Chapter 20: What is religious education and who is it for?

As revealed to God’s Messenger Marshall Vian Summers on October 30, 1993 in Boulder, CO
1993年10月30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

Religious education is an attempt to build a bridge from your worldly mind to your Spiritual Mind. In whatever context, format, tradition or preparation, this is its overall intent. Therefore, religious education must be focused on Knowledge because Knowledge represents your Spiritual Mind in the world and your vital link to God and to all life everywhere. To think that religion is not concerned with Knowledge is to misinterpret and misunderstand the purpose and nature of religion. This new definition gives you a fresh and appropriate view of what religion is and what it must mean for you now.

宗教教育是试图建立一座从你的世俗心智到你的精神心智的桥梁。无论在什么情况下，什么形式，什么传统或准备，这都是它的总体意图。因此，宗教教育必须以内识为重点，因为内识代表了你在这个世界上的精神心智，以及你与上帝和各地所有生命的重要联系。认为宗教不关注内识，就是曲解和误解了宗教的目的和性质。这个新的定义让你对宗教是什么以及它现在对你必须意味着什么有了一个新的和适当的看法。

Religious education exists in many different traditions. However, now there is a greater need. Now there is a greater context for understanding. Now there is a greater problem for humanity—a problem which can unite humanity in its approach, give focus and destiny to its efforts and bring about a greater union among its peoples. This greater context is represented by the world’s emergence into the Greater Community, which will present a set of problems and opportunities that the world’s religions are not prepared to meet.

宗教教育存在于许多不同的传统中。然而，现在有了更大的需求。现在有一个更大的理解背景。现在，人类有一个更大的问题——一个可以使人类团结起来的问题，使人类的努力有了重点和天命，并使人类各民族之间有了更大的联合。这个更大的背景是世界上出现的大社区，它将提出一系列问题和机会，而世界上的宗教还没有准备好迎接。

In order for you to be a person who can prepare for the future and live meaningfully in the moment, you need to become a part of what is happening in the world. You need to belong to the world while you are here. In this way, your gift will be called forth from you, and you will be able to give it appropriately and meaningfully with a greater understanding and a greater perspective.

为了让你成为一个能够为未来做准备并在当下有意义生活的人，你需要成为世界上正在发生的事件的一部分。当你在这里的时候，你需要属于这个世界。通过这种方式，你的礼物将被召唤出来，你将能够以更大的理解和更高的视角适当地、有意义地给予它。

Religious education is, therefore, fundamentally concerned with the reclamation of Knowledge. However, since there is so much religious education that is not concerned with this, we must make a very important distinction at this point. Learning traditions, methodologies and the historical context for any religious tradition are only meant to inspire you and must only be adjuncts to the real preparation itself. Unfortunately, few people are ever able to find the real preparation in their own tradition.

因此，宗教教育从根本上讲是与内识的开垦有关。然而，由于有许多宗教教育并不关注这一点，我们必须在这一点上做出非常重要的区分。学习传统、方法论和任何宗教传统的历史背景只是为了启发你，而且必须只是真正准备工作本身的辅助手段。不幸的是，很少有人能在自己的传统中找到真正的准备。

We do not give you a detailed historical account of The Greater Community Way of Knowledge. We do not create grand, marvelous and incomprehensible creation stories. We do not give you anyone to worship. We do not give you pageantry. We do not give you a theology that is filled with speculation and self-comforting ideas. Instead, we give you the pure approach—the means, the direction, the purpose, the content and the application. You need this now as the world is preparing to emerge into the Greater Community. All the other things that are left out of this pure approach will only hinder you, blind you, encumber you and disable you from gaining access to the true meaning and importance of your life at this time. Be grateful that you have been spared such distractions. Be grateful that you do not have to carry the weight of the world’s thinking upon your shoulders. Be grateful that you do not have to bear the burden of all of the interpretation and idealism that saturate spiritual understanding and seem to conceal the real preparation and make it inaccessible and undesirable.

我们不会给你一个关于大社区内识之路的详细历史说明。我们不创造宏伟的、奇妙的、不可理解的创造故事。我们不给你任何人来崇拜。我们不给你的庆典活动。我们不给你一个充满了猜测和自我安慰的神学。相反，我们给你的是纯粹的方法——手段、方向、目的、内容和应用。你现在需要这个，因为世界正准备进入大社区。所有其他被排除在这一纯粹方法之外的准备只会阻止你，使你盲目，阻碍你，使你无法获得此时你生命的真正意义和重要性。要感激你已经幸免于这种分心。要感激你不必肩负世俗思想的重担。要感激你不必承担所有的解释和理想主义的负担，这些解释和理想主义充斥着精神上的理解，似乎掩盖了真正的准备，使其无法接近和不受欢迎。

Religious education must teach you The Way of Knowledge. If this can be done purely, without other encumbrances, then you will have a remarkable opportunity. You have this opportunity now, not only to learn The Way of Knowledge but to learn The Greater Community Way of Knowledge, which represents the existence and activity of Knowledge within a far greater context of life. Within this greater context, the encumbrances of human pageantry, history, fantasy and idealism have no place. If you wish to retreat into the past, then return to the past. But if you do so, you will not understand who you are or why you are here now. You will not understand where you are going or what is coming for you. For you will have a future that will be unlike the past because of the world’s emergence into the Greater Community. The future is never like the past anyway.

宗教教育必须教你内识之路。如果能纯粹地做到这一点，没有其他负担，那么你将有一个非凡的机会。你现在有这个机会，不仅可以学习内识之路，还可以学习大社区内识之路，它代表了内识在更大的生命背景下的存在和活动。在这个更大的背景下，人类的繁文缛节、历史、幻想和理想主义的负担都没有位置。如果你想退回到过去，那就回到过去。但如果你这样做，你将不明白你是谁，也不明白你现在为什么在这里。你将不明白你要去哪里，也不明白你将会得到什么。因为你将有一个与过去不同的未来，因为世界出现在大社区。无论如何，未来永远不会像过去那样。

In order to learn a Greater Community Way of Knowledge, you must have a free mind. You must have a mind that can learn new things. You must have a mind that is free of past referencing. And you must have a fresh approach and a real source of inspiration. Your inspiration must now come from Knowledge itself. It cannot come from fantastic stories. It cannot come from ancient personages. It cannot come from ideals. It cannot come from supplication. It must come from Knowledge itself—that great intelligence within you which represents your true purpose and your true will in life.

为了学习大社区的内识之路，你必须有一个自由的心灵。你必须有一个能够学习新事物的心智。你必须有一个没有过去参照的心智。而且你必须有一个新的方法和一个真正的灵感来源。你的灵感现在必须来自内识本身。它不能来自奇妙的故事。它不能来自古代的人物。它不能来自于理想。它不能来自祈求。它必须来自内识本身——你内心的那个伟大的智能，它代表了你生命中的真实目的和你的真实意愿。

So, what is religious education? If it is not an attempt to understand the past, then it must be a preparation for the future, as it should be. In reality, all religious education in the pure sense is a preparation for the future because it is preparing you to live a life that represents your true purpose and will. Yet how rare this is! You can see this very clearly, yet it is so hard to find in the world because most people are looking backwards and therefore cannot see the future approaching them. Most people are trying to make sense out of what they already believe, and as a result they cannot see what is right in front of them. So many people are guarding their ideas and their beliefs, but who can respond to the next moment when Knowledge will call upon them?

那么，什么是宗教教育？如果它不是试图理解过去，那么它必须是为未来做准备，因为它应该是这样。实际上，所有纯粹意义上的宗教教育都是对未来的准备，因为它在准备你过一种代表你真实目的和意愿的生命。然而，这一点是多么难得啊！你可以很清楚地看到这一点，然而，你的生活中却没有任何一个人能够做到。你可以很清楚地看到这一点，然而在这个世界上却很难找到，因为大多数人都在向后看，因此看不到正在接近他们的未来。大多数人都试图从他们已经相信的历史中找出意义，结果他们看不到就在他们面前的未来。所以很多人都在守护他们的想法和信仰，但谁又能对下一刻内识对他们的召唤做出回应呢？

This is a Greater Community Spirituality. It is meant to take you to a greater vantage point in life. Perhaps you will go with your former tradition or some aspect of it. Perhaps you will take nothing with you. Only what is true can accompany you up the mountain of life. What is unnecessary, or what was true before but is no longer true, you cannot take with you. You need only what is essential, and you do not want to be burdened with what is nonessential. You want your mind and your vision to be clear. Add one thing that does not belong, add one person who does not belong in your life, add one set of beliefs or requirements, preferences or associations which are not essential to you and to your purpose, and your way will be clouded and your understanding will be offset. You will lose your vision.

这就是大社区的精神性。它是为了把你带到生命中更高的观测位置。也许你会跟随你以前的传统或其某些方面。也许你会一无所有地前行。只有真实的内识才能陪伴你登上生命之山。不必要的关系，或者以前是真实的但现在不再是真实的关系，你不能带走。你只需要必要的关系，你不希望被非必要的关系所拖累。你希望你的心智和你的视野是清晰的。如果添加不属于你的一件事物，添加一个不属于你生命的人，或者添加一套不对你和你的目的至关重要的信念、要求、偏好或关联，你的道路将会变得模糊不清，你的理解将受到干扰。你将失去你的视野。

To prevent this from happening, we give you a new beginning, a new start. You need this because what you have learned in the past you must now leave behind at the door. To enter into this greater panorama and this greater education, you must have an open mind, a young mind, a fresh mind. Religious education deals with learning about Knowledge. Because Knowledge is completely present, it is not concerned with the past and it is not here to defend old traditions. It is here to engage you meaningfully in the moment and to prepare you for the future so that the promise of your great purpose in life may be realized and fulfilled.

为了防止这种情况发生，我们为你提供一个新的开始，一个新的起点。你需要这个新的开始，因为你在过去学到的知识，现在必须在门口留下。要进入这个更大的全景和更大的教育，你必须有一个开放的心灵，一个年轻的心灵，一个鲜活的心灵。宗教教育涉及到对内识的学习。因为内识是完全在场的，它不关心过去，也不是来捍卫旧传统的。它在这里是为了让你有意义地参与到当下，并为你的未来做好准备，从而使你生命的伟大目的的承诺得以实行和实现。

The world’s emergence into the Greater Community can have a tremendously liberating effect in terms of your ability to associate with life. Here you will be forced to deal with the present. And because of the great encounter with other forms of intelligent life, your associations with your memories of the past will fade. This will change your life, which is a change for the good if you can embrace it, understand it and utilize it properly.

世界进入大社区的过程可以极大地解放你与生命联系的能力。在这里，你将被迫面对当下。由于与其他形式的智能生命的重大接触，你对过去记忆的联系将逐渐消退。这将改变你的生命，如果你能接受、理解并正确利用它，它将是一种积极的改变。

The education in Greater Community Spirituality is mysterious because it does not call upon your past or require past referencing. Here you must learn things you do not understand, approach things you cannot relate to and study things you have never studied before. Here you cannot rely upon your former ideas, beliefs or associations. You must be vulnerable to the truth to know the truth. And you are vulnerable when you approach the truth without your former ideas and conclusions. This does not mean that you are to be open to everything, but it does mean that you are willing to learn something new and have it be demonstrated to you. If this cannot be done, then you cannot learn a Greater Community Way of Knowledge, and you cannot prepare for the Greater Community. And you will join the great majority of humanity that is involved in the past and that cannot respond meaningfully to the present and to the future.

大社区精神性的教育是神秘的，因为它不调用你的过去，也不需要参照过去。在这里，你必须学习你不理解的真理，接触你无法关联的事物，并研究你从未学习过的内容。在这里，你不能依赖你以前的观念、信仰或关联。你必须对真理感到脆弱，才能知道真理。当你在没有以前的观念和结论的情况下接近真理时，你是脆弱的。这并不意味着你要对所有的事物持开放态度，但它确实意味着你愿意学习新的真理，并让内识向你展示。如果不能做到这一点，那么你就不能学习大社区的内识之路，也不能为大社区做好准备。而你将加入人类中绝大多数人的行列，他们被卷入过去，无法对现在和未来做出有意义的回应。

The past has brought you to this point, to this opportunity to learn The Greater Community Way of Knowledge. It has served its purpose. This was its purpose. It has no other purpose that is lasting and meaningful. It has brought you to this point where you can receive these words. If properly understood, the past will enable you to begin life anew, with an open and a free mind.

过去已经把你带到了这一点，带到了学习大社区内识之路的机会。过去已经达到了它的目的。这是它的目的。它没有其他持久和有意义的目的。过去把你带到了这一点上，使你可以接收这些话语。如果能正确认识过去，就能以开放和自由的心态重新开始生活。

We call upon Knowledge within you to respond. Therefore, we honor you and your intelligence. You are not asked to believe something that you cannot believe or to accept something that you cannot accept. For this to be honest and sincere, you must come to Knowledge on your own. Knowledge is the living Presence within you, the greater intelligence that you possess and that bonds you to all life. Here there is no past referencing. Here there is complete honesty. Here there is complete and true discernment. Here there is real responsibility.

我们呼唤与你同在的内识来回应。因此，我们尊重你和你的智能。我们没有要求你相信你无法相信的内识，也没有要求你接受你无法接受的内识。为了使这是诚实与真挚的，你必须自己来接受内识。内识是你内心的活生生的存在，是你拥有的更伟大智能，它把你和所有的生命联系在一起。这里没有过去的参照物。这里有完全的诚实。这里有完整和真实的辨别力。这里有真正的责任。

Religious education is meant for any person who feels the need to understand his or her purpose and meaning in life. Any person who has begun to feel this greater and deeper need will need some form of religious education. From a Greater Community perspective, this means that they must learn The Way of Knowledge. They must learn about Knowledge. They must learn about their deeper nature and its purpose and mission in life, which are inextricably bonded to the evolution of the world.

宗教教育是为任何感到需要理解他或她的生命目的和意义的人而设。任何开始感受到这种更大、更深需求的人都需要某种形式的宗教教育。从大社区的角度来看，这意味着他们必须学习内识之路。他们必须学习内识。他们必须学习他们更深层的本性，以及它在生命中的目的和使命，这与世界的进化密不可分地联系在一起。

Remember, you have been sent to serve the world in its evolution and development. You have come to participate in what is occurring at this time. Your life now and your life to come will give you the greatest opportunities and the greatest challenges to do this.

记住，你被派来为世界的进化和发展服务。你已经在参与此时正在发生的事情。你现在的生命和你未来的生命将给你最大的机会和最大的挑战来做到这一点。

So great will be the world’s emergence into the Greater Community and its impact on human awareness that the emphasis on the past, which is so pervasive in your thinking and in your current education, will become increasingly irrelevant. Here you will not be able to call upon the past to help you and to give you the strength, the insight and the skill to deal with the new experiences that you will be having. The past can only take you backwards. It cannot prepare you for the future. Only in the simplest and most mundane ways can the past prepare you for the future. To fully prepare for the Greater Community and for a new world experience, you will need something greater and wiser, more spontaneous and more complete. You already possess this within yourself.

世界在大社区中的出现及其对人类意识的影响将是如此之大，以至于在你们的思想和当前教育中普遍存在的对过去的强调将变得越来越无关紧要。在这里，你将无法调用过去来帮助你，给你力量、洞察力和技能来应对你将经历的新体验。过去只能使你倒退。它不能为你的未来做好准备。只有以最简单、最平凡的方式，过去才能让你为未来做好准备。要为大社区和新世界的体验做好充分准备，你将需要更伟大、更智慧、更自发、更完整的内识。你已经在自己内心拥有了这一点。

If you are a person who needs to know the purpose and meaning of your life and who cannot be satisfied with simple pleasures or be preoccupied with normal fears, justifications and beliefs, then you must enter a religious education—a religious education in the purest sense. To learn The Way of Knowledge, which is the workings of Spirit, is to learn the nature of spirituality as it truly exists in the evolving condition of the human experience here. If you have this greater need and cannot dismiss it, rationalize it or satisfy it with the traditions that exist now and their explanations for life, then you must have a new experience and leave aside what cannot satisfy this greater calling within you.

如果你是一个需要知道你生命的目的和意义的人，不能满足于简单的快乐，或被正常的恐惧、理由和信仰所困扰，那么你必须进入宗教教育——最纯粹意义上的宗教教育。学习内识之路，也就是精神的运作，就是学习精神性的本质，正如精神性在这里不断发展的人的经验中真正存在的那样。如果你有这种更大的需求，并且不能用现在存在的传统及其对生命的解释来否定它、合理化它或满足它，那么你必须有一种新的经验，并放弃那些无法满足你内心这种更大呼唤的事物。

Many will find their purpose in the traditions of the world, for there is much wisdom and value there. However, many will not find their purpose there because their preparation has to do with the future specifically, and they must learn a new way. They must receive a new testament, and they must prepare for a new experience.”

许多人将在世界的传统中找到他们的目的，因为那里有许多智慧和价值。然而，许多人不会在那里找到他们的目的，因为他们的准备与未来具体有关，他们必须学习一种新的方式。他们必须收到一份新的验证，他们必须为新的经历做准备”。

Many will find their purpose in the traditions of the world, for there is much wisdom and value there. However, many will not find their purpose there because their preparation has to do with the future specifically, and they must learn a new way. They must receive a new testament, and they must prepare for a new experience. This represents the greatest need for humanity at this time, a need that is barely known and that is barely recognized. Anyone who can respond to this becomes a pioneer for the human race. Anyone who can respond to this becomes a great contributor to life. What keeps humanity going are those who can respond to the present and to the future. They are the ones who have advanced your race. And they are the ones who will advance your race in its current difficulties and opportunities and in the difficulties and opportunities to come.

许多人会在世界的传统中找到他们的目的，因为那里有许多智慧和价值。然而，许多人不会在那里找到他们的目的，因为他们的准备与未来具体有关，他们必须学习新的方式。他们必须收到一份新的验证，他们必须为一种新的经历做准备。这代表了人类此时最大的需求，这个需求几乎不为人所知，也几乎不被人承认。任何能对此作出反应的人都会成为人类的先锋。任何能对此作出反应的人都会成为对生命的伟大贡献者。使人类继续前进的是那些能够对现在和未来做出回应的人。他们是推动你们种族进步的人。他们也是在目前的困难和机会中以及在未来的困难和机会中推进你们种族的人。

Accept your greater need. Feel it. It contains the real meaning of your life. Though it has been a burden, a nuisance and a source of great discomfort and dissatisfaction, understand it is meant to lead you to something new. It is calling upon you. It is your calling. Though it feels like a great and pressing need that cannot be defined or explained away, it is your calling. Do not define it. Do not explain it away. Do not associate it with the past. Do not try to make it fit into the world’s ideas and understanding. Give it the freedom to emerge within you. It is the inspiration, the impetus and the drive for truth. And it will take you to a truth that you have never known before and prepare you in ways that have rarely been seen within the world.

接受你更大的需求。感受它。它包含了你生命的真正意义。尽管它一直是一个负担、麻烦以及巨大不适和不满的来源，但要理解内识，它是为了引领你走向新的生命。它在呼唤你。它是对你的召唤。尽管对内识的感觉像一个无法定义或解释的巨大而紧迫的需求，但这就是对你的召唤。不要定义它。不要解释它。不要将它与过去联系在一起。不要试图将它套入世界的观念和理解之中。让内识在你内心自由地显现。它是灵感，是动力，是追求真理的推动力。它将带你进入一个你从未知道的真理，并以世界上罕见的方式为你做好准备。

To receive a Greater Community Spirituality, there must be this great and corresponding need within yourself. You cannot do this for curiosity. You cannot do this to attempt to look superior in any way. If this is your motivation, you will not be able to learn a Greater Community Way of Knowledge. And you will deceive yourself and others, at great cost both to yourself and to your relationships. A greater need will set you apart from others who cannot or will not feel their greater need. Your task and your challenge now is to respond to this greater need within yourself and to allow it to emerge without attempting to harness it, define it or direct it. It has its own direction. It has its own purpose. It has its own will. To recognize this greater need is to honor your deeper inclinations and to reunite with yourself as you truly are and as you are truly seeking to be in life.

要收到大社区的精神性，你自己的内心必须有这种强烈且相应的需求。你不能为了好奇心而这样做。你不能为了试图在任何方面看起来更优越而这样做。如果这是你的动机，你将无法学习大社区的内识之路。而且你会欺骗自己和他人，对你自己和你的关系都会造成巨大的损害。更大的需求将使你与那些不能或不愿感受到自己更大需求的人区分开来。你现在的任务和挑战是回应你内心的这种更大的需求，允许它出现，而不试图驾驭它、定义它或引导它。它有自己的方向。它有自己的目的。它有自己的意志。认识到这一更大的需求，就是尊重你更深的倾向，并与你真正是的自己和你在生命中真正寻求的自己重新结合。

Perhaps you will think you are responding to something fantastic and inexplicable. This represents both the limits of your personal mind and the greatness and the importance of your deeper mind. Of course you cannot understand something great with something small. Your personal mind is small. The mind of Knowledge is great. If you think you understand it, you only limit it. If you think you can control it, you will only be fooled by it. If you think you can hold it for yourself, it will escape you.

也许你会认为你是在对一些奇妙的、不可解释的东西作出回应。这既代表了你个人心智的局限性，也代表了你更深层心智的伟大和重要性。当然，你不能用渺小的心智来理解伟大的心智。你的个人心智是渺小的。内识的心智是伟大的。如果你认为你理解它，你只会限制它。如果你认为你能控制它，你只会被它所愚弄。如果你认为你能为自己持有它，它就会逃离你。

To be a student of Knowledge, you must be open to learn. To learn, you must not determine or demand what the result will be or how the learning will take place. Open your mind, allow your greater need and purpose to emerge and you will feel a reunion within yourself. You will feel refreshed. You will feel that at last you are being recognized and acknowledged. If you can allow this to set you apart from others, without attempting to take them with you or to remain united with an old perspective or understanding, you will feel these great acknowledgments, and they will give you strength and confirmation.

要成为内识的学生，你必须开放进行学习。为了学习，你必须不决定或要求结果是什么，或学习将如何进行。打开你的心智，让你更大的需求和目的出现，你会感觉到自己内心的重聚。你会感到神清气爽。你会感觉到，你终于被认可和承认了。如果你能允许这一点将你与他人区分开来，而不试图带着他们，或与旧的观点或理解保持一致，你将感受到这些伟大的承认，它们会给你力量和确认。

Religious education is unlike the education of the world. It is not about learning facts or historical perspectives. It is not about comparing ideas. It is not about speculation. It is not about passing tests or meeting requirements. It is not about winning favor with others and gaining recognition amongst them. Religious education as it truly exists represents The Way of Knowledge. This is where you enter into the Mystery and allow a Greater Mind to emerge within you. This is where you put yourself in a position to receive so that you can learn something that you did not know before, experience something you could not experience before and see something you could not see before.

宗教教育与世界的教育不同。它不是关于学习事实或历史观点。它不是关于比较想法。它不是关于猜测。它不是关于通过测试或满足要求。它不是为了赢得他人的好感并在他们中间获得认可。真正存在的宗教教育代表着内识之路。这是你进入神秘的地方，让更大的心智在你内在出现。在这里，你把自己放在一个可以接收的位置上，以便你能够学习以前不知道的关系，体验以前无法体验的关系，并看到以前看不见的关系。

With this education, you can advance up the mountain and gain a greater vantage point in life, a greater view and a greater honesty. As you proceed, what is necessary will serve you. What is unnecessary will burden you and will have to be left aside. Then your steps will become quicker, and your burden will become lighter. And your need to associate with life that exists in the lowlands will become less and less of an encumbrance for you. This is gaining a very practical freedom, a freedom that can only be gained through an education of this nature.

有了这种教育，你可以向山上前进，在生命中获得更高的观测位置，有更大的视野和更大的诚实。随着你的前进，必要的关系将为你服务。不必要的关系会给你带来不必要的负担，必须被搁置。然后你的脚步将变得更快，你的负担将变得更轻。你与存在于低处的生活联系的需求将越来越少地成为你的负担。这是一种非常实际的自由，一种只有通过这种性质的教育才能获得的自由。

Knowledge will free you and unburden you because that is its first purpose and requirement. What it will give you is something you have sought in all other things—relationship, acknowledgment, power, confidence, determination and direction in life. These things will have a real foundation now and will not fail you.

内识将使你自由并解除你的负担，因为这是它的第一个目的和要求。它将给你的是你在所有其他事情中所寻求的品质——关系、承认、力量、信心、决心和生命的方向。这些品质现在将有一个真正的基础，不会让你失望。

This is for anyone who feels the real need to know. This education is the answer to this need. The need calls for preparation. The need initiates you to become a real student and enables you to prepare and to support your preparation. The preparation cannot come from within you. Only the ability to prepare and the desire to prepare can come from within you. The preparation must be given to you. It represents a gift that corresponds to your deeper need. It is the answer to the question that your need expresses.

这是为那些感到真正需求知道的人准备的。这种教育是对这种需求的回答。这种需求需要准备。这种需求促使你成为一名真正的学生，使你能够准备并支持你的准备。准备工作不能来自你的内心。只有准备的能力和准备的愿望才能来自你的内心。准备工作必须被给予你。它代表着与你更深层的需求相对应的礼物。它是对你的需求所表达问题的答案。

Religious education takes you into a new kind of experience—an experience of recognition and an experience of knowing things. Much of this will have nothing to do with you personally. It enables you to learn information that is useful to your purpose. In essence, it will seem more an unlearning than a learning because you will be releasing so many former ideas to create an opening in your mind and a greater capacity for learning. How can you learn if your mind is already filled with your own ideas and beliefs? How can your mind learn anything when it is protecting its current information?

宗教教育将带你进入一种新的经验——一种肯定且知道关系的经历。这其中大部分与你个人无关。它使你能够学到对你的目的有用的信息。从本质上讲，这似乎更像是一种解脱，而不是学习，因为你将释放许多以前的想法，在你的心灵中创造一个开放的空间，并使你具有更强的学习能力。如果你的心灵中已经充满了你自己的想法和信念，你又怎么能学习呢？当你的心灵在保护它的现有的信息时，它怎么能学到任何事情呢？

Education in The Way of Knowledge deals with learning things that are essential, releasing things that are not and gaining the discernment to tell the two apart. How do you tell them apart? You tell them apart because they are so different, and you can feel the difference. The experience of Knowledge is unlike anything else in the world. Here you will develop a deeper reference point for Knowledge within yourself—not something that tantalizes your ideas or stimulates your emotions, but something that resonates with the deeper part of you that you are now able to experience and identify.

内识之路的教育涉及到学习必要的关系，释放不必要的关系，并获得分辨两者的能力。你如何区分它们呢？你把它们区分开来，因为它们是如此不同，而且你能感觉到它们的不同。内识的经验与世界上其他任何经验都不同。在这里，你将在自己内心深处发展出一个更深的内识参照点——不是那些诱发你的想法或刺激你的情绪的关系，而是那些能与你现在能够体验和识别的更深层部分产生共鸣的关系。

The Way of Knowledge seems very slow, but you will move with remarkable speed. You will not see your advancement except at certain points when you realize that you are at a different position on the mountain of life and that you have a different view of life around you. Then you will have a new experience of who you are, and you will have a greater sense of inner freedom. Here experience is more important than belief. Here learning is more important than the confirmation of old ideas.

内识之路看似非常缓慢，但你将以非凡的速度前进。你不会看到自己的进步，除非在某些时刻，你意识到自己处于生命之山上的不同位置，对周围的生命有了不同的看法。然后你会对你是谁有新的体验，你会有更大的内心自由感。在这里，经验比信仰更重要。在这里，学习比确认旧观念更重要。

Religious education must be mysterious. If you demand that everything be concrete and tangible, then you are past referencing. If you think that everything must be physical and mundane, how can you learn something mysterious and divine? The Mystery has its own demonstration, the most profound of which is the experience of Knowledge itself. But to approach the Mystery, you must enter into a realm where you do not have understanding or expertise. Here you must go in a direction that other people are not going. You must accept your departure and support it without any condemnation of others in order to carry light into the darkness, the darkness of the unknown.

宗教教育必须是神秘的。如果你坚持要求一切都是具体和可感知的，你就只是在参照过去。如果你认为一切都必须是物质的、世俗的，那么你怎么能学习神秘而神圣的内识呢？神秘有它自身的示范作用，其中最深刻的是内识本身的体验。但要接近神秘，你必须进入一个你没有理解或专业知识的领域。在这里，你必须朝着其他人没有去的方向前进。你必须接受自己的离开方向，并支持它，不对他人进行任何谴责，以便将光带入黑暗，带入未知的黑暗。

The light of Knowledge will light your way. It cannot be extinguished. It can only be hidden. As it is revealed, you will not want to hide it because it will give you certainty and strength and make your life essential and meaningful. It will show you the way. When the light of Knowledge is concealed, then you will stumble about in life, trying this out, trying that out, believing in whatever seems most comfortable and self-assuring in the moment, but without any real certainty of truth and without any real efficacy in your thinking and behavior.

内识之光将照亮你的道路。它不能被熄灭。它只能被隐藏。当它被揭示时，你将不想隐藏它，因为它将给你带来确定性和力量，使你的生命变得重要和有意义。它将为你指明方向。当内识之光被掩盖时，你就会在生活中跌跌撞撞，尝试这个，尝试那个，相信当下看起来最舒服和自我安慰的关系，但没有任何真正的真理确定性，在你的思维和行为中没有任何真正的功效。

Religious education restores what is essential to your life. It gives you something that the world cannot give you because its source is God. The world can teach you the ways of the world. It can teach you how to survive in the world and how to prosper in the world to a certain degree. However, it cannot teach you your greater nature or purpose. It cannot teach you where you have come from and where you are going. Therefore, the more worldly a religious education becomes, the less it is able to address these greater and far more important questions. If you do not have a real sense of why you are here, then you are lost to yourself. Your only remedy, then, is to find a way to regain, to reclaim and to express this greater purpose. Here everyone is lost until they are found. And the only way they are found is to find the way that a greater purpose can be experienced directly and honestly.

宗教教育恢复了你生命中必不可少的内识。它赋予你世界无法给予的关系，因为它的来源是上帝。世界可以教导你世界的方式。它可以在一定程度上教你如何在这个世界上生存，如何在这个世界上成功。然而，它无法教导关于你的更伟大的目的或本质。它不能教你从哪里来，要到哪里去。因此，宗教教育越是世俗化，它就越不能解决这些更大、更重要的问题。如果你对自己为什么在这里没有一个真正的感觉，那么你对自己而言是迷失的。那么，你唯一的补救措施就是找到一种方法来重新获得、收回并表达这个更伟大的目的。在这里，每个人都是迷失的，直到他们找到自己。而他们被找到的唯一方法是找到可以直接和诚实地体验更伟大目的的方法。

The Way of Knowledge is mysterious, but it is certain. It is unfamiliar because it is new. It is new, but it is ancient. It is remarkable, but it is known. It may be shocking and challenging at certain junctures, but you can embrace it wholeheartedly because it resonates with the very essence of who you are and why you are here. It will challenge your ideas. It will force change, but only to restore you to yourself, to restore to you your essential skills, to prepare you in the world and to enable you to utilize the world for a greater education.

内识之路是神秘的，但它是确定的。它是陌生的，因为它是新的。它是新的，但它是古老的。它是非凡的，但它是已知的。在某些时刻，它可能是令人震惊和具有挑战性的，但你可以全心全意地拥抱它，因为它与你是谁以及你为什么在这里的本质产生共鸣。它将挑战你的想法。它将迫使改变，但只是为了恢复你自己，恢复你的基本技能，让你在这个世界上做好准备，让你能够善用这个世界获得更大的教育。

Here you can learn to use what the world has to offer in a new way. Instead of for survival or self-gratification, it is used for contribution. Then what the world has to offer becomes a means to serve a greater end and a greater purpose. Here you can utilize things beneficially without confusion and without complaint. Success and failure both help you now. Advantages and disadvantages both become useful. Disappointment in relationship now has a greater possibility. Here you are not being clever or cunning or manipulative. You are simply recognizing a greater purpose in everything you do, with everything you own, with every experience you have and with every person you meet. This is something natural that emerges from the very depth of you. You do not need to conjure it up. Here you are being simple and open, rather than complicated and devious.

在这里，你可以学会以一种新的方式善用世界所提供的一切。不是为了生存或自我满足，而是为了贡献。这样，世界所提供的一切就会成为一种资源，服务于更远大的志向和更伟大的目的。在这里，你可以毫无困惑、毫无怨言地善用一切。现在，成功和失败都对你有帮助。优势和劣势都变得有用。关系中的失望现在有了更大的可能性。在这里，你不是在耍小聪明、狡猾或操纵他人。你只是认识到，你所做的每一件事、拥有的每一件东西、拥有的每一段经历、遇到的每一个人，都有一个更大的目的。这是你内心深处自然产生的目的。你不需要把它变出来。在这里，你是简单而开放的，而不是复杂而狡猾的。

The way is mysterious because you do not govern it. The way is mysterious because it is not dependent upon your past. The way is mysterious because it takes you beyond your former understanding. The way is mysterious, but it is known. This enables you to follow it wholeheartedly as you learn to trust it, to accept it and to learn of its ways, its direction, its meaning and its purpose. You can only be wholehearted about something that represents your Ancient home from which you have come. You cannot be wholehearted about anything else, no matter how attached you may be to it, because to be wholehearted means to embrace something totally. This is only possible at the level of Knowledge.

这条道路是神秘的，因为你无法支配它。这条道路是神秘的，因为它不依赖于你的过去。这条道路是神秘的，因为它带你超越你以前的理解。这条道路是神秘的，但它是已知的。这使你能够全心全意地追随它，因为你要学会信任它、接受它，并了解它的方式、方向、意义和目的。你只能全心全意地对待代表你古老家园的内识，你是从那里来到这里。你无法全心全意地对待其他任何关系，无论你对它有多么依恋，因为全心全意意味着全然接受。这只有在内识的层面上才有可能。

Knowledge can only embrace Knowledge in the universe. It gives itself to everything else, but it is only bonded to that which represents the immortal and permanent relationships that you have in life and with life. It is towards this that your religious education will lead you. It is for this that your religious education will prepare you. If you recognize your need for this, then religious education is meant for you. And if it is meant for you, then you must recognize it, learn to accept it and find out what it means.

内识只能拥抱宇宙中的内识。它将自己交给其他一切，但它只与代表你在生命中的内识和与生命之间的不朽和永久关系的内识结合在一起。你们的宗教教育就是要引导你们走向这一点。你的宗教教育正是为此而准备的。如果你认识到自己的需求，那么宗教教育就是为你而设的。如果宗教教育是为你而准备的，那么你就必须认识到它，学会接受它，并找出它的意义所在。