Chapter 27: Self-Doubt

As revealed to God’s Messenger Marshall Vian Summers on May 18, 1993 in Boulder, CO
1993年5月18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

With all the work that there is to do in the world and all the responsibilities to be assumed, surely this must generate self-doubt, so let us speak about self-doubt. Let us see how doubt can be faced and circumvented and what can be done when doubt cannot be escaped.

世界上有那么多工作要做，有那么多责任要承担，这肯定会产生自我怀疑，所以让我们谈谈自我怀疑。让我们看看如何面对和规避怀疑，以及在无法逃避怀疑时可以做些什么。

What is self-doubt? What does it mean to doubt yourself? And what is this self that you doubt? When you experience self-doubt, you just experience doubt. There is rarely ever any introspective questioning. You just feel doubt. You feel uncertain. You are concerned that you might fail or that you are unworthy or incapable of meeting the challenge or completing the task. And you shy away from yourself and from whatever is stimulating the doubt on the outside. Many people live with doubt almost continuously. They try to inure themselves from the discomfort of feeling this and try to escape all of those things that stimulate their doubt and bring it to the surface.

什么是自我怀疑？怀疑自己是什么意思？你所怀疑的这个自己又是什么呢？当你经历自我怀疑时，你只是经历怀疑。很少有任何内省的质疑。你只是感到怀疑。你感到不确定。你担心自己可能会失败，或者担心自己不值得或没有能力迎接挑战或完成任务。然后你就避开了自己，避开了外界刺激怀疑的事物。许多人几乎一直生活在怀疑之中。他们试图让自己远离这种不适的感觉，并试图逃避所有那些刺激他们的怀疑并使其浮出水面的事情。

What is this doubt and what is this self that you doubt? This is an important question because it leads you to the discovery that there are really two aspects to you. There is the personal aspect and what we call the Impersonal aspect. The personal aspect is your personal mind, which includes your personality and all of your habits, interests and idiosyncrasies. It is the part of you that you have acquired during your time so far in the world. It is all the parts of your mind that are conditioned by the world around you and by your primary relationships. It is the part of your mind that is filled with memories and has patterns of thinking and behavior, some of which are very difficult to change. This is the self that you doubt because this self is frail, uncertain and inconsistent. It has failed you, and it has deceived you. It is fully capable of presenting lies and misusing real facts for personal gain. It is deceptive. It is often dishonest. It is weak. It is conniving. It is all these things, but it is not evil. It is simply protecting itself from a world that is too large and too incomprehensible for it to comprehend or understand. It does not feel safe in the world, and so it arms itself against all anticipated threats and possibilities of loss. It arms itself against embarrassment. It arms itself against anything which might threaten its social and physical survival.

这种怀疑是什么，你所怀疑的这个自我是什么？这是一个重要的问题，因为它引导你发现，你确实有两个方面。一个是个人方面，另一个是我们所说的非个人方面。个人方面是你的个人心智，包括你的个性和所有的习惯、兴趣和特质。它是你到目前为止在这个世界上所获得的部分。它包括了被周围环境和主要关系所影响的所有心灵部分。它是充满记忆和思维行为模式的部分，有些模式非常难以改变。这就是你怀疑的自我，因为这个自我是脆弱的、不确定的和不一致的。它曾让你失望，也曾欺骗过你。它完全有能力为个人利益提出谎言和滥用真实的事实。它是欺骗性的。它常常是不诚实的。它是软弱的。它是纵容的。它是所有这些总和，但它并不邪恶。它只是在保护自己不受一个对它来说太大、太难理解的世界的影响，它无法理解或明白。它在这个世界上没有安全感，所以它把自己武装起来，防止所有预期的威胁和损失的可能性。它把自己武装起来，防止尴尬。它把自己武装起来，防止任何可能威胁到它的社会生存和身体生存的人或事。

This is the personal aspect of you, and this is the self that you doubt. You have good cause to doubt it, for until it comes into service and into relationship with a Greater Power, it is alone and afraid and will misuse reality and even its own experience to defend itself against the world and against any intrusions, real or imagined. This is the personal part of your mind, and this is the self that you doubt. It is foolish and reckless to say you should not doubt yourself, for if this is the self that you identify with and that you experience moment to moment, then you should doubt it, for it will let you down.

这是你的个人方面，这是你所怀疑的自我。你有充分的理由怀疑它，因为在它投入服务并与更大的力量建立关系之前，它是孤独和恐惧的，并且会滥用现实，甚至滥用自己的经验来保护自己，对抗世界和任何真实或想象中的入侵者。这就是你心智中的个人部分，这就是你所怀疑的自我。说你不应该怀疑自己是愚蠢和鲁莽的，因为如果这是你认同的自我，是你时刻经历的自我，那么你应该怀疑它，因为它将让你失望。

It is important here to know what to trust and what to doubt—not in a critical way, but in an analytical and an objective way. For example, you realize that your body has certain limitations. It has limitations in terms of what kind of environment it can survive in. It has thresholds for what is too hot, what is too cold and what is too painful. It has a myriad of sensations. It is vulnerable to pain and damage and can fairly easily be destroyed. You realize this. The body has limits.

在这里，重要的是要知道什么该相信，什么该怀疑——不是以批评的方式，而是以分析和客观的方式。例如，你意识到你的身体有某些限制。它在什么样的环境中可以生存方面有限制。它有什么是太热、什么是太冷、什么是太痛的阈值。它有无数的感觉。它很容易受到疼痛和损伤，而且相当容易被摧毁。你意识到这一点。身体有局限性。

The personal mind, given a greater purpose to serve and meaningful relationships with which to identify, can become a useful and productive aspect of yourself. But it too has its limits. It is not eternal. It is not wise. It cannot function at the level of Knowledge. It can only comprehend things to a certain extent. Its analytical skills are limited. And it is prone to fear and anxiety, given very slight or even nonexistent stimulation. Indeed, the personal mind frightens itself frequently where there is no real cause for fear at all. It has very serious limits, and when you know these limits, you can train it to function within its boundaries. Then it can become a useful and productive aspect of yourself. If you do not know its limits and its boundaries, however, you will expect things of it that it can never provide. You will expect peace, equanimity, strength, courage, openness, acceptance and unconditional love—all things that it alone cannot produce or provide. It can only be a vehicle of expression for these greater experiences as it comes to serve and to accept a Greater Power in your life.

个人的心智，如果有更大的目的可以服务，有意义的关系可以认同，可以成为你自己的一个有用和有价值的方面。但它也有其局限性。它不是永恒的。它不是明智的。它不能在内识的层面上发挥作用。它只能在一定程度上理解事物。它的分析能力是有限的。它很容易产生恐惧和焦虑，只要有非常轻微的甚至是不存在的刺激。事实上，在根本没有真正的恐惧原因的情况下，个人的心智经常使自己受到惊吓。它有非常严重的限制，当你知道这些限制时，你可以训练它在其界限内运作。然后它就可以成为你自己的一个有用和有价值的方面。然而，如果你不知道它的极限和界限，你就会对它产生期望，而它永远无法提供。你会期待和平、平静、力量、勇气、开放、接受和无条件的爱——所有这些都是它不能单独产生或提供的。它只能成为表达这些更大经历的工具，因为它要在你的生命中服务和接受更伟大的力量。

While you have a self that you need to doubt and that you need to understand, you also have a Self that you can learn to trust—completely and wholeheartedly. This Greater Self is the source of certainty, guidance, strength, courage and Wisdom. It is what we call Knowledge. It represents the immortal part of yourself—the part of you that came into the world fully intact and fully prepared to carry out a mission in life. You carry it like a secret cargo. It is within you at this moment. You can doubt its existence. You can doubt its value. You can doubt the depth of its Wisdom and the limits of its strength, but until you know it, you will not understand what it can do or what it is for. You are not in a position to doubt it. You can join with it, become part of it and become united within yourself. Or you can avoid it, hide from it, resist it or demean it, but it is within you nonetheless. You cannot spoil it. You cannot use if for selfish ends. You can misinterpret it. You can misunderstand it. And you can wrongly apply its guidance and Wisdom to the extent that you have experienced it. But it remains pure within you.

虽然你有一个你需要怀疑和需要理解的自我，但你也有一个你可以学会信任的自我——完全地和全心全意地信任。这个更大的自我是确定性、指导、力量、勇气和智慧的来源。它就是我们所说的内识。它代表了你自己不朽的部分——你完全完整地来到这个世界上，并为执行生命中的任务做好了充分准备的部分。你像携带秘密货物一样携带它。此刻它就在你体内。你可以怀疑它的存在。你可以怀疑它的价值。你可以怀疑它的智慧深度和它的力量极限，但在你知道它之前，你不会明白它能做什么，也不会明白它是为了什么。你没有资格怀疑它。你可以与它结合，成为它的一部分，并在你自己的内部成为统一体。或者你可以避开它，躲避它，抵制它或贬低它，但它还是在你里面。你不能糟蹋它。你不能为了自私的目的使用它。你可以曲解它。你可以误解它。你可以错误地应用它的指导和智慧，以至于你已经经历了它。但它在你的内心仍然是纯净的。

This is the Self that you can trust. The more that you experience Knowledge and the greater your comprehension of Knowledge, the greater will be your foundation for self-trust. This is not merely theoretical. This is actual. You can experience it profoundly, and it will give you a sense that you have solid ground to stand upon while you are in the world. This is God’s great gift to you. This is the answer to your prayers. This is the great comforter and reassurance, and it lives within you.

这是你可以信任的自我。你体验的内识越多，对内识的理解越深，你的自我信任的基础就越大。这不仅仅是理论上的。这是实际的。你可以深刻地经历它，它将给你一种感觉，当你在这个世界上时，你有坚实的基础可以立足。这是上帝给你的伟大礼物。这是对你祈祷的回答。这是伟大的安慰者和保证，它住在你里面。

Knowledge lives within you, but you must find a way to it. You must become worthy of its grace. You must develop yourself to receive it and to follow it. To enable you to do that, you have been presented with The Greater Community Way of Knowledge. This is a means of regaining access to Knowledge that is unparalleled in the world. As you undertake this great journey with its many stages of development and its many opportunities for application, you will build a foundation for self-trust that will be unshakable in the world.

内识住在你里面，但你必须找到一条通往它的路。你必须变得配得上它的恩典。你必须发展自己以接受它并遵循它。为了使你能够做到这一点，我们向你介绍了大社区内识之路。这是一种重新获得内识的方法，在世界范围内是无与伦比的。当你进行这个伟大的旅程时，有许多发展阶段和许多应用机会，你将建立一个自我信任的基础，在这个世界上将是不可动摇的。

How different this is from trying to trust your personal mind and trying to eliminate doubt without finding this greater foundation within yourself. This trust has no falsity. It has no false excuses. It has no lies surrounding it. It has no fragile and thin justifications. It has no deception, no dishonesty and no deceit. With this inner certainty, there is humility, for you realize you are standing at the threshold of something very great within you. You realize as well that it is something that you personally cannot own, but that you are blessed to receive and blessed to have within you, to be with you and to be the center of you. You cannot claim it and use it to control or to dominate others. You can only follow its grace to find resolution in life and to build a foundation of relationships and a greater realization of purpose and contribution.

这与试图信任你的个人心智和试图消除疑虑而不在自己内心找到这个更大的基础是多么不同。这种信任没有虚伪。它没有虚假的借口。它没有围绕着它的谎言。它没有脆弱和浅薄的理由。它没有欺骗，没有不诚实，没有诡诈。有了这种内在的确定性，就有了谦逊，因为你意识到你正站在你内心非常伟大的东西的门槛上。你也意识到，这是你个人无法拥有的东西，但你被祝福得到它，被祝福拥有它，与你在一起，成为你的中心。你不能要求它，用它来控制或支配他人。你只能遵循它的恩典，在生命中找到解的决方法，建立起关系的基础，并更多地实现目的和贡献。

Now, what establishes a way to Knowledge and what secures your experience of Knowledge so that in the future you can learn to rely upon it and have faith in its presence? What establishes your connection to Knowledge and your relationship with it is making important decisions at important junctures of life, where you have to choose the truth over all other seeming conveniences and benefits, where you have to give up something that you had been clinging to in order to have freedom and a new opportunity for life. These are the great turning points where Knowledge reveals itself. It reveals itself because it is chosen in the hour of decision. Now it is no longer a hope or an idea or a theoretical possibility. It is now something real within you.

现在，是什么建立了通往内识的途径，是什么保证了你对内识的经历，从而使你在未来能够学会依赖它并对它的存在有信心？是什么建立了你与内识的联系以及你与内识的关系，是在生命的重要关头做出重要的决定，在这些决定中，你必须选择真理，而不是所有其他看似便利和利益的东西，你必须放弃你一直坚持的东西，以获得自由和新生命的机会。这些都是伟大的转折点，内识在这里显露自己。它显露出来是因为它在决定的时刻被选择。现在它不再是一个希望、一个想法或一个理论上的可能性。它现在是你内心真实的存在。

Can you trust that deeper inclination? Can you recognize its consistency and its depth and distinguish it from all the other impulses, compulsions, needs or anxieties that you might feel? It lives within you. Deep, silent, powerful. In contrast to a world of mad pursuits, frantic activities and dangerous involvements, what greater gift could you be given than a part of God to live within you? It is not a spirit that visits you occasionally when you are in dire straits. It is not a benediction given to you after fervent prayer. It is a living reality within you. As you learn over time to come to Knowledge and to take the steps to Knowledge, you will have a foundation for self-trust, and this will give you a basis for releasing self-doubt.

你能信任那更深层的倾向吗？你能认识到它的一致性和深度，并将它与你可能感到的所有其他冲动、强迫、需要或焦虑区分开来吗？它住在你的体内。深沉、沉默、强大。与疯狂的追求、疯狂的活动和危险的卷入的世界相比，还有什么礼物能比上帝的一部分住在你里面更有意义呢？这不是一个在你身处困境时偶尔拜访你的精神。它不是在你热切祷告后给予你的祝福。它是你体内的活生生的现实。当你随着时间的推移学习到内识，并采取步骤获得内识，你将有一个自我信任的基础，这将给你一个释放自我怀疑的基础。

The personal aspect of your mind will continue to doubt. It will doubt and doubt and doubt, for it can only doubt or believe. It cannot know, for only Knowledge can know. It requires assurances, like a child, until it becomes a part of Knowledge itself, until the human and the Divine in you are joined together in meaningful and true matrimony—the real marriage of mind, body and soul that is possible and only possible with Knowledge. The personal mind will continue to be fretful, doubtful, anxious and prone to rash decisions and rash behavior.

你心智中的个人方面将继续怀疑。它将疑惑、不确定和不相信，因为它只能怀疑或相信。它不能知道，因为只有内识才能知道。它需要保证，就像一个孩子，直到它成为内识本身的一部分，直到你身上的人性和神性在有意义的真正婚姻中结合在一起——心灵、身体和灵魂的真正婚姻是可能的，而且只有内识才可能。个人的心智将继续是焦躁的、怀疑的、焦虑的，容易做出轻率的决定和轻率的行为。

But increasingly, as a student of Knowledge following in The Way of Knowledge, you will be able to step back from these impulses and anxieties and rest upon that which is much more sure and even within you. This is essential in order to become a contributor in life. To learn how to really work and to learn where your work needs to be placed, to resolve conflict, to enhance your mental and physical environment, you need this inner strength. Even if life did not place demands upon you, you would need this inner strength to justify your existence here and to realize with certainty that you have an Ancient Home from which you have come and to which you will surely return. You need this inner strength to experience that you have a life within the world and a life beyond the world and that they are joined by a purpose—a purpose for which you have come.

但是，作为一个遵循内识之路的内识学生，你将能够越来越多地从这些冲动和焦虑中退后一步，并依靠你内心更确定的内识。为了成为生命中的贡献者，这一点至关重要。为了学习如何真正工作，学习你的工作需要放在哪里，解决冲突，提高你的心理和物理环境，你需要这种内在力量。即使生命没有对你提出要求，你也需要这种内在力量来证明你在这里的存在，并肯定地认识到你有一个古老的家园，你从那里来，也一定会回到那里去。你需要这种内在力量来经历你在世界中的生命和在世界之外的生命，它们被一个目的所连接——一个你来的目的。

Life is not casual. Life is not ambivalent. Life is fully dedicated. Everywhere. To be part of life is to be fully dedicated, completely committed, completely involved, completely joined and completely whole. As Knowledge becomes stronger within you, your personal mind will have a greater foundation upon which to base itself, and increasingly its self-doubt will disappear. Then you will face a different kind of doubt, a doubt that is a warning sign within you to tell you that something may not be right and may require greater observation or verification of some kind. This is doubt born of Wisdom. This is when you sense something is not quite right or that the decision that you are about to make may not be the best decision and you feel a restraint inside. This is not self-doubt. This is doubting something on the outside. This is healthy and wise. This is part of your inner guidance system working for you to guide and protect you and to keep you from going astray. The more you are sensitive and responsive to this, the more difficult it will be for you to make a mistake. What a blessing this is.

生命不是随意的。生命不是矛盾的。生命是完全奉献的。无处不在。成为生命的一部分就是完全奉献、完全承诺、完全参与、完全结合和完全完整。随着内识在你体内变得更加强大，你的个人心智将有一个更大的基础，它的自我怀疑将日益消失。然后你将面临一种不同的怀疑，这种怀疑是你内心的一个警告信号，告诉你有些事情可能不对，可能需要更多的观察或某种验证。这是由智慧产生的怀疑。这是当你感觉到有些事情不太对，或者你要做的决定可能不是最好的决定时，你会感到内心有一种克制。这不是自我怀疑。这是对外界事物的怀疑。这是健康和明智的。这是你内在指导系统的一部分，为你指导和保护你，使你不至于误入歧途。你对这一点越敏感、越能回应，你就越难犯错。这是多么大的祝福啊。

Knowledge will hold you back until you find that place to which you can give yourself. It will hold you back in relationships with people. It will hold you back in many things. Why? Because it has not found its place to give. How can you give your life to something if Knowledge is not going with you? The personal aspect of you is too small and too bound to the world to take on greater things. In order to take on greater responsibilities, to accept greater rewards and to meet greater challenges, you need a Greater Reality, which is connected to Knowledge within you. People try to take on big things with a small mind, and as a result they lose sense of what their endeavor might offer them, and everything becomes small.

内识会阻碍你，直到你找到那个你可以给予自己的地方。它将在与人的关系中牵制你。它将在许多事情上阻碍你。为什么？因为它还没有找到自己的位置来给予。如果内识不和你一起去，你怎么能把你的生命交给某个关系？你的个人方面太小，对世界的约束太大，无法承担更大的事情。为了承担更大的责任，接受更大的回报，迎接更大的挑战，你需要一个更大的现实，这个现实与你内在的内识相联系。人们试图以渺小的心智承担大的事情，结果他们失去了对其努力可能带来的意义，一切都变得渺小。

To go from a little life that is bound by fear and desire to a greater life that is included in the workings of the world requires a Greater Power within you. You are reading these words because you are seeking a Greater Power. You know you need this Greater Power to escape self-doubt and to escape ambivalence, which is indecision. You need this Greater Power to find your foundation, to find the strength you will need to build upon that foundation, and to find the relationships you will need in your life to carry on a greater purpose and to establish a greater meaning. This need is natural.

要从一个被恐惧和欲望束缚的小生命变成一个包含在世界运作中的更大生命，需要你内心有一种更大的力量。你正在阅读这些文字，因为你正在寻求一种更大的力量。你知道你需要这种更大的力量来摆脱自我怀疑，摆脱矛盾心理，也就是犹豫不决。你需要这种更大的力量来找到你的基础，找到你在这个基础上所需要的力量，并找到你在生命中所需要的关系，以实现更大的目的，建立更大的意义。这种需要是自然的。

The blessing of this approach is that your personal mind is not maligned or discredited. It is not repudiated. It is not demeaned. It is not rejected. It is not denied. It is recognized for what it is—an aspect of your mind that is born in the world and conditioned by the world. It is an aspect of your mind that you need to have to be here and to be able to negotiate the particulars of your life. You need the personal mind to govern the body. It is like the switchboard, the control panel for the body. It can become very competent in practical, detailed affairs, but it needs a greater foundation. It needs a Greater Power. It needs a greater certainty in order to feel certain so that its real capabilities can be realized and applied. It finds its value in this larger context.

这种方法的祝福在于你的个人心智并没有被诋毁或否定。它没有被抛弃，没有被贬低，也没有被拒绝或否认。它被认知为它本来的样子——一个在世界上诞生并受世界影响的心智方面。它是你需要拥有的一部分，以便你能够在这里并应对生活的具体细节。你需要个人心智来管理身体。它就像是身体的交换机或控制面板。它在处理实际、细节事务方面可以变得非常熟练，但它需要一个更大的基础。它需要一个更大的力量，需要更大的确定性来感到确定，从而使其真正的能力得以实现和应用。它在这个更大的背景中找到了自己的价值。

This ends the constant struggle with yourself, the constant courtroom battle over what you want and what you don’t want, whether you are good or not good, whether you can be trusted or not be trusted, whether you have value or do not have value. These debates can rage continuously within the mind. But when a Greater Reality begins to emerge within you and is recognized not as some distant deity but as a living Spiritual Presence within you, then you can begin to have a real foundation. Your ability to trust this foundation will grow over time. This trust has to be earned. It has to be realized. It has to be exercised until it can become a reliable resource for you.

这结束了与自己的不断斗争，结束了关于自己想要和不想要的不断法庭辩论，结束了关于自己是好是坏、可信还是不可信、有价值还是无价值的争论。这些辩论可以在心灵中持续不断地进行。但当一个更大的现实开始在你内在显现，并且被认知为不是某个遥远的神明，而是你内在的一个活生生的精神存在时，你就能够开始建立一个真正的基础。随着时间的推移，你信任这个基础的能力将会增长。这种信任必须通过实践来赢得，必须通过实现来体验，必须通过行使来使其成为你的可靠资源。

When people begin Steps to Knowledge, they often have great expectations that their lives are going to be transformed in a matter of days or weeks, or maybe months if it takes a long time! But if they stay with their preparation, they realize that this is a process with many stages, and there must be many demonstrations of the power and presence of Knowledge. And their ideas about Knowledge change. And their expectations change. And many of their ideals show themselves to be weak and false. And they realize as they go forward that their personal mind has inflated itself, giving itself divine powers and abilities, giving itself false assurances and grand assumptions about its ability to deal with anything and to handle any challenge.

当人们开始学习内识的阶梯时，他们往往有很大的期望，认为他们的生活会在几天或几周内得到改变，如果需要很长的时间，也许是几个月！但是，如果他们坚持准备，他们的生活就会得到改变。但如果他们坚持准备，就会意识到这是一个有许多阶段的过程，而且必须有许多关于内识的力量和存在的证明。他们对内识的想法就会改变。他们的期望也会改变。他们的许多理想表明自己是软弱和虚假的。他们在前进的过程中意识到，他们的个人心智已经自我膨胀，赋予自己神圣的力量和能力，给自己虚假的保证和宏大的假设，认为自己有能力处理任何事情，处理任何挑战。

All these grandiose ideas are a cover for the despair, fear and helplessness which your personal mind feels. It is lost within you and within the world until it finds its foundation in Knowledge. Then it becomes sure and secure, and its little preoccupations and anxieties have less and less of an impact on you.

所有这些冠冕堂皇的想法都是对你个人心智感到的绝望、恐惧和无助的掩饰。它在你和世界中迷失，直到它在内识中找到自己的基础。然后它就会变得肯定和安全，它的小心思和焦虑对你的影响就会越来越小。

Perhaps you doubt that this is possible. I understand it if you do. There are very few demonstrations of this in the world. It is understandable to be doubtful. But because something is understandable does not mean that it is correct or meaningful. There is a greater possibility for you because you are reaching out. Perhaps you still have many grand ideas about yourself and what you are going to do in life and lots of plans and goals. Perhaps you have no plans and goals. But you are here reading these words. If you can hear these words and respond to them, beyond the level of your personal mind, then Knowledge within me has reached Knowledge within you, and a real relationship has begun.

也许你怀疑这是否可能。如果你这样做，我理解。世界上很少有这样的示范。怀疑是可以理解的。但是，因为某些东西是可以理解的，并不意味着它是正确或有意义的。对你来说有更大的可能性，因为你正在接触。也许你对自己和你在生命中要做的事情仍有许多宏伟的想法，并有许多计划和目标。也许你没有计划和目标。但是你在这里阅读这些话。如果你能听到这些话，并对它们作出反应，超越你个人心智的层面，那么我体内的内识已经到达你体内的内识，一种真正的关系已经开始。

You can think of freedom as the escape from ambivalence, which is indecision. You can think of freedom as the escape from self-doubt. You can think of freedom as the escape from the personal mind as the sole authority of your life and the sole determinant of your actions and behavior. All of these definitions are really the same. Perhaps different words strike different responses, but they are all the same.

你可以把自由想成是对矛盾的逃避，也就是犹豫不决。你可以把自由看作是对自我怀疑的逃避。你可以认为自由是对个人心智的逃避，它是你生命的唯一权威，是你行动和行为的唯一决定因素。所有这些定义其实都是一样的。也许不同的词语会引起不同的反应，但它们都是一样的。

Your freedom is to find a Greater Power and a greater purpose in life and to join it and bond to it. You will know it is correct because you will know, because it is Knowledge that brings you here. You can doubt, doubt, doubt all along the way, but something deeper in you has brought you here. You can question. You can have fearful anticipations. You can worry that your mind is being taken over, that you are being manipulated—all of these kinds of fears born of the personal mind, fearful because it cannot comprehend the greatness of Knowledge because its own errors are so manifest and because it has no basis for real certainty. It seeks for a Greater Power, but it will not relinquish itself to this Power. And the powers that it will give itself to are no more certain that it is. They are grandiose, but they too are filled with fear and helplessness. The world has many expressions of power and leadership, but without Knowledge they are only pretense—pretense upon pretense. And they must be backed up with force and violence.

你的自由是找到一个更大的力量和更大的生命目的，并加入它，与它结合。你会知道它是正确的，因为你会知道，因为是内识把你带到这里。你可以一路上怀疑、疑惑、不相信，但你体内更深层的内识把你带到了这里。你可以质疑。你可以有恐惧的预期。你可以担心你的心智被占领，你被操纵——所有这些类型的恐惧都来自个人的心智，恐惧是因为它不能理解内识的伟大，因为它自己的错误是如此明显，因为它没有真正的确定性的基础。它寻求一种更大的力量，但它不会将自己放弃给这种力量。而它要把自己交给的力量，也没有它自己的把握。它们是宏伟的，但它们也充满了恐惧和无助。世界上有许多权力和领导力的表现，但如果没有内识，它们只是装腔作势——装腔作势上的虚伪。而且它们必须以武力和暴力来支持。

How different Knowledge is, which needs neither force nor violence, which needs neither deception nor dominance. Its persuasion is that it is entirely natural to you. It is the absolute essence of everything that is meaningful to you. It comes silently. It lives within you. It awaits the moment when you can begin to accept it. It offers itself at moments of great decision. It comforts you with its silence and reassurance. It abides with you. As you learn to abide with it, come to it, seek it out and learn how to receive it, respond to it and use it, then you become its recipient. Others will shrink away, fearful and doubtful, but you will come forward because Knowledge in you brings you to Knowledge in life. That which is true in you brings you to that which is true in life. The essence of you comes to the essence of life, for there is not only Knowledge within you, there is Knowledge within everything.

内识是多么不同，它既不需要武力也不需要暴力，既不需要欺骗也不需要支配。它的说服力在于，它对你来说是完全自然的。它是一切对你有意义关系的绝对本质。它无声无息地到来。它住在你里面。它等待着你能开始接受它的时刻。它在重大决定的时刻提供自己。它用它的沉默和安抚来安慰你。它与你共存。当你学会与它同在，来到它身边，寻找它，并学会如何接受它、回应它和使用它，那么你就成为它的接受者。其他人会退缩，害怕和怀疑，但你会站出来，因为在你身上的内识给你带来生命中的内识。在你身上的真实带给你在生命中的真实。你的本质来到了生命的本质，因为不仅在你里面有内识，在所有生命里面都有内识。

Within you there is a seed of Divinity which can grow into a great and bountiful tree of life. That is Knowledge. Trust this. And when you come to a moment of important decision, at a juncture or turning point in your life, you will always see that there are two ways to go: There is the way with Knowledge and there is the other way. The other way may show many possibilities, but there are really only two ways to go.

在你里面有一颗神性的种子，它可以成长为一棵伟大而丰饶的生命之树。这就是内识。相信这一点。当你来到一个重要决定的时刻，在你生命中的一个关口或转折点，你将永远看到有两条路可走。一条是有内识的路，一条是另一条路。另一条路可能显示出许多可能性，但实际上只有两条路可走。

Sometimes people struggle and fret over meaningless decisions when neither decision is right because they are not patient enough to wait for Knowledge. Indeed, when Knowledge is ready to act, it can move you and everyone around you. It has such great potency. Yet it has such great compassion that it does not exercise its power except to preserve you. But even here its power can be denied and neglected. Recall the time you felt inner restraint when you were about to do something that you would later regret. Recall the time when you felt a nauseousness within you when you were making a decision that would prove itself to be damaging for you. Recall a time when you felt a giddy excitement over something you really wanted, but you later found out that it was empty. If you can learn to face your own experience and to question it objectively, you will begin to see that there is something with you that keeps you on a sure track. There is something living within you that is not frantic, nervous or reactive. Trust this.

有时，人们为毫无意义的决定而挣扎和烦恼，而这两个决定都不对，因为他们没有足够的耐心等待内识。事实上，当内识准备好采取行动的时候，它可以推动你和你周围的人。它有如此巨大的效力。然而，它有如此大的同情心，除了保护你，它不会行使它的力量。但即使在这里，它的力量也会被否定和忽视。回想一下，当你准备做一些后来会后悔的事情时，你是否感到内心的克制。回想一下，当你做出一个将被证明对你有害的决定时，你内心感到一阵恶心。回想一下，当你对你真正想要的东西感到一阵眩晕的兴奋，但你后来发现它是空的。如果你能学会面对自己的体验，并客观地质疑它，你就会开始看到，有一种东西与你同在，使你在一个确定的轨道上。有一种东西活在你的内心，它不是疯狂的、紧张的或反应性的。相信这一点。

Self-doubt will continue, but as Knowledge becomes stronger, your self-doubt will diminish. Then you will see that you have an opportunity to either go with Knowledge or to go without Knowledge when you are required to make important decisions or choices in life. Until you have this foundation in Knowledge, ideas such as peace, equanimity, spirituality and grace are only fleeting experiences, if you experience them at all. They are beyond the realm of possibility as a living reality for you until you build this foundation.

自我怀疑会继续下去，但随着内识变得更加强大，你的自我怀疑会减少。然后你会看到，当你需要在生命中做出重要决定或选择时，你有机会要么与内识同行，要么没有内识。在你有这个内识基础之前，像和平、平静、精神和恩典这样的想法只是短暂的经历，如果你有经历的话。在你建立这个基础之前，它们作为一个活生生的现实，对你来说是超越可能性的。

You can receive these things and you can express these things because there is a Greater Power living within you that has now become free to express itself in your life. Your life is no longer governed mindlessly by driving passions, intermittent needs and raging fears. There is more openness in your life, and through this openness comes a Greater Power and grace. You will begin to see its effect on others. And you can begin to see it growing in your life and manifesting itself, in subtle ways at first, until you realize that your life is being moved by something you cannot understand but which you can love and accept because it is natural to do so.

你可以接受这些事情，你可以表达这些事情，因为有一种更伟大的力量生活在你的体内，现在已经在你的生命中自由地表达自己。你的生命不再无意识地被驱动的激情、间歇的需求和汹涌的恐惧所支配。你的生命有了更多的开放性，通过这种开放性带来了更大的力量和恩典。你将开始看到它对他人的影响。而且你可以开始看到它在你的生命中成长并表现出来，一开始是以微妙的方式，直到你意识到你的生命正被一些你无法理解但你可以爱和接受的内识所推动，因为这样做是自然的。

Therefore, doubt what is doubtful. Trust what is certain. Doubt what is temporary. Trust what is permanent. Doubt what is fleeting. Trust that which will last. Then self-doubt will be replaced by wise discrimination. Then fearful perception will be replaced by true discernment. Then doubt will serve you rather than condemn you. This is possible. This is real. This is for you who are reading these words.

因此，怀疑什么是可疑的。相信肯定的内识。怀疑暂时的东西。相信持久的内识。怀疑短暂的东西。相信那会持续的内识。然后自我怀疑将被明智的辨别力所取代。然后恐惧的感知将被真正的洞察力所取代。然后怀疑将为你服务，而不是谴责你。这是有可能的。这是真实的。这是为正在阅读这些文字的你准备的。