Chapter 12: Following the Presence

As revealed to God’s Messenger Marshall Vian Summers on February 17, 2008 in Boulder, CO
2008年2月17日，在科罗拉多州博尔德(Boulder, CO)，向上帝的信使马歇尔・维安・萨默斯(Marshall Vian Summers)揭示

There is a greater Mind within you, a greater Mind that the Creator of all life has placed within you to guide you, to protect you and to lead you to your greater accomplishments in life. This deeper Mind is profoundly different from the mind that you think with—your intellect, your worldly mind that has been conditioned and formulated in response to the world and all the influences that come from your family, your culture, your religion and so forth. But there is a deeper Mind within you, the Mind of Knowledge.

在你的内心有一个更伟大的心智，一个所有生命的创造者放置在你内在的更伟大心智，以指导你，保护你，并引导你在生命中取得更伟大的成就。这个更深层的心智与你思考的心智——你的智力、你的世俗心智——有着深刻的区别，你的心智是为了应对世界和来自你的家庭、你的文化、你的宗教等的所有影响而被调节和形成的。但在你的内心深处有一个更深层的心智，即内识的心智。

This is where your deeper insights come from. This is where the impulses come to hold you back from making bad decisions, from committing yourself to relationships that have no future and no real purpose. It is from Knowledge, then, that comes the real direction of your life.

这是你更深刻见解的来源。正是从这里产生了那些冲动，它能阻止你做出错误的决定，阻止你将自己投入到没有未来和没有真正目的的关系中。正是从内识中，生命的真正方向得以显现。

It has a plan already for your life, for you came into the world with a greater purpose, with a specific mission to discover and to fulfill, and with it the necessity of finding those individuals who will be part of this mission and who will enable you to discover it and to express it fully.

它已经为你的生命制定了一个计划，因为你带着一个更伟大的目的来到这个世界，带着一个特定的使命去发现和完成，随之而来的是必须找到那些将成为这个使命一部分的人，他们将使你发现它并充分表达它。

It is as if you have two entirely different agendas. You have your personal agenda, which represents your goals and your plans and your values and the things that you think you must have to be safe and secure and happy. Then you have a deeper agenda, an agenda that was established before you came into the world—a goal, a gift, a set of activities, a unique contribution to meet a specific need in the world.

它就好像你有两个完全不同的议程。你有你的个人议程，它代表你的目标、计划和价值，以及你认为你必须拥有的安全、保障和快乐的东西。然后你有一个更深层的议程，一个在你来到世界之前就已经建立的议程——一个目标、一份礼物、一套活动、一个满足世界上特定需求的独特贡献。

However, you live in your personal agenda, and that is constantly being reinforced by the world around you, by your relationships, by your activities, your habits and so forth. From the perspective of your personal agenda, you cannot understand, you cannot figure out what this deeper agenda is.

然而，你生活在你的个人议程中，而这个议程不断地被你周围的世界、你的关系、你的活动、你的习惯等等所强化。从你个人议程的角度来看，你无法理解，你无法理解这个更深层的议程是什么。

It is not your creation. It is not something you put together based upon your fears, desires and preferences. It is something else entirely, and it will seem profoundly mysterious to you, especially at the outset. It is only by following this deeper agenda, by following the presence of Knowledge, that you begin to discover how innately true it is for you. And you will resonate with it ever more completely as you proceed.

它不是你的创造。它不是基于你的恐惧、欲望和偏好而拼凑起来的议程。它完全是另外一种议程，而且它对你来说似乎非常神秘，特别是在一开始。只有通过遵循这个更深层的议程，通过遵循内识的存在，你才开始发现它对你来说是多么本能的真实。而且随着你的前进，你将与它产生更彻底的共鸣。

But beginning this journey can be very difficult and extremely confusing, for you live within the context of your personal agenda: your plans and your goals, your activities and your habits. You identify yourself with these things and with the peculiarities of your personality, your tastes, your preferences and everything else regarding this you use to identify yourself, as if that is who you are, as if you are only a body along with a collection of behaviors.

但开始这段旅程可能非常困难，也非常令人困惑，因为你生活在你个人议程的背景下：你的计划和目标，你的活动和习惯。你用这些议程和你人格的特殊性、你的品味、你的喜好以及关于这个的一切来识别你自己，好像这就是你是谁，好像你只是一个身体和行为的集合。

People identify with their thoughts, with their beliefs, thinking, “That is who I am,” and they call their thoughts and their beliefs the truth, the truth for them, and sometimes they claim it is the truth for all life. Some people even claim their ideas are God’s truth. This, of course, is ridiculous and extremely foolish and arrogant, but many people do assert this.

人们认同他们的感想，认同他们的信仰，认为”这就是我是谁”，他们把他们的感想和信念称为真理，对他们来说是真理，有时他们还声称这是所有生命的真理。有些人甚至声称他们的想法是上帝的真理。当然，这是荒谬的，是极其愚蠢和傲慢的，但很多人确实这样断言。

The real meaning of your spirituality is embedded in the deeper agenda within you. The purpose of your spirituality, the reality of your spirituality, are embedded in the deeper agenda within you that you carry like a secret cargo, undiscovered [while you are] still trying to live out your ideas and your preferences, still trying to accommodate yourself to the expectations of others, still seeking the approval of others, trying to survive in the outer world where everyone is trying to follow their personal agenda and where the culture itself establishes this agenda, gives it focus and goals, and controls it to a very great degree.

你精神的真正意义蕴含在你内心深处的议程中。你精神性的目的，你精神性的现实，都蕴含在你内心深处的议程中，你就好像携带着一件秘密的货物一样，没有被你发现，[当你]仍然试图活出你的想法和你的喜好，仍然试图适应他人的期望，仍然寻求他人的认可，试图在外部世界中生存，在这里每个人都试图遵循他们的个人议程，文化本身建立了这个议程，给它重点和目标，并在很大程度上控制它。

No matter how politically free you may be in your circumstances, if you have not begun to build a connection to the deeper agenda within you, you are really not free. You are still being governed by the dictates of your culture, the expectations of others, perhaps the beliefs of your primary religion. Even your personal agenda is mostly created for you by others. You build it and you absorb it from your environment, which you have been doing since the day you were born.

无论你在政治上多么自由，如果你没有开始建立与你内心深处的议程的联系，你就真的不自由。你仍然被你的文化、他人的期望、也许是你主要宗教的信仰所支配。甚至你的个人议程也大多是由他人为你创造的。你建立它，你从你的环境中吸收它，从你出生的那天起你就一直在这样做。

The world has been telling you who you are, and what you are, and what you must do, and what you must believe, and what you must not believe, and what you should associate yourself with, and what you should not associate yourself with. If you add religion onto that, well, then the dilemma becomes even deeper and more complicated.

世界一直在告诉你，你是谁，你是什么，你必须做什么，你必须相信什么，你不能相信什么，你应该与什么联系，你不应该与什么联系。如果你再加上宗教，那么，这种困境就会变得更深、更复杂。

But in spite of all of this, there is a greater reality within you, a greater Intelligence within you that is not conditioned by the world, that is not threatened by the world, that is not seeking approval and accommodation.

但是，尽管如此，在你内心仍有一个更伟大的现实，在你内在有一个更高的智能，不受世界的制约，不受世界的威胁，不寻求批准和迁就。

It is here on a mission. Its whole focus is to bring you into contact with this mission, to connect you with those people who will be significant and important within this mission, to bring you to the great need in the world that will call this mission out of you, for you cannot discover it yourself. It must be called out of you. It must be stimulated by a greater set of events. It is these that will connect you to the world and help you overcome your sense of isolation and separation.

它在这里是有使命的。它的全部重点是把你带入这个使命，把你和那些将在这个使命中具有重要意义的人联系起来，把你带到这个世界上的巨大需求中，它将召唤你的使命，因为你不能自己发现它。它必须从你身上被召唤出来。它必须被一套更大的事件所刺激。正是这些将把你与世界联系起来，帮助你克服你的孤立和分离感。

But beginning the journey is difficult, and there are many significant thresholds along the way. At the outset, there must be something that brings to your awareness the reality that your current life is really not fulfilling something deep within you, that having more and more—more pleasure, more possessions, more stimulating activities, more escape from the world, more wealth, more power—all these things really are not satisfying something fundamental within you, and that there is something else.

但是，开始这段旅程是困难的，一路上有许多重要的门槛。一开始，必须有一些事情让你觉知到这样一个现实：你目前的生活确实无法满足你内心深处的某种需求，拥有越来越多的东西——更多的快乐、更多的财产、更多的刺激性活动、更多的避世、更多的财富、更多的权力——所有这些东西确实无法满足你内心深处最根本的需求，你会意识到，还有其他的东西存在。

You cannot define it. You may give it a name, but it is still mysterious as if something else is calling you or urging you or beckoning you. And everything else you are trying to do to fulfill your personal agenda is not satisfying this deeper need.

你无法定义它。你可以给它一个名字，但它仍然是神秘的，好像有别的东西在呼唤你、催促你或召唤你。而你为实现个人目的而努力做的其他一切，都不能满足这个更深层面的需求。

You look around you and you realize no one really knows who you are, except maybe one or two people, if you are very fortunate. And you do not really know who others are. It is a lot of movement without much meaning.

你环顾四周，发现没有人真正知道你是谁，也许只有一两个人，如果你非常幸运的话。而你也并不真正知道别人是谁。它是一个没有太多意义的运动。

Trying to satisfy your personal agenda alone is unfulfilling. It leaves you empty and frustrated. Even if you are successful in meeting your goals, the success is short lived and fleeting.

试图单独满足你的个人议程是不令人满意的。它让你感到空虚和沮丧。即使你成功地实现了你的目标，这种成功也是短暂的，转瞬即逝的。

Life is just a struggle here—a struggle to be, to do and to have, a struggle to keep away from danger and deprivation, poverty and misfortune. It is desperate and stressful.

生命在这里只是一种挣扎——为了成为、去做和拥有而挣扎，为了远离危险和匮乏、贫穷和不幸而挣扎。它是令人绝望和紧张的。

At some point, through disappointment or disillusionment or some kind of meaningful encounter with another, the memory that you have a deeper mission in life is stimulated in some way, and you begin to gravitate towards it. Even taking very little, seemingly insignificant steps at the outset, you feel there is something else within you that you must discover, that you must come to know, that needs to be a part of your life, at least.

在某些时候，通过失望或幻灭或与他人的某种有意义的相遇，你在生命中有更深的使命的记忆以某种方式受到刺激，你开始向它靠拢。即使一开始就采取非常小的、看似微不足道的步骤，你也觉得在你的内心深处还有一些你必须发现、必须知道的东西，至少需要成为你生命的一部分。

It is confusing because it does not fit within your personal agenda. It is something mysterious. It is not defined by the world. You try to give it a name and an explanation, but it remains mysterious nonetheless.

它令人困惑，因为它不符合你的个人议程。它是神秘的东西。它不被世界所定义。你试图给它一个名字和一个解释，但它仍然是神秘的。

It is the Great Attraction of God. It is an attraction that is within you already because God put it there. You may formulate any belief about it. You may even take a very firm stance regarding your belief about it, but it is still greater than you. It still defies definition. You may claim your religion is the only true religion, but this within you is beyond your comprehension.

它是上帝的伟大吸引力。它是一种已经存在于你内心的吸引力，因为上帝把它放置那里。你可以制定任何关于它的信仰。你甚至可以就你对它的信仰采取非常坚定的立场，但它仍然比你更大。它仍然是无法定义的。你可以宣称你的宗教是唯一真实的宗教，但你内心的内识是你无法理解的。

If you will begin to follow its attraction, its calling, if you can begin to create a place in your life for this, then you will begin to feel that there is a greater integrity within you. You will begin to gain a confidence that you could never have otherwise, not an arrogant confidence, but a confidence based upon a deeper association.

如果你开始追随它的吸引力，它的召唤，如果你能开始在你的生命中为它创造一个位置，那么你将开始感觉到你内心有一个更大的完整性。你将开始获得一种自信，否则你不可能有这种自信，这不是一种傲慢的自信，而是一种基于更深层联系的自信。

As you begin to take this greater journey, you reach thresholds along the way where you have to choose between something you want and something you really know; something you think you must have, or someone else says you must have, and something else in you that is leading you in a different direction. These are like gates on your journey. You come to this threshold, this gate, and you have to choose whether you will go through that gate and what you will follow within yourself.

当你开始走这段更伟大的旅程时，你会沿途到达一些门槛，你必须在你想要的东西和你真正知道的内识之间做出选择；你认为你必须拥有的东西，或别人说你必须拥有的东西，以及你内在其他引导你走向不同方向的声音。这些就像你旅途中的门。你来到这个门槛，这个门，你必须选择你是否要通过这个门，以及你在自己内心要遵循什么。

These thresholds can be very significant. And particularly at the outset, and indeed all along the way, they deal with relationships with people, primarily. Your journey does not necessarily include the people that you have added to your life, or that you have become dependent upon, or that you think you must have, or whose expectations you feel you must fulfill.

这些门槛可能是非常重要的。特别是在开始的时候，以及实际上一直以来，它们主要处理与人的关系。你的旅程不一定包括已经加入到你生命中的人，或你已经变得依赖的人，或你认为你必须拥有的人，或你觉得你必须实现的期望。

With the exception of your children, whom you must take care of until they become adults, other relationships can become challenged by the power and the presence and the guidance of this Knowledge within you. This can lead to a great dilemma and a great challenge to you as to what you will honor in your life, what you will follow. It will reveal the degree to which you have accommodated yourself to other people, to which you have given away the authority of your life, the degree to which you have lost direction and have filled up your loneliness and your emptiness with others, who may not be able to make this great journey with you.

除了你的孩子，你必须照顾他们，直到他们成为成年人，其他的关系可能会受到你内在这种内识的力量、存在和指导的挑战。这可能会导致一个巨大的困境和对你的巨大挑战，即你将在你的生命中尊重什么，你将遵循什么。它将揭示出你在多大程度上迁就了他人，你在多大程度上放弃了你生命的权威，你在多大程度上失去了方向，用其他人来填补你的孤独和空虚，而这些人可能无法与你一起完成这个伟大的旅程。

That is why it is so important to build your relationship with Knowledge first before you commit yourself to people and places, careers and activities. This is what it means to seek the kingdom of God first, to build your connection and awareness of this deeper agenda within you.

这就是为什么在你把自己交付给人和地方、职业和活动之前，首先建立你与内识的关系是如此重要。这就是先寻求上帝国度的意思，在你内心建立你与这个更深层议程的联系和觉知。

If you can do this at first, then it creates a greater context for your relationships and informs you who you can be with and who you cannot be with, and how to be with those people whom you are meant to associate with. What is the appropriate form of your relationship? Over time, this will end all confusion about relationships and give you the necessary criteria that you will need to know who to be with and how to be with them appropriately so that the true meaning and value of your relationship can become revealed to both of you.

如果你一开始就能做到这一点，那么它就为你的关系创造了更大的背景，并告知你可以和谁在一起和谁不能在一起，以及如何与那些你注定要与之交往的人在一起。你的关系的适当形式是什么？随着时间的推移，这将结束所有关于关系的困惑，并给你必要的标准，你将需要知道与谁在一起，以及如何适当地与他们在一起，以便你们关系的真正意义和价值能够向你们双方显现。

Without this deeper orientation, without this discernment, relationships are extremely risky and carry a great cost and weight with them. People are gambling their existence. They are gambling their freedom. They are gambling their lives, giving their lives away to people and situations that have no real promise for them, that are not really connected to the deeper criteria, the deeper agenda that exists within them that remains to be discovered.

如果没有这种更深层的定位，没有这种辨别力，关系就会有极大的风险，并带有极大的成本和重量。人们在赌他们的存在。他们在赌他们的自由。他们在赌自己的生命，把自己的生命交给对他们没有真正承诺的人和情况，这些人和情况与更深的标准没有真正的联系，存在于他们内心的更深层的议程还有待发现。

People, of course, want to bargain and have everything. They do not want to give anything up. They want wealth and power and love, and they are afraid that all these things will be taken away. But the truth is that wealth and power and love are inherently destructive unless they are connected to the greater purpose that lives within you that you have brought into the world.

当然，人们想要讨价还价，想要拥有一切。他们不想放弃任何关系。他们想要财富、权力和爱，他们害怕所有这些东西会被夺走。但事实是，财富、权力和爱本质上都是破坏性的，除非它们与生活在你内心的更伟大的目的相联系，而这个目的是你带入世界的。

There is no prohibition against wealth, power and love if it is connected honestly to this deeper agenda within you, where it will be called upon and will be necessary. In fact, no one will really be able to carry out their greater purpose alone. They will need meaningful relationships in order to be successful because the Plan of God calls for the end of Separation to bring you out of isolation and fantasy, to free you from the prison of your own ideas, and the unhealthy associations you tend to make with others, and the obligations that will hold you back and prevent you from realizing your true nature and purpose here.

没有人禁止财富、权力和爱，如果它诚实地与你内在的这个更深层的议程相连接，在这里它将被召唤，并将是必要的。事实上，没有人能够真正独自实现他们的更伟大目的。他们将需要有意义的关系才能成功，因为上帝的计划要求结束分离，把你从孤立和幻想中解放出来，把你从你自己的想法的监狱中解放出来，以及你倾向于与他人的不健康的关联，还有那些会阻碍你的义务，阻止你实现你在这里的真实自然性和目的。

Your relationship with Knowledge represents your relationship with God. This is how God speaks to you. You may not hear this as a voice. It may be a feeling, an image, a sound, a voice. People experience the power and presence of Knowledge differently, according to their individual orientation.

你与内识的关系代表你与上帝的关系。这是上帝对你说话的方式。你可能没有听到这个声音。它可能是一种感觉、一种图像、一种声音、一种影响。人们根据各自的取向，以不同的方式经历内识的力量和存在。

But the truth remains that there is a greater agenda within you, a greater power within you, and it will provide the real relationships for you, the relationships of destiny. It will provide the true work and engagement in the world for you. It will give you power that the world does not understand, power that comes from within rather than is placed upon you from without.

但事实仍然是，在你里面有一个更大的议程，在你里面有一种更伟大的力量，它将为你提供真正的关系，天命的关系。它将为你提供真正的工作和参与世界的机会。它将给你世界不理解的力量，来自内部的力量，而不是从外部加诸在你身上的力量。

This is what liberates you from confusion, ambivalence, condemnation, self-hatred and self-limiting beliefs and attitudes and habits. For if you follow this all the way, everything that is not true will be revealed to you and will fall away in time. Everything that does not represent your true life, your greater life and your greater purpose for being here will be revealed and will tend to fall away.

这就是把你从困惑、矛盾、谴责、自我憎恨和自我限制的信仰和态度及习惯中解放出来。因为如果你一直遵循这一点，所有不真实的关系都会向你揭示，并会及时掉落。一切不代表你的真实生命、你更伟大的生命和你在这里的更伟大的目的的关系都将被揭示，并趋于消失。

You will still be a person with weaknesses and unhealthy attractions perhaps. You will still be fallible. You will not be perfect. You will not be all powerful. But you will be following something that is all powerful, that will give you strength and confidence, and will keep you from harming yourself and harming others.

你将仍然是一个有弱点的人，也许有不健康的吸引力。你仍将是易犯错误的。你不会是完美的。你不会是全能的。但你将追随全能的内识，它将给你力量和信心，并将使你不伤害自己和伤害他人。

You are connecting yourself now to something of the utmost importance that is central to your life, that is fulfilling the deeper need of your soul. You are still a person, and you are still fallible. You still have your weaknesses and your idiosyncrasies, but there is something else about you—a presence, a power, a commitment to life, a focus, an integrity that will impress and inspire others.

你现在正把自己与最重要的关系连接起来，内识是你生命的核心，是满足你灵魂深处的需求。你仍然是一个人，你仍然是易变的。你仍然有你的弱点和你的特质，但你身上有别的东西——一种存在，一种力量，一种对生命的承诺，一个焦点，一种能打动和激励他人的诚信。

When someone has great presence, this is what it really means. It is not the force of their personality. It is not their self-assertion or their willpower. It is the presence that is with them, the presence of Knowledge. The deeper Mind within them has now become predominant, and their intellect, their personal worldly mind, is following and serving this greater power within them.

当一个人拥有巨大的存在感时，这就是它的真正含义。这不是他们人格的力量。这不是他们的自我主张或他们的意志力。它是与他们同在的存在，是内识的存在。他们内心深处的心智现在已经成为主导，他们的智力，他们个人的世俗心智，正在追随并服务于他们内心的这种更伟大的力量。

This is the real meaning of attaining a greater integrity. This is what it means to be true to oneself, which is being true to Knowledge, following the deeper agenda within one’s life.

这就是获得更伟大完整性的真正含义。这就是忠于自己的含义，也就是忠于内识，遵循自己生命中更深层的议程。

As We have said at the outset, it is all very confusing because the real power and authority is shifting gradually from the dominance of your personal mind and all of its overbearing beliefs and attitudes, commitments and condemnation of others, to a different kind of power within you. This shift happens gradually so that you can begin to adapt to it, to understand it and to learn from it.

正如我们一开始所说的，这一切都非常令人困惑，因为真正的力量和权威正在逐渐从你个人心智的主导地位及其所有霸道的信仰和态度、承诺和对他人的谴责，转移到你内在的另一种力量。这种转变是逐渐发生的，以便你能开始适应它，理解它，并从它那里学习。

For it is this transition from being outer directed to being inner directed, directed by Knowledge, that will teach you and give you the wisdom that you will need to be able to assist others and to fulfill your mission, which will require an understanding and a greater ability to recognize, experience and follow this greater power and this greater agenda within you.

因为正是这种从外在引导到内在引导、由内识引导的转变，将教会你并给予你所需的智慧，使你能够协助他人并完成你的使命，这将需要一种理解和更大的能力来识别、经历和遵循这种更伟大的力量和你内在的更大议程。

Therefore, throughout this, you gain a necessary humility because you realize that you are dealing with something that is greater than you, but that requires your complete participation and that is relying upon your honesty and your integrity and your compassion and your love for people in the world.

因此，在整个过程中，你获得了必要的谦逊，因为你认识到你正在与比你更大的内识打交道，但它需要你的完全参与，它依靠你的诚实和正直，以及你的同情心和对世界上人们的爱。

It needs you as much as you need it. It changes you, but you cannot really change it. It illuminates your life, but it is already illuminated.

它需要你，就像你需要它一样。它改变你，但你无法真正改变它。它照亮了你的生命，但它已经被照亮了。

Perhaps in your life you are reaching one of the important thresholds where you have to choose again, where you have to make a real decision in life about what you will follow and what you will do. You have come to a gate in the journey, a gate that is waiting for you and that you must have the strength to open and to pass through.

也许在你的生命中，你正在达到一个重要的门槛，在那里你必须再次选择，在那里你必须在生命中做出一个真正的决定，关于你将遵循什么和你将做什么。你已经来到旅程中的一个门前，这个门在等着你，你必须有力量来打开并通过。

Many people think they must rely upon the Power of God, but God must rely upon your strength and integrity because the gift from God to the world is coming through people. You are bringing to the world what the world cannot give itself, which is commitment and inspiration, which is compassion and care, which is creating that which is needed by people.

许多人认为他们必须依靠上帝的力量，但上帝必须依靠你的力量和诚信，因为上帝给世界的礼物是通过人而来的。你给世界带来的是世界无法给予自己的礼物，那就是承诺与灵感，那就是同情与关爱，那就是创造出人们所需要的礼物。

It is different from trying to fulfill one’s desires and ambitions. Those are all part of the personal agenda that one has for oneself. This is really very different, you see. You cannot compare them.

这与试图实现一个人的欲望和野心不同。这些都是一个人对自己的个人议程的一部分。这真的非常不同，你看。你不能比较它们。

When you come to one of these gates, you are not sure what is Knowledge and what is ambition. You are not sure you are making the right decision. There is a fork in the road. Which way will you go? There are a lot of reasons why you want to go one way. There is the promise of wealth, of security, approval, social acceptance, recognition from others. But then the other way, none of these things seem to be really guaranteed. But there is something within you that is urging you to go there. Perhaps an opportunity has been presented to you, but within yourself, within Knowledge, it is not responding. If it is not a yes, it is a no. That is the certainty of Knowledge.

当你来到这些门中的一个，你不确定内识是什么，野心是什么。你不确定你是否做出了正确的决定。路上有一个岔路口。你将走哪条路？你有很多理由想走一条路。有财富的承诺，有安全感，有认可，有社会接受度，有来自他人的认可。但另一条路，这些东西似乎都没有真正的保证。但是你内心有一些东西在催促你去那里。也许一个机会已经呈现在你面前，但在你自己的内部，内在的内识，它没有回应。如果它不是”是”，就是”否”。这就是内识的确定性。

Sometimes there are conditions that must be established before you can agree to something. That is appropriate. That is fine. But it must be the right decision fundamentally. There is no bargaining here if you are really being true to yourself. You cannot make a deal and have it both ways. You cannot travel both routes if there is a fork in the road.

有时，在你同意某事之前，必须建立一些条件。这是适当的。这很好。但从根本上说，它必须是正确的决定。如果你真的忠于自己，这里没有讨价还价。你不能做一个交易，也不能两全其美。如果有一个岔路口，你就不能走两条路。

You cannot take people with you who are not willing to go, who do not feel this calling, who do not have a natural affinity with it. Perhaps it is not their time and their place to feel the power of Knowledge within themselves.

你不能带着那些不愿意去的人，那些感觉不到这种召唤的人，那些对它没有天然亲和力的人。也许现在不是他们感受内识力量的时候，也不是他们的位置。

It will strengthen you immensely to choose Knowledge over other things that appear to be attractive and are even thought to be necessary. Again, it is part of the shifting of authority within yourself from your ideas to Knowledge itself, from your beliefs and expectations to Knowledge itself, from your fears and insecurity to Knowledge itself.

选择内识而不是其他看起来很有吸引力的关系，甚至被认为是必要的关系，这将极大地加强你。同样，这也是你内心权威转移的一部分，从你的想法到内识它本身，从你的信仰和期望到内识它本身，从你的恐惧和不安全感到内识它本身。

This is how God saves you. This is how God redeems you—by placing within you a greater voice and a greater purpose that you can only learn to respond to and to follow as clearly and as honestly as you can. At the end of life, God does not simply dispel this world, dispel your worldly consciousness because that is who you think you are.

这就是上帝拯救你的方式。这就是上帝救赎你的方式——在你里面放置一个更伟大的声音和更伟大的目的，你只能学会回应，并尽可能清晰和诚实地遵循。在生命的尽头，上帝不是简单地驱散你在这个世界的经历，驱散你的世俗意识，成为你认为自己是谁。

You are fulfilled and redeemed by carrying out the greater purpose that has brought you into the world. This is how the Separation is ended. This is how you regain your fundamental relationship with God and with your Spiritual Family—those who have been called to support and assist you, both within the world and beyond.

你通过执行把你带到这个世界的更伟大目的而得到实现和救赎。这就是结束分离的方式。这就是你如何重新获得与上帝和你的精神家庭的根本关系——那些被召唤支持和协助你的人，无论是在世界范围内还是在世界范围外。

There is no final Judgment Day. That is ridiculous. God knows that without Knowledge, you can only make mistakes in this life. You will live a life of compromise and frustration, anger and resentment. Your soul’s need will be unmet. You will be dissatisfied. You will blame others and the world for your dissatisfaction. You will be unhappy fundamentally. No matter how pleasant your surroundings, no matter how much wealth you may acquire, you will be fundamentally dissatisfied because you have not fulfilled your greater purpose for coming into the world. You have given yourself away to other things. You have been seduced by the world.

没有最后的审判日。这是荒谬的。上帝知道，没有内识，你在这个生命中只能犯错。你将过着妥协和沮丧、愤怒和怨恨的生活。你的灵魂的需求将得不到满足。你会感到不满意。你会为你的不满意而责备他人和世界。你将从根本上不快乐。无论你的环境多么令人愉快，无论你获得多少财富，你将从根本上感到不满意，因为你没有实现你来到这个世界的更伟大目的。你已经把自己交给了其他目的。你已经被世界所诱惑了。

But this does not make God angry because without Knowledge, you can only be seduced by the world. You can only create some other identity for yourself and try to live out your personal agenda, which has largely been created for you by the influences around you.

但这并不会使上帝生气，因为没有内识，你只能被世界诱惑。你只能为自己创造一些其他的身份，并试图实现你的个人议程，这在很大程度上是由你周围的影响为你创造的。

Your redemption comes from taking the Steps to Knowledge and by following the guidance and the direction of Knowledge as faithfully and patiently and honestly as you can. This is eminently practical because it leads to fundamental action.

你的救赎来自于开展通往内识的阶梯，并尽可能忠实、耐心和诚实地遵循内识的指导和方向。这是非常实用的，因为它导致了根本的行动。

It is not like you are having a romance with the Angelic Presence. It is not like you are just indulging yourself in ecstasy. That is really not the journey, you see, because you came to the world to work, to accomplish something, to find certain people and to accomplish something with them in meeting a real need in the world.

它并不像你在和天使的存在谈恋爱。它不像你只是在狂喜中放纵自己。这真的不是旅程，你看，因为你来到这个世界是为了工作，为了完成一些事情，为了找到某些人并与他们一起完成一些事情，以满足世界上的真正需求。

This is not a path of personal fulfillment where you find the most pleasant thing to do in life and you give yourself to that. That just leads to greater frustration and greater misery, for it does not meet the need of the soul. This is not a selfish indulgence. This is not where you become irresponsible to others and commit yourself to your own happiness and success. That is your personal agenda. Knowledge is here to bring you into service to people and to the world, to connect you with people in the world through meaningful activity and contribution.

这不是一条自我实现的道路，在这里你找到生命中最令人愉快的事情，你把自己交给它。这只会导致更大的挫折和更大的痛苦，因为它不能满足灵魂的需要。这不是一种自私的放纵。这不是你变得对他人不负责任，把自己投入到自己的幸福和成功中。那是你的个人议程。内识在这里是为了让你为人们和世界服务，通过有意义的活动和贡献将你与世界上的人们联系起来。

People are very confused about the goal and purpose of religion and spirituality. They think it is either some kind of subservience to a foreign god, or they think it is the path of personal happiness and personal satisfaction. From their personal agenda and their personal mind, they cannot see the real movement of God in the world, the real movement of Knowledge within the individual and between individuals. They think it is something else. They cannot see it from where they are.

人们对宗教和精神性的目标和目的非常迷惑。他们认为这要么是对外来神明的某种顺从，要么认为这是个人幸福和个人满足的道路。从他们的个人议程和个人心智来看，他们看不到上帝在世界中的真正运动，看不到内识在个人内部和个人之间的真正运动。他们认为那是别的东西。他们无法从自己的位置上看到它。

Just like from the boat on the water, you cannot see the deeper currents that are moving water all over the planet. You can only see the turbulence of the surface and the effect of the weather upon the wave. You can only comprehend the mystery and the meaning and the power of Knowledge by becoming engaged with it, by following it and not trying to control it or define it or manipulate it to fulfill your interests or desires.

就像在水面上的小船，你无法看到更深的水流，这些水流在整个地球上流动。你只能看到表面的动荡和天气对海浪的影响。你只能通过与内识打交道，跟随它，而不是试图控制它、定义它或操纵它来满足你的利益或欲望，才能理解内识的神秘性、意义和力量。

Some people think, “Well, you surrender yourself to God and God takes over,” but it is not really like that, for you must still be the captain of your ship. You still must direct your thoughts and your actions and establish criteria for your relationships and boundaries for yourself.

有些人认为，”好吧，你把自己交给上帝，上帝就会接管，”但事实并非如此，因为你仍然必须是你的船长。你仍然必须指导你的感想和行动，为你的关系和自己的界限建立标准。

The difference here is that Knowledge is guiding you, and you are responding to it. It is holding you back from doing things that would lead you astray, and it is urging you on in a certain direction, relentlessly. You are still the captain of your ship, you see. The difference is now you are responding to the real purpose of your journey, where the ship really must go and what it contains.

这里的区别是，内识在引导你，而你在对它作出回应。它阻止你做那些会使你误入歧途的事情，它无情地敦促你朝某个方向前进。你仍然是船的船长，你看。不同的是，现在你在回应旅程的真正目的，这艘船真正必须去的地方和它所包含的旅程。

People are immensely confused because they have not really begun the journey, or they have not traveled on it far enough to realize what it is and how it works and the mystery and the miracle that it produces in the lives of those who can respond.

人们非常困惑，因为他们还没有真正开始这段旅程，或者他们还没有在这段旅程上走得足够远，以认识到它是什么，它是如何工作的，以及它在那些能够回应的人的生命中产生的神秘和奇迹。

At the outset, there are many difficult decisions to be made. They are fundamental in determining whether you will be a free person in this life or not. They are fundamental in determining whether you can respond and experience and fulfill a greater purpose in your life, or whether you will merely be a captive to the expectations of others and to your own insecurity and sense of inadequacy.

在一开始，就有许多困难的决定要做。它们是决定你在今生是否会成为一个自由人的根本。它们是决定你能否回应、经历和实现你生命中更伟大目的的根本，还是你将仅仅成为他人的期望和你自己的不安全感和不足的俘虏。

Even as you begin to travel along the way, even halfway up this great mountain, there are other challenges as well. For you still have a personal agenda going with you. It does not get left behind at the foot of the mountain. You take it with you, and it is still operative, and you still must make decisions regarding it.

即使当你开始沿途旅行，甚至在这座大山的半山腰上，也有其他挑战。因为你仍然有一个个人议程与你同行。它并没有被抛在山脚下。你带着它，它仍然是有效的，你仍然必须对它做出决定。

Your intellect was created to make small decisions, to function within the constantly changing circumstances of your life. But Knowledge is there to give you purpose, meaning and direction and to give you a greater reference point within yourself, to be able to discern what is true and what is untrue, what is good from what only looks good, what is really advantageous from what is merely seductive, what is real honesty from what is real dishonesty. It is your deeper reference point, you see.

你的智力是为了做出小的决定，在你生命中不断变化的环境中发挥作用。但是，内识的存在是为了给你目的、意义和方向，给你自己一个更大的参考点，能够辨别什么是真实的，什么是不真实的，什么是好的，什么是真正有益的，什么仅仅是诱人的，什么是真正诚实的，什么是真正不诚实的。你看，它是你更深的参考点。

You still must use your mind to make decisions and to carry out the innumerable tasks of daily life, but now you have a greater reference point. It is like a beacon. You now can go to what is wise within you for counsel, to seek direction, to help you make important decisions, whereas before you were just recklessly guessing, hoping and wishing, without any real source or sense of security or certainty within yourself.

你仍然必须用你的心灵来做决定，执行日常生活中无数的任务，但现在你有一个更大的参考点。它就像一个灯塔。你现在可以去找你内心的智者来寻求建议，寻求方向，帮助你做出重要的决定，而以前你只是鲁莽地猜测、希望和祝愿，内心没有任何真正的来源或安全感或确定性。

This is the difference that will make all the difference in your life: whether this life will be a fulfillment of the greater purpose that has sent you here, and those who have sent you here, and the power and presence that you carry; or will it be a wasted existence by someone who is simply trying to be comfortable in an uncomfortable world, who is just hanging on to what little they have, who lives in fear and apprehension and has no real power or sense of inner direction?

这就是将在你的生命中产生所有差异的区别：这一生命是否会实现将你送到这里的更伟大目的，以及那些将你送到这里的人，以及你所携带的力量和存在；或者它将是一个仅仅试图在一个不舒服的世界中获得舒适的人的浪费性存在，他只是挂在他们所拥有的一点东西上，他生活在恐惧和忧虑中，没有真正的力量或内在的方向感？

Many people live and will fall into this latter category. Some of them merely are held back by their circumstances, by their poverty or political oppression. They have no freedom of movement from where they are. They are locked in place.

许多人的生命在后一类中，他们中的一些人只是被他们的环境、贫穷或政治压迫所束缚。他们没有行动的自由，从他们所在的地方。他们被锁在原地。

But for others who have these freedoms, it is truly tragic if they neglect to discover and to experience and to fulfill the greater purpose within them, the deeper agenda that exists within them. Their lives are truly wasted, chasing pleasure and avoiding pain. They are a slave to other forces, and their real life and real value are unknown to them.

但是对于其他拥有这些自由的人来说，如果他们忽视了发现、经历和实现他们内心更伟大的目的，忽视了存在于他们内心更深层的议程，那才是真正的悲哀。他们的生命真的被浪费了，追寻快乐，逃避痛苦。他们是其他力量的奴隶，他们真正的生命和真正的价值不为他们所知。

You do not want to be amongst their number, for you have a greater purpose in being here. You cannot define it. You cannot control it. But you can follow it. It is giving you signs and cues as you go along. It will change your values, your priorities. You will seek quiet more than stimulation. You will seek honest and meaningful conversation with others instead of mere chatter. You will seek inspiration instead of just stimulation. You will seek a deeper inner resonance over mere excitement on the outside.

你不想成为他们中的一员，因为你在这里有一个更伟大的目的。你无法定义它。你不能控制它。但你可以跟随它。它在你前进的过程中给你迹象和提示。它将改变你的价值观，你的优先事项。你将寻求安静而不是刺激。你将寻求与他人进行诚实而有意义的交谈，而不是单纯的唠叨。你将寻求灵感，而不仅仅是刺激。你将寻求更深层的内在共鸣，而不仅仅是外表上的兴奋。

This is entirely natural. This is coming home to yourself. This is allowing your values and your thoughts to change because you are experiencing something fundamental now. Your values are becoming more in line with your true nature. And with it, there will be greater self-acceptance.

这是完全自然的。这就是回到你自己的家。这是允许你的价值观和你的感想发生改变，因为你现在正在经历一些十分重大的工作。你的价值观正变得更加符合你的真实本性。而与此同时，会有更大的自我接纳。

But you must journey on. There are many temptations to set up permanent camp on the side of this mountain, but you must continue because you will not see and you will not know until you reach its greater and higher elevations, where you can see your life and the reality of life around you without obstruction.

但你必须继续旅行。有许多诱惑要在这座山的边上建立永久的营地，但你必须继续，因为你不会看到，也不会知道，直到你到达更大和更高的海拔，在那里你可以看到你的生命和你周围现实的生命，没有阻碍。

And you have to leave behind certain people, even wonderful people, who cannot make the journey with you. It is not their time. They are not ready. It may not even be their way up the mountain that you must follow. Others will come to join you, and you will have a deeper resonance with them. Some will travel with you temporarily; some will make the entire journey with you. Only Knowledge knows.

而且你必须留下某些人，甚至是优秀的人，他们不能和你一起走这段旅程。这不是他们的时间。他们还没有准备好。你必须遵循的甚至可能不是他们上山的路。其他人会来加入你，你将与他们产生更深的共鸣。有些人将暂时与你同行；有些人将与你走完整个旅程。只有内识知道。

This is following the presence of Knowledge. This is following the Presence of God. This is learning how to be in the world but not of the world. This is learning how to build a connection to your Ancient Home while you are here, living a fundamental and practical life engaged with others in meaningful activities.

这就是跟随内识的存在。这是在追随上帝的存在。这是学习如何置身于世界而不属于世界。这是学习如何当你在这里的时候与你的古老家园建立连接，在有意义的活动中与他人一起过着重要而实际的生命。

This is the journey before you. This is what it means to take the Steps to Knowledge. This is what it means to live a greater reality even while you are here engaged in daily life in the world. This is where the Divine expresses itself through the mundane and gives the mundane all the meaning and value that it has.

这就是你面前的旅程。这就是迈向通往内识阶梯的意义。这就是当你在这里从事世界上的日常生活时，生活在一个更大的现实中的意义。这就是神圣通过世俗表达自己的地方，并赋予世俗所有的意义和价值。

This is what gives real purpose to your intellect. This is what influences you to live a healthy and constructive life. This is what sets you on firm and established ground, a firm foundation in the world, a foundation that the world itself can never provide for you. For you are born of a Greater Reality from which you have come and to which you will return. This holds the secret, the purpose and the real value of your life.

这就是给你的智力带来真正目的的内识。这就是影响你过上健康和建设性生命的原因。这就是让你站在坚实的基础上，在世界中打下坚实的基础，这个基础是世界它本身永远无法为你提供的。因为你是从一个更大的现实中诞生的，你从那里来，也将回到那里去。它掌握着你生命的秘密、目的和真正的价值。