Chapter 4: God’s Ancient Covenant with Humanity

As revealed to God’s Messenger Marshall Vian Summers on September 20, 2011 in Boulder, CO
2011年9月20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

Throughout history, humanity has made covenants with God, often thinking that it is God’s Covenant that they are creating. These have varied according to the sacred Covenant that God has always made. For human understanding can never encompass the Divine awareness. And human ethics and human law can never mirror perfectly the Divine awareness, for it is far too great and mysterious, extending far, far beyond the realm and the reach of the intellect.

纵观历史，人类与上帝签订了盟约，常常认为他们所创造的是上帝的盟约。这些盟约的内容各不相同，取决于上帝一直以来所制定的神圣盟约。因为人类的理解永远无法涵盖神圣的觉知。而人类的伦理和法律也永远无法完美地反映出神圣的觉知，因为它太伟大、太神秘了，远远超出了智力的领域和范围。

People want to have a concrete understanding, but God is mysterious. And what God has put within you to follow is mysterious. And while you are in the world, your greater life beyond the world is mysterious.

人们希望有一个具体的理解，但上帝是神秘的。而上帝放置在你内心深处要遵循的内识也是神秘的。当你在这个世界上时，你在这个世界之外的更伟大的生命也是神秘的。

Therefore, the Mystery is a fundamental and essential part of your life, greater than you currently realize. It stands as the greater aspect of your reality. It represents your origin and your destiny beyond this world, the mystery of your relationships, the deeper inclinations, the mystery of the power of Knowledge, the greater Intelligence that the Creator has given to you, which is waiting to be discovered.

因此，神秘是你生命中最基本、最重要的一部分，比你目前意识到的生命更加伟大。它作为你现实的更伟大方面而存在。它代表着你的起源和你在这个世界之外的天命，你关系的神秘，更深层次的倾向，内识的力量的神秘，造物主赋予你的更伟大的智能，这一切都在等待着你去发现。

While human ethics and covenants have varied and human understanding has evolved, God has created a sacred Covenant with humanity. This Covenant has not really changed, so it is not correct to say that it is new though it may be new to your understanding. For the Covenant was established long before this world existed, long before there was a human race, long before there was a human history. The Covenant was established at the beginning of time, at the emergence of the Separation at the beginning of the physical universe. It is applicable not only to human beings, but to the billions and billions and billions of other races in the universe that are also part of Creation.

虽然人类的伦理和盟约各不相同，人类的理解也在不断发展，但上帝还是与人类订立了神圣的盟约。这个盟约并没有真正改变过，因此说它是新的并不正确，尽管它对你的理解而言可能是新的。因为早在这个世界存在之前，早在人类诞生之前，早在有人类历史之前，盟约就已经建立了。盟约是在时间之初，在有形宇宙诞生之初，在分离出现之初建立的。它不仅适用于人类，也适用于宇宙中数十亿、百亿、千亿的其他种族，这些种族同样是创造的一部分。

The Covenant is so essential and so fundamental to your nature, your Being and your purpose in the world that it can be overlooked or missed. For people’s creation of a covenant with God has to do with their circumstances, their temperament, their history and how they perceive their future and their situation in life. But God’s Covenant is far beyond this, for it has to be true in countless situations, in countless different races, in countless different worlds because the God of your world is also the God of the Greater Community of life in the universe.

盟约对于你的自然、你的存在和你在这个世界上的目的是如此重要和基本，以至于它可能被忽视或遗漏。因为人们与上帝的盟约的建立与他们的环境、气质、历史以及他们如何看待自己的未来和生命的境遇有关。但上帝的盟约远不止于此，因为它必须在无数的环境、无数不同的种族、无数不同的世界中都是真实的，因为你们世界的上帝也是宇宙中生命大社区的上帝。

The sacred Covenant is fundamental to all life. It was not specifically created for humanity, for there are countless races in the universe. It was not aligned to one specific religion or religious understanding, for there are countless religions in the universe.

神圣的盟约是所有生命的根本。它不是专门为人类创造的，因为宇宙中有无数种族。它并不与某个特定的宗教或宗教理解相一致，因为宇宙中有无数的宗教。

That is why God’s New Revelation is so very new because it takes you beyond the boundaries of this one world, opening you to the panorama of life in countless forms because who you are and where you have come from accounts for all of Creation, not simply one little aspect of it.

这就是为什么上帝的新启示是如此崭新，因为它带你超越了这个世界的界限，让你看到无数形式的生命全景，因为你是谁，你从哪里来，涵盖了所有的创造，而不仅仅是其中一个小方面。

The Covenant, then, is not a Covenant with one people, or one nation, or one period of history, or one religion, or one part of the world. It is not tied to human philosophy, ethics or understanding. It is more fundamental than this. It must hold true in all dimensions for all races of beings who are living in Separation in the physical reality.

因此，这个盟约不是与一个民族、一个国家、一个历史时期、一个宗教、或世界的一个部分的盟约。它并不依赖于人类的哲学、伦理或理解。它比这些更为根本。盟约必须在所有维度上对所有在物质现实中生活且处于分离中的生命种族保持真实。

The Covenant, then, in one sense is very simple, but to live it and to live according to it requires great care. It requires real self-honesty. It requires a deeper discernment and a careful consideration of one’s life and the lives of others.

因此，从某种意义上说，盟约是非常简单的，但要遵守它并按照它生活，就需要及其谨慎。它需要真实的自我诚实。它需要一种更深层次的辨别力，以及对自己和他人生命的细致考虑。

The solution to the Separation was given at the beginning of time. It is not a problem for God. It is your problem. It is your dilemma as to what voice within you you will follow, and your desire and capacity to experience a greater and expanding truth and reality.

分离的解决方案在时间之初就已经给出。它不是上帝的问题。它是你的问题。它是你内心选择跟随哪个声音的两难，以及你是否有欲望和能力去体验更伟大、更广阔的真理和现实。

People want simple definitions. They do not want to have to work very hard. They want everything laid out for them because they are lazy and do not realize that they have to produce real effort and consideration and discernment to recognize that which is fundamental to their nature and purpose here.

人们想要简单的定义。他们不想费力工作。他们希望一切都为他们安排好，因为人们是懒惰的，没有意识到他们必须付出真正的努力，经过深思熟虑和辨别，才能认识到对他们的自然以及在这里的目的至关重要的内识。

The miracle of the Covenant, God’s sacred Covenant, is that each person’s purpose and destiny emanates from it. So while it is uniform and consistent throughout the universe, its manifestations are beyond count and comprehension. It is like life abundant flowing from the same fundamental soil and reality.

盟约——上帝神圣的盟约——的奇迹在于，每个人的目的和天命都源于它。因此，虽然它在整个宇宙中是统一和一致的，但其表现形式却是无法计算和理解的。它就像从同一片基本土壤和现实中流淌出来的丰富生命。

This certainly is beyond human comprehension, but it is not beyond human experience. You experience the Covenant every time you engage with the deeper Intelligence that God has created within you, which represents the part of you that has never left God and is still living according to God’s Covenant.

这当然超出了人类的理解，但它并没有超出人类的体验。每当你与上帝在你内心深处创造的更深层次的智能接触时，你就会体验到盟约，它代表着你从未离开过上帝的部分，并且仍然按照上帝的盟约生活着。

So you may ask, “What is this Covenant? Explain it to me.” And We say, God has put Knowledge within you, a perfect guiding Intelligence. God has given you a deeper conscience, which is part of this deeper Intelligence. God has sent you into the world to serve in a unique capacity in certain situations, engaging with certain individuals in certain circumstances.

因此，你可能会问：“这个盟约是什么？请解释给我听。”我们说，上帝已经把内识放置在你的内心深处，一种完美的指导性智能。上帝已经赋予你一种更深层次的良知，它也是这个更深层次智能的一部分。上帝已经派你来到这个世界，让你在特定的情况下以独特的身份服务，与特定的个人在特定的情况下参与。

At this moment, you do not fully understand what all this means or what is required or where it will all take place. It is only at the end of life looking backwards that you can see whether you have made this primary engagement in the world or not, that the primary engagement in the world is based on the deeper engagement with Knowledge within yourself, an Intelligence that exists beyond the realm of your intellect, beneath the surface of the mind. You are here to serve the world and to overcome your conflicts, your dilemmas and to a certain extent the dilemmas of your culture and existence in this particular world. Knowledge enables you to do this because it is part of Creation.

此时此刻，你并不完全理解这一切意味着什么，或者需要什么，或者这一切将在哪里发生。只有在生命的尽头回首时，你才能看到自己是否在这个世界中进行了这种主要的参与，而这种主要参与是基于你内心深处与内识的更深层次的互动，一个存在于你的智力领域之外、在心灵表面之下的智能。你在这里是为了服务世界，克服你的冲突、你的困境，在某种程度上也是为了克服你的文化和你在这个特定世界中的生存困境。内识使你能够做到这一点，因为它是创造的一部分。

So it is not correct to say that “God is telling me this,” or “God is telling me that,” or “I am going here because God wants me to go here,” or “I am doing this because God wants me to do this,” or “I should choose this over that because God wants me to.” It is more accurate to say that you are doing these things or basing these decisions upon the guidance and presence of Knowledge within yourself.

因此，说“上帝告诉我这个”或“上帝告诉我那个”，或“我去这里是因为上帝要我去这里”，或“我做这个是因为上帝要我做这个”，或“我应该选择这个而不是那个，因为上帝要我这样做”，都是不正确的。更准确的说法是，你所做的这些事情或做出的决定是基于自己内心深处内识的存在的引导。

Knowledge, then, interprets the Will and the Presence of God and is able to translate that into decisions and actions and the awareness of things to avoid and things to approach, things to consider and things that you should not consider. How this functions is entirely beyond human speculation because it exists beyond the surface of the mind—the mind that you think with, the worldly mind, the mind that is informed by your culture and your education, your temperament and your circumstances.

因此，内识诠释了上帝的意志和存在，能够将其转化为决策和行动，并觉知应避免的事情和要接近的事情，应该考虑的事情和不应该考虑的事情。这方面的功能完全超出了人类的猜测，因为它存在于心灵表面的深处——你思考的心灵，世俗的心灵，由你的文化和教育、你的气质和你的环境所影响的心灵。

To gain a greater freedom in life is to follow the power of Knowledge because this liberates you in a practical and meaningful way from many of the constraints of life in the world, the problems of relationships and the dilemmas and seemingly irresolvable difficulties that life in the world and in all worlds produces.

要想在生命中获得更伟大的自由，就必须追随内识的力量，因为这能以一种实际而有意义的方式将你从世界生活的许多限制中解放出来，从世界及所有世界的生命所产生的关系问题和困境以及似乎无法解决的难题中解放出来。

Do not think that traveling to another planet that seems to have resolved some of the problems you face today is going to be fundamentally better because freedom, individual freedom, is rare in the universe and is very difficult to establish and to maintain in the presence of other nations that are not free. This is part of gaining a Greater Community awareness, which is part of God’s New Revelation for humanity.

不要认为到另一个似乎已经解决了你今天面临的一些问题的星球旅行，就会从根本上得到改善，因为自由，个人自由，在宇宙中是罕见的，在其他不自由的国家面前，是很难建立和维持的。这是获得大社区觉知的一部分，也是上帝给人类的新启示的一部分。

The New Revelation presents the Ancient Covenant, which is that you experience God’s Presence and Power through Knowledge within yourself. You experience God’s Presence and Power in others through Knowledge within them, resonating with Knowledge within yourself.

新启示提出了古老的盟约，即你通过自己内心深处的内识来体验上帝的存在和力量。你通过自己的内识与他人的内识产生共鸣，从而在他人身上体验到上帝的存在和力量。

You are here to serve the world because you were sent here to serve. Your enlightenment is always relative because you are living in Separation. But certainly the degree to which you can follow Knowledge, and have your life shaped by Knowledge, and directed by Knowledge will determine the elevation of your mind and awareness, and the quality of your life and of your primary relationships.

你在这里为世界服务，因为你被派遣来到这里进行服务。你的开悟总是相对的，因为你生活在分离之中。但可以肯定的是，你能在多大程度上遵循内识，让你的生命被内识所塑造，被内识所引导，将决定你的心灵和觉知的提升，以及你的生命质量和主要关系的质量。

God makes the way simple, but when the way is simple, it is demanding. It does not have countless exceptions. It is not fraught with preferences and negotiation. But it is difficult to understand if all you are using is your intellect to comprehend greater things, for the intellect was not created to comprehend greater things. It is the mechanism of the mind to deal with the practicalities of life and things of far less importance and scope. To go beyond this, you must engage with Knowledge.

上帝让道路变得简单，但当道路简单时，它也是苛刻的。它没有无数的例外。它不充满偏好和讨价还价。但是，如果你仅仅依赖智力去理解更伟大的事情，这将是困难的，因为智力并不是为了理解更伟大的事物而创造的。它是心灵的机制，用来处理生命中的实际问题以及重要性和范围都小得多的事情。要想超越这一点，你必须与内识互动。

You are also in the world to develop wisdom and to learn wisdom from others, the wisdom that is compassionate and gracious, but that is very sharp and clear, powerful and effective. You were born with Knowledge, but not with wisdom. And to live successfully in this world or any world, you will need to garner wisdom that is relative to that world, to your world.

你在这个世界上也是为了发展智慧，并从他人身上学习智慧，这种智慧是充满同情心和亲切的，但也是非常敏锐和清晰的，强大和有效的。你生来就有内识，但没有智慧。而要成功地生活在这个世界或任何世界，你就需要获得与这个世界、与你的世界相对应的智慧。

God’s New Revelation provides wisdom from the Greater Community, beyond what humanity has ever had to establish for itself. A marvelous and rare gift this is to prepare you for your future in the Greater Community, which is now upon you, to prepare you to engage with intelligent life in the universe, which is already upon you, exhibiting itself in dangerous and hazardous ways in the world today.

上帝的新启示提供了来自大社区的智慧，超越了人类为它自己建立的智慧。这是一份奇妙而稀有的礼物，为你在大社区的未来做好准备，大社区现在就在你身边，为你准备好与宇宙中的智能生命的互动，宇宙中的智能生命已经在你们身边，在当今世界上以危险而有害的方式展现它自己。

Your fundamental responsibility to God is to take the Steps to Knowledge; to learn to follow Knowledge and to discern Knowledge from the other voices in your mind; to listen to Knowledge in others, to search for it amongst all the opinions, attitudes and beliefs of people around you. Your fundamental responsibility is to have Knowledge reshape your life, which represents a deeper honesty within yourself. This is what it means to be true to yourself—not to your ideas or beliefs or preferences, not to your attitudes or cultural position, but to your deeper nature, which is represented by Knowledge and the emphasis of Knowledge within you.

你对上帝的基本责任就是开展内识的进阶。学会跟随内识，从你心灵中的其他声音中辨别内识。倾听他人的内识，在你周围人的所有观点、态度和信仰中寻找内识。你的基本责任是让内识重塑你的生命，这代表着你内心深处的一种更深层次的诚实。这就是忠于你自己的含义——不是忠于你的想法、信仰或偏好，不是忠于你的态度或文化立场，而是忠于你更深层次的自然，它代表的是内识以及你对内心深处内识的重视。

God saves the separated through Knowledge. God redeems the separated through Knowledge. Not just human beings, but countless other races that are so very different from you—different in environment; different in belief; different in history; different in ethics, attitudes and associations. Only the genius of the Creator would have such a comprehensive Plan for redemption.

上帝通过内识拯救分离者。上帝通过内识救赎分离的人。不仅仅是人类，还有无数与你们迥然不同的其他种族——环境不同、信仰不同、历史不同、伦理、态度和关联上也不同。只有造物主的才智才会有一个如此全面的救赎计划。

This, of course, makes all your absolute religious ideas very relative in the context of the Greater Community. That is why you cannot definitively discern the Will of God and try to apply that generally or in an absolute fashion to anything or anyone around you. But you are charged to take the Steps to Knowledge, and this is made very clear in God’s New Revelation for humanity, which is now being given to the world—a Revelation unlike anything humanity has experienced before, a Revelation greater than anything that has been given for over a millennium. It is new in so many ways, and yet ancient and unchanging in others.

当然，这就使得你所有绝对的宗教想法在大社区的背景下变得非常相对。这就是为什么你无法明确地辨别上帝的意志，并试图将其普遍或绝对地应用于你周围的任何事物或任何人。但是，你有责任开展内识的进阶，这一点在上帝给人类的新启示中已经明确指出，而这个新启示现在正在向世人传达——这个启示不同于人类以前经历过的任何事情，这个启示比一千多年来的任何启示都要伟大。它在许多方面都是崭新的，但在其他方面又是古老而不变的。

God’s sacred Covenant with humanity is God’s sacred Covenant with the universe. In this way, God does not have to be overly concerned and involved in your daily affairs. So when people say that God told them to do this or to do that, or God brought them this or took them away from that, really, if they are being honest, if their experience is true, they are talking about their engagement with Knowledge.

上帝与人类的神圣盟约就是上帝与宇宙的神圣盟约。这样一来，上帝就不必过分关心和参与你们的日常事务。因此，当人们说上帝让他们做这个或做那个时，或者上帝让他们做这个或让他们远离那个时，实际上，如果他们是诚实的，如果他们的经历是真实的，他们在谈论他们与内识的互动。

The Lord of all the universes is not involved in this way because the Lord of all the universes is so intelligent. The calamities of life, the natural disasters, the plagues, the wars, the great misfortune of living in Separation, the great predicaments of living in Separation, separate from your Source, following your surface and worldly mind alone—that is not created by God.

所有宇宙之主不会以这种方式参与其中，因为所有宇宙之主是如此聪慧。生活中的灾难、自然灾害、瘟疫、战争、生活在分离中的巨大不幸、生活在分离中的巨大困境、与你的本源分离、仅仅追随你的表面和世俗的心灵——这些都不是上帝创造的。

Look at the conditions of your world. You are given a paradise, and you are destroying it as quickly as your technology will allow. You are crushing your future. You are using up your natural inheritance. You are altering the world so significantly that it may become uninhabitable in the future. Do not think you are going to hop on some spacecraft and go somewhere else in the universe. Inhabited worlds such as yours have been long inhabited by races far more powerful than you.

看看你们世界的现状。你们拥有一个天堂，而你们正以科技所能允许的最快速度摧毁它。你们正在扼杀自己的未来。你们正在耗尽自然的遗产。你们正在以如此显著的方式改变世界，以至于世界在未来可能变得不适合人类居住。不要认为你们能跳上某艘宇宙飞船，去宇宙中的其他地方。像你们这样有人居住的世界，早已被比你们更强大的种族所占据。

That is why God’s Covenant deals with the here and the now and with the decisions that each person makes, the choices they make, what they value, what they adhere to, what they respond to. This is where God’s fundamental Covenant has overarching power in determining the future not only of an individual’s life and circumstances, but of humanity as a whole.

这就是为什么上帝的盟约涉及的是此时此刻，涉及每个人所做的决定、他们所做的选择、他们所珍视的、他们所坚持的、他们所回应的。这就是上帝的基本盟约具有决定性力量的地方，它不仅决定着个人的生命和环境的未来，也决定着整个人类的未来。

For the future of humanity is being made by countless decisions, not simply by leaders of nations, but by every person, individually and collectively. And what informs that decision? Is it the power and the presence of Knowledge? Or is it the will, the fear and the ambitions of the individual? Clearly, humanity’s foolishness, its stupidity, its errors, its tragedies, its conflicts all arise out of this fundamental problem of what informs the decisions of each person involved.

因为人类的未来是由无数个决定构成的，这些决定不仅仅由国家的领导人做出，而是由每个人，个人和集体共同做出。因此，是什么影响了这些决定？是内识的力量和存在？还是个人的意志、恐惧和野心？显然，人类的愚昧、愚蠢、错误、悲剧和冲突都源于这个基本问题，即每个人的决定是由什么决定的。

This is how God’s Covenant is applicable in all situations. It is not that God has a different law or rule for this and a different law and rule for that. While you may be bound and even required to follow certain precepts and principles according to law and ethics of your given culture and nation, that is fine as long as it does not violate your fundamental relationship with Knowledge, which represents your Covenant with God.

这就是上帝的盟约如何适用于所有情况的原因。并不是说上帝针对这个有不同的法律或规则，而针对那个又有不同的法律和规则。虽然根据你所处文化和国家的法律与伦理，你可能需要遵循某些准则和原则，这没问题，只要这些不违反你与内识之间的基本关系，而内识代表着你与上帝的盟约。

Here your deeper conscience, not your social conscience, the deeper conscience becomes your ultimate judge of what must be done or not done. Said in another way, God’s Covenant requires you to be fundamentally honest with yourself and true to your deeper nature.

在这里，你更深层次的良知，而不是你的社会良知，更深层次的良知成为你必须做什么或不做什么的最终标准。换句话说，上帝的盟约要求你对自己保持基本的诚实，忠于你更深层次的本性。

While it is fine and necessary for nations to create ethics and principles and laws governing behavior to maintain social order and to mitigate the errors that will surely arise, and to at least idealistically or in principle create a just system, it is the conscience, the deeper conscience of the individual, that We speak of here today.

国家制定道德、原则和法律来规范行为，以维持社会秩序，减少肯定会出现的错误，至少在理想上或原则上建立一个公正的制度，这固然很好，也很有必要，但我们今天在这里谈论的是个人的良知，更深层次的良知。

To engage with that conscience, you must be very honest. You must set aside your fears and your preferences long enough to know what is true at a deeper level. But this is difficult for people, for they have never exercised this very sufficiently, except for rare individuals in rare situations. So that is why God’s New Revelation provides the Steps to Knowledge to give each person the opportunity to build a fundamental relationship and association with the power and presence of Knowledge within them.

要与这种良知互动，你必须非常诚实。你必须把你的恐惧和偏好长时间地放在一边，以便在一个更深层次的层面上知道真实。但这对人们来说是困难的，因为除了极少数人在极少数情况下，他们从未充分行使过这种能力。所以这就是为什么上帝的新启示提供了内识的进阶，让每个人都有机会与他们内心深处的内识的力量和存在建立基本的关系和联系。

Here you cannot make absolute beliefs because Knowledge may make one person to do one thing and tell another person not to do that. You cannot say, “My belief is the Will of God.” Because the Will of God is manifesting itself in countless ways, working through individuals from the inside out, how can you predict what is absolutely correct for everyone? You cannot. It is dishonest. It is foolish. And it ends up being destructive to the lives of people.

在这里，你不能形成绝对的信念，因为内识可能会促使一个人去做某事，而告诫另一个人不要这样做。你不能说：“我的信念就是上帝的意志。”因为上帝的意志以无数种方式显现，由内而外地通过个人工作，你怎么能预测什么对每个人来说是绝对正确的呢？你无法做到。这是不诚实的，也是愚蠢的，最终会对人们的生命造成破坏。

The separated are reclaimed through Knowledge. The wicked are prepared for Heaven. Hell is where you are now, at least one level of Hell. You can go into a deeper Hell, a deeper state of Separation, but in the end, God will reclaim all of Creation.

分离的人通过内识得到重生。恶人被准备好进入天堂。地狱是你现在所在的地方，至少是一个层面的地狱。你可以进入一个更深层面的地狱，一种更深层面的分离状态，但最终，上帝将重新唤回所有的创造。

It is because of the Covenant, you see. You cannot destroy Knowledge within yourself. You can divorce yourself from it. You can run from it. You can seal it off. You can deny it or disbelieve its presence and power. You can do everything you can to avoid your deeper conscience, but you cannot erase it. It is with you always. It was with you before you came into the world. It will be with you when you leave this world.

你看，这是因为盟约的存在。你无法在自己的内心摧毁内识。你可以将自己与它脱离关系。你可以逃离它。你可以封印它。你可以否认它，或者不相信它的存在和力量。你可以想尽一切办法来回避你更深层次的良知，但你无法抹去它。它始终与你同在。在你来到这个世界之前，它就与你同在。当你离开这个世界时，它也会与你同在。

To engage with Knowledge while you are here is the real meaning of spirituality and spiritual development. To take the Steps to Knowledge is the core and fundamental action. Given in whatever religious tradition it may be manifest, it represents the fundamental spiritual practice. Believing in God or believing in a human ideology of God or trying to emulate what that teaching prescribes will not really be effective if you cannot gain a fundamental relationship with Knowledge. You are still separate from God. You are still functioning from your ideas, driven by fear—fear of loss, fear of failure, fear of deprivation, fear of God, fear of death, and so on and so forth.

当你在这里时，与内识的互动是精神性和精神发展的真正意义所在。开展内识的进阶是核心和基本的行动。无论它体现在何种宗教传统中，它都代表了基本的精神实践。如果你不能获得与内识的一种基本关系，相信上帝或相信人类对上帝的意识形态，或试图模仿这种教导所规定的，都不会真正有效。你仍然与上帝分离。你仍然在你的想法中运作，在恐惧的驱使下运作——害怕失去、害怕失败、害怕被剥夺、害怕上帝、害怕死亡，等等等等。

That is why many people who consider themselves to be very pious in their religious faith are still not close to God because they have not made the fundamental connection with Knowledge within themselves. They have substituted their beliefs, their fundamentalism, their religious scriptures for their fundamental relationship with Knowledge. They have missed the mark. They are relying upon the wrong thing.

这就是为什么许多自认为在宗教信仰上非常虔诚的人仍然没有接近上帝，因为他们没有在自己的内心深处与内识建立基本的连接。他们用自己的信仰、他们的原教旨主义、他们的宗教经文代替了他们与内识的基本关系。他们偏离了目标，依赖于错误的事物。

They are afraid of the Mystery, which is the source and meaning of their life. They want everything to be explained. They do not want to have to live with questions. They only want to use answers. They are afraid of themselves. They are afraid to go beneath the surface of the mind. They are afraid of God’s Covenant, which supersedes their beliefs in all situations.

他们害怕神秘，而神秘正是他们生命的源泉和意义所在。他们希望一切都能得到解释。他们不想带着问题生活。他们只想使用答案。他们对自己感到害怕。他们害怕深入心灵的表面之下。他们害怕上帝的盟约，在任何情况下，它都会取代他们的信仰。

Many people claim to have a “natural religion,” but it ends up becoming very unnatural because they have substituted their primary and primal relationship with Knowledge with a set of beliefs, an ideology, a system of thought or a religious institution. Belief now becomes their main focus instead of a deeper experience that transcends the limits of belief and is far more powerful, strong and permanent than any belief could ever be.

许多人声称自己有“自然的宗教”，但最终却变得非常不自然，因为他们用一个信仰、一种意识形态、一套思想体系或一个宗教机构取代了他们与内识的主要关系和原始关系。现在，信仰成了他们的主要关注点，而不是更深层次的体验，这种体验超越了信仰的局限，比任何信仰都要强大、牢固和持久。

That is why there is a great difference between the manifestation of religion and all of its great edifices and pronouncements—its admonitions, its ideology, its cosmology and its theology—and the Mystery that lives within each person, waiting to be discovered.

这就是为什么宗教的表现形式及其所有伟大的建筑和宣言——它的告诫、它的意识形态、它的宇宙论和它的神学——与生活在每个人内心深处等待被发现的神秘之间存在着巨大的差异。

But people still need a structure, and that is why the New Message provides its ethics and gives a framework for participating in the world. But the framework is open. It is not absolute because Knowledge is working in different ways, in different people, to achieve the same goal and the same end.

但人们仍然需要一个结构，这就是为什么新讯息提供了它的伦理学，并给出了一个参与世界的框架。但这个框架是开放的。它不是绝对的，因为内识正以不同的方式，在不同的人身上工作，以实现相同的目标和相同的结果。

When you leave this world and return to your Spiritual Family, who have been watching you in the world, they will ask you, “Did you achieve what you set out to achieve?” In that moment, you will not be encumbered by belief. For when you leave this world, you will not have any beliefs. But you will know intrinsically if you accomplished your tasks and objectives or not. Here there is no judgment. There is no condemnation. There is only the perfect Knowledge that you must try again.

当你离开这个世界，回到你的精神家庭，他们一直在观察你在这个世界上的表现，他们会问你：“你是否实现了自己的目标？”在那一刻，你将不会被信仰所束缚。因为当你离开这个世界时，你将不会有任何信仰。但你会从本质上知道你是否完成了你的任务和目标。这里没有判断。没有谴责。只有完美的内识，即你必须再一次尝试。

How very different this is from people’s notion that God is going to dispel all human error in the end, for God did not create human error, and therefore it must be uncreated by those who created it. But this would be impossible unless you had the power and presence of Knowledge within yourself. For only it can overcome evil. Only it can guide one in even the most complicated and difficult set of circumstances. Only it can make the right choice in every situation and choose the right people to be with. Only it can tell the difference between what is good from what only looks good.

这与人们认为“上帝最终会消除人类的一切错误”的观念是多么的不同，因为上帝没有创造人类的错误，因此这些错误必须由创造它们的人来解除。但这是不可能的，除非你在自己的内心深处拥有内识的力量和存在。因为只有它才能战胜邪恶。只有它能在最复杂、最困难的情况下指引你。只有内识能在各种情况下做出正确的选择，并与正确的人在一起。只有它能分辨出什么是好的，什么只是看起来是好的。

This is God’s Covenant. Mysterious it is, powerful, very difficult to articulate in words. Very difficult to create a new theology describing what Knowledge will do in all people, in all situations, in all circumstances, for this cannot be done. Instead, religion must create a framework, an ethical and practical framework that honors the fundamental spiritual practice of taking the Steps to Knowledge and encourages people in this direction and provides the wisdom of this era and of the ages to assist people in engaging with the power and the presence that lives within them, which exists beyond the realm and the reach of the intellect.

这就是上帝的盟约。它是神秘的，强大的，却很难用语言来表达。要创造一种新的神学来描述内识在所有人、所有情况、所有环境中的作用是非常困难的，因为这是不可能做到的。相反，宗教必须创建一个框架，一种尊重基本精神实践的伦理和实用框架，鼓励人们开展内识的进阶，鼓励人们朝着这个方向前进，并提供这个时代和各个时代的智慧，帮助人们与生活在他们内心深处的内识的力量和存在互动，这种力量和存在超越了智力的领域和范围。

This is the difference between a saint and a scholar, you see. Scholars interpret, but it does not mean that their range of experience is very great. At best, they garner wisdom from the present and the past and bring it forth into the world’s circumstances today. At worst, they become the scribes of ideology and the prosecutors of humanity.

你看，这就是圣人和学者之间的区别。学者们进行解读，但这并不意味着他们的体验范围非常广泛。充其量，他们从现在和过去汲取智慧，并将其带入当今世界的环境中。最坏的情况是，他们可能成为意识形态的抄写员和人性的检察官。

There are important things to follow and not follow, and they are prescribed in God’s New Revelation. They are general in the sense that they apply to most people and most situations and are very reliable. But you still have to make the deeper engagement with Knowledge. If you bypass this, then you put yourself in a position where you cannot receive God’s Grace, Power and Presence except very incrementally and very infrequently.

上帝的新启示中规定了一些需要遵守和不需要遵守的重要事项。它们具有普遍性，适用于大多数人和大多数情况，而且非常可靠。但是，你仍然必须与内识进行更深层次的互动。如果你绕过了内识，你就会把自己置于一个无法收到上帝的恩典、力量和存在的位置，除了非常渐进和非常不频繁的情况。

God’s essential Covenant says you can be separate, but only for a time, and in time. In the end, you are still part of Creation and will return. How different this is from the covenants that are proclaimed and established in humanity’s religious institutions, and institutions of other races in the universe who have the same problems with the deeper engagement that you do.

上帝的基本盟约说你可以分离，但只是在一段时间内，而且是在时间上。最后，你仍然是创造的一部分，并将回归。这与人类的宗教机构以及宇宙中其他种族的机构所宣扬和建立的盟约是多么的不同啊！这些种族和你们一样，在更深层次的参与中存在着同样的问题。

There are no enlightened races of beings in the universe, or they would not be in this stage of reality. Everyone is dealing with the problems of Separation. And while there are wise individuals, and sometimes wise leaders of nations, everyone has the same fundamental problem. It is the problem not only of survival and security in a changing physical reality; it is the problem of what one will follow, and what others will follow within themselves and between each other.

宇宙中没有开悟的生命种族，否则他们就不会处于现实的这个阶段。每个人都在处理分离的问题。虽然有明智的个人，有时也有明智的国家领导人，但每个人都面临着同样的基本问题。这不仅是在一个不断变化的物质现实中的生存和安全问题；也是一个人将遵循的问题，以及其他人在自己的内心和相互之间将遵循的问题。

If people in the world could become closer to Knowledge, then the commitment to follow certain resolutions would be far stronger than they are today. People would make sacrifices to do what is right. People would make decisions to do what will work. People would invest in the future and not simply try to live for the moment, like locusts upon the land.

如果世界上的人们能够变得更接近内识，那么对遵循某些决议的承诺就会比今天强大得多。人们会做出牺牲来做正确的事情。人们会做出决定，去做可行的事情。人们将投资于未来，而不是简单地试图活在当下，就像土地上的蝗虫。

You would have problems, but far fewer than you have today. And you would be building the foundation for a better future instead of trying to re-enact the past. You would preserve the world’s resources instead of exhausting them. For this world is all you have, and what your children and their children will have in the future will be dependent upon what you can preserve and secure today.

你们会有问题，但会比今天少得多。你们将为更美好的未来打下基础，而不是试图重演过去。你们会保护世界的资源，而不是耗尽它们。因为这个世界是你们所拥有的一切，你们的孩子和他们的孩子将来会拥有的一切，将取决于你们今天所能保存和确保的一切。

Do not think you can go into the universe to gain that which you have depleted or destroyed here on Earth, for worlds such as yours are rare, and they are well protected. They are coveted by many.

不要认为你们可以到宇宙中去获取你们在地球上耗尽或毁坏的资源，因为像你们这样的世界是非常稀有的，而且它们受到很好的保护。它们是许多种族梦寐以求的。

This is part of growing up—ceasing to be a reckless race, an adolescent race, a destructive race. You would end war when you realized that you have to preserve the world and protect yourself against intervention from the Greater Community. It would change entirely your understanding of your situation and what would motivate you to do what is really correct and productive.

这是成长的一部分——停止成为一个鲁莽的种族，一个青春期的种族，一个破坏性的种族。当你们意识到你们必须维护世界并保护自己免受来自大社区的干预时，你们就会结束战争。这将彻底改变你们对自身处境的理解，也将促使你们去做真正正确和富有成效的事情。

It is all based upon what informs the individual—the power and presence of Knowledge and God’s Covenant with all life.

这一切都基于塑造个人的内识——内识的力量和存在，以及上帝与所有生命的盟约。