Chapter 34: Walking The Way of Knowledge

As revealed to God’s Messenger Marshall Vian Summers on May 25, 1993 in Boulder, CO
1993年5月25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

What does it mean to walk The Way of Knowledge? What is it really like? We shall speak about this to give you a greater idea of what the road ahead looks like and what it means to begin.

走内识之路意味着什么？它到底是什么样子的？我们将谈论这个问题，让你更清楚地了解前面的道路是什么样子的，以及开始意味着什么。

Everyone’s path is a little different, but be careful here not to make too great a distinction. When you are living in the world and all you see are human beings representing intelligent life—which is not completely accurate because there is other intelligent life in the world—you tend to think the variations between one person and another are quite great. Indeed, within this limited context, the differences between people do seem remarkable. People do seem to be quite distinct from one another. There seems to be great variation in people’s nature, temperament, environment, culture, and so forth.

每个人的道路都有些不同，但在这里要注意不要做太大的区分。当你生活在这个世界上，你所看到的都是代表智慧生命的人类——这并不完全准确，因为世界上还有其他的智慧生命——你往往认为一个人和另一个人之间的差异相当大。的确，在这个有限的背景下，人与人之间的差异确实显得很显著。人与人之间似乎确实有很大区别。人们的天性、气质、环境、文化等方面似乎都有很大的差异。

But from a Greater Community perspective, human beings are not seen as really that different. The variations between them are really quite small. In order to have this perception, you will need to stand outside your human context and be able to look at yourself with great objectivity within the context of a Greater Community of life. Indeed, the differences between human beings and even your closest neighbors in the Greater Community would make the distinctions between people individually quite small and insignificant. This is born of a Greater Community perspective, a perspective that you will need to cultivate over time.

但是，从大社区的角度来看，人类并没有那么不同。人与人之间的差异实际上非常小。要拥有这种视角，你需要站在你的人类背景之外，并能够在大社区生命的背景下，以极大的客观性看待自己。实际上，人类与大社区中甚至是与你们最接近的邻居之间的差异，会使人们之间的个体差异显得微不足道。这是从大社区的视角产生的，这种视角需要你随着时间的推移去培养。

So, whereas an individual’s preparation can seem somewhat unique, everyone must learn certain basic things. Everyone must develop certain basic skills regardless of his or her nature, temperament, environment, culture, age and generation. These things seem to make a great deal of difference to people, but again we must go back to a Greater Community perspective where the differences between people are not that great. I am making this point at the outset because you must see that though there are slight variations in what people must do for themselves and in what they must emphasize in their learning and preparation, everyone must pass through certain basic thresholds.

因此，虽然个人的准备工作可能看起来有些独特，但每个人都必须学习某些基本的东西。每个人都必须培养某些基本技能，无论他或她的天性、气质、环境、文化、年龄和世代如何。这些工作似乎对人们有很大的不同，但我们必须再次回到大社区的角度，人与人之间的差异并不是那么大。我在一开始就提出这一点，因为你必须看到，尽管人们必须为自己做什么，在学习和准备中必须强调什么，都有轻微的差异，但每个人都必须通过某些基本门槛。

For example, everyone must learn to find out what Knowledge is and how Knowledge speaks through them. A great task this is and one with many stages of development. It is something that everyone who begins this great journey must accomplish. And they will experience Knowledge differently, not because Knowledge is different in them, but because their interpretive skills and orientations are different. For example, everyone looks at the same tree but has different experiences. That does not mean there is more than one tree. Everyone looks at the same event and comes to greatly different conclusions, but there is still only one event. People look at one another and have a whole range of responses, but they are all still just people engaged in various activities together.

例如，每个人都必须学会找出内识是什么以及内识如何通过他们说话。这是一项伟大的任务，也是一项有许多发展阶段的任务。这是每个开始这个伟大旅程的人必须完成的事情。他们会有不同的内识经历，不是因为内识在他们身上不同，而是因为他们的解释能力和方向不同。例如，每个人都看着同一棵树，但有不同的经历。这并不意味着有不止一棵树。每个人看同一个事件，得出的结论大不相同，但仍然只有一个事件。人们彼此对视，有一系列的反应，但他们都仍然只是一起从事各种活动的人。

Within the world, human beings tend to make great distinctions about things that are not of great importance and overlook the things that are of greater significance. The differences between people’s mannerisms, behaviors, idiosyncrasies, and conflicts are given great importance here. The greater possibility within each person, which is the presence and emergence of Knowledge, is overlooked. Things that are merely peculiarities in people are elevated to such a point that they seem to define them entirely. For instance, you tend to think of people in terms of their dominant characteristics—their behavior, their mannerisms or even their figures of speech. Is this the truly important part of people? No.

在这个世界上，人类倾向于对不太重要的事情做出很大的区分，而忽略了那些更重要的事情。人们的举止、行为、特异功能和冲突之间的差异在这里得到了极大的重视。每个人内在更大的可能性，也就是内识的存在和出现，被忽略了。仅仅是人的特殊性的差异被提升到这样一个地步，似乎完全定义了他们。例如，你倾向于从人的主要特征——他们的行为，他们的举止，甚至他们的言谈举止来考虑人。这是人的真正重要部分吗？不是。

This is a very important point because at the outset in The Way of Knowledge, everyone wants to have his or her individuality accentuated and validated. Everyone wants to be more unique, more important and more special. Of course, while there is a great investment in this, there is also a deeper desire for union, cooperation, community, affinity, shared purpose and shared accomplishment.

这是非常重要的一点，因为在内识之路的一开始，每个人都想让自己的个体性得到强调和验证。每个人都想变得更独特、更重要、更特别。当然，虽然在这方面有很大的投资，但也有对联合、合作、社区、亲和力、共同目标和共同成就的更深层次的渴望。

So, we have these two purposes. They are in opposition to one another, and this represents the conflict that exists within each individual. People want peace. They want reconciliation. But then they want other things too. This makes peace and reconciliation impossible. This is a fundamental conflict in human beings and, as a matter of fact, in all forms of intelligent life. That is why with the emergence of intelligence there must be the emergence of a greater spiritual understanding; otherwise, your intelligence merely makes you more aware of your pain, your discord, your vulnerability and your mortality. Unless a greater spiritual awareness arises with intelligence, intelligence itself creates a great and oppressive burden upon the individual.

因此，我们有这两个目的。它们相互对立，这代表了存在于每个人内心的冲突。人们想要和平。他们想要和解。但随后他们也想要其他东西。这使得和平与和解成为不可能。这是人类的基本冲突，事实上也是所有形式的智慧生命的冲突。这就是为什么随着智能的出现，必须有更大的精神理解的出现；否则，你的智能只是让你更清楚地意识到你的痛苦、你的不和谐、你的脆弱和你的死亡。除非更大的精神意识随着智能的出现而出现，否则智能它本身会给个人带来巨大的压迫性负担。

People come to the first gate in The Way of Knowledge wanting more of everything they want. And yet they are moved and feel compelled to seek for something more pervasive, something that is more difficult to define perhaps, something that they yearn for more than they want, something that they need more than they desire. So, at the first gate, you encounter the Teaching and you decide that you are going to try to get something out of it. You want to benefit from it; you want it to do something for you. And of course, you want it to satisfy these two different purposes.

人们来到内识之路的第一道门，想要得到更多他们想要的东西。然而，他们被打动了，感到不得不去寻求一些更普遍的东西，一些也许更难定义的东西，一些他们渴望的东西比他们想要的更多，一些他们需要的东西比他们渴望的更多。所以，在第一道门，你遇到了教学，你决定你要尝试从它那里得到一些东西。你想从它那里受益；你想让它为你做些什么。当然，你也希望它能满足这两个不同的目的。

Fundamentally, the difference between these two purposes is that one is the desire for greater separation and the other is the desire for union. Sorting all of this out and making decisions to support one over the other represent a great deal of the work in The Way of Knowledge.

从根本上说，这两个目的之间的区别是，一个是对更大分离的渴望，另一个是对结合的渴望。梳理这一切，并做出支持其中一个的决定，代表了内识之路中的大量工作。

Now, at the outset, many people are very disappointed when they find out that The Greater Community Way of Knowledge is not going to make them richer, or fill their life with love and pleasure, or make them immune to the world, or make them more unique and impressive. Many people fall away when they come to this realization. They turn away to seek other things that seem to promise these rewards. These things are not promised here because they are not genuine. The deeper part of you is looking for a place to give. It is not looking to acquire more of what drives everyone in the world mad.

现在，一开始，当许多人发现大社区内识之路不能使他们更富有，或使他们的生活充满爱和快乐，或使他们对世界免疫，或使他们更独特和令人印象深刻时，他们会感到非常失望。许多人在认识到这一点后，就掉头走了。他们转身去寻找其他似乎能承诺这些回报的东西。这些东西在这里没有承诺，因为它们不是真的。你内心深处的部分正在寻找一个可以给予的地方。它不是在寻找获得更多让世界上所有人都疯狂的东西。

We present The Greater Community Way of Knowledge—nothing more, nothing less. We do not promise love or money. We do not promise fame. We do not promise immunity from the world. We offer something more enduring, more complete, more genuine and more real. We offer Wisdom, Knowledge, relationship, community, purpose and accomplishment. And commensurate with these we offer courage, consistency, self-trust, inner certainty and, most importantly of all, we offer inclusion in life, which includes all that I have mentioned so far. Now these all may sound fine, but of course there are other desires that seem to prevail. So, let us spare you confusion at the outset to say that The Greater Community Way of Knowledge is not going to add to your self-importance. It is not going to compensate for self-doubt or self-hate. It is not a substitute for an inadequate or incomplete life. It is not a band-aid that you put over the open wound of your own inner conflict.

我们提出大社区内识之路——不多不少。我们不承诺爱情或金钱。我们不承诺名声。我们不承诺对世界的豁免权。我们提供的是更持久、更完整、更真诚、更真实的东西。我们提供智慧、内识、关系、社区、目的和成就。与这些相称的是，我们提供勇气、一致性、自我信任、内在的确定性，最重要的是，我们提供生命中的包容，这包括我迄今为止提到的所有这些。现在，这些听起来都不错，但当然还有其他欲望似乎占了上风。所以，让我们在一开始就免去你的困惑，说大社区内识之路不会增加你的自我重要性。它不会弥补自我怀疑或自我憎恨。它不能替代不充分或不完整的生活。它不是你贴在自己内心冲突的开放伤口上的创可贴。

Even to begin The Way of Knowledge there must be a pure motive. That is not to say there are not other motives. We expect there will be other motives. But it is to say that there is something very genuine calling you here. We do not try to make this a popular movement where we have something for everyone, like a great social event or carnival. We do not promise that we are going to resolve all of your little aches and pains. We only promise what is inevitable if you follow The Way of Knowledge. It is inevitable because of what you will learn to value and because your true motives in life will become stronger and eventually will prevail over all other motives and incentives that you may have created for yourself or that you may have assimilated from the world at large. These rewards are inevitable because you will want them, choose them and walk away from anything that falls short of them or that does not represent them truly.

即使开始内识之路，也必须有一个纯粹的动机。这并不是说没有其他动机。我们希望会有其他动机。但这是说，有一些非常真实的东西在召唤你。我们并不试图使这个运动成为一个受欢迎的运动，在那里我们为每个人提供一些东西，就像一个巨大的社会活动或狂欢节。我们不承诺我们会解决你所有的小毛病和痛苦。我们只承诺，如果你遵循内识之路，什么是不可避免的。这是不可避免的，因为你将学会重视什么，因为你在生命中的真正动机将变得更加强大，最终将战胜你可能为自己创造的或从整个世界同化的所有其他动机和奖励。这些奖励是不可避免的，因为你会想要它们，选择它们，并远离任何达不到它们或不能真正代表它们的东西。

The Way of Knowledge is the place to learn and to give. And if, in the process of learning and giving, things are lost or given up along the way, then just consider them to be excess baggage because you will want your burden in life to be lightened so that you may have the mental and physical freedom to learn greater things. We do not take anything away. The Way of Knowledge does not despise possessions, it does not encourage you to become ascetic and it does not teach renunciation. What it does emphasize is self-honesty and a practical approach to accomplishing things in life. If these are honored, accepted and followed, then that which you need will become stronger and more amplified, and that which merely burdens you will be discarded along the way. For what creates greater conflict than desiring the meaningless and avoiding the meaningful? This is the source of all confusion. Why would you want the petty trappings of life when the greatness of Knowledge is within you, calling upon you? Of course, you haven’t experienced this fully. How could you have experienced it fully? But you have reached a place where you can realize that it is possible and that it is important.

内识之路就是学习和给予的地方。如果在学习和付出的过程中，有东西丢失或放弃，那么就把它们看作是多余的包袱，因为你希望你的生命负担得到减轻，这样你就可以有心理和身体的自由来学习更多的东西。我们不会夺走任何东西。内识之路并不鄙视财产，它不鼓励你成为苦行僧，也不教你放弃。它所强调的是自我诚实和在生命中完成工作的实用方法。如果这些被尊重、接受和遵循，那么你所需要的东西将变得更强大、更充实，而那些仅仅给你带来负担的东西将被抛弃。因为有什么比渴望无意义的东西和回避有意义的东西产生更大的冲突？这就是所有困惑的根源。当内识的伟大就在你体内，呼唤着你的时候，你为什么会想要生活中的琐碎装饰呢？当然，你还没有完全经历到这一点。你怎么可能完全经历它呢？但你已经达到了一个地方，你可以意识到这是可能的，而且是重要的。

Learning The Greater Community Way of Knowledge means that you are learning to work, focus and be still while you carry on the normal activities of life. It does not mean that you leave aside all the mundane activities that bother you or discourage you. It means that you enter into them with a greater presence of mind. Your life looks the same. There is not a lot of ritual or fanfare. Your behavior doesn’t necessarily change. What is changing is something more fundamental and pervasive. It is like growing a great garden. It requires a lot of work, and while you carry on your life, the garden grows. It is the same in The Way of Knowledge. You cultivate a place within yourself for Knowledge, you support this place and you nourish it, and Knowledge grows all by itself.

学习大社区内识之路意味着你在进行正常的生命活动时要学会工作、专注和静止。这并不意味着你把所有困扰你或使你气馁的世俗活动放在一边。它意味着你以更大的心智存在进入它们。你的生命看起来是一样的。没有太多的仪式或大张旗鼓。你的行为不一定改变。正在改变的是一些更根本和普遍的东西。这就像种植一个伟大的花园。它需要大量的工作，而当你继续你的生活时，花园在成长。在内识之路中也是如此。你在自己的内心为内识培养一个地方，你支持这个地方，你滋养它，内识就会自己生长。

Important change is gradual. This is change that has had time to integrate itself within you. Change without Wisdom or integration is merely a disassociating force in your life. It does not promise advancement, growth or development. Indeed, you can see that people all around you have undergone tremendous change with very little real effect upon them. Change becomes life giving and life renewing when it is accompanied by a greater purpose and the possibility for Wisdom and meaningful relationships. Then change does something for you. Then it opens new doors and takes you into new areas.

重要的改变是渐进的。这种改变有时间在你内心进行整合。没有智慧或整合的改变只是你生活中一种分裂的力量。它并不承诺进步、成长或发展。实际上，你可以看到你周围的人经历了巨大的变化，但对他们几乎没有什么真正的影响。当改变伴随着更伟大的目的和智慧以及有意义的关系的可能性时，改变才会带来生命的活力和更新。然后，改变才会为你带来某种益处。它会打开新的大门，带你进入新的领域。

So, living and following The Way of Knowledge does not make things look different. You will still have good days and bad days. You will still have days when you feel certain of what you are doing, and you will have days when you are uncertain. You will still cry and get angry. You will still do silly things. You will still make mistakes. But while all this is going on, something else is growing within you and becoming more powerful, more real and more evident. There is the great garden growing—the garden of Knowledge. There is a fire burning within you—the Fire of Knowledge. It is growing, day by day.

因此，在生活中遵循内识之路并不会使生活看起来有所不同。你仍然会有好日子和坏日子。你仍然会有对自己所做的事情感到肯定的日子，也会有感到不确定的日子。你仍然会哭泣和生气。你仍然会做愚蠢的事情。你仍然会犯错误。但是，在这一切发生的同时，有别的东西在你内心成长，变得更加强大、更加真实、更加明显。有一个伟大的花园在成长——内识的花园。有一把火在你体内燃烧——内识之火。它正在成长，日复一日。

The great change that you will experience will be unlike the big sensations that people usually call self-transformation. The real change happens deep within you. You don’t usually see it happening, but you do notice the results. As time passes, you start to feel differently about certain things, not because anyone has told you to do so. It’s just something you feel. Time passes, and your values change. You begin to take refuge in the truth rather than attempt to escape from it. You seek quiet more and more as gross stimulation becomes a great aggravation. You look for different things in yourself and in others. You become more aware of the subtle interactions between people. You are more affected by the mental environment and more sensitive to it. You begin to value truth and understanding more than possessions and pleasurable sensations.

你将经历的巨大改变将不同于人们通常所说的自我转变的巨大感觉。真正的改变发生在你内心深处。你通常看不到它的发生，但你确实注意到结果。随着时间的推移，你开始对某些事情有不同的感觉，不是因为有人告诉你要这样做。这只是你的感觉。时间过去了，你的价值观也发生了变化。你开始在真理中寻求庇护，而不是试图逃避它。你越来越多地寻求安静，因为粗暴的刺激成为一种巨大的伤害。你在自己和他人身上寻找不同的东西。你变得更加了解人与人之间微妙的互动关系。你更多地受到心理环境的影响，对它更敏感。你开始重视真理和理解，而不是财产和快乐的感觉。

This is all natural. Nothing is being imposed upon you here. You are simply coming to terms with a deeper need and a deeper affinity with life. People have great big experiences, and they say to themselves or others, “Oh, my God! This was the biggest experience! I had the biggest experience! It will change my life!” Well, these do not change your life. What they can do, however, is make you aware of a greater change that is occurring within you.

这都是自然的。这里没有什么是强加给你的。你只是在接受一种更深的需求和对生命更深的亲和力。人们有巨大的经历，他们对自己或他人说：”哦，我的上帝！这是最大的经历！”。这是最大的经历！我有最大的经历！”。我有了最大的经历!它将改变我的生命！”嗯，这些并不能改变你的生命。然而，它们能做的是让你意识到在你内心发生的更大变化。

It is true that very intense or demanding experiences do have an impact on people. But real growth and development happen from the inside out. They happen beyond the control of your personal mind, which is why we say that working on yourself should never be your priority because how can you work on yourself? Can you pick yourself up by the scruff of the neck? Can you lift yourself up by the hands? No, of course not. However, many people think that they can. In reality, it takes something else to do this for you.

的确，非常激烈或苛刻的经历确实对人产生了影响。但真正的成长和发展是由内而外的。它们的发生超出了你个人心智的控制，这就是为什么我们说，对自己的工作永远不应该是你的优先事项，因为你怎么能对自己工作？你能用脖子把自己拎起来吗？你能用手把自己抬起来吗？不，当然不能。然而，许多人认为他们可以。在现实中，这需要别的东西来为你做。

The real work on yourself involves adjusting your thinking and behavior in relationship to real experiences in life. Going off and trying to change your personality will not be productive. The Way of Knowledge does not ask you to bow out of life and fiddle with yourself. It does not ask you to become more important, more distinct or more unique. It does not ask you to be better than others or worse than others. It does not ask you to be proud and arrogant, and it does not ask you to be weak and self-effacing. These are all attempts to increase your self-importance. They represent attempts to look better to yourself.

对自己的真正工作涉及调整你的思维和行为与生命中的真实经历的关系。去试图改变你的个性是不会有结果的。内识之路并不要求你脱离生活，摆弄自己。它不要求你变得更重要、更与众不同或更独特。它不要求你比别人好或比别人差。它不要求你骄傲和自大，也不要求你软弱和自卑。这些都是增加你自我重要性的尝试。它们代表着试图让自己看起来更好。

The Way of Knowledge does not ask you to look better. It asks you to become open and receptive to Knowledge. The process of doing this will correct the inconsistencies and conflicts within you. It is the process itself that will do this. It is walking up the mountain of life. In doing that, you shed things that are not necessary, and you bond to things that are. You say farewell to certain people, and you join with others. You are not doing this because you are fooling around with your personality. You are doing this because you are going somewhere, and to get where you are going, you have to make certain adjustments. This is the real personal work you do on yourself, and it constitutes a very small amount of your time.

内识之路不要求你看起来更好。它要求你变得开放，接受内识。这样做的过程将纠正你内心的不一致和冲突。做到这一点的是这个过程本身。它是走在生命的山峰上。在这样做的过程中，你舍弃不需要的东西，你与需要的关系结合在一起。你向某些人告别，而你与其他人结合。你这样做不是因为你在愚弄你的个性。你这样做是因为你要去某个地方，而为了到达你要去的地方，你必须做出某些调整。这是你在自己身上做的真正的个人工作，它占你时间的很小一部分。

Some people think that they are self-created, so in order to improve, they have to recreate themselves and make a better rendition of themselves, an improved version. Of course, this only darkens their dilemma and makes it more complicated and difficult to escape.

有些人认为他们是自我创造的，所以为了改进，他们必须重新创造自己，对自己进行更好的演绎，是一个改进的版本。当然，这只会使他们的困境更加黑暗，使其更加复杂，难以摆脱。

The Way of Knowledge gives you something important to do in life, and as long as you keep doing it and persevere in doing it, things which are unimportant will either be satisfied or forgotten. God does not enter conflict and correct it. God provides purposeful activity to do, and that is what restores self-value and self-awareness to the individual. God does not come into your mind to repair everything and rewire your circuits. God calls you to do something and to respond to something. If you do that, then you will begin a path of resolution.

内识之路给了你生命中重要的事情，只要你坚持做，坚持做，那些不重要的事情就会得到满足或被遗忘。上帝不会进入冲突并纠正它。上帝提供有目的的活动来做，这就是恢复个人的自我价值和自我意识的原因。上帝不会进入你的心灵来修复一切，重新接通你的电路。上帝呼召你去做一些事情，对一些事情作出回应。如果你这样做，那么你将开始一条解决之道。

This is The Way of Knowledge. At the outset, you will not see much change on the surface, unless, of course, you are trying to recreate yourself, restyle yourself or make yourself more attractive to yourself, which is what a great deal of personal growth is really about. It’s like a beauty school! How to look better to yourself. What value is there in looking better to yourself? The approval you will get will be temporary, and the problems you encounter will be many. The greater your investment in self-importance, the greater your distance from inclusion in life, and the more remote peace and accomplishment will become for you. The world does not need another tormented life. It needs a life of unity—a unity that has been established through honest endeavor, a unity that has no pretense and is not being used for compensation or justification.

这就是内识之路。一开始，你不会看到表面上有什么变化，当然，除非你试图重新创造自己，重新塑造自己，或使自己对自己更有吸引力，这就是大量的个人成长的真正目的。这就像一所美容学校!如何让自己看起来更好。对自己更好看有什么价值？你得到的认可将是暂时的，你遇到的问题也会很多。你对自我重要性的投资越大，你与生命中的包容就越远，和平和成就对你来说就越遥远。世界不需要另一个受折磨的生命。它需要的是一种团结的生命——一种通过诚实的努力建立起来的团结，一种没有任何伪装、不被用来补偿或辩解的团结。

In beginning The Greater Community Way of Knowledge, you begin some new activities. In the Steps to Knowledge Program you begin a daily practice. It is not a practice that you govern. It is not a practice that you adapt to yourself. It is a practice that you step up to. It is a practice that you adjust yourself to. You cannot improve it, but you can participate within it. Your practice at the beginning is very small, but it is consistent, and to follow it, you have to persevere and apply yourself. At first, it asks for very little time and attention. But what it does ask for it asks for consistently, not a day here and a day there, whenever you remember or feel like it, but every day. And if you miss a day, you come back and rededicate yourself. Your practice will grow, and as it grows, you will see that it is in keeping with the progress of your life. Yes, you will have days when you do not like it or understand it. You will have days when you feel grave self-doubt or self-deprecation, but as long as you are practicing, you are building a place for Knowledge to emerge within you.

在开始大社区内识之路时，你开始了一些新的活动。在内识的阶梯项目中，你开始了一个日常练习。这不是一个你管理的实践。它不是一个你自己适应的实践。它是一种你要加强的练习。它是一种你自己调整的练习。你不能改善它，但你可以参与其中。你一开始的练习非常小，但它是一致的，为了遵循它，你必须坚持不懈地应用自己。起初，它要求的时间和注意力非常少。但它所要求的是持续不断地进行，不是这里一天，那里一天，只要你想起来或想做，而是每一天。如果你错过了一天，你就回来重新奉献自己。你的练习会增长，随着它的增长，你会看到它与你生命的进展相一致。是的，你会有不喜欢它或不理解它的日子。你会有感到严重的自我怀疑或自我贬低的日子，但只要你在练习，你就在为内识在你内心涌现建立一个场所。

So, you have something new in life. It is called practice. If you stay with it, you will slowly begin to understand it. And if you learn to understand it, you will learn to value it, and your participation will deepen. You will do this without having to believe in any heroes. You will do this without having to have any creation stories. You will do this without having to have any heavens or hells. You will do this because you know you need to develop and you need to gain access to your inner life.

因此，你在生命中有了新的东西。它被称为实践。如果你坚持下去，你会慢慢开始理解它。如果你学会理解它，你将学会重视它，你的参与将加深。你会做到这一点，而不需要相信任何英雄。你会做到这一点，而不必有任何创造的故事。你将做到这一点，而不必有任何天堂或地狱。你会这样做，因为你知道你需要发展，你需要获得进入你的内在生命。

Perhaps you may give a different definition that expresses your motive. But remember that there are only two motives: There is the motive for Knowledge and there is the motive to look good. Look around you. How many people are trying to look good, not only to each other but primarily to themselves? Everyone wants to be liked. Everyone wants to be justified. Everyone wants to be unique. Everyone wants to be validated. This is a desperate and hopeless pursuit, for you will never get enough to satisfy you.

也许你可以给出一个不同的定义，表达你的动机。但请记住，只有两个动机。有内识的动机，有好看的动机。看看你的周围。有多少人在努力让自己看起来很好，不仅是对对方，主要是对自己？每个人都想被人喜欢。每个人都想成为合理的人。每个人都想成为独一无二的人。每个人都想得到认可。这是一种绝望的、无望的追求，因为你永远无法得到足够的满足。

So, while you are going along as a student of Knowledge, not much has changed except that you have this practice. But as you follow this practice, you will begin to experience some very important turning points which we call thresholds. In most cases you will not see the threshold itself, though you may think you have identified it. In most cases, you will experience the result of the threshold, which is a change in your perception and inner orientation. This is the result of a real change. The highs and lows of emotional experience do not constitute thresholds. A threshold happens at a deeper level, beyond awareness. But you will begin to experience its results with a change in your attitudes, your perceptions, your values and your associations. This is gradual. It needs to be gradual in order for you to integrate it and to put it into practice. Sudden change is often more destructive than it is constructive. Gradual change holds the best promise for success and for enduring value.

所以，当你作为内识的学生一路走来时，除了你有这种做法外，没有什么变化。但是，当你遵循这种实践时，你将开始经历一些非常重要的转折点，我们称之为阈值。在大多数情况下，你不会看到门槛本身，尽管你可能认为你已经确定了它。在大多数情况下，你会经历到阈值的结果，即你的感知和内在取向的变化。这就是真正变化的结果。情感经历的高点和低点并不构成阈值。阈值发生在更深的层次，超越了意识。但你会随着你的态度、感知、价值观和联想的改变开始经历它的结果。这是渐进的。它需要循序渐进，以便你整合它并将它付诸实践。突然的改变往往比建设性的改变更具破坏性。渐进的变化为成功和持久的价值提供了最好的保证。

As you advance, you will begin to have new levels of experience and a greater sensitivity to people and to your own inner state. The development of this sensitivity is natural, but it also requires a certain amount of repositioning yourself in life because human activity is very gross and abrasive, and it will be more difficult in many cases to be around this. This will lead to some new behavior on your part and generally will bring about improvement in the quality of your life. These are all the results of inner development, which is fueled by your practice in The Way of Knowledge.

随着你的进步，你将开始有新的经历水平，对人和自己的内在状态有更大的敏感性。这种敏感性的发展是自然的，但也需要在生活中对自己进行一定程度的重新定位，因为人类活动是非常粗暴和磨人的，在很多情况下，在这周围会更加困难。这将导致你的一些新的行为，一般来说会带来你生活质量的改善。这些都是内在发展的结果，而内在发展是由你在内识之路中的实践所推动的。

Thresholds await you down the road. You will pass through them and not know you are passing through them, but their evidence will be unmistakable as you begin to experience their effects and their results. It takes two to three years to assimilate your practice and to experience these kinds of results. Now, of course, most people do not last that long in their attempt to learn The Way of Knowledge. Some stay for a few weeks, some stay for a few months and some stay for only a few days. But they eventually will come back to this or to something else as they experience their inner need and come to realize that they themselves cannot fulfill it.

道路上的门槛在等着你。你将穿过它们，却不知道你正在穿过它们，但当你开始经历它们的影响和结果时，它们的证据将是明确无误的。需要两到三年的时间来吸收你的实践，并经历这些类型的结果。当然，大多数人在尝试学习内识之路的过程中不会持续那么久。有些人呆了几个星期，有些人呆了几个月，有些人只呆了几天。但他们最终会回到这个地方或其他地方，因为他们经历到了自己内心的需求，并意识到他们自己无法满足这个需求。

You are not apart from life, so you cannot fulfill yourself. You are not apart from life, so you cannot complete yourself. You are not apart from life, so you cannot uplift yourself. Life must do these for you—the powerful, important forces in life that represent a Greater Will and a Greater Power. These forces permeate the ignorance, the conflict and the violence of your world and of the Greater Community. They are there for you, you can call to them, and they will abide with you.

你没有脱离生命，所以你不能满足自己。你没有脱离生命，所以你不能完成你自己。你没有脱离生命，所以你不能提升自己。生命必须为你做这些——生命中强大的、重要的力量，代表着更大的意志和更大的力量。这些力量渗透在你的世界和大社区的无知、冲突和暴力中。他们就在你身边，你可以呼唤他们，他们会和你在一起。

After a few months along the road, everything looks kind of the same, but something else is happening. Instead of dressing yourself up on the outside, something is growing and emerging on the inside. Through your practice in Steps to Knowledge, you are creating a place for Knowledge to emerge. You are orienting yourself towards Knowledge. You are creating time and space in your mind for Knowledge. You are slowly recognizing your need for Knowledge, and not just a need to have certainty in times of conflict or challenge. The Greater Power offers you more than simply a lifesaver to rescue you from your own catastrophes. Much more is offered.

沿着这条路走了几个月后，一切看起来都有点相同，但另一些事情正在发生。与其说是在外表上装扮自己，不如说是在内心深处有什么东西在成长和出现。通过你在内识的阶梯中的练习，你正在为内识的出现创造一个地方。你正在把自己导向内识。你正在你的心灵中为内识创造时间和空间。你正在慢慢地认识到你对内识的需求，而不仅仅是在冲突或挑战时对确定性的需求。伟大的力量为你提供的不仅仅是一个救命稻草，把你从自己的灾难中拯救出来。提供的东西多得多。

A few months into your practice, and your friends say, “Well, you look the same to me!” But you begin to say, “Well, yes, but something is happening. I’m starting to feel things. I’m not sure what they are, but I know they are important.” It is to allow this emergence of Knowledge that you engage in practice. The practice helps you on many levels. It creates balance and focus for your mind. It creates a meaningful consistency in your daily life. It produces awareness of your inner states and a growing understanding of the distinction between Knowledge and desire. It slowly develops a greater discernment in your relationships and in your perception of the world. It creates a balance where things can be sorted out and order can be established in your own mind and emotions. It does this slowly and gradually. In following Steps to Knowledge, you develop a consistency, perseverance and inner determination that are not dominated by your emotional states. You become open to new ideas and experience as you move beyond the boundaries of your former ideas and beliefs. Steps to Knowledge will take you beyond them if you follow the steps.

在你练习的几个月里，你的朋友说：”嗯，你在我眼里看起来都一样！”但你开始说，”嗯，是的，但有些事情正在发生。我开始感觉到了一些东西。我不确定它们是什么，但我知道它们很重要”。正是为了允许这种内识的出现，你参与了实践。练习在许多层面上帮助你。它为你的心灵创造平衡和焦点。它在你的日常生活中创造了一种有意义的一致性。它产生了对你内在状态的意识，以及对内识和欲望之间区别的日益理解。它在你的人际关系和你对世界的感知中慢慢发展出更大的辨别力。它创造了一种平衡，在这种平衡中，关系可以被理清，秩序可以在你自己的心灵和情感中建立起来。它慢慢地、逐步地做到这一点。在遵循内识的阶梯的过程中，你会发展出一种一致性、毅力和内在的决心，而不是被你的情绪状态所支配。当你超越你以前的想法和信念的界限时，你会变得对新的想法和经历开放。如果你按照步骤去做，内识的步骤会带你超越它们。

Now, many people are very slow in this respect. They try to use all the steps in order to fortify their fixed beliefs and ideas, especially the beliefs and ideas that they consider to be spiritual and uplifting. They try to fortify what they already know rather than learn something new. Often they can persist in this quite awhile before they come to realize that The Greater Community Way of Knowledge is not here to validate their beliefs. The Way of Knowledge is here to take them on a journey into an entirely different state of awareness where their former beliefs may have little relevance.

现在，许多人在这方面非常缓慢。他们试图利用所有的步骤来强化他们固定的信仰和想法，特别是他们认为是精神和振奋的信仰和想法。他们试图强化他们已经知道的东西，而不是学习新的东西。在他们意识到大社区内识之路并不是来验证他们的信仰的之前，他们往往会坚持一段时间的做法。内识之路是要带他们进入一个完全不同的意识状态，在那里他们以前的信仰可能没有什么意义。

The Greater Community Way of Knowledge takes you beyond idealism and speculation into real engagement and greater certainty. You do not need to have a wonderful set of beliefs and ideas about yourself and others in order to advance in The Way of Knowledge. In fact, The Way of Knowledge will free you from the burden of maintaining and believing in these things.

大社区内识之路带领你超越理想主义和猜测，进入真正的参与和更大的确定性。你不需要对自己和他人有一套美妙的信仰和想法，就能在内识之路中获得进步。事实上，内识之路将把你从维持和相信这些想法的负担中解放出来。

To find the natural goodness that exists within people and within yourself, your mind cannot be encumbered by a great establishment of ideas and beliefs. People usually do not come to The Way of Knowledge in order to become free in this regard. They generally come to build or to rebuild their belief system. The Way of Knowledge provides an escape from this. It enables a more natural belief system based upon real experience and observation to be established rather than something that is simply constructed because it makes you look good to yourself, makes the world look good to you or makes you conform to the expectations and conventions of other people.

要找到存在于人们和自己内在的自然之善，你的心灵不能被大量的观念和信仰所束缚。人们通常不是为了在这方面获得自由而来到内识之路。他们一般是来建立或重建他们的信仰体系。内识之路为人们提供了一个摆脱困境的途径。它使人们能够在真实的经历和观察的基础上建立一个更自然的信仰体系，而不是简单地构建一些想法，因为它使你自己看起来不错，使世界看起来不错，或者使你符合其他人的期望和惯例。

Walking The Way of Knowledge can seem very ordinary, particularly at the beginning. There are no great things to be done here. There are no great changes to be made in your life. In fact, you are encouraged not to try to transform yourself. Stop fiddling with yourself and let something real emerge within you. Nurture that. Support that. Like the gardener, you do all the preparation work. You plant the seeds. And then they grow on their own. You just tend to the garden, manage it and maintain it, and wonderful things spring forth. If you do too much, you spoil the garden. If you do too little, you neglect the garden.

走内识之路可能看起来非常普通，尤其是在开始的时候。这里没有什么伟大的事情要做。在你的生活中也没有什么大的改变。事实上，我们鼓励你不要试图改变自己。停止摆弄自己，让真正的东西在你内在出现。培养它。支持它。像园丁一样，你做所有的准备工作。你种下种子。然后它们就会自己生长。你只需照料花园，管理它，维护它，美妙的事物就会涌现。如果你做得太多，就会破坏花园。如果你做得太少，你就忽视了花园。

Knowledge is like a garden. It will emerge naturally within you as you are capable of receiving it, accepting it and experiencing it. This requires desire and capacity. Progressing in The Way of Knowledge requires desire. This cannot be a casual interest or a fleeting impulse. This must be something that you feel is important.

内识就像一个花园。当你有能力得到它、接受它和经历它时，它就会在你体内自然出现。这需要欲望和能力。在内识之路上的进步需要欲望。这不能是一个偶然的兴趣或转瞬即逝的冲动。这必须是你觉得重要的事情。

And then there is the question of capacity. We shall speak a little on this now because this is an important subject. Even given a true desire for truth and purpose in life, one must come to recognize one’s current capacity. The only way to recognize your capacity is by taking on more than you have taken on in the past. This shows you your current mental and physical boundaries. Now, many people assume that their capacity is very great when in reality they have no way of determining how great it is. You must be engaged in something of a greater magnitude in order to find out what your capacity is. In the normal range of activities, people never reach their capacity and never have a real basis for understanding what it is. They continue to set arbitrary boundaries for their own experience, believing that they can function within these boundaries, and only through grave disappointment and disillusionment will they find out if they were correct or not.

然后是能力的问题。我们现在将谈一谈这个问题，因为这是一个重要的话题。即使有对真理和生命目的的真正渴望，一个人也必须认识到自己目前的能力。认识自己能力的唯一方法是通过承担比你过去所承担的更多。这将向你展示你目前的心理和身体的界限。现在，许多人认为他们的能力非常大，但实际上他们没有办法确定它有多大。你必须从事更大规模的工作，才能发现你的能力是什么。在正常的活动范围内，人们从来没有达到他们的能力，也没有一个真正的基础来理解他们的能力是什么。他们继续为自己的经历设定武断的界限，认为自己可以在这些界限内发挥作用，只有通过严重的失望和幻灭，他们才会发现自己是否正确。

Developing your capacity is a very slow and gradual process. It happens beneath the level of awareness. It is the result of practice. It is part of the preparation. You were not born with a gigantic capacity. Therefore, you have to cultivate it. Until real cultivation has occurred, people tend to think that either their capacity has no limits or the limits they place upon it are purely emotional in nature. People say, “Well, I can have this, and I can be that, and I can do this,” but then they are scared away by something very small. “Oh, I could never do that! I’m no good with this. I can’t do that.” The truth is, until you are engaged in something that calls upon you and demands things of you, you won’t know what you are capable of. You won’t know what your capacity is.

发展你的能力是一个非常缓慢和渐进的过程。它发生在意识水平之下。它是实践的结果。它是准备工作的一部分。你不是天生就有强大的能力。因此，你必须培养它。在真正的培养发生之前，人们倾向于认为他们的能力没有限制，或者他们对它的限制是纯粹的情感性质。人们说：”好吧，我可以拥有这个，我可以成为那个，我可以做这个，”但是他们又被一些非常小的事情吓跑了。”哦，我永远也做不到!我对这个不在行。我不能做那个。”事实是，除非你从事的事情对你有要求，对你有要求，否则你不会知道你有什么能力。你不会知道你的能力是什么。

This is The Greater Community Way of Knowledge. It requires a far greater capacity than your world’s religious teachings do because it accounts for a larger arena of life. It calls for a greater objectivity, a greater tolerance, a greater flexibility, a greater openness, and a greater discernment than any worldly philosophy or religion. The demands upon your capacity here are very great.

这就是大社区内识之路。它需要比你们世界的宗教教导大得多的能力，因为它涉及更大的生命领域。它要求比任何世俗的哲学或宗教更客观、更宽容、更灵活、更开放、更有辨识力。这里对你的能力的要求是非常大的。

So, what is the best way to proceed? The best way to proceed is to start out very small and grow. It is to have a beginner’s mind—to be a beginner, to not claim much for yourself, to not give yourself grandiose commendations and to not claim powers, abilities and awareness for yourself. In fact, it is wiser to take the opposite approach—to have a healthy self-doubt, to say to yourself, “I’m not so sure about these things that I believe. I’m not so sure about this. I will have to look more carefully.”

那么，什么是最好的着手方式？最好的方法是开始时非常小，然后成长。就是要有一个初学者的心态——做一个初学者，不要为自己要求太多，不要给自己冠冕堂皇的赞扬，不要为自己要求力量、能力和意识。事实上，更明智的做法是采取相反的方法——有一个健康的自我怀疑，对自己说：”我不太确定我所相信的这些事情。我对这件事不太确定。我必须更仔细地看看。”

Sometimes people go from being self-inflated to being self-denying, missing all that is in between. In this, we take a middle ground. Make few assumptions, keep your eyes open and stay connected to your inner experience. That is not the final answer, but it is a good starting point.

有时人们从自我膨胀到自我否定，错过了中间的一切。在这一点上，我们采取的是中间路线。少做假设，睁大你的眼睛，与你的内在经验保持联系。这不是最终的答案，但它是一个很好的出发点。

Steps to Knowledge continues for a long time because it is building your capacity while it is nurturing your desire for truth and for reality. Building capacity takes a long time. Do not think that you are going to undo decades of worldly conditioning in a few weeks or months. Do not think that you are going to reverse in a short time all that has built your personal mind since the day you arrived in this world. You can tell yourself anything that you want. You can persuade yourself to believe anything that you want to believe. You can hold any conversation with yourself. Sometimes you can even convince yourself to do or believe things that you know are wrong. But then there is Knowledge, and with Knowledge, there is truth. Accepted or denied, altered or embraced, the truth abides with you.

通往内识的阶梯持续了很长时间，因为它在培养你的能力的同时，也在培养你对真理和现实的渴望。培养能力需要很长的时间。不要以为你会在几周或几个月内解除几十年的世俗条件。不要以为你会在短时间内扭转自你来到这个世界那天起建立的所有个人心智。你可以告诉自己任何你想要的东西。你可以说服自己相信任何你想相信的东西。你可以和自己进行任何对话。有时你甚至可以说服自己去做或相信你知道是错误的事情。但是有了内识，有了内识就有了真理。接受或否认，改变或拥抱，真理都与你同在。

Developing your capacity to live the truth, to know the truth and to see the truth requires a great deal of time. Consider three years to be a reasonable amount of time to give yourself a good start. Three years of consistent participation and practice. You are building a foundation. Foundations are not built overnight. If you want a quick and easy way, then you will get a result that cannot stand. Do you want to build something solid or something flimsy? Do you want to build something enduring or something that is merely expedient?

培养你生活在真理中的能力，知道真理和看见真理需要大量的时间。考虑三年是一个合理的时间，给自己一个好的开始。三年的持续参与和实践。你正在建立一个基础。地基不是一夜之间就能建成的。如果你想要一个快速和简单的方法，那么你将得到一个不能成立的结果。你想建立稳固的基础还是脆弱的基础？你想建立持久的基础还是仅仅是权宜之计？

So, be patient. Let Knowledge grow on its own. You do your preparation work, which is following Steps to Knowledge, considering each step seriously and learning over time how to apply them and how to interpret their application. This takes time, but it develops a real depth and foundation within you. If you must have great results right away, then you will continue to buy books, or take programs or do anything that you think will give you the fast and easy way. And your house will be filled with books, and your mind will be filled with ideas. You will have all kinds of concepts and different points of view, and you will think that you are on a great journey of higher education. But having all of these things does not mean that you have begun the journey.

所以，要有耐心。让内识自己成长。你做你的准备工作，也就是遵循内识的步骤，认真考虑每一个步骤，并随着时间的推移学习如何应用它们以及如何解释它们的应用。这需要时间，但它在你内心深处发展出真正的深度和基础。如果你必须马上有很好的结果，那么你就会继续买书，或参加课程，或做任何你认为会给你带来快速和容易的方法。而你的房子里将充满书籍，你的心灵中也将充满各种想法。你会有各种概念和不同的观点，你会认为你正在接受高等教育的伟大旅程中。但拥有所有这些想法并不意味着你已经开始了旅程。

To begin the journey, you will need to give yourself to something, something you did not invent for yourself. And you will need to stay with it. The things that are valuable in your life have taken time and consistent energy. Your valuable relationships, your children, your careers, your deeper interests are all results of things that have been developed and cultivated over time. Settling down and taking the journey without all kinds of outrageous expectations of yourself and of life is part of the balancing that will enable a real foundation to be established—not something that is fleeting and flimsy and easily altered by circumstances.

要开始旅程，你将需要把自己交给一些东西，一些你没有为自己发明的东西。而且你将需要坚持下去。在你生命中有价值的东西已经花费了时间和持续的精力。你有价值的关系，你的孩子，你的职业，你更深的兴趣，都是经过长期发展和培养的结果。安定下来，踏上旅程，不要对自己和生命有各种离谱的期望，这是平衡的一部分，它将使一个真正的基础得以建立，而不是那些转瞬即逝的、脆弱的、容易被环境改变的基础。

Building desire and developing capacity represent the fundamentals of real education. Steps to Knowledge gives you more than you are capable of integrating, but it does so in such a way that it expands your capacity. It does this by challenging your beliefs and by nurturing your relationship with Knowledge. Knowledge will change almost everything you think, not because everything you think is wrong, but because much of what you think is unnecessary. This simplifies your mind, and as your mind becomes simplified, it becomes stronger, more focused and more powerful. Now you are not a whole host of sub-personalities anymore, all insanely competing with each other. You are becoming one person, with one point of view, with an openness to learn and a vitality for life. Your point of view is no longer a personal point of view as much as it is an inner orientation. You are able to change your ideas and beliefs as this becomes necessary, and so they are able to serve you as temporary expediencies, which is their highest service to you.

建立渴望和发展能力是真正教育的基础。内识的阶梯给你的基础超过了你的整合能力，但它是以这样一种方式来扩大你的能力。它通过挑战你的信仰和培养你与内识的关系来做到这一点。内识会改变你几乎所有的想法，不是因为你所想的一切都是错的，而是因为你所想的很多事情都是不必要的。这就简化了你的心灵，而当你的心灵变得简化时，它就会变得更强大，更集中，更有力量。现在你不再是一大堆子人格，都在疯狂地相互竞争。你正在成为一个人，有一个观点，有学习的开放性和生命的活力。你的观点不再是个人的观点，而是一种内在的取向。你能够在必要时改变你的想法和信仰，因此它们能够作为暂时的权宜之计为你服务，这也是它们对你的最高服务。

Ideas and beliefs, hunches and associations must be flexible in life because as you develop, you will outgrow the things that you relied upon before. Like a child growing through different sets of clothes, you will outgrow your ideas and beliefs. You are simply too big for them now. They don’t fit you anymore. That does not mean they are bad, and it does not mean they are not right for someone else. It means that they have become too tight and too constraining for you.

想法和信仰、预感和联想在生命中必须是灵活的，因为随着你的发展，你会淘汰你之前所依赖的想法。就像一个孩子在不同的衣服中成长一样，你会淘汰你的想法和信仰。你现在对它们来说实在是太大了。它们不再适合你了。这并不意味着它们是坏的，也不意味着它们不适合其他人。这意味着它们对你来说已经变得太紧、太束缚了。

The Way of Knowledge also requires self-discipline, and self-discipline is something that must be cultivated. Along with self-discipline there is restraint. People have a very odd perspective about restraint. They think it is related to self-denial, but this only represents their point of view. Restraint, in fact, is very important, and if you are to focus your life on anything, then you must curtail your other activities and bring them into your central focus, whatever it may be at that time. You do not have time or energy to waste now because your time and energy are being directed towards something.

内识之路也需要自律，而自律是必须培养的品质。伴随着自律，还有克制。人们对克制有一个非常奇怪的看法。他们认为它与自我否定有关，但这只代表他们的观点。克制，实际上是非常重要的，如果你要把你的生命集中在任何事情上，那么你必须缩减你的其他活动，并把它们带入你的中心焦点，无论它在那个时候是什么。你现在没有时间和能量可以浪费，因为你的时间和能量都被引向了某件事。

The development of self-discipline and the ability to exercise restraint wisely represent growing achievements in The Way of Knowledge. Instead of being driven by passions and desires, compulsions and needs, you begin to function outside of them more and more as you enter into the depth of your own reality. This represents freedom, power and self-determination. Here you can refocus your mind because it is not bound by your former conditioning. So, ideas, beliefs and convictions change in The Way of Knowledge because you are growing.

自律的发展和明智地行使克制的能力代表了内识之路中不断增长的成就。你不再被激情和欲望、强迫和需求所驱使，而是开始越来越多地在它们之外发挥作用，因为你进入了你自己的现实深处。这代表了自由、能力和自我决定。在这里，你可以重新聚焦你的心灵，因为它不被你以前的条件所约束。所以，在内识之路中，想法、信仰和信念会发生变化，因为你正在成长。

I said at the beginning that many people come to The Way of Knowledge because they want to fortify what they already believe, and that represents one of their motives, and often their dominant motive. They want to continue to build the point of view that they have been building for so long. But The Way of Knowledge takes them somewhere else. You cannot use Knowledge to build a point of view. You must use a point of view to build access to Knowledge. In this, your point of view must be flexible, changeable and adaptable. This keeps you at the very forefront of learning and develops your ability to interact with life. If everything is used to build a point of view, then you are not involved with life, and your awareness of it will be very selective. You will only want to see the things that represent what you want to see about your life. You will not be able to look at things as they are. You will only look at them as you want them to be or as you demand them to be. How miserable and isolating this is.

我在一开始就说过，许多人来到内识之路是因为他们想巩固自己已经相信的东西，这也是他们的动机之一，而且往往是最主要的动机。他们想继续建立他们已经建立了很久的观点。但内识之路把他们带到了别的地方。你不能用内识来建立一个观点。你必须用一个观点来建立对内识的访问。在这一点上，你的观点必须是灵活的、可改变的和可适应的。这使你保持在学习的最前沿，发展你与生命互动的能力。如果一切都用来建立一个观点，那么你就没有参与到生命中，你对生命的意识将是非常有选择性的。你将只想看到那些代表你想看到的生命的想法。你将无法看清生命的本质。你只会按照你想要的样子或你要求的样子去看它们。这是多么悲惨和孤立的生命。

The Way of Knowledge leads you in a different direction. It frees you from these encumbrances. As you go through Steps to Knowledge, you will see your point of view needing to change here and there, you will see yourself needing to make adjustments in your thinking and behavior and you will see yourself needing to suspend certain ideas that were cherished convictions before. Idealism of any kind stands in the way of the reclamation of Knowledge. It is a choice for belief over experience, for ideas over relationships, for self-importance over truth. Even for those who have very lofty ideas about themselves and the universe, their ideas, which may seem harmless within themselves, become a great restraint in The Way of Knowledge.

内识之路引领你走向不同的方向。它使你摆脱这些束缚。随着你逐步走向内识，你会发现自己的观点在各个方面需要改变，你会发现自己需要在思维和行为上做出调整，你会发现自己需要暂停一些曾经深信不疑的观念。任何形式的理想主义都会妨碍内识的开垦。它是对信仰而非经历的选择，是对观念而非关系的选择，是对自我重要感而非真理的选择。即使是那些对自己和宇宙有非常崇高想法的人，他们的想法，在他们自己看来是无害的，但在内识的道路上却成为一个巨大的限制。

To see and to think clearly, one’s mind must be unfettered. When the mind is unfettered, it has a greater capacity. It has greater powers of attention, and it is able to exert its will more effectively, which brings about greater self-discipline and the ability to exercise restraint appropriately.

为了看的清晰和思考的清晰，一个人的心灵必须不受约束。当心灵不受约束时，它就有更大的能力。它有更大的注意力，能够更有效地发挥其意志，这带来了更大的自律和适当行使克制的能力。

The Way of Knowledge is not about having high spiritual experiences all the time. It is about being real in the moment, being present in the moment, being open in the moment, and being available to learn about the Greater Reality and the Greater Community. It is being open to Mystery and to manifestation without confusing the two. The Way of Knowledge does not mix Spirit and matter together but respects each in its own domain. Thus, the man and woman of Knowledge become more capable in the world and at the same time become more capable at experiencing and penetrating the Mystery and learning beyond current or acceptable boundaries of thought. They become more capable in practical matters and at the same time more pervasive in their perception and discernment.

内识之路并不是要一直拥有高度的精神体验。它是关于当下的真实，当下的存在，当下的开放，以及可用于学习更大的现实和大社区。它是对神秘和显现的开放，而不混淆这两者。内识之路不把精神和物质混为一谈，而是尊重各自的领域。因此，内识的男人和女人在这个世界上变得更有能力，同时也更有能力经历和穿透神秘，学习超越当前或可接受的思想界限。他们在实际事务中变得更有能力，同时在感知和辨别力方面也更加全面。

The Way of Knowledge takes you into the world and prepares you for the world, but it prepares you with a greater state of mind. It is not a form of escape. It does not enable you to escape the mundanities of life. Indeed, it is here to help you contribute to the mundanities of life, for you have come to the world for this purpose.

内识之路将你带入世界，并为你们的世界做好准备，但它为你准备了更大的心智。它不是一种逃避的形式。它不会让你逃避生活中的琐事。事实上，它是为了帮助你对生活中的琐事做出贡献，因为你来到这个世界就是为了这个目的。

To experience the things that I have spoken of here and to understand the distinctions that I have made, you yourself must begin and progress in the great journey. You must take the Steps to Knowledge and learn what they are, how they work and where they take you. As you climb higher on the mountain of life, you will understand the journey more completely. You will see those far down below who are struggling to progress and to understand, and you will understand their difficulty. And you will have compassion for them, for you yourself have traveled that way before.

要经历我在这里所说的事情，要理解我所做的区分，你自己必须在伟大的旅程中开始和进步。你必须采取内识的步骤，学习它们是什么，它们如何工作，以及它们将带你到哪里。当你在生命之山上爬得更高时，你会更彻底地理解这个旅程。你将看到那些远在下面的人正在努力进步和理解，你将理解他们的困难。你会同情他们，因为你自己以前也走过这条道路。