Going Beyond the Limits of Human Religion and Belief

As received by Marshall Vian Summers on February 5, 1997 in Boulder, Colorado
1997年2月5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

The religious traditions of the world have a rich heritage, and from a Greater Community perspective, they have kept Knowledge alive in the world despite their manipulation by world governments, societies and so forth. They have kept the glow of spirituality alive for many, many people.

世界的宗教传统有着丰富的遗产，从大社区的角度来看，尽管它们受到世界各国政府、社会等的操纵，但它们使内识在世界上得以延续。它们为许许多多的人保留了精神性的光辉。

Yet because humanity has evolved in a state of relative isolation and has not had the challenge and the benefit of encounters with other forms of intelligent life in the Greater Community, in any kind of large scale way, the traditions within this world have certain fundamental limitations. These limitations are understandable given humanity’s isolation, and they must be understood as the result, in large part, of this isolation.

然而，由于人类是在相对孤立的状态下进化的，没有经历过与大社区其他形式的智能生命以任何大规模的方式接触的挑战和益处，这个世界的传统具有某些根本的局限性。考虑到人类的孤立，这些局限性是可以理解的，而且必须理解它们在很大程度上是这种孤立造成的。

For the student of Knowledge, there are certain things that must be reconciled. These emanate out of the cultures and religious traditions in which most people in the world have been reared. They represent both the aspirations of humanity and the limits of humanity’s awareness and understanding.

对于内识的学生来说，有些事情是必须协调的。这些问题源自世界上大多数人成长的文化和宗教传统。它们既代表了人类的愿望，也代表了人类觉知和理解的局限。

Whether you come out of a strict religious background or not, you are affected by this conditioning, for these are the undercurrents of your cultural conditioning overall. And whether you are aware of them or not, they do condition your viewpoint.

无论你是否来自严格的宗教背景，你都会受到这种制约的影响，因为这些都是你整体文化制约的暗流。无论你是否察觉到，它们都会制约你的观点。

Let Us address these now so that you have a clearer understanding of what a spiritual calling means within the world, and how the circumstances of the world have changed and what this requires now.

现在让我们来讨论这些问题，以便你更清楚地理解精神召唤在世界上的意义，以及世界的情况发生了怎样的变化以及现在需要什么。

There are certain conventions of belief in the world that are prevalent throughout the world, both in religious traditions that encompass many nations and within tribal traditions as well. The root of these traditions is an attempt to negotiate the difficulties of life and to maintain confidence in a larger or greater power, in a Divine power, that can protect and guide human activity.

世界上有一些信仰传统在世界各地盛行，既存在于许多国家的宗教传统中，也存在于部落传统中。这些传统的根源在于试图克服生命中的困难，并保持对更大或更伟大的力量，即神圣力量的信心，这种力量可以保护和指导人类活动。

Though religions have become many other things in their cultural and political associations, the essence of their practice is to keep spiritual experience alive, to enable people to have a direct experience of divinity and to bring a higher consciousness into the world, a set of ethics that are greater than what the marketplace can dictate and what mundane life itself stimulates in people.

尽管宗教在其文化和政治关联中变成了许多其他事物，但其实践的本质是保持精神体验的活力，使人们能够直接体验神性，并为世界带来更高的意识，这套道德规范比市场所能规定的和世俗生命本身在人们身上激发的道德规范更伟大。

Yet there are also certain problems. These problems provide a great hindrance to understanding the Greater Community and the meaning of spirituality in the Greater Community. It is for this reason that the religious institutions today stand largely in the way of understanding the meaning of the Greater Community or what is required for people to prepare adequately for the Greater Community.

然而也存在着某些问题。这些问题对理解大社区和大社区精神性的意义造成了巨大阻碍。正是出于这个原因，当今的宗教机构在很大程度上阻碍了人们理解大社区的意义，或者阻碍了人们为大社区做好充分准备所需要的条件。

Intrinsic in this is the fact that their basic understanding of humanity and its relationship with nature and the Divine will be severely challenged by the reality that humanity is emerging into a Greater Community. Here they must realize that their most cherished ideals are not absolute. They are not universal, for the most part, and the requirements of spiritual life must now be reassessed. And the parameters of life and the meaning of life must have a greater context in which to become meaningful.

其内在原因在于，他们对人类及其与自然和神圣关系的基本理解，将受到人类正在迈入大社区这个现实的严峻挑战。在这里，他们必须意识到，他们最珍视的理想并非绝对。它们大多不是普世的，精神生命的要求现在必须被重新评估。生命的参数和生命的意义必须拥有一个更伟大的背景，在其中才能变得有意义。

We think this is a very healthy thing for all religious traditions in the world. They must grow and expand. If they do not grow and expand, they will contract and become basically reactionary and oppose the great changes that are occurring to humanity at this time. This will bring new life and new spirit into their traditions and new awareness that humanity so desperately needs now.

我们认为这对于世界上所有的宗教传统来说都是一件非常健康的事情。它们必须成长和扩展。如果它们不成长和扩展，它们就会萎缩，变得基本上是反动的，反对人类目前正在发生的伟大变化。这将给它们的传统带来新的生命和新的精神，以及人类现在迫切需要的新觉知。

There are certain dichotomies within the present religious traditions in the world that must be addressed. We have already referred to many of these so far, but let Us take a closer look now.

当今世界宗教传统中存在着某些必须解决的矛盾。到目前为止，我们已经提到过许多这样的矛盾，但现在让我们仔细看看。

First, let Us examine the whole idea of Heaven and Hell within the context of the Greater Community itself. Simply said, Heaven represents where you have come from and where you will return to, but in terms of today’s experience, it has to do with your closeness to Knowledge, your allegiance to Knowledge and your identification with Knowledge.

首先，让我们在大社区本身的背景下考察天堂和地狱的整个概念。简单地说，天堂代表着你来自何处以及你将回归何处，但就今天的体验而言，它与你与内识的亲近程度、你对内识的忠诚以及你对内识的认同有关。

Hell represents your inability to gain access to your true nature, which casts you into a world of grave uncertainty and doubt, anxiety and suffering. This is the purgatory. Purgatory is not the reward for bad behavior. Purgatory is not the place you go if Heaven does not want you. Heaven always wants you.

地狱代表你无法访问你的真实自然，这使你陷入一个充满不确定性和怀疑、焦虑和痛苦的世界。这就是地狱。地狱不是对不良行为的奖赏。如果天堂不想要你，地狱不是你要去的地方。天堂永远想要你。

Purgatory is living without Knowledge. It is being cast apart. It is living a life of isolation and separation—separation from Knowledge within yourself and separation from the meaning of your true relationships in life.

地狱就是没有内识地生活。它是被抛弃。它是过着一种孤立和分离的生活——与你自己内在内识的分离，与你生命中真实关系的意义的分离。

In the Greater Community, there is no Heaven and Hell in the traditional sense. If you think about this, it will begin to make sense to you. For what is good behavior in a human environment would have to be changed in other civilizations and other environments. In many cases, other races have their own concoction of Heaven and Hell, their reward for good behavior, their punishment for bad behavior. They would seem as irrelevant to you as your rendition of Heaven and Hell might seem to them. There is nothing universal here. This is a local custom, a local tradition—in this case, local to your world.

在大社区中，没有传统意义上的天堂和地狱。如果你思考一下，你就会明白这一点。因为在人类环境中的良好行为，在其他文明和其他环境中就必须改变。在许多情况下，其他种族有他们自己对天堂和地狱的理解，他们对良好行为的奖励，对不良行为的惩罚。它们对你来说似乎无关紧要，就像你对天堂和地狱的诠释对他们来说一样。这里没有什么是普遍的。这是一种地方习俗，一种地方传统——在这种情况下，是你们世界的本地传统。

In the Greater Community, there is no beginning and no end. There is no fantastic creation story. There is no imminent end to life in the universe. Learning, however, does have an end. And there will be an end to manifest life, but it is so far in the future as to be beyond the realm of your concern.

在大社区中，没有开始也没有结束。没有神奇的创世故事。宇宙中的生命不会很快终结。然而，学习却有尽头。生命的显化也会有尽头，但这还远在未来，超出了你的关注范围。

Likewise, the evolution of life within the physical reality is something that occurred far before the creation of your world. So the beginning is so long ago, and the end is so far in the future that these cannot be defining relevancies for your understanding of the meaning and nature of Divinity in your life.

同样，物质现实中生命的进化远在你们的世界被创造之前就已经发生。因此，生命的开始是如此久远，而生命的终结又是如此遥远，以至于这些都无法成为你理解生命中神性的意义和自然的决定性因素。

Again, We must distinguish between the powers of persuasion used through your religious institutions and the meaning of living a truly religious life. Conformity and obedience mixed with political expediency have given rise to many of the ideals and precepts which seem to affect most people’s thinking here.

再次，我们必须区分你们宗教机构所运用的说服力和过真正宗教生命的意义。顺从和服从，再加上政治上的权宜之计，产生了许多理想和戒律，而这些理想和戒律似乎影响着这里大多数人的思维。

It is as if to say that unless there is a great threat of punishment, unless there are absolutes in which people have to believe, they will wander aimlessly. Having no real incentive on their own, they must be governed, and so these things are created to govern effectively.

它就好像说，除非有严厉的惩罚威胁，除非有绝对的真理让人们必须相信，否则人们就会漫无目的地游荡。他们自己没有真正的激励，必须受到治理，所以这些事物被创造出来是为了有效地治理。

But the student of Knowledge must look beyond these dichotomies and see the real truth that exists there. Let Us look at the dichotomy between good and evil. This is a very difficult one because many people have very, very radical ideas concerning this.

但内识的学生必须超越这些二分法，看到其中存在的真正真理。让我们来看看善与恶的二分法。这是一个非常困难的问题，因为很多人对此有非常非常激进的想法。

Much of the idealism that exists is not so much the result of real serious consideration and contemplation but is more a social reaction. For example, people think because of the domination of the church in the past, they must reject the idea of evil. Have they really thought about this, or is it simply a reaction?

现存的许多理想主义与其说是真正认真思考和沉思的结果，不如说是一种社会反应。例如，人们认为由于过去教会的统治，他们必须摒弃邪恶的想法。他们是真的思考过这个问题，还是仅仅是一种反应？

Clearly, there are those who are committed to good, and there are those who are committed to working against the good. They represent the opposite extremes. In the middle is everyone else, being swayed one way or the other.

显然，有些人致力于行善，有些人致力于违背善。他们代表了相反的极端。处于中间的是其他人，他们被左右摇摆。

There are forces of good and there are forces of dissonance. You may call them good and evil, but they are in essence more complex than this. The capability to do good and the capability to do evil are within each person. Which, then, becomes the predominant force in a person’s life? In any person, one is either radically or even slightly more predominant than the other.

有善的力量，也有不和谐的力量。你可以称它们为善与恶，但它们在本质上比这更复杂。行善的能力和作恶的能力存在于每个人身上。因此，哪种力量会成为一个人生命中的主导力量呢？在任何一个人身上，一种力量都会从根本上或甚至稍稍比另一种力量更占优势。

Within the context of the Greater Community and within Greater Community Spirituality, this can be seen in another way. Here We come back again to the essence of Knowledge. When you are connected to Knowledge, you do good. When you are not connected to Knowledge, you tend to work against the good even though you have inclinations for the good.

在大社区和大社区精神性的背景下，我们可以从另一个角度看待这一点。在这里我们再次回到内识的本质。当你与内识相连时，你会行善。当你与内识不相连时，你倾向于与善作对，即使你有行善的倾向。

No one in life is entirely good, and no one in life is entirely evil. You cannot be entirely good because there is always the opportunity that you can be deceived or can make a mistake in your perception and judgment and so forth. Everyone is capable of making mistakes in physical life. This is as true in the world as it is throughout the Greater Community.

生命中没有人是完全善良的，也没有人是完全邪恶的。你不可能完全善良，因为你总有机会被欺骗，或者在你的感知和判断等方面犯错。每个人都有可能在物质生命中犯错。这在世界上是如此，在大社区也是如此。

Likewise, no one can be entirely evil because you cannot eradicate Knowledge from the individual. You cannot destroy what God has put there. It can be denied; it can be thwarted; it can be completely avoided, but it cannot be eliminated.

同样，没有人可以完全邪恶，因为你无法将内识从个人身上根除。你无法摧毁上帝放置在内心深处的内识。内识可以被否定；内识可以被挫败；内识可以被完全避免，但内识无法被消除。

Therefore, every individual, regardless of how detrimental their behavior may be, is capable and has the potentiality for doing good. Here you must outgrow a childish view of what is good and what is evil, outgrow a childish view of angels and demons, and come back to the reality of life.

因此，每个人，无论其行为多么有害，都有能力和潜力行善。在这里，你必须摆脱对什么是善什么是恶的幼稚看法，摆脱对天使和魔鬼的幼稚看法，回归到生命的现实。

The Creator knows when you come into the world that the world is full of difficulties and that you will make many mistakes and that you may not even be successful in finding your purpose and your way here. Clearly, that is understood.

造物主知道，当你来到这个世界时，这个世界充满了困难，你会犯很多错误，甚至可能无法成功找到你的目的和道路。显然，这是可以理解的。

In fact, very few people find their purpose and their mission here. Everyone else makes the attempt but somehow cannot succeed. This is because the world is so difficult and because to gain their first great stage of education, they must largely be ignorant of their true nature, their true origin and their true destiny.

事实上，很少有人能在这里找到他们的目的和使命。其他人都尝试过，但不知何故却无法成功。这是因为这个世界是如此艰难，因为要获得他们第一阶段的伟大教育，他们必须在很大程度上对他们的真实自然，他们的真实起源和他们的真实天命一无所知。

Again, if you were so aware of your Ancient Home and your relationships there, you would not want to enter into the world. It would be too difficult. Your yearning to go Home would be so great that it would disable you from participating here fully. When you are with your Spiritual Family before you enter the world, the world does not look so hard. Being there, everything is so intact; everything is so complete; you are so totally understood. You come into the world, and that is all gone. It is a whole different reality.

同样，如果你如此察觉你的古老家园和你在那里的关系，你就不会想进入这个世界。这太困难了。你对回家的渴望会如此强烈，以至于它使你无法充分参与这里。当你在进入世界之前和你的精神家庭在一起时，世界看起来并不那么困难。在那里，一切都是完好无损；一切都是如此完整；你是如此完全被理解。当你来到这个世界，一切都消失了。这是一个完全不同的现实。

Therefore, the Creator knows that you will make many mistakes here. That is why condemnation is out of the question. The important thing is that you find your true Self, that you find your purpose and your mission here. All the emphasis is on this.

因此，造物主知道你会在这里犯下许多错误。这就是为什么谴责是不可能的。重要的是，你要找到真实的自我，找到你的目的和使命。所有的重点都在于此。

The Creator gives you Knowledge to make this possible. Without Knowledge, you would be overtaken and overcome by the world. You would have no capacity to discern and to discover the truth. You would have no real conscience. Without Knowledge, you could become completely evil.

造物主赐予你内识，使之成为可能。没有内识，你就会被世界所超越和征服。你将没有能力辨别和发现真理。你将没有真正的良知。没有内识，你可能会变得完全邪恶。

But most people in the world today do not realize that they possess Knowledge. It is not part of their religious education. They are taught to believe and to be obedient. They are taught to believe in ideas, in words, in books, in standards and in conventions. And they are threatened with terrible retribution if they fail to do so. There is no teaching in The Way of Knowledge. There is no method for reclaiming Knowledge. This is understandable in a primitive race, but humanity now is emerging out of its primitive state even though much of its behavior is still very primitive.

但当今世界上的大多数人并没有意识到他们拥有内识。内识不是他们宗教教育的一部分。他们被教导要相信和服从。他们被教导要相信想法、文字、书籍、标准和惯例。如果他们不这样做，他们就会受到可怕的惩罚。内识之路上没有教导。没有重新获得内识的方法。这在原始种族中是可以理解的，但人类现在正在摆脱原始状态，尽管它的许多行为仍然非常原始。

People need to know. Belief is not enough. Belief is weak and fallible and easily persuaded and influenced. That is not what is needed in the world today. Humanity does not need a better belief. It needs nothing less than Knowledge itself.

人们需要知道。信仰是不够的。信仰是脆弱的、易错的，而且很容易被说服和影响。这不是当今世界所需要的。人类不需要一个更好的信仰。它需要的正是内识本身。

And yet what a revolution this will be in religious thought. People who have relied upon their ideologies and institutions to give them stability and identity will be greatly threatened by this idea, for they do not believe in the inherent goodness of humanity or in the reality and the meaning of Knowledge.

然而，这在宗教思想中将是一场多么大的革命啊。那些依赖意识形态和机构来给予他们稳定和身份的人们将受到这个想法的巨大威胁，因为他们不相信人类固有的善良，也不相信内识的现实和意义。

So the emphasis on Heaven and Hell, the emphasis on reward and punishment in the afterlife, the emphasis on good and evil—all are perpetrated in an environment where Knowledge is unknown and is not emphasized. This creates a very difficult environment for the man or woman of Knowledge to begin to travel the way that Knowledge provides. They must deal with these forces not only in their environment, but within themselves.

因此，对天堂和地狱的强调、对来世的奖赏和惩罚的强调、对善恶的强调——所有这些都是在一个内识未知和不被强调的环境中发生的。这为拥有内识的男人或女人创造了一个非常艰难的环境，让他们开始以内识提供的方式前行。他们必须应对的不仅是他们环境中的这些力量，还有他们自己内心的这些力量。

Some people’s religious training has been so adamant and so forcefully placed upon them that they cannot seem to outgrow it. It is such a crushing weight. It weighs upon them. They feel so much guilt trying to shift their allegiance from an old set of ideas to the living reality within them.

有些人的宗教训练是如此坚定和强加于他们，以至于他们似乎无法摆脱它。这是一种压倒性的负担。它压得他们喘不过气来。当他们试图将忠诚从一套旧有的想法转向内在的鲜活现实时，他们感受到极大的内疚。

Out of this dichotomy of good and evil, Heaven and Hell, comes a profound inability to discern a new experience. Things are judged according to a set of beliefs that in essence are really irrelevant to the new experience itself.

这种善与恶、天堂与地狱的二分法，导致人们无法辨别新的体验。人们根据一套信念来判断事物，而这些信念本质上与新的体验本身无关。

For example, the Greater Community is in the world. Those people who are aware of this tend to project these notions of good and evil. They say, “Are they good? Are they evil? Are they Divine? Are they satanic?” Even educated people who do not say this might actually feel it. They are concerned. These superstitions are so deeply established and are so much a part of culture and cultural identity that it is very difficult sometimes to recognize them and to outgrow them.

例如，大社区就在这个世界里。那些察觉到这一点的人们倾向于投射这些善恶观念。他们说：“它们是善的吗？它们是恶的吗？它们是神圣的吗？它们是撒旦吗？”即便是没有这么说的受过教育的人也许实际上也感受到了。他们很担心。这些迷信根深蒂固，是文化和文化身份的重要组成部分，有时很难认清它们并摆脱它们。

Without Knowledge, religion does become superstition. It becomes belief, and belief is easy to govern and to influence. Without Knowledge, people can believe all kinds of things, even if they are in direct contrast with their experience.

没有内识，宗教就会变成迷信。宗教会变成信仰，而信仰很容易被控制和影响。没有内识，人们会相信各种各样的事情，即使这些事情与他们的经历截然相反。

People can be taught that they are inherently evil and therefore must subjugate themselves to rigorous adherence to religious ideologies. And yet this betrays a natural experience of themselves. They can be taught that they are physically bad, that their bodies are bad, that physical experience is bad, that somehow being alive is a great misfortune and is a form of punishment in and of itself. Yet this is in complete contrast to the real experience of life itself and is a complete contradiction of the real nature of people’s purpose and presence in the world, which is inherently to do good.

人们可以被教导说他们生来就是邪恶的，因此必须严格遵守宗教意识形态。然而，这却暴露了他们自己的自然体验。人们可以被教导说他们物质是不好的，他们身体是坏的，身体体验不好，活着本身就是一种不幸，是一种惩罚。然而，这与生命本身的真实体验完全相反，与人们在世界上的目的和存在的真正自然完全矛盾，而人们在世界上存在的固有自然就是行善。

The Creator has sent everyone here to do good. But everyone must go through the world first. For many, this will be enough to deny their great opportunity and their greater expression.

造物主派每个人来到这里行善。但每个人都必须先经历这个世界。对许多人来说，这足以剥夺他们伟大的机会和更伟大的表达能力。

Hero worship is another inherent part of human religions for the most part. It is emphasized in some traditions more than others. People need to have some kind of superhuman to believe in, someone who is greater, someone who does not seem to exhibit human fallibility, someone who is in a perfect state.

英雄崇拜是人类宗教中另一个固有的部分。有些传统比其他传统更强调英雄崇拜。人们需要相信某位超人，相信比自己更伟大的人，相信似乎没有人类缺陷的人，相信处于完美状态的人。

And yet can this be true in the Greater Community? Can one person be the means to God in the Greater Community? That would be like a visiting race coming here and saying to you, “Well, you cannot get into Heaven unless you completely believe and follow and obey our hero,” who of course would not be human.

然而，这在大社区中是真实的吗？在大社区中，一个人能够成为通往上帝的方法吗？它就像是一个来访的种族来到这里对你说：“嗯，除非你完全相信、追随和服从我们的英雄，否则你无法进入天堂”，而我们的英雄当然不是人类。

Though this may be meaningful within a human context to inspire greater works and a higher level of intelligence and consciousness in people, within the Greater Community, it does not hold.

尽管这在人类背景下可能是有意义的，可以激发人们更伟大的工作和更高层面的智能和意识，但在大社区内，这并不成立。

There can be no superbeings in the Greater Community. There are only beings in physical life who are either strong or weak with Knowledge. Beyond this, there is the development of their social systems and their technology and their ethics.

大社区里不可能存在超级生命。只有物质生命中的生命，他们要么内识强大，要么内识薄弱。除此之外，还有他们的社会制度、技术和道德的发展。

But the critical factor is whether they are strong in Knowledge or not because, as We have seen within the world, good ethics without Knowledge lead to bad results. Many things that people begin start out as a good intention, but it does not end up in a positive way.

但关键因素在于他们是否拥有强大的内识，因为正如我们在世界上所看到的那样，没有内识的良好道德会导致糟糕的结果。人们开始做很多事情时，意图是好的，但结果却不是积极的。

Therefore, the idea of hero worship in the Greater Community cannot be relevant. As great as Jesus is within the world, though he is still largely misunderstood, from a Greater Community standpoint, he is a local hero.

因此，在大社区中崇拜英雄的想法是无关紧要的。耶稣在世上是伟大的，尽管他仍然在很大程度上被误解，但从大社区的角度来看，他是一位地方英雄。

Great teachers have been sent into all communities of intelligent life. Many have suffered the same fate as Jesus, however. In some cases, religions have been built upon them, which hardly reflect their true nature and purpose.

伟大的老师被派往所有智能生命群体。然而，许多人遭遇了与耶稣相同的命运。在某些情况下，宗教建立在他们之上，这很难反映出他们的真实自然和目的。

In many religious traditions in the world, there is the idea that someone else must be the intermediary between you and the Creator: some Divine person, a person who holds a great office in a religious institution. If there were real wisdom in these institutions and they were governed by complete benevolence, this would be possible and beneficial. But everyone is fallible. So this leads to great misunderstanding and great abuse and misappropriation of office.

世界上许多宗教传统都认为，必须有人充当你和造物主之间的中介：某个神圣之人，某个在宗教机构中担任要职的人。如果这些机构中存在真正的智慧，并且完全由仁慈来管理，那么这将是可能的，也是有益的。但每个人都会犯错。因此，这会导致严重的误解、严重的滥用和滥用职权。

In the Greater Community, people are given much more responsibility. This responsibility requires a very developed form of self-honesty, which has not been highly cultivated yet within the world because if people learn The Way of Knowledge, they may call anything that they really want, anything that they are attached to, anything that they are craving for themselves as coming from Knowledge within them.

在大社区中，人们被赋予了更多责任。这种责任需要一种非常发达的自我诚实，而这种诚实在世界上尚未得到高度培养，因为如果人们学习内识之路，他们可能会称他们真正想要的任何东西、他们依附的任何东西、他们渴望的任何东西都说成是来自他们自己内心的内识。

People will make these errors. They will think, “I want what I want and to hell with the rest!” They will call it Knowledge or whatever they think will give them the advantage in gaining what they want.

人们会犯这些错误。他们会想，“我要我想要的，其他的就见鬼去吧！”他们会把这称为内识，或者任何他们认为能让他们如愿以偿的事物。

So you see the problem. But despite the great potential for error, The Way of Knowledge must be taught to humanity, for its superstitions, its lack of vision, its religious ideology, so blind [humanity] to the greater conditions that are shaping its destiny and its future, that there must be a great inroad in The Way of Knowledge. This will not replace the world’s religions but will give them real promise and the possibility to exist and be meaningful within a Greater Community of life context.

因此，你看到了问题所在。但尽管存在巨大的错误可能性，内识之路必须被传授给人类，因为人类的迷信、缺乏远见、宗教意识形态，对塑造其天命和未来的更伟大条件如此盲目，所以内识之路必须开辟一条伟大的道路。这不会取代世界宗教，而是会给它们真正的承诺和可能性，使它们在一个生命大社区的背景下存在并拥有意义。

So deeply ingrained are many spiritual ideas that they pose a serious problem for the student of Knowledge, both within themselves and within their relationships. The great saints in the history of humanity have always stood outside the prevailing traditions of their time. Even if they played a key role in the restoration of those traditions, even if they were key figures, they were always following a greater authority within themselves. As a result, they often suffered great tribulation and persecution from the religious authorities that they were there to serve.

许多精神上的想法是根深蒂固的，给内识学习者带来了严重问题，既包括他们自己，也包括他们的人际关系。人类历史上的伟大圣人总是站在他们那个时代盛行的传统之外。即使他们在恢复这些传统方面发挥了关键作用，即使他们是关键人物，他们也总是遵循他们内心更大的权威。结果，他们经常遭受他们所服务的宗教权威的巨大磨难和迫害。

Within the world today, there are many prevailing superstitions. They do not come from Knowledge. The belief that God is preeminently concerned with the welfare of [humanity] to the exclusion of everything else is a superstition. The idea that if you are a bad person, you go to live in Hell for eternity is a superstition. The idea that everyone must believe in one teacher in order to find Heaven is a superstition. The belief that any power from the heavens or any visitors from the stars must either be demonic or angelic is a superstition.

当今世界，有许多流行的迷信。它们并非来自内识。认为上帝最关心的是人类的福祉，而排除其他一切，这种信念是一种迷信。认为如果你是一个坏人，你就会永远生活在地狱里，这种想法是一种迷信。认为每个人都必须相信一位老师才能找到天堂，这种想法是一种迷信。认为来自天堂的任何势力或来自星星的任何来访者要么是恶魔，要么是天使，这种信念也是一种迷信。

Though some of these seem incredible and you would think, “I don’t believe in these things myself,” you will find upon closer examination that they have been part of your conditioning because they are so prevalent in human societies. Even sophisticated people who would never claim such views for themselves publicly may feel them within themselves in private.

虽然其中一些似乎令人难以置信，你会想，“我自己不相信这些事情”，但仔细检查后你会发现，它们已经成为你条件的一部分，因为它们在人类社会中如此普遍。即使是那些永远不会公开宣称他们自己有这种观点的成熟人士，在私下也会有这种感觉。

How many people are afraid of becoming evil or of falling in the clutches of an evil force? This will lead them to doubt their own deeper inclinations. How many people could be persuaded, based upon the ancient writings within a certain tradition, that their inclination to do good in the world would actually be a bad thing? Kings and royalty in the past gave themselves Divine appointment and convinced enough people to believe in it.

有多少人害怕自己变得邪恶或落入邪恶势力的魔爪？这将导致他们怀疑他们自己更深层次的倾向。有多少人可以根据某种传统中的古代著作被说服，认为他们在世界上行善的倾向实际上是一件坏事？过去的国王和皇室给他们自​​己神圣的任命，并说服足够多的人相信这一点。

There is another problem here. Aside from keeping humanity in an infant state, in a state of ignorance and superstition, certain prevailing religious ideas also make humanity extremely vulnerable to manipulation from those in the Greater Community.

这里还有另一个问题。除了让人类处于幼稚状态、无知和迷信状态之外，某些盛行的宗教观念也让人类极度容易受到大社区的操控。

Humanity has been studied intensely for the past half century, not just human physiology but human culture and human religion, human ideology and human motivation, human psychology. Though people consider themselves to be marvelously complex, the truth is this is not the case. If you could see yourself from the outside and observe yourself, you would see that your behavior is not that complicated, and you would see your own vulnerabilities.

过去半个世纪以来，人类一直受到深入研究，研究的不仅仅是人类生理学，还有人类文化、人类宗教、人类意识形态、人类动机和人类心理学。尽管人们认为他们自己极其复杂，但事实并非如此。如果你能从外部看到你自己，观察你自己，你会发现你的行为并没有那么复杂，你会看到你自己的弱点。

As We have said, in preparing for the Greater Community, human governments and human religious institutions will be the prime target of those seeking to influence humanity for their own aims. Both are vulnerable.

正如我们说过的，在为大社区做准备的过程中，人类政府和人类宗教机构将成为那些为了他们自己的目的而试图影响人类的人的首要目标。两者都是脆弱的。

Governments seek power. Religious institutions seek power. But religious institutions gain their power through persuasion, through affecting the mental environment. Governments gain power in other ways, but they too must exert influence. So political and religious institutions then become the most influential in the world in affecting human behavior, human values, human ideals and human priorities.

政府寻求权力。宗教机构寻求权力。但宗教机构通过说服、通过影响心理环境来获得权力。政府通过其他方式获得权力，但它们也必须施加影响。因此，政治和宗教机构成为影响人类行为、人类价值观、人类理想和人类优先事项的世界上最具影响力的机构。

It is an amazing thing, but the manipulation of human religion creates such a grave problem. Greater Community forces, as We have said, can create a projection of an image of a saint appearing before people. Though it is merely a projection within their minds, they will think it is real. If they are not strong in Knowledge and cannot make the discernment, they will believe in what they see.

这是一件令人惊奇的事情，但人类宗教的操纵却造成了如此严重的问题。正如我们所说，大社区势力能够创造出一个圣人形象的投影出现在人们面前。尽管这只是他们心灵中的一个投影，但他们会认为它是真实的。如果他们的内识不够强大，无法做出辨别，他们就会相信他们所看到的事情。

This is not difficult for Greater Community forces to do. They can make people think that their presence here is part of a spiritual rejuvenation, or a spiritual threshold, or as a fulfillment of ancient prophecies, or constitutes the Second Coming of Christ. These kinds of projections can motivate large numbers of people to take action in violation of their own nature and Knowledge.

这对于大社区势力来说并不难做到。他们可以让人们认为，他们在这里的存在是精神复兴的一部分，或是一种精神上的门槛，或是一个古老预言的实现，或构成了基督的第二次降临。这类投射可以激励大量人采取违背他们自己自然和内识的行动。

The very religious traditions whose real mandate is to empower and to uplift humanity have instead become one of humanity’s great liabilities. This is because Knowledge is not yet strong within the human family. [Yet] the potential for Knowledge is great; the opportunity to learn The Way of Knowledge is remarkable, especially compared to other societies in the Greater Community.

那些真正旨在赋权和提升人类的宗教传统反而成为了人类的一大负担。这是因为内识在人类大家庭中还不够强大。[然而]内识的潜力是伟大的；学习内识之路的机会是非凡的，尤其是与大社区中的其他社会相比。

People are not trained in natural knowing, in natural goodness, in natural inclinations. They are not taught to claim the great endowment of Knowledge that they have. They are taught to be obedient, to follow, to serve even if such activities betray their nature and their greater instincts.

人们没有接受过自然认知、自然善良和自然倾向方面的训练。他们没有被教导去宣称他们所拥有的伟大内识禀赋。他们被教导去服从、去追随、去服务，即使这些活动背叛了他们的自然和他们更伟大的本能。

At this point, you may say, “Well, it sounds like humanity is really bad!” But this is not the case, for this happens throughout the Greater Community. All races that develop in isolation have this problem. They feel that they are the center of the universe. They feel that their ideas of divinity and creation are preeminent and universal. They believe that their values must hold true for everyone and everything.

此刻，你可能会说：“好吧，听起来人类真的很糟糕！”但事实并非如此，因为这在整个大社区中都在发生。所有孤立发展的种族都有这个问题。他们觉得他们是宇宙的中心。他们觉得他们的神性和创造是卓越和普遍的。他们相信他们的价值观必须适用于每个人、每件事。

As We have said at the beginning of this discourse, this is largely the result of living in isolation. Contact with other forms of intelligence, trade, commerce and interactions with other intelligent races, temper these extreme positions and will require a reconsideration of many of society’s values and most cherished ideals.

正如我们在本文开头所说的，这主要是孤立生活的结果。与其他形式的智能接触、贸易、商业以及与其他智能种族的互动，会缓和这些极端立场，并需要重新考虑许多社会价值观和最珍视的理想。

This brings Us to another critical thing to reconsider. Many people hope and some fervently believe that the Creator will rescue them, will save them. There is a certain vulnerability in life that is very genuine and very real. Your ancestors prayed for a good crop so that they could survive. People now pray for a good outcome for their endeavors, a good result for their marriages, a resolution to their problems with health, and they appeal to the Divine.

这让我们重新考虑了另一件至关重要的事情。许多人希望，有些人热切地相信造物主会拯救他们。生命中有某种脆弱，这种脆弱是非常真实的，也是非常现实的。你们的祖先祈求庄稼丰收，以便他们能够生存下去。现在，人们祈祷他们的事业能有好的结果，他们的婚姻能有好的结果，他们的健康问题能得到解决，他们向神灵祈求。

This is normal and natural for human beings to do this, but it creates a great problem in understanding the nature and activity of the Divine within the world. The coming of the Greater Community will stimulate this expectation, this desire and this demand for divine protection and intervention, but it will not seem to be there. “Where is God to protect us? Where is Jesus? Where is the Buddha? Where is the Muhammad to guide us now?”

人类这样做是正常和自然的，但它给理解上帝在世界上的自然和活动带来了巨大的问题。大社区的到来将刺激这种期望、这种渴望和这种对神圣保护和干预的需求，但它似乎并不存在。“上帝在哪里保护我们？耶稣在哪里？佛陀在哪里？穆罕默德现在在哪里指导我们？”

For many, this will be a spiritual crisis. Their whole notion of the preeminence of humanity in God’s eyes will be shattered. Their whole understanding of the cosmos and the nature of Divine activity within life will be so shaken and so altered that for many people it will be too much.

对许多人来说，这将是一场精神危机。他们关于人类在上帝眼中至高无上的整个观念将破灭。他们对宇宙和生命中神圣活动自然的整个理解将受到如此大的动摇和改变，以至于对许多人来说，这将是难以承受的。

This will lead to a great denial of the presence and the reality of the Greater Community. People will not want to accept this new reality because they cannot even consider it and its implications. And yet, it is part of their life. It is part of their education. It is a required condition for their growth and development. It is the inevitable result of developing as a race within a world. For eventually all races in all worlds must come in contact with the Greater Community that represents their greater context. And in all cases, their own cherished ideals, beliefs and assumptions will be greatly challenged. For who could have a universal approach to life without a direct experience of the universe?

这将导致对大社区的存在和现实的极大否定。人们将不愿接受这个新的现实，因为他们甚至无法考虑它及其含义。然而，它是他们生命的一部分。它是他们教育的一部分。它是他们成长和发展的必要条件。它是作为一个世界中的一个种族而发展的必然结果。因为最终所有世界的所有种族都必须接触代表他们更广泛背景的大社区。在所有情况下，他们自己珍视的理想、信仰和假设都将受到巨大挑战。因为谁能在没有对宇宙的直接体验的情况下拥有一种普遍的生命观呢？

The Creator is actively involved in every person’s life through Knowledge within them and through the activity of the Unseen Ones. But there are not many Unseen Ones, contrary to what people believe. People often give themselves confidence by saying, “Well, I have all these angels around me all the time!” But it is not like that.

造物主通过每个人内在的内识和不可见者的活动积极地参与到每个人的生命当中。但是不可见者并不多，这与人们所相信的相反。人们常常给他们自己信心，说：“好吧，我身边一直都有这些天使！”但事实并非如此。

Each Unseen One must [oversee] hundreds of individuals. So the need for individual responsibility, the development of Knowledge and the emergence of true self-motivation within the individual are crucial and are much more needed today than they ever have been before.

每一个不可见者都必须监督数百人。因此，个人责任感、内识的发展和个人内在真实自我激励的出现至关重要，而且今天比以往任何时候都更加需要它们。

Old traditions are breaking down. Tribal identities and cultures are being assimilated by larger groups. Around the world, nations are being fused into each other through economic interdependence and environmental degradation. Isolation is very difficult to attain within the world now. And the world’s isolation is now being cast away by the presence of the Greater Community.

旧的传统正在瓦解。部落身份和文化正在被更大的群体同化。在世界各地，各国正通过经济相互依存和环境退化而相互融合。如今，世界很难实现孤立。而世界孤立现在正因大社区的存在而被抛弃。

These prevailing ideas have had certain benefits for humanity, but they have outgrown any usefulness they may have had in the distant past. Humanity must become stronger mentally. It must become more competent, more discerning, more able. The motivation to do good, to be a force for good, must come from individuals increasingly now.

这些盛行的想法对人类有一定益处，但它们在遥远的过去已经失去了任何用处。人类必须在心理上变得更加强大。它必须变得更有能干、更有辨别力、更有能力。现在，行善、成为一股向善力量的动力必须越来越多地来自个人。

The world is in a turbulent state of transition. It is in the process of becoming one community, not because people want it to become one community but because it must become one community to survive. People know this, but they cannot even tolerate the idea intellectually or emotionally.

世界正处于动荡的转型期。它正处于成为一个社区的过程中，这并不是因为人们希望它成为一个社区，而是因为为了生存它必须成为一个社区。人们知道这一点，但他们在理智或情感上甚至无法容忍这个想法。

There is a notion that life will only give you what you are ready to deal with. Many people think this now. It is one of the mythologies of this age. But the fact is that life will give you what life must give you whether you are ready or not, whether you can handle it or not, whether you can assimilate it or not.

有一种观念认为，生命只会给你那些你准备好去面对的事情。现在许多人都这么认为。它是这个时代的神话之一。但事实是，无论你是否准备好，无论你是否能够处理，无论你是否能够吸收，生命都会给予你生命必须给你的内识。

It is no longer enough to believe in great things. You must become great, greater than you are now, as great as you can be. It is not enough to believe in your institutions or their ideals. You must find what God has put within you and allow it to emerge within you. It is not enough to believe in the work of the great saints who lived in the world long ago, for you are living in a different world now, under a different set of requirements.

仅仅相信伟大的事情已经不够了。你必须变得伟大，比现在的你更伟大，尽你所能地伟大。仅仅相信你的机构或它们的理想是不够的。你必须找到上帝防止你内在的内识并允许它在你内在浮现。仅仅相信很久以前生活在这个世界上的伟大圣徒们的工作是不够的，因为你现在生活在一个不同的世界里，处于一套不同的要求之下。

There is no one person who will lead humanity out of the wilderness. There is no one individual who will save humanity from the Greater Community. There is only the cultivation of human responsibility, human ability and human cooperation.

没有一个人能够带领人类走出荒野。没有一个人能够拯救人类脱离大社区。只有培养人类的责任感、人类的能力和人类的合作。

These all are the results of Knowledge. These all are the results of the natural responsibility and wisdom and capability that the Creator has given to each person. These are the things that must be emphasized now.

这些都是内识的结果。这些都是造物主赋予每个人的自然责任、智慧和能力的结果。这些都是现在必须强调的事情。

The world is emerging into the Greater Community. There is a great calling in the world. It is a calling for Knowledge. It is the beginning of a new era, a difficult era, a great era. Humanity will be successful only if it can cultivate the abilities that We are describing here. This is its opportunity and the time is now.

世界正在迈向大社区。世界上有一个伟大的召唤。这是对内识的召唤。这是一个新的时代、一个艰难的时代、一个伟大时代的开始。人类只有能够培养我们在此描述的能力，才能获得成功。这是它的机会，时间就是现在。