9
9
Chapter 9 BEYOND HAPPINESS AND UNHAPPINESS THERE IS PEACE THE HIGHER GOOD BEYOND GOOD AND BAD
第九章 和平在超越快乐和不快乐的地方超越好与坏的善
Is there a difference between happiness and inner peace?
快乐和内在和平之间有差别吗？
Yes. Happiness depends on conditions being perceived as positive; inner peace does not.
有。快乐有赖于被你感知为正面的情状（conditions），内在和平不是。
Is it not possible to attract only positive conditions into our life? If our attitude and our thinking are always positive, we would manifest only positive events and situations, wouldn't we?
我们不可能只招引正面的情状到生命里吗？如果我们的态度和思考一概是正面的，我们就只会彰显正面的事件和情境，对吗？
Do you truly know what is positive and what is negative? Do you have the total picture? There have been many people for whom limitation, failure, loss, illness, or pain in whatever form turned out to be their greatest teacher. It taught them to let go of false self-images and superficial ego-dictated goals and desires. It gave them depth, humility, and compassion. It made them more real.
你当真知道正、负面之别吗？你是否拥有整体画面？对很多人来说，以各种形式呈现的局限、失败、失落、疾病、或痛苦，反而变成他们最棒的良师。这些负面事件，教他们学会了放下虚假的自我形象，以及我执所独断的浮面目标和欲望。这些负面事件，给了他们纵深、谦逊、和慈悲。也把他们塑造的更加真实。
Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it, although you may not see it at the time. Even a brief illness or an accident can show you what is real and unreal in your life, what ultimately matters and what doesn't.
每当一个负面事件发生在你身上的时候，它里面就隐藏了一个更深的功课。虽然你在当时也许看不到。即使一场小病或意外，都能向你显示生命中的真实和虚假，什么是生命的究竟要务，什么不是。
Seen from a higher perspective, conditions are always positive. To be more precise: they are neither positive nor negative. They are as they are. And when you live in complete acceptance of what is — which is the only sane way to live — there is no "good" or "bad" in your life anymore. There is only a higher good — which includes the "bad." Seen from the perspective of the mind, however, there is good-bad, like-dislike, love-hate. Hence, in the Book of Genesis, it is said that Adam and Eve were no longer allowed to dwell in "paradise" when they "ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
从更高的观点来看，所有情状都是正面的。更精确的说法是：它们既非负面也无正面可言。情状就是情状。当你活在完全接纳本然的时候——这是唯一神志清明的生活之道——你的生命中已经没有了“好”或“坏”的分别相了。只有一个更高的善包括“坏”在内。从心智的观点来看，有好坏、善恶、爱恨的分别相。所以说在创世纪里，才有亚当和夏娃“吃了善恶的知识之树”后，便被逐出“乐园”的说法。
This sounds to me like denial and self-deception. When something dreadful happens to me or someone close to me — accident, illness, pain of some kind or death — I can pretend that it isn't bad, but the fact remains that it is bad, so why deny it?
这么说我总觉得像是否定和自欺。当我或我亲近的人遭逢钜变的时候——意外、疾病、各种痛苦、或死——我能够假装这不是坏事。可是事实摆在眼前，明明就是坏事，何必否定它呢？
You are not pretending anything. You are allowing it to be as it is, that's all. This "allowing to be" takes you beyond the mind with its resistance patterns that create the positive-negative polarities. It is an essential aspect of forgiveness. Forgiveness of the present is even more important than forgiveness of the past. If you forgive every moment — allow it to be as it is — then there will be no accumulation of resentment that needs to be forgiven at some later time.
你没有假装什么。你只是容许它以本然的样子存在，如此而已。这个“容许存在”的态度，让你超越了创造正、负两极对立的心智和它的抗拒模式。这是宽恕本质的一面。宽恕现在比宽恕过去更重要。如果你每一刻都在宽恕、容许它以本然存在——那么你就不必累积需要以后来宽恕的懊悔了。
Remember that we are not talking about happiness here. For example, when a loved one has just died, or you feel your own death approaching, you cannot be happy. It is impossible. But you can be at peace. There may be sadness and tears, but provided that you have relinquished resistance, underneath the sadness you will feel a deep serenity, a stillness, a sacred presence. This is the emanation of Being, this is inner peace, the good that has no opposite.
切记我们谈的不是快乐。例如，当你的至亲往生，或者当你感觉无常逼近的时候，你不可能会快乐。这是不可能的事。不过你能够处在和平里。你也许会伤心、会流泪。可是只要你已经弃绝了抗拒，在悲伤底下你就会感到深沉的祥和、宁静、和神性的临在。这就是本体的散发，这就是内在的和平，这就是没有对立的善。
What if it is a situation that I can do something about? How can I allow it to be and change it at the same time?
万一是一个我可以有所做为的情境呢？我如何一面容许它存在，一面改变它呢？
Do what you have to do. In the meantime, accept what is. Since mind and resistance are synonymous, acceptance immediately frees you from mind dominance and thus reconnects you with Being. As a result, the usual ego motivations for "doing" — fear, greed, control, defending or feeding the false sense of self— will cease to operate. An intelligence much greater than the mind is now in charge, and so a different quality of consciousness will flow into your doing.
做你必须做的事。在努力的同时接受本然。由于心智和抗拒是同义词，接纳会立刻把你从心智的掌控里解脱出来，然后再把你和本体重新连系起来。结果就是，我执想要“做为”的惯性动机——恐惧、贪婪、控制、防卫、或虚假自我感的喂养——就会停止运作。一个超越心智的无上智取得了掌控，因此一个不同的意识品质就会流入你的作为里。
"Accept whatever comes to you woven in the pattern of your destiny, for what could more aptly fit your needs?" This was written 2,000 years ago by Marcus Aurelius, one of those exceedingly rare humans who possessed worldly power as well as wisdom.
“接纳发生在你身上，织成你命运经纬的一切事件，除此之外何物更能契合你的需求？”这是两千年前希腊哲学家马卡斯奥里亚斯安东尼能斯（Marcus Aurelius Antoninus)写出来的。他不愧是一个举世罕见，兼具世间智和无上智的大智者。
It seems that most people need to experience a great deal of suffering before they will relinquish resistance and accept — before they will forgive. As soon as they do, one of the greatest miracles happens: the awakening of Being-consciousness through what appears as evil, the transmutation of suffering into inner peace. The ultimate effect of all the evil and suffering in the world is that it will force humans into realizing who they are beyond name and form. Thus, what we perceive as evil from our limited perspective is actually part of the higher good that has no opposite. This, however, does not become true for you except through forgiveness. Until that happens, evil has not been redeemed and therefore remains evil.
多数人似乎需要经历过大量的受苦之后，才肯弃绝抗拒，拥抱接纳——才肯拥抱宽恕。当他们一开始接纳和宽恕的时候，一个最棒的奇迹就发生了：透过乍看似恶的而达成本体意识的觉醒，受苦转化为内在的和平。世间所有的恶和受苦，它们的终极效用在于迫使人类体现超越名相的本来面目。因此之故，那些在我们有限的感知下所视之为恶的，其实是那个没有对立的高层的善。然而除非透过宽恕，善对你而言不会成为真实。在宽恕之前，恶就得不到赦免，因此恶者恒恶。
Through forgiveness, which essentially means recognizing the insubstantiality of the past and allowing the present moment to be as it is, the miracle of transformation happens not only within but also without. A silent space of intense presence arises both in you and around you. Whoever or whatever enters that field of consciousness will be affected by it, sometimes visibly and immediately, sometimes at deeper levels with visible changes appearing at a later time. You dissolve discord, heal pain, dispel unconsciousness — without doing anything — simply by being and holding that frequency of intense presence.
透过了宽恕——它本质上的意思就是认知过去的虚幻不实，容许当下这一刻以它的本然存在——那么转化的奇迹便会同时在内、在外发生。一个深刻临在的宁静空间，也在你的内在和周遭产生。任何进入这个意识场的人和物，都会受到它的影响。影响有时立竿见影，有时发生在一个更深的层面，而在日后以有形的改变出现。透过你的无为——单纯的存在，并稳住深刻临在的波动——你瓦解了不和，疗愈了痛苦，驱逐了无意识。
§
THE END OF YOUR LIFE DRAMA
生命剧码的结束
In that state of acceptance and inner peace, even though you may not call it "bad,' can anything still come into your life that would be called "bad" from a perspective of ordinary consciousness?
在接纳以及内在和平的状态里，即使你不说它是“坏的”。那么从一般意识的观点来看，被称为“坏的”事还会进入你的生命里吗？
Most of the so-called bad things that happen in people's lives are due to unconsciousness. They are self-created, or rather ego-created. I sometimes refer to those things as "drama." When you are fully conscious, drama does not come into your life anymore. Let me remind you briefly how the ego operates and how it creates drama.
大多数发生在人们生命中所谓的坏事，都来自无意识。它们都是自创的，或者说是我执创造的。我有时候把这些事件称为“剧码”。当你全然有意识的时候，剧码不会再进入你的生命里了。我再把我执的运作和它创造剧码的方式做个简短的提示。
Ego is the unobserved mind that runs your life when you are not present as the witnessing consciousness, the watcher. The ego perceives itself as a separate fragment in a hostile universe, with no real inner connection to any other being, surrounded by other egos which it either sees as a potential threat or which it will attempt to use for its own ends. The basic ego patterns are designed to combat its own deep-seated fear and sense of lack. They are resistance, control, power, greed, defense, attack. Some of the ego's strategies are extremely clever, yet they never truly solve any of its problems, simply because the ego itself is the problem.
我执就是当你没有以见证者的意识——观察者——临在的时候，而接管你生命的未受观测的心智。我执自视为敌意的宇宙内一个分离的碎片，与任何其他的存在没有真正的内在连系。它被其他的我执所包围，它若不是视这些我执为潜在的威胁，就是利用它们来达成自己的目的。我执的基本模式，是设计来与它自己根深柢固的恐惧和匮乏感战斗的。它们就是抗拒、控制、权力、贪婪、防卫、和攻击。我执的某些策略相当精明，可是却从未真正地解决过任何问题，只因为我执本身就是问题。
When egos come together, whether in personal relationships or in organizations or institutions, "bad" things happen sooner or later: drama of one kind or another, in the form of conflict, problems, power struggles, emotional or physical violence, and so on. This includes collective evils such as war, genocide, and exploitation — all due to massed unconsciousness. Furthermore, many types of illness are caused by the ego's continuous resistance, which creates restrictions and blockages in the flow of energy through the body. When you reconnect with Being and are no longer run by your mind, you cease to create those things. You do not create or participate in drama anymore.
当众多的我执在人际关系或组织、机构里聚合的时候，“坏”事迟早部会发生。也就是以冲突、问题、权力、争斗、情感或肢体暴力等五花八门的剧码出现。其中包括了以战争、种族灭绝、和剥削的集体之恶——全部都肇因于集体的无意识。再者，许多类型的疾病，也是由于我执持续地抗拒所引发的。它为身体的能量流创造了局限和阻塞。当你与本体连系，并且不再被心智所掌控的时候，你就停止创造这些了。你不再创造或参与剧码的演出。
Whenever two or more egos come together, drama of one kind or another ensues. But even if you live totally alone, you still create your own drama. When you feel sorry for yourself, that's drama. When you feel guilty or anxious, that's drama. When you let the past or future obscure the present, you are creating time, psychological time — the stuff out of which drama is made. Whenever you are not honoring the present moment by allowing it to be, you are creating drama.
每当两个以上的我执聚集在一起的时候，就会产生不一而足的剧码。不过即使你完全独居，也可能创造出独角剧码。当你自感遗憾的时候就是剧码。当你感觉愧疚或焦虑的时候就是剧码。当你让过去或未来模糊了现在的时候，就是在创造时间—剧码所需的素材：心理时间。每当你不容许本然存在，而不尊重当下这一刻的时候，你就在创造剧码。
Most people are in love with their particular life drama. Their story is their identity. The ego runs their life. They have their whole sense of self invested in it. Even their — usually unsuccessful — search for an answer, a solution, or for healing becomes part of it. What they fear and resist most is the end of their drama. As long as they are their mind, what they fear and resist most is their own awakening.
多数人爱上了他们特定的人生剧码。他们以自己的故事为身份。我执掌控了他们的生命。他们把整个自我感全部投资在上面。即使他们对答案、方案、或治疗的追寻（通常都不成功）也成了其中的一部分。他们最害怕、最抗拒的就是剧终。只要他们还是自己的心智，他们最害怕和抗拒最力的，就是他们的觉醒。
When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life. Nobody can even have an argument with you, no matter how hard he or she tries. You cannot have an argument with a fully conscious person. An argument implies identification with your mind and a mental position, as well as resistance and reaction to the other person's position. The result is that the polar opposites become mutually energized. These are the mechanics of unconsciousness. You can still make your point clearly and firmly, but there will be no reactive force behind it, no defense or attack. So it won't turn into drama. When you are fully conscious, you cease to be in conflict. "No one who is at one with himself can even conceive of conflict," states A Course in Miracles. This refers not only to conflict with other people but more fundamentally to conflict within you, which ceases when there is no longer any clash between the demands and expectations of your mind and what is.
当你活在完全接纳本然的时候，就是你人生所有剧码结束的时候。任何人也无法与你争辩，无论他们如何地用心良苦。你无法和一个意识十足的人争辩。争辩暗示着你认同了心智和心理地位；也暗示了你向对方的立场抗拒和反应。结果就是正反双方都因此获得了能量。这就是无意识的机制。你大可明确而坚定地表明你的立场，可是它的背后没有反作用力，没有防卫或攻击。因此不会变成剧码。当你处于全然的意识中，你的冲突停息了。“一个与自己合一的人根本无法怀有冲突。”《奇迹课程》里这么说。这句话指的不只是和他人的冲突，更根本的是你内在的冲突。当你心智的索求和期望，与本然之间没有对峙的时候，冲突就止息了。
IMPERMANENCE AND THE CYCLES OF LIFE
无常和生命循环
However, as long as you are in the physical dimension and linked to the collective human psyche, physical pain — although rare — is still possible. This is not to be confused with suffering, with mental-emotional pain. All suffering is ego-created and is due to resistance. Also, as long as you are in this dimension, you are still subject to its cyclical nature and to the law of impermanence of all things, but you no longer perceive this as "bad" — it just is.
然而，只要你仍处于身体的向度，并且与集体人类心灵连结的时候，肉体的痛苦就仍然可能。不要把肉体的痛苦与受苦和心理情感的痛苦混为一谈。所有的受苦都由我执创造且源于抗拒。而且只要你还在这个向度里，你就仍然受制于它循环的本质和无常的律法。不过，你不再把它视为“坏的”——它只是“是”。
Through allowing the "isness" of all things, a deeper dimension underneath the play of opposites reveals itself to you as an abiding presence, an unchanging deep stillness, an uncaused joy beyond good and bad. This is the joy of Being, the peace of God.
透过你容许万物的“是然”，在对立运作的底下，一个更深的向度就会向你显示。它就是一个常驻的临在，一个不变的深沉宁静，一个超越好坏而自生的喜悦。这就是本体的喜悦，神的平安。
On the level of form, there is birth and death, creation and destruction, growth and dissolution, of seemingly separate forms. This is reflected everywhere: in the life cycle of a star or a planet, a physical body, a tree, a flower; in the rise and fall of nations, political systems, civilizations; and in the inevitable cycles of gain and loss in the life of an individual.
在形式的层面，存在着分别相的生和死，创造和毁灭，生成和坏灭。其反映无处不见：一个星体或行星、一具肉体、一棵树、一朵花的生命循环、国家政治体制、文明的兴衰荣枯；个人生命中必然的得失循环。
There are cycles of success, when things come to you and thrive, and cycles of failure, when they wither or disintegrate and you have to let them go in order to make room for new things to arise, or for transformation to happen. If you cling and resist at that point, it means you are refusing to go with the flow of life, and you will suffer.
当事遂其愿、欣欣向荣的时候，就是成功的循环；而当欣荣转为衰枯或分崩瓦解的时候，就进入了失败的循环。这时候你就要放下，才能挪出空间让新的事物或者转化发生。如果你在这个点上有执着和抗拒的话，你拒绝了随着生命之流前进，你就会受苦。
It is not true that the up cycle is good and the down cycle bad, except in the mind's judgment. Growth is usually considered positive, but nothing can grow forever. If growth, of whatever kind, were to go on and on, it would eventually become monstrous and destructive. Dissolution is needed for new growth to happen. One cannot exist without the other.
循环的起落，除了心智的判断之外，本身没有好坏之分。成长通常被视为正面的，可是天底下没有长生之物。如果有一种持续不断的成长，它终将变成摧毁力十足的怪物。新的成长要发生，化灭是必须要的。有生有灭，两者缺一不可。
The down cycle is absolutely essential for spiritual realization. You must have failed deeply on some level or experienced some deep loss or pain to be drawn to the spiritual dimension. Or perhaps your very success became empty and meaningless and so turned out to be failure. Failure lies concealed in every success, and success in every failure. In this world, which is to say on the level of form, everybody "fails" sooner or later, of course, and every achievement eventually comes to naught. All forms are impermanent.
低潮是灵性成就上绝对不可或缺的。你必须要在某一个层面上大败，或者经历沉重的失落、痛苦，才会受到灵性向度的吸引。再不然，就是你的大成就变得空虚毫无意义，反而成为你的失败。失败隐藏在每一个成功里，而失败也埋着成功的种籽。世界——或者说在形相的层面里——的每一个人，迟早都要“失败”。当然每一个成就终究要归零。所有形相都是无常。
You can still be active and enjoy manifesting and creating new forms and circumstances, but you won't be identified with them. You do not need them to give you a sense of self. They are not your life — only your life situation.
你依然可以积极地显化和创造新的形相和环境，并且享受这一切，可是你不会认同它们。你不需要它们赋予你一个自我感。它们不是你的生命——只是你生命的情境。
Your physical energy is also subject to cycles. It cannot always be at a peak. There will be times of low as well as high energy. There will be periods when you are highly active and creative, but there may also be times when everything seems stagnant, when it seems that you are not getting anywhere, not achieving anything. A cycle can last for anything from a few hours to a few years. There are large cycles and small cycles within these large ones. Many illnesses are created through fighting against the cycles of low energy, which are vital for regeneration. The compulsion to do, and the tendency to derive your sense of self-worth and identity from external factors such as achievement, is an inevitable illusion as long as you are identified with the mind. This makes it hard or impossible for you to accept the low cycles and allow them to be. Thus, the intelligence of the organism may take over as a self-protective measure and create an illness in order to force you to stop, so that the necessary regeneration can take place.
身体的能量也受制于上下循环（高潮、低潮），它无法一直处于巅峰状态。有高能量的时候，也有低能量的时候。你会有高度的积极和创造期，也会有一切似乎停滞不前，毫无进展，一无所成的时候。一个循环的完成，少则数小时多则数年。在这些大起落里，还包含了一些大、小起落。许多疾病的起源，都来自对低能量循环期的抗拒，这个时期对再生至关重要。一直想要有所做为的驱迫感，和由成就等外在因素汲取自我价值感和身份，就是你与心智认同时势不可免的幻觉。这种幻觉使你很难或者不可能接受低潮期，并容许它们的存在。有机体的智能，在这个时候就会采取自保措施迳行接管，并且创造出疾病，逼迫你中断，好让必要的再生能够进行。
The cyclical nature of the universe is closely linked with the impermanence of all things and situations. The Buddha made this a central part of his teaching. All conditions are highly unstable and in constant flux, or, as he put it, impermanence is a characteristic of every condition, every situation you will ever encounter in your life. It will change, disappear, or no longer satisfy you. Impermanence is also central to Jesus's teaching: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal . . . ."
宇宙生生不息的本质，与万物和所有情状的无常有着密不可分的关联。佛陀把无常当做他教诲的重心。所有的情境都是飘忽不定且不断流转的，或者正如他所说的，无常是你生命中的每一个情状、每一个情境的特性。它会改变和消失，或者不能再满足你。无常也是耶稣教诲的重点：“不要为自己积攒财宝在地上，地上有虫子咬，能朽坏，有盗贼挖窟窿来偷……”
As long as a condition is judged as "good" by your mind, whether it be a relationship, a possession, a social role, a place, or your physical body, the mind attaches itself to it and identifies with it. It makes you happy, makes you feel good about yourself, and it may become part of who you are or think you are. But nothing lasts in this dimension where moth and rust consume. Either it ends or it changes, or it may undergo a polarity shift: The same condition that was good yesterday or last year has suddenly or gradually turned into bad. The same condition that made you happy, then makes you unhappy. The prosperity of today becomes the empty consumerism of tomorrow. The happy wedding and honeymoon become the unhappy divorce or the unhappy coexistence. Or a condition disappears, so its absence makes you unhappy. When a condition or situation that the mind as attached itself to and identified with changes or disappears, the mind cannot accept it. It will cling to the disappearing condition and resist the change. It is almost as if a limb were being torn off your body.
只要是你的心智判断为“好的”情状，无论是一份关系、一份财产、一个社会地位、或是你的肉体，心智就会执着它，和它认同。它让你快乐，让你对自己的感觉好，它也许变成你的本来面目，或者你自以为是的一部分。可是在一个有虫子咬、会朽坏的向度里，没有持久不变之物。它非灭即变，否则就是进行一次极端的转换：同一个情状，昨天或去年还是好好的，突然之间或者逐渐地由好转坏。原先让你快乐的情状，却让你不快乐。今天的繁荣，明天就变成消费至上主义。快乐的婚礼和蜜月，变成了不快乐的离婚或共存。或者是一个情状消失了，它的缺席造成了你的不快乐。当心智已经执着和认同的一个情状或情境改变或消失的时候，心智便无法接受。它会执着在那个正左消失的情状，当它是从身体上撕裂的一个肢体一样抗拒改变。
We sometimes hear of people who have lost all their money or whose reputation has been ruined committing suicide. Those are the extreme cases. Others, whenever a major loss of one kind or another occurs, just become deeply unhappy or make themselves ill. They cannot distinguish between their life and their life situation. I recently read about a famous actress who died in her eighties. As her beauty started to fade and became ravaged by old age, she grew desperately unhappy and became a recluse. She, too, had identified with a condition: her external appearance. First, the condition gave her a happy sense of self, then an unhappy one. If she had been able to connect with the formless and timeless life within, she could have watched and allowed the fading of her external form from a place of serenity and peace. Moreover, her external form would have become increasingly transparent to the light shining through from her ageless true nature, so her beauty would not really have faded but simply become transformed into spiritual beauty. However, nobody told her that this is possible. The most essential kind of knowledge is not yet widely accessible.
我们时而听闻一些人因为钱财散尽，或身败名裂而自杀的事件。这些更是极端的例子。还有人每当发生重大的失落时，就会变得非常的不快乐，或者让自己生病。他们分辨不出生命和生命情境的差异何在。我最近读到一则八十高龄的名演员过世的报导。当她的美貌遭到岁月的摧折而退色时，她变得郁郁寡欢、深居简出。她也是认同了一个情状：她的外貌。这个情状先给了她一个快乐的自我感，接踵而来的便是一个不快乐的自找感。如果她能够与内在无形、无时的生命连系的话，她就会站在一个澄静、和平的地方，观察并容许外貌的消退。更重要的是，她的外在形式，会因为她没有年龄的真如本性的光照而逐渐清明。如此一来，她的美就不会消退，反而会转化成灵性之美。遗憾的是没有人告诉过她这么做是可能的。这个最根本的知识，仍未普获世人所接受。
§
The Buddha taught that even your happiness is dukkha — a Pali word meaning "suffering" or "unsatisfactoriness." It is inseparable from its opposite. This means that your happiness and unhappiness are in fact one. Only the illusion of time separates them.
佛陀的教导说，即使你的快乐也是 dukka——巴利文的意思是“受苦”或“贪想”。两极是一体不分的。意思就是，你的快乐和不快乐实际上是一个。只是时间的幻觉把它们分割了。
This is not being negative. It is simply recognizing the nature of things, so that you don't pursue an illusion for the rest of your life. Nor is it saying that you should no longer appreciate pleasant or beautiful things or conditions. But to seek something through them that they cannot give — an identity, a sense of permanency and fulfillment — is a recipe for frustration and suffering. The whole advertising industry and consumer society would collapse if people became enlightened and no longer sought to find their identity through things. The more you seek happiness in this way, the more it will elude you. Nothing out there will ever satisfy you except temporarily and superficially, but you may need to experience many disillusionments before you realize that truth. Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they will also give you pain. Things and conditions can give you pleasure, but they cannot give you joy. Nothing can give you joy. Joy is uncaused and arises from within as the joy of Being. It is an essential part of the inner state of peace, the state that has been called the peace of God. It is your natural state, not something that you need to work hard for or struggle to attain.
这不是消极。这只是要你认知事物的本质，以免你的余生都在追逐一个幻相。也不是说你不应该再欣赏愉悦或美的事件或情状。不过，想透过它们追求它们所无法提供的——身份、永恒、和成就感——这无异是一帖酿造挫折和受苦的配方。如果人们都悟道，而不再透过事物寻找他们的身份时，整个广告业和消费者社会都会崩溃。你越用这种方式追寻快乐，你越会有求不得之苦。外界的事物，除了短暂和浮面的满足之外，没有一样能真正的满足你。不过你也许需要经历许多次的幻灭之后，才会体会到这个真理。事物和情状给你享乐，也可以给你痛苦。它们可以给你享乐，却不能给你喜悦。喜悦就像法喜一样，是由内而外自生的。它是内在和平状态本质的一部分，也是被称为神的平安的那个状态。它是你的自然状态，不是一个需要你努力或奋斗才能得来的东西。
Many people never realize that there can be no "salvation" in anything they do, possess, or attain. Those who do realize it often become world-weary and depressed: if nothing can give you true fulfillment, what is there left to strive for, what is the point in anything? The Old Testament prophet must have arrived at such a realization when he wrote "I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. " When you reach this point, you are one step away from despair — and one step away from enlightenment.
任何你所做的、所拥有的、或所获取的，其中都没有“救赎”。许多人从来都没有体会到这一点。而那些体会到的人，反而变得厌离俗务、抑郁不已：既然世间得不到真正的成就，还有什么意义值得再努力的？旧约里的先知必定获得了这样的体悟，才会写出这句话来：“太阳之下所做的一切，我已看尽。你看，一切皆是一场虚幻和捕风的徒劳。”当你抵达这一点的时候，你就跨离了绝望一步——也向开悟迈进了一步。
A Buddhist monk once told me: "All I have learned in the twenty years that I have been a monk I can sum up in one sentence: All that arises passes away. This I know." What he meant, of course, was this: I have learned to offer no resistance to what is; I have learned to allow the present moment to be and to accept the impermanent nature of all things and conditions. Thus have I found peace.
一位佛教的比丘曾经告诉我：“我二十年的修行所学到的，可以用一句话来概括：我只知道凡生者必有灭。”他的意思当然就是：我 学会了对本然不做任何抗拒；我学会了容许当下这一刻存在，并且接受了所有事物和情状的无常。因此我找到了和平。
To offer no resistance to life is to be in a state of grace, ease, and lightness. This state is then no longer dependent upon things being in a certain way, good or bad. It seems almost paradoxical, yet when your inner dependency on form is gone, the general conditions of your life, the outer forms, tend to improve greatly. Things, people, or conditions that you thought you needed for your happiness now come to you with no struggle or effort on your part, and you are free to enjoy and appreciate them — while they last. All those things, of course, will still pass away, cycles will come and go, but with dependency gone there is no fear of loss anymore. Life flows with ease.
对生命不做抗拒，就是处于恩典、自在、和轻松的状态里。这个状态不再仰赖事物以一定的好或坏的方式存在。这么说几乎是矛盾的，然而，当你对形式的内在依赖不见了，生命的整体情状、外在形式，就会趋于长足的改善。你过去认为快乐所需的人、事和情状，现在，会在不经你努力或奋斗的情况下来临。你尽管享受和欣赏这一切——在它们存在的时候。这一切当然都会化灭，在生灭中循环不息。可是没有了依赖，便没有了失落的恐惧。生命开始轻易地流动了。
The happiness that is derived from some secondary source is never very deep. It is only a pale reflection of the joy of Being, the vibrant peace that you find within as you enter the state of nonresistance. Being takes you beyond the polar opposites of the mind and frees you from dependency on form. Even if everything were to collapse and crumble all around you, you would still feel a deep inner core of peace. You may not be happy, but you will be at peace.
从次要来源所汲取的快乐，从来就不会很深。它只是本体喜悦——当你进入了那个不抗拒的状态里，所找到的洋溢的和平——苍白的反映罢了。本体带你超越心智的两极对立之境，把你从形相的依赖中解放了。尽管你周遭的一切崩溃倾塌，你还是会感受到一个在你内在深处的和平核心。你也许不会快乐，可是你一定在和平里。
§
USING AND RELINQUISHING NEGATIVITY
负面情感的运用和戒绝
All inner resistance is experienced as negativity in one form or another. All negativity is resistance. In this context, the two words are almost synonymous. Negativity ranges from irritation or impatience to fierce anger, from a depressed mood or sullen resentment to suicidal despair. Sometimes the resistance triggers the emotional pain-body, in which case even a minor situation may produce intense negativity, such as anger, depression, or deep grief.
所有内在抗拒，都会以一种形式的负面情感被经验到。所有的负面情感都是抗拒。在这个脉络里，这两个词可以说是同义词。负面情感的范围，从恼怒或不耐烦到暴怒，从心情沮丧或怀恨在心到自绝。抗拒有时会触发情感的痛苦之身。在这种情况下，即使一个轻微的情境，也许都会产生愤怒、沮丧、或深沉的哀伤等负面情感。
The ego believes that through negativity it can manipulate reality and get what it wants. It believes that through it, it can attract a desirable condition or dissolve an undesirable one. A Course in Miracles rightly points out that, whenever you are unhappy, there is the unconscious belief that the unhappiness "buys" you what you want. If "you" — the mind — did not believe that unhappiness works, why would you create it? The fact is, of course, that negativity does not work. Instead of attracting a desirable condition, it stops it from arising. Instead of dissolving an undesirable one, it keeps it in place. Its only "useful" function is that it strengthens the ego, and that is why the ego loves it.
我执相信透过负面情感就可以操纵现实，一逞所愿。它相信透过负面情感就可以招引一个可欲的情状，或者弃除一个不可欲的情状。《奇迹课程》里正确地指出，当你不快乐的时候，你就存有一个无意识的信念，认为不快乐可以“买到”你所要的。如果“你”——心智：不相信不快乐行得通的话，何必要创造它？事实是，负面情感当然是行不通的。它不但不能招引一个可欲的情势，反而会阻止它的发生。它不但不能弃除一个不可欲的情势，反而让它滞留不去。它唯一的一个“有用的”功能是巩固我执，这也最我执之所以喜欢它的原因。
Once you have identified with some form of negativity, you do not want to let go, and on a deeply unconscious level, you do not want positive change. It would threaten your identity as a depressed, angry, or hard-done-by person. You will then ignore, deny or sabotage the positive in your life. This is a common phenomenon. It is also insane.
你一旦认同了某一个负面情感形式之后，你就不想放下它。而在一个深层的无意识里，你并不想做正面的改变。改变无异威胁了那个沮丧、生气、或忿忿不平的你。然后你就会忽视、否定，或破坏你生命中的正面情感。这是个常见的现象。也是一种疯狂。
Negativity is totally unnatural. It is a psychic pollutant, and there is a deep link between the poisoning and destruction of nature and the vast negativity that has accumulated in the collective human psyche. No other life form on the planet knows negativity, only humans, just as no other life form violates and poisons the Earth that sustains it. Have you ever seen an unhappy flower or a stressed oak tree? Have you come across a depressed dolphin, a frog that has a problem with self-esteem, a cat that cannot relax, or a bird that carries hatred and resentment? The only animals that may occasionally experience something akin to negativity or show signs of neurotic behavior are those that live in close contact with humans and so link into the human mind and its insanity.
负面情感完全有违自然。它是心灵的污染源，人类对大自然的毒害和破坏，与集体人类心灵中所累积的负面情感之间有密切的关联。地球上所有的生命形态中，只有人类知道负面情感。正如没有其他生命形态会违害和毒化生养它们的地球一样。你可曾见过一朵不快乐的花、或一棵有压力的橡树？你曾经碰到过一只垂头丧气的海豚、一只自尊心有问题的青蛙、一条无法放松的鱼、或者一只怀恨在心的鸟吗？只有那些和人类朝夕相处的动物，才会与人类的心智和疯狂声气相投，进而偶发类神经质和负面情感的经验。
Watch any plant or animal and let it teach you acceptance of what is, surrender to the Now. Let it teach you Being. Let it teach you integrity — which means to be one, to be yourself, to be real. Let it teach you how to live and how to die, and how not to make living and dying into a problem.
观察任何植物或动物，让它教导你接纳本然。教导你臣服于当下。让它教导你什么是本体。让它教导你真诚——也就是合一、做你自己、成为真实的。让它教导你如何生、如何死。以及如何不要把生死制造成问题。
I have lived with several Zen masters — all of them cats. Even ducks have taught me important spiritual lessons. Just watching them is a meditation. How peacefully they float along, at ease with themselves, totally present in the Now, dignified and perfect as only a mindless creature can be. Occasionally, however, two ducks will get into a fight — sometimes for no apparent reason, or because one duck has strayed into another's private space. The fight usually lasts only for a few seconds, and then the ducks separate, swim off in opposite directions, and vigorously flap their wings a few times. They then continue to swim on peacefully as if the fight had never happened. When I observed that for the first time, I suddenly realized that by flapping their wings they were releasing surplus energy, thus preventing it from becoming trapped in their body and turning into negativity. This is natural wisdom, and it is easy for them because they do not have a mind that keeps the past alive unnecessarily and then builds an identity around it.
我和几位禅师一起生活过：我的禅师都是猫。连鸭子也教过我重要的灵修功课。单只是观察它们就是一种冥想。它们浮游在水面的神态，多么祥和悠闲、多么全然地临在于当下。尊严、完美一如一只无心的动物。虽然偶尔会有两只缠斗的时候——有时毫无来由，或者是其中一只闯入了另一只的势力范围。通常缠斗为时不过短短的几秒钟，然后就各自分开，猛烈地抖擞几下翅膀，朝反方向游走。神态安祥一副若无其事的样子。我头一次观测它们的时候，突然恍然大悟，它们之所以要抖擞翅膀，其实是为了释放多余的能量，以免憋在身体里的能量变成负面情感。这就是大自然的智慧。对它们而言是轻而易举的事，因为它们没有一个让它们不必要地豢养过去，然后再依此而建造出身份的心智。
Couldn't a negative emotion also contain an important message? For example, if I often feel depressed, it may be a signal that there is something wrong with my life, and it may force me to look at my life situation and make some changes. So I need to listen to what the emotion is telling me and not just dismiss it as negative.
负面情感会不会也隐藏着一个重要的讯息？比如说，如果我经常有沮丧感，也许就是我的生命出了差错的讯号。也许是要迫使我检视自己的生命情境，并做一些改变。所以我需要倾听情感要告诉我些什么，而不是斥之为负面情感了事。
Yes, recurring negative emotions do sometimes contain a message, as do illnesses. But any changes that you make, whether they have to do with your work, your relationships, or your surroundings, are ultimately only cosmetic unless they arise out of a change in your level of consciousness. And as far as that is concerned, it can only mean one thing: becoming more present. When you have reached a certain degree of presence, you don't need negativity anymore to tell you what is needed in your life situation. But as long as negativity is there, use it. Use it as a kind of signal that reminds you to be more present.
没错，一再复发的负面情感，的确负载了一个讯息，疾病也一样。不过，你做的任何改变，无论是工作上的、亲密关系上的、或者环境的改变也好，都只是表面工夫罢了，除非改变是来自你的意识层面。就这一层意思来说，它只意谓着一件事：变得更临在。当你达到某一程度的临在之后，你就不需要负面情感来告诉你生命情境需要些什么了。不过你可以趁着负面情感还在的时候善加利用。利用它来提醒你要更加地临在。
How do we stop negativity from arising, and how do we get rid of it once it is there?
我们如何阻止负面情感的生起，生起之后要如何摆脱它？
As I said, you stop it from arising by being fully present. But don't become discouraged. There are as yet few people on the planet who can sustain a state of continuous presence, although some are getting dose to it. Soon, I believe, there will be many more.
我说过了，藉着全然的临在就能阻止它发生。不过，你不要因此气馁。世界上能够持续地安守着临在状态的人少之又少。虽然有些人已经几近成就了。我相信人数很快就会增加。
Whenever you notice that some form of negativity has arisen within you, look on it not as a failure, but as a helpful signal that is telling you: "Wake up. Get out of your mind. Be present."
每当你察觉你内在有某种形式的负面情感出来的时候，不要把它当做你的失败，把它看成一个有用的讯号。它在告诉你说：“醒醒吧。走出你的心智。要临在。”
There is a novel by Aldous Huxley called Island, written in his later years when he became very interested in spiritual teachings. It tells the story of a man shipwrecked on a remote island cut off from the rest of the world. This island contains a unique civilization. The unusual thing about it is that its inhabitants, unlike those of the rest of the world, are actually sane. The first thing that the man notices are the colorful parrots perched in the trees, and they seem to be constantly croaking the words "Attention. Here and Now. Attention. Here and Now." We later learn that the islanders taught them these words in order to be reminded continuously to stay present.
阿道斯赫胥黎在他钟情于灵修的晚年，写过一本叫做《岛》的小说。书里描述一位男子因为船难而落居海岛，从此与世隔绝。小岛有个特殊的文化。最不寻常的一点就是，岛民有和外界迥然不同的清明神志。这个人一上岛就发觉树枝上的花色鹦鹉，不断地咕哝着：“关注此时此刻。关注此时此刻。”读到后来才知道，岛民为了要鹦鹉提醒他们随时保持临在，才教它们这样说的。
So whenever you feel negativity arising within you, whether caused by an external factor, a thought, or even nothing in particular that you are aware of, look on it as a voice saying "Attention. Here and Now. Wake up." Even the slightest irritation is significant and needs to be acknowledged and looked at; otherwise, there will be a cumulative build-up of unobserved reactions. As I said before, you may be able to just drop it once you realize that you don't want to have this energy field inside you and that it serves no purpose. But then make sure that you drop it completely. If you cannot drop it, just accept that it is there and take your attention into the feeling, as I pointed out earlier.
因此每当你感觉内在有一个负面情感生起的时候，无论是由一个外在的因素或者是一个念头，甚至一个你觉察不出的因素。把它当做一个跟你呼唤“专注此时此刻。醒醒吧。”的耳提面命。即使是一个最轻微的恼怒也具有意义，需要你加以承认和检视；否则未经观测的反应势必要累聚成结了。正如我在前面说过的，一旦而体会出你不要这个一无是处的能场在你里面的时候，你就能无所顾忌地把它丢掉了。不过你务必要丢得彻底。如果你做不到，不如照我之前说的方式，干脆接纳它的存在，把你的专注导入这个情感上面。
As an alternative to dropping a negative reaction, you can make it disappear by imagining yourself becoming transparent to the external cause of the reaction. I recommend that you practice it with little, even trivial, things first. Let's say that you are sitting quietly at home. Suddenly, there is the penetrating sound of a car alarm from across the street. Irritation arises. What is the purpose of the irritation? None whatsoever. Why did you create it? You didn't. The mind did. It was totally automatic, totally unconscious. Why did the mind create it? Because it holds the unconscious belief that its resistance, which you experience as negativity or unhappiness in some form, will somehow dissolve the undesirable condition. This, of course, is a delusion. The resistance that it creates, the irritation or anger in this case, is far more disturbing than the original cause that it is attempting to dissolve.
丢掉一个负面反应的权便之计，就是观想你自己变成透明，来面对那个引发你反应的外界肇因，而让它消失。我推荐你先从小事、甚至于小节起步。假设你安静地坐在家里。突然对街传来一声刺耳的喇叭声。恼怒之情生起来了。这个恼怒的目的何在？毫无目的。你何苦创造它？不是你。是心智创造的。它是完全自动、完全无意识的。心智为什么创造它？因为它抱持了一个无意识的信念，认为抗拒——你以负面情感或某种形式的不快乐所经验到的——总有办法瓦解这个不可欲的情状。这个信念当然是个幻觉了。它所创造出来的抗拒——就是本例中的恼怒或愤怒——比起它企图要瓦解的原肇因，更加令人困扰。
All this can be transformed into spiritual practice. Feel yourself becoming transparent, as it were, without the solidity of a material body. Now allow the noise, or whatever causes a negative reaction, to pass right through you. It is no longer hitting a solid "wall" inside you. As I said, practice with little things first. The car alarm, the dog barking, the children screaming, the traffic jam. Instead of having a wall of resistance inside you that gets constantly and painfully hit by things that "should not be happening," let everything pass through you.
这些都可以被我们转化成灵修。感觉你自己像之前一样变成透明的，你没有一个固体的肉身。现在再容许噪音、或者任何造成一个负面反应的肇因穿透你。它便无法再冲击你内在那道实心“墙”了。依照我说的，从小处着手。车子的喇叭声、狗叫声、小孩的尖叫声、和塞车。你不再竖立一道抗拒的内墙，让自己饱受那些“不应该”发生的事件不断地痛击，反而让一切事件穿透你而去。
Somebody says something to you that is rude or designed to hurt. Instead of going into unconscious reaction and negativity, such as attack, defense, or withdrawal, you let it pass right through you. Offer no resistance. It is as if there is nobody there to get hurt anymore. That is forgiveness. In this way, you become invulnerable. You can still tell that person that his or her behavior is unacceptable, if that is what you choose to do. But that person no longer has the power to control your inner state. You are then in your power — not in someone else's, nor are you run by your mind. Whether it is a car alarm, a rude person, a flood, an earthquake, or the loss of all your possessions, the resistance mechanism is the same.
有人对你口出恶言、或者说了存心伤害你的话，你不再掉入攻击、防卫、或退缩的无意识反应和负面的情感里。你反而会让它穿透你。你不采取抗拒，就好像你里面已经没有了一个可以被伤害的人了。这就是宽恕。你用这种方式让自己变得五毒不侵。如果你选择要这么做的话，你还可以告诉对方你无法接受这种行为。可是这个人已经没有控制你内在状态的力量了。于是你有了自主权—而不再受制于他人，也不再被心智所掌控。不管是汽车的喇叭声、一个粗暴无礼的人、一场水灾、一次地震、或者是倾家荡产，都是同样的抗拒机制。
I have been practicing meditation, I have been to workshops, I have read many books on spirituality, I try to be in a state of nonresistance — but if you ask me whether I have found true and lasting inner peace, my honest answer would have to be "no. " Why haven't I found it? What else can I do?
我一直都在做冥想，也参加工作坊，灵修的书也读了不少。我试着处于无抗拒的状态，可是，如果你问我有没有找到真正而持续的内在和平，我会老实的回答你“没有”。我为什么还找不到？我还能做些什么？
You are still seeking outside, and you cannot get out of the seeking mode. Maybe the next workshop will have the answer, maybe that new technique. To you I would say. Don't look for peace. Don't look for any other state than the one you are in now; otherwise, you will set up inner conflict and unconscious resistance. Forgive yourself for not being at peace. The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your nonpeace becomes transmuted into peace. Anything you accept fully will get you there, will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender.
你还在向外求驰，你还跳不出求觅的模式。也许下一个工作坊有我的答案，也许那个新法门管用。我要奉劝你的话是：不要找和平。不要找寻你当下之外的任何状态；否则你只会给自己树立内在的冲突和无意识的抗拒。原谅你自己没有处在和平里。你完全接受自己不和平的一刻，你的不和平就被转型成和平了。你全然地接纳什么，就会让你到达什么，就会带你进入和平里。这就是臣服的奇迹。
§
You may have heard the phrase "turn the other cheek," which a great teacher of enlightenment used 2,000 years ago. He was attempting to convey symbolically the secret of nonresistance and nonreaction. In this statement, as in all his others, he was concerned only with your inner reality, not with the outer conduct of your life.
你也许听过两千年前一位悟道的导师用过的一句话“转你另一边的脸颊让人打。”他试图使用象征的方式，传递不抗拒、不反应的秘密。他所有的教诲，包括上面这个陈述在内，所关切的只是你内在的实相，而不是你生命中的外在行为。
Do you know the story of Banzan? Before he became a great Zen master, he spent many years in the pursuit of enlightenment, but it eluded him. Then one day, as he was walking in the marketplace, he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer. "Give me the best piece of meat you have," said the customer. And the butcher replied, "Every piece of meat I have is the best. There is no piece of meat here that is not the best." Upon hearing this, Banzan became enlightened.
你知道熊泽蕃山禅师的典故吗？他成为伟大的禅师之前，以多年的时间求悟，可是开悟总是与他擦身而过。然后有一天他经过市场的肉铺，无意间听到肉商和客人的一段对话：“把你铺子里最好的一块肉给我。”客人这么说。“我这里卖的全是上肉，没有一块不是最好的。”熊泽蕃山一听到这句话就开悟了。
I can see you are waiting for some explanation. When you accept what is, every piece of meat — every moment — is the best. That is enlightenment.
我看得出你还在等我的解释。当你接纳本然的时候——每一刻——都是上肉。这就是开悟。
THE NATURE OF COMPASSION
慈悲的本质
Having gone beyond the mind-made opposites, you become like a deep lake. The outer situation of your life and whatever happens there, is the surface of the lake. Sometimes calm, sometimes windy and rough, according to the cycles and seasons. Deep down, however, the lake is always undisturbed. You are the whole lake, not just the surface, and you are in touch with your own depth, which remains absolutely still. You don't resist change by mentally clinging to any situation. Your inner peace does not depend on it. You abide in Being — unchanging, timeless, deathless — and you are no longer dependent for fulfillment or happiness on the outer world of constantly fluctuating forms. You can enjoy them, play with them, create new forms, appreciate the beauty of it all. But there will be no need to attach yourself to any of it.
超越心智的对立之后，你就变成了一个很深的湖。生命中的外境，和任何发生的事件都是湖面。湖面会因应循环和气节的变化，时而风平浪静时而狂风骤雨。然而湖底却始终纹风不动。你就是这个湖。你不只是湖面。你和你如如不动的内在深处连系着。你不会因为对任何情境的贪爱而抗拒改变。你内在的平安并不依赖它。你安住在本体里——不变、无时、不灭。你不再依附外境中起伏不定的形式寻求实现或快乐。你可以享受这些嬉戏，你可以做乐，你可以创造新的形式，你可以欣赏它们的美。可是却没有执着它们的需要了。
When you become this detached, does it not mean that you also become remote from other human beings?
当你出离到这种地步的时候，不就意谓着离群索居了吗？
On the contrary. As long as you are unaware of Being, the reality of other humans will elude you, because you have not found your own. Your mind will like or dislike their form, which is not just their body but includes their mind as well. True relationship becomes possible only when there is an awareness of Being. Coming from Being, you will perceive another person's body and mind as just a screen, as it were, behind which you can feel their true reality, as you feel yours. So, when confronted with someone else's suffering or unconscious behavior, you stay present and in touch with Being and are thus able to look beyond the form and feel the other person's radiant and pure Being through your own. At the level of Being, all suffering is recognized as an illusion. Suffering is due to identification with form. Miracles of healing sometimes occur through this realization, by awakening Being-consciousness in others — if they are ready.
正好相反。如果你不觉知到自己的本体，你就见不到人类的实相，因为你还没有找到自己的实相。你的心智就会对他们的形式产生喜、恶，爱、憎之别。其中除了他们的身体之外，还包括了他们的心智。只有对本体觉知的时候，真正的关系才有可能。当你发自于本体的时候，你就会以原状来感知他人的身体和心智，也就是感知成一个屏幕。而你就像对自己一样，在屏幕之后感觉到他们真正的实相。因此当你面对别人的受苦或无意识的行为时，你会留守在临在里与你的本体连系。进而能超越形相，透过你自己的本体，感觉对方光明清净的本体。在本体的层面上，一切受苦都被你认知成幻相。受苦来自形相认同。疗愈的奇迹往往透过这个体认而触发，也就是，当对方准备好了的时候，借由唤醒他们本体的意识让奇迹发生。
Is that what compassion is?
这就是所谓的慈悲吗？
Yes. Compassion is the awareness of a deep bond between yourself and all creatures. But there are two sides to compassion, two sides to this bond. On the one hand, since you are still here as a physical body, you share the vulnerability and mortality of your physical form with every other human and with every living being. Next time you say "I have nothing in common with this person," remember that you have a great deal in common: A few years from now — two years or seventy years, it doesn't make much difference — both of you will have become rotting corpses, then piles of dust, then nothing at all. This is a sobering and humbling realization that leaves little room for pride. Is this a negative thought? No, it is a fact. Why close your eyes to it? In that sense, there is total equality between you and every other creature.
是的。慈悲就是觉知你和众生之间有一个深层的连结。不过慈悲，或这个连结，具有两个面向。一方面是你以肉身的形式存在，所以也和每一个人类和每一个众生一样，受制于形相的成住坏空。下一次你冲口说出“我和这个人没有共同点。”这句话的时候，切记你们有一大堆的共同点：几年之后——少则两年，多则七十年，就没有多大的差别了——你们两个都变成了一堆尸骨，继则黄土一杯，随即灰飞烟灭。这一番体认让人扼腕自谦，不留任何自傲的余地。这算是消极思想吗？不是，这是个事实。为什么不敢正视它？在这个意义上，你和众生是完全平等的。
One of the most powerful spiritual practices is to meditate deeply on the mortality of physical forms, including your own. This is called: Die before you die. Go into it deeply. Your physical form is dissolving, is no more. Then a moment comes when all mind-forms or thoughts also die. Yet you are still there — the divine presence that you are. Radiant, fully awake. Nothing that was real ever died, only names, forms, and illusions.
白骨观是最具威力的一个灵修法门。我们叫做先身体之死而死。深入地观想它。观想你的肉身正在分解，它没有了。接着观想所有的心智形式或思想也跟着死亡。然而你还在那里——你是的神性临在。光明且全然地觉知。凡真实的必不死，死的只是名字、形式、和幻相。
§
The realization of this deathless dimension, your true nature, is the other side of compassion. On a deep feeling-level, you now recognize not only your own immortality but through your own that of every other creature as well. On the level of form, you share mortality and the precariousness of existence. On the level of Being, you share eternal, radiant life. These are the two aspects of compassion. In compassion, the seemingly opposite feelings of sadness and joy merge into one and become transmuted into a deep inner peace, This is the peace of God. It is one of the most noble feelings that humans are capable of, and it has great healing and transformative power. But true compassion, as I have just described it, is as yet rare. To have deep empathy for the suffering of another being certainly requires a high degree of consciousness but represents only one side of compassion. It is not complete. True compassion goes beyond empathy or sympathy. It does not happen until sadness merges with joy, the joy of Being beyond form, the joy of eternal life.
体认这个不灭的向度——你的真如本性，就是慈悲的另一面。你现在在一个深层的感觉层面，你不仅认知到自己的不朽，你也透过自己的不朽，体认了众生的不朽。在形式的层面，你们共同在生死和无常里存在。在本体的层面，你们分享着光明的永生。这就是慈悲的两个层面。那乍似对立的悲伤和喜悦感在慈悲里合而为一，然后被转化成深沉的内在和平。这是神的平安。它是人类能发展的最高贵情操，它拥有伟大的治疗和转化威力。不过我所描述的真慈悲实属罕见。对另一个存在的受苦怀有深度的同理心，的确需要高度的意识，不过这也仅代表慈悲的一个面向而已。它并不完整。真正的慈悲超越了同理心或同情心。在悲伤和喜悦——超越形相的本体喜悦、永生的喜悦——融合之前，它不会发生。
TOWARD A DIFFERENT ORDER OF REALITY
迈向实相的不同序列
I don't agree that the body needs to die. I am convinced that we can achieve physical immortality. We believe in death and that's why the body dies.
我不赞同肉体需要死亡。我坚信人可以达致肉体的不朽。我们之所以会死是因为我们相信死亡。
The body does not die because you believe in death. The body exists, or seems to, because you believe in death. Body and death are part of the same illusion, created by the egoic mode of consciousness, which has no awareness of the Source of life and sees itself as separate and constantly under threat. So it creates the illusion that you are a body, a dense, physical vehicle that is constantly under threat.
身体不是因为你相信死亡它才会死的。肉体会存在，或者似乎存在，是因为你相信死亡。肉身和死亡都是由我执的意识模式所创造的同一个幻相。这个幻相对生命的源头没有觉知，并且以孤离和饱受威胁的幻相看待自己。因而创造了你是一具身体的幻相：一个持续地处于威胁之下的有密度、有实体的载具。
To perceive yourself as a vulnerable body that was born and a little later dies — that's the illusion. Body and death: one illusion. You cannot have one without the other. You want to keep one side of the illusion and get rid of the other, but that is impossible. Either you keep all of it or you relinquish all of it.
以一个有成住坏空的身体来感知自己——这是个幻相。身体和死亡：同一个幻相。两者缺一不可。你想保留幻相的一个面，祛除另一个面，这是不可能的事。两者相应而生，不是共存就是全舍。
However, you cannot escape from the body, nor do you have to. The body is an incredible misperception of your true nature. But your true nature is concealed somewhere within that illusion, not outside it, so the body is still the only point of access to it.
然而你既无法逃避身体，也没有逃避它的必要。身体是你对真如本性不可思议的错误知觉。可是你的本性就隐藏在这个幻相里面，而非在外，因此身体仍然是你唯一的一个路径点。
If you saw an angel but mistook it for a stone statue, all you would have to do is adjust your vision and look more closely at the "stone statue," not start looking somewhere else. You would then find that there never was a stone statue.
如果你把眼前的天使误认为一座石雕，你势必要调整你的视力，然后再把“石雕”看个端详，而不是转移视线。然后你就会发现根本就没有石雕在。
If belief in death creates the body, why does an animal have a body? An animal doesn't have an ego, and it doesn't believe in death . . . .
如果死亡的信念创造了身体，为什么动物有身体？动物既没有我执，又不相信死亡……
But it still dies, or seems to.
可是它还是会死，或者说似乎会死。
Remember that your perception of the world is a reflection of your state of consciousness. You are not separate from it, and there is no objective world out there. Every moment, your consciousness creates the world that you inhabit. One of the greatest insights that has come out of modern physics is that of the unity between the observer and the observed: the person conducting the experiment — the observing consciousness — cannot be separated from the observed phenomena, and a different way of looking causes the observed phenomena to behave differently. If you believe, on a deep level, in separation and the struggle for survival, then you see that belief reflected all around you and your perceptions are governed by fear. You inhabit a world of death and of bodies fighting, killing, and devouring each other.
切记，你对世界的感知是你意识状态的反映。你并没有和世界分离，并没有一个客体的世界。你的意识无时无刻不在创造你所栖身的这个世界。现代物理学最了不起的一个洞见，就是观测者和被观者的合一：进行实验的人——观测的意识——无法自被观测的现象里分离出来。而且不同方式的看，也会造成被观现象不同的行为。如果你在更深的层面里相信孤离，相信人必须奋斗以求存的话，那么你就会看到这个信念反应在你的周遭。你的感知便受到恐惧的掌控。你所栖居的就是一个有死亡、有肉搏、有杀伐和弱肉强食的世界。
Nothing is what it seems to be. The world that you create and see through the egoic mind may seem a very imperfect place, even a vale of tears. But whatever you perceive is only a kind of symbol, like an image in a dream. It is how your consciousness interprets and interacts with the molecular energy dance of the universe. This energy is the raw material of so-called physical reality. You see it in terms of bodies and birth and death, or as a struggle for survival. An infinite number of completely different interpretations, completely different worlds, is possible and, in fact, exists — all depending on the perceiving consciousness. Every being is a focal point of consciousness, and every such focal point creates its own world, although all those worlds are interconnected. There is a human world, an ant world, a dolphin world, and so on. There are countless beings whose consciousness frequency is so different from yours that you are probably unaware of their existence, as they are of yours. Highly conscious beings who are aware of their connectedness with the Source and with each other would inhabit a world that to you would appear as a heavenly realm — and yet all worlds are ultimately one.
没有一件事是它的表象所现。你透过我执的心智所创造和看见的世界也许不尽完美，甚至于是个泪眼婆娑的渊薮。可是你所感所知的只是一个象征，类似你梦中所见的图像。你的意识便是用这种方式对宇宙的分子能进行诠释和互动的。这个分子能就是所谓的实体实相的素材。你用身体、生死、或奋斗求存的角度来看待实相。无限个完全不同的诠释和截然不同的世界最可能而且存在的——全部决定于感知的意识。每一个存在都是一个意识的焦点，每一个焦点都创造了自己的世界，虽然这些世界是相互联结的。有人类的世界、有蚂蚁的世界、有海豚的世界等不一而足。因为很多不同形式的存在（众生），他们的意识频率和你的不同，所以你无察于他们的存在， 反之亦然。高层意识的存在体（beings）能够觉察到自己的源头和彼此之间连系，他们就好像生活在天堂般。 然而，所有的世界终极是合而为一的。
Our collective human world is largely created through the level of consciousness we call mind. Even within the collective human world there are vast differences, many different "sub-worlds," depending on the perceivers or creators of their respective worlds. Since all worlds are interconnected, when collective human consciousness becomes transformed, nature and the animal kingdom will reflect that transformation. Hence the statement in the Bible that in the coming age "The lion shall lie down with the lamb." This points to the possibility of a completely different order of reality.
集体人类世界大部分是透过我们称为心智的意识层所创生。即使在集体人类世界里也存在着悬殊各异的许多“次元世界”，分别由不同世界的感知者或创造者决定。由于所有的世界彼此相互联结，因此集体人类意识转型的时候，自然界和动物界便加以回应。所以圣经才会对下一个世纪做出如下的陈述：“狮子将与羊共卧。”这句陈述指出了一个截然不同于实相序列的可能性。
The world as it appears to us now is, as I said, largely a reflection of the egoic mind. Fear being an unavoidable consequence of egoic delusion, it is a world dominated by fear. Just as the images in a dream are symbols of inner states and feelings, so our collective reality is largely a symbolic expression of fear and of the heavy layers of negativity that have accumulated in the collective human psyche. We are not separate from our world, so when the majority of humans become free of egoic delusion, this inner change will affect all of creation. You will literally inhabit a new world. It is a shift in planetary consciousness. The strange Buddhist saying that every tree and every blade of grass will eventually become enlightened points to the same truth. According to St. Paul, the whole of creation is waiting for humans to become enlightened. That is how I interpret his saying that "The created universe is waiting with eager expectation for God's sons to be revealed." St. Paul goes on to say that all of creation will become redeemed through this: "Up to the present . . . the whole created universe in all its parts groans as if in the pangs of childbirth."
我们眼前的世界，我已说过，大部分是我执心智的反映。恐惧是我执幻相的必然结果，这是一个由恐惧所主控的世界。它就像是梦中的图像一样，是内在状态和情感的象征。这么看来，我们的集体实相也大部分是恐惧和集体人类心灵层层裹覆的负面情感的象征。我们并不是和这个世界分离而互不相属的。因此当大多数的人类摆脱了我执的幻相之后，众生万物也将受到这个内在改变的影响。你简直就是居住在一个新的世界。这是一个星球意识的转换。佛教徒有一个奇怪的说法是，每一棵树、每一片树叶终究都要开悟，而殊途同归地指向同一个真理。照圣保禄的说法是，所有众生都翘首企盼人类的开悟。这是我对圣保禄的话所做的诠释。他说，“创生的宇宙殷殷企盼神子的天启。”他接着又说，所有众生都将因为：“至今为止……整个宇宙犹如临盆的阵痛一般，发出集体的呻吟。”而得到赦免。
What is being born is a new consciousness and, as its inevitable reflection, a new world. This is also foretold in the New Testament Book of Revelation: "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away."
而即将诞生的是一个崭新的意识，和新意识所势必反映出来的新世界。新约的启示录里，也做了同样的预示：“然后我看见了一个新天和一个新地。因为第一个天和第一个地已经消逝。”
But don't confuse cause and effect. Your primary task is not to seek salvation through creating a better world, but to awaken out of identification with form. You are then no longer bound to this world, this level of reality. You can feel your roots in the Unmanifested and so are free of attachment to the manifested world. You can still enjoy the passing pleasures of this world, but there is no fear of loss anymore, so you don't need to cling to them. Although you can enjoy sensory pleasures, the craving for sensory experience is gone, as is the constant search for fulfillment through psychological gratification, through feeding the ego. You are in touch with something infinitely greater than any pleasure, greater than any manifested thing.
不过你不要倒因为果。你的当务之急不是透过创造一个更美好的世界寻求救赎，而是从形式的认同里觉醒。然后你就不再囿限于这个世界：这个层面的实相。你能感觉到你扎在隐含生命里的根，因此摆脱了对外显世界的执着。你仍然能够享受世间攸乎即逝的享乐，可是失落的恐惧已经没有了，因此你不需要对享乐有所攀缘。虽然你享受感官之乐，却没有了对感官经验的渴欲。你透过心理的满足感和我执的喂养，而对实现的求驰之心也止息了。你与一个超越享乐，超越外显事物的无限量取得了连系。
In a way, you then don't need the world anymore. You don't even need it to be different from the way it is.
然后你再也不需要这个世界。甚至于不需要它有所改观。
It is only at this point that you begin to make a real contribution toward bringing about a better world, toward creating a different order of reality. It is only at this point that you are able to feel true compassion and to help others at the level of cause. Only those who have transcended the world can bring about a better world.
只有从这一个点开始，你才能对再创新世界，和新秩序的实相提供实质的贡献。只有在这一个点上，你才能感觉到真正的慈悲，并且在因的层面利益众生。只有那些超越俗世的人，才能引发出一个新的世界。
You may remember that we talked about the dual nature of true compassion, which is awareness of a common bond of shared mortality and immortality. At this deep level, compassion becomes healing in the widest sense. In that state, your healing influence is primarily based not on doing but on being. Everybody you come in contact with will be touched by your presence and affected by the peace that you emanate, whether they are conscious of it or not. When you are fully present and people around you manifest unconscious behavior, you won't feel the need to react to it, so you don't give it any reality. Your peace is so vast and deep that anything that is not peace disappears into it as if it had never existed. This breaks the karmic cycle of action and reaction. Animals, trees, flowers will feel your peace and respond to it. You teach through being, through demonstrating the peace of God. You become the "light of the world," an emanation of pure consciousness, and so you eliminate suffering on the level of cause. You eliminate unconsciousness from the world.
也许你还记得我们谈过真正慈悲的二元性——就是对众生所共有的会生灭和不朽的觉知。在这个更深的层面上，慈悲展开了它全面性的治疗。在这个状态里你治疗的影响力，不再以你的做为为主，而在于你的存在。你接触到的每一个人，都会被你的临在触及，都会受到你散发的和平所感染，无论他们是否意识得到。当你全然临在的时候，你对周遭的人所显示的无意识行为，不会感觉有加以反应的需要，因此也就不会赋予它任何实相了。你的和平广阔深邃，任何不和平的都会在那里面消失无踪，彷佛不曾存在过。行为和反应的业力循环断了。动物、花草、树木都会感受到你的和平而有所回应。你透过你的存在施教，透过神的平安施教。你变成了“世界的光”、纯意识的散发，进而从因的层面断绝了苦根。你驱逐了世间的无意识。
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This doesn't mean that you may not also teach through doing — for example, by pointing out how to disidentify from the mind, recognize unconscious patterns within oneself, and so on. But who you are is always a more vital teaching and a more powerful transformer of the world than what you say, and more essential even than what you do. Furthermore, to recognize the primacy of Being, and thus work on the level of cause, does not exclude the possibility that your compassion may simultaneously manifest on the level of doing and of effect, by alleviating suffering whenever you come across it. When a hungry person asks you for bread and you have some, you will give it. But as you give the bread, even though your interaction may only be very brief, what really matters is this moment of shared Being, of which the bread is only a symbol. A deep healing takes place within it. In that moment, there is no giver, no receiver.
这并不表示你也许不会透过你的做为施教——例如指出如何撤离心智的认同，如何认知个人内在无意识模式的方法等。不过你的本来面目比诸你的言教，是更至关重要的教法，也是对世界更具威力的转化剂，同时也比你的身教更形基本。更重要的是，体认本体才是要务，进而从因的层面下工夫，但也不排除藉着化解受苦，让慈悲在做为和果的层面同步彰显的可能性。碰到一个挨饿的人向你讨食，把你所有的给出。你给出的时候，虽然只是短暂的互动，真正重要的却是共享本体的那一刻。而面包只是一个象征罢了。在互动里，一个深沉的治疗发生了。在那一刻里既没有给者，也没有受者。
But there shouldn't be any hunger and starvation in the first place. How can we create a better world without tackling evils such as hunger and violence first?
可是饥饿和饥馑本来就不该有。如果不先对饥饿和暴力这一类的恶做一番缠斗，如何创造一个更好的世界？
All evils are the effect of unconsciousness. You can alleviate the effects of unconsciousness, but you cannot eliminate them unless you eliminate their cause. True change happens within, not without.
所有的恶都是无意识的果。你可以减轻无意识的果，可是除非你消灭它的因，你便无法消灭它的果。真正的改变发自内在，而不是外在。
If you feel called upon to alleviate suffering in the world, that is a very noble thing to do, but remember not to focus exclusively on the outer; otherwise, you will encounter frustration and despair. Without a profound change in human consciousness, the world's suffering is a bottomless pit. So don't let your compassion become one-sided. Empathy with someone else's pain or lack and a desire to help need to be balanced with a deeper realization of the eternal nature of all life and the ultimate illusion of all pain. Then let your peace flow into whatever you do and you will be working on the levels of effect and cause simultaneously.
如果你自觉受到召唤，要为减轻世间的受苦而努力，这是一件高贵的事。不过你要切记，不要一味地专注于外界；否则你会遭到挫败和绝望。人类的意识如不经一次深沉的改变，世界的受苦就是个无底的深渊。因此不要只偏重于单方面的慈悲。对他人的痛苦或匮乏感同身受，和想施加援手的渴望，需要以一份深层的体认来平衡，也就是体认到所有生命永恒的本质，和所有痛苦的究竟幻相。然后再让你的和平流入你的做为里。如此一来，你就在因和果的层面同步下工夫了。
This also applies if you are supporting a movement designed to stop deeply unconscious humans from destroying themselves, each other, and the planet, or from continuing to inflict dreadful suffering on other sentient beings. Remember. Just as you cannot fight the darkness, so you cannot fight unconsciousness. If you try to do so, the polar opposites will become strengthened and more deeply entrenched. You will become identified with one of the polarities, you will create an "enemy," and so be drawn into unconsciousness yourself. Raise awareness by disseminating information, or at the most, practice passive resistance. But make sure that you carry no resistance within, no hatred, no negativity. "Love your enemies," said Jesus, which, of course, means "have no enemies."
如果你正在支持一个以制止深度无意识人类的自毁、互残、破坏地球、或者持续对其他有觉众生暴行虐施为宗旨的运动，这个方法也同样适用。切记：“对抗无意识和对抗黑暗”一样徒劳。如果你试图这么做，相对的那一极就会因此强化而据地为营。你就会因为认同其中的一极而树“敌”，反而让自己被拖进无意识里面。籍着资讯的散播来提升觉知度，或者顶多只行使消极的抗拒。不过你的内在千万不要怀有任何抗拒、仇恨、和负面情感。“爱你的仇敌，”耶稣这么说，这句话也有“不要树敌”的意思。
Once you get involved in working on the level of effect, it is all too easy to lose yourself in it. Stay alert and very, very present. The causal level needs to remain your primary focus, the teaching of enlightenment your main purpose, and peace your most precious gift to the world.
一旦你在果的层面下工夫之后，就很容易让自己迷失在里面。你要保持警觉。你要非常非常地临在。你仍需以因的层面为首要的焦点，以开悟的教化为主要的目的，以和平为你给予世界最珍贵的一份礼物。