beauty, and the naming and interpreting of it as thought: The time gap was so small that it seemed to be a single process. The truth is, however, that the moment thought came in, all you had was a memory of it.

当你经验到临在的那一刻时，你可能不会体会到你正处在短暂的无心状态。这是因为此一状态，和念头的升起之间只有很短的间隙。你的三摩地可能只维持了几秒钟的时间，心智就进入了。不过，它确实存在；否则你不会体验到美。美的认知和创造，心智都无能为力。只有当你完全地临在的短短几秒钟，那一份美或神性就在那里了。因为间隙的短促，和你的缺乏戒备与警觉，你可能无法区别在没有思想之下对美的感知，和用思想把美落入言诠的差异：其中的间隙小得就像是一个单一的过程一样。真实的情况是，当思想进入的那一刻，你所有的只不过是这个美的记忆罢了。

The wider the time gap between perception and thought, the more depth there is to you as a human being, which is to say the more conscious you are.

感知和思想之间的时间间隙越大，你身为一个人的纵深就越大，也就是说，你就越有意识。

Many people are so imprisoned in their minds that the beauty of nature does not really exist for them. They might say, "What a pretty flower," but that's just a mechanical mental labeling. Because they are not still, not present, they don't truly see the flower, don't feel its essence, its holiness — just as they don't know themselves, don't feel their own essence, their own holiness.

许多人由于深困在心智的牢笼里，大自然的美便不曾真正地为他们存在过。他们也许会说出“好漂亮的花。”这样的话来，可是这只是机械化的心理标签罢了。因为他们不宁静、不临在，所以没有真正地看见花，没有感觉到花的本质和神性——就像他们不认识自己，没有感觉自己的本质和神性一样。

Because we live in such a mind-dominated culture, most modem art, architecture, music, and literature are devoid of beauty, of inner essence, with very few exceptions. The reason is that the people who create those things cannot — even for a moment — free themselves from their mind. So they are never in touch with that place within where tree creativity and beauty arise. The mind left to itself creates monstrosities, and not only in art galleries. Look at our urban landscapes and industrial wastelands. No civilization has ever produced so much ugliness.

正因为我们活在如此一个以心智为主导的文化里，大多数的现代艺术、建筑、音乐、和文学，除了极少数的例外，都缺乏了美和内在的本质。理由是创造这一切的人无法——即便是短暂的一刻——摆脱他们的心智。所以他们一直没有触及内在那个真创造和真美的源头。放纵下的心智，创造了庞然巨兽，这不只限于艺廊里的那些。你只要看一下郊区的景观和工业废地就知道了。人类历史上任何一个时期的文明，都不曾制造出这么大量的丑陋。

REALIZING PURE CONSCIOUSNESS

体认纯意识

Is presence the same as Being?

临在和本体（存在）一样吗？

When you become conscious of Being, what is really happening is that Being becomes conscious of itself. When Being becomes conscious of itself — that's presence. Since Being, consciousness, and life are synonymous, we could say that presence means consciousness becoming conscious of itself, or life attaining self-consciousness. But don't get attached to the words, and don't make an effort to understand this. There is nothing that you need to understand before you can become present.

当你对本体（存在）有意识的时候，真正的情况就是：本体（存在）也会对自己有意识。本体（存在）意识到自己的时候——就是临在。由于本体（存在）、意识、和生命是同义词。所以我们可以说，临在是意识意识到它自己，或者说，生命达成了它的自我意识。不过你不要执着在文字上，也不要费心思去了解它。在你能够临在之前，你不需要了解任何事。

I do understand what you just said, but it seems to imply that Being, the ultimate transcendental reality, is not yet complete, that it is undergoing a process of development. Does God need time for personal growth?

我真的了解你的意思。可是你的话好像暗示了本体（存在）——终极的、超验的实相还不完整。它仍然处于发展的阶段。神需要时间做人格的成长吗？

Yes, but only as seen from the limited perspective of the manifested universe. In the Bible, God declares: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, and I am the living One." In the timeless realm where God dwells, which is also your home, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, are one, and the essence of everything that ever has been and ever will be is eternally present in an unmanifested state of oneness and perfection — totally beyond anything the human mind can ever imagine or comprehend. In our world of seemingly separate forms, however, timeless perfection is an inconceivable concept. Here even consciousness, which is the light emanating from the eternal Source, seems to be subject to a process of development, but this is due to our limited perception. It is not so in absolute terms. Nevertheless, let me continue to speak for a moment about the evolution of consciousness in this world.

是的。不过只是从外显宇宙的有限视角来看。神在圣经里宣称：“我是阿尔发（Alpha)，也是奥米加（Omega)。我是存在的至一。”在神所住的无时间的境域——也是你的家——那最初的和最终的，那个阿尔发和奥米加就是一。那曾经存在和将要存在的万向的本质，永恒地临在于一个合一和完美的隐含状态中——完全超越了人类心智所能想像或理解的范畴。在我们这个似乎是孤离形态的世界里，无时间的完美是匪夷所思的一个概念。然而即使是意识——来自永恒的源头之光——似乎也受制于一个发展的过程。不过这归因于我们有限的感知。就绝对的意义而言，却并非如此。还是让我继续谈谈意识在这个世界的进化吧。

Everything that exists has Being, has God-essence, has some degree of consciousness. Even a stone has rudimentary consciousness; otherwise, it would not be, and its atoms and molecules would disperse. Everything is alive. The sun, the earth, plants, animals, humans — all are expressions of consciousness in varying degrees, consciousness manifesting as form.

凡存在的都有本体（存在），都有神性和不同程度的意识。即使一块石头，都有它初级的意识；否则它就不会存在，它的原子和分子早就离散了。万有都有生命——太阳、地球、星体、植物、动物、人类——全都是意识不同程度的示现，都是以形相彰显于外的意识。

The world arises when consciousness takes on shapes and forms, thought forms and material forms. Look at the millions of life forms on this planet alone. In the sea, on land, in the air — and then each life form is replicated millions of times. To what end? Is someone or something playing a game, a game with form? This is what the ancient seers of India asked themselves. They saw the world as lila, a kind of divine game that God is playing. The individual life forms are obviously not very important in this game. In the sea, most life forms don't survive for more than a few minutes after being born. The human form turns to dust pretty quickly too, and when it is gone it is as if it had never been. Is that tragic or cruel? Only if you create a separate identity for each form, if you forget that its consciousness is God-essence expressing itself in form. But you don't truly know that until you realize your own God-essence as pure consciousness.

当意识以形状、以形态、以思想和物质形相显示的时候，便产生了世界。看一下，仅只地球上就有好几百万种生命形态。分别存在于海洋、陆地、和空中还有每一种生命形态所复制的生命，也有几百万之谱。目的何在？是不是有一个人或一个物在玩游戏，在玩一场形相的游戏？古印度的先知，常扪心自问这个问题。他们说世界是一个大游戏（lila)。是一场神玩的大游戏。显然在这一场游戏里，个别的生命形相并非吃重的角色。海里的生物，泰半活不过几分钟。而人类这个形态，也不过几十寒暑，就会化为尘土。当形体消失的时候，就好像梦幻泡影一样不曾存在。你说这是悲剧还是残酷？如果你为每一个形相创造出孤离的身份，如果你忘了每一个意识都是神性藉由每一个形相的展现，它就是悲剧和残酷。不过除非你以纯意识的形式，体会到你自己的神性之后，你才会真正地知道。

If a fish is born in your aquarium and you call it John, write out a birth certificate, tell him about his family history, and two minutes later he gets eaten by another fish — that's tragic. But ifs only tragic because you projected a separate self where there was none. You got hold of a fraction of a dynamic process, a molecular dance, and made a separate entity out of it.

如果你的鱼缸里新生了一条鱼，你给它取名叫约翰，给它开了出生证明，又把它的家族史告诉它。两分钟之后，它就被另外一条鱼给吃掉了——这才是悲剧。不过，它之所以是悲剧，是因为你把一个根本不存在的、孤离的自我，投射在上面的缘故。你抓住了整个动态过程中的一个片段，一个微分子的舞蹈，却把它制造成一个孤离的实体。

Consciousness takes on the disguise of forms until they reach such complexity that it completely loses itself in them. In present-day humans, consciousness is completely identified with its disguise. It only knows itself as form and therefore lives in fear of the annihilation of its physical or psychological form. This is the egoic mind, and this is where considerable dysfunction sets in. It now looks as if something had gone very wrong somewhere along the line of evolution. But even this is part of lila, the divine game. Finally, the pressure of suffering created by this apparent dysfunction forces consciousness to disidentify from form and awakens it from its dream of form: It regains self-consciousness, but it is at a far deeper level than when it lost it.

意识以形态的样貌呈现，直到它达到一个在形态中完全失去自己的复杂度为止。以当前的人类而言，意识完全与它的样貌认同。它只以形相来认识自己。它也因此活在生理或心理形相的虚无感所产生的恐惧之中。这就是我执的心智，也是严重失能的起源。看起来好像是在进化线上的什么地方出了差错。可是即便如此，它也是大游戏的一部分。到头来，这种显然的失能所创造出来的受苦，便转而逼迫意识撤离它与形相的认同，也从形相的梦幻中把它唤醒了：意识找回了自我意识。不过现在的层面，比当初失去的时候深不知凡几。

This process is explained by Jesus in his parable of the lost son, who leaves his father's home, squanders his wealth, becomes destitute, and is then forced by his suffering to return home. When he does, his father loves him more than before. The son's state is the same as it was before, yet not the same. It has an added dimension of depth. The parable describes a journey from unconscious perfection, through apparent imperfection and "evil" to conscious perfection.

这个过程在耶稣的寓言里阐释过。他用离家的浪子做比喻：浪子在外挥霍无度，最后穷困潦倒，在痛苦的驱使下返家。当他回家的时候，父亲爱他甚于从前。这个儿子的状态虽然和从前一样，却不同了。它增加了一个纵深。这个寓言描述的是从无意识的完全，穿越显然的不完美和“恶”，而达到意识的完美之旅。

Can you now see the deeper and wider significance of becoming present as the watcher of your mind? Whenever you watch the mind, you withdraw consciousness from mind forms, which then becomes what we call the watcher or the witness. Consequently, the watcher — pure consciousness beyond form — becomes stronger, and the mental formations become weaker. When we talk about watching the mind we are personalizing an event that is truly of cosmic significance: through you, consciousness is awakening out of its dream of identification with form and withdrawing from form. This foreshadows, but is already part of, an event that is probably still in the distant future as far as chronological time is concerned. The event is called — the end of the world.

当你以心智的观察者来看临在的时候，你能看到它更深、更广的意义吗？每当你观察心智的时候，你把意识从心智的形相里撤离了。撤离的意识，就变成了我们所谓的观察者或见证者。结果就是，观察者——超越形相的纯意识——转弱为强，而心智的造形结构，转强为弱。当我们在谈论观察心智的时候，我们把一个深具宇宙意义的事件拟人化了。这个意义就是：意识透过你，而从形相的认同之梦里觉醒了，意识撤离了形相。这个觉醒预兆了——不过也已经是它的一部分——在纪史上一个或许仍然遥不可及的未来事件。这个事件就叫——世界末日。

When consciousness frees itself from its identification with physical and mental forms, it becomes what we may call pure or enlightened consciousness, or presence. This has already happened in a few individuals, and it seems destined to happen soon on a much larger scale, although there is no absolute guarantee that it will happen. Most humans are still in the grip of the egoic mode of consciousness: identified with their mind and run by their mind. If they do not free themselves from their mind in time, they will be destroyed by it. They will experience increasing confusion, conflict, violence, illness, despair, madness. Egoic mind has become like a sinking ship. If you don't get off, you will go down with it. The collective egoic mind is the most dangerously insane and destructive entity ever to inhabit this planet. What do you think will happen on this planet if human consciousness remains unchanged?

当意识从生理和心理的认同解脱之后，它就变成我们说的纯意识、或开悟的意识、或临在。这种情况已经发生在极少数的个人身上。而且注定即将在一个更广大的层面上发生。不过却没有绝对的保证它必然发生。大多数人类仍然被钳制在我执的意识模式里：与心智认同，受心智的驱使。如果他们再不及时由心智中解脱出来的话，就会被它毁灭。他们将会经验到有增无已的混乱、冲突、暴力、疾病、绝望、和疯狂。我执的心智越来越像一艘沉船。你再不跳船，就要跟它一起灭顶了。人类集体的我执心智，是地球上破天荒以来最丧心病狂，且最具摧毁力的实体。如果人类的意识依然维持不变的话，你认为这个地球会有什么样的下场？

Already for most humans, the only respite they find from their own minds is to occasionally revert to a level of consciousness below thought. Everyone does that every night during sleep. But this also happens to some extent through sex, alcohol, and other drugs that suppress excessive mind activity. If it weren't for alcohol, tranquilizers, antidepressants, as well as the illegal drugs, which are all consumed in vast quantities, the insanity of the human mind would become even more glaringly obvious than it is already. I believe that, if deprived of their drugs, a large part of the population would become a danger to themselves and others. These drugs, of course, simply keep you stuck in dysfunction. Their widespread use only delays the breakdown of the old mind structures and the emergence of higher consciousness. While individual users may get some relief from the daily torture inflicted on them by their minds, they are prevented from generating enough conscious presence to rise above thought and so find true liberation.

大多数人在心智的肆虐下，已经找到了一条生路。他们偶而诉诸思想之下的一个意识层面休养生息。每个人晚上的睡眠就是。但是也有人以诉诸性、酒精、和其他药物的方式，来抑制过度活跃的心智。如果没有以庞大数量消耗的酒精、镇定剂、抗抑郁剂、和非法药物的话，人类心智的狂乱恐怕更加肆无忌惮了。我相信，如果剥夺了毒品，世界人口中有大部分，会构成自己和他人的威胁。而毒品的作用，当然是让你卡在失能的状态里了。这样大层面的滥用，只会延一宕了旧心智架构的崩溃和更高意识的萌生。个人固然得以从心智日复一日的折磨中，获致一时的缓解。可是却也阻挡着他们，因而无从产生足够的临在，以超越思想并且找到真正的解脱。

Falling back to a level of consciousness below mind, which is the pre-thinking level of our distant ancestors and of animals and plants, is not an option for us. There is no way back. If the human race is to survive, it will have to go on to the next stage. Consciousness is evolving throughout the universe in billions of forms. So even if we didn't make it, this wouldn't matter on a cosmic scale. No gain in consciousness is ever lost, so it would simply express itself through some other form. But the very fact that I am speaking here and you are listening or reading this is a clear sign that the new consciousness is gaining a foothold on the planet.

倒退至心智之下的一个意识层，也就是我们的老祖先未进化时的前思考期，和动、植物的意识状态，并不是我们的选项。进化是没有退路的。如果人类要生存，那么它势必要走上下一个阶段。意识正透过数十亿的形相，在整个宇宙的层面进化。所以即使人类错失了机会，就整个宇宙的层面来说也无关紧要。意识进化上的所得从未丧失过，那么，它只好透过其他的形相展现自己。可是我在这里要指出的一个事实是：你在读这本书的同时，就明显地象征着一个新的意识，正在地球上找到了立足点。

There is nothing personal in this: I am not teaching you. You are consciousness, and you are listening to yourself. There is an Eastern saying: "The teacher and the taught together create the teaching." In any case, the words in themselves are not important. They are not the Truth; they only point to it. I speak from presence, and as I speak, you may be able to join me in that state. Although every word that I use has a history, of course, and comes from the past, as all language does, the words that I speak to you now are carriers of the high-energy frequency of presence, quite apart from the meaning they convey as words.

我不对人，我对事：我不是在教训你。你有意识，你正在倾听自己。东方有句老话说，“教学相长。”不管怎么说，文字本身并不重要。文字不是真理；它只是指月的手。我从我的临在里说话，当我说话的同时，你也可以从你的临在里与我共鸣。虽然我使用的文字都有历史，正如语言一样来自过去。我跟你说的话里，承载着临在的高能量波动。这与文字所传递的意义，是截然不同的。

Silence is an even more potent carrier of presence, so when you read this or listen to me speak, be aware of the silence between and underneath the words. Be aware of the gaps. To listen to the silence, wherever you are, is an easy and direct way of becoming present. Even if there is noise, there is always some silence underneath and in between the sounds. Listening to the silence immediately creates stillness inside you. Only the stillness in you can perceive the silence outside. And what is stillness other than presence, consciousness freed from thought forms? Here is the living realization of what we have been talking about.

静默是临在更具威力的载具。所以当你在阅读或聆听我话语的时候，务必留心字里行间，和话语背后的静默。留心那些间隙。无论你置身何地，倾听静默是进入临在最容易、最直接的方法。即使有噪音，但是在噪音的底下、在噪音之间，静默始终都在那里。你倾听的本身，立刻在你内在创造了宁静。只有你里面的宁静，才能感知到外界的宁静。除了临在，除了摆脱了思想形式的意识之外，还有其他的宁静吗？这就是我们所说的一切在生活中的体现。

CHRIST: THE REALITY OF YOUR DIVINE PRESENCE

基督：你神性临在的实相

Don't get attached to any one word. You can substitute "Christ" for presence, if that is more meaningful to you. Christ is your God-essence or the Self, as it is sometimes called in the East. The only difference between Christ and presence is that Christ refers to your indwelling divinity regardless of whether you are conscious of it or not, whereas presence means your awakened divinity or God-essence.

切勿执着任何一个文字。如果“临在”对你更有意义的话，你可以用它取代“基督”。基督就是你的神的本质，或东方所称的“大我”。基督和临在之间唯一的差别在于，基督指的是你内在常驻的神性，而无关乎你意识到它的存在与否。临在意谓着你觉醒了的神性，或神的本质。

Many misunderstandings and false beliefs about Christ will clear if you realize that there is no past or future in Christ. To say that Christ was or will be is a contradiction in terms. Jesus was. He was a man who lived two thousand years ago and realized divine presence, his true nature. And so he said: "Before Abraham was, I am." He did not say. "I already existed before Abraham was born." That would have meant that he was still within the dimension of time and form identity. The words I am used in a sentence that starts in the past tense indicate a radical shift, a discontinuity in the temporal dimension. It is a Zen-like statement of great profundity. Jesus attempted to convey directly, not through discursive thought, the meaning of presence, of self-realization. He had gone beyond the consciousness dimension governed by time, into the realm of the timeless. The dimension of eternity had come into this world. Eternity, of course, does not mean endless time, but no time. Thus, the man Jesus became Christ, a vehicle for pure consciousness. And what is God's self-definition in the Bible? Did God say "I have always been, and I always will be?" Of course not. That would have given reality to past and future. God said: "I AM THAT I AM." No time here, just presence.

如果你明白了在基督里没有过去或未来的话，许多有关基督的误解和错误的信念都会厘清。用过去是或未来是来陈述基督，是犯了用法上的矛盾。耶稣过去是。他是一个活在两千年前的人，他体现了神性的临在，他的真性。所以他说，“在亚伯拉罕过去是之前，我是。”他没有说，“在亚伯拉罕诞生之前，我已经存在了。”这句话。如果这样说的话，就意谓着地仍然在时间和形相身份的向度里。在一个以过去式开头的句子里，使用现在式的我是，指出了一个激进的转变：一个在时间向度中的不延续。这句话像禅修的话头一样，含有深刻的意义。耶稣的用意在于以直接的方式，而不是迂回的思想，传递临在和自我体现的意义。他超越了受制于时间的意识向度，进入了无时间性的境域。永恒的向度从此进入世界。永恒当然不是无止境的时间，而是指没有时间。这一来，耶稣这个人就变成了基督，变成了一个纯意识的载具。那么神在圣经里的自我定义又是什么？神说过，“我曾经是，未来也永远是。”这句话吗？当然没有。这样说无异把实相交给了过去和未来。神说，“我是即我是。”这里没有时间，只有临在。

The "second coming" of Christ is a transformation of human consciousness, a shift from time to presence, from thinking to pure consciousness, not the arrival of some man or woman. If "Christ" were to return tomorrow in some externalized form, what could he or she possibly say to you other than this: "I am the Truth. I am divine presence. I am eternal life. I am within you. I am here. I am Now."

基督“再临”是人类意识的转化，是从时间转换至临在，从思考转换至纯意识。不是一个男人或女人要来的意思。万一“基督”真的在明天以一个人身回来的话，他或她除了对你说：“我就是真理。我就是神性的临在。我就是永生。我就在你里面。我就在这里。我就在当下。”此外还能说什么？

Never personalize Christ. Don't make Christ into a form identity. Avatars, divine mothers, enlightened masters, the very few that are real, are not special as persons. Without a false self to uphold, defend, and feed, they are more simple, more ordinary than the ordinary man or woman. Anyone with a strong ego would regard them as insignificant or, more likely, not see them at all.

千万不要把基督人格化。不要把基督变成。个有形相的身份。梵天、圣母、悟道的大师、和那些为数极少的真实的人，并不因人格而与众不同。反之，缺少了一个可以攀缘、可以护卫、可以豢养的虚假自我，他们比之于一般的凡夫俗子更单纯、更平凡。在一个我执冥顽不灵的人眼里，他们根本不足为道，甚或对他们视若无睹。

If you are drawn to an enlightened teacher, it is because there is already enough presence in you to recognize presence in another. There were many people who did not recognize Jesus or the Buddha, as there are and always have been many people who are drawn to false teachers. Egos are drawn to bigger egos. Darkness cannot recognize light. Only light can recognize light. So don't believe that the light is outside you or that it can only come through one particular form. If only your master is an incarnation of God, then who are you? Any kind of exclusivity is identification with form, and identification with form means ego, no matter how well disguised.

如果你被一位悟道的导师所吸引，那是因为你内在已经有了足够的临在，才能识出另一个人的临在。不认得耶稣和佛陀的人不知凡几，正如趋从假上师者如过江之鲫一样的多。小我执见大我执便趋之若惊。黑暗无能辨识光明，唯光能识光。不要相信光在你的身外，或者相信它只能以一个特定的形相来临。如果只有你的师父才是神的化身，那么你又是谁？任何一种排外都是形相认同。形相认同意谓着我执，无论它掩饰得多么天衣无缝。

Use the master's presence to reflect your own identity beyond name and form back to you and to become more intensely present yourself. You will soon realize that there is no "mine" or "yours" in presence. Presence is one.

利用师父的临在，来反映你超越名相的身份。让自己变得更深刻地临在。你很快就会体认到，在临在里没有“我的”或“你的”之分。临在就是一。

Group work can also be helpful for intensifying the light of your presence. A group of people coming together in a state of presence generates a collective energy field of great intensity. It not only raises the degree of presence of each member of the group but also helps to free the collective human consciousness from its current state of mind dominance. This will make the state of presence increasingly more accessible to individuals. However, unless at least one member of the group is already firmly established in it and thus can hold the energy frequency of that state, the egoic mind can easily reassert itself and sabotage the group's endeavors. Although group work is invaluable, it is not enough, and you must not come to depend on it. Nor must you come to depend on a teacher or a master, except during the transitional period, when you are learning the meaning and practice of presence.

共修团体对于强化你的临在之光，也会有所助益。一个团体在临在的状态下凝聚在一起，会产生一个很强的集体磁场。这么做不仅会提升每一个成员的临在度，也帮助他们摆脱了集体人类意识以心智为主导的现况。这么做也使得个人更容易进入临在的状态里。然而，除非有一个以上的成员，已经如实地安住在那个状态里，并且稳住磁场的波动，我执的心智便会轻而易举地故态复发，因而破坏了小组努力的成效。共修团体固然极具价值，不过它并不足以成事。你千万不能依赖它。此外，除了在你学习临在的意义和做练习的过渡阶段，也不要对导师或师父产生依赖之情。