Understanding Money, Wealth and Power

As received by Marshall Vian Summers on February 9, 2008 in Boulder, Colorado
2008年2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

Today We will speak on an important subject to everyone. Today We will speak about money, wealth and power.

今天我们要谈论一个对每个人来说都很重要的主题。今天我们要谈论金钱、财富和权力。

Certainly money is central to everyone’s functioning in the world, and it is indeed a crisis for many people already. Yet the question must be asked: “How much does one really need?” “What are one’s fundamental needs?” And beyond meeting these fundamental needs then: “What is the proper use of money?” Indeed, “What is the meaning of accumulating wealth? And what is wealth? And what is it for?”

当然，金钱对每个人在世界上的运作都至关重要，它确实已经成为许多人的一场危机。然而，我们必须要问：“一个人真正需要多少钱？”，“一个人的基本需求是什么？”除了满足这些基本需求之外，“金钱的正确用途是什么？”。事实上，”积累财富的意义是什么？什么是财富？财富有什么用？”

Of course, money is associated with social power, and wealth is associated with social power, the power to control your own circumstances, but also the power to control other people—what they do, what they think, how they perceive you and so forth. So money is directly related to the issue of power.

当然，金钱与社会权力有关，财富与社会权力有关，社会权力是控制你自己处境的权力，也是控制他人的权力——他们做什么、他们想什么、他们如何看待你等等。因此，金钱与权力问题直接相关。

Many people have a very unhealthy relationship with money. They associate it with evil. They associate it with abuse. They associate it with all of the destructive tendencies in human beings. Other people worship money and what they think money can do for them. Here indeed the wealthy have not produced an inspiring example overall.

许多人与金钱的关系非常不健康。他们把金钱与邪恶联系在一起。他们把金钱与虐待联系在一起。他们把金钱与人类所有的破坏性倾向联系在一起。其他人崇拜金钱，崇拜他们认为金钱能为他们带来的一切。在这方面，富人确实没有树立一个鼓舞人心的榜样。

But money is like food. It is a resource. It is something that must be understood clearly. It is something that must be used appropriately. It is something that must serve a fundamental and essential need primarily.

但金钱就像食物。它是一种资源。它是一种必须被清楚理解的资源。它是一种必须被恰当使用的资源。它必须主要服务于基本和必要的需求。

Many people have an abusive relationship with food, but that does not mean food in itself is dangerous or destructive. It is one’s relationship with food, one’s relationship with money, one’s relationship with wealth, one’s relationship with power that really must be clearly understood.

许多人与食物之间存在虐待关系，但这并不意味着食物本身是危险的或具有破坏性的。真正必须清楚理解的是一个人与食物的关系、一个人与金钱的关系、一个人与财富的关系、一个人与权力的关系。

In the New Message, everything is brought within the context of relationship because this is a healthy and a responsible way of looking at things—how you engage yourself with the world and with other people, how you engage yourself with your own assets, how you engage yourself with resources.

在新讯息中，一切都被带入关系的背景中，因为这是一种健康的、负责任的看待事物的方式——你如何与世界和他人打交道，你如何与你自己的资产打交道，你如何与你自己的资源打交道。

Money here is a resource. It is a tool. What does it serve? Is it strengthening you or is it weakening you? Is it building essential stability and focus in your life or is it dissipating your focus and your strength?

金钱在这里是一种资源。它是一种工具。它服务于什么？它能增强你的能力还是削弱你的能力？它能为你的生命建立必要的稳定性和专注力，还是会分散你的注意力和力量？

What is money for, for you? How do you use money? How is money associated with your own values, what you hold to be important? For people demonstrate their value system by the use of their resources, of which money is but a part.

金钱对你来说是为了什么？你如何使用金钱？金钱如何与你自己的价值观以及你认为重要的事物相关联？因为人们通过使用他们的资源来展示他们的价值体系，而金钱只是其中的一部分。

Time is a resource. Money is a resource. Physical energy is a resource. Intelligence is a resource. And you have a relationship with all these things, you see. What is the nature of that relationship and what does it serve?

时间是一种资源。金钱是一种资源。体力是一种资源。智力也是一种资源。你和所有这些都有关系。这种关系的自然是什么？它服务于什么？

So to be able to approach this issue of money and wealth and power, it is wise then to see it in terms of relationship. What is your relationship with money and what does that relationship serve?

因此，要想处理好金钱、财富和权力的问题，明智的做法是从关系的角度来看待它。你与金钱的关系是什么？这种关系服务于什么？

People may ask, “Well, why does it have to serve anything?” But this is an ignorant question because everything serves something. Everything serves a purpose, either a genuine purpose or a purpose that is invented or imagined. Everything in life has purpose. Everything you do expresses your sense of purpose, whatever it may be.

人们可能会问：“好吧，为什么它必须服务于任何事物呢？”但这是一个无知的问题，因为一切都有其服务之处。一切都有其目的，要么是一个真正的目的，要么是一个被发明或想象出来的目的。生命中的一切都是有目的的。你所做的一切都表达了你的目的感，无论它是什么。

Your sense of purpose is based upon your idea of yourself, who you think you are, and your values are built around that. If you think you are merely a person struggling to survive in a dangerous and hostile world and your survival is your purpose and gratification is your purpose, your whole value system will be built on that. That will determine your purpose and your relationship with yourself, with the world, with resources, with other people, with everything.

你的目的感基于你对你自己的想法，即你认为你是谁，你的价值观也是围绕着这一点建立起来的。如果你认为你只是一个在危险和充满敌意的世界中挣扎求生的人，而生存是你的目的，满足是你的目的，那么你的整个价值体系都将建立在这个基础之上。这将决定你的目的以及你与你自己、与世界、与资源、与他人、与一切的关系。

You cannot escape the reality of purpose. Even if you think there is no purpose or you think that the idea of purpose is irrelevant, you are still serving a purpose by thinking this. You are still fulfilling an agenda by believing in this. Even if you tell yourself that nothing really matters, you are serving some kind of purpose by telling yourself these things.

你无法逃避目的的现实。即使你认为没有目的，或者你认为目的这个概念无关紧要，你这样想仍然是在为某个目的服务。你仍然在通过相信这一点来实现某种目的。即使你告诉你自己什么都不重要，你也在通过告诉你自己这些事情来为某种目的服务。

Here you can certainly fool yourself. You might be able to fool other people for a time, but you cannot fool life. You cannot betray a fundamental truth about yourself.

在这里，你当然可以欺骗你自己。你或许可以暂时愚弄其他人，但你无法愚弄生命。你无法背叛你自己的一个基本真理。

And that truth is you are here to serve a purpose. It is either the real purpose that has brought you into the world—a real purpose that lives deep within you, a real purpose that you cannot alter, that you cannot manipulate, that you cannot condition to meet your preferences and expectations—or it is a purpose that you invent yourself, for yourself.

而真理是，你在这里是为了服务一个目的。它要么是把你带进这个世界上的真正目的——一个深藏在你内心深处的真正目的，一个你无法改变、无法操纵、无法为满足你的喜好和期望而设定条件的真正目的——要么是你自己发明的、为你自己发明的目的。

For without an awareness of your real purpose, you must invent a purpose for yourself. However unconscious it may be, however ill defined it might be, however beyond your current awareness it might be, you are serving a purpose.

因为如果你没有觉知你的真正目的，你就必须为你自己发明一个目的。无论它是多么无意识，无论它是多么不明确，无论它是多么超出你目前的觉知，你都在为一个目的服务。

You cannot change this. You can hide from it. You can deny it. You can pretend it does not exist. But you cannot change it.

你无法改变这一点。你可以隐藏它。你可以否认它。你可以假装它不存在。但你无法改变它。

God has sent you into the world for a purpose. Your task is to discover what this is. You cannot define it for yourself. You cannot make it to be what you want it to be. You cannot make it validate or fit in with your goals and your plans and expectations. And the degree to which you attempt to do this is the degree to which you are trying to create your own purpose for yourself.

上帝将你送入这个世界是为了一个目的。你的任务是发现这个目的是什么。你无法为你自己定义它。你无法让它成为你想要的样子。你无法让它证实或符合你的目标、计划和期望。你试图做到这一点的程度，就是你试图为你自己创造目的的程度。。

People say: “Well, you can create your own reality.” Yes, in your imagination, you can do this, certainly. The world is a canvas for you to paint whatever picture you want. But beneath this, there is the real purpose of your life, waiting to be discovered. And the only way you can discover it is by following the deeper Knowledge that God has placed within you.

人们说：“好吧，你可以创造你自己的现实。”是的，在你的想象中，你当然可以做到这一点。世界是一块画布，你可以随心所欲地描绘任何图画。但在这之下，还有你生命的真正目的，正等待着被发现。而你发现它的唯一方法是遵循上帝放置在你内心深处的更深层次的内识。

You may claim that you have found it. You may claim that you know what it is. You may claim that it meets your definition. But you have not found it yet because you have not taken the Steps to Knowledge. You have not followed the pathway to discovering and fulfilling this purpose.

你可能声称你已经找到了它。你可能声称你知道它是什么。你可能声称它符合你的定义。但你还没有找到它，因为你还没有开展内识的进阶。你没有遵循发现和实现这个目的的道路。

For this purpose is not merely an idea. It is not merely a definition. It is not merely a set of assumptions. It is the function and reality of your life.

因为这个目的不仅仅是一个想法。它不仅仅是一个定义。它不仅仅是一系列的假设。它是你生命的运作和现实。

As you take the Steps to Knowledge, which will take you to the realization and expression of your greater purpose in the world and to those relationships that represent and demonstrate this purpose, your relationship with money, with wealth and with power will change. In fact, your relationship with everything will really change.

当你开展内识进阶时，它将带你实现和表达你在世界上的更伟大目的，以及那些代表和示范这个目的的关系，你与金钱、财富和权力的关系将发生改变。事实上，你与一切的关系都将真正改变。

It is like undergoing a complete revolution within yourself, where the false powers are overthrown and the real powers can emerge, where those who pretend to claim sovereignty within you—the ideas, the beliefs, the social conditioning, the expectations of others—give way to the emergence of a greater realization. And this realization comes in stages; it is not all at once.

它就像在你的内心经历一场彻底的革命，在这场革命中，虚假的力量被推翻，真正的力量得以显现，那些假装在你内心宣称拥有主权的人——想法、信仰、社会条件、他人的期望——让位于一种更伟大认知的显现。而这种认知是分阶段出现的；它并非一蹴而就。

It is as if the center of your being shifts from a set of ideas and beliefs to a deeper reality within you. And the transition process will be very confusing because you will be leaving what is familiar, but you do not yet know where you are going or what your life will be like. You will be going from an assumption of who you are to a new kind of experience, but in the transition, which can last a long time, you can be very confused.

它就像你存在的中心从一套想法和信念转变为你内心更深层次的现实。过渡过程会非常令人困惑，因为你将离开熟悉的事物，但你还不知道你要去哪里，也不知道你的生命将会是什么样子。你将从对你是谁的假设转变为一种新的体验，但在过渡过程中，这可能会持续很长时间，你可能会非常困惑。

The process of surrendering to the greater power within you is very confusing. People who are afraid to be confused will be afraid to take this journey. They will be afraid to question their beliefs, assumptions and preferences. They will be afraid to move away from the purpose they have created for themselves or that they have allowed their culture to create for them. They will prefer to stay in bondage, to be a slave to other forces, to be directed by others, to be directed by their cultures or their religions, their friends, their families.

向你内在更伟大的力量投降的过程是非常令人困惑的。害怕困惑的人会害怕踏上这段旅程。他们会害怕质疑他们的信念、假设和偏好。他们会害怕偏离他们为他们自己创造的目的，或者他们允许他们的文化为他们创造的目的。他们更愿意停留在束缚中，成为其他力量的奴隶，被他人指挥，被他们的文化或他们的宗教、他们的朋友、他们的家人指挥。

But God has given you a greater purpose for being here. That is what has brought you here. That is why you are the way you are. You are designed for something you have not yet discovered.

但是，上帝已经赋予你在这里存在的一个更伟大的目的。正是这个目的把你带到了这里。这也是你之所以成为现在这个样子的原因。你是为某个你尚未发现的目的而设计的。

So as you go through this transition in taking the Steps to Knowledge, in following the inner guidance that God has given you, this deeper Mind within you which will take you into a new life, you will go through tremendous confusion.

因此，当你经历这个过渡阶段，开展内识的进阶，遵循上帝赐予你的内在指导时，这个内心深处的更深层次的心灵将引领你进入新的生命，而你将在此过程中经历巨大的困惑。

You will have to be without answers for a while. You will have to live without explanations. You will have to live with questions rather than relying upon answers.

你必须暂时没有答案。你必须在没有解释的情况下生活。你必须带着问题生活，而不是依靠答案。

Adhering to religion, adhering to the beliefs of religion, does not change the reality that you have to go from a self-created purpose to a greater purpose that already lives within you. Being religious does not excuse you from this. It is not a bypass at all.

信奉宗教，恪守宗教信仰，并不能改变这样一个现实：你必须从一个自我创造的目的转向一个已经生活在你内心深处的更伟大目的。信奉宗教并不能让你免于此道。它根本不是一条捷径。

If you are religious or have been religious, well, you will be confused about God. You will be confused about spirituality. You will be confused about what is right and what is wrong because you are going through a revolution, and revolutions are very untidy.

如果你有宗教信仰或者曾经有宗教信仰，好吧，你将对上帝感到困惑。你将对精神性感到困惑。你将对什么是正确的，什么是错误的感到困惑，因为你正在经历一场革命，而革命是非常混乱的。

It is a process of complete re-evaluation and re-adaptation. It is the most profound change that a person can undergo—more profound than marriage, more profound than having a family, more profound even than believing in God.

它是一种完全重新评估和重新适应的过程。它是一个人可以经历的最深刻的改变——比婚姻更深刻，比拥有家庭更深刻，甚至比信仰上帝更深刻。

For believing in God does not mean that you are following what God has given you to follow, or that you are seeing what God has given you to see, or that you are living according to the greater purpose that has brought you into the world at this time.

因为相信上帝，并不意味着你在遵循上帝赋予你去遵循的内识，或者你正在看到上帝赋予你去看到的内识，或者你的生活符合此时将你带到这个世界上的更伟大的目的。

So you see We cannot talk about money, wealth and power without speaking about what is fundamental in your life. For these things will change for you if you undertake the great journey that you are meant to take, and that you must take to find real certainty and purpose in your life.

因此你看，我们不能只谈论金钱、财富和权力而不谈论你生命中最基本的内识。因为如果你踏上注定要踏上的伟大旅程，这些事情就会为你改变，你必须踏上这条旅程才能找到你生命中真正的确定性和目的。

To be without the greater purpose that has brought you here is to live in a state of profound uncertainty and anxiety. Because people live in this state of profound uncertainty and anxiety, they try to use wealth, power and money to offset their fundamental insecurity.

如果没有带你来到这里的更伟大目的，你就会生活在一种深刻的不确定性和焦虑状态中。因为人们生活在这种深刻的不确定性和焦虑状态中，所以他们试图用财富、权力和金钱来抵消他们基本的不安全感。

Disassociated from themselves, now they try to build associations with things on the outside. And they can never get enough money and enough wealth and enough power because these things do not offset the fundamental anxiety and uncertainty.

他们与他们自己脱离了关系，现在试图与外界事物建立联系。他们永远无法获得足够的金钱、足够的财富和足够的权力，因为这些东西无法抵消基本的焦虑和不确定性。

The more that you claim relationship with these three things, the more you feel vulnerable to the world, the more the world threatens you and challenges you—always threatening to take away your money, your wealth and your power. Instead of offsetting uncertainty and anxiety, it increases for you.

你越是声称与这三样东西（金钱、财富和权力）有关系，你就越会感到对这个世界的脆弱，这个世界就越会威胁你、挑战你——总是威胁要夺走你的金钱、财富和权力。不确定性和焦虑非但不会被抵消，反而会增加。

Now you become a target of other people’s ambitions. Now you become afraid of other people, and you cannot trust them. For they want something from you. They want your money, your wealth and your power.

现在你成为了他人野心的目标。现在你开始害怕他人，无法信任他们。因为他们想从你身上得到一些东西。他们想要你的金钱、你的财富和你的权力。

You become ever more isolated, even living in splendor. And all of your relationships now are overshadowed by this preoccupation—your relationship with your husband or wife, your relationship with your children, your relationship with your family, your relationship with your friends and so forth—all overshadowed by this fundamental anxiety.

即使生活在奢华中，你也会变得越来越孤立。你所有的关系现在都被这种忧虑所笼罩——你与丈夫或妻子的关系，你与孩子的关系，你与家人的关系，你与朋友的关系等等——这一切都被这种根本性的焦虑所笼罩。

You now have what everyone thinks they want and need, and so they associate with you for this purpose. Who you really are is unknown to them and to you, and this has a tremendously corrupting influence.

你现在拥有了每个人认为他们想要的和需要的东西，因此他们出于这个目的与你交往。你真正是谁，对他们来说是未知的，对你来说也是如此，而这种状况对你产生了极大的腐蚀性影响。

That is why it is best to establish your relationship with Knowledge fundamentally before you try to build relationships with others, relationships with the world and relationships with money, wealth and power. Everything that you establish before building your relationship with Knowledge, the deeper Mind within you, will be thrown into question and doubt should you undertake the greater Calling in your life.

正因为如此，在你试图建立与他人的关系、与世界的关系、与金钱、财富和权力的关系之前，最好先与内在的内识建立基础的关系。如果你承担了你生命中的更伟大召唤，那么你在建立与内识、你内在更深层次心灵的关系之前所确立的一切，都将受到质疑和怀疑。

This greater Calling calls you out of your former life. It is not here to validate your former life. It calls you out of your former life. You follow this because you realize that there is a greater need within you that cannot be fulfilled by anything in the world. It cannot be fulfilled by love, by sex, by money, by possessions, by social influence, or by personal accomplishment.

这种更伟大的召唤将你从过去的生命中呼唤出来。它不是来验证你以前的生命的，而是把你从其中召唤出来。你追随它，因为你意识到你内心有一种更伟大的需求，任何世间的事物都无法满足它。它无法通过爱、性、金钱、财物、社会影响或个人成就来满足。

The more you give yourself to all these things, to whatever degree that you do, you recognize that you have not found it. You have been in life only to acquire things—possessions, people, opportunities, social status and so forth—but you have not really found it.

你越是将你自己投入到所有这些事情中，无论你投入到什么程度，你就越会意识到你并没有找到它。你的生命只是为了获得东西——财物、他人、机会、社会地位等等——但你并没有真正找到它。

The need of the soul remains unfulfilled. Your fundamental anxiety and uncertainty have not been quelled. You are driven by fear, the fear of not having, which is the source of all of your artificial desires.

灵魂的需求仍未得到满足。你根本的焦虑和不确定性没有得到平息。你被恐惧驱使着——那种没有拥有的恐惧，这就是你所有虚伪欲望的源泉。

This life is wretched. It is miserable. Even if you live in splendor, your life is like a desert within you, arid and barren. That is why you cannot sit still. That is why you cannot be silent. That is why you have difficulty being alone, without constant stimulation and distraction on the outside.

这种生命是悲惨的。它是凄凉的。即使你生活在辉煌之中，你的生命也像你内心的沙漠，干旱而荒芜。这就是为什么你无法静坐。这就是为什么你无法保持沉默。这就是为什么你独处时会感到困难，无法忍受没有外界持续刺激和分心的时刻。

You always want more and more and more and more. You cannot get enough. It is like a thirst you cannot quench. And you drink, but you are not satisfied. You eat, but you are not satisfied. You acquire, but you are not satisfied. You achieve your goals, but you are not satisfied. And you become jaded and believe that there is no real satisfaction.

你总是想要更多、更多、更多，更多。你永远得不到满足。就像一种无法解渴的渴望。你喝水，但你并不满足。你吃东西，但你并不满足。你获得，但你并不满足。你实现了你的目标，但你并不满足。你变得厌倦，相信没有真正的满足感。

This is a desolate life. Recognize this for what it is. There is no certainty. There is no harmony. There is no integrity here. It is desperate. It is empty.

这是一种荒凉的生命。认清它的本质。这里没有确定性，没有和谐，也没有完整性。它是绝望的。它是空虚的。

Here the resources of money, wealth and power have betrayed you. They have corrupted you, and you feel powerless regarding them. And you may even give them evil intention and associations, but in truth you have just misused them. And you have misused them because you have not been clear. You have not been connected to the deeper power within you.

在这里，金钱、财富和权力的资源背叛了你。它们腐蚀了你，而你对它们感到无能为力。你甚至可能赋予它们邪恶的意图和关联，但事实上，你只是错误使用了它们。你之所以误用它们，是因为你没有清晰的认知，你没有与内在更深层次的力量相联接。

This [deeper] power has its own direction. You cannot harness it to get what you want. You cannot use it as a tool. It is much more powerful than your thinking mind. It is much stronger than your ambitions. It has its own purpose and direction, this being the purpose and the direction that God has given you to be discovered, to be experienced and to be expressed in this life.

这种更深层次的力量有它自身的方向。你无法驾驭它来获得你想要的东西。你无法把它当作一种工具来使用。它比你的思维心灵更强大，它比你的野心强大得多。内识有它自身的目的和方向，这就是上帝赋予你存在的目的和方向，等待你去发现、去体验，并在这个生命中得以表达。

If you can undertake this great journey, then money will change for you, and wealth will change for you, and power will change for you. Fundamentally, power will be associated with Knowledge, not with the accumulation of things. Wealth will be associated with your relationship with Knowledge, the quality of your relationship with others, and the wisdom that you have accrued in the world.

如果你能够踏上这段伟大的旅程，那么金钱将为你改变，财富将为你改变，权力将为你改变。从根本上说，权力将与内识相关，而不是与物质的积累相关。财富将与你与内识的关系、你与他人关系的质量以及你在世界上积累的智慧相关联。

These three things now will become the focus of wealth in your life: Your connection to Knowledge; the quality of your relationship with others to enable you to experience and to express Knowledge; and the wealth of wisdom that you have accumulated in your life and within your relationships. These three things constitute what real wealth is. So very different this is from the normal belief and association with wealth.

现在，这三样东西将成为你生命中财富的焦点：你与内识的联接；你与他人关系的质量，使你能够体验和表达内识；以及你在生命和关系中积累的智慧财富。这三者构成了真正的财富。这与人们通常对财富的看法和联想非常不同。

Your possessions may be many; your possessions may be few. You may stand at the bottom of the social ladder or at the top or anywhere in between with this wealth.

你的财产可能很多，也可能很少。凭借这些财富，你可能站在社会阶梯的最底层，也可能站在最顶端，或者介于两者之间的任何地方。

To be a sage means you can take any form, from the humblest to the noblest, but the reality of your wealth is the same, and the recognition of this wealth in others is the same, and the valuing of this wealth in every person you see is the same.

成为圣人（智者）意味着你可以采取任何形式，从最卑微的到最崇高的，但你财富的现实是一样的，对他人身上这种财富的承认是一样的，你在每一个你遇见的人身上所看到的这种财富的价值也是相同的。

Here you will not be fooled by appearances. You will not be fooled by beauty or charm or wealth or the promise of opportunity. You will not be seduced by all the things that pretend to be wealth, for the real wealth will be known to you. And the stronger this awareness is, the more immune you will be from all the seductions and persuasions that exist around you.

在这里，你不会被外表所欺骗。你不会被美貌、魅力、财富或机会的承诺所欺骗。你不会被所有伪装成财富的东西所诱惑，因为真正的财富将为你所知。这种觉知越强，你就越能抵御周围存在的所有诱惑和说服。

Money here will simply become a tool for accomplishing what you must do in your life. Beyond meeting your certain basic needs and certain simple enjoyments, it becomes a resource for achieving what you came to achieve.

金钱在这里只是一种工具，它能帮助你完成生命中必须做的事情。除了满足你的特定基本需求和某些简单的享受之外，它还会成为你实现一个目的的资源。

It is a tool. It is a form of energy now. It is a resource to be wisely used. And you will want to use it wisely, for you will see that it can fool you or betray you because it carries social power. And if power is not wielded with Knowledge and wisdom, then it becomes deceptive and corruptive.

它是一种工具。它现在是一种能量的形式。它是一种需要明智使用的资源。而你将希望明智地使用它，因为你将看到，它可以愚弄你或背叛你，因为它承载着社会的权力。而如果权力不是以内识和智慧来运用的，那么它就会变得具有欺骗性和腐蚀性。

So you use these resources very carefully. You recognize their social power. You recognize their effect on other people. You recognize the influences they carry within your culture, within your relationships and so forth. And you must learn to use them wisely and cautiously.

因此，你必须非常小心地使用这些资源。你要认识到它们的社会力量。你要认识到它们对其他人的影响。你要认识到它们在你的文化中、在你的人际关系中等等所产生的影响。你必须学会明智且谨慎地使用它们。

Anything that has social power must be used wisely and cautiously, or it can betray you. Sexuality can betray you. Money can betray you. Beauty can betray you. They all have social power, you see. They all have great influence over the perceptions and values of others. Therefore, they must be used very carefully under the guidance of Knowledge.

任何具有社会权力的力量都必须被明智且谨慎地使用，否则它就会背叛你。性会背叛你。金钱会背叛你。美貌会背叛你。你看，它们都拥有社会的权力。它们都对他人的感知和价值观有着巨大的影响力。因此，它们必须在内识的指导下非常谨慎地使用。

Here restraint is important. Here you must hold back tendencies within yourself that would betray your fundamental nature and purpose. Here you must learn to manage your own tendencies, holding in abeyance those things that could prove to be destructive, that could undermine what you are setting out to do and setting out to discover.

在这里，克制是重要的。在这里，你必须抑制你内在那些会背叛你基本自然和目的的倾向。在这里，你必须学会管理你自己的倾向，抑制那些可能会被证明具有破坏性、可能会破坏你正在着手进行和着手探索的事情。

Here the journey has requirements. Here the journey requires self-discipline and focus and consistency. This frees you from being governed by your emotions, by your compulsions, by your attachments, by your need to please other people, by your need to win approval. All of these things that represent various forms of bondage are broken and weakened because you are adhering to something fundamental within yourself.

在这里，旅程是有要求的。在这里，旅程需要自律、专注和坚持。这让你不再受情绪、强迫、执着、取悦他人、赢得认可等因素的支配。所有这些代表着各种形式束缚的东西都会被打破和削弱，因为你正在遵循你自己内心重要的内识。

For you see, you do not all of a sudden have Knowledge in your life. You do not all of a sudden have purpose in your life. You have to build these things. It is like building a bridge to a different kind of life. It is like getting on a ship and sailing to a distant shore. You cannot take everything from your former home with you. And while you are on that ship, taking this journey, well, you have no solid ground to stand upon, do you? Only the vehicle that is taking you where you must go.

因为你看，内识并不会突然出现在你的生命中。你的生命也不会突然拥有目的。你必须建立这些东西。它就像是在搭建一座通往另一种生命的桥梁。它就像是登上一艘船，驶向遥远的彼岸。你不能带走你以前家里的一切。当你在这艘船上，进行这段旅程时，你是没有坚实的土地可以依靠的，不是吗？你只有这艘将你带向目的地的船。

In this case, that means Knowledge within yourself and Knowledge within others. This becomes your primary resource, your primary source of wealth and your primary guidance.

在这种情况下，这意味着你内在的内识和他人内在的内识。这将成为你最主要的资源、你最主要的财富来源以及你最主要的指导。

It gives you the strength to give yourself here and hold yourself back over here, to give yourself to this person and not to that person. It gives you the power to wait. It gives you the power to be patient. It restrains you. It redirects you. It preserves you.

它赋予你力量，让你在这里给予你自己，在这里约束你自己，把你自己给予这个人，而不是那个人。它赋予你等待的力量。它赋予你耐心的力量。它约束你。它重新引导你。它保护你。

There is something here that must be clarified and that is regarding how you live because you are now facing a world in decline, a world of declining resources, because you are facing the Great Waves of change that are coming to the world—the degradation of your environment; the alteration of your climate and weather; the diminishing of your food, water and energy resources; and the great difficulties this will all bring to humanity and is bringing to humanity even now.

这里有些事情必须得到澄清，那就是关于你的生活方式，因为你现在正面临着一个衰落的世界，一个资源不断减少的世界，因为你正面临着即将到来世界的变革巨浪——你们环境的恶化；你们气候和天气的改变；你们食物、水和能源资源的减少；以及这一切将给人类带来的巨大困难，甚至现在就在给人类带来巨大困难。

You must realize that you must live simply, that you must use resources very conscientiously, that the preservation of resources is not simply a focus for nations and governments, but for each individual.

你必须认识到，你必须简单地生活，你必须非常认真地使用资源，资源的保护不仅仅是国家和政府关注的重点，也是每个人关注的重点。

If you have accumulated money and wealth in that sense, even here you must live very simply. For if you do not live simply, you are depriving others, and you are making conflict and war inevitable.

如果你已经积累了金钱和财富，即使在这种情况下，你也必须过一种非常简单的生活。因为如果你不简朴地生活，你就在剥夺他人，并且你正在使冲突和战争变得不可避免。

People think that war and conflict are the result of political ambitions or economic ambitions or ignorance or even evil existing within government leaders. But what people fail to see here is that how they live determines to a very large degree what their governments must do to provide for them.

人们认为战争和冲突是政治野心、经济野心、无知甚至政府领导人内部的邪恶所导致的。但人们未能意识到的是，他们的生活方式在很大程度上决定了政府为了满足他们的需求必须采取什么样的行动。

If a nation is living beyond its means, then it must rob from other nations. It must gain, by whatever means necessary, resources from other nations. If you live beyond what you really need, then what you are really doing is you are requiring your governments and your economies to meet these provisions for you at whatever cost.

如果一个国家过度消费，那么它就必须从其他国家掠夺资源。它必须通过任何必要的手段，从其他国家获取资源。如果你的生活超出了你的实际需求，那么你真正在做的就是要求你的政府和你的经济体系不惜一切代价来满足你的这些需求。

People want to be wealthy, but they do not want war. They do not see the connection between wealth and war.

人们想要富裕，却不想要战争，他们看不到财富与战争之间的联系。

The quest for political power is not simply the ambitions of individuals in positions of leadership; it is the needs of the nation. It is the expectations of the nation. It is the desires and appetites of their populations, of their citizens.

对政治权力的追求不仅仅是领导职位上个人的野心。它是国家的需求。它是国家的期望。它是他们人民、公民的欲望和需求。

If you want to make a real statement advocating the end of war and conflict, then you must live simply. Your needs must be simple. Own fewer things of higher quality. Do not amass a great deal of possessions.

如果你想真正呼吁结束战争和冲突，那么你就必须简单地生活。你的需求必须简单。拥有更少的高质量物品。不要积攒大量财产。

You must control your appetites, or you will fuel competition, conflict and war in the world around you. However much you may blame people in positions of leadership for this, or you may think it is a matter of politics or national policy, the truth is that your desires and ambitions are making competition, conflict and war inevitable.

你必须控制你的欲望，否则你就会助长你周围世界的竞争、冲突和战争。无论你如何责怪身居领导职位的人，或者你认为这是政治或国家政策问题，事实是你的欲望和野心正在使竞争、冲突和战争不可避免。

You are taking too much from the well, and the well is getting smaller. And the number of people coming to the well is growing; it is becoming greater.

你从井里汲取了太多，而井却在越来越小。来到井边的人与日俱增，变得越来越多。

The only way to avoid world war here is to live more simply, to live closer to life, to value relationships more than possessions, to value purpose more than ambition and to seek your fundamental stimulation from the quality of your relationships, from the presence of Knowledge within you and from the wisdom that you have acquired—the three fundamental elements of real wealth.

避免世界大战的唯一方法就是生活得更简单，生活得更贴近生命，重视关系胜过财产，重视目的胜过野心，并从你的关系品质、从你内在内识的存在、从你所获得的智慧中寻求你的基本刺激——这是真正财富的三个基本要素。

People are lacking these things, and so they must constantly have more and more and more, endlessly trying to satiate a deeper need within them that can only be fulfilled by discovering and following the deeper Knowledge that God has given [them].

人们缺乏这些东西，因此他们必须不断地拥有更多，更多，更多，无休止地试图满足他们内在的一个更深层次的需求，而这种需求只有通过发现和遵循上帝赐予他们的更深层次的内识才能得到满足。

It is apparent that money, wealth and power are associated with war. But what is not recognized is that it is everyone’s desires and appetites that make conflict and war inevitable.

金钱、财富和权力显然与战争有关。但人们没有认识到的是，正是每个人的欲望和食欲才使得冲突和战争不可避免。

In a world of declining resources and growing populations, you can see the great danger. You can see where things are going, and this instructs you how you must learn to live if you are to be a force for good in the world.

在一个资源不断减少、人口不断增长的世界里，你可以看到巨大的危险。你可以看到事情的发展方向，这告诉你，如果你想成为世界上一股向善的力量，你就必须学会如何生活。

Even if your purpose is to take a significant role in society, the simplicity of your life will free your time, will free your energy and will free your focus because possessions require time, energy and focus. And the more possessions that you have, the more time, energy and focus they require from you.

即使你的目的是在社会上扮演重要的角色，你简单性的生命也会解放你的时间、能量和注意力，因为财产需要时间、能量和注意力。你拥有的财产越多，它们需要你投入的时间、能量和注意力就越多。

Everything you own you must maintain, and in some degree, you must protect. If your life is frantic, if your life is consumed with busy activities, think how many things you are trying to maintain and protect. Simplicity here is not only an ethical responsibility; it is an asset towards freedom.

你必须维护你自己拥有的一切，在某种程度上，你必须保护它们。如果你的生命是疯狂的，如果你的生命被忙碌的活动所占据，想想你有多少东西需要维护和保护。这里的简单性不仅是一种道德责任；它是一种通往自由的资产。

We are not talking about living an ascetic life. That is reserved for specialists. We are talking about living within the fundamental needs of your existence, using what is needed and what gives real value to your life and recognizing the limits here.

我们不是在谈论过苦行僧的生活。这是为少数专门的人准备的。我们在谈论的是在满足基本生存需求的基础上生活，使用真正需要的东西和赋予你生命真正价值的事物，并认识到这里的局限性。

In your heart, you know these things of which We speak. They are not foreign to you though you may have been living a life that does not account for them. You have a conscience. Your real conscience is not formed by culture or religion and family values. It is something that God has given you.

在你的心中，你知道我们所说的这些事情。虽然你可能一直过着与它们无关的生活，但这些事情对你来说并不陌生。你有一种良知。你真正的良知不是由文化、宗教和家庭价值观形成的。它是上帝赋予你的。

You either satisfy the desires of the mind, desires built upon a fundamental anxiety and uncertainty, or you are fulfilling a deeper need, a deeper calling within you that does not change, that does not go away. It is always there with you.

你要么满足心灵的欲望，这种欲望建立在根本的焦虑和不确定性之上，要么你满足一种更深层次的需求，满足你内心深处的一种更深层次的召唤，这种召唤不会改变，不会消失。它始终与你同在。

You may try to forget about God and calling and purpose, but they are always with you. You can believe whatever you want. You can create exceptionally complex ideas and compromises, but you cannot change this fundamental reality.

你可能会试图忘记上帝、召唤和目的，但它们始终伴随着你。你可以相信任何你想要相信的东西。你可以创造出异常复杂的想法和妥协，但你无法改变这个基本现实。

You may believe that God blesses and condemns, that people are sent to Heaven and Hell, but in truth God is a Great Attraction and that Attraction lives within you—calling you, waiting for you, waiting until you come to your senses, waiting until you stop your frantic pursuits, waiting for you to give up your hopeless attempt at personal fulfillment, waiting for you. This is the great blessing.

你可能相信上帝会赐福，也会惩罚，相信人们会被送入天堂和地狱，但真理是，上帝是一种伟大的吸引力，而这个吸引力就生活在你的内心深处——正在召唤你，正在等待你，等你清醒过来，等你停止疯狂的追求，等你放弃对个人成就的绝望尝试，等待着你。这就是伟大的祝福。

God is not fooled by your plans and goals and aspirations. God is simply calling you and waiting for you to respond. And the amount of suffering you will undergo and the travail you will create for yourself and the misery you will generate will all be dependent on how long it takes for you to respond.

上帝不会被你的计划、目标和抱负所愚弄。上帝只是在召唤你，等待你的回应。而你将承受多少痛苦、你将为你自己制造多少磨难以及你将产生多少悲惨，都取决于你回应的时间。

As disappointment attends you, as your goals fail you in the world, as your pursuit of love and romance disappoints you and falls away, it brings you back to this fundamental attraction of God.

当失望伴随着你，当你在这个世界上的目标令你失望时，当你对爱与浪漫的追求让你失望并消逝时，它会把你带回到上帝的这个基本吸引力。

As you look around the world and you see the desperate attempts at happiness—the immense cost that people are paying for their pursuit of happiness and the misery and the confusion, the violence and the addiction—it can bring you back to this fundamental attraction, this fundamental relationship.

当你环顾世界，看到人们为追求幸福而做出的绝望努力——人们为追求幸福而付出的巨大代价，以及随之而来的痛苦、困惑、暴力和上瘾——它可以让你回到这种基本的吸引力，这种基本的关系。

In reality, this is your wealth, but you must build wealth in the world as well to be able to function here. And that wealth is the freedom to experience Knowledge and to follow Knowledge and to express what Knowledge is here to express through you into the world, Knowledge being the greater Intelligence that God has placed within you.

在现实中，这就是你的财富，但你也必须在这个世界上建立财富，才能在这里运作。而这种财富就是体验内识、追随内识并表达内识通过你向世界传达其意图的自由，内识就是上帝放置在你内心深处的更伟大智能。

This will determine your relationship with money, with power, your relationships with people—who to be with, who not to be with, where to go, where not to go, what to do, what not to do. All of the complex issues that confound people begin to become simple here.

这将决定你与金钱的关系、与权力的关系、与人的关系——与谁在一起、不与谁在一起，去哪里、不去哪里，做什么、不做什么。所有让人困惑的复杂问题在这里都开始变得简单。

It is like the difference between the light and the dark, what gives inspiration and what takes inspiration away, what gives a sense of well-being and what takes a sense of well-being away, what demonstrates integrity and what denies integrity, what renders self-confidence and what destroys self-confidence, what is warm, what is cold, what is light, what is dark, what is true, what is false. The distinctions become far more simple now.

它就像光明与黑暗之间的区别，什么能给人灵感，什么能夺走灵感，什么能给人幸福感，什么能夺走幸福感，什么能展现完整性，什么能否定完整性，什么能给人自信，什么能摧毁自信，什么是温暖，什么是寒冷，什么是光明，什么是黑暗，什么是真实，什么是虚假。现在，这些区别变得简单多了。

And though you do not have answers for everything, certainly, your life is moving in a true direction. Though you cannot account for everything that you see, hear and do, your life is moving in a true direction.

尽管你无法解答所有问题，但你的生命确实在朝着一个真实的方向前进。尽管你无法解释你所看到、听到和所做的一切，但你的生命确实在朝着一个真实的方向前进。

You are building something new and leaving something old, step by step. And you are meeting fundamental needs in the world, and you are discerning greater needs within yourself. And you are becoming responsible and practical, and yet inspired all at the same time.

你正在一步步地建立新的事物，同时也在离开旧的事物。你在满足世界上的基本需求，同时也在辨别你自己内心更伟大的需求。你变得更加负责任和务实，同时又充满灵感。

What confuses other people is not confusing you so much now. What disables other people is not disabling you now. What is rendering other people helpless and impotent is having less and less effect upon you now.

让他人困惑的事情，现在不再让你如此困惑。让他人无助的事情，现在不再让你感到无助。让他人束手无策、无能为力的事情，现在对你的影响却越来越小。

You are allowing your life to be reshaped by Knowledge. You are allowing your understanding of money, wealth and power to be redefined and demonstrated in a new way for you. You are allowing your relationships with everything around you to shift because your relationship with what is essential within you now is emerging.

你正允许内识重塑你的生命。你正允许内识重新定义你对金钱、财富和权力的理解，并以一种新的方式向你展示。你正允许你与周围一切事物的关系发生转变，因为你与你内在内识的必要关系正在浮现。

You allow yourself to not have answers. You allow yourself to simply look and be present to the world without having to understand it, without having to have definitions and explanations and apologies.

你允许你自己没有答案。你允许你自己只是静静地观察，存在于这个世界中，而不需要理解它，不需要给出定义和解释，也不需要道歉。

Your mind becomes powerful as it becomes this focused and this simple. Your perception becomes more penetrating because it is uniform; it is not distracted by a thousand different things.

当你的心灵变得如此专注和简单时，你的心灵就会变得强大。你的感知会变得更有洞察力，因为它是统一的；它不会被上千种不同的事物所分散注意力。

You seek wisdom now. You want to know what is real from what is unreal. You want to know what is true from what is untrue. You want to know what is valuable from what has no value. You want to know what a true relationship is as opposed to a false association. You want to know a real direction in your life rather than simply going through your life mindlessly and foolishly.

你现在寻求智慧。你想知道什么是真正的，什么是虚幻的。你想知道什么是真实的，什么是不真实的。你想知道什么是有价值的，什么是没有价值的。你想知道一种真实的关系，而不是一种虚假的联系。你想知道你生命中的一种真正方向，而不是漫无目的地、愚蠢地度过你的一生。

This represents the emergence of Knowledge within you, and a great emergence it will be. And it will be an emergence of many steps and will require many decisions along the way. But once begun, it must continue, for now you have found something true.

这代表着你内在内识的出现，它将是一次伟大的浮现。它将是一个多步骤的出现，一路上需要做出许多决定。但一旦开始，就必须继续，因为现在你已经找到了真实的内识。

Now you are responding to something beyond definition, beyond explanation. Now you are beginning to turn the ship. Now you are finding that you really have real direction in your life—a direction you must learn to discern and to follow rather than try to create and manipulate.

现在你正在回应一种超越定义、超越解释的内识。现在你开始调转船头。现在你发现你的生命中确实有了真正的方向——你必须学会​​辨别和遵循这个方向，而不是试图创造和操纵。

Seek this and all things will come to you that are truly needed and are truly beneficial. Follow this great emergence, and confusion will leave your life, and strength will return to you.

追寻这一点，所有真正需要的、真正有益的事物都会来到你身边。跟随这个伟大的出现，困惑将离开你的生命，力量将重新回到你的身上。

This is the power and the presence of Knowledge that God has placed within you, leading your life now. Instead of the light buried underneath the covers, it is emerging. It is illuminating. It is showing you the way. It is orienting you. It is freeing you. This is the great gift, and this is the gift you will want to give to others as you learn to receive it for yourself.

这就是内识的力量与存在，是上帝放置在你内心的力量，现在正在引领你的生命。它不再是掩藏在层层覆盖之下的光芒，而是正逐渐显现出来。它在照亮你。它为你指明道路，帮助你找到定位，给予你自由。这是伟大的礼物，当你学会为你自己接收它时，你会想要将其赠与他人。