第四章：自信心
Self Confidence
As received by Marshall Vian Summers on March 9, 2009 in Boulder, Colorado
2009年3月9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
Honesty begins with what you tell yourself. And clarity or deception is determined by what you listen to within yourself, what self you are really listening to. For part of you is wise, and part of you is unwise. How can you tell the difference? Where can you find the part of you that is wise? And why is it wise? Can that part of you that is wise be counted on to face the unexpected, to navigate the uncertain times ahead? These are all very important questions because humanity’s ability to deceive itself is very remarkable and has attained a great extent, with tragic and unnecessary consequences.
诚实始于你对你自己说的话。而清晰或欺骗则取决于你倾听你自己内心的哪种声音，你真正倾听的是哪个声音。因为你的一部分是明智的，而另一部分是不明智的。你如何区分两者？你在哪里可以找到你内心明智的部分？为什么它是明智的？你能否依靠你内心明智的部分来面对意外，驾驭未来的不确定时期？这些都是非常重要的问题，因为人类欺骗它自己的能力是非常惊人的，而且已经达到了很高的程度，造成了悲惨和不必要的后果。
People are confident, but is this confidence really real? Is it based upon a deeper assessment? Is it connected with reality, or is it merely a hope that is a cover for fear? Is it a pretension? Is it a sign of weakness?
人们充满信心，但这种信心是真的吗？它是基于一种更深层次的评估吗？它与现实有关，还是仅仅是用来掩饰恐惧的希望？它是一种虚伪吗？它是一种软弱的表现吗？
People are blinded by their false self-confidence. They think that things will not change, and then things change. They think the world will be as it was before, and then it is changing, and changing rapidly. They are confident in their abilities and their judgments. They are confident in the nation and the infrastructure of the nation. They are confident in the economy and in the good intentions of others.
人们被虚假的自信心蒙蔽了双眼。他们认为事情不会改变，但事情却发生了改变。他们认为世界会和以前一样，但世界却在改变，而且改变得很快。人们对他们的能力和判断力充满信心。他们对国家和国家的基础设施充满了信心。他们对经济和他人的善意充满信心。
Where is this confidence well-founded, and when does it become false and deceptive and destructive? The answer lies really in what you listen to within yourself, what you value within yourself.
这种自信的基础在哪里，它在什么时候变得虚假、具有欺骗性和破坏性？答案实际上在于你自己内心倾听的是什么，你在你自己内心重视的是什么。
Here you have two fundamental choices. You have your personal mind, which has been conditioned by the world, which is largely governed by fear and insecurity, a personal mind whose desires are endless and whose fears and concerns are pervasive and never ending. When you have confidence in this personal mind, then you will not listen to the deeper Mind within you. And you will discount the testimony of others that runs counter to your assumptions and your proclamations.
在这里，你有两个基础的选择。你有你的个人心灵，它被世界所制约，它很大程度上被恐惧和不安全感所支配，你的个人心灵有无尽的欲望，你的恐惧和担忧无处不在、永无止境。当你对这个个人心灵有信心时，你将不会聆听你内在的更深层次的心灵。你将忽视与你的假设和你的宣告相悖的他人证词。
Here you will be blind, and you will teach others to be blind. You will proclaim yourself. You will assert your self-confidence, usually with great agreement and recommendation from others, but you are really blind. Now you are not only blind, but you are blind, arrogant and foolish.
在这里，你将是盲人，你将教导他人成为盲人。你会宣扬你自己。你会坚持你的自信心，通常会得到他人的大力赞同和推荐，但你实际上是盲目的。现在，你不仅是盲人，而且是盲目的、傲慢的和愚蠢的。
This is a recipe for disaster. This is where you do not see the change coming. You do not see the signs of change. You do not heed the warnings of change.
这是灾难的根源。在这里，你看不到变化的到来。你看不到变化的迹象。你没有注意到变化的警告。
The demonstration of this blindness is all around you. People are receiving guidance and signs from the world. They are receiving guidance and signs from their mind and their own body, warning them of stress or disability—markers demonstrating that you are going too far, you are exceeding the limits of your capacity, you are entering into dangerous territory. You will receive signs telling you that your decisions are being guided by mere assumptions, or the assumptions of others, when in fact they contradict what your deeper nature is telling you.
这种盲目的表现就在你周围。人们正在接收来自世界的指导和信号。他们正在接收来自心灵和身体的指导和信号，警告他们压力或残疾——这些迹象表明你走得太远了，你超出了你的能力极限，你正在进入危险的领域。你会收到一些迹象，告诉你，你的决定仅仅受到假设或他人假设的指导，而事实上，这些假设与你更深层次的自然所告诉你的是相矛盾的。
When you listen to your personal side, you will be governed by the world—by its passions, by its goals, by its desires, by its fantasies, by its hatred. You will be guided and governed by your own social conditioning and all of the tendencies that arise out of this.
当你听从个人的一面时，你就会受世界的支配——被它的激情、它的目标、它的欲望、它的幻想、它的仇恨所支配。你将被你自己的社会条件以及由此产生的所有倾向所引导和支配。
You will believe what others believe, others whose approval you seek, or whose association you desire. You will take sides regarding conflicts. You will believe in things you have never questioned. You will take positions that you have never examined. You will simply fall in line with others, and the power of the mental environment in which you live will dictate your thoughts, your feelings, your beliefs and your behavior. Even if you live in a free nation and can exercise rare freedoms, this will still be the case.
你会相信他人所相信的，相信你所寻求的认同或你所渴望的关系。你会在冲突中偏袒一方。你会相信你从未质疑过的事情。你会采取你从未审视过的立场。你会简单地与他人保持一致，你所处的心理环境的力量会支配你的思想、你的感受、你的信仰和你的行为。即使你生活在一个自由的国家，能够行使罕见的自由，情况也依然如此。
As a result, most people cannot think for themselves. Their critical analysis is really limited. Their ability to self-evaluate, self-assess and self-correct is so very limited they will just push on, press forward, guided by their assumptions and by the assumptions of their culture or their religion and so forth.
因此，大多数人无法独立思考。他们的批判性分析能力非常有限。他们的自我评估、自我评价和自我纠正能力非常有限，他们只会在他们的假设以及文化或宗教等假设的指导下继续前进。
Here whole nations of people can make critical mistakes—critical mistakes that will be extremely costly and consequential. And this is happening even today. It is the result of people not following a deeper Intelligence within themselves.
在这里，整个民族的人民都可能犯下严重错误——这些严重错误将代价高昂，后果严重。这种情况甚至在今天还在发生。这是因为人们没有遵循他们自己内心深处的更深层次的智能。
People use reason and rationality to support their foolish notions. They will use the opinions of leaders and experts to formulate ideas, assumptions and attitudes that they themselves have never really understood or have evaluated to any depth. They will fall in line because they are lazy. They will fall in line because they want the rewards of approval. They do not want to have to do the difficult work that self-examination really requires.
人们利用理性和推理来支持他们愚蠢的观念。他们会借用领导者和专家的意见，来形成他们自己从未真正理解或深度评估过的想法、假设和态度。他们会乖乖听话，因为他们是懒惰的。他们之所以顺从，是因为渴望获得认同的回报。他们不想做自我审视所真正需要的艰难工作。
So they act like sheep, to be herded here and herded there—to be herded into war, to be herded into overconsumption of resources, to be herded into romance, to be herded wherever those who are setting the trends for culture and society are leading them.
因此，他们就像绵羊一样，被赶到这儿，被赶到那儿——被赶进战争，被赶进资源的过度消耗，被赶进浪漫，被赶到那些引领文化和社会潮流的人所带领的地方。
And those that are setting these trends do not care if a few individuals become independent of their persuasions, as long as most of the people follow and are controlled in this way—a compliant population, concerned now with their own success, concerned now with the ever-increasing and never-ending acquisition of possessions, concerned with their own advancement, their own enrichment, concerned with fighting against all the forces, real or imagined, that they feel are threatening their position, their goals and their beliefs.
那些设定这些趋势的人并不在乎少数人是否独立于他们的说服力，只要大多数人遵循并以这种方式被控制——一群顺从的民众，现在关心的是他们自己的成功，现在关心的是不断增加和永无止境地获取财产，关心的是他们自己的进步，他们自己的富足，关心的是与所有他们认为威胁到他们的地位、他们的目标和他们的信仰的力量（无论是真实的还是想象的）作斗争。
They are now governed by greed and fear and can vacillate from one to the other. So if things do not look good in the economy, people are afraid. If things look good, greed sets in. People become complacent, assuming that everything is fine now. They can go back to their wealth building. They can go back to their goals and their fantasies and their pursuits, heedless of the environment around them.
他们现在被贪婪和恐惧所支配，可以在两者之间摇摆不定。因此，如果经济形势不好，人们就会感到害怕。如果经济形势好，贪婪就会滋生。人们会变得自满，认为现在一切都很好。他们可以回去积累财富。他们可以回到他们的目标、他们的幻想和他们的追求之中，而不管周围的环境如何。
We are painting a very dark picture here because the picture really is dark. And it is dark because people are not being intelligent. They are not using their greater Intelligence. They are not assessing their situation. They are not assessing their engagements with others. They are not assessing their environment. They are not looking to see what is coming over the horizon in any kind of perceptive way.
我们在这里描绘了一幅非常黑暗的画面，因为画面确实很黑暗。它之所以黑暗是因为人们不够智能。他们没有运用他们更伟大的智能。他们没有评估他们的处境。他们没有评估他们与他人的交往。他们没有评估他们的环境。他们没有以任何一种感知的方式去观察地平线上即将发生的事情。
The consequences are dramatic and tragic. People are now finding themselves at a great loss—loss of employment, loss of their homes, a loss of any personal welfare because they were complacent and believing in something they did not understand. They were thinking everything would work out fine, that leaders would take care of things, that others could make better decisions than themselves. And they would follow these others without question.
后果是戏剧性的和悲剧性的。人们现在发现他们自己损失惨重——失业、失去家园、失去任何个人福利，因为他们自满并相信他们不理解的事情。他们认为一切都会顺利，领导者会把事情处理好，其他人可以做出比他们更好的决定。他们会毫无疑问地追随这些人。
And when disappointment sets in, their complacency turns to anger and resentment because now they are very afraid. And they are angry at those other people—those leaders, those governments, those institutions that they feel have misled them. But in fact they have misled themselves. They were not cautious. They were not careful. They did not take the time to understand what they were doing and what they were investing in.
当失望情绪袭来时，他们的自满情绪就会变成愤怒和怨恨，因为他们现在非常害怕。他们对那些其他人感到愤怒——那些领导人、那些政府、那些机构，他们认为这些人误导了他们。但事实上，是他们误导了他们自己。他们是不谨慎的。他们是不小心的。他们没有花时间去理解他们在做什么，以及他们在投资什么。
If you look at your life honestly, you will see the results of following your personal mind. You will see the consequences of identifying with your personal mind. You will see, through your own experience and the consequences of your actions, how blind and reckless this really is. And just because nearly everyone else is being blind and reckless, you cannot take comfort that you are living a normal effective life—a few good decisions, a lot of bad decisions.
如果你诚实地审视你的生命，你会看到遵循个人心灵的结果。你会看到认同个人心灵的后果。通过你自己的经历和行为后果，你会看到这是多么盲目和鲁莽。正因为几乎每个人都在盲目和鲁莽地行事，你就无法安心地过着正常而有效的生命——做几个好的决定，做许多坏的决定。
How then can you correct your errors? How can you cultivate your strengths and manage your weaknesses? The answer really is imponderable until you begin to realize you have a greater Intelligence within yourself waiting to be discovered, a greater Intelligence that has been giving you signs and warnings all along. But you rushed ahead—driven by desire, driven by impatience, driven by assumptions, driven by anger at others or anger at yourself.
因此，你如何纠正你的错误？你如何培养你的优势并管理你的弱点？除非你开始意识到你内心有一种更伟大的智能正等待着被发现，这个更伟大的智能一直在向你发送信号和警告，否则答案真的是难以捉摸的。但你却匆匆前行——被欲望驱使，被不耐烦驱使，被假设驱使，被对他人的愤怒或对你自己的愤怒驱使。
You were not careful with your time. You were not careful with your affections. You were not careful with your investments. You were not careful regarding building the Four Pillars of your life—the Pillar of Work, the Pillar of Relationships, the Pillar of Health and the Pillar of Spiritual Development. Like the four legs of a table, these are the Pillars that uphold your life.
你没有珍惜你的时间。你没有谨慎对待你的感情。你没有谨慎对待你的投资。你没有谨慎地建立你生命的四大支柱——工作支柱、关系支柱、健康支柱和精神发展支柱。就像桌子的四条腿一样，这些支柱支撑着你的生命。
People’s lives are increasingly unstable because they have not built these Pillars, or they have concentrated only on one or two of them to the exclusion and the neglect of the others. And so individuals and communities, cities, nations and the whole world are now entering a time of increasing instability because the environment is changing, and because people are bringing all this instability into these changing circumstances. As a result, events are happening; change is occurring; things are collapsing. Governments and people are in grave danger.
人们的生命越来越不稳定，因为他们没有建立这些支柱，或者他们只专注于其中的一两个支柱，而排除和忽视了其他支柱。因此，个人和社区、城市、国家和整个世界现在正进入一个越来越不稳定的时期，因为环境在变化，因为人们把所有这些不稳定因素带入了不断变化的环境中。结果，各种事件正在发生；各种变化正在发生；各种事物正在崩溃。政府和人民都处于严重的危险之中。
The Great Waves of change are coming: environmental decline, resource depletion, increasing economic instability and the growing risk of conflict and war over the remaining resources. People are entering this very difficult period in a pretty unstable state.
变革的巨浪即将到来：环境的恶化、资源的枯竭、经济日益的不稳定、以及为争夺剩余资源而发生冲突和战争的风险不断增加。人们在相当不稳定的状态下进入这个非常困难的时期。
Here following the deeper Mind within you is not simply something for your personal edification. It is really now about survival and wellbeing and your future ability to succeed and to be of service to others. It is not merely a spiritual goal; it is a practical necessity.
在这里，追随你内心深处的更深层次的心灵不仅仅是为了你个人的教化。现在，它真正关系到你的生存和福祉，关系到你未来取得成功和为他人服务的能力。它不仅仅是一个精神目标，更是一种实际的需求。
This greater Intelligence within you is not the product of your culture, your family or your religion. It is created by God to guide you, to protect you and to lead you to greater accomplishments in life. It is fully prepared to deal with the great uncertainties that are now arising and which will increase in the future. It is prepared to navigate the troubled waters ahead.
你内在的这种更伟大智能并非你的文化、你的家庭或你的宗教的产物。它是由上帝创造的，以指导你、保护你并带领你实现生命中的更伟大成就。内识已经做好了充分准备，去应对现在正在出现并在未来将会增加的巨大不确定性。它已经做好准备，去驾驭前方的乱流。
It is not deceived by beauty, wealth or power. It is not persuaded by charm or elegance. It is free. It is clear. It is powerful. It cannot be seduced or induced to go against its real nature. What else, honestly, within you has this power and this immunity, and has this freedom from error and confusion?
它不会被美貌、财富或权力所欺骗。它不会被魅力或优雅所说服。它是自由的。它是清晰的。它是强大的。它不会被引诱或诱导而违背其真正自然。老实说，在你的内在还有什么具有这样的力量、免疫力，并且能保持这种不犯错、不困惑的自由呢？
If you are honest in this, you will see there is really nothing else. Your personal mind fails on all these accounts to some degree. That is why Knowledge is your salvation.
如果你对此诚实，你会看到，实际上并没有其他选择。你的个人心灵在所有这些方面都在某种程度上失败了。这就是为什么内识是你的救赎。
It is the most important aspect. It is your Divine connection. It transcends the intellect and operates beyond the realm of the intellect. It is mysterious. It cannot be defined. It cannot be controlled. It cannot be used for selfish purposes. You cannot use Knowledge as a resource. But you can allow it to direct you and to serve.
这是最重要的方面。这是你的神圣连接。它超越智力，并在智力的领域之外运作。它是神秘的。它无法被定义。它无法被控制。它不能被用于自私的目的。你不能把内识当作一种资源。但你可以让它指引你并为你服务。
This, then, is the great turning point. And taking the Steps to Knowledge is really the essence of what spiritual development really means—that and building worldly wisdom.
因此，这就是伟大的转折点。开展内识的进阶就是精神发展的真正意义——以及建立世俗的智慧。
Knowledge will guide you to the right people and show you how to be with them. And it will show no interest in all the others who seem to charm you and pull you off course.
内识会指导你找到合适的人，并告诉你如何与他们相处。它不会对那些似乎能迷住你并让你偏离轨道的人表现出兴趣。
This, then, is the real essence of the Message because here confidence in Knowledge, or Self-confidence at this level, is an entirely different thing than what self-confidence was before. And self-deception becomes revealed because you see all of the tendencies that are still so powerful within you—to lunge for certain things and to deny other things.
因此，这就是讯息的真正本质，因为在这里，对内识的信心，或在这个层面上的自信心，与之前的自信心完全不同。而自我欺骗变得显而易见，因为你看到了你内在仍然如此强大的各种倾向——去追逐某些事物，并否认其他事物。
In taking the Steps to Knowledge, you begin to see how much your mind is governed by fear and compulsion and the approval of others. You see how automatic your behavior is. You see how reckless your decisions are. You begin to uncover the assumptions that you have adopted from your culture and society. And it is a real struggle within yourself to liberate yourself from the powerful influences that have governed your life in the past and that seem to govern almost everyone around you to such a great degree.
在开展内识进阶的过程中，你开始看到你的心灵在多大程度上受到恐惧、强迫和他人认同的支配。你看到你的行为是多么机械化。你看到你的决定是多么鲁莽。你开始发现你从你的文化和社会中采纳的假设。而要将你自己从过去支配着你的生命并且似乎在很大程度上支配着你周围几乎每个人的强大影响力中解放出来，你需要内心的一场真正的斗争。
This sets in motion a deep evaluation of your life, a sorting out, a coming to terms with where you really stand regarding your engagements with people, and your relationship with your work, where you live and how you live.
这将促使你对自己的生命进行一种深度的评估，一种整理和理清的过程，一种你与人交往、与你的工作、你生活的地方以及你的生活方式之间关系的评估。
Perhaps you have already begun this deep evaluation, but it is really something that is very pervasive if it is carried to its completion. It is shifting your allegiance from one mind to another. Now you are beginning to see that your personal mind is a necessary vehicle of communication in the world. Your intellect is important. Your ideas are important. Your feelings and emotions are important. But they are all really to serve a greater power within yourself.
也许你已经开始了这种深度评估，但如果将其贯彻到底，它实际上会非常广泛。它是在将你的效忠从一个心灵转移到另一个心灵。现在你开始看到，你的个人心灵是你在世界中进行交流的必要载体。你的智力是重要的，你的想法是重要的，你的感受和情绪是重要的。但它们实际上都应该服务于你自己内心深处的一种更伟大的力量。
Here true authority is returned to where it really belongs within you and within others. And you will be shocked and dismayed at the recklessness of people around you—their false self-confidence, the foolish things they tell themselves to reassure themselves, and the dreadful consequences that they create for themselves and for others as a result of following the false guide and teacher within themselves.
在这里，真实的权威被还原到它真正属于的位置——你的内在和他人的内在。你将对你周围人们的鲁莽感到震惊和沮丧——他们的虚假自信心，他们为了安慰他们自己而对他们自己说的荒谬之言，以及他们因为追随内在虚假的向导和老师而为他们自己和他人带来的可怕后果。
To be a student of Knowledge is to bring your intellect into service to a greater power within yourself. This is a long process with many steps. It cannot be done overnight, for it requires that you locate the evidence of Knowledge within yourself, that you do an evaluation of your past to see how Knowledge has communicated to you in the past and to what degree you followed this guidance or denied it.
成为内识的学生，就是让你的智力服务于你内在的更伟大力量。这是一个漫长的过程，有许多步骤。它无法一蹴而就，因为它要求你在你自己的内心找到内识的证据，要求你评估你的过去，看看内识在过去是如何与你沟通的，以及你在多大程度上遵循或否认了这个指导。
This deep evaluation will include everything you are involved in, for everything is a relationship, you see. You have a relationship with your mind and your body, fundamentally. You have a relationship with your home. You have a relationship with your community. You have a relationship with your work. You have a relationship with your goals. You have a relationship with your ideas. You have a relationship with your emotions.
你看，这种深度评估将涵盖你所涉及的一切，因为一切都是一种关系。从根本上说，你与你的心灵和你的身体有关系。你与你的家有关系。你与你的社区有关系。你与你的工作有关系。你与你的目标有关系。你与你的想法有关系。你与你的情绪有关系。
This is a revolutionary way of looking at your life. And it is a way of looking at your life that gives you the ability to re-evaluate and to self-correct. Otherwise, you are just being pulled along by forces within yourself and beyond yourself that you cannot see or understand. You are being swept along, hoping all the time that things will work out, believing and hoping, but really powerless and ineffective.
这是一种革命性地看待你生命的方式。这种方式赋予你重新评估和自我纠正的能力。否则，你只会被你自己内在和外在那些你无法看见或理解的力量牵引着前行。你被卷入其中，一直希望事情会好转，相信并寄希望于此，但实际上却无能为力且毫无成效。
Even when people try to become very controlling and very dominating, it is still only just a compensation for their weakness. People become manipulative because they do not have any real self-confidence, and they cannot discern the real merits and power in other people, so now they must control, dominate and manipulate people to get what they want. So many of the behaviors you see around you are governed by this fundamental insecurity and inability.
即使人们试图变得非常控制和极具支配力，这也只是对其内在软弱的一种补偿。人们变得善于操纵，是因为他们并没有真正的自信心，也无法辨别他人真正的优点和力量。因此，他们现在必须控制、支配并操纵他人以获得他们想要的东西。你在周围看到的许多行为，都是由这种根本的不安全感和无能为力所驱动的。
You come to Knowledge, then, because you need Knowledge. You realize the limits of your ideas. You realize the blindness of your assumptions. You realize how prone to error you are in certain parts of your life. You come to Knowledge, then, because you need Knowledge. But you also come to Knowledge because there is a deeper need within you, the need of the soul.
因此，你来到内识面前，因为你需要内识。你意识到你想法的局限性。你意识到你假设的盲目性。你意识到你在生命的某些方面是多么容易犯错。因此，你来到内识面前，因为你需要内识。但你来到内识面前，也是因为你内在有一种更深层次的需求，即灵魂的需求。
The need of the soul is to find your purpose and to fulfill it in the world. You are meant to do something in the world. You have come here for a greater purpose. You have a destiny. You are either living that purpose and destiny, or you are not. And if you are not, then no amount of pleasure, or escape, or personal success can offset the tension and the restlessness that exist within you.
灵魂的需求是找到你的目的并在这个世界上实现它。你注定要在这个世界上完成某些事情。你来到这里是为了一个更伟大的目的。你有一个天命。你要么正在活出这个目的和天命，你要么没有。如果你没有，那么无论多少快乐、逃避或个人成功，都无法抵消你内在的紧张和不安。
Here you cannot be at peace because you are not in harmony with your deeper nature. You are not living the life you were meant to live. You have given your life away to others. And so there is no peace. There is no self-confidence, not really. You are just being swept along, trying to make do with what you have, [while] telling yourself it is okay.
在这里，你无法获得内心的和平，因为你没有与你更深层次的自然和谐一致。你没有过上你本该过的生命。你已经把你的生命交给了他人。因此，没有和平，也没有真正的自信心。你只是被卷入其中，试图用你所拥有的一切勉强应付，同时告诉你自己会没事的。
But you cannot persuade your heart. You cannot persuade your soul, for it knows where you need to be and who you need to meet and where you need to get to in life. If you are not doing these things, you will be ill at ease with yourself. You will be frustrated, unfulfilled, angry, resentful—all the products of not really being true to yourself.
但你无法说服你的心。你无法说服你的灵魂，因为它知道你需要去哪里、你需要去见谁、你需要在生命中到达哪里。如果你不做这些事情，你会对你自己感到不安。你会感到沮丧、不满足、愤怒、怨恨——所有这些都是没有真实地忠于你自己的结果。
Therefore, you come to Knowledge finally because you realize that your life is not what it really is meant to be, that your mind is unhealthy, that your life is out of accord with its true purpose. And you know this even if you do not know what the purpose is because of the discomfort you have and the irresolution you live with.
因此，你最终会来到内识，因为你意识到你的生命并非它真正应该成为的样子，你的心灵是不健康的，你的生命与其真实的目的不符。即使你不知道这个目的是什么，你也能通过你所感受到的不适和所经历的内心矛盾，而知道到这一点。
So you are suffering, and you want relief from suffering. You want to correct that which creates the suffering. Rich or poor, you are suffering because there is a fundamental connection within yourself that has not yet been made. As a result, you do not know yourself, you do not trust yourself, you do not know where your wisdom resides, you do not know the real nature of your strength. You are going on appearances and assumptions without any real clarity or certainty.
因此，你正在受苦，并渴望从痛苦中解脱。你希望纠正导致痛苦的根源。无论富有还是贫穷，你都在受苦，因为在你自己的内心还没有建立起一种基本的联接。因此，你不知道你自己，不信任你自己，不知道你的智慧源于何处，不知道你力量的真实自然。你只是凭借表象和假设前行，而没有任何真正的清晰度或确定性。
You may pray to God for healing or resolution, but God has already put the power of Knowledge within you. God is not going to manage your life. The Lord of all the universes is not concerned with your daily affairs. But God has placed the power of Knowledge within you and within others, waiting to be discovered and expressed.
你可以祈求上帝医治或解决你的问题，但上帝已经将内识的力量放置在了你的内心。上帝不会管理你的生命。所有宇宙之主并不关心你的日常事务。但上帝已经将内识的力量放置在你和他人的内心，正等待着你去发现和表达。
As you begin to take the Steps to Knowledge, you go through a rocky period of uncertainty because you are shifting your allegiance from one set of values and assumptions to something new and great, something you did not invent for yourself, something your culture did not make up. So you are going through a period of uncertainty.
当你开始开展内识的进阶时，你会经历一段艰难的不确定时期，因为你正在将你的忠诚从一套价值观和假设转向一种新的和伟大的内识，一种你没有为你自己发明的东西，一种你的文化没有创造的东西。所以你正在经历一段不确定的时期。
Now you do not know what to believe in. Now you do not know what to think. Now you do not know what to trust. But if you keep going, you will pass through these early phases of uncertainty and you will begin to make a deeper connection through your experience—both the experiences you are beginning to have now and the experiences that you are able to recall in the past.
现在你不知道该相信什么。现在你不知道该想什么。现在你不知道该信任什么。但如果你继续前进，你将度过这些早期的不确定阶段，你将开始通过你的经历建立一种更深层次的联接——既包括你现在开始拥有的体验，也包括你过去能够回忆起的经历。
You will begin thinking that Knowledge is a resource for your mind. You are going to use Knowledge to get what you want. That is the motivation of nearly everyone at the beginning. It represents their state of mind, which is driven by fear—the fear of not having, the fear of loss, the fear of failure, the fear of death.
你一开始会认为内识是你心灵的一种资源。你会试图利用内识来获得你想要的东西。这几乎是每个人起初的动机，它反映了他们的心灵状态，而这种心灵状态是由恐惧驱动的——对没有的恐惧、对失去的恐惧、对失败的恐惧、对死亡的恐惧。
But as you proceed, you see that your values and your goals that have been so unquestioned before now really are in question, and you are confused. This is a time when you must stay with your practice, and continue your Steps. It is okay. It is inevitable. It is part of the process, you see.
但随着你的前进，你会看到，你之前从未质疑过的价值观和目标现在真的受到质疑了，你会感到困惑。这时，你必须坚持你的练习，继续你的步骤。这没关系。这也是不可避免的。你看，这就是过程的一部分。
Of course, you will be confused when you find out that 80 percent of what you ever believed is just an assumption. Now you do not know what to hold onto. But here you hold onto your spiritual practice, and you maintain and build the Four Pillars of your life. You take that confusion and you put it into constructive action because you need a very powerful foundation to do what Knowledge will give you to do in this life.
当然，当你发现你曾经相信的80%只是一些假设时，你会感到困惑。此时，你不知道该依靠什么。但在这里，你需要依靠你的精神实践，并维持和建立你生命的四大支柱。你需要将这种困惑转化为建设性的行动，因为你需要一种非常强大的基础，才能完成内识将在此生赋予你的使命。
You cannot be weak and self-deceiving. You cannot be driven by ambition, or fear, or hatred and receive the gifts that Knowledge will give you to give to others.
你不能软弱和自欺欺人。你不能被野心、恐惧或仇恨驱使，同时又能够接收内识赋予你的礼物，以便将这些礼物给予他人。
It is a remarkable thing, but it is a process that is both an undoing and it is a creation. It is freeing you from the past. It is untying the knots. It is liberating your mind. It is freeing you from destructive or pointless engagements with other people. It is plugging up all the holes where you are losing energy and vitality and inspiration.
它是一件非凡的事情，但这个过程既是一种解构，也是一种创造。它正在将你从过去中解放出来。它正在解开心结。它正在解放你的心灵。帮助你摆脱与他人之间那些破坏性或无意义的交往。它正在填补你失去能量、活力和灵感的所有漏洞。
This takes time and has many steps. It is like climbing a great mountain, you see, where you begin and you are excited. But after awhile, the pathway is steep, and you are not so sure you want to do this. It is not as easy as you thought it was. It requires more from you than you anticipated. Whatever certainty you had about the journey now is coming into question because your ideas and beliefs are coming into question.
这需要时间，而且有许多步骤。你看，它就像攀登一座大山，开始时你会兴奋不已。但过了一段时间，山路变得陡峭，你就不太确定你是否想要这样做。它并不像你想象的那么容易。它对你的要求比你预想的要高。现在，你对这段旅程的任何确定性都受到了质疑，因为你的想法和信念正受到质疑。
You will go through periods where you do not know who you are, what God is, what life is, what the purpose of anything is. Everything will seem to be up in the air because you are breaking free of past associations. You need this openness and this freedom to allow Knowledge to guide you and to reveal to you what you must do next.
你会经历一段不知道你是谁、不知道上帝是什么、不知道生命是什么、不知道万事万物的目的是什么的时期。一切似乎都是空中楼阁，因为你正在挣脱过去的联系。你需要这种开放和自由，让内识来指引你，向你揭示下一步必须做什么。
This is a natural process. The sooner it happens, the better. But even if it occurs for you late in life, it is still vital and necessary.
这是一个自然的过程。发生得越早越好。但是，即使它发生在你生命的晚期，它仍然是至关重要和必要的。
What guides you on is the desire for the truth, the desire to make this deeper connection within yourself and between you and other people—the need, the fundamental need to know what you are really here to do, where you can be of the greatest service, and where your true gifts can emerge. For you cannot call them out of yourself. They must be activated by something in the world because this engages you with the world in the right way.
指引你继续前行的是你对真理的渴望，是在你自己内心以及你与他人之间建立这种更深层次联接的渴望——这种需求，这种根本的需求，即知道你在这里真正要做什么，你在哪里能够提供最伟大的服务，以及你的真实礼物在哪里能够显现。因为你无法将它们从你自己身上召唤出来。它们必须被世界上的某种事情激活，因为这样你才能以正确的方式与世界互动。
At the beginning, you do not know how great the mountain is. You do not understand the process of redemption. Perhaps you have many ideas about these things, but in the process, you will need something more powerful than ideas to guide you and to lead you on.
一开始，你不知道这座山有多高。你也不理解救赎的过程。也许你对这些事情有许多想法，但在这个过程中，你需要比想法更强大的内识来指导你，带领你前行。
You have to find a deeper commitment. This is not an intellectual quest. This is not an academic pursuit. This is not a search for answers, alone. It is a search for your real life.
你必须找到一种更深层次的承诺。这不是智力的寻求。这不是学术的追求。这不是独自寻找答案。这是对你真实生命的探索。
You must have faith that there is a real life for you, that you do have a greater purpose, that you have come from a sacred environment into a worldly environment for a purpose—to accomplish specific things with certain people. This is a matter of faith now because you are unsure.
你必须有信仰，你拥有一种真正生命的信仰，你确实拥有一个更伟大的目的，你从一个神圣的环境来到一个世俗的环境是为了一个目的——与特定的人一起完成特定的事情。现在这是一个信仰问题，因为你不确定。
In your deep evaluation, if you begin to really review your past—recalling times that you really knew something and recalling whether you followed that Knowledge or not—you will begin to see that there is a thread through your whole life, and that Knowledge is not some future possibility; it has actually been with you all along.
在你的深度评估中，如果你开始真正回顾你的过去——回忆你真正知道某些事情的时刻，回忆你是否遵循了内识——你就会开始看到你的整个生命中都有一条主线，而内识并不是某种未来的可能性；它实际上一直伴随着你。
But you have been all over the place. You have been guided by your friends. You have been guided by your desires. You have been guided by your fear. You have been guided by your hobbies, your attitudes and your emotions. You have been guided by the world and all of its confusion and conflicts. Do not worry. This is true for everyone.
但是你一直在四处漂泊。你一直在朋友的指引下前行。你被你的欲望所引导。你被你的恐惧所引导。你被你的爱好、态度和情绪所引导。你被这个世界及其所有的混乱和冲突所引导。不要担心。每个人都是如此。
But it is part of your assessment, you see. You review your past relationships. What motivated you to be in this relationship? What were the signs from Knowledge and from the world that maybe you should not have become involved? And what happened as a result?
你看，但它是你评估的一部分。你要回顾过去的关系。是什么促使你进入这段关系？内识和这个世界给了你哪些迹象，让你觉得也许你不应该参与其中？结果又发生了什么？
What did this relationship yield for you? Did it support the emergence of Knowledge within you? Did it give you real wisdom? Did it acknowledge that you are here for a greater purpose? Or was it about pursuing other things—being safe and comfortable, being happy and secure? Those are all fine, of course, but they are the result of a greater pursuit.
这段关系给你带来了什么？它是否支持了你内在内识的浮现？它是否给了你真正的智慧？它是否承认你来到这里是为了更伟大的目的？还是它只是关于追求其他的事物——追求安全与舒适，追求快乐与安稳？当然，这些都很好，但它们是一种更伟大追求的结果。
You are not merely in the world to be a consumer, to be a locust upon the land. You are really here to give something important, and only Knowledge within you knows what this is and where it must be contributed.
你来到这个世界不仅仅是为了当一名消费者，为了当一只蝗虫。你来这里真的是为了给予一些重要的东西，只有你内在的内识知道这是什么，以及应该在哪里给予。
You do not want to make the same mistakes. You do not want to give your life to people or to situations that have no promise and no future. You do not want to waste your time, your life, your energy, your inspiration, so you are more careful now and more discerning. You want to find what you are really here to do, what your life is really about, where your real strengths and inspiration reside.
你不想犯同样的错误。你不想把你的生命交给没有承诺和没有未来的人或事。你不想浪费你的时间、生命、能量和灵感，所以你现在更加小心谨慎，更加明辨是非。你想找到你在这里真正要做的事，你生命的真正意义，你真正的力量和灵感所在。
So your values change. Your priorities change. Instead of endless stimulation, you are looking for meaningful engagements. Instead of idle conversation, you are looking to see if you can connect with other people at a deeper level. Instead of escape, you are looking for engagement. You are looking for deeper qualities in people and in yourself.
因此，你的价值观会改变。你的优先事项会改变。你不再寻求无休止的刺激，而是寻求有意义的参与。你不再寻求无谓的闲聊，而是寻求能否与他人建立起一种更深层次层面上的联系。你不再寻求逃避，而是寻求参与。你在寻找他人和你自己更深层次的品质。
You are thinking about the future of the world because your contribution has to do with the future of the world. Your whole thinking is changing. Your priorities are changing. Your values are changing—naturally. It is a natural progression. A natural shift must take place.
你在思考世界的未来，因为你的贡献与世界的未来息息相关。你的整个思维方式都在改变。你的优先事项也在改变。你的价值观也在改变——这是自然而然的。这是一个自然的进程。必然会发生自然的转变。
If this shift does not take place, your life is like a troubled dream. You will awaken to your Spiritual Family, and you will realize you did not accomplish what they sent you here to do.
如果这种转变没有发生，你的生命就像一场纷乱的梦。你会在你的精神家庭中醒来，你会意识到你没有完成他们派你来到这里要做的事。
Knowledge is the evidence that you are here for a greater purpose, that you have come from a greater place to serve the world in the very needs that it has today and the needs it will have tomorrow.
内识证明你来到这里是为了一个更伟大的目的，你来自一个更伟大的地方，来服务这个世界今天的需求以及未来的需求。
It is a sign that you have come from a greater life to give something to the world. And this sign is not what you think or what you want, necessarily. For Knowledge is not governed by the desires of the mind.
这是一种迹象，表明你来自一个更伟大的生命，来为世界做出贡献。而这个迹象并不一定是你所想的或你所希望的，因为内识并不受心灵欲望的支配。
As long as you want to be in control, as long as you want what you want, well, you will look at Knowledge merely as a resource and not as the power of redemption within yourself. You will try to use Knowledge, and you will be unsuccessful. You will try to have the same relationship with Knowledge that perhaps you have with everything else, which is conditional, determined by your own preferences and tendencies.
只要你想要掌控，只要你想要你想要的东西，那么，你就会把内识仅仅看作一种资源，而不是你内在的救赎力量。你会试图利用内识，但你不会成功。你会试图与内识建立一种与你对待其他一切事物相同的关系，这种关系是有条件的，由你自己的偏好和倾向来决定。
But Knowledge will not arise in this environment. It is waiting for the time when you sincerely desire it and need it and begin to recognize its central importance to your life.
但内识不会在这种环境中出现。它在等待时机，等待你真诚地渴望它、需要它，并开始认识到它对你生命的核心重要性。
This is a revolutionary teaching, you see, because Knowledge is what your spirituality is all about. Your purpose here is not to transcend the world. Your purpose here is to serve the world while you are here, according to the guidance of Knowledge, and to learn along the way the lessons of forgiveness, the lessons of discernment and discretion, the lessons of recognition in others—so many things are learned along the way. And in the process, you are restored to your true Self. No longer a stranger to yourself, now you can begin to really allow Knowledge to show you what is real.
这是一种革命性的教导，因为内识就是你精神性的全部。你在这里的目的不是为了超越世界。你在这里的目的是根据内识的指导，当你在这里的时候为世界服务，并在途中学习宽恕的课程、分辨力和谨慎的课程、认识到他人教训的课程——沿途有许多事情需要学习。在这个过程中，你恢复了真实的自我。你不再对你自己陌生，现在你可以开始真正让内识向你展示什么是真实的。
If Knowledge does not respond to something, well, it cannot be important for you. If Knowledge is not impressed, why should you be impressed? If Knowledge does not respond to this other person and relationship, then why should you respond? You see, this is where the connection begins to teach you through experience every day.
如果内识对某件事没有回应，那这件事对你来说就不重要。如果内识没有留下深刻印象，你为什么要留下深刻印象？如果内识对这个人和关系没有回应，那你为什么要做出回应呢？你看，这就是连接开始通过每天的经历来教导你的地方。
You learn to be patient. You learn to wait. You learn to watch. You learn to listen. You gain skill in discerning the movements within your own life, and how to tell the difference between what is true and what is not true within your own mind.
你要学会耐心。你要学会等待。你要学会观察。你要学会倾听。你将学会如何辨别你自己生命中的动向，如何分辨你自己心灵中的真实和不真实。
This creates a whole new set of skills that take time to develop, a whole range of abilities that are central to your success and accomplishment, a whole range of skills and abilities that you will be able to teach to others as a result of allowing them to be cultivated and expressed in your own life.
这将会创造出一整套需要时间来发展的全新技能，这一系列的能力对于你的成功和成就至关重要，这些技能和能力将成为你能够教导他人的工具，前提是你允许它们在你自己的生命中得到培养和表达。
This is the greatest happiness and joy. For you have escaped ambivalence, and foolishness, and arrogance within yourself, and now you can teach others the way. You teach by demonstration here most powerfully. Your gifts can now emerge, and the quality of relationship you will have with others is extraordinary and beyond anything else you could establish in the world.
这是最大的幸福和喜悦。因为你已经摆脱了内心的矛盾、愚蠢和傲慢，现在你可以教导他人正确的道路。你最有力的方式是通过示范来教导。在这里，你的礼物现在可以显现出来，而你与他人之间的关系质量将是非凡的，超越了你在世界上所能建立的任何关系。
These relationships are more like your relationships in your Ancient Home. They are not mere temporary alliances. They are deeper bonds. And this is natural and necessary for you, and represents part of your fulfillment in a world where people are estranged from themselves and each other, and from the power and presence of Knowledge that live within them.
这些关系更像你在你的古老家园里的关系。它们并非仅仅是暂时的联盟。它们有更深层次的纽带。这对你来说是自然而必要的，代表着你在一个人们疏远他们自己、疏远彼此、疏远活在他们内在的内识的力量和存在的世界中，达成的部分成就。
Let this deeper understanding guide you and carry you forward. Take the Steps to Knowledge. They have been provided for you by the Creator of all life. They are not someone’s invention. They are not a personal creation.
让这种更深层次的理解指导你，带你前进。开展内识的进阶。它们是由所有生命的创造者为你提供的。它们不是某个人的发明。它们不是个人的创作。
You are blessed, then, to receive this Message, to learn of these things, to be challenged in this way, to be valued, to be supported, to be acknowledged at a deeper level. This is a great blessing and a great advantage.
因此，你是被祝福的，因为你能接收这条讯息，能学习这些事情，能以这种方式受到挑战，能被重视，能被支持，能在一种更深层次的层面上得到承认。这是一种伟大的祝福，也是一种伟大的优势。
You will have to do work here. You will have to apply yourself. You will have to be patient and persevering. But like getting up a mountain, it requires every step. As soon as you stop, you do not advance, and you cannot gain the vantage point where you can see your life and the world clearly.
你必须在这里工作。你必须努力工作。你必须要有耐心和毅力。但是，就像爬山一样，每一步都需要付出努力。一旦你停下脚步，你就无法前进，你就无法站在观测位置上看见你的生命和这个世界。
Here you will gain freedom from your own mind, freedom from your own fear, freedom from your own sense of weakness, freedom from your own quitting and giving up on yourself, freedom from the persuasions and the discouragement from others. Here you overcome your tendencies because you are following something more powerful within yourself, thus weakening them and their grip upon you.
在这里，你将从你自己的心灵中获得自由，从你自己的恐惧中获得自由，从你自己的软弱感中获得自由，从你自己的放弃和自暴自弃中获得自由，从他人的劝说和劝阻中获得自由。在这里，你能克服你的倾向，因为你追随的是你自己内心更强大的内识，从而削弱了它们以及它们对你的控制。
This is a blessed journey. It is not easy, but it is blessed because it returns to you everything that you want, and need, and most deeply value—which is purpose and meaning, direction and true relationship.
这是一段被祝福的旅程。它并不容易，但它是被祝福的，因为它会把你想要的、需要的和最珍视的一切带给你——它是目的和意义、方向和真实的关系。
Then you will have a confidence that is humble, that is cautious, that is wise, and the ravages of self-deception will not haunt you and overtake you. And you will be able to see what is coming and have the strength to prepare and the wisdom to take the next step.
那时，你将拥有一种谦逊、谨慎和明智的自信，自我欺骗的摧残将不再困扰你或吞噬你。你将能够看见正在到来的未来，拥有足够的力量去准备，并具备智慧迈出下一步。
You know God through Knowledge. You connect with God at the level of Knowledge. And Knowledge is mysterious, but also practical. It is here, and it is there, and it is everywhere.
你通过内识知道上帝。你在内识的层面上与上帝连接。内识是神秘的，但也是实用的。它在这里，在那里，无处不在。
You see this in others, and you see the struggles that others go through in their attempt to gain access to Knowledge, and to trust it, and to follow it, and to set aside their goals and preferences to make this possible.
你在他人身上看到了内识，看到他们在试图获得内识、信任内识、追随内识，并且为了使这一切成为可能而放下他们的目标和偏好时所经历的挣扎。
You see your life really has great promise, not because you just think it does, but because you feel it within yourself, and you are not going to give this up for anything—not for love and not for money—because it is the source of your life, and it is the most precious thing.
你会看到你的生命真的充满了伟大的承诺，这不仅仅是因为你认为它如此，而是因为你在内心深处感受到了这一点，你不会为了任何东西放弃它——无论是为了爱，还是为了金钱——因为内识是你生命的源泉，它是最珍贵的东西。
