Chapter 22: Escaping Suffering

As revealed to God’s Messenger Marshall Vian Summers on April 15, 1988 in San Francisco, CA
1988年4月15日，在加州旧金山(San Francisco, CA)，向上帝的信使马歇尔・维安・萨默斯(Marshall Vian Summers)揭示

There are three different curriculums for ending suffering, three different remedies. There is the remedy for those who wish to give up a little bit of suffering. There is the remedy for those who wish to give up a lot of suffering. And then there is the remedy for those who wish to give up all suffering. They are very different remedies—prescriptions you might say. I would like to talk about the prescription for giving up a lot of suffering.

结束痛苦有三种不同的课程，三种不同的补救办法。有为那些希望放弃一点点痛苦的人提供的补救措施。对于那些希望放弃大量痛苦的人来说，有一种补救办法。然后是为那些希望放弃所有痛苦的人提供的补救措施。它们是非常不同的补救措施——你可以说是处方。我想谈谈放弃大量痛苦的处方。

You are already quite aware of the prescriptions for giving up a little suffering. They are very, very simple and most of them simply mask your problems. Some of them give you temporary relief for very brief periods of time and make life a little more tolerable. This first prescription is by far the most popular.

你已经很清楚放弃少量痛苦的处方。它们非常、非常简单，而且大多数只是掩盖了你的问题。他们中的一些人在非常短暂的时间内给你暂时的缓解，使生命变得更容易忍受。这第一个处方是迄今为止最受欢迎的。

People are not aware of how unhappy they are unless something very wonderful or mysterious happens to them. Only a profound experience of happiness provides the contrast necessary to illustrate what is truly possible and meant for people. You are here because you are seeking a greater remedy, a greater happiness and a greater fulfillment in life, and that is why we must talk about suffering.

人们不会意识到自己有多不快乐，除非有非常美妙或神秘的事情发生在他们身上。只有深刻的幸福经历才能提供必要的对比，说明什么是真正可能的，什么是对人的意义。你在这里是因为你在寻求更大的补救措施，更大的幸福和更大的生命满足感，这就是为什么我们必须谈论痛苦。

There are two kinds of suffering. I would like to make this distinction. The first kind of suffering is the kind most people think of when they think of suffering and a simple definition could be: Suffering is the recognized or anticipated loss of something you value temporarily. Yet, there is another kind of suffering that people rarely consider that I would like to concentrate on because it has a great deal to do with your understanding of how happiness can be achieved here. The second kind of suffering is your yearning for your Spiritual Family, for God. It is a very different kind of suffering from suffering because of the loss of temporary things.

有两种苦难。我想做这样的区分。第一种痛苦是大多数人提到痛苦时想到的那种，一个简单的定义可以是。痛苦是公认的或预期的暂时失去你重视的人或物。然而，还有一种人们很少考虑的痛苦，我想集中讨论一下，因为它与你对如何在这里获得幸福的理解有很大关系。第二种痛苦是你对你的精神家庭、对上帝的渴望。这是一种非常不同的痛苦，不同于因为失去暂时的东西而产生的痛苦。

The first kind of suffering deals primarily with your mind. It is not pain. We must make that distinction. It is not physical pain, though physical pain can result from it. I do not want to analyze the first kind of suffering, for there is too much of this already—“The Psychology of Suffering.”—but I would like to talk about what really motivates people in life.

第一种痛苦主要涉及你的心智。它不是痛苦。我们必须做出这种区分。它不是身体上的痛苦，尽管身体上的痛苦可能由此产生。我不想分析第一种痛苦，因为这方面的内容已经太多了——“痛苦的心理学”——但我想谈谈什么是人们生活的真正动力。

The first kind of suffering is something that you experience daily, even every hour—the loss of things and the anticipated loss of things. Loss of experiences, loss of objects, loss of friends, loss of abilities, loss of opportunities, loss of securities and loss of pleasures. Loss, loss, loss! This is very dominating, this “loss” phenomenon. It is the down side of happiness. It is like a great shadow that follows you about, for whatever you hold dear today, yes, you can lose tomorrow. It can be gone. Many things you cannot even consider losing because it would be too terrifying and painful.

第一种痛苦是你每天，甚至每小时都在经历的事情——事物的丧失和预期的丧失。经历的丧失、物品的丧失、朋友的丧失、能力的丧失、机会的丧失、证券的丧失和快乐的丧失。损失、损失、损失!这是非常有支配力的，这种”失去”现象。它是幸福的负面因素。它就像一个巨大的阴影跟随着你，因为无论你今天珍视什么，是的，你明天就会失去。它可以消失。许多东西你甚至不能考虑失去，因为这将是非常可怕和痛苦的。

So, there is this problem of suffering. You cannot avoid it because it is such a constant companion. If you begin to observe your thoughts, you will realize how your mind goes from one loss to another, and the only way it can mask this emphasis is by hoping for new and exciting things, for whatever you hold to, you keep losing it, and this gets very tiring. You spend a lifetime accumulating and giving it all up. It is a very tenuous state to live like this, but it is the state of the world.

所以，存在着这个痛苦的问题。你无法避免它，因为它是一个持续的陪伴。如果你开始观察你的思维，你会意识到你的心智是如何从一个损失走向另一个损失的，而它能掩盖这种强调的唯一方法是希望得到新的和令人兴奋的人或事物，因为无论你坚持什么，你都会不断地失去它，这让人很累。你花了一辈子的时间来积累和放弃这一切。这样的生活是一种非常脆弱的状态，但这就是世界的状态。

Traditional religion in its very pure forms has said, “Give everything up now that you anticipate losing and you will undercut the source of your suffering.” Well, for most people that increases their suffering right away because they must give up everything they want even before they lose it, and it looks like a terrible prescription. Not a lot of people are very excited about this approach. Not much enthusiasm here. “Okay, I’ll give it up right now. Then I won’t have to worry about it anymore!” This prescription plunges you into the heart of the dilemma, but it is only half of the picture and of the two halves, it is the less important.

传统宗教在其非常纯粹的形式中说，”现在放弃你预计会失去的一切，你将减少你的痛苦的来源”。好吧，对大多数人来说，这立即增加了他们的痛苦，因为他们必须放弃他们想要的一切，甚至在他们失去之前，这看起来是一个可怕的处方。没有很多人对这种方法感到非常兴奋。这里没有太多的热情。”好吧，我现在就把它放弃。然后我就不用再担心了！”这个处方使你陷入了困境的核心，但它只是画面的一半，而且在这一半中，它是不太重要的。

Your happiness, your healing and your well-being cannot be born of a negative influence or emphasis. What motivates people to look beyond their pain? What calls people out of conflict? What carries people forward in life? What encourages them to give up a painful situation for a greater opportunity, however uncertain? What is this power that calls on you and why do you respond to it?

你的幸福、你的痊愈和你的福祉不能诞生于消极的影响或强调。是什么促使人们超越他们的痛苦？是什么把人们从冲突中召唤出来？是什么支撑着人们在生活中前进？是什么鼓励他们为了一个更大的机会而放弃痛苦的处境，无论多么不确定？这种召唤你的力量是什么，你为什么要对它作出回应？

Many of you have specific questions on how to make things better in your life, but I will give you more than that because you need more than temporary relief. Yet there is a problem here because if I tell you what is true and you are not ready for it, you will argue with me because knowing what is true is always dependent upon how much you want to know it. This can be difficult to ascertain sometimes within yourself because you may be eager to give up suffering, but you are not always eager to embrace the change that is necessary.

你们中的许多人都有关于如何使你们的生命变得更好的具体问题，但我将给你更多，因为你需要的不是暂时的缓解。然而这里有一个问题，因为如果我告诉你什么是真实的，而你还没有准备好，你会和我争论，因为知道什么是真实的总是取决于你有多想知道它。这一点有时在你内心很难确定，因为你可能渴望放弃痛苦，但你并不总是渴望接受必要的改变。

What is this power that calls you forward in life, keeps moving you, keeps you out of stagnation and keeps reminding you that there is something greater for you to do in life than simply suffer? What is this power, this great attraction, this great response within you? Yes, it is true that people suffer over loss—whether recognized or anticipated—but there is a greater yearning that is in the very heart of all people. It is in such an intimate place within them that it is rarely discovered either by themselves or by others. In this place are the greatest tears and the greatest laughter and the greatest happiness. Here suffering is like a shell or a very thin wall. It is not deep and cavernous.

是什么力量召唤你在生命中前进，不断推动你，使你摆脱停滞不前的状态，不断提醒你在生命中有比单纯受苦更重要的事情要做？这种力量、这种巨大的吸引力、这种在你体内的巨大反应是什么？是的，人们确实为损失而痛苦——不管是公认的还是预期的——但有一种更大的渴望，在所有人的心中。这种渴望在他们内心深处是如此的亲密，以至于他们自己和其他人都很少发现它。在这个地方，有最大的眼泪和最大的欢笑以及最大的幸福。在这里，痛苦就像一个外壳或一堵非常薄的墙。它并不深邃和空洞。

This power does not itemize everything you must give up in life. It speaks of what life is bestowing upon you. Its emphasis is giving, not losing. It is an attraction in and of itself. When you recognize it, you just begin to simply drop other things and go for it. Who cares about losing anything? And because you cannot take everything with you to find this power, you naturally let things go along the way. They simply become burdensome to you. They are recognized as complicating your life, holding you back and making you unhappy, and you simply drop them.

这种力量并没有逐项列出你在生命中必须放弃的一切。它说的是生命赐予你的幸福。它的重点是给予，而不是失去。它本身就是一种吸引力。当你认识到这一点时，你就会开始简单地放弃其他东西，去做这件事。谁会在乎失去什么呢？因为你不能带着所有的东西去寻找这种力量，你自然而然地让东西在路上消失。它们只是成为你的负担。它们被认为是使你的生命复杂化，阻碍你，使你不快乐，你就简单地放弃它们。

This great attraction, this yearning you have, is for God. Without God, the greatest yearning you could have is for romance. It is about the only other thing that you would abandon yourself for. Falling in love, head over heels, who cares about security in the world? Who cares about what happens to you? “Oh, I don’t care! I only want my love!” You can only think of your love night and day, day and night, and you notice your life keeps working out for you, miraculously, even without you managing everything. But romance is only a very, very small and temporary experience compared to what is really moving you in life. Until you find out what this is, you will keep yearning and trying to fill your yearnings with people, things, new experiences, new sensations or new stimulations—constantly new things, new, new, new! You don’t really want most of them anyway, so you end up giving them up for other new things.

这种巨大的吸引力，你的这种渴望，是对上帝的渴望。如果没有上帝，你最大的渴望是对浪漫的渴望。这是你唯一会放弃自己的事情。坠入爱河，头悬梁锥刺股，谁还在乎世界上的安全？谁会在乎你的遭遇呢？”哦，我不在乎!我只想要我的爱！”你只能夜以继日地想着你的爱，日以继夜地想着你的爱，你注意到你的生命一直在为你工作，奇迹般地，即使没有你管理一切。但是，与生命中真正打动你的上帝相比，浪漫只是一个非常、非常小的、暂时的经历。在你发现这是什么之前，你会不断地渴望，并试图用人、事、新的经历、新的感觉或新的刺激来填补你的渴望——不断地有新的东西，新的、新的、新的!反正你并不真的想要其中的大部分，所以你最终会为了其他新事物而放弃它们。

When you stop stimulating yourself, you begin to feel this great yearning, and this is the beginning of your Self discovery. This yearning is not terrible. It is simply very deep. It is like remembering how much you love your parents, in spite of everything that has happened. It brings sadness but gratitude, too. It is too deep to be sentimental.

当你停止刺激自己时，你开始感到这种巨大的渴望，这是你自我发现的开始。这种渴望并不可怕。它只是非常深刻。它就像记住你有多爱你的父母，尽管已经发生了一切。它带来悲伤，但也带来感激。它太深了，不可能是感性的。

You are endowed with the source of happiness, and it seeks to be used each day and, in time, to be relied upon. That is why we teach people to begin to use Knowledge, the greater capacity of mind they have for knowing and for following what they know. People who want only a little bit of relief from suffering only go so far with it. Perhaps they try to use their intuition in the face of very complex and confusing decisions, and the rest of the time they never think of it. But people who want to give up most suffering begin to see new opportunities for using Knowledge, developing their capacity for Knowledge, fine-tuning their abilities and developing themselves. And then there are the very rare individuals who are ready to give up all suffering, and for them there is a very special curriculum which we will not speak of, for it is not relevant to your needs. They choose a path that is very expedient but not easy because the direct method is not easy. The slower method is easier now but more difficult in the long run.

你被赋予了幸福的源泉，它每天都在寻求使用，并且随着时间的推移，被依赖。这就是为什么我们教人们开始使用内识，他们有更大的心智的能力来认识和遵循他们所知道的。只想从痛苦中获得一点解脱的人，对它只能走到这里。也许他们在面对非常复杂和混乱的决定时，会尝试使用他们的直觉，其余时间他们从来没有想到过这一点。但是想放弃大部分痛苦的人开始看到使用内识的新机会，发展自己的内识能力，微调自己的能力，发展自己。还有一些非常罕见的人，他们准备放弃所有的痛苦，对他们来说，有一个非常特殊的课程，我们不再说，因为这与你的需要无关。他们选择了一条非常方便但不容易的道路，因为直接的方法并不容易。缓慢的方法现在更容易，但从长远来看更困难。

If you think of solving any problem and you think, “Well, let us solve it today!” or “Let us solve it sometime soon,” or “Maybe we’ll solve it later,” these represent the three kinds of approaches. But there is a little trick in all this because God is very smart. If you seek to give up most suffering, which is a very great step, you begin to experience a very profound happiness, and this paints a very sharp contrast in your life. You begin to see that as you use Knowledge, you come closer to happiness, and as you neglect or avoid Knowledge, you go away from happiness. So, you learn the simple lesson that if you go towards Knowledge, you become happier and if you go away, you go back into confusion, anxiety, anger, sadness and all forms of unhappiness. And you know, eventually you will get the idea that if you spend more time with Knowledge and follow Knowledge, things will work out better. So, you start doing that more and more and then, of course, you will want to spend all your time with Knowledge because what is the point of only spending part of your time with something that renders certainty, power and relationship to you? It can take many years to reach this decision, but people do eventually. So, it is guaranteed that if you undertake the process of giving up most suffering you will want to give it all up someday.

如果你想到要解决任何问题，你会想：”好吧，让我们今天就解决它！”或者”让我们在不久的某个时候解决它”，或者”也许我们以后会解决它”，这些代表了三种方法。但是这里面有一个小技巧，因为上帝非常聪明。如果你寻求放弃大部分痛苦，这是非常大的一步，你开始经历到非常深刻的幸福，这在你的生命中描绘出非常鲜明的对比。你开始看到，当你使用内识时，你就会接近幸福，而当你忽视或避免内识时，你就会远离幸福。因此，你学到了一个简单的教训：如果你走向内识，你就会变得更快乐，如果你离开，你就会回到困惑、焦虑、愤怒、悲伤和所有形式的不快乐中。而且你知道，最终你会得到这样的想法：如果你花更多的时间与内识在一起，并遵循内识，事情会变得更好。所以，你开始越来越多地这样做，然后，当然，你会想把所有的时间都花在内识上，因为只把部分时间花在给你带来确定性、力量和关系的内识上，有什么意义呢？这可能需要很多年才能达到这个决定，但人们最终会做到。所以，可以保证的是，如果你进行了放弃大部分痛苦的过程，有一天你会想要放弃所有的痛苦。

Now, I have to tell you a very important thing here. I hope you will listen to me and not to your thoughts, please. When I say, “Let us give up suffering,” people don’t get excited unless they are in a very unhappy place in life—in fact, so unhappy that they will consider anything. They want out! Unless they are that uncomfortable, giving up suffering only sounds like a good idea. “I’ll add it to my list of things to do this year—this month give up suffering. I’ll put it on my daily goal list!” Well, if things are not too bad, who cares about giving up suffering, but when things get really bad, oh my! “Now I’m interested!”

现在，我必须在这里告诉你一件非常重要的事情。我希望你能听我说，而不是听你的想法，请。当我说”让我们放弃痛苦”时，人们不会兴奋，除非他们在生命中处于非常不快乐的地方——事实上，不快乐到他们会考虑任何事情。他们想离开！他们想马上离开。除非他们真的那么不舒服，否则放弃痛苦听起来只是一个好主意。”我会把它加到我今年要做的事情清单上——这个月放弃痛苦。我会把它放在我的日常目标清单上！”好吧，如果事情不是太糟糕，谁会在乎放弃痛苦，但是当事情变得非常糟糕的时候，天哪！我的天哪！”。”现在我有兴趣了！”

So, the idea of giving up suffering is not enough to encourage or evoke enthusiasm from people because people ask, “Well, what do I have to give up to give up suffering?” They become very nervous about the deal! “What do I have to give up now? Maybe I don’t want to give up some things. Do I have to give up those things to give up suffering?” And people think of all the ascetic, religious people who don’t have anything and think, “Oh, that’s not for me!” What this really means is accepting happiness and certainty into your life, and that undoes suffering.

所以，放弃痛苦的想法不足以鼓励或唤起人们的热情，因为人们问：”那么，我必须放弃什么才能放弃痛苦？”他们对这笔交易变得非常紧张!”我现在要放弃什么呢？也许我不想放弃某些东西。我必须要放弃那些东西才能放弃痛苦吗？”而人们想到了所有苦行僧、宗教人士，他们什么都没有，并认为，”哦，那不适合我！”这真正的意思是接受幸福和确定性进入你的生命，而这就解除了痛苦。

I want you all to give up suffering. That is my wish for you because you do not need to be this unhappy. You must recognize you are unhappy to recognize the need to do something about it in your life. How people recognize they are unhappy is either by becoming more unhappy and finally realizing they are unhappy or by having a profound experience of happiness and realizing the contrast.

我希望你们都能放弃痛苦。这是我对你们的愿望，因为你们不需要这样不快乐。你必须认识到你是不快乐的，才能认识到需要在你的生命中做些什么。人们如何认识到自己不快乐，要么是变得更加不快乐，最后意识到自己的不快乐，要么是有深刻的幸福经历，意识到这种对比。

There is not a great deal of change you must make to become very happy. The world does not have to be a pretty place. There does not have to be no war in the world for you to be happy. You do not have to have all problems solved to be happy. You do not have to satisfy all of your great goals to be happy. That is not the requirement. Having more of what you want will not make you any happier. You have more of what you want now than you did yesterday or a long time ago, and you are not much happier, correct? It is a little better, but you are still involved in trying to get things, to keep them and to prevent life from taking anything away from you. That is very desperate. There is no happiness there. There must be a different approach.

要想变得非常快乐，你必须做出的改变并不多。世界不一定要成为一个漂亮的地方。世界上不一定要没有战争，你才会快乐。你不一定要把所有问题都解决了才会快乐。你不一定要满足你所有的巨大目标才会快乐。这不是要求。拥有更多你想要的东西并不会使你更快乐。你现在比昨天或很久以前拥有更多你想要的东西，但你并没有更快乐，对吗？是好了一点，但你仍然参与到试图得到东西，保持它们，并防止生活从你身上夺走任何东西。那是非常绝望的。那里没有幸福。必须有一个不同的方法。

It is like a prison full of people who are all in their cells, but all the doors are open, and they are still in there because they have been in there so long, what else is there? The fact that the doors are open does not occur to them. They are still trying to make do with their current circumstances.

这就像一个满是人的监狱，他们都在自己的牢房里，但所有的门都开着，他们还在里面，因为他们已经在里面呆了这么久，还有什么呢？他们并没有想到门是开着的这一事实。他们仍然在努力适应他们目前的环境。

When you begin to experience Knowledge, you begin to comprehend some important contrasts in life. You begin to experience true certainty in the world, incrementally at first in little situations, and with increasing regularity as you begin to follow Knowledge, mysterious as it is. Learn to follow Knowledge and learn to contribute to others very directly and there will be no time for suffering. Who has time to sit around and anticipate loss when there is so much to do right now?

当你开始经历内识时，你开始理解生命中的一些重要对比。你开始在这个世界上经历到真实的确定性，一开始是在一些小情况下逐步经历，随着你开始跟随内识，越来越有规律，因为它是神秘的。学会跟随内识，学会非常直接地对他人做出贡献，就没有时间受苦了。现在有这么多事情要做，谁还有时间坐着期待失去呢？

You see, you are very helpless in determining the course of events. I know that sounds like an insult. Human beings are supposed to be so powerful! Such great minds, they can do so much, they can achieve so many goals! But if you observe your current state of mind, you will realize how helpless you feel in the world. You live your life on assumptions and when they are disappointed, it is a crushing blow. How easily your happiness is blown away by some minor change in life. Your happiness must be established on a firm foundation, on something you brought with you into the world and not on what the world can do for you.

你看，你在决定事件的进程方面非常无助。我知道这听起来像是一种侮辱。人类应该是如此强大!有如此伟大的思想，他们可以做这么多事，可以实现这么多的目标!但是，如果你观察你目前的心态，你会发现你在这个世界上感到多么无助。你的生活依赖于假设，而当他们失望的时候，这就是一个粉碎性的打击。你的幸福是多么容易被生活中的一些小变化吹走。你的幸福必须建立在坚实的基础上，建立在你带入世界的内识之上，而不是建立在世界能为你做什么上。

Because you are so often afraid and endure so much anxiety, it bears witness to the fact that you truly feel endangered and vulnerable. You can bolster up your courage to say, “I can handle it all! I will determine my destiny! Yes, I will forge ahead!” And by sheer will power, you actually can achieve more than you thought you could, but you have not resolved the problem of suffering, and the real happiness that I am speaking of will still escape you even though it is right there.

因为你经常害怕，忍受如此多的焦虑，它见证了一个事实，即你真的感到濒临危险和脆弱。你可以鼓起勇气说：”我可以处理这一切！”。我将决定我的命运!是的，我将奋勇向前！”凭借纯粹的意志力，你实际上可以取得比你想象中更多的成就，但你并没有去解决痛苦的问题，我所说的真正的幸福仍然会逃避你，尽管它就在那里。

Your first objective, then, is to face your suffering directly, and by this I mean you must face suffering without judgment. If you are present with suffering, it cannot affect you. But if you are reacting to suffering or trying to change it, it can overtake you at any time. Those who fight suffering will become enslaved, for they are responding to it. It is capturing them because it is a habit and an addiction. It is something that claims people in spite of their good intentions.

那么，你的第一个目标是直接面对你的痛苦，我的意思是你必须面对痛苦而不作判断。如果你与痛苦同在，它就不能影响你。但是如果你对痛苦做出反应，或者试图改变它，它随时都可能超越你。那些与痛苦斗争的人将会被奴役，因为他们在对痛苦做出反应。它正在俘虏他们，因为它是一种习惯和成瘾。尽管人们有良好的愿望，但它还是会索取。

Now I would like to talk about some points that are relevant to everyone. First, one of the requirements is that you stop trying to solve your problems. That is very important. Begin now to give up trying to solve your problems and everyone else’s. If you are always trying to solve things, you are not in a position to experience Knowledge. You must relax about the situation. Only if something demands immediate action must you act. Unless this be the case, unless the requirement is immediate and obvious to you, then it is wise to settle down and begin to really feel where the certainty is regarding the situation. This is not a desperate attempt and it involves faith.

现在我想谈谈与大家有关的一些观点。首先，其中一个要求是，你停止试图解决你的问题。这一点非常重要。从现在开始，放弃试图解决你和其他人的问题。如果你总是试图解决事情，你就没有资格去经历内识。你必须对情况放松。只有当事情需要立即采取行动时，你才必须采取行动。除非是这种情况，除非要求对你来说是直接和明显的，那么明智的做法是静下心来，开始真正感受到关于情况的确定性在哪里。这不是一个绝望的尝试，它涉及信心。

You cannot solve all of your problems. That is not the way out of suffering because more problems will take their place and more problems and more problems, and they will enter as fast as you resolve the old ones. You will not have a life without problems, and if you do, that would be a terrible problem for you. So, problems will always be around. It is like having to eat the next meal or get sleep the next night or go to work the next day. Being in the world is a problem, so problems are part of life here.

你不可能解决你所有的问题。这不是摆脱痛苦的方法，因为更多的问题会取代它们的位置，更多的问题和更多的问题，它们会像你解决旧问题一样快速进入。你不会有一个没有问题的生活，如果你有，那对你来说将是一个可怕的问题。所以，问题会一直存在。这就像必须吃下一顿饭，或在第二天晚上睡觉，或在第二天上班。存在于这个世界上就是一个问题，所以问题是这里生命的一部分。

The second requirement is that you should take inventory of those things that you feel are truly making you unhappy and see what can be done about them. Again, ideal circumstances do not provide happiness, unless you are starving to death or have some immediate requirement that is absolutely necessary for your health and survival. People have very important discoveries in life when opportunities do not look good. As a matter of fact, most important discoveries happen during these periods. When everything is going well, people go to sleep. They become less attentive and less observant. They are lulled into sort of a napping state. So, if your circumstances are not ideal, that may be very good for you.

第二个要求是，你应该盘点那些你觉得真正让你不快乐的事情，看看能对它们做些什么。同样，理想的环境并不能提供幸福，除非你饿死了，或者有一些对你的健康和生存绝对必要的迫切要求。人们在生活中有非常重要的发现，当机会看起来并不美好的时候。事实上，大多数重要的发现都发生在这些时期。当一切顺利的时候，人们就会去睡觉。他们变得不那么专心，不那么善于观察。他们被哄骗到一种打盹的状态。因此，如果你的环境不理想，这可能对你非常有利。

Next, do not be satisfied with the normal state of mind. It is pathetically limited. There is much more for you. As you become more serious about your well-being, this will become more evident. So, it is very good to check up on yourself regularly. For casual students, at least once a day. For serious students, more often than that. Check up on yourself. How are you doing, really? We present a contrast in how people can live their lives from the way they habitually live their lives. This contrast is very, very important.

接下来，不要满足于正常的心智状态。它是可怜的有限的。对你来说还有很多东西。随着你对自己的福祉变得更加认真，这一点会变得更加明显。因此，定期检查自己的情况是非常好的。对于普通学生，至少每天一次。对于认真的学生，要比这更频繁。检查一下自己。你做得怎么样，真的吗？我们提出了一个对比，即人们如何能从他们习惯性的生活方式中活出自己的生活。这种对比是非常非常重要的。

The next requirement is not to think that improving your circumstances will guarantee what you are truly seeking. Those who live very luxurious lives do not exemplify any greater happiness than you do. Is that correct? And if you think otherwise, you should go spend time with them and find out how disappointing it is! They are more anxious about losing things than you are! They have more to lose, and they have not found the source of their own happiness or their foundation in life.

下一个要求是，不要认为改善你的环境就能保证你真正追求的东西。那些生活非常奢华的人并没有体现出比你更大的幸福。这样说对吗？如果你不这么认为，你应该去和他们相处，发现这有多么令人失望！他们的生活是如此的奢华。他们比你更焦虑于失去东西！他们有更多的东西要失去。他们要失去的东西更多，他们还没有找到自己幸福的源泉，也没有找到生命的基础。

Next, it is not the goal of life to not work. It is the goal of life to find real work in the world. It is what is meaningful that is lacking, and that is why people suffer. When meaning becomes your foundation—true meaning— then that will be the source of your happiness, and you will be able to take it with you wherever you go, regardless of circumstances.

接下来，不工作不是人生的目标。在这个世界上找到真正的工作才是人生的目标。缺少的是有意义的工作，这就是人们痛苦的原因。当意义成为你的基础——真实的意义——那么这将是你幸福的源泉，而且你将能够带着它去任何地方，不管环境如何。

People who are inspired are not thwarted by unhappy appearances around them. They can function anywhere to some degree, if they have adequate support from other people and if they continue to nourish their awareness and experience of Knowledge. Then, as they become stronger, they can take Knowledge where Knowledge seems to be lost, and they can contribute to people who are without Knowledge and are lost.

有灵感的人不会被周围不快乐的表象所阻挠。他们可以在任何地方发挥一定的作用，如果他们有来自其他人的充分支持，如果他们继续滋养自己对内识的意识和经验。然后，随着他们变得更加强大，他们可以把内识带到似乎失去了的地方，他们可以为那些没有内识和迷失的人做出贡献。

The more you come to Knowledge, the more the dark cloud of suffering will part for you. You see, people in life are swamped in misery. That may sound very negative, but compared with your natural state, it is quite accurate. When you begin to wake up, you begin to realize that you have been in a very deep sleep. The world generates this kind of sleep. It is constantly feeding it and regenerating it, so you will need to withdraw from the world a little bit at the beginning of each day to find some relief and to allow your mind to settle down if it is aggravated. This is true for everyone.

你越是接近内识，痛苦的乌云就越是为你分开。你看，生活中的人们被淹没在苦难中。这听起来可能非常消极，但与你的自然状态相比，它是相当准确的。当你开始醒来的时候，你开始意识到你一直处于非常深的睡眠状态。世界产生了这种睡眠。它不断地喂养它，使它再生，所以你需要在每天开始的时候从世界中抽出一点，以找到一些缓解，如果你的心灵受到了委屈，可以让它安定下来。这对每个人来说都是如此。

That is why we do not recommend that students of Knowledge read newspapers or magazines or watch television very much because this simply aggravates the personal side of their mind, which is where they suffer. If you are serious about finding a way out of suffering, you do not want to keep aggravating your problem by putting your finger in the wound. You must allow your mind time to settle down. Your thoughts are moving around very rapidly. They preoccupy you and you follow them. They are very unhappy thoughts, and if you try to put happy thoughts in their place, well, they are moving around, too.

这就是为什么我们不建议内识杂志的学生经常阅读报纸或杂志，或看电视，因为这只会加重他们心智的个人方面，而这正是他们的痛苦所在。如果你真的想找到摆脱痛苦的方法，你不想通过把手指放在伤口上不断加重你的问题。你必须让你的心智有时间沉淀下来。你的思想在快速移动。它们使你惴惴不安，你也跟着它们走。它们是非常不快乐的想法，如果你试图把快乐的想法放在它们的位置上，那么，它们也在四处移动。

Happiness is a quiescent state. It is not jittery. It is not trying to go anywhere or get anything. It is very still, so you have to become still to come into proximity to it. It is as if happiness were going five miles an hour and you were going a hundred miles an hour! Well, you passed it by!

幸福是一种静心的状态。它不是紧张的。它不试图去任何地方或得到任何东西。它非常安静，所以你必须变得安静才能接近它。这就像幸福以每小时5英里的速度前进，而你以每小时100英里的速度前进！你与它擦肩而过。好吧，你与它擦肩而过了!

Some people are very critical, thinking that they have created all this misery and suffering. Well, they have, but it is only because they did not know any better. After all, you are simply doing what everyone else is doing. Do you blame the child for being a child? Do you punish a child for acting silly or being forgetful or not having skills?

有些人非常挑剔，认为是他们创造了所有这些痛苦和折磨。好吧，他们有，但这只是因为他们不知道更好。毕竟，你只是在做其他人正在做的事。你会因为孩子是个孩子而责备他吗？你会因为孩子犯傻、健忘或没有技能而惩罚他吗？

If there were only two avenues to follow that you were aware of, and they were both unhappy, it would be hard to choose one of them, yes? If you could choose between a path of unhappiness and the Path of Knowledge, well, there would be no choice. That is why our emphasis is to bring you to Knowledge. That solves the problem right there.

如果只有两条你所知道的途径可走，而且它们都不快乐，那就很难选择其中一条，不是吗？如果你能在不快乐的道路和内识之路之间做出选择，那么，将没有选择。这就是为什么我们的重点是把你带到内识。这就解决了这个问题。