Religion and Politics

As received by Marshall Vian Summers on October 11, 2008 in Boulder, Colorado
2008年10月11日，在科罗拉多州博尔德(Boulder, Colorado)，向上帝的信使马歇尔・维安・萨默斯(Marshall Vian Summers)揭示

Politics represents people’s attempt to communicate effectively with one another and organize human thought and behavior to bring stability and progress to culture and civilization. It is an attempt often with great self-interest, of course, on the part of leaders. In its pure sense, politics is the vast network of communication and organization to organize human thinking and action.

政治代表着人们试图有效地相互沟通，组织人类的思想和行为，从而为文化和文明带来稳定和进步。当然，这种尝试往往是出于领导者的极大私利。从纯粹的意义上讲，政治是组织人类思维和行动的庞大的沟通网络和组织网络。

It is by its very nature extremely imperfect, and often it is so corrupt that only a very few people can benefit from this. It is rife with deception, conflict, competition and the quest for power. It is a very unsavory arena, but a necessary one. There are always the forces of corruption operating there, competing with honest people of integrity who are trying to make whatever the system that is established be functional and effective and fair to all involved.

就其本质而言，它极其不完善，而且腐败严重，只有极少数人能从中获益。它充斥着欺骗、冲突、竞争和权力欲。这是一个非常令人讨厌的舞台，但却是必要的舞台。腐败势力总是在那里运作，与诚实正直的人竞争，后者试图使所建立的制度发挥作用、有效，并对所有参与者公平。

Religion is the attempt of God to communicate with man and for people to share this communication with each other—to try to understand it, interpret it and to bring it into their life experience. But religion is also run by organizations who can be very self-serving and who can adopt a very narrow understanding of what their faith tradition really is. Religions compete with each other, try to undermine each other and even have fought each other innumerable times throughout human history.

宗教是上帝与人类沟通的尝试，也是人们彼此分享这种沟通的尝试——试图理解它、解释它，并将其融入他们的生命体验。但宗教也可能由一些组织管理，这些组织可能非常自私，并且可能对其信仰传统的真正含义有非常狭隘的理解。在整个人类历史中，宗教之间相互竞争、试图破坏对方，甚至无数次相互争斗。

On an institutional level, they are political as well because they deal with influencing human thought and behavior, organizing human effort and aligning people according to a certain set of ideas or assumptions. In that, they represent a corollary to the political arena. But the religious arena is held to a higher standard, generally speaking, even though many people avoid or circumvent this.

从制度层面来看，宗教同样具有政治性，因为它们影响人类的思想和行为，组织人类的努力，并根据特定的想法或假设来协调人们。从这一点来看，宗教是政治领域的必然结果。但一般来说，宗教领域的标准更高，尽管许多人会避免或规避这一点。

What religion really is is God communicating to people and setting a higher standard for life, for thinking and for behavior—a much higher standard than the political arena will attempt to establish. Religion speaks to the conscience and the behavior of the individual to a far greater degree and on a far more personal level than politics would attempt to do.

宗教的真正意义在于上帝与人们的沟通，为生命、思维和行为设定更高的标准——比政治舞台试图设定的标准高得多。宗教在更大程度上、在更个人的层面上对个人的良知和行为发声，比政治试图发声的程度要高得多。

Of course, many people over time have tried to combine religion and politics. Even in the world today, there is an attempt to do this within certain nations and amongst many agitating political groups who seek to establish a religious-based government. Yet you are mixing two things that only have an indirect relationship with one another.

当然，随着时间的推移，许多人都试图将宗教与政治结合起来。甚至在当今世界，某些国家和许多试图建立宗教政府的政治团体也试图这样做。然而，你却把两件只有间接关系的事情混为一谈。

To bring religion into politics is to compromise the ethics and standards of religion, to degrade religion. Though religion and politics are both prone to corruption and misinterpretation, religion as a whole is still held to a much higher standard. But this standard is compromised when the two are mixed.

将宗教带入政治就是损害宗教的道德和标准，贬低宗教。尽管宗教和政治都容易腐败和被曲解，但宗教作为一个整体仍然被要求遵守更高的标准。但当两者混合在一起时，这一标准就会受到损害。

Therefore, religion and politics should operate in separate arenas. They should not be combined. If you try to enforce morality or ethics, you create a government that is oppressive and indiscriminate in its emphasis and in its action. You cannot legislate conscience if conscience is to be true and authentic.

因此，宗教和政治应该在不同的领域运作。它们不应该结合在一起。如果你试图强制推行道德或伦理，你就会创建一个在重点和行动上都具有压迫性和不分青红皂白的政府。如果良心是真实可信的，你就不能立法来规范良心。

Religious leaders do not make good political leaders, and political leaders do not make good religious leaders. You cannot force a higher standard upon people beyond the basic requirements of a functioning society without oppressing them, often cruelly and indiscriminately.

宗教领袖不是好的政治领袖，政治领袖也不是好的宗教领袖。你不能强迫人们接受超出社会正常运转基本要求的更高标准，否则就会压迫他们，而且这种压迫往往是残酷的、不分青红皂白的。

Ultimately, religion is about bringing the individual into contact with Knowledge, the deeper spiritual Intelligence that God has placed within you. This is the seat of your spirituality, the foundation of your true Being. It holds for you your greater purpose for coming into the world. And it provides a deeper conscience, an awareness, that cannot be really corrupted by the outside world.

归根结底，宗教是让个人接触内识，即上帝放置在你内心深处的更深层次的精神智能。这是你精神性的根基，是你真实存在的基础。它为你承载着你来到这个世界的更伟大目的。它提供了一种更深层次的良知，一种觉知，这种觉知无法被外部世界真正侵蚀。

If you promote people to come in contact with Knowledge and to build a connection with Knowledge, you are giving them power and freedom, even beyond the dictates of their religious leaders or tradition, if they have such a tradition, and even beyond the dictates of their culture and their society.

如果你鼓励人们接触内识并构建和内识的一种联接，那你就是在赋予他们力量和自由，甚至超越他们的宗教领袖或传统的指示（如果他们有这样的传统），甚至超越他们的文化和他们的社会的指示。

Because Knowledge is entirely ethical and cannot be in conflict with itself, it represents a higher and more complete experience of life. This cannot be legislated from the outside by people who do not know of Knowledge, who fear its power and who do not believe in its essential goodness.

因为内识是完全合乎伦理的，不会与它自身相冲突，所以它代表着一种更高尚、更完整的生命体验。那些不知道内识、害怕内识的力量、不相信内识本质善的人，无法从外部立法来规范内识。

If religion is to be more than a corralling of people and an emphasis on belief and obedience, it must lead to Knowledge. It must lead to the conscience that God has created within you, not the conscience that society and culture tries to inculcate in you, for there is a very great difference between the two. One is created by God; the other is created by people for their own interests.

如果宗教不仅仅是将人们聚集在一起并强调信仰和服从，那么它就必须通向内识。它必须通向上帝在你内心深处创造的良知，而不是社会和文化试图灌输给你的良知，因为两者之间有着巨大的差异。一个是上帝创造的良知，另一个是人们为了他们自己的利益而创造的良知。

When religion is wedded with politics, religion becomes politics with all of its deceptions, its compromises and its limitations. It ceases to be a pathway to Knowledge and becomes like a yoke to harness people’s intelligence and abilities in service to the state.

当宗教与政治结合时，宗教就变成了政治，充满了欺骗、妥协和局限性。它不再是通往内识的道路，而是变成了束缚人们的智能和能力以服务于国家的枷锁。

On an institutional basis, religion has become so corrupt that it now punishes people for their errors, even executes people for their errors. It acts like a state. It has become political in nature. Certain religions believe there are sins that are punishable by death or by cruel punishment and that these must be carried out by religious or political leaders.

从制度上看，宗教已经变得如此腐败，以至于现在它惩罚犯错的人，甚至处决犯错的人。它的行为就像一个国家。它已经变得具有政治性质。某些宗教认为，有些罪孽可以判处死刑或残酷的惩罚，而这些必须由宗教或政治领袖来执行。

God has never instigated such a protocol in any religion. This is purely the invention of people. This is an accommodation. This is an attempt to bring religion into politics. God has never sanctioned capital punishment or torture or physical punishment. That is a corruption and a misunderstanding. It has brought religion down to the level of mean politics. It is an abomination here.

上帝从未在任何宗教中鼓动过这样的礼仪。这纯粹是人们的发明。这是一种妥协。这是将宗教带入政治的一种企图。上帝从未批准过死刑、酷刑或体罚。这是一种腐败和误解。它把宗教降到了卑鄙政治的水平。这是令人憎恶的。

God knows that living in the world is extremely difficult and will generate all forms of misbehavior. That is why God has put Knowledge within the individual to guide them, to protect them and to lead them to a greater fulfillment in life.

上帝知道生活在这个世界上是极其艰难的，会产生各种形式的不良行为。正因为如此，上帝把内识放置在个体的内心深处，来指导他们、保护他们并引领他们实现生命中的更伟大成就。

God does not punish you for making mistakes, even very terrible mistakes. It just means that your ability to experience the Grace of God is diminished, or even denied, by your own actions, not by the actions of God.

上帝不会因为你犯错而惩罚你，即使你犯了非常严重的错误。这只是意味着你体验上帝恩典的能力被你自己的行为削弱甚至否定了，而不是上帝的行为。

In this there is no Hell, no punishment. Why would God punish you for being without Knowledge? That is like punishing a child for being a child. That is punishing a man for being a man or a woman for being a woman. The state must impose limitations and will have to restrain certain kinds of behavior, even leading to incarceration, but religion does not do this and must not do this.

这里没有地狱，没有惩罚。上帝为什么要因为你没有内识而惩罚你？这就像因为孩子是孩子而惩罚孩子。这就像因为男人是男人而惩罚男人，因为女人是女人而惩罚女人。国家必须施加限制，必须约束某些行为，甚至导致监禁，但宗教不会这样做，也不应该这样做。

God does not punish. God rehabilitates. God does not send the wicked to Hell. God attends to the wicked and prepares them for Heaven. God does not hate Creation and will not punish those living in Separation who are prone to weakness, disability and ignorance. To think otherwise is to misinterpret the Will of God and the intention of religion.

上帝不会惩罚。上帝会改造。上帝不会把恶人送入地狱。上帝会照顾恶人，为他们进入天堂做准备。上帝不会憎恨创造，也不会惩罚那些生活在分离状态、容易软弱、无能和无知的人。不这样想就是曲解了上帝的意志和宗教的意图。

Religion is a calling to live at a higher standard and according to a deeper conscience that God has placed within you, which is represented by Knowledge. If you fail to do this, then you suffer the consequences of being denied the power and the presence of Knowledge and your relationship with God. God does not punish you beyond this. If you do not live according to a life of integrity, you suffer the consequences. If you are dishonest with yourself and others, you suffer the consequences. If you deny your inner life, you suffer the consequences.

宗教是一种召唤，要求你按照上帝放置在你内心的更崇高标准和一种更深层次的良知去生活，这种良知由内识所代表。如果你做不到这一点，那么你就会遭受被剥夺内识的力量和存在以及你与上帝的关系的后果。上帝不会在此之外惩罚你。如果你不按照完整性的生命去生活，你就会遭受后果。如果你对你自己和他人不诚实，你就会遭受后果。如果你否认你的内在生命，你就会遭受后果。

You do not experience the Grace, the Power and the Guidance of God. You are left out, not because God is denying you but because you have denied God. Not because God is punishing you, but because you have not been able to receive the power and the grace that God has placed within you, within Knowledge within you.

你没有体验到上帝的恩典、力量和指引。你被排除在外，不是因为上帝在拒绝你，而是因为你拒绝了上帝。不是因为上帝在惩罚你，而是因为你无法接收上帝放置在你的内心、放置在你内心深处的内识中的力量和恩典。

Following Knowledge makes you very free and very responsible. It requires a higher level of integrity, for you are now being guided by a deeper conscience that clearly understands the difference between right and wrong.

追随内识会让你非常自由，也非常有责任感。它需要更高层面的完整性，因为你现在受到一种更深层次的良知的引导，这种良知清楚地理解对错之间的区别。

But this gives you a freedom that political leaders might fear, particularly if they are oppressive, or represent dynasties or are authoritarian in nature. They will fear this freedom in the individual. They will want religion to support the state, and that is what happens when religion is ever united with politics, is it becomes subservient to the state, a tool of political leaders. It has lost its mandate. It has lost its integrity. It has lost its true function.

但这赋予了你一种自由，而政治领袖可能会害怕这种自由，特别是如果他们是压迫性的、代表王朝的、或者本质上是独裁的。他们会害怕个人的这种自由。他们会希望宗教支持国家，而这正是当宗教与政治结合在一起时会发生的情况，宗教就会屈从于国家，成为政治领袖的工具。宗教失去了它的使命。宗教失去了它的完整性。宗教失去了它的真实功能。

Religion is there to free the Spirit. Politics is there to guide actions and to restrain certain kinds of behavior. God is the source of religion. Though religion has become what people have made of it, its Source, its inspiration, comes from God.

宗教是为了解放精神。政治是为了指导行动和约束某些行为。上帝是宗教的源泉。尽管宗教已经成为人们所创造的，但它的源泉、它的灵感来自上帝。

What religion has become in its principles and its emphasis is very different from what initiated it in the first place. Its stories, its pageantries, its interpretations have in so many cases drifted so far away from the initial intent and purpose that now you are dealing with something else. But if religion is to be redeemed and uplifted and to maintain its higher ethical and moral standard, then it cannot be under the control of politics or political leaders.

宗教的原则和重点已经与最初的宗教大不相同。它的故事、它的盛典、它的解释在很多情况下已经远离了最初的意图和目的，以至于现在你要面对的是其他的事物。但如果要救赎和提升宗教，并保持其更高的伦理道德标准，那么它就不能受政治或政治领袖的控制。

Let religion speak to the deeper conscience of people and to support them taking the Steps to Knowledge. Let politics deal with running the machinery of civilization.

让宗教与人们的更深层次的良知对话，支持他们开展内识的进阶。让政治来管理文明的机器。

The surgeon does not try to be a plumber, and the plumber should not try to be a surgeon. They are functioning in different arenas. They are both repairing mechanisms but on a very different scale and in a very different environment. Religious leaders should always be there to correct and to comment upon the behavior of government, but religious leaders must not become the government.

外科医生不会试图成为水管工，水管工也不应该试图成为外科医生。它们在不同的领域发挥作用。他们都是修复机制，但规模和环境都大不相同。宗教领袖应该始终纠正和评论政府的行为，但宗教领袖绝不能成为政府。

In a more perfect sense, religion is there to keep politics honest and ethical. To whatever degree that religion can do this and exert this influence, it is beneficial, in most cases. But religion is prone to the same errors that afflict government leaders and policies, so there can be grave harm done here if religion tries to exert an incorrect understanding upon religious leaders.

从更完美的意义上讲，宗教的存在是为了保持政治的诚实和伦理。无论宗教在多大程度上能够做到这一点并发挥这种影响，在大多数情况下，它都是有益的。但宗教也容易犯与政府领导人和政策相同的错误，因此，如果宗教试图向宗教领袖施加不正确的理解，可能会造成严重伤害。

Many people who are involved in religion do not really understand what it is for. They think it is to worship God, to carry out God’s Will, but they do not understand God’s Will because God’s Will has been now translated down to the level of politics, to the level of behavior, to the level of crime and punishment.

很多信教的人其实并不真正理解宗教的真正目的，他们认为宗教就是崇拜上帝，履行上帝的旨意，但他们并不理解上帝的意志，因为上帝的意志现在已经被转化到了政治层面、行为层面、犯罪和惩罚层面。

In reality, all religion in all of its forms is to bring your thinking mind into a deep association and service to a deeper Mind that God has placed within you that is beyond the control of government and that adheres to a greater power and a deeper conscience.

事实上，所有形式的宗教都是将你的思维心灵与上帝放置在你内心深处的一种更深层次的心灵进行深度联系和服务，这种心灵不受政府控制，并且遵循一种更伟大的力量和一种更深层次的良知。

Governments are afraid of this because they want to be the ultimate power. They want to have the final word. They do not want to have to compete with another form of power in the world. That is why religion, over the years and centuries, has had to compete and has often succumbed to powerful political forces.

政府害怕这一点，因为他们想成为终极权力。他们想拥有最终决定权。他们不想与世界上其他形式的权力竞争。这就是为什么多年来和几个世纪以来，宗教不得不竞争，并经常屈服于强大的政治力量。

Therefore, it is true that the religious leader must be beyond the temptations of the world sufficiently to be able to live according to a higher standard and to comment and to criticize government from this higher standard, and to attempt to hold political leaders to a higher standard based upon compassion, based upon love, based upon tolerance and based upon an emphasis on the individual’s relationship with their deeper nature.

因此，宗教领袖必须充分超越世俗的诱惑，才能按照更高的标准生活，才能从这个更高的标准评论和批评政府，才能试图以同情、爱、宽容和重视个人与其更深层次自然的关系为基础，要求政治领袖遵守更高的标准。

Religion here goes beyond even religious institutions. For if your institution insists upon one thing, but your conscience insists upon another, well, you will have to choose. And if you are connected to your real conscience, the conscience that God has placed within you, rather than simply a system of beliefs that has been inculcated into your intellect, then you must choose your conscience.

宗教在这里甚至超越了宗教机构。因为如果你的机构坚持一件事，而你的良知却坚持另一件事，那时，你就必须做出选择。如果你与你真正的良知相连，即上帝放置在你内心深处的良知，而不是简单地灌输到你智力中的一套信仰体系，那你就必须选择你的良知。

Many people involved in religion think that religion is an intellectual understanding and is simply a guideline for human behavior. But religion is greater than this. For the intellect cannot understand the workings of the Spirit. And models for human behavior do not always allow for the creativity that must occur within the individual. Political powers are always trying to gain control of religious powers, to subjugate them and to bring them into service to the political structure, and this is a violation of humanity’s deeper conscience.

许多信奉宗教的人认为，宗教是一种智力上的理解，只是人类行为的指导方针。但宗教远不止于此。因为智力无法理解精神的运作。而人类行为的模式并不总是允许个人内在必须发生的创造力。政治权力总是试图控制宗教权力，征服它们，让它们为政治结构服务，这是对人类更深层次良知的侵犯。

So religion holds a primary responsibility not to teach what conscience is, but to bring people to its realm. For what is right and what is wrong is known and felt and followed. Perhaps you have to teach a child not to do certain things, that certain things are harmful to others and harmful to oneself. But for adults, religion must be a reconnection with Knowledge. If religion serves this primary purpose, it is effective and it is in service to humanity. If religion is just simply trying to create an ideological position and a set of guidelines for human behavior, then really it has denigrated to the level of politics.

因此，宗教的主要责任不是教导良知是什么，而是将人们带入良知的境界。因为什么是对的，什么是错的，是可以知道、感受到和遵循的。也许你必须教孩子不要做某些事情，某些事情会伤害他人，也会伤害自己。但对于成年人来说，宗教必须是与内识的重新连接。如果宗教服务于这一主要目的，它就是有效的，它就是为人类服务的。如果宗教只是试图创造一种意识形态立场和一套人类行为的指导方针，那么它实际上已经堕落到政治的层面了。

It is known what is right and what is wrong. That has been established. Murder is wrong. Theft is wrong. Bearing false witness is wrong. Deceiving others is wrong. The Commandments have laid this out. It is clear. But the question is: Can people live according to this, even if it conflicts with the expectations of government leaders or the public will?

它是知道什么是对的，什么是错的。这是已经确立的。谋杀是错的。偷窃是错的。作伪证是错的。欺骗他人是错的。这些诫命都有明文规定。它是明确的。但问题是：即便这些与政府领导者或公众意愿的期望相冲突，人们能否按照这些规定生活？

It is a tension, you see, between your worldly mind and your deeper spiritual Mind. You cannot change your deeper spiritual Mind. You can either adhere to it or avoid it. You can either be in relationship with it or out of relationship with it, but you cannot change it. You cannot reprogram it, make it think differently, without creating a false understanding.

你看，这是你世俗心灵和你更深层次的精神心灵之间的一种张力。你无法改变你更深层次的精神心灵。你可以坚持它，也可以逃避它。你可以与它建立关系，也可以与它断绝关系，但你无法改变它。你无法重新编程它，让它以不同的方式思考，否则就会产生一种虚假的理解。

Therefore, do not mix politics and religion. They are in tension with one another. For religion is here to hold politics to a higher standard, a higher standard based not upon religious ideology, but upon the reality of Knowledge.

因此，不要将政治与宗教混为一谈。它们之间是相互冲突的。因为宗教的存在是为了将政治置于更高的标准之下，这种更高的标准不是基于宗教意识形态，而是基于内识的现实。

Knowledge cannot be quantified. It cannot be brought into the arena of politics. It cannot really be mandated by government beyond certain obvious things. It remains mysterious. It is the Mystery. Politics must be concrete and practical. Religions must be mysterious, taking you beyond the realm of the intellect, beyond the realm of social governance.

内识无法量化。它无法被带入政治领域。除了某些显而易见的事情之外，它无法真正被政府强制执行。它仍然是神秘的。它就是神秘。政治必须具体而务实。宗教必须是神秘的，带你超越智力的领域，超越社会治理的领域。

Spirit and the intellect are operating in different arenas. One must serve the other. But Spirit can never serve the intellect unless the intellect is serving Spirit, so really there are no choices here except to either accept the reality of Knowledge or to deny it. Even if you try to compromise it, you will deny it. Even if you try to make it serve your personal interests, you will deny it.

精神和智力在不同的领域运作。一个必须服务于另一个。但精神永远无法服务于智力，除非智力服务于精神，所以实际上这里没有选择，只能接受内识的现实或否认它。即使你试图妥协，你也会否认它。即使你试图让内识服务于你的个人利益，你也会否认它。

The great saints and sages have followed Knowledge. They were not political leaders. They were not magistrates. They did not generate a political policy or economic policy because they were involved in the Mystery. They are keeping Knowledge alive in the world, in a world where people are constantly being pressured and seduced to follow the dictates of governments and the ambitions of the mind.

伟大的圣人和贤者追随内识。他们不是政治领袖。他们不是行政长官。他们没有制定政治政策或经济政策，因为他们参与了神秘。他们让内识在世界上存活，在这个世界上，人们不断受到压力和诱惑，去追随政府的命令和心灵的野心。

This clarification of God’s Will is very important because God redeems the separated through Knowledge. God redeems you through Knowledge. You have been sent into the world for a higher purpose, but you are not living that higher purpose at this moment. Therefore, your Spirit, your soul—its needs are going unmet. You are uncomfortable. You are distracted. You are anxious. You are restless. You are nervous. You are prone and subject to the forces of the world—its inducements, its terrors. You are looking outside yourself for guidance and for truth, while Knowledge lives within you, the perfect inner guidance waiting to be discovered.

澄清上帝的意志非常重要，因为上帝通过内识救赎分离者。上帝通过内识救赎你。你被派到这个世界是为了一个更高的宗旨，但你此刻并没有实现那个更高的宗旨。因此，你的精神、你的灵魂的需求得不到满足。你感到不舒服。你心烦意乱。你焦虑不安。你焦躁不安。你紧张不安。你容易受到世界力量的影响——它的诱惑、它的恐惧。你在你自己之外寻求指导和真理，而内识却存在于你的内心，完美的内在指导正等待着你去发现。

Knowledge is not here to overthrow the state. It is not here to subjugate others. It is here to contribute to the well-being of people and to the well-being of the world itself. It is designed within you to do this in specific ways, to carry out specific activities and service to certain people in certain situations.

内识不是来推翻国家的。内识不是来征服他人的。它在这里是为了促进人们的福祉和世界本身的福祉。它被设计在你的内心，以特定的方式做到这一点，开展特定的活动，在特定的情况下为特定的人服务。

You are designed for this. That is why you have a unique personality. That is why you have a unique design. That is why you have a unique gift to the world. But it is not what you think. It is not a creation of the intellect. It is something that emerges from far deeper within you, beneath the surface of the mind. In response to the real needs of the world, the world will call this out of you once you are ready and once you have found where your contribution needs to be made.

你是为此而设计的。这就是为什么你拥有独特的人格。这就是为什么你拥有独特的设计。这就是为什么你对世界拥有独特的礼物。但这不是你想象的那样。它不是智力的创造。它是来自你内心的更深远的层次、在心灵表面之下浮​​现出来的内识。为了回应世界的真正需求，一旦你准备好了，一旦你找到了需要做出贡献的地方，世界就会将你的内识召唤出来。

Without this, you try to invent a life for yourself. Once your basic requirements have been met, you try to invent a life for yourself based upon what you think will make you happy. This has produced the world you see—a world full of unhappy, restless people; a world that is so imperfect and so prone to corruption and instability that it is a very jarring and difficult place to live.

没有内识，你就会试图为你自己创造一种生命。一旦你的基本需求得到满足，你就会试图根据你认为会让你快乐的事物为你自己创造一种生命。这就产生了你看到的世界——一个充满不快乐、不安分的人的世界；一个如此不完美、如此容易腐败和不稳定的世界，这是一个非常令人不安和难以生存的地方。

Politics is for the intellect. Religion is for Knowledge. Yet even political leaders can be guided by a deeper conscience, and this gives rise to true motivations for advancement and reform. Knowledge can guide people in all arenas of life. It is designed to do this.

政治是为了智力。宗教是为了内识。然而，即使是政治领袖也可以被一种更深层次的良知所引导，这会产生进步和改革的真实动机。内识可以指导人们生活的各个领域。它就是为此而设计的。

Therefore, the pathway to Knowledge is really necessary for everyone, in every aspect of life, in every profession of life. It provides an instruction that no government could ever provide, no university could ever provide. It represents the movement of life at a deeper level within you. This gives rise to compassion, the desire to serve and a higher ethical standard within the individual, even beyond the standards, the beneficial standards, that your culture or society might emphasize.

因此，通向内识的道路对每个人、对生命的每个方面、对生命的每个职业来说都是真正必要的。它提供了任何政府、任何大学都无法提供的指导。它代表了你内心深处的一种更深层次的生命运动层面。这在个体内部引发了同情、服务的渴望和更高的伦理标准，甚至超越了你的文化或社会可能强调的标准、有益的标准。

Therefore, do not create a political platform based upon religious ideas, or you will lose your religion in the process and become merely another combatant in a sea of combatants. You will deceive yourself and others, and you will try to undermine and overthrow others, and you will be subject to all the machinations of competition for power.

因此，不要以宗教想法为基础建立政治纲领，否则，你就会在这个过程中失去你的宗教信仰，成为战场上的一个普通战士，欺骗你自己和他人，试图破坏和推翻他人，并成为权力竞争阴谋的受害者。

A person who is guided by Knowledge could not do this. If a person in the political role becomes strong with Knowledge, they will try to bring a greater harmony and a higher standard to their work, for this is what Knowledge emphasizes.

一个在内识指导下的人不可能做到这一点。如果一个人在政治上的角色中变得强大，有了内识，他们将努力为其工作带来更大的和谐和更高的标准，因为这是内识所强调的。

It is therefore important to bring Knowledge into the political arena, extremely necessary and important. But not religion. Keep religion sacred and not profane so that the power and the presence of Knowledge may be preserved and may be a counterpoint to all of the other tendencies and motivations that hold humanity back and keep it in chains. This is what is necessary.

因此，将内识带入政治舞台是很重要的，这是极其必要和重要的。但宗教除外。保持宗教的神圣性，而不是世俗性，这样内识的力量和存在才能得到保存，才能与所有其他阻碍人类、将人类束缚的倾向和动机形成对比。这是必要的。

It is also necessary to allow women to assume positions of power and religious leadership. They are given to protection and to maintaining higher standards. Let them assume positions of power in religious institutions. Let them become religious leaders. This will help to safeguard the integrity of religious teachings and to make them fully equitable and beyond the reach of the limitations of culture and politics.

有必要让妇女担任权力和宗教领导职务。她们负责保护和维持更高的标准。让她们在宗教机构中担任领导职位。让她们成为宗教领袖。这将有助于维护宗教教义的完整性，使其完全公平，并超越文化和政治的限制。

Women must assume greater political power as well. You are entering the age of women. Women must have greater power and recognition. Those amongst women who are destined to be great scientists, great political leaders, great educators, great physicians, great social advocates, great philosophers, they must be allowed to arise.

女性也必须承担更大的政治权力。你们正在进入女性时代。女性必须拥有更大的权力和认可度。那些注定成为伟大科学家、伟大政治领袖、伟大教育家、伟大医生、伟大社会倡导者、伟大哲学家的女性，必须被允许脱颖而出。

Otherwise, humanity is denying half of its population and denying the gifts and the wisdom of half of its population by assigning women a subservient role or a domestic role only. This has been a great hindrance to human progress and a great hindrance and denial of the greater purpose that has brought so many people into the world.

否则，人类就否定了其一半人口，否定了其一半人口的礼物和智慧，因为女性只能扮演从属角色或家庭角色。这极大地阻碍了人类进步，极大地阻碍和否定了将如此多的人带到这个世界的更伟大目的。

If religion is to maintain its integrity, it must give women this power. It must be broken from tradition, for religion has a tradition of being under the dominance of culture and politics, much to its detriment. In many cases, religion has become overtaken by culture and politics to such an extent that religious teachings now no longer refer to the Will of God, but to traditions and restraints of culture.

如果宗教要保持其完整性，就必须赋予女性这种权力。它必须摆脱传统，因为宗教有受文化和政治支配的传统，这对宗教很不利。在许多情况下，宗教已被文化和政治所取代，以至于宗教教义不再指上帝的意志，而是指文化的传统和限制。

This has kept women down, this has kept women locked in the position of subservience and domestic duty, which is not the destiny of so many women, either in the past or in the world today. Do not suppress half the human population, or you will lose half of the creativity of the human family and half of the contribution that could be given to the welfare and to the advancement of humanity.

这使得女性处于弱势地位，使女性被困在从属地位和家庭责任中，而这并非许多女性的天命，无论是过去还是当今世界。不要压制一半的人口，否则你们将失去人类家庭一半的创造力，以及一半本可以用于人类福祉和进步的贡献。

Culture must adapt to religion and not the other way around if religion is to maintain its higher standard and be a pathway for people to discover their deeper conscience and the power and presence of Knowledge in their lives. In this, religion so far has been only partially successful. People who are religious leaders have been only partially successful.

如果宗教要保持其更高的标准，并成为人们发现更深层次良知以及内识在他们生命中的力量和存在的道路，那么文化必须适应宗教，而不是相反。在这方面，宗教迄今为止只是部分成功。宗教领袖们也只是部分成功。

If you are going to teach freedom of the Spirit, it must be free; it must be equitable. It must transcend the patterns and the habits of culture. Not every woman is meant to be a mother and a householder. To deny them their greater purpose and expression in the world is to deny humanity the benefits of their gifts and to imprison them. This was never God’s Will and Intent. Women were not created merely to be servants to men. They have their own purpose and destiny in the world.

如果你要教导精神的自由，它必须是自由的；它必须是平等的。它必须超越文化的模式和习惯。并非每个女人都注定要成为母亲和家庭主妇。剥夺她们在这个世界上的更伟大目的和表达方式，就是剥夺人类从她们的礼物中获益的机会，就是禁锢她们。这绝不是上帝的意志和意图。女人被创造出来并不仅仅是为了成为男人的仆人。她们在这个世界上有她们自己的目的和天命。

Religion will be transformed as these restraints are removed. For now you are entering difficult times, times of great change and upheaval in the world, times of environmental degradation and the limiting of resources. Everyone’s gifts must be brought to bear at every level of human society. You cannot suppress half the human population and expect humanity to advance and to meet its great challenges.

随着这些限制被消除，宗教将会发生改变。因为现在你们正进入困难时期，世界发生巨大变化和动荡的时期，环境恶化和资源有限的时期。每个人的礼物都必须在人类社会的各个层面发挥作用。你不能压制一半的人口，却期望人类进步并应对其巨大挑战。

There must be a greater reformation here. In all the religious traditions, there must be a greater reformation. That is required. There is such a great need for reformation in government, in commerce, and in religion.

这里必须进行更大规模的改革。在所有宗教传统中，都必须进行更大规模的改革。这是必须的。政府、商业和宗教都迫切需要改革。

That is why God has sent a New Message into the world—a Message that is here to warn humanity of the Great Waves of change that are coming to the world, to warn humanity of Intervention and competition from beyond the world by races in the universe; a New Message that is here to teach about spirituality and religion at the level of Knowledge; a New Message that is here to bring Wisdom from the universe that humanity will now need to save itself from self-destruction and to build the foundation for a new and better future for the human family; a New Message that is here to reveal humanity’s destiny within a Greater Community of intelligent life in the universe.

正因为如此，上帝给世界发送了一条新的讯息——这个讯息是为了警告人类，变革的巨浪正在向世界袭来，警告人类来自世界之外的宇宙种族的干预和竞争；这个新讯息是为了在内识的层面上教导精神性和宗教；这个新讯息在此带来来自宇宙的智慧，人类现在需要这些智慧来拯救它自己免于自我毁灭，并为人类大家庭更加美好的新未来奠定基础；这个新讯息在这里揭示了人类在宇宙智能生命大社区中的天命。

This is a gift from the Creator. It is a gift of profound love and respect for humanity. Yet it is a gift that brings with it a great challenge and a great correction to so many things that hold humanity back and that keep it in a primitive and divided state.

这是造物主的一份礼物。它是对人类深切的爱与尊重的一份礼物。然而，这份礼物也带来了伟大的挑战和纠正，纠正了阻碍人类发展、使人类处于原始分裂状态的诸多因素。

It represents a Greater Community awareness of humanity as a greater community and of the universe itself as a Greater Community of life. It is a higher level of understanding, but it essentially fulfills what religion has always been here to do, which is to bring people to the reality and the presence of Knowledge and the deeper conscience that it contains.

它代表着一种大社区觉知，即人类是一个大社区，宇宙本身也是一个生命大社区。这是一种更高层面的理解，但它本质上实现了宗教一直以来的使命，即带领人们走向内识的现实和存在以及它所包含的更深层次的良知。

The more that people’s behavior can be self-correcting, corrected from the inside and guided from the inside, the less government you will need, the fewer prisons you will need, the fewer laws you will need. The more people are inner-directed at the level of Knowledge, the more they will act in concert with each other for the well-being of everyone, and the more they will be able to contribute very needed gifts to the world in all areas of human reality. Government can never really replace Knowledge. It can only try to govern and restrain human behavior because of the lack of Knowledge that exists in the world and in the human family.

人们的行为越能自我纠正，从内部纠正和引导，你们就越不需要政府，你们就越不需要监狱，你们就越不需要法律。人们在内识层面上越能自我引导，他们就越能为了每个人的福祉而齐心协力，他们就越能在人类现实的所有领域为世界贡献出非常需要的礼物。政府永远无法真正取代内识。它只能试图管理和约束人类行为，因为这个世界和人类大家庭都缺乏内识。

With Knowledge, you will know what to do, and you will be held back from doing that which is harmful to yourself and to others. Therefore, Knowledge should be the most important thing that is emphasized in religion. The reality of Knowledge, the path to Knowledge, the experience of Knowledge and the expressions of Knowledge—these should be the foundation of religion instead of emphasizing stories from the past or trying to worship individuals from the past or trying to sustain fantastic stories of the creation of the world.

有了内识，你将知道该做什么，你将避免做那些伤害你自己和他人的事情。因此，内识应该是宗教中最重要的强调内容。内识的现实、通往内识的道路、内识的体验和内识的表达——这些应该是宗教的基础，而不是强调过去的故事，或试图崇拜过去的个人，或试图维持世界创世的荒诞故事。

Religion at its foundation is a pathway to Knowledge. All religion is a pathway to Knowledge because Knowledge is what redeems you. This is how God redeems the separated. This is how God guides you without overtaking your life. This is how God gives you direction and correction and wisdom and the ability to see through seduction and attraction and all the forces that lead humanity astray.

宗教的根基是一条通往内识的道路。所有宗教都是一条通往内识的道路，因为内识就是救赎你的道路。这就是上帝救赎分离者的方式。这就是上帝引导你而不控制你生命的方式。这就是上帝赋予你方向、修正、智慧和看透诱惑、吸引以及所有导致人类误入歧途的力量的能力的方式。

The New Message from God thus emphasizes The Way of Knowledge and taking the Steps to Knowledge as the ethical and moral foundation of human experience. For as this becomes stronger, people will act correctly and will have the power to change their thinking and their circumstances without the overbearing enforcement of government and without the restraints of tradition and culture, which in so many ways are holding humanity back and limiting its effectiveness in dealing with the great challenges it is now facing.

因此，来自上帝的新讯息强调内识之路和内识进阶是人类体验的伦理和道德基础。因为当内识变得更强大时，人们将正确行事，并将有能力改变他们的思维和他们的境况，而不受政府的霸道执法，不受传统和文化的束缚，后者在很多方面阻碍着人类，限制着人类应对当前面临巨大挑战的效力。

The New Message from God advocates the age of women and women rising to positions of power, particularly in religion, but also in governance as well. This represents a pure Message from God, a Message that has not been corrupted or co-opted by governments. It has not been wed to culture. It comes in a pure form. And it resonates with all the religions of the world in its true emphasis and its true purpose. Here if your understanding is clear, you will see that this is a renewal and an empowerment for the human spirit.

来自上帝的新讯息提倡女性时代，提倡女性晋升到权力位置，特别是在宗教领域，但也包括在治理领域。这代表着来自上帝的纯粹讯息，一个没有被政府腐蚀或收买的讯息。它没有与文化结合。它以一种纯粹的形式出现。它以其真实的重点和真实的目的与世界上所有的宗教产生共鸣。在这里，如果你理解清楚，你会看到，这是人类精神的一次更新和一次赋权。

May Knowledge be your guide and your comfort. May it guide you through the predicaments of life and through ever-changing circumstances. May it strengthen you and give you courage, commitment and compassion. And may it show you your greater destiny here in service to a struggling humanity.

愿内识成为你的向导和慰藉。愿它引导你渡过生命的困境和不断变化的境遇。愿它赋予你力量，给你勇气、承诺和同情心。愿它向你展示你在这里为苦苦挣扎的人类服务的更伟大天命。