第九章：发展的阶段

Chapter 9: Stages of Development

Stages of Development in Your Relationship to Knowledge
你与内识在关系中的发展阶段

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

Knowledge is the primary reference point in your development. Therefore, it is necessary to consider stages of development in terms of your relationship with Knowledge itself. Knowledge is your True Self as it exists in the world. You cannot grasp it or conceptualize it and possibly comprehend its meaning, its value or its purpose. However, you can and you must experience it increasingly. The teaching in The Way of Knowledge is concerned with the reclamation of Knowledge and, through Knowledge, service to the world.

内识是你发展的主要参考点。因此，有必要从你与内识本身的关系来考虑发展的阶段。内识是你的真我，因为它存在于这个世界上。你无法掌握它或将它概念化，也不可能理解它的意义、它的价值或它的目的。但是，你可以而且必须不断地经历它。内识之路中的教学涉及到内识的再生，以及通过内识为世界服务。

The development of your relationship with Knowledge occurs through three stages, which will be discussed here in a general way. The first stage is the denial of Knowledge. The second stage is the cultivation of Knowledge. And the third stage is the expression of Knowledge. These are general categories, and within each category you will find a reflection of the other two. For example, in the first stage, which is primarily concerned with the denial or suppression of Knowledge, individuals will still have moments when they express Knowledge and when they are reclaiming Knowledge. Likewise, in the third stage, in the expression of Knowledge, there will be times when Knowledge will be resisted or denied. However, overall, human development can be seen to fall into these three categories. It is important to see what this means in terms of your relationships with other people.

你与内识关系的发展经历了三个阶段，这里将作一般性讨论。第一阶段是否认内识。第二阶段是内识的培养。第三阶段是内识的表达。这些是一般的类别，在每个类别中，你会发现对其他两个类别的反映。例如，在第一阶段，主要关注的是对内识的否定或压制，个人仍然会有表达内识的时候，也会有重新获得内识的时候。同样，在第三阶段，在表达内识的过程中，也会有抵制或否认内识的时候。然而，总的来说，人类的发展可以被看作是属于这三类。重要的是要看到这在你与其他人的关系方面意味着什么。

The first stage could be called the denial of Knowledge. Not yet aware that Knowledge exists, people will seek fulfillment according to their ideas and the expectations of others. This first stage will begin once some basic survival requirements have been met. Here people are not yet aware that they are denying Knowledge within themselves. Instead, they are trying to affirm what they think that they want or should do. Here they are not necessarily being malicious. They simply do not know any better. Everyone begins in this stage.

第一个阶段可以称为对内识的否定。还没有意识到内识的存在，人们会根据自己的想法和他人的期望来寻求满足。一旦一些基本的生存要求得到满足，这个第一阶段就会开始。在这里，人们还没有意识到他们正在否认自己内心的内识。相反，他们正试图确认他们认为自己想要或应该做的事情。在这里，他们不一定是恶意的。他们只是不知道有什么更好的办法。每个人都是从这个阶段开始的。

The first stage is concerned with personal fulfillment according to one’s personal ideas. It is concerned with acquisition primarily. Here the individual has been freed enough to attempt to shape his or her own life to a certain degree. Here the person is learning some early forms of independence. That is why this stage is necessary and why it cannot be bypassed. Though people are beginning to learn to become independent here, they are still fortifying their dependency on others because they are attempting to live according to the ideas of others that they find to be attractive.

第一阶段关注的是根据个人的想法实现个人的目标。它主要关注的是获取。在这里，个人已经获得了足够的自由，可以尝试在一定程度上塑造自己的生命。在这里，人们正在学习一些早期的独立形式。这就是为什么这个阶段是必要的，也是不能绕过的原因。虽然人们在这里开始学习独立，但他们仍在强化对他人的依赖，因为他们正试图按照他们认为有吸引力的他人的想法生活。

This is primarily a period of unlearning, where things are attempted and prove either to be unsatisfying or impossible to attain. This throws people back upon themselves and results in disappointment and confusion. A great deal of anger can arise around this, for many of the things that seemed so valuable, so cherished and so worthwhile are proving to be worthless or very discouraging. In this stage, which can last a very long time, and even be lifelong, people will attempt again and again to fulfill themselves by trying to acquire certain things that they believe are necessary for their happiness. And again and again they will find disappointment in one form or another. Many people are in this stage. Yet there are also many people in the world who are still struggling with basic survival needs and have not even reached this first stage of development.

这主要是一个不学习的时期，试图做的事情被证明是不满意的或不可能实现的。这使人们回到自己身上，导致失望和困惑。围绕这一点可能会产生大量的愤怒，因为许多看起来如此宝贵、如此珍惜和如此有价值的关系被证明是毫无价值或非常令人沮丧。在这个阶段，可能会持续很长一段时间，甚至是终生，人们会一次又一次地试图通过努力获得某些他们认为是幸福所必需的关系来满足自己。而他们会一次又一次地发现以这种或那种形式的失望。许多人处于这个阶段。然而，世界上也有许多人仍在为基本的生存需求而挣扎，甚至没有达到这个发展的第一阶段。

This first stage is a trial-and-error period. Many relationships will be attempted for various forms of gratification: sexual gratification, companionship, financial gain, shared political or social views and even marriage itself. Here, again and again in relationship, people will attempt to use the other person to fulfill their ambitions. And again and again, this will prove to be painful, destructive and disappointing, for the other person will be attempting to use them for a similar purpose. Once these purposes come to light, there can be much discouragement and even hostility. People will feel used and misled. They will feel deceived and very disillusioned. This is a period of disillusionment. It is a necessary time of exploration, but it is unfortunate when it is prolonged.

这个第一阶段是一个试验和错误的时期。许多关系会为了各种形式的满足而进行尝试：性满足、伴侣关系、经济利益、共同的政治或社会观点，甚至是婚姻本身。在这里，在关系中一次又一次，人们将试图利用对方来实现他们的野心。而且，这将一次又一次地被证明是痛苦的、破坏性的和令人失望的，因为另一个人将试图利用他们达到类似的目的。一旦这些目的曝光，就会有很多灰心丧气，甚至敌意。人们会感到被利用和被误导。他们会感到被欺骗，非常失望。这是一个幻想破灭的时期。这是一个必要的探索时期，但如果它被延长了，那就很不幸了。

This is a time when romance takes precedence over relationship. Romance is attempting to use a person to fulfill an idea about oneself. Romance can happen in personal intimate relationships. It can also happen in relationships dealing with business and in any arena of human activity where relationships are established. Romance usually will be the main attraction until the individuals involved learn to value their Knowledge and learn some necessary lessons in discernment.

这是一个浪漫优先于关系的时期。浪漫是试图利用一个人去实现关于自己的想法。浪漫可以发生在个人的亲密关系中。它也可以发生在处理商业关系和任何建立关系的人类活动领域中。浪漫通常会成为主要的吸引力，直到所涉及的个人学会珍惜他们的内识，并学习一些必要的鉴别课程。

The difficulty with romance is that you do not want to recognize another. You only want the other person to validate your ideas about them. If another appears to validate your ideas, you will support them. If they do not, you will deny them according to what your ideas are. But you are still not at a place where intimacy can truly be established, for you are not yet experiencing affinity with the person. You are merely attracted to some aspect of them that fits in with a plan you have, a plan that you are either aware of or that you have unknowingly made within yourself.

浪漫的困难在于，你不想承认另一个人。你只想让对方验证你对他的想法。如果另一个人似乎验证了你的想法，你会支持他们。如果他们不这样做，你就会根据你的想法否定他们。但你仍然没有达到一个可以真正建立亲密关系的地方，因为你还没有经历到与对方的亲和力。你只是被他们的某些方面所吸引，这些方面符合你的计划，这个计划要么是你察觉到的，要么是你不知不觉中在自己内心制定的。

As the relationship progresses and the person proves to be a real person and not merely a good idea, it can lead to great confusion and disappointment. You find that you are disappointed in the person, or they become disappointed in you. You lose interest in them, or they lose interest in you. Sometimes this is mutual, but usually one person begins to lose interest before the other. As the person loses interest, the other person may feel their desire intensified in order to remain in the relationship. This can be very intense and very difficult.

随着关系的发展，这个人被证明是一个真实的人，而不仅仅是一个好的想法，这可能导致巨大的困惑和失望。你发现你对这个人感到失望，或者他们对你感到失望。你对他们失去兴趣，或者他们对你失去兴趣。有时这是相互的，但通常一个人在另一个人之前开始失去兴趣。随着这个人失去兴趣，另一个人可能会感到他们的欲望加强，以便保持这种关系。这可能是非常激烈和非常困难的。

This relationship does not yet have a sufficient foundation upon which it can last. It is not entirely false, for it has elements of truth, and many of these elements can be quite important. However, relationship, particularly if it is leading to marriage or life partnership, cannot survive if it is built upon a very partial or minimal foundation. When this relationship fails, you are thrown back on yourself, sometimes with great bitterness and unhappiness. Here you have a chance to reassess your motives and your decision making in your relationships. This is a time when some very fundamental and practical wisdom can be acquired. This is absolutely necessary. No maturity in relationship is possible unless substantial learning has occurred in this first stage.

这种关系还没有一个足够的基础，可以持续下去。它并不完全是虚假的，因为它有真实的元素，而且这些元素中有许多可能是相当重要的。然而，关系，特别是如果它导致婚姻或生活伙伴关系，如果它建立在一个非常片面或最低限度的基础上，就无法维持。当这种关系失败时，你会被扔回自己身上，有时会有很大的痛苦和不快。在这里，你有机会重新评估你的动机和你在关系中的决策。这是一个可以获得一些非常必要和实用的智慧的时候。这是绝对必要的。除非在这个第一阶段进行了大量的学习，否则关系的成熟是不可能的。

In some societies where there is a great deal of freedom for people to interact with one another, there can be many choices and a great many attempts are made. Many people can become the object of affection. Here learning can be accelerated, and this can be very helpful, but it has its dangers, for there are so many alluring people to which you can attach yourself that it can take far longer for you to learn under these circumstances. However, eventually, disappointment will bring you back to yourself. It is here that you can reassess your motives for wanting a relationship and your behavior and your decision making in your past involvements.

在一些社会中，人们有很大的自由来相互交往，可能会有很多选择，也会有很多尝试。许多人可以成为被喜爱的对象。在这里，学习可以加速，这可能非常有帮助，但也有其危险性，因为有这么多诱人的人，你可以依附于他们，在这种情况下，你可能需要更长的时间去学习。然而，最终，失望会让你回到自己身边。正是在这里，你可以重新评估你想要一段关系的动机，以及你的行为和你在过去参与的决策。

Here you must face yourself. If you only concern yourself with other people’s motives, behavior and decision making, you will not be able to see your own. That is why you must use these periods of disappointment for introspection and self-evaluation. If you can do this without condemnation, you will be able to recognize the errors that you made, and you will see how they can be corrected in the future. If you can learn from these disappointments without bitterness or condemnation, you can gain a very practical wisdom that will be of tremendous value to you in the future.

在这里，你必须面对自己。如果你只关心别人的动机、行为和决策，你将无法看到自己的。这就是为什么你必须善用这些失望的时期进行反省和自我评价。如果你能在不谴责的情况下做到这一点，你将能够认识到你所犯的错误，你将看到这些错误如何在未来得到纠正。如果你能从这些失望中学习，而不感到痛苦或谴责，你就能获得一种非常实用的智慧，在未来对你有巨大的价值。

This is not only a period of disappointment, it is also a period of self-discovery. This is where you begin to look at yourself objectively. You question yourself. You observe yourself. You challenge your own ideas. You challenge your own assumptions. As you do this, you begin to realize that many of your ideas and assumptions, which heretofore have governed your life, are not your ideas at all but are simply ideas that you have collected from other people or that you have accepted from society at large. And many of these ideas come from your parents. Because you have not yet been able to establish your own independent thinking, you have merely accepted other people’s ideas, often unconsciously, without question.

这不仅是一个失望的时期，也是一个自我发现的时期。这是你开始客观地审视自己的地方。你质疑自己。你观察自己。你挑战你自己的想法。你挑战你自己的假设。当你这样做的时候，你开始意识到，你的许多想法和假设，迄今为止一直支配着你的生命，根本就不是你的想法，而只是你从其他人那里收集的想法，或者你从整个社会接受的想法。而这些想法中有许多来自你的父母。因为你还没有能力建立自己的独立思考，所以你只是接受了别人的想法，往往是无意识地接受，没有质疑。

In this prolonged period of trial-and-error, of disappointment and self-discovery, you begin to see that there is a quality of mind within yourself that has the ability to know things. You begin to see that your mind is not merely made up of attitudes and beliefs, it also possesses a quality of knowing. Perhaps your initial discovery of this is quite brief and irregular. Yet as you learn to observe your participation in relationships with some objectivity, you will see that part of you knew when you were about to make a mistake. Part of you knew you were making a mistake. Part of you knew that you should go here and not there. Part of you knew to restrain yourself with this particular person or to avoid that particular situation. This is the result of introspection. Being objective with yourself without condemnation can yield this for you. Here you begin to see that part of you knows the truth. Yet this is only a very outward manifestation of Knowledge, for Knowledge is much greater than this.

在这个漫长的试错期，失望和自我发现的过程中，你开始看到自己内心有一种心灵品质，有能力知道事物。你开始看到，你的心灵不仅仅是由态度和信仰组成的，它还拥有一种知道的品质。也许你对这一点的最初发现是相当短暂和不规则的。然而，当你学会以某种客观性来观察你在人际关系中的参与，你会看到你的一部分知道你什么时候要犯错。你的一部分知道你正在犯错。你的一部分知道你应该去这里而不是那里。你的一部分知道对这个特定的人要克制自己，或避免那个特定的情况。这就是反省的结果。客观地对待自己而不加谴责，可以为你带来这种结果。在这里你开始看到，你的一部分知道真相。然而这只是内识的一个非常外在的表现，因为内识比这要大得多。

This first stage of development can be quite intense. The power of romance can be incredibly strong because it appears to be a form of salvation. This is substantiated by the fact that the initial experience of romance is so very heightened and can seem very grand and glorious. Falling in love is where you leave yourself behind and you transcend, momentarily, the limits of your own self, where you experience yourself in a larger context in the presence of another. Here you overstep your own boundaries temporarily, but you cannot yet live beyond them. That is why the initial experience cannot be maintained. No matter how much effort is exerted to recreate the initial experience, it cannot be maintained. You cannot live that far beyond your own internal boundaries because in fact you have not really grown yet. You have merely had a peak experience for which you are assigning all value and meaning to the other person. Then you will want to keep the other person and protect the relationship in order for you to again have that peak experience. Here love is more like a form of intoxication, and it demonstrates very addictive behavior. It is only through disappointment that a greater experience of love and relationship can dawn for you.

这第一阶段的发展可能是相当激烈的。浪漫的力量可以是难以置信的强大，因为它似乎是一种救赎的形式。这一点被以下事实所证实：浪漫的最初经历是如此的高度，可以看起来非常宏伟和光荣。坠入爱河是你把自己抛在后面，你暂时超越了你自己的限制，在另一个人面前，你在一个更大的背景下经历自己。在这里，你暂时超越了你自己的界限，但你还不能超越它们而生活。这就是为什么最初的经历无法维持。无论付出多少努力去重新创造最初的经历，它都不能被维持。你不能活得那么远，超越你自己的内部界限，因为事实上你还没有真正成长。你只是有一个高峰经历，为此你把所有的价值和意义都赋予了对方。然后你会想留住对方，保护这段关系，以便你能再次获得那种高峰经历。在这里，爱情更像是一种沉醉的形式，它表现出非常容易上瘾的行为。只有通过失望，你才能有更大的爱和关系的经历。

For students of Knowledge, this period of trial and error, disappointment and self-discovery can be greatly accelerated. To consciously become a student of Knowledge means that you now have found a reference point within yourself that, through time and through many experiences, you are learning to trust and to value. This is your Inner Guidance. It transcends your preferences, your desires, your fears, your compulsions, your conflicts and your difficulties. It is an abiding source of truth and love, and therefore it represents true relationship.

对于内识的学生来说，这个试验和错误、失望和自我发现的时期可以大大加快。有意识地成为内识的学生，意味着你现在已经在自己内心找到了一个参考点，通过时间和许多经历，你正在学习信任和重视。这就是你的内在指导。它超越了你的喜好、你的欲望、你的恐惧、你的强迫症、你的冲突和你的困难。它是真理和爱的持久来源，因此它代表了真实的关系。

This first stage is very important, and yet there can be a great deal of difficulty and resistance here. How long you remain in this first stage depends upon your desire for the truth and how much you will need to resolve within yourself. Yet everyone must pass through this stage. You will be learning certain lessons of this stage even beyond this stage, for the lessons of discernment concerning Knowledge continue all along the way.

这个第一阶段是非常重要的，然而这里可能有大量的困难和阻力。你在这个第一阶段停留多久，取决于你对真理的渴望，以及你需要在自己内心解决多少问题。然而，每个人都必须通过这个阶段。你将学习这个阶段的某些课程，甚至超越这个阶段，因为关于内识的鉴别课程一直在继续。

Something very significant changes at the end of this stage that enables you to enter the second stage. It is, in part, a result of your learning or, to be more specific, your unlearning in relationship. And yet it is also the result of something that has happened within you, for within you, Knowledge has been initiated. Your outward experience and your inward experience have brought Knowledge to a point where it can begin a second stage of emergence within you. This brings you to the second stage of development, which is the stage of the reclamation of Knowledge.

在这个阶段结束时，有一些非常重要的变化，使你能够进入第二个阶段。它部分是你学习的结果，或者更具体地说，是你在关系中解除学习的结果。然而，它也是在你内部发生关系的结果，因为在你内部，内识已经开始了。你的外在经历和内在经历已经把内识带到了一个点上，在这里它可以开始在你内心出现的第二个阶段。这就把你带到了发展的第二阶段，也就是内识的开垦阶段。

In the second stage of development, your learning in discernment and decision-making continues as increasingly you see that part of you is wise and part of you is unwise. The part of you that is unwise needs to learn from the part of you that is wise. Here you will increasingly see that you are living according to ideas and beliefs which are not your own, but which you have mindlessly accepted from your environment. You increasingly see that romance without true relationship is hopeless and will always be destined for pain and disappointment. You will see that a relationship must have a greater purpose or a greater focus than simply personal attraction in order to survive and to provide real meaning. You will see that the initial peak experience of romance is not relationship but is, at best, an experience of recognition between two individuals.

在发展的第二阶段，你在辨别和决策方面的学习继续进行，因为你越来越看到你的一部分是明智的，一部分是不明智的。你不明智的那部分需要向你明智的那部分学习。在这里，你将越来越多地看到，你是按照不是你自己的想法和信仰生活的，而是你无意识地接受了来自你的环境。你会越来越看到，没有真实关系的浪漫是无望的，将永远注定是痛苦和失望的。你会看到，一种关系必须有更伟大的目的或更大的焦点，而不是简单的个人吸引，以便生存和提供真正的意义。你将看到，最初的浪漫高峰经历不是关系，而充其量是两个人之间的认可经历。

All of this learning, which is vital and essential, continues through all stages of development. What separates the first stage from the second is the emergence of Knowledge. Knowledge now begins to exert a stronger influence. It is something that you will feel increasingly. You will not only feel it at times of important decision making, you will feel it more in day-to-day life. The tiny spark that was a little light within you before has now become a small fire. It is still not predominant in your awareness. It is still not something you may even think of at all. Yet you will feel its effects increasingly.

所有这些学习，是至关重要的，也是必不可少的，在发展的各个阶段都在继续。第一阶段和第二阶段的区别在于内识的出现。内识现在开始施加更强的影响。你会越来越感觉到它的存在。你不仅会在重要的决策时刻感受到它，你会在日常生活中更多地感受到它。之前在你内心的小光点，现在已经变成了小火苗。它在你的意识中仍然不占优势。它仍然不是你甚至可能根本没有想到的关系。然而你会越来越多地感受到它的影响。

Here, if you are becoming objective about yourself, you will realize that much that you attempted before was indeed meaningless and will not satisfy your deeper yearning. Here a deep questioning about your identity and purpose in life will begin to arise. It will not merely be the result of philosophical interest or casual questions. It will have to do more and more with the actual value, meaning and purpose of your life. Here, usually unknown to you, your Inner Teachers come closer and begin to exert a different kind of influence. In most cases, you will never know that your Teachers are with you by recognizing any specific form of identity. Yet increasingly there will be an experience of Presence.

在这里，如果你对自己变得客观，你会意识到，你之前尝试的很多关系确实毫无意义，不会满足你更深层面的渴望。在这里，一个关于你的身份和生命目的的深刻疑问将开始出现。它将不仅仅是哲学兴趣或随意问题的结果。它将与你生命的实际价值、意义和目的有越来越多的关系。在这里，通常你不知道，你的内在老师会更接近，并开始施加一种不同的影响。在大多数情况下，你不会通过识别任何特定的身份形式来知道你的老师与你同在。然而，你会越来越多地经历到一种存在的感受。

The transition from the first stage to the second stage is actually enormous although, like all great transition experiences, it will go largely unnoticed. Only the results will be noticed. Only a change in your understanding and experience will indicate that a real shift has occurred. Your thinking has changed. Your feelings have changed. Your values have changed. Your orientation to life has changed. Your priorities have changed. You may even change physically. You may change your outer appearance. But whether you do this or not, something within you has changed, and you are becoming aware of it.

从第一阶段到第二阶段的过渡实际上是巨大的，尽管像所有重大的过渡经历一样，它在很大程度上不会被注意到。只有结果会被注意到。只有你的理解和经历的变化才会表明，真正的转变已经发生。你的思维已经改变。你的感觉已经改变。你的价值观已经改变。你对生命的方向已经改变。你的优先事项已经改变。你甚至可能在身体上发生变化。你可能会改变你的外在形象。但无论你是否这样做，你内心的某些关系已经改变，而且你正在意识到它。

Therefore, it is not correct to say, “Yesterday I was in stage one and today I am in stage two,” because you will not know. In fact, this discussion of the stages of development is only to give you an overview, not to set up a system of criteria whereby you judge yourself and others. Please remember this; it is quite important. This is only to give you an overview in order for you to see how human development must be gauged according to Knowledge to have any meaning at all.

因此，说昨天我处于第一阶段，今天我处于第二阶段是不正确的，因为你不会知道。事实上，对发展阶段的讨论只是为了给你一个概述，而不是建立一个标准体系，让你据此判断自己和他人。请记住这一点；这很重要。这只是为了给你一个概述，以便你看到人类的发展必须根据内识来衡量，才能有任何意义。

Knowledge, as you approach it, will become increasingly powerful and inclusive. Here your viewpoint of it will become expanded and more appreciative. Like climbing a mountain, you see a greater and greater panorama as you continue to rise up. You gain a greater perspective on where you have been and where you are going as you continue to ascend.

内识，当你接近它时，将变得越来越强大和包容。在这里，你对它的观点将变得更广泛，更有鉴赏力。就像爬山一样，当你继续往上爬的时候，你会看到越来越大的全景。当你继续上升时，你对你已经去过的地方和你要去的地方获得了更大的视角。

In the second stage, you begin to recognize a genuine contrast within yourself. The contrast is between what is wanted or believed and what is known. Eventually, in this second stage, you will realize that this contrast is total and that a great gulf exists between what is wanted and what is known. Eventually, you will see that what is known is what is genuinely wanted. When this is recognized, it will be a great homecoming for you. Yet before that happens, desires that are not in keeping with Knowledge will seem to compete with Knowledge itself and will create a division within you that can be very difficult to reconcile.

在第二个阶段，你开始认识到自己内心的真正对比。这种对比是在想要或相信的关系和知道的关系之间。最终，在这个第二阶段，你会意识到这种对比是完全的，在想要的关系和知道的关系之间存在着巨大的鸿沟。最终，你将看到，知道的关系是真正想要的关系。当这一点被知道时，对你来说将是一个伟大的归宿。然而，在这之前，不符合内识的欲望似乎会与内识本身竞争，并在你内心造成一种难以调和的分裂。

During the second stage of development, the value of your education becomes increasingly emphasized. Here you realize that for you to make progress, you will need the help of certain individuals who, through their professional capacity or their general wisdom, can serve as mentors and as true assistants or guides in your development. Here learning becomes less chaotic and has greater direction.

在发展的第二个阶段，你的教育价值变得越来越被强调。在这里，你意识到，要想取得进步，你需要某些人的帮助，这些人通过他们的专业能力或一般智慧，可以作为导师，成为你发展中真实的助手或向导。在这里，学习变得不那么混乱，有更多的方向。

This education is quite important because increasingly there will be a distinction between what you know and what you want apart from Knowledge. In other words, there will be an increasing distinction between the reality of Knowledge and the Forces of Dissonance within you. This can lead to a great deal of confusion because you will still tend to identify with everything you experience internally. You will tend to think that the Force of Knowledge is part of your identity and that the Forces of Dissonance are also part of your identity. Through substantial learning, you will see that only the Force of Knowledge represents your true identity and that the Forces of Dissonance simply represent obstacles in your path.

这种教育相当重要，因为除了内识之外，你所知道的和你想要的之间将越来越有区别。换句话说，内识的现实和你内在的不和谐力量之间的区别会越来越大。这可能会导致大量的混乱，因为你仍然会倾向于认同你内部经历的一切。你会倾向于认为内识的力量是你身份的一部分，不和谐的力量也是你身份的一部分。通过大量的学习，你会看到只有内识的力量代表你的真实身份，而不和谐的力量只是代表你道路上的障碍。

People often think that part of them says this and part of them says that. Part of them wants this; part of them wants that. Part of them wants to go; part of them wants to stop. They think it is all part of them, but it is not.

人们常常认为，他们的一部分人说这个，一部分人说那个。他们中的一部分想要这个；他们中的一部分想要那个。他们中的一部分想走；他们中的一部分想停。他们认为这都是他们的一部分，但事实并非如此。

As you learn to identify with Knowledge, you must not condemn that which is not Knowledge. Remember, there are three levels of existence—physical, mental and spiritual. Here you must still value your physical and mental reality. Do not deny these or demean them because you are discovering a spiritual reality. Each requires the others for fulfillment. The physical requires the mental, the mental requires the spiritual. Each is the vehicle for the greater reality above it. This is how true integration occurs.

当你学会认同内识时，你一定不要谴责那些不是内识的关系。记住，有三个层面的存在——物理、心理和精神。在这里，你必须仍然重视你的物理现实和心理现实。不要因为你发现了精神现实而否认这些或贬低它们。每一个都需要其他的来实现。身体需要心理，心理需要精神。每一个都是高于它的更大现实的载体。这就是真实整合发生的方式。

On a day-to-day basis in this second stage, there will be confusion, and often to a great degree. This is because much of what you thought was true before has proven to be inadequate or altogether false. What you believed in before is changing, and now you don’t know what to believe in. Before, in the first stage, you built your identity entirely upon your wishes and ideas. Now you have seen the limits and, in some cases, the falsity of your wishes and ideas. Now you don’t know what to build your identity upon. Knowledge is not yet strong enough within you for you to realize that it is your identity.

在这个第二阶段的日常工作中，会有混乱，而且往往是很大程度上的混乱。这是因为你以前认为是真实的很多关系已经证明是不充分的或完全错误的。你以前相信的关系正在改变，现在你不知道该相信什么。以前，在第一阶段，你的身份完全建立在你的愿望和想法之上。现在你已经看到了你的愿望和想法的局限性，在某些情况下，看到了你的愿望和想法的虚假性。现在你不知道该把你的身份建立在什么之上。内识在你内心还不够强大，你无法意识到它是你的身份。

Here you must go on faith. Faith becomes a real element here. Because you are experiencing Knowledge increasingly, though intermittently, you must have faith that this represents a governing and abiding truth within you, even if you cannot experience it much of the time. Your decision making will be going through a gradual transformation. As a result, on a day-to-day basis, things might be very confusing. This is all right.

在这里，你必须依靠信仰。信仰在这里成为一个真正的元素。因为你越来越多地经历到内识，尽管是断断续续的，你必须有信仰，这代表了你内心的一个管理和持久的真理，即使你在很多时候不能经历它。你的决策将经历一个逐步的转变。因此，在日常的基础上，关系可能会非常混乱。这都是对的。

Here your Inner Teachers take a more active role to help you because they see that your sense of identity, sense of purpose and experience of meaning are going through a tremendous shift. They stand by you now to lend their strength and in some cases to speak to you directly. Whether you are aware of them or not, they are sending ideas into your mind to help you.

在这里，你的内在老师发挥更积极的作用来帮助你，因为他们看到你的身份感、目的感和对意义的经历正在经历巨大的转变。他们现在站在你身边，提供他们的力量，在某些情况下，直接与你对话。无论你是否意识到他们，他们都在向你的心灵中发送想法，以帮助你。

When you are out in the world, you will not see how essential this assistance from your Inner Teachers is, for the world is a place where people appear to be separate and on their own. However, if you stand back from the world, you realize that people are not standing alone, but are actually held up by many others who are supporting them. The world has a cast of characters, and beyond the world there is a supporting cast of characters. Once you see this more clearly, it will give you great cause for celebration, strength and self-confidence because you will realize how great the resources are that are supporting and assisting you.

当你在外面的世界里，你不会看到来自你的内在老师的这种帮助是多么重要，因为世界是一个人们看起来似乎是分离并独立的地方。然而，如果你从世界的角度退后一步，你就会发现人们并不是孤立无援的，实际上是被许多支持他们的人所支撑着。世界上有一群角色，而在世界之外，还有一群支持的角色。一旦你更清晰地看到这一点，这将给你充分的理由来庆祝、增强力量和自信，因为你会意识到支持和帮助你的资源是多么伟大。

The second stage can be quite confusing because ideas and Knowledge are in essence competing for your attention. Sometimes it is hard to tell the two apart, and sometimes you confuse them. Sometimes you are not certain what the truth really is because what you thought the truth was has failed you or proved to be inadequate. Here you realize that either the truth that you understood before is false or your comprehension of it is not great enough. Here your studenthood becomes tested. Here you must dedicate yourself to learning and not to simply defending your assumptions or resting your identity or sense of well-being on ideas which prove self-comforting or agreeable in the moment. Here there is a real need for self-examination because your learning now is being accelerated. Here there is a contrast that is being illustrated increasingly between what you know and what you want, between the world of Knowledge and the world of fantasy.

第二阶段可能相当混乱，因为想法和内识在本质上是在争夺你的注意力。有时很难区分这两者，有时你会把它们混淆。有时你不确定真理到底是什么，因为你认为的真理已经让你失望了，或者证明是不充分的。在这里你会意识到，要么你之前理解的真理是错误的，要么你对它的理解还不够深刻。在这里，你的学习能力成为考验。在这里，你必须献身于学习，而不是简单地捍卫你的假设，或将你的身份或幸福感寄托在当下证明是自我安慰或认同的想法之上。这里确实需要自我检查，因为你现在的学习正在加速进行。这里有一个对比，在你所知道的和你想要的之间，在内识的世界和幻想的世界之间，正在日益说明。

There are many pitfalls in the second stage, as there are in the first stage and even the third stage. If you are wise, you will seek counsel from those individuals who are capable of helping you negotiate this stage of your development. Nothing can be done alone. You require relationship for your advancement and for everything that you create. Therefore, you must now consciously seek help. However, you will find that many people around you are not capable of helping you. They may still be in the first stage and do not understand what you are struggling with. You are now struggling to discover something real that is trying to emerge within you. If someone else has not experienced this, what can they do for you?

第二阶段有很多陷阱，就像第一阶段甚至第三阶段一样。如果你是明智的，你会向那些有能力帮助你在这个发展阶段进行谈判的人寻求咨询。没有什么是可以单独完成的。你的进步和你所创造的一切都需要关系。因此，你现在必须有意识地寻求帮助。然而，你会发现，你周围的许多人没有能力帮助你。他们可能还处于第一阶段，不明白你在挣扎什么。你现在正在挣扎着发现一些真实的关系，这些关系正试图在你内心出现。如果别人没有经历过这些，他们能为你做什么？

As you advance, it becomes more important to exercise greater discernment in your relationships. Here you realize that you cannot successfully associate with just anyone whom you find to be pleasing. You cannot fall in love with just anyone who is attractive. You cannot align yourself with just anyone who congratulates you. This second stage is a period of increasing discernment because the need for discernment is there. You need to find allies in the reclamation of Knowledge. You need people who are in touch with their inner lives. You need people who are experiencing the second stage of development. They will be seeking you as you are seeking them, for they too can no longer be satisfied with limited relationships. Like yourself, they need relationships of far greater capacity now.

随着你的进步，在你的关系中行使更大的辨别力变得更加重要。在这里你会意识到，你不能成功地与任何你认为讨人喜欢的人交往。你不能爱上任何有吸引力的人。你不能与任何祝贺你的人结盟。这第二阶段是一个不断提高辨别力的时期，因为对辨别力的需求就在那里。你需要在内识的开垦中找到盟友。你需要那些与他们的内在生命有联系的人。你需要那些正在经历第二个发展阶段的人。他们会像你寻找他们一样寻找你，因为他们也不能再满足于有限的关系。像你自己一样，他们现在需要能力更强的关系。

In the second stage, you are still valuing romance, and you have not yet fully learned that romance is hopeless. As a result, you may still attempt to find romance in the second stage. You still have many ideas upon which you base your identity, and you will attempt to live out these ideas as well. Therefore, do not in any way think that you are yet free from the desire for romance. Now something that is not mere fantasy is competing for your attention. Something that is not mere ideas is beginning to exert itself in your life. You will feel that there are two competing forces within yourself. You are now becoming more aware of yourself and of your environment, more aware of your engagement with other people and more aware of your own motives and process of decision making in your relationships.

在第二阶段，你仍然重视浪漫，而且你还没有完全学会浪漫是没有希望的。因此，你可能仍然会试图在第二阶段寻找浪漫。你仍然有许多观念构成你的身份基础，你也会试图将这些观念实现出来。因此，请不要以任何方式认为你已经从寻求浪漫的欲望中自由了。现在有一些不仅仅是幻想在争夺你的注意力。有一些不仅仅是想法正在开始在你的生活中施加影响。你会感觉到自己内部有两股竞争的力量。你现在开始更加意识到自己和周围环境，更加意识到与他人的互动，以及更加意识到自己在人际关系中决策的动机和过程。

At a certain point, you begin to recognize your need to become a student of Knowledge. Here Knowledge begins to have genuine meaning because you realize that there is a part of you that knows. Yet it is a part of you with which you may have had very little experience. The quality of this knowing and the quality of your consciousness when you are experiencing it is in direct contrast to your normal state of mind. Your normal state of mind is dominated by powerful forces—by fear and desire, by trying to get something or get away from something, by trying to have comfort and avoid pain and by trying to have pleasure and avoid confusion. In the first stage of development, you were seeking escape from yourself. Now you are realizing that escape is not possible. Here you are beginning to entertain the possibility that what you were trying to escape before is something you may want to embrace in the future. Reality now begins to look beneficial rather than threatening or depriving.

在某一点上，你开始认识到你需要成为一名内识的学生。在这里，内识开始具有真正的意义，因为你意识到你内心有一部分是知道的。然而，这是你可能很少经历过的一部分。当你体验到这种知道并且意识到它的质量时，它与你正常状态下的意识形态形成鲜明对比。你的正常意识状态被强大的力量所主导——恐惧和欲望，试图得到某些关系或逃离某些关系，试图追求舒适和避免痛苦，试图追求快乐和避免混乱。在发展的第一阶段，你试图逃避自己。现在你意识到逃避是不可能的。在这里，你开始思考以前你试图逃避的关系，可能是你未来想要接纳的关系。现实现在开始看起来是有益的，而不是威胁性的或剥夺性的。

This is when your Inner Teachers come closer because your initiation has called them to you. As you begin to awaken, your Inner Teachers come to your side. They were observing you from a distance before, but now their participation in your life becomes more active and more necessary. At times you may begin to experience that there is someone with you. You may often have a vague experience of this but rarely will it be clear and forthright. Perhaps you will feel that someone is with you, a presence. Perhaps you will simply feel that you are not alone and will derive strength and encouragement from this. In the second stage, as you learn to relate to people through Knowledge, you will begin to experience the power of this presence increasingly.

这时，你的内在老师走近了，因为你的启动将他们召唤到你身边。当你开始觉醒时，你的内在老师来到你身边。他们之前从远处观察你，但现在他们在你生命中的参与变得更加积极和必要。有时，你可能开始经历到有一个存在与你在一起。你可能经常会有一种模糊的经历，但很少会有明确和直接的经历。也许你会觉得有人和你在一起，是一种存在。也许你会简单地感觉到你并不孤独，并从中获得力量和鼓励。在第二阶段，随着你学会通过内识与人交往，你将开始越来越多地经历到这种存在的力量。

Your relationship with your Inner Teachers is based entirely upon Knowledge and is not based upon romance or fantasy at all. As you begin to value real relationship more than temporary stimulation, you will begin to change your attitude regarding romance. Perhaps there will be disappointment at first, but now you are seeking something more lasting, more stable and more genuine. You are seeking a deeper and more abiding nourishment rather than temporary stimulation. You do not want to re-experience the severity of your former disappointments. As a result, you will begin to choose your relationships more carefully.

你与内在老师的关系完全基于内识，根本不是基于浪漫或幻想。当你开始重视真正的关系而不是暂时的刺激时，你将开始改变你对浪漫的态度。也许一开始会有失望，但现在你正在寻求更持久、更稳定和更真实的关系。你正在寻求一种更深层、更持久的滋养，而不是暂时的刺激。你不想重新经历你以前失望的严重性。因此，你将开始更小心地选择你的关系。

Here it is important to observe people to learn more about them before you become engaged with them. In terms of sexuality, this is quite important. As you learn to become more discerning and therefore wiser in your decisions, eventually you will only want to have sexual engagement with one individual with whom you can become fully united. This represents wisdom. For, in truth, this is the purpose of sex. Sex is to regenerate the race and to establish union with a true partner. Sex merely for recreation or for temporary stimulation ceases to be pleasurable and is recognized as leading to grave disappointment and even physical danger in terms of illness.

在这里，重要的是在你与人交往之前观察他人，了解他们的情况。在性行为方面，这一点相当重要。当你学会变得更有洞察力，从而在决定上更明智时，最终你将只想与一个你能完全结合的人发生性关系。这代表了智慧。因为，事实上，这就是性的目的。性是为了使种族再生，并与真实的伙伴建立结合。仅仅为了娱乐或暂时的刺激而进行的性行为不再是快乐的，并被认为会导致严重的失望，甚至是疾病方面的身体危险。

This second stage of development is a period of tremendous re-evaluation. It is a period of learning through contrast. Here Knowledge is like a small bud, but it has broken the surface of the ground and is therefore becoming noticeable. Yet in the second stage, you may still have faith in the possibility of romance because this is where you had placed your hope before. Without Knowledge, romance seemed to be the most hopeful thing there is. Without romance, life seemed to be empty. In the second stage, you realize that a far greater promise is offered you through reclaiming your connection to Knowledge. Perhaps you will not think of it in these terms. Perhaps you will think of it in terms of being true to yourself or of experiencing genuine union with another or of finding greater happiness. These are all expressions of Knowledge because Knowledge is their source. Knowledge is the basis of true affinity in life.

这个发展的第二阶段是一个重大的重新评价的时期。这是一个通过对比学习的时期。在这里，内识就像一个小芽，但它已经破土而出，因此变得引人注意。然而在第二阶段，你可能仍然对浪漫的可能性抱有信仰，因为这是你之前寄予希望的地方。没有内识，浪漫似乎是最有希望的关系。没有浪漫，生命似乎是空虚的。在第二阶段，你意识到，通过重新找回与内识的联系，会给你一个更大的承诺。也许你不会用这些术语去想它。也许你会从忠于自己、经历与他人的真实结合或找到更大的幸福等方面来考虑它。这些都是内识的表达，因为内识是它们的来源。内识是生命中真实亲和力的基础。

Towards the end of the second stage, you realize that you must associate with individuals who can recognize your deeper spiritual nature and who themselves have an emphasis on spiritual development. At the beginning of the second stage, perhaps this was not the emphasis. You merely wanted to be around people with whom you felt more comfortable, more aligned, more validated and more secure. But as you proceed in the second stage, you begin to value lasting relationship more than romance and lasting companionship more than immediate stimulation. You begin to value compatibility more than beauty or excitement.

在第二阶段接近尾声时，你意识到你必须与那些能够认识到在你更深层面的精神上自然的人交往，他们本身也强调精神上的发展。在第二阶段开始时，也许这并不是重点。你只是想和那些让你感到更舒适、更一致、更有效、更安全的人在一起。但随着你在第二阶段的进展，你开始重视持久的关系而不是浪漫，重视持久的伴侣关系而不是即时的刺激。你开始重视相容性而不是美丽或刺激。

In the first stage, the contrast between you and others sometimes seemed very stimulating and exciting. To be with someone different from you seemed very thrilling. However, in reality, opposites may be very attracted to one another initially, but they can rarely co-exist harmoniously with each other in the realm of intimate relationship. Though you need a certain amount of contrast for learning, compatibility and shared direction are the absolute foundation for a lasting and meaningful relationship with another. In the first stage, you might have fallen in love with someone who was entirely different from you because you valued the contrast. It was thrilling to be with them because they opened up panoramas which you had never experienced before. Here indeed there can be a great deal of stimulation, excitement and fanciful expectation. But you find out, sooner or later, that without real compatibility and shared direction, you have nowhere to go together. You have no basis upon which to participate, and your differences will cease to be exciting and will now become a source of discord, conflict and disassociation.

在第一阶段，你和他人之间的对比有时似乎非常刺激和兴奋。和与你不同的人在一起似乎非常刺激。然而，在现实中，对立面最初可能非常吸引对方，但他们很少能在亲密关系的领域中彼此和谐地共存。虽然你需要一定的对比来学习，但兼容性和共同的方向是与另一个人建立持久和有意义关系的绝对基础。在第一阶段，你可能已经爱上了一个与你完全不同的人，因为你重视这种对比。和他们在一起很刺激，因为他们打开了你以前从未经历过的全景。这里确实可以有大量的刺激、兴奋和幻想的期望。但你迟早会发现，如果没有真正的兼容性和共同的方向，你们就没有地方可以一起去。你们没有参与的基础，你们的分歧将不再令人激动，现在将成为不和谐、冲突和脱离的来源。

Remember you are like a piece of a puzzle, and if you cannot fit with another piece, you will never be at ease with that person in an intimate relationship. You will never feel at home with that person. You will never feel fully connected with that person. In the world, feeling at home, being at peace with yourself and feeling connected are all related to your purpose here. The world is not a permanent reality; it is a temporary reality. The world is a place you have come to work and to accomplish things. That is why you are drawn to some people and not to others. That is why you cannot feel the same about everyone. That is why your participation with different people will be disproportionate.

记住你就像一块拼图，如果你不能与另一块拼图融合，你将永远无法在亲密关系中与那个人安心相处。你将永远不会和那个人有家的感觉。你将永远不会感到与那个人完全相连。在这个世界上，宾至如归的感觉、与自己和平相处的感觉和连接的感觉，都与你在这里的目的有关。世界不是一个永久的现实；它是一个暂时的现实。世界是一个你来工作和完成工作的地方。这就是为什么你会被一些人吸引而不被另一些人吸引。这就是为什么你不能对每个人都有同样的感觉。这就是为什么你对不同人的参与会不相称。

As you approach Knowledge and begin to gain a greater viewpoint, this will become so apparent that you will wonder how you ever could have missed it. You will see that previously you were merely going into life with your eyes closed. Your emphasis was largely about living out your dreams and desires. You will see that many of your relationships were unreal, your goals were unreal and your attitudes were unreal. Much of what you entertained before was unreal. However, with an awareness of Knowledge, you will see that even in the first stage, Knowledge was with you, and you were responding to it within your limited capacity. You will see that part of your emphasis in relationships was true, and truth was evident there. It simply could not flourish yet. You were not ready. The other person was not ready. Yet the seed of truth was there in the first stage.

当你接近内识并开始获得更多的观点时，这将变得如此明显，以至于你会想，你怎么可能错过它。你会看到，以前你只是闭着眼睛进入生命。你的重点主要是活出你的梦想和欲望。你会看到，你的许多关系是不真实的，你的目标是不真实的，你的态度是不真实的。你以前娱乐的很多东西都是不真实的。然而，随着对内识的认识，你会看到，即使在第一阶段，内识也与你同在，你在你有限的能力范围内对它作出回应。你会看到，你在关系中强调的部分是真实的，真理在那里是明显的。它只是还不能蓬勃发展。你还没有准备好。另一个人也没有准备好。然而在第一阶段，真理的种子就在那里。

Stage two is the stage in which most students of Knowledge will be engaged. Here you are in the process of learning to distinguish truth from illusion, Knowledge from belief, relationship from romance, satisfaction from passion and abiding alignment and connection from temporary stimulation. In stage two, you are beginning to recognize that you have a unique shape and are a part of something greater than yourself. How can you determine your shape if you don’t see that you fit somewhere and are part of something? Without this awareness, you will only shape yourself according to your ideas and other people’s expectations and will not have any notion of your true nature and design. Within stage two, you are beginning to have the sense that you have an inherent design. Once you realize you have a design, you realize you have a Designer. This will begin to establish an awareness of your most primary relationship, your relationship with God. Yet even here your relationship with God cannot provide escape from your relationships with other people or replace them. For God has sent you into the world to reclaim relationships, to learn the lessons of relationships and to learn to reclaim and follow your Knowledge so that you may remember your relationship with God and express that relationship in the world.

第二阶段是大多数内识学生将要参与的阶段。在这里，你正在学习区分真理与幻觉，内识与信仰，关系与浪漫，满足与激情，以及持久的对齐和连接与暂时的刺激。在第二阶段，你开始意识到自己有一个独特的形状，并且是某种更大整体的一部分。如果你没有觉知到自己属于某个地方并且是某个整体的一部分，你如何能确定自己的形状呢？没有这种觉知，你只会按照自己的想法和他人的期望来塑造自己，并且不会对自己真实的本性和设计有任何概念。在第二阶段内，你开始感觉到自己有一种固有的设计。一旦你意识到你有一个设计，你就意识到你有一个设计师。这将开始建立对你最主要关系的觉知，即你与上帝的关系。然而，即使在这里，你与上帝的关系也不能逃避与其他人的关系或取代它们。因为上帝已经派遣你到这个世界上来恢复关系，学习关系的教训，并学会重新认领和追随你的内识，以便你能够记得与上帝的关系，并在世界上表达这种关系。

The second stage establishes contrast. It gives you a new sense of perspective. Here you will be tempted to deny the false. You will be tempted to condemn the false. You will be tempted to throw the false away. You may be brutal and angry with yourself. You may be critical and judgmental of others. Yet you learn in stage two that what is small can represent what is great. You learn that what is false in all of its manifestations represents the need for Knowledge. This encourages acceptance, forgiveness and compassion. Then you can begin to accept all aspects of yourself and learn to have a sense of a working relationship between them. This leads to self-integration, self-acceptance and, therefore, self-love.

第二阶段建立了对比。它给你带来了新的视角。在这里，你会受到诱惑去否定虚假。你会受到诱惑去谴责虚假。你会受到诱惑去抛弃虚假。你可能会对自己残酷和愤怒。你可能会批评和评判他人。然而，你在第二阶段学到的是，微小之处可以代表伟大之处。你学会了，无论虚假以何种形式显现，它都代表了对内识的需求。这促使你接受、宽恕和怜悯。然后，你可以开始接受自己的所有方面，并学会在它们之间建立一种工作关系的感觉。这导致了自我整合、自我接纳，因此也是自爱的基础。

People often think of self-love and self-acceptance as a form of passivity where you don’t have to work anymore. You can go on vacation or holiday with yourself. But real self-acceptance is very different from this. Here you realize that your lack of self-respect and your propensity for error require correction and are opportunities to express that which is genuine and meaningful within yourself. This is based upon your experience of Knowledge because this is how Knowledge views error. This prepares the way for the third stage, which is the expression of Knowledge.

人们常常认为自爱和自我接纳是一种被动的形式，在这里你不必再工作。你可以和自己一起去度假或放假。但真正的自我接纳与此截然不同。在这里，你意识到你的缺乏自尊和你的错误倾向需要纠正，是表达你内心真实和有意义的机会。这是基于你对内识的经历，因为这是内识看待错误的方式。这为第三阶段做了准备，也就是内识的表达。

The beginning of stage three represents another great overall shift in emphasis. Here a person begins to discern that they already have a commitment to life and a purpose in life. Even if this commitment and purpose have not been defined and fully demonstrated, there is an abiding sense of their reality. Here the person acknowledges, “I am here to do something. I am here to serve something.”

第三阶段的开始代表了重点的另一个巨大的整体转变。在这里，一个人开始分辨出他们已经有了对生命的承诺和生命的目的。即使这个承诺和目的还没有被定义和充分展示，也有一种对其现实的持久感觉。在这里，人们承认，”我在这里要做一些事情。我在这里是为了服务上帝。

In very rare cases, people are born with an awareness of this commitment. But for the vast majority of people, it arises through learning and unlearning in the first two stages of development. In the first stage, the commitment was simply to be happier or to be better according to one’s own beliefs and wishes and the beliefs and wishes of others. In stage two, people begin to have a sense that they might have a higher purpose, but they do not yet see what this means. Their awareness of their higher purpose is still competing with their personal agenda for fulfillment. In the third stage, this competition begins to diminish. There is still a personal agenda, but it can no longer compete with Knowledge as the most valued resource and motivation in life.

在非常罕见的情况下，人们天生就有这种承诺的觉知。但对绝大多数人来说，它是通过在发展的前两个阶段的学习和解除学习而产生的。在第一阶段，这种承诺只是为了让自己更快乐，或者根据自己的信仰和愿望以及他人的信仰和愿望变得更好。在第二阶段，人们开始有一种感觉，他们可能有一个更高的宗旨，但他们还没有看到这意味着什么。他们对更高宗旨的觉知仍在与他们的个人议程竞争，以获得满足。在第三阶段，这种竞争开始减弱。仍然有个人议程，但它不再能与内识竞争，成为生命中最有价值的资源和动力。

In the third stage, the emphasis is on consolidating learning and on refining your discernment. Here the value of relationships becomes critical, for you cannot afford to associate with the wrong people. Here you must become very objective about your affections for others. You will feel love and great affection for certain people with whom you will not be able to participate. Here you need those people who can help you discover, refine and express your higher purpose.

在第三阶段，重点是巩固学习和完善你的辨别力。在这里，关系的价值变得至关重要，因为你不能与错误的人交往。在这里，你必须对你对他人的感情变得非常客观。你会对某些人产生爱和巨大的感情，但你却无法与之交往。在这里你需要那些能帮助你发现、完善和表达你更高宗旨的人。

The third stage is a stage of promise. Here real power begins to emerge in you and the fundamental criteria for relationships begin to arise as well. Here your life becomes important, not just for you personally, but for its value to others and as a vehicle for expressing that which is true and good. Here the emphasis on commitment to service is not self-sacrificing in any way. Instead, it is born of the fact that you are seeking to have a greater and greater experience of truth, honesty and inclusion in life. It is not simply that you want to give yourself up for God, it is that you want to experience your relationship with God. You want to experience this relationship. Your ability to experience this generates a natural motivation to give to others, for you can only continue to experience God through giving.

第三阶段是一个有希望的阶段。在这里，真正的力量开始在你身上出现，关系的基本标准也开始出现。在这里，你的生命变得很重要，不仅仅是对你个人而言，而是对他人的价值，以及作为表达真善美的载体。在这里，强调对服务的承诺并不是以任何方式自我牺牲。相反，它源于这样一个事实：你正在寻求在生命中获得越来越多的真理、诚实和包容的经历。这不仅仅是你想为上帝放弃自己，而是你想经历你与上帝的关系。你想经历这种关系。你经历到这一点的能力产生了一种自然的动机，即为他人奉献，因为你只有通过奉献才能继续经历上帝。

The challenge for you in the third stage is primarily concerning discernment and refinement. Increasingly, you will feel the commitment and the desire to give, but you must find out where to give and how to give. This requires patience, discernment and the development of your abilities. Your outer life will need to become stable in order for Knowledge to emerge within you. This takes time.

第三阶段对你的挑战主要是关于辨别力和精进。你会越来越多地感受到给予的承诺和渴望，但你必须找出在哪里给予和如何给予。这需要耐心、辨别力和发展你的能力。你的外在生命将需要变得稳定，以便内识在你内心涌现。这需要时间。

In stage three, the relationship between you and your Inner Teachers becomes ever more powerful and important. Here you are not merely a student, you are also preparing to be a contributor and, in rare cases, a teacher. Here you teach through demonstration. This can be done in any profession. It can be done with words or without words. It can be done in a formal sense as a professional teacher, but often this is not the case. It is usually expressed through your work, which becomes increasingly more an expression of the emergence of Knowledge within you. This is when your spiritual calling begins to emerge.

在第三阶段，你和你的内在老师之间的关系变得更加强大和重要。在这里，你不仅仅是一名学生，你还准备成为一个贡献者，在极少数情况下，成为一名教师。在这里，你通过示范进行教学。这可以在任何职业中完成。它可以用语言或无语言来完成。它可以在正式意义上作为一个专业教师来做，但往往不是这样的。它通常是通过你的工作来表达的，而你的工作越来越多地成为内识在你体内出现的一种表达。这时你精神上的召唤开始出现。

In the third stage, you begin to see that the first two stages were stages of sacrifice. The first stage is where you sacrificed your self-awareness and well-being in order to fulfill your wishes and ideas and the expectations of others. In your relationships, you tended to either withhold yourself or give yourself away to people. In the second stage, you began to sacrifice some of your illusions and preferences. Here your relationships reflected the conflict and contrast between your awareness of Knowledge and your personal agenda. It is in the third stage where you give up self-sacrifice altogether by accepting your real purpose, meaning and value.

在第三阶段，你开始意识到前两个阶段都是牺牲的阶段。第一阶段是你为了满足自己的愿望、想法以及他人的期望，而牺牲了自我觉知和幸福感。在你的关系中，你倾向于要么扣留自己，要么把自己交给别人。第二阶段，你开始放弃一些幻想和偏好。在这里，你的关系反映了你对内识的觉知和你的个人议程之间的冲突和对比。在第三阶段，你通过接受自己真正的目的、意义和价值，完全放弃了自我牺牲。

The third stage is primarily concerned with the discovery and giving of your gifts. Here you cannot escape the requirements for your own development. Here the application of what you have learned in the first two stages becomes paramount for your success. Here the value of your life grows, and your sense of humility grows as well because increasingly you will see that your life is an expression of something greater. As the Presence in your life becomes more abiding, you will feel increasingly that you must care for your mind and your body as vehicles for expressing Knowledge. Here you become more and more identified with Knowledge, and the gulf between Knowledge and your personal experience of yourself begins to diminish.

第三阶段主要涉及到发现和给予你的礼物。在这里，你无法逃避对你自身发展的要求。在这里，你在前两个阶段学到的应用变得至关重要以确保你的成功。在这里，你的生命的价值在增长，你的谦逊也在增长，因为你会越来越多地看到你的生命是更伟大的目的的表达。随着你生命中的存在变得更加持久，你会越来越感到你必须关心你的心灵和身体，把它们作为表达内识的载体。在这里，你越来越认同内识，而内识和你个人的经验之间的鸿沟开始缩小。

Eventually, should you pass through the many thresholds of development in stage three and should you reach the pinnacle of learning in this world, you will become an expression of Knowledge itself. Here you retain the outer aspects of your human identity and personality, but the essence of Knowledge is so strong that your life demonstrates Knowledge increasingly. Here the scope of your relationships is not just focused upon one person, but extends itself out into the world. Once this is fully accomplished, you become a teacher for others.

最终，如果你通过了第三阶段的许多发展门槛，如果你在这个世界上达到了学习的顶峰，你将成为内识它本身的一个表达。在这里，你保留了你的人类身份和个体性的外在方面，但内识的实质是如此强大，以至于你的生命越来越显示出内识。在这里，你的关系范围不只是集中在一个人身上，而是延伸到了世界。一旦这一点完全完成，你就成为他人的老师。

The emergence of Knowledge is a spontaneous, natural process. As each stage is completed, the next stage begins naturally as if a signal has been given or a switch has been thrown deep inside you. The great initiation from one stage to the next is rarely discerned in the moment, but its results become quite evident over time. This is a natural process. It is not something you can control or dominate. It is the result of your participation. It is the result of the participation of your Spiritual Family, your Inner Teachers and the Plan of God itself. It is also the result of the change and evolution of the world, which sets the context for your contribution.

内识的出现是一个自发的、自然的过程。随着每个阶段的完成，下一个阶段自然而然地开始，就像一个信号已经发出，或者一个开关已经在你内心深处抛出。从一个阶段到下一个阶段的伟大开端很少在当下被发现，但随着时间的推移，其结果变得相当明显。这是一个自然过程。它不是你能控制或支配的关系。它是你参与的结果。它是你的精神家庭、你的内在老师和上帝的计划它本身参与的结果。它也是世界变化和进化的结果，它为你的贡献设定了背景。

Preparation is necessary. Particularly in the second and third stages, formal training becomes increasingly necessary and vital. You cannot be successful in learning stage two and three without adequate assistance. You will need more than your Inner Teachers here, for they do not seek to become the object of your devotion. They wish rather that you give your attention to those individuals who are called to help you and learn to recognize and release others who are holding you back.

准备是必要的。特别是在第二和第三阶段，正式培训变得越来越必要和重要。没有足够的帮助，你不可能成功地学习第二和第三阶段。在这里，你需要的不仅仅是你的内在老师，因为他们并不寻求成为你给予的对象。他们更希望你把注意力放在那些被召唤来帮助你的人身上，并学会识别和释放那些阻碍你的人。

Later in this book, when practical questions are addressed, perhaps you will see the stages of development illustrated more clearly. This is important to keep in mind and will require that you read this chapter on the stages of development many times in order to understand it. For, indeed, these words must increasingly reflect your experience in order for you to fully comprehend what is being said here.

在本书后面，当谈到实际问题时，也许你会看到更清楚地说明了发展的阶段。这一点很重要，要牢记在心，需要你多次阅读这一章关于发展阶段的内容，以便理解它。因为，事实上，这些文字必须越来越多地反映你的经历，以便你完全理解这里所说的内容。

The emphasis here is to take you higher up the mountain so that you may see more and more. As you go up the mountain and gain a higher and greater vantage point, you will see why your life went up and down before. You will understand why things looked a certain way at a certain point in your journey and why they looked another way at another point. You will see how your perspective has changed with your position on the mountain itself. You will see how your values have naturally progressed and changed. You will see how your emphasis in relationship has changed. And you will understand how your mistakes have served you in learning to take the next step.

这里的重点是把你带到更高的山峰之上，以便你可以看得更远。当你爬上山，获得一个更高更大的观测位置时，你会看到为什么你的生命以前会起伏不定。你会明白为什么生命在你旅程中的某一点看起来是某种方式，为什么在另一点看起来是另一种方式。你将看到你的观点如何随着你在山上的位置而改变。你将看到你的价值观是如何自然地进步和改变的。你将看到你在关系中的重点是如何改变的。而且你会理解你的错误是如何帮助你学习迈出下一步的。