Chapter 16: Thresholds

Thresholds: The Three Stages of Development
门槛：发展的三个阶段

As revealed to God’s Messenger Marshall Vian Summers on April 13, 1992 in Boulder, CO
1992年4月13日，在科罗拉多州博尔德(Boulder, CO)，向上帝的信使马歇尔・维安・萨默斯(Marshall Vian Summers)揭示

When we speak of spiritual purpose, Knowledge and the world’s emergence into the Greater Community, it is necessary to realize that you will go through some very important thresholds as you progress and develop. Indeed, you now have the opportunity to develop to an extent that few have had in human history. Life is calling upon this development not just for one or two individuals in the human family, but for many because many are needed now to cultivate and nourish a Greater Community perspective and understanding. Many are needed to lead humanity forward, and many are needed to contribute their Knowledge so that humanity can join together, unite itself and reach a greater level of cooperation and integration. Evolution calls for this. Many people are being called into service now. Many people have come to the world to give and to assist in this great emergence—at all levels of society and human interaction.

当我们谈到精神目的、内识和世界进入大社区时，有必要认识到，随着你的进步和发展，你将经历一些非常重要的门槛。的确，你现在有机会发展到人类历史上很少有人拥有的程度。生命在召唤这种发展，不仅仅是人类大家庭中的一两个人，而是许多人，因为现在需要许多人去培养和滋养大社区的观点和理解。需要许多人领导人类前进，需要许多人贡献他们的内识，使人类能够联合起来，团结起来，达到一个更高的合作和整合水平。进化要求这样做。许多人现在被召唤去服务。许多人已经来到这个世界，在社会和人类互动的各个层面上给予和协助这个伟大的出现。

So, let us talk about these thresholds and what you can expect at the outset. This is an important discussion because even though you cannot see where the road will take you or what will happen as a result, it is important when you are undertaking a journey or, to use our analogy, climbing the great mountain that you are prepared. You must be prepared for certain eventualities. You must have the right attitude. You must have the right equipment. You must have an understanding of what will be needed and what will not be needed. This is important and enables you to embark. Then, when you come upon difficulty or adversity, you will not have to turn back. You will be able to proceed forward because you will already have the necessary understanding to enable you to begin to climb the mountain, to begin to develop your inner life and to develop a greater objectivity about life around you.

因此，让我们谈谈这些门槛，以及你在一开始可以期待什么。这是一个重要的讨论，因为即使你无法看到道路将把你带到哪里，或者会发生什么结果，但当你进行一次旅行，或者用我们的比喻来说，攀登大山时，你必须做好准备。你必须为某些可能的情况做好准备。你必须有正确的态度。你必须有正确的设备。你必须理解将需要什么和不需要什么。这很重要，使你能够上路。然后，当你遇到困难或逆境时，你就不必回头了。你将能够继续前进，因为你已经有了必要的理解，使你能够开始登山，开始发展你的内在生活，对你周围的生活形成更大的客观性。

There are minor thresholds, and people often attribute great significance to these. That is because people experience the minor ones more immediately when they are occurring than the major ones. The major ones take longer to approach, longer to experience and longer to pass through. Yet, their effect is far more pervasive and complete. Minor thresholds may engender tremendous emotional responses and great expectations or anxiety, but this is more the up and down quality of living in life, especially when you do not yet have the foundation of Knowledge with which to balance your internal forces and attributes.

有一些小的门槛，而人们往往把这些门槛的意义归结为很大。这是因为当小门槛发生时，人们比大门槛更立即经历到它们。主要的门槛需要更长的时间来接近，更长的时间来体验，更长的时间来通过。然而，它们的影响却更为普遍和完整。小门槛可能会产生巨大的情绪反应和巨大的期望或焦虑，但这更多是生命中的起伏，特别是当你还没有内识的基础来平衡你的内部力量和属性。

The great thresholds are much larger. When you are undergoing passage through these thresholds, it is very hard to know where you are. You cannot accurately say, “Today I am at this stage of passing through the threshold, and yesterday I was at another stage.” You cannot know where you are in it. But you will know that something great is transpiring because you will feel very differently about yourself and other people. You will have a different perception of life around you. Your values have changed; your emphasis has changed. Things that yesterday or last year were important perhaps are not important now. Other things have arisen to take their place. Your whole foundation has shifted. It takes only a very small shift in your foundation in order to yield a different experience and perception. This represents a great threshold.

大门槛要大得多。当你正在经历通过这些门槛时，很难知道你在哪里。你不能准确地说：”今天我处于通过门槛的这个阶段，而昨天我处于另一个阶段。”你无法知道你在其中的位置。但是你会知道，一些重大的事情正在发生，因为你对自己和别人的感觉会非常不同。你将对你周围的生命有不同的看法。你的价值观已经改变；你的重点已经改变。昨天或去年很重要的事情，现在也许不重要了。其他重要的事情已经出现，取代了它们的位置。你的整个基础已经发生了变化。在你的基础上只需要一个非常小的转变，就能产生不同的经历和感知。这代表了一个巨大的门槛。

As I speak of great thresholds, let me remind you that you cannot determine when you will pass through them. You can only know that in hindsight, and your hindsight must be very great and very objective because people attribute tremendous significance to things which actually prove to be very minor in the larger scheme of things.

当我谈到巨大的门槛时，让我提醒你，你无法确定你何时会通过它们。你只能在事后知道，而你的事后诸葛亮必须是非常巨大和非常客观的，因为人们把巨大的意义归结于那些实际上被证明是非常小的事情。

There are three stages of development: dependence, independence and interdependence. The first great threshold in human development enables the individual to become independent. Everyone is working on this to a certain degree, and a few people have attained independence and have even transcended it. Because entering independence is a great threshold, it takes a great deal of time and has many steps. Rarely will people think they are entering a threshold at all because the experience is not necessarily immediate and the resolution is not immediate. Independence here is not complete, for there is no such thing as complete independence. That is why independence is an intermediate stage. It must lead to something else, for in itself it is not complete. You cannot be completely independent, for you are joined with all life. You live in the mental environment; you live in the physical environment; you live in the world; you live in the Greater Community of Worlds. So, how can you be independent of all of that? Obviously, you cannot and when you think about this objectively, you see that independence is really a very relative thing.

发展有三个阶段：依赖、独立和相互依存。人类发展的第一大门槛是使个人变得独立。每个人都在一定程度上为此而努力，少数人已经实现了独立，甚至超越了独立。因为进入独立是一个巨大的门槛，它需要大量的时间和许多步骤。人们很少会认为自己进入了一个门槛，因为这种体验并不一定是立竿见影的，解决也不是立竿见影的。这里的独立并不完全，因为不存在完全的独立。这就是为什么独立是一个中间阶段。它必须通向其他门槛，因为它本身并不完整。你不可能完全独立，因为你与所有生命都是一体的。你生活在心理环境中，生活在物理环境中，生活在世界中，生活在大千世界中。那么，你怎么能独立于这一切呢？显然，你不能。当你客观地思考这个问题时，你就会发现独立其实是一件非常相对的事情。

What independence means within the context that I am illustrating is that individuals are able to begin to think for themselves. To win this freedom, one must make some very difficult decisions, honor these decisions, trust them and abide by them. These decisions can be difficult because one might have to relinquish some degree of love or financial advantage or social acceptance to do something that is recognized to be correct. One must be willing to make these sacrifices and take these risks in order to gain a greater sense of well-being, inner certainty and correctness about life. It is making these decisions and abiding by them that establishes the ability to think with relative independence.

在我所说明的背景下，独立的意思是个人能够开始为自己思考。为了赢得这种自由，一个人必须做出一些非常困难的决定，尊重这些决定，相信它们并遵守它们。这些决定可能是困难的，因为一个人可能不得不放弃某种程度的爱或经济利益或社会认可，去做一些被公认为正确的事情。一个人必须愿意做出这些牺牲和承担这些风险，以获得更大的幸福感、内在的确定性和对生命的正确性。正是做出这些决定并遵守这些决定，才建立了相对独立思考的能力。

By relative independence, I mean that you are able to create your own thoughts rather than simply borrowing someone else’s. You are able to begin to discern your own direction rather than simply following along where everyone else seems to be going. You are able to have your own feelings in the moment rather than living in the past. You are able to say “no” to wealth, love and pleasure when that is the correct thing to do. For you must say “no” to these things in order to say “yes” to them at a later time and have an affirmative inner response that is genuine and beneficial. You must take responsibility for your own suffering, accept your own suffering and learn from your own suffering without blame or a feeling of revenge upon others or life in general. These are all trademarks of becoming independent, becoming a person, becoming an individual.

我所说的相对独立，是指你能够创造自己的思想，而不是简单地借用别人的思想。你能够开始辨别你自己的方向，而不是简单地跟随其他人似乎要去的地方。你能够在当下拥有自己的感受，而不是生活在过去。你能够对财富、爱情和快乐说”不”，当这是正确的事情。因为你必须对这些东西说”不”，以便在以后的时间里对它们说”是”，并有一个真实和有益的内在肯定的反应。你必须对自己的痛苦负责，接受自己的痛苦，从自己的痛苦中学习，不要责怪或对他人或整个生命产生报复感。这些都是成为独立的标志，成为一个人，成为一个个体。

Now, in much of the study of human psychology, becoming independent is considered the absolute hallmark of development, the end point, the ideal state, and many models are illustrated to draw a picture of what an independent person looks like. But independence is an intermediate stage. It is, therefore, unstable. As individuals gain true independence by taking the great steps forward that enable this to occur and by making the sacrifices and taking the risks, whatever they may be, after awhile, after congratulating themselves and receiving the great rewards and benefits of acquiring and achieving independence, they then begin to realize that they need other people to do anything meaningful in life. Being independent, though it is far greater and more rewarding than their former life, must lead to something, for it presents new problems that require resolution. Achieving independence represents a great threshold of learning. It has many steps and many challenges. It does not happen overnight. It takes a long time to recognize, a long time to accept and a long time to achieve. And there are many risks and dangers along the way.

现在，在人类心理学的许多研究中，成为独立的人被认为是发展的绝对标志，是终点，是理想的状态，许多模型被用来描绘一个独立的人是什么样子。但独立是一个中间阶段。因此，它是不稳定的。当个人通过采取使之发生的巨大步骤，并通过做出牺牲和承担风险（无论它们是什么）来获得真正的独立时，经过一段时间，在祝贺自己并得到获得和实现独立的巨大回报和好处之后，他们便开始意识到，他们需要其他人来做任何有意义的生命。独立，尽管比他们以前的生命要强大得多，回报也多得多，但必须导致一些事情，因为它提出了需要解决的新问题。实现独立代表了一个巨大的学习门槛。它有许多步骤和许多挑战。它不会在一夜之间发生。它需要很长的时间来认识，很长的时间来接受，很长的时间来实现。而且一路上有许多风险和危险。

Another great threshold in life is when you begin the slow approach to a life of interdependence where you consciously and responsibly choose to give your life to something. Now, there are very few human beings who have achieved genuine independence and far fewer still who have achieved genuine interdependence. So, this is a threshold that few have passed through. Of course, just because one acquires a functional state of independence, it does not mean that one will necessarily go on. You can get stalled by the side of the road anywhere in the journey of life. And the reasons to become stalled can always seem to be very compelling and self-satisfying.

生命的另一个巨大的门槛是当你开始缓慢地接近相互依存的生命时，你有意识地和负责任地选择把你的生命交给某些东西。现在，已经实现真正独立的人非常少，而实现真正相互依存的人则更少。因此，这是一个很少有人能通过的门槛。当然，仅仅因为一个人获得了独立的功能状态，并不意味着他一定会继续下去。在生命的旅途中，你可以在任何地方停滞在路边。而变得停滞不前的理由似乎总是非常有说服力和自我满足感。

To become truly interdependent means that you have realized the limits of being an individual. You have accepted the assets of being an individual, you have experienced them and you would not betray them. But you realize that they are limited and that you need others, not simply to accommodate your needs or to be companions for a time, but to engage in a greater union. You need community; you need relationships of a very, very special and great nature. You need deep understanding; you need devotion; you need compassion; you need commitment; you need compatibility. Why? Because you are here to do something in life. Your independence is to enable you and to empower you to do something in life. It is not simply a reward; it is preparation. It is hardly an end point.

成为真正的相互依存意味着你已经意识到作为一个人的局限性。你已经接受了作为个体的资产，你已经经历了它们，你不会背叛它们。但你意识到它们是有限的，你需要别人，不只是为了满足你的需要或暂时成为同伴，而是为了参与一个更大的联合。你需要社区；你需要非常、非常特别和伟大性质的关系。你需要深刻的理解；你需要奉献；你需要同情；你需要承诺；你需要兼容。为什么？因为你在这里是为了在生命中做一些事情。你的独立是为了使你能够和授权你在生命中做一些事情。它不是简单的奖励；它是准备。它几乎不是一个终点。

The threshold of becoming interdependent is tremendous. Here there are many steps and many opportunities to become stalled or waylaid by the side of the road and many places where people give up. This is a great threshold. This is where you recognize the need to give your life to something. This can be very difficult because perhaps you have taken great pains to secure your own life, to establish your own boundaries and you do not want to go back into the state of dependence, either emotionally or physically, that illustrated your early life from the time you were born until the turning point in your life when you became your own person.

成为相互依存的门槛是巨大的。这里有很多台阶，也有很多机会变得停滞不前或在路边拦路，还有很多地方让人放弃。这是一个巨大的门槛。这是你认识到需要把你的生命交给某些东西的地方。这可能是非常困难的，因为也许你已经花了很大的力气来保证你自己的生命，建立你自己的界限，你不想回到依赖的状态，无论是在情感上还是身体上，这说明了你的早期生命，从你出生的时候，直到你成为自己的个人的生命转折点。

Many people never achieve independence, so it is a rare and valuable thing, but now you have to give it up! You have the power to do this consciously and intentionally because you are independent. No one is going to take it away from you. Here you consciously say, “I will share my life. I will give over what I have earned in order to have a greater reward.” Then comes the challenge of actually meeting someone, a set of circumstances, a community or a great cause that involves intimate and cooperative relationships. Here your prayers have been answered, and the opportunity is being given to you. You now have to make the decision, take the risks and make the sacrifices. This is a great threshold.

许多人从未实现过独立，所以它是一种罕见的、有价值的东西，但现在你必须放弃它！你有能力这样做。你有能力有意识地、有目的地做这件事，因为你是独立的。没有人会把它从你身上夺走。在这里你有意识地说：”我将分享我的生命。我将交出我所赢得的东西，以获得更大的回报”。然后是实际遇到某人、一组环境、一个社区或一项涉及亲密合作关系的伟大事业的挑战。在这里，你的祈祷已经得到了回应，机会正被赋予你。你现在必须做出决定，承担风险，做出牺牲。这是一个巨大的门槛。

Another great threshold that few people have passed through is the threshold of realizing the presence of Knowledge in their life. Here Knowledge has nurtured their quest for independence and should they acquire it or achieve it, it will nurture their desire to go on, to achieve union with others and to find purpose in life. Realizing the presence of Knowledge is a great threshold, for this is what initiates your inner life and gives you a sense of spiritual presence and purpose, a sense of origin and destiny. This is what enables you to transcend mundane life.

另一个很少有人通过的巨大门槛是意识到内识在他们生命中的存在的门槛。在这里，内识培养了他们对独立的追求，如果他们获得了内识或实现了内识，它将培养他们继续前进的渴望，实现与他人的结合，并找到生命的目的。意识到内识的存在是一个巨大的门槛，因为这是启动你内在生活的东西，给你一种精神存在和目的感，一种起源和命运感。这就是使你能够超越世俗生命的原因。

This is a great threshold with many steps. It takes a long time—a long time to recognize, a long time to accept and a long time to achieve and secure. It is a great threshold. Only an independent person can make this decision because you must have your life in order to give it over. You must be a person who can make very sound and important decisions based upon what is known within you. Only an independent person can do this.

这是一个巨大的门槛，有许多步骤。它需要很长的时间——很长的时间来识别，很长的时间来接受，很长的时间来实现和保证。这是一个巨大的门槛。只有独立的人才能做出这个决定，因为你必须拥有你的生命，才能把它交出来。你必须是一个能够根据你内心所知的内饰做出非常健全和重要的决定的人。只有一个独立的人可以做到这一点。

Then you will realize that Knowledge is not only intuition or certain kinds of urges or feelings or sensations or insights or recollections or premonitions—it is a living Spiritual Presence within you, the Mind behind the mind, the Spirit within the mind, a Spirit that is not an individual, but a Spirit that is flowing through you as an individual, a Greater Power expressing itself. It is not yours to own and claim, it is not your private domain or private property, and it is not your little section of Heaven. Instead, it is a great and abiding Spiritual Presence that passes through you and abides with you. Recognizing its existence in your life and joining yourself with it is a very great threshold through which to pass.

然后你会意识到，内识不仅是直觉或某些种类的冲动或感觉或洞察力或回忆或预感——它是你体内持续的精神存在，是心智背后的心智，是心灵中的精神，不是一个个体的精神，而是一个流经你这个个体的精神，一种表达自己的更伟大力量。它不是你可以拥有和要求的，它不是你的私人领域或私人财产，它也不是你的小天地。相反，它是一个伟大而持久的精神临在，穿过你并与你同在。认识到它在你生命中的存在，并将你自己与它结合起来，是一个非常大的门槛，你可以通过它。

Here you not only make room in your life for other relationships, but you give your life in service. Now, you do not necessarily have to be a religious person to do this, for this happens to people who think they are religious and to people who think they are not religious. Yet, a sense of reverence will enter your life, a sense of greater destiny, greater origin and greater relationship. This is a spiritual emergence, a great spiritual threshold. Few have passed through it; few even recognize that it is awaiting them; few are ready for it. Like traversing a gigantic mountain range, the pathway is narrow and winding. It is not a great thoroughfare through which hoards of people crowd. It is a tiny walkway, not recognizable to many but traveled enough so that it can be discerned.

在这里，你不仅在你的生命中为其他关系腾出空间，而且你为服务给予你的生命。现在，你不一定要成为一个宗教人士才能做到这一点，因为这发生在那些认为自己是宗教人士的人和那些认为自己不是宗教人士的人身上。然而，一种崇敬的感觉将进入你的生命，一种对更伟大的命运、更伟大的起源和更伟大的关系的感觉。这是一个精神的出现，一个伟大的精神门槛。很少有人通过它；甚至很少有人认识到它在等待着他们；很少有人准备好了。就像穿越一座巨大的山脉一样，道路是狭窄而曲折的。它不是一条大路，成群结队的人在其中拥挤。它是一条小小的人行道，很多人都不能识别，但走过的道路却足以让人辨认出来。

This is a very great threshold. You do not simply pass through it. You live in this threshold. You do not pass through it and go on to something else. You live in it. When you leave this life, then you will pass through this threshold. Living in this threshold takes you to great heights, if you don’t come down again. Many people claim they have passed through this threshold or feel that today they are passing through it or yesterday they passed through it, but it is not like that. You live in it and with it, and the degree to which you live in it and with it determines your advancement.

这是一个非常大的门槛。你不是简单地通过它。你生活在这个门槛里。你不是通过它然后去做别的事情。你活在它的里面。当你离开这个生命时，那么你将穿过这个门槛。住在这个门槛里会把你带到很高的高度，如果你不再下来的话。许多人声称他们已经通过了这个门槛，或者觉得今天他们正在通过这个门槛，或者昨天他们通过了这个门槛，但事实并非如此。你生活在其中并与之共存，你在其中并与之共存的程度决定了你的进步。

To ascertain this advancement, you would have to stand outside your life completely. But it is not expected that you will be able to do that and rarely will you have glimpses of your life like this. This is not necessary for advancement. Independence, interdependence and spiritual emergence—or said another way, uniting with Knowledge, becoming interdependent with Knowledge and being Knowledge. These are three very great thresholds.

为了确定这种进步，你将不得不完全站在你的生命之外。但是我们不期望你能做到这一点，而且你很少能像这样瞥见你的生命。这并不是进步的必要条件。独立、相互依存和精神上的出现——或者换一种说法，与内识结合，与内识相互依存，成为内识。这是三个非常大的门槛。

There is one other threshold that I would like to mention, and that is emerging into the Greater Community. You already live in the Greater Community. The world is not an isolated place. It does not exist in a separate reality from the rest of the universe. To emerge into the Greater Community as an individual, however, is a very great threshold. Here you must accept your humanity, learn to recognize it with greater objectivity and, to a certain degree, transcend it. This is necessary for your spiritual life to have full self-expression through you.

还有一个门槛，我想提一下，那就是进入大社区。你已经生活在大社区中。这个世界不是一个孤立的地方。它并不存在于一个与宇宙其他地方分开的现实中。然而，作为个人出现在大社区中，是一个非常大的门槛。在这里你必须接受你的人性，学会更客观地认识它，并在一定程度上超越它。这对于你的精神生活通过你进行充分的自我表达是必要的。

Here you become not simply a citizen of your town, state or nation. You realize you are functioning in a greater context of life. You do not claim identity with all life because that is too big. But in a practical way you claim a larger association with life that includes your humanity and transcends it. Here your idea of God, or a Greater Power, your idea of life, your idea of destiny, your idea of your origin, your idea of individuality, your idea of race, consciousness, community, culture—everything begins to change. It is not simply that you say to yourself or others, “I am a citizen of the universe.” We are speaking of a different state of mind, not simply a self-proclamation.

在这里，你不只是成为你的城镇、州或国家的一个公民。你意识到你是在一个更广阔的生命背景中运作。你并不要求与所有的生命保持一致，因为那太大了。但以一种实际的方式，你声称与生命有更大的关联，包括你的人性并超越它。在这里，你对上帝或更伟大的力量的想法，你对生命的想法，你对命运的想法，你对起源的想法，你对个性的想法，你对种族、意识、社区、文化的想法，一切都开始改变。这不仅仅是你对自己或他人说：”我是宇宙的公民”。我们说的是一种不同的心智状态，而不是简单的自我宣称。

The rewards of passing through this threshold are immense. They are so important for your greater understanding and your greater participation in life and for your ability to contribute to the world’s emergence into the Greater Community. You do not necessarily have to be a visionary or a philosophical person to have this experience of being part of the Greater Community. You can be a very practical person with very specific skills within the context of the mundane world. It is this larger understanding that matters. Like all the thresholds that I have mentioned, it is but another way to transcend your former understanding of yourself. It is not only something that you do intentionally. It is something that happens to you that you learn to accept and to receive, to join with and to participate in.

穿过这个门槛的回报是巨大的。它们对于你更多的理解和更多的参与生命，以及对于你为世界进入大社区做出贡献的能力是如此重要。你不一定非得是一个有远见的人或一个有哲理的人，才能有这种成为大社区一部分的经历。你可以是一个非常实用的人，在世俗世界的背景下拥有非常特定的技能。重要的是这种更大的理解。像我提到的所有门槛一样，这不过是超越你以前对自己的理解的另一种方式。它不仅是你有意做的事情。它是发生在你身上的事情，你要学会接受和接纳，加入和参与。

Passing through this threshold gives you greater capacity as a person—a greater range of vision, comprehension and discernment, a greater capacity for feeling and experience and a greater motivation to develop your mental abilities. Here you begin to understand what the mental environment really is and the forces that are functioning within it. You also begin to understand more fully the physical environment that you live in and how it can be enhanced and supported. Indeed, here you transcend the limits of human identity in a very practical way. This is a very great threshold and very few people have passed through it. Very few people even recognize that it is a threshold or that it is something valuable to approach.

穿过这个门槛，你作为一个人有了更大的能力——更大的视野、理解力和辨别力，更大的感受和经历能力，以及更大的动力来发展你的心理能力。在这里，你开始理解心理环境真正是什么，以及在其中运作的力量。你也开始更全面地理解你所生活的物理环境，以及如何加强和支持它。事实上，在这里你以一种非常实际的方式超越了人类身份的限制。这是一个非常大的门槛，很少有人能通过它。很少有人甚至认识到这是一个门槛，或者认识到这是有价值的东西，可以接近。

Only the great and the Wise travel these roads, but do not think that the great and the Wise are a different species than you are. They are men and women who have passed through great thresholds in life and have kept their sense of themselves and their sense of balance. They have kept their life in proportion and have undertaken these great changes and re-evaluations—initiations, if you wish to call them that. They have kept themselves intact and acquired the benefits of each of these great thresholds. That is why they become great and that is why they become wise.

只有伟人和智者才会走这些路，但不要认为伟人和智者与你是不同的物种。他们是在生命中经历过巨大门槛的男人和女人，并保持他们的自我意识和平衡感。他们保持了自己对生命的比例，并进行了这些巨大的变化和重新评估——如果你想这么称呼它们的话，也可以这么称呼。他们保持了自己的完整，并获得了这些伟大门槛中的每一个好处。这就是为什么他们变得伟大，这就是为什么他们变得有智慧。

Now, each of these thresholds is approached because something inside of you is forcing you on. They are not approached through ambition or the desire to have great power, wealth and advantage. You must have intention to pass through them, but the intention is not the initiating factor here. The initiating factor is the emergence of a deep inner need which cannot be satisfied through normal means. This need, should it be accepted and honored by you, will carry you into a new range of experience. Here you are approaching a new threshold. Here you will feel alone, doubtful and disassociated from people around you to a great degree. While everyone else seems to be passing through a great corridor on an easy path, you are choosing a different way.

现在，这些门槛中的每一个都是由于你内心的某种东西在迫使你去做而接近的。它们不是通过野心或对拥有巨大权力、财富和优势的渴望来接近的。你必须有意图才能通过它们，但意图不是这里的起始因素。启动因素是出现了一种无法通过正常手段满足的更深层的内在需求。这种需求，如果被你接受和尊重，将带你进入一个新的经历范围。在这里，你正在接近一个新的门槛。在这里，你会感到孤独、怀疑，并在很大程度上与你周围的人脱离关系。当其他人似乎都在轻松的道路上通过一个巨大的走廊时，你却选择了一条不同的道路。

What confirms your approach is that you know it must be done. Along the way you meet certain individuals who point the way, and then you meet certain individuals who will join you. Some will join you temporarily; some will join you more permanently. They all provide encouragement, contrast, demonstration—all the things you need to recognize and to experience in order to proceed forward.

证实你的方法的是，你知道必须这样做。一路上你遇到了某些人，他们指出了方向，然后你遇到了某些人，他们将加入你。有些人将暂时加入你；有些人将更持久地加入你。他们都提供鼓励、对比、示范——所有你需要认识和经历的东西，以便继续前进。

Passing through each threshold forges tremendous self-trust and self-respect, as well as the recognition of your own limitations as an individual. Each is brought about by a very natural process within you. Each has great risks. Failure is possible in each. Each sets you apart from others to a certain degree. Each requires greater ability and self-application. Each requires greater self-trust, greater humility and greater recognition of the importance of true relationship. In this, they all share attributes.

穿过每个门槛，就会形成巨大的自信心和自尊心，以及对你自己作为一个人的局限性的认识。每一个都是由你内心的一个非常自然的过程带来的。每一个都有很大的风险。每一项都有可能失败。每一项都使你在某种程度上与他人不同。每一项都需要更大的能力和自我应用。每一种都需要更多的自我信任，更多的谦逊和对真实关系的重要性的更多认识。在这一点上，它们都有共同的属性。

The emergence into the state of independence will encourage a lesser dependence upon relationships, for becoming independent is a temporary recognition that you do not need people so much, that you can do things on your own, and that you want to do them on your own. But you will soon realize that you need important people to help you, to nurture you and to show you what independence is. So, even here dependence on important relationships is very great, but it is not as predominant as it is in the other great thresholds of life.

独立状态的出现将鼓励减少对关系的依赖，因为独立是暂时承认你不太需要他人，你可以自己做事情，而且你想自己做事情。但你很快就会意识到，你需要重要的人帮助你，培养你，让你知道什么是独立。所以，即使在这里，对重要关系的依赖也是非常大的，但它不像在生命的其他大门槛中那样占主导地位。

The requirement for true relationship is very great in order to enter the state of interdependence. It is very great in order to undertake a spiritual emergence. It is very great in order to enter the Greater Community. These can all be understood as great steps in the reclamation of relationships, great steps in entering an interdependent relationship with life, where life depends on you and you depend on life.

为了进入相互依存的状态，对真实关系的要求非常大。为了进行精神上的崛起，它是非常大的。为了进入大社区，它是非常大的。这些都可以被理解为关系再生的伟大步骤，进入与生命相互依存关系的伟大步骤，在这种关系中，生命依赖你，你也依赖生命。

The inner experience of passing through these thresholds is so great and so unique. It will make you feel different and think differently. It changes you. It changes people around you. The more you have progressed in passing through the great thresholds, the greater an agent for change you will be and the greater will be your ability to serve, nurture and represent genuine progress for others. Here you become a living example of what the truth can be if it is honored and followed without distortion and ambition. Here you will give without trying to give because your life is a demonstration. Your life is a demonstration of what you are and what you value. This is true at all stages of development. The ability to pass through a great threshold is what will mature you and what will give you depth and character. What is character? The ability to have a natural and unique expression of a greater understanding and a greater life. That is what character means within this context.

通过这些门槛的内心经历是如此伟大，如此独特。它将使你有不同的感觉，不同的思考。它改变了你。它改变了你周围的人。你在通过伟大的门槛方面取得的进展越大，你就越能成为变革的推动者，你为他人服务、培养和代表真正进步的能力就越强。在这里，你会成为一个活生生的例子，说明如果真理被尊重和遵循而不被扭曲和野心所左右，那么它就会成为什么。在这里，你将给予而不试图给予，因为你的生命是一种示范。你的生命是对你是什么和你的价值的展示。这在发展的所有阶段都是如此。通过一个伟大的门槛的能力是使你成熟的原因，也是使你有深度和性格的原因。什么是性格？有能力对更大的理解和更大的生命进行自然和独特的表达。这就是性格在此背景下的含义。

Passing through these great thresholds brings you into a new arena of life that is greater than the arena of life you were in before. Many of your former assumptions, beliefs and ideals will not be appropriate here. You must start from the beginning. This is what gives you a greater sense of yourself and life. This is what enables you to acknowledge the Spiritual Presence in your life, which is `abiding with you and assisting you, both through Knowledge within you and through the spiritual benefactors who are contributing to your overall advancement.

穿过这些伟大的门槛，将你带入一个新的生命领域，这个领域比你之前所处的生命领域更伟大。你以前的许多假设、信仰和理想在这里将不合适。你必须从头开始。这样才能让你对自己和生命有更大的认识。这就是使你能够承认你生命中的精神存在，它与你同在并协助你，既通过你内在的内识，也通过对你的整体进步作出贡献的精神恩人。

Passing through these great thresholds engenders a great deal of change. Change is a process of giving something up and acquiring something new. It has stages. Change begins with the recognition of a need and is then followed by a recognition that change must occur both in your inner and outer life. Then there is undergoing the change itself, which leaves you in a state of unknowing and confusion because you are entering into a new arena, and you don’t know what you are doing, why you are doing it, where you are, and so forth. Next, there is abiding with the change without certainty of the result. Then, there is the confirmation of the change once the change has truly been made and you have reached a point of no return where you cannot go back.

穿过这些伟大的门槛，会产生大量的变化。改变是一个放弃某些东西和获得新东西的过程。它有几个阶段。改变始于对需求的认识，然后是认识到改变必须发生在你的内在和外在生活中。然后是经历改变本身，这使你处于一种不知道和困惑的状态，因为你正在进入一个新的领域，你不知道你在做什么，为什么你在做，你在哪里，等等。接下来，是与改变同在，但对结果不确定。然后，是确认改变，一旦改变真的发生了，你就达到了一个不能回头的地步。

For better or for worse, you must go on. It is at that point that the reward begins to become available to you. Many people give up before they reach this point. They will not go on unless the rewards are guaranteed, unless the rewards are identified and unless the rewards are confirmed. But true change is a process of giving something up and acquiring something new. Between giving something up and acquiring something new you are empty. Here is where the mind is enabled to grow because it relinquishes its former understanding and is willing to abide without an understanding, which makes it available to acquire and to cultivate a greater understanding. For many people, this is a greater risk than giving up all their money or saying farewell to all of their loved ones. It is a greater risk to them because their ideas about themselves and the world are more important to them.

不管是好是坏，你都必须继续下去。正是在这一点上，奖励开始向你提供。许多人在达到这一点之前就放弃了。除非奖励得到保证，除非奖励得到确认，除非奖励得到证实，否则他们不会继续前进。但真实的改变是一个放弃某些东西和获得新东西的过程。在放弃某些东西和获得新东西之间，你是空的。这里是心智得以成长的地方，因为它放弃了以前的理解，愿意在没有理解的情况下居住，这使它可以获得和培养更大的理解。对许多人来说，这比放弃他们所有的钱或告别他们所有的亲人更有风险。这对他们来说是更大的风险，因为他们对自己和世界的想法对他们更重要。

In order to have a greater life, to have a greater mind and to have a greater set of relationships, you must pass through the great thresholds. What you will need in all the thresholds is the desire to go on, which is built upon the recognition of genuine need. You will need a great preparation and you will need great companionship. You will need these in order to become independent; you will need these in order to become interdependent; you will need these in order to emerge into your inner life and to reclaim your relationship with Knowledge. And you will need these in order to enter the Greater Community.

为了拥有更伟大的生命，拥有更伟大的心智，拥有更伟大的一套关系，你必须通过伟大的门槛。在所有的门槛中，你需要的是继续前进的渴望，这建立在对真正需要的认识上。你将需要一个伟大的准备，你将需要伟大的伴侣关系。你将需要这些，以便变得独立；你将需要这些，以便变得相互依存；你将需要这些，以便出现在你的内在生活中，并重新获得你与内识的关系。而你将需要这些以进入大社区。

Each threshold brings about a tremendous change in your experience of being in the world. There is a loss associated with all change because you must give something up. There is faith associated with all change because you must abide with not having anything. Self-trust and self-love are required in all change because you must be open to receiving something else. There is a genuine regard for life in all change because you must be willing to welcome what life presents to you. And in all change there is a sense of allegiance to a Greater Power because you realize that in the process of real change something greater must help you. You yourself cannot do it all. This is the Mystery that brings about change. This produces reverence towards life and faith in the presence and activity of a Greater Power with which you are becoming increasingly engaged.

每个门槛都会给你在这个世界上的经历带来巨大的改变。所有的改变都有一个损失，因为你必须放弃一些东西。所有的改变都与信仰有关，因为你必须忍受没有任何东西。所有的改变都需要自我信任和自爱，因为你必须敞开心扉去接受其他东西。在所有的改变中都有对生命的真正重视，因为你必须愿意欢迎生命呈现给你的东西。在所有的改变中，有一种对更伟大力量的忠诚，因为你意识到在真正的改变过程中，必须有更伟大的东西来帮助你。你自己无法做到这一切。这就是带来改变的神秘。这产生了对生命的敬畏和对一个更伟大的力量的存在和活动的信心，你正越来越多地与之接触。

Now, as I say these things you may wonder, “Well, how does this relate to emerging into the Greater Community?” Emerging into the Greater Community does not mean getting on a spacecraft and going on a tour of the stars. It means that you are beginning to have a sense of relationship with all life. With relationship comes the requirement for discernment and the ability to participate. Here you can serve not only the needs of people but the evolution of life in the world because evolution always recognizes a greater context for existence. For example, it would be pointless to discuss the evolution of the world unless you considered the greater environment in which the world exists and its relationship with that environment. Evolution, by its very definition, affirms an origin and a destiny. What is the origin of intelligent life here in the world and what is its destiny? These are genuine questions for a person who is beginning to emerge into the Greater Community. These are questions that call for spiritual sensitivity, a practical approach and a tremendous willingness to relinquish your former ideas and assumptions. They require the willingness to go through a perhaps prolonged period of uncertainty and to be open to receiving the greater comprehension that is born of a greater sense of yourself and your relationship with life.

现在，当我说这些事情的时候，你可能会想，”那么，这与进入大社区有什么关系？”进入大社区并不意味着坐上宇宙飞船，去巡视星空。它意味着你开始有一种与所有生命的关系感。有了关系，就有了辨别的要求和参与的能力。在这里，你不仅可以为人们的需要服务，而且可以为世界上生命的进化服务，因为进化总是认识到存在的更大背景。例如，除非你考虑到世界存在的更大环境以及它与该环境的关系，否则讨论世界的进化就毫无意义。进化，根据其定义，肯定了一个起源和一个命运。世界上的智慧生命的起源是什么，它的命运是什么？对于一个开始进入大社区的人来说，这些是真正的问题。这些问题需要精神上的敏感，需要实际的方法，需要极大的意愿来放弃你以前的想法和假设。它们要求你愿意经历一个也许是长期的不确定性时期，并愿意接受更大的理解力，这种理解力来自于对你自己以及你与生命的关系的更大认识。

You do not need to see spaceships or have encounters with extraterrestrial influences in order to become a Greater Community person. Becoming a Greater Community person is a great threshold. Achievement here is partially dependent upon your intention to continue. It is partially dependent upon the circumstances in which you live, which includes the quality of your relationships and their ability to support you. However, achievement here largely depends upon the nature of the preparation itself, for who in the world can teach you of the Greater Community? You need a preparation from beyond the world to learn of the Greater Community.

你不需要为了成为一个大社区人而看到宇宙飞船或与外星影响者相遇。成为一个大社区的人是一个很大的门槛。这里的成就部分取决于你继续的意图。它部分取决于你生活的环境，包括你的关系的质量和他们支持你的能力。然而，这里的成就在很大程度上取决于准备工作本身的性质，因为在这个世界上谁能教你大社区？你需要一个来自世界之外的准备，以学习大社区。

If you wish to go beyond human speculation and human fantasy, you must receive something that will enable you to do this. You cannot invent the way for yourself. Here is where you need help of a very special kind. This is true for all the thresholds that I have mentioned, which represent the great thresholds in life. You need mentors to become independent, to learn to become interdependent, to undergo a spiritual emergence and to enter the Greater Community. You will need independent people to help you become independent. You will need interdependent people to help you learn interdependence. You will need spiritually evolved people to undertake a spiritual emergence. And you will need allies in the Greater Community to become a Greater Community person. You cannot do this yourself. To think that you can is to misconstrue your abilities and to underestimate the greatness of what you are undertaking.

如果你想超越人类的猜测和人类的幻想，你必须得到一些东西，使你能够做到这一点。你不能为自己发明道路。在这里，你需要非常特别的帮助。我提到的所有门槛都是如此，这些门槛代表了生命中的伟大门槛。你需要导师来成为独立的人，学习成为相互依存的人，经历精神上的崛起，进入大社区。你将需要独立的人，帮助你变得独立。你将需要相互依存的人帮助你学习相互依存。你将需要精神上进化的人，来进行精神上的崛起。而你将需要大社区的盟友，以成为大社区的人。你不能自己做这些。认为你能做到就是误解了你的能力，低估了你正在进行的事情的伟大性。

Regardless of how you perceive yourself or where you think you are in the development of life and regardless of how cultivated and advanced you may consider yourself, it is important to recognize that there are great thresholds and that each will change your ideas about yourself, about others and about life. Because you have a spiritual nature, you can undertake the transformation that occurs in each of these great turning points, for you are not your ideas and you are not your associations. Though you abide with them and use them and rely upon them to a certain extent, you are greater than they are.

无论你如何看待自己，无论你认为自己在生命发展中处于什么位置，无论你认为自己有多高的修养和水平，重要的是要认识到有巨大的门槛，每个门槛都会改变你对自己、对他人和对生命的看法。因为你有精神，你可以承担这些伟大的转折点中发生的转变，因为你不是你的想法，你不是你的联想。虽然你与它们同在，使用它们，在一定程度上依赖它们，但你比它们更伟大。

Your greatness can only be known by taking the steps that will require this recognition and this willingness to go beyond. Life will take you there. In this, you learn to become fearless. You learn to recognize your range of responsibilities. You learn your limits and your greatness. And you learn the greatness of the Greater Power that abides with you and that enables all individuals—in the past, now and in the future—to undertake a great change and preparation in order to render a great contribution in the world.

你的伟大只有通过采取需要这种认识和超越的意愿的步骤才能知道。生命会带你到那里。在这一点上，你要学会变得无畏。你学会认识你的责任范围。你学会了你的极限和你的伟大。你学会了与你同在的更伟大的力量的伟大，它使所有的人——过去、现在和将来——进行巨大的改变和准备，以便在世界中作出巨大的贡献。