Chapter 1: Your Most Primary Relationship

As revealed to God’s Messenger Marshall Vian Summers on January 1, 1989 in Albany, NY
1989年1月1日，在纽约州奥尔巴尼(Albany, NY)，向上帝的信使马歇尔・维安・萨默斯(Marshall Vian Summers)揭示

In order to comprehend the true meaning and purpose of your relationships, you must begin with your most primary relationship of all. It is the one relationship that provides the greater context for all your other relationships at all levels. It is the one relationship that is your beginning and your final resting place. It is the one relationship that establishes your purpose for being in the world, the value of your growth and development and the direction and aim of all of your contributions in life. It is the relationship that is most essential to your well-being and your comprehension of yourself and the world. Yet it is the relationship to which you may give the least attention. It is the relationship that you may concern yourself with to the least degree. In fact, it may not be a relationship that you have thought of seriously at all.

为了理解你关系的真实意义和目的，你必须从你最主要的关系开始。它是为你所有其他各级关系提供更大背景的一种关系。它是一种关系，是你的开始，也是你最后的安身之处。它是确立你存在于这个世界的目的、你成长和发展的价值以及你在生命中所有贡献的方向和目标的一种关系。它是对你的福祉和你对自己及世界的理解最重要的关系。然而，这也是你可能给予最不重视的关系。它是你可能关注程度最低的关系。事实上，它可能根本就不是你认真考虑过的一种关系。

This is your relationship with God. What is God? It could be said that God is the sum of all relationships. God is the consummation of all relationships. This is a valuable definition because it enables you to experience God as a living force and power in your life rather than an absolute principle or a great and lofty Being whose reality is entirely beyond your reach and life within the world.

这就是你与上帝的关系。什么是上帝？可以说，上帝是所有关系的总和。上帝是所有关系的圆满。这是一个有价值的定义，因为它使你能够把上帝的经验作为你生命中的一种活生生的力量，而不是一个绝对的原则或一个伟大而崇高的存在，其现实性完全超出你在这个世界上的生命。

The experience of God can be found within the context of each and every relationship: your relationship with yourself, your relationship with your physical body and your mind, your relationship with others, your relationship with nature and with other living things in the world, your relationship with the world itself and your relationship with the Greater Community of worlds in the universe around you.

对上帝的经历可以在每一种关系中找到：你与你自己的关系，你与你的身体和心灵的关系，你与他人的关系，你与自然和世界上其他生物的关系，你与世界本身的关系，你与你周围宇宙中的世界大社区的关系。

To approach your relationship with God, it is necessary to speak about your purpose in the world. This issue must be addressed very directly because your relationship with God indicates that you are here in the world for a purpose. This must be understood, and it must be a premise upon which any valuable investigation into your relationship with God is established. You have a relationship with God, and because you are in the world, you are here for a purpose.

为了接近你与上帝的关系，有必要谈一谈你在世界的目的。这个问题必须非常直接地解决，因为你与上帝的关系表明你在这个世界上是有目的的。这一点必须被理解，它必须是一个前提，任何对你与上帝的关系进行有价值的调查都要建立在这个前提上。你与上帝有关系，因为你在这个世界上，所以你在这里有一个目的。

Here God must be seen as very great and very inclusive, extending far beyond the normal experience of being in the world and of everyday affairs and interactions. Here, rather than being an object or a singular Being, God can be recognized as the context for your entire experience. In other words, God is the environment in which you function. This is a mental and a spiritual environment, but it affects your physical environment as well. Yet God is more than an environment. God has a Mind, a Will and a Purpose. In its totality, this is incomprehensible to you now, for you cannot stand apart from this Mind, this Will and this Purpose and be able to discern their meaning. You can only join with them, and the extent to which you can join with them will be the extent to which you will experience their reality, their value and their immediate necessity in your life.

在这里，上帝必须被看作是非常伟大和非常包容的，远远超出了在这个世界上的正常经历以及日常事务和互动的范围。在这里，上帝不再是一个对象或一个单一的存在，而是可以被视为你整个经历的背景。换句话说，上帝是你运作的环境。这是一个心理和精神环境，但它也影响到你的物理环境。然而，上帝不仅仅是一个环境。上帝有一个心智、一个意志和一个目的。就其整体而言，这对你来说是不可理解的，因为你不能从这个心智、意志和目的中分离出来并能够辨别它们的意义。你只能与它们结合，而你能在多大程度上与它们结合，你就能在多大程度上经历到它们的现实、它们的价值和它们在你生命中的直接必要性。

Your relationship with God must speak of your purpose because God is great and the world is small. Why are you in the world if you have a relationship with God? What could have brought you to a place where conflict and disassociation seem so predominant? Have you sinned against God? Has God sent you away from the peace and perfection of God’s reality? Are you in exile? Are you a castaway? Have you rebelled against God and sought refuge in a different environment? These are all very fundamental questions that any person who has begun to think about his or her reality and the value of his or her life must eventually ask. Yet the real answer to these questions can only be satisfied through the fulfillment of your purpose here. Only then you will be able to see, experience and know the reality of God and the reality of the world. It is very simple, really, but you must be in a position to see this. You must have reached this vantage point, or what is simple and obvious will seem remote and confusing to you.

你与上帝的关系必须谈到你的目的，因为上帝是伟大的，世界是渺小的。如果你与上帝有关系，为什么你会在这个世界上？是什么让你来到一个冲突和分离似乎占主导地位的地方？你是冒犯了上帝吗？上帝把你从上帝的和平与完美的现实中驱逐了吗？你是在流亡吗？你是被抛弃的人吗？你是否背叛了上帝，并在不同的环境中寻求庇护？这些都是非常基本的问题，任何开始思考他或她的现实和他或她的生命价值的人最终都必须问。然而这些问题的真正答案只有通过实现你在这里的目的才能得到满足。只有这样，你才能够看到、经历和知道上帝的现实和世界的现实。实际上，这很简单，但你必须处于能够看到这一点的位置。你必须达到这个观测位置，否则简单而明显的关系对你来说将显得遥远且混乱。

The emphasis here is for you to reach that vantage point where you can see your relationship with God and with yourself clearly while you are in the world. It is from this vantage point that you will be able to see the relationship of all things. Like climbing a great mountain, you must reach a certain position where the relationship of that mountain to everything around it becomes self-evident. From this vantage point, you will see why you could not have comprehended the overall meaning of your existence before. Previously, you were consumed within a certain stage of development and all that you could see was that stage of development. Yet when you look down from the mountain and see the trail far below, you will say, “Yes, from that vantage point down below, I could only see the trail and my immediate circumstances. ” Perhaps on that trail you lost track of the mountain and its summit altogether. Yet when you reach this higher vantage point, your perspective will be more complete. Therefore, to answer the fundamental questions of life, you must reach the vantage point where the answer is self-evident.

这里的重点是让你达到这个观测位置，当你在这个世界上时，你可以清楚地看到你与上帝和与你自己的关系。正是从这个观测点，你将能够看到所有事物的关系。就像攀登一座大山，你必须达到某个位置，在那里，这座山与周围一切的关系变得不言而喻。从这个观测位置，你将看到为什么你以前不能理解你存在的整体意义。以前，你被消耗在某个发展阶段中，你能看到的只是那个发展阶段。然而，当你从山上往下看，看到远处的山路时，你会说：”是的，从下面的那个观测点，我只能看到山路和我眼前的情况。”也许在那条小路上，你完全失去了对山和山顶的追踪。然而，当你到达这个更高的观测点时，你的视角将更加完整。因此，要回答生命的基本问题，你必须到达答案不言而喻的观测位置。

In life, God is usually the last relationship that is ever seriously considered. When real meaning, purpose and value are not self-evident, people assign value to their relationships based upon their own immediate needs, preferences and understanding. This is how the substitutes for real meaning, purpose and value become established. This makes it very difficult for most people to have any comprehension of the true meaning, purpose and value of their own relationships. For without the truth, there can only be the substitutes for the truth. Real spiritual growth is concerned with outgrowing or setting aside the substitutes for truth so that the truth itself may be approached, comprehended, accepted and embraced.

在生活中，上帝通常是最后被认真考虑的关系。当真正的意义、目的和价值不言自明时，人们就会根据自己眼前的需要、喜好和理解，为他们的关系赋予价值。真正的意义、目的和价值的替代物就是这样建立起来的。这使得大多数人很难理解他们自己关系的真正意义、目的和价值。因为没有真理，只能有真理的替代品。真正精神上的成长是关于超越或搁置真理的替代品，以便能够接近、理解、接受和拥抱真理它本身。

What is your relationship with God? Who is God to you? Who are you to God? These questions are important, but you are only in a position now to have them partially answered. Yet this partial answer will give you what you need in order to proceed with certainty and strength. It will provide the criteria from which you can organize your relationships in such a way that they are blessed and given due credit in service to your higher purpose here.

你与上帝的关系是什么？对你来说，上帝是谁？你对上帝来说是谁？这些问题很重要，但你现在只能得到部分的答案。然而，这个部分答案将给你所需要的一切，以使你有把握和力量继续前进。它将提供一个标准，你可以据此组织你的关系，使它们在为你在这里的更高宗旨服务时得到祝福和应有的赞誉。

You have come from a place where God is real to a place where God seems to be unreal. You have come from a state of mind where life is pervasive and intrinsic to a place where life seems disassociated and particular. You have come from a place of peace and harmony to a place of conflict and discord. You have come from a place of total acceptance to a place of separation, competition, attack and so forth.

你已经从一个上帝是真实的地方来到了一个上帝似乎是不真实的地方。你来自一种生命无处不在、与生俱来的心智状态，来到了这个地方，生命似乎是脱节的和独特的。你已经从一个和平与和谐的地方来到了一个冲突与不和谐的地方。你已经从一个完全接受的地方来到了一个分离、竞争、攻击等等的地方。

How can it be, then, that you have a relationship with God when you are in a place called the world? This is one of the great paradoxes of life, a paradox that keeps many people from accepting and understanding the reality of their most primary relationship. For how can it be that God can truly exist if the world truly exists? If God created the world that you see, then God is either foolish, cruel or extremely limited in power and ability. If God is foolish, God has made a terrible mistake. If God is cruel, God wishes to punish you for some error or deficiency on your part. If God is limited, then God is using the world to affirm God’s own strengths and value. That God should doubt God’s own value would be a sign of evident weakness. If you believe that God has created the world that you see, you must assume then, or conclude eventually, that God is either foolish, cruel or extremely limited in power.

那么，当你在一个叫做世界的地方时，你怎么可能与上帝有关系呢？这是生命中最大的悖论之一，这个悖论使许多人无法接受和理解他们最主要关系的现实。因为如果世界真的存在，上帝怎么可能真正存在？如果上帝创造了你所看到的世界，那么上帝要么是愚蠢的、残忍的，要么是力量和能力极其有限的。如果上帝是愚蠢的，上帝就犯了一个可怕的错误。如果上帝是残忍的，那么上帝希望为你的某些错误或不足而惩罚你。如果上帝是有限的，那么上帝就是利用世界来肯定上帝自己的力量和价值。上帝应该怀疑上帝自己的价值，这将是一个明显的弱点标志。如果你相信上帝创造了你所看到的世界，那么你必须假设，或者最终得出结论，上帝要么是愚蠢的，要么是残忍的，要么是力量极其有限的。

Given this, God is certainly something you cannot trust, give yourself to or identify with completely. For if God is foolish, then you will share in God’s error and will pay for it. If God is cruel, God will punish you. And if God’s power is limited, then you will not have faith in it to serve you and the world in a beneficial manner. These are fundamental theological questions, but, as you will see, they are essential in determining your sense of who you are and why you are here.

鉴于此，上帝肯定是你不能信任的，不能把自己交给他，也不能完全认同他。因为如果上帝是愚蠢的，那么你将分享上帝的错误，并将为此付出代价。如果上帝是残酷的，上帝就会惩罚你。如果上帝的力量是有限的，那么你就不会有信心让它以有益的方式为你和世界服务。这些都是基本的神学问题，但是，正如你将看到的，它们在决定你对自己是谁和为什么在这里的感觉方面至关重要。

However, if God did not create the world you see, then who did? If God’s reality is not supported by the world you see and if God’s mind is not reflected by the world that you experience, then how could the world that you experience come into being? Does it exist at all? For if God did not create something, how can it be real if God is the author, the source and the meaning of life?

然而，如果上帝没有创造你所看到的世界，那么是谁呢？如果上帝的现实没有得到你所看到的世界的支持，如果上帝的心智没有被你所经历的世界所反映，那么你所经历的世界是如何产生的？它根本就不存在吗？因为如果上帝没有创造什么，如果上帝是作者，是源头，是生命的意义，它怎么可能是真实的？

For you to experience your relationship with God, you must realize that you have come from a place of reality to establish that reality in a place where it has been forgotten and denied. This is your purpose. God has given you Knowledge, your spiritual power, to accomplish this task. To say it in a different way, you have come from your Ancient Home to a place where you are away from Home in order to establish your Ancient Home here.

为了让你经历与上帝的关系，你必须认识到你是从一个现实的地方来的，在一个被遗忘和否定的地方建立这种现实。这就是你的目的。上帝已经给了你内识，你的精神力量，来完成这个任务。换个说法，你从你的古老家园来到一个远离家园的地方，以便在这里建立你的古老家园。

Is this to mean, then, that you are to establish Heaven on Earth? Only partially. The Earth cannot be Heaven. Yet you can experience Heaven while you are in the world. The world will continue to be a physical place—a place of growth, change and decay, a place of changing circumstances and opposing forces. Here you do not need to misrepresent the world by believing that it is your Ancient Home. Here you do not need to ignore the world’s reality in order to support a spiritual idea about the world. For the world will continue to be the world. Yet your experience of it can be utterly transformed. And it needs to be transformed for you to find fulfillment, happiness and contribution here.

那么，这是否意味着你们要在地球上建立天国？只是部分的。地球不能成为天国。然而，当你在这个世界上时，你可以经历天国。世界将继续是一个有形的地方——一个有成长、变化和衰败的地方，一个有变化的环境和对立力量的地方。在这里，你不需要歪曲世界，相信它是你古老的家园。在这里，你不需要为了支持一个关于世界上的精神理念而忽视世界的现实。因为这个世界将继续是这个世界。然而，你对它的经历可以被彻底改变。而它需要被改变，以便你在这里找到满足感、幸福和贡献。

Let us explore this further. You have come from a place of absolute reality where there are no questions and the answer is fully experienced to a place where there are innumerable questions and no apparent answers and, therefore, no foundation for true experience. For only reality can be truly experienced, and any substitute for reality can only be entertained and imagined for a certain period of time. This is why the world can only be experienced for a certain period of time. Everything in it can only be experienced for a certain period of time. That is why your span of time in the world is limited. For you to experience the world permanently, the world would have to be like your Ancient Home from which you have come. This would not be the world that you currently experience. This would not be the world which you currently share with others. In fact, it would not be the world at all.

让我们进一步探讨这个问题。你已经从一个绝对现实的地方到来，那里没有问题，答案是完全可以经历到的，到了一个有无数问题的地方，没有明显的答案，因此，没有真实经历的基础。因为只有现实可以被真正经历，任何替代现实的关系只能在一定时间内被娱乐和想象。这就是为什么这个世界只能在一定时间内被经历。其中的一切都只能在一定时间内经历。这就是为什么你在这个世界上的时间跨度是有限的。对你来说，要永久地经历这个世界，这个世界就必须像你的古老家园一样，你从那里来。这将不是你目前所经历的世界。这不会是你目前与他人分享的世界。事实上，它根本就不是世界。

The emphasis here is not to attempt to make the world perfect, but to bring your experience of your Ancient Home into the world so that the evolution of the world may be served and furthered. In this way, you may make your specific contribution while you are here so that the separation between this place and your Ancient Home may be dissolved.

这里的重点不是试图让世界变得完美，而是将你对你古老家园的经历带入世界，以便世界的进化可以得到服务和促进。通过这种方式，你可以在这里做出你的特定贡献，从而使这个地方和你的古老家园之间的分离得以化解。

Your Ancient Home is where you live; the world is where you have come to work. You have come into the world to work. God has sent you and you have sent yourself because there is the perfect Knowledge that you need to be here. It is not as if you and God made a deal, or God forced you to do something you did not want to do, or you did something God did not want you to do. In Knowledge there is no dissension and there are no opposing forces. There is only what is real and the certainty of what must be done.

你的古老家园是你生活的地方；世界是你来工作的地方。你来到这个世界是为了工作。上帝派你来，你也派你自己来，因为有完美的内识，你需要在这里。这并不像你和上帝做了交易，或者上帝强迫你做你不想做的事情，或者你做了上帝不希望你做的事情。在内识中，没有分歧，也没有对立的力量。只有真实的关系和必须做的事情的确定性。

Therefore, you have come from your Ancient Home to a place of work. Your work in the world is in two arenas. One is the transformation of your experience of yourself and your relationships, and the other is the rendering of your specific contribution to the world. Without the first, the second will not come to pass, and your experience of relationships will not be brought into harmony with life itself. You will not be able to recognize and to render your contribution completely. In fact, your unrendered contribution will be a great weight and burden for you, a problem and not a solution. This teaching in relationships and higher purpose is being given to you so that you may be able to discover your contribution and to render it harmoniously by realizing the true nature and purpose of your relationships in the world.

因此，你已经从你的古老家园来到了一个工作的地方。你在这个世界上的工作是在两个领域。一个是你对自己和你的关系的经历的转变，另一个是你对世界的特定贡献的呈现。没有第一个，第二个就不会实现，你的关系经历就不会与生命它本身和谐。你将无法完全认识和呈现你的贡献。事实上，你未实现的贡献将成为你的一大负担和重荷，是一个问题而不是一个解决方案。这个关于关系和更高宗旨的教导被给予你，以便你能够发现你的贡献，并通过实现你在这个世界上的关系的真实性质和目的来和谐地提供它。

Relationship is what life is. Everything is relationship. Seen in this way, then, you are in a position to determine how you can best proceed. You are given authority in the world. You are given the option of choice, though the options are very limited. This understanding is absolutely vital for success here. It gives you the power to manage your affairs, and yet it gives God a greater authority in your life to guide you and to prepare you. This perspective enables your relationship with God to have meaning while you are in the world.

关系是生命的本质。一切都是关系。那么，以这种方式来看，你就有能力决定你如何能最好地继续下去。你被赋予在这个世界上的权力。你被赋予了选择的权利，尽管选择非常有限。这种理解对这里的成功是绝对重要的。它给了你管理自己事务的权力，然而它也给了上帝在你的生命中更大的权威来引导你和准备你。这种观点使你与上帝的关系在你在这个世界上时具有意义。

You experience God through discovering and carrying out your purpose for being here. If you are not serving the purpose for which you have come, you will be in profound confusion concerning your relationship with yourself, with others, with the world and with God.

你通过发现和执行你在这里的目的来经历上帝。如果你没有达到你来的目的，你就会在你与自己、与他人、与世界和与上帝的关系上陷入深深的困惑。

You have come into the world because you knew that you had to do this. God knew you had to do this because the world is a place where work has to be undertaken. Your real reason for coming into the world is to re-establish your experience of your Ancient Home here and to give specific gifts that you were sent to contribute.

你来到这个世界是因为你知道你必须这样做。上帝知道你必须这样做，因为世界是一个必须开展工作的地方。你来到世界的真正原因是重新建立你在这里的古老家园的经历，并提供你被派来贡献的特定礼物。

Your relationship with God cannot be comprehended intellectually. It must be experienced. The development of this experience rests upon your desire for it and your capacity for it. Desire and capacity. These determine your range of experience in your relationship with everyone and everything. In fact, these two criteria determine the range of your experience, period. Therefore, cultivating and nurturing your desire for Knowledge and expanding your capacity for Knowledge are what will enable you to grow and make progress.

你与上帝的关系不能从智力上理解。它必须被经历。这种经历的发展取决于你对它的渴望和你的能力。这些决定了你在与每个人和每件事的关系中的经历范围。事实上，这两个标准决定了你的经历范围和期间。因此，培养和造就你对内识的渴望，扩大你对内识的能力，才能使你成长，取得进步。

To begin to look at your relationship with God, you must first become very honest about how you view God at this moment. It is not enough to simply believe that you love God or that God loves you. For this is only a hope and is not yet based upon certainty and conviction. As such, it simply masks your distrust, uncertainty, avoidance and guilt. It conceals that which you need to uncover in order for your relationship with God to become real, healthy and vital.

要开始审视你与上帝的关系，你必须首先非常诚实地了解你此刻是如何看待上帝的。仅仅相信你爱上帝或上帝爱你是不够的。因为这只是一种希望，还没有建立在确定和确信的基础上。因此，它只是掩盖了你的不信任、不确定、逃避和内疚。它掩盖了你需要揭开的关系，以使你与上帝的关系变得真实、健康和重要。

It is now necessary for you to think about your relationship with God. Ask yourself: “Do I love God? Do I trust God? Does God love me? Does God trust me? Is God lovable and trustworthy? Am I lovable and trustworthy? Do I deserve to have God? Does God deserve to have me? Have I blamed God for what has happened in my life?” This examination will begin to give you an understanding of how you relate to other people and your ability to be in intimate relationship with anyone or anything.

现在你有必要思考一下你与上帝的关系。问问你自己。”我爱上帝吗？我信任上帝吗？上帝爱我吗？上帝信任我吗？上帝是否可爱和值得信赖？我是可爱的和值得信赖的吗？我是否值得拥有上帝？上帝值得拥有我吗？我是否为我生活中发生的事情责备过上帝？”这个检查将开始让你理解你与其他人的关系，以及你与任何人或事物建立亲密关系的能力。

Your experience of intimacy with anyone or anything directly reflects your desire and capacity to experience God. For what is real intimacy but the ability to experience affinity? What is affinity but the ability to join your life and mind with others? Your success in marriage, in your business affairs and in maintaining your personal health are all directly related to your experience of God. You cannot go further with anyone or anything than you can go with God. If your experience of God is concealed by idealism or wishful thinking, so will be your relationships with others and with the world. If your trust of God is partial or non-existent, then your trust in other people and your trust in life will be the same. If your affection for God is restrained by your condemnation of the world, your affection towards other people will be restrained by your condemnation of their behavior. This is why you must consider your relationship with God before you consider any other relationship.

你与任何人或事物的亲密关系的经验直接反映了你经历上帝的愿望和能力。因为除了经历亲和力的能力，什么是真正的亲密关系？除了将你的生命和心灵与他人结合起来的能力，什么是亲和力？你在婚姻、商业事务和保持个人健康方面的成功，都与你对上帝的经验直接相关。你与任何人或任何事的关系都不可能比你与上帝的关系更进一步。如果你对上帝的经验被理想主义或一厢情愿的想法所掩盖，你与他人和世界的关系也将如此。如果你对上帝的信任是部分的或不存在的，那么你对其他人的信任和对生命的信任也将是如此。如果你对上帝的感情被你对世界的谴责所限制，你对其他人的感情也会被你对他们行为的谴责所限制。这就是为什么你必须在考虑任何其他关系之前考虑你与上帝的关系。

God is your primary relationship. Many people think their primary relationship is with themselves, but how can you have a relationship with yourself unless you are already disassociated from yourself? A relationship must presume that there are at least two parties involved or the idea of relationship is meaningless. If you are one person with one mind, one goal and one orientation, there would be no value in considering having a relationship with yourself. For who is in relationship? What difference is there between the observer and yourself? Because there is relationship, there are at least two aspects. If you have a relationship with yourself, then you are already disassociated from yourself. There is you and then there is yourself. Who is the you, then, who is not yourself? And who is the self that is not you?

上帝是你的主要关系。许多人认为他们的主要关系是与他们自己的关系，但除非你已经与自己脱离关系，否则你怎么能与自己有关系呢？一种关系必须假定至少有两方参与，否则关系的概念就毫无意义。如果你是一个人，只有一个心智、一个目标和一个方向，那么考虑与自己建立关系就没有任何价值。因为谁是关系中的人？观察者和你自己之间有什么区别？因为有关系，至少有两个方面。如果你和你自己有关系，那么你就已经和你自己脱离了关系。那么，不是你自己的你是谁？不是你的自己又是谁呢？

Therefore, it is necessary for you to accept that you are disassociated from yourself, that you are disassociated from others and that you are disassociated from God. This is in part due to your own stage of development in your evolution, and it is in part due to the condition of the world, which requires that you be a separate individual with a separate consciousness and a separate set of values and so forth.

因此，你有必要接受你与自己脱离关系，你与他人脱离关系，你与上帝脱离关系。这部分是由于你自己在进化中的发展阶段，部分是由于世界的状况，它要求你是一个独立的个体，有独立的意识和一套独立的价值观等等。

Therefore, do not think that your relationship with yourself is your primary relationship because without your relationship with God, you would have no real basis for understanding yourself. You would simply like yourself when you are likeable and dislike yourself when you are not likeable. You would trust yourself when you are trustworthy and distrust yourself when you are not trustworthy. Your evaluation of yourself would be entirely based upon your ideas. Your ideas, then, would be the criteria for relationships even more than your behavior because you can only determine your behavior by your ideas or by your conclusions, which are also ideas.

因此，不要认为你与自己的关系是你的主要关系，因为如果没有你与上帝的关系，你就没有理解自己的真正基础。你只是在自己讨人喜欢时喜欢自己，在自己不讨人喜欢时不喜欢自己。当你值得信任时，你会相信自己，当你不值得信任时，你会不相信自己。你对自己的评价将完全基于你的想法。那么，你的想法甚至比你的行为更能成为人际关系的标准，因为你只能通过你的想法或你的结论来确定你的行为，而这些也是想法。

In fact, your entire evaluation of your relationship with yourself, with others and with the world is based upon ideas. But your relationship with God is not based upon ideas. It is based upon the experience of affinity and purpose. You have a purpose for being in the world. God wills for you to do something. It is your will to do something. In realizing your real will, you come to realize God’s will for you. To understand how you can serve God, you must recognize the range of your power and understand that the range of God’s power is far greater than yours. With this understanding, you can begin to realize how you can serve God and how God serves you.

事实上，你对你与自己、与他人和与世界的关系的整个评价都是基于想法。但你与上帝的关系不是基于想法。它是建立在亲和力和目的的经历之上的。你存在于这个世界上是有目的的。上帝希望你做一些事情。这是你的意愿，你要做什么。在实现你的真实意愿时，你就会意识到上帝对你的意愿。要理解你如何能服务上帝，你必须认识到你的能力范围，并理解上帝的能力范围远远大于你。有了这种理解，你就能开始认识到你如何能服务上帝，上帝如何服务你。

This evaluation strikes at the very heart of the idea of separation, which is primarily a competition for power. That is why this teaching in relationships and higher purpose addresses the issue of power. Many people who are interested in spirituality are in conflict concerning the issue of power and often do not wish to discuss it at all. They would prefer to discuss the idea of love, happiness or fulfillment and avoid the issue of power. Yet your disassociation from yourself, from others and from God is primarily an issue of competition for power. Whether your individual power is joined with God’s power or separated from God’s power will determine whether you experience love or hatred, trust or distrust, association or disassociation in relation to yourself and others.

这种评价击中了分离想法的核心，分离主要是对力量的竞争。这就是为什么在关系和更高宗旨方面的这个教导要解决力量问题。许多对精神上感兴趣的人在力量问题上有冲突，往往根本不愿意讨论这个问题。他们更愿意讨论爱、幸福或成就的想法，而回避力量的问题。然而，你与自己、与他人和与上帝的脱离，主要是一个力量竞争的问题。你的个人力量是与上帝的力量结合还是与上帝的力量分离，将决定你在与自己和他人的关系中是经历爱还是恨，是信任还是不信任，是关联还是脱离。

It is to your benefit that you cannot put your finger on God. It is to your benefit that God is neither a body nor an object. You judge bodies and objects and can disassociate yourself from them. Yet it is much more difficult to judge and disassociate yourself from the Presence of God. You can go towards or away from a body or an object, and you can project images upon them. Bodies and objects are always fallible and so you can condemn them for their weakness or incompleteness. Bodies and objects are either likeable or not, depending upon your criteria for judgment. As a result, it is more difficult to experience affinity and real relationship with a body or an object than it is with the Presence. When you project images or judgments upon the Presence, they have nowhere to attach themselves.

你不能把你的手指指向上帝身上，这对你有好处。对你有利的是，上帝既没有一个身体也不是一个对象。你判断身体和对象，并能将自己与它们分开。然而，判断和脱离上帝的存在则要困难得多。你可以走向或远离一个身体或对象，你可以在它们身上投射形象。身体和对象总是有缺陷的，所以你可以谴责它们的弱点或不完整。身体和对象要么令人喜欢，要么不令人喜欢，这取决于你的判断标准。因此，与一个身体或对象体验亲和力和真正的关系比与上帝的存在更困难。当你在上帝的存在上投射形象或评判时，它们无处可依附。

In essence, this means that you can relate to God far more easily than you can relate to yourself, to other people, to physical objects, to the world or to the universe. Because God is a Presence, you can experience affinity with God far more immediately and completely.

从实质上讲，这意味着你与上帝的关系远比与你自己、与其他人、与实物、与世界或宇宙的关系更容易。因为上帝是一个存在，你可以更直接、更彻底地经历到与上帝的亲和力。

God is here, there, everywhere, enveloping you, embracing you and giving you purpose, meaning and direction. You do not need to judge God at all because God is not an object. You either accept God or you do not. If you do not accept God, you must create substitutes for God because you must have some sense of purpose, meaning and direction to be in the world. If God is not your purpose, meaning and direction, you will create your own substitutes. You will then make your substitutes your god, and you must love them and serve them, for you must love and serve something in life. Some of these substitutes seem benign, and some are clearly destructive. Yet they all deprive you of true relationship. They all deprive you of real purpose, meaning and direction in your life because a substitute cannot truly provide these things. It can only replace them. A substitute cannot give you what life gives you. It can only mimic what life gives you. It can only stimulate you temporarily.

上帝在这里，在那里，在任何地方，笼罩着你，拥抱着你，给你目的、意义和方向。你根本不需要判断上帝，因为上帝不是一个对象。你要么接受上帝，要么拒绝上帝。如果你不接受上帝，你就必须创造上帝的替代品，因为你必须有某种目的、意义和方向感，才能在这个世界上存在。如果上帝不是你的目的、意义和方向，你就会创造你自己的替代品。然后你会把你的替代品当作你的神明，你必须爱他们并为他们服务，因为你必须在生活中爱和服务一些神明。这些替代品中有些看起来是良性的，有些显然是破坏性的。然而，它们都剥夺了你的真正关系。它们都剥夺了你生命中真正的目的、意义和方向，因为替代品不能真正提供这些意义。它只能取代它们。替代品不能给你生命所给予你的目的。它只能模仿生活给你的目的。它只能暂时刺激你。

Taken a step further, ultimately you can only have relationship with God or with your ideas because all substitutes must be ideas. Though you may devote your life to supporting these substitutes, fortifying them and attempting to re-experience them, they are in essence only ideas in your mind to which you are attached. That is why the most important and difficult thing for people to give up is their ideas because it is upon their ideas that they base their identity and sense of certainty and stability.

再进一步说，最终你只能与上帝或与你的想法发生关系，因为所有的替代品必须是想法。尽管你可以用你的生命来支持这些替代品，强化它们，并试图重新经历它们，但它们在本质上只是你心灵中的想法，你依附于它们。这就是为什么人们最重要和最难放弃的是他们的想法，因为他们的身份、确定性和稳定性正是建立在他们的想法之上。

To experience your relationship with God, you must begin to set aside the substitutes for God that you have created and that you share with others. God is a pure experience of relationship because God is a pure experience of affinity. This is a pure experience of shared power. This is a pure experience of the right order of authority in your life. It is a pure experience of love and inclusion. If your desire for this relationship is strengthened and if your capacity to experience this relationship is gradually expanded, then you will be able to experience this affinity with God within your meaningful relationships with others and with the world.

要经历你与上帝的关系，你必须开始放下你所创造的、与他人分享的上帝的替代品。上帝是一种纯粹的关系经历，因为上帝是一种纯粹的亲和体验。这是一种分享力量的纯粹经历。这是一种对你生命中正确的权威秩序的纯粹经历。这是一种爱与包容的纯粹体验。如果你对这种关系的渴望得到加强，如果你经历这种关系的能力逐渐扩大，那么你将能够在你与他人和世界的有意义的关系中经历到与上帝的这种亲和力。

If your relationship with God is denied, however, either intentionally or inadvertently, then you can only support your ideas. Here you will attempt to use your relationship with yourself and with others to do this. Here you will try to make your relationship with yourself and your relationships with others conform to your ideas. This leads to tribulation and discord, for life exists free of your ideas and others exist free of your ideas. If you attempt to make others conform to your ideas, you will attempt to imprison them and you will be a prisoner along with them.

然而，如果你与上帝的关系被否认，无论是有意还是无意，那么你只能支持你的想法。在这里，你将试图利用你与自己和与他人的关系来做到这一点。在这里，你将试图使你与自己的关系以及你与他人的关系符合你的想法。这将导致磨难与不和谐，因为生命存在于你的想法之外，而他人存在于你的想法之外。如果你试图让别人符合你的想法，你就会试图禁锢他们，你也会和他们一起成为囚犯。

Here you have an advantage with God, for God does not have a body. God is pure essence and experience. You can experience God anywhere, with anyone and in any situation. In fact, whatever genuine pleasure you derive from any person, any place or any object is because you are experiencing God. You may not think of this within that experience, but this is what is truly happening. True happiness always reflects your experience of your relationship with God.

在这里，你对上帝有一个优势，因为上帝没有身体。上帝是纯粹的实质和经验。你可以在任何地方、与任何人、在任何情况下经历上帝。事实上，无论你从任何人、任何地方或任何对象中得到什么真正的快乐，都是因为你在经历上帝。在这种经历中，你可能不会想到这一点，但这是真实发生的事情。真实的快乐总是反映你对自己与上帝的关系的经历。

You do not need to be a religious person or even to have a religion in order to experience God. If you are experiencing true affinity, inclusion and happiness, you are experiencing God. Here you may not believe in God and you may not belong to a church, but you are experiencing God to some degree. You are having a religious experience. The purpose of all religious institutions fundamentally is to provide an environment where you can cultivate your desire and your capacity to experience God.

你并不需要成为一个宗教信徒，甚至不需要信仰宗教，才能体验到上帝。如果你正在经历真实的亲和力、包容和幸福，你就正在经历上帝。在这里，你可能不信仰上帝，也可能不属于教会，但你在某种程度上正在经历上帝。你正在有一个宗教经验。所有宗教机构的根本目的是提供一个环境，让你可以培养你经历上帝的愿望和能力。

If you can see that God is an experience and not merely a grand idea, you will be able to see the connection between your relationship with God and your relationship with others. You will see that your relationship with God enables you to be in relationship with others in a real way. You will see that your devotion to God enables you to be devoted to others. You will see that your experience of shared power with God enables you to share your power with others. You will see that your capacity to experience the love of God will determine your capacity to experience love with others.

如果你能看到上帝是一种经历，而不仅仅是一个宏大的想法，你将能够看到你与上帝的关系和你与他人的关系之间的联系。你会看到，你与上帝的关系使你能够以一种真正的方式与他人建立关系。你将看到，你对上帝的奉献使你能够对他人奉献。你将看到，你与上帝分享力量的经历使你能够与他人分享你的力量。你将看到，你经历上帝之爱的能力将决定你经历与他人之爱的能力。

It is wise at the outset that you concern yourself with your relationship with God. However, you must allow God to be mysterious and beyond definition because the Presence cannot be brought into form. You cannot be truly reverent toward something you have defined. You can like and appreciate what you have defined, but reverence must always be reserved for that which is beyond definition and which is mysterious. You may believe and devote yourself to something concrete, but you will never be truly reverent towards it.

在一开始，你关注自己与上帝的关系是明智的。然而，你必须允许上帝是神秘的，是无法定义的，因为存在不能被带入形式。你不可能对你所定义的存在产生真正的敬意。你可以喜欢和欣赏你所定义的东西，但对超越定义和神秘的存在，必须始终保留敬畏。你可以相信并献身于某种具体的事情，但你永远不会对它产生真正的敬意。

The attempt to define God is the attempt to make God concrete. This is an attempt to make God fit in with your ideas. Yet this attempt destroys your ability to experience your direct relationship with God and with other people. Your real relationship with God is forever beyond definition. It is mysterious. The ultimate goal of your growth and spiritual advancement is to build the desire and the capacity to experience this relationship.

试图给上帝下定义就是试图使上帝具体化。这是使上帝符合你的想法的一种尝试。然而，这种尝试破坏了你经历上帝以及与其他人的直接关系的能力。你与上帝的真正关系永远超越定义。它是神秘的。你成长和精神进步的最终目标是建立经历这种关系的愿望和能力。

Your relationship with God is already fully established. You are learning to reclaim this relationship while you are in the world. This involves the reclamation of Knowledge, which contains the experience of your relationship with God.

你与上帝的关系已经完全建立。当你在这个世界上时，你正在学习重新获得这种关系。这涉及到内识的开垦，它包含了你与上帝关系的经历。

Is there hope for the world? Only if there is hope for you. Will the world experience healing? Only if you can experience healing. What is healing but the renewing of your most primary relationship? There is no other true healing than this.

世界是否会有希望？只有当你是有希望时才会发生。世界是否会经历医治？只有当你能够经历医治时才会发生。何谓医治，除了恢复你最主要的关系之外，别无他法。除此之外，没有其他真实的医治。

True healing is to bring two things that are disassociated into meaningful relationship with each other. A meaningful relationship is a relationship of purpose. Everyone in the world has a purpose, for everyone is here to do something. The world is a place of doing. Your Ancient Home is a place of being. The world is a place of doing because it is a place of work. Work involves accomplishing tasks. Your Ancient Home is a permanent place; the world is a temporary place. Your Ancient Home is a place of peace; the world is a place of action.

真实的医治是把两个不相干的关系带到彼此之间有意义的关系中。有意义的关系是一种有目的的关系。世界上的每个人都有一个目的，因为每个人在这里都要做一些事情。这个世界是一个做事的地方。你的古老家园是一个存在的地方。世界是一个做事的地方，因为它是一个工作的地方。工作包括完成任务。你的古老家园是一个永久的地方；世界是一个暂时的地方。你的古老家园是一个和平的地方；世界是一个行动的地方。

Your relationship with God is what must be healed, for that is the primary conflict in your life. Your disassociation from God is the source of all of your conflicts and disabilities. However, the resolution of this fundamental conflict will take place within your relationship with yourself, with others and with the world. In other words, your problem is your relationship with God, but the solution will be established through your relationship with yourself, with others and with the world. Real healing must be established within the context of these three arenas. The power for you to do this is given by God.

你与上帝的关系是必须被治愈的，因为这是你生命中的主要冲突。你与上帝的分离是你所有冲突和残疾的根源。然而，这一主要冲突的解决将发生在你与自己、与他人和与世界的关系中。换句话说，你的问题是你与上帝的关系，但解决方案将通过你与自己、与他人和与世界的关系建立。真正的医治必须在这三个领域的范围内建立。你做这件事的力量是由上帝赋予的。

Because God cannot be seen, it is easier for you to experience affinity with God. However, if you consider yourself to be only an object, a body, you will only relate to other objects and bodies. Yet if you experience yourself as part of the Presence, you will then learn to recognize the Presence in others. This is part of the healing process.

因为上帝是看不见的，所以你更容易经历到与上帝的亲近。然而，如果你认为自己只是一个对象，一个身体，你将只与其他对象和身体发生联系。然而，如果你把自己经历为存在的一部分，你就会在别人身上认出这种存在。这是治愈过程的一部分。

The foundation of all relationships is purpose. For example, you have a relationship with the clothes you wear because they serve a purpose. You have a relationship with the house in which you live because it serves a purpose. This may seem obvious, but it is a revolutionary idea once you begin to embrace it and see its application. People use their relationships with objects and with others in order to fulfill their fantasies and ideas about themselves. Yet this is not a genuine purpose.

所有关系的根本是目的。例如，你与你穿的衣服有关系，因为它们有一个目的。你与你居住的房子有关系，因为它有一个目的。这可能看起来很明显，但一旦你开始接受它并看到它的应用，这就是一个革命性的想法。人们利用他们与对象和他人的关系，以满足他们的幻想和对自己的想法。然而，这不是一个真正的目的。

Everything you value, you value because it serves a purpose. Yet with God you experience pure affinity. The range of your desire and capacity to experience this pure affinity will completely determine the quality of your relationships and your life in the world. Without this experience of pure affinity, you will continue to try to determine your experience through the fulfillment of your ideas.

你所珍视的一切，都是因为它为一个目的服务。然而，与上帝在一起，你经历到纯粹的亲和力。你经历这种纯粹的亲和力的愿望和能力的范围将完全决定你的关系和你在世界上的生命质量。如果没有这种纯粹的亲和力的经历，你将继续试图通过满足你的想法来决定你的经历。

In considering your relationship with God, you do not need to have answers, but only to ask questions. You ask these questions so that you may open the door to your own realization. Life is not about having answers. You already have plenty of answers, and they have not answered your deeper needs. So having answers cannot be the emphasis. Experience must be the emphasis. Relationships are healed through experience. Though ideas can lead to this kind of experience, they in themselves are not the answer.

在考虑你与上帝的关系时，你不需要有答案，只需要提出问题。你问这些问题是为了打开你自己实现的大门。生命不是为了拥有答案。你已经有了许多答案，但它们并没有回答你更深层面的需求。所以不能把拥有答案作为重点。经历必须是重点。关系是通过经历来治愈的。虽然想法可以导致这种经历，但它们本身并不是答案。

Think carefully then on what has been presented thus far in this beginning chapter. Doors have been opened, but ultimate answers have not been given. For you to be a learner, you must not content yourself with answers. You must seek real comprehension. Comprehension involves both intellectual understanding and the experience of affinity or knowing. Here knowing is the most important and intellectual comprehension is secondary. This knowing reconnects you with God and with your greater purpose for coming into the world. Here you begin to experience God within the context of your relationship with yourself, with others and with the world. In fact, you were sent into the world to do this. That is why you have come into the world with a purpose. This is your gift to the world and to yourself. It is also your gift to God.

那么，请仔细思考在这一开始的章节中迄今为止所介绍的内容。门已经被打开了，但最终的答案还没有给出。要想成为一个学习者，你必须不满足于答案。你必须寻求真正的理解。理解力既包括智力上的理解，也包括亲和力或知道的经历。在这里，知道是最重要的，智力上的理解是次要的。这种知道使你与上帝和你来到世界的更伟大的目的重新联系起来。在这里，你开始在你与自己、与他人和与世界的关系中经历上帝。事实上，你被派到世界上就是为了做这件事。这就是为什么你带着一个目的来到这个世界。这是你对世界和对你自己的礼物。它也是你对上帝的礼物。

Your relationship with yourself, with others and with the world are the three arenas in which God is experienced, your purpose is discovered and your contribution is made. It is with these three arenas that you must now concern yourself. These are the arenas of fulfillment in the world.

你与自己的关系、与他人的关系以及与世界的关系是你经历上帝、发现你的目的和做出贡献的三个舞台。你现在必须关注的就是这三个领域。它们是你在世界上实现满足的领域。