The First Commitment

As received by Marshall Vian Summers on September 25, 2008 in Boulder, Colorado
2008年9月25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

You have a primary relationship with God, and you experience this relationship primarily through the deeper Intelligence that God has placed within you, a deeper Mind within you called Knowledge. This is your most primary relationship and responsibility. It is not a relationship with a set of beliefs or with an institution. It is not necessarily a relationship with an ideology or with one religion particularly. It is really, in its purest sense, your relationship with God.

你与上帝有着一种主要关系，你主要通过上帝放置在你内在的更深层次的智能，你内在更深层次的心灵，被称为内识来体验这种关系。这是你最主要的关系和责任。它不是与一套信仰或一个机构的关系。它不一定是与某种意识形态或某种宗教的关系。从最纯粹的意义上讲，它实际上是你与上帝的关系。

People hold this relationship to be quite secondary—secondary to their families, secondary to their personal interests, secondary to often political or cultural associations, secondary to their national identity or their cultural identity or heritage and so forth. But really this relationship is the most primary relationship, and it is your primary responsibility, or ability to respond, to this relationship.

人们认为这种关系相当次要——次于他们的家庭、次于他们的个人利益、次于政治或文化关系、次于他们的民族认同或文化认同或传统等等。但实际上，这种关系是最主要的关系，这是你对这种关系的首要责任，或者说你有能力做出回应。

God speaks to you through Knowledge. That is the well of your conscience. It is not a social conscience, a conscience that has been instigated or influenced to make you behave and believe according to the dictates or the values of a particular culture. It is a far deeper conscience. It is inherent in your Being. It is the foundation of your awareness. It is this that tells you what is right and what is wrong fundamentally and provides the foundation for your ethical understanding of life and your participation with others.

上帝通过内识对你讲话。这是你的良知之井。它不是一种社会良知，一种被煽动或影响以让你按照某种特定文化的命令或价值观行事和信仰的良知。它是一种更深层次的良知。这种良知是你的存在固有的。它是你觉知的基础。它从根本上告诉你什么是对的、什么是错的，并为你的生命伦理理解和你与他人的参与提供基础。

While you have a duty to raise your children and, in some circumstances, to take care of your aging parents, your first responsibility is to Knowledge. This is your connection to God.

虽然你有责任抚养你的孩子，在某些情况下，还要照顾你年迈的父母，但你的首要责任是内识。这是你与上帝的连接。

Of course, God is a very different authority than the authority of your nation or the overarching influence of your culture, your family and your friends. If indeed God is the center of your relationships and the primary focus of your responsibility in life, then this can set a great contrast to your duties and obligations to others and to the nation in which you live.

当然，上帝的权威与你的国家权威或你的文化、你的家庭和朋友的主导影响力截然不同。如果上帝确实是你的关系的中心，是你生命责任的首要焦点，那么这与你对他人和你所居住的国家所承担的责任和义务形成了鲜明的对比。

This is one of the reasons that people keep their relationship with God very much in the background, or they consider it only conceptually, considering that they only have a relationship with certain beliefs, ideas or institutions. But for people who have experienced their deeper conscience, this indeed establishes Knowledge in contrast to everything else. This requires a very deep evaluation of one’s values and one’s allegiances. For you cannot serve two masters without compromising yourself and losing contact with the power and the presence of Knowledge within yourself.

这是人们把他们与上帝的关系置于幕后，或仅仅从概念上考虑它的原因之一，认为他们只与某些信仰、想法或机构有关系。但对于那些体验过他们更深层次良知的人来说，这确实确立了内识，不同于其他一切。这要求对一个人的价值观和忠诚进行非常深度的评估。因为你不可能侍奉两个主人而不妥协你自己，不失去与你内在内识的力量和存在的接触。

Without Knowledge, people of course must have allegiances in life to feel connected to life and to feel that they are part of something greater than themselves. Without an awareness of Knowledge, this is what people do. They align themselves with beliefs, with institutions, with other people, with social movements, with political movements. They align themselves with religious beliefs and institutions because they must have something greater than themselves to be a part of, or their isolation in life becomes intolerable.

没有内识，人们当然必须效忠于生命，才能感觉到他们与生命的联接，才能感受到他们是某种比他们自己更大事物的一部分。没有对内识的觉知，人们就是这样做的。他们把他们自己与信仰、与机构、与其他人、与社会运动、与政治运动保持一致。他们把他们自己与宗教信仰和机构保持一致，因为他们必须拥有某种比他们自己更大事物作为其一部分，否则他们在生命中的孤立就会变得难以忍受。

This is the condition of so many people. You see this everywhere around you. They have cast their allegiance to other things, an allegiance that really belongs to Knowledge. Perhaps they are very committed and dutiful in their allegiances, but they use them to give their life focus and balance and purpose because you cannot live without purpose of some kind, for purpose is life itself. Even in a human being who has such a great imagination, this is indeed the case.

这是许多人的状况。你在周围随处可见。他们把他们的忠诚投向其他事物，这种忠诚实际上属于内识。也许他们非常忠诚、尽职尽责，但他们使用这些忠诚来赋予他们生命焦点、平衡和目的，因为没有某种目的你就无法生存，因为目的就是生命本身。即使对于一个拥有如此伟大想象力的人类来说，情况也是如此。

So when you begin to take the Steps to Knowledge, to become aware that there is a greater Intelligence, a deeper current of your life; and you feel the need to connect to it, which is a natural need; and you feel you must gain an awareness of who and what you really are in this life, and why you are in the world, and what you are really meant to do here, then this creates contrast to your duties, obligations and allegiances with everything else.

所以当你开始开展内识进阶，察觉到有一种更伟大的智能，你生命中有一种更深层次的潮流；你感觉到需要与它联接起来，这是一种自然的需求；你感觉到你必须觉知你是谁，你在这个生命中真正是什么，你为什么来到这个世界上，你真正应该在这里做什么，那么这就与你的职责、义务和对其他一切事物的忠诚形成了对比。

Many people find that they are not really free to go to Knowledge because they are afraid that Knowledge will point their life in another direction—a direction different from where they have already cast their life, a direction that is different from where they have given their allegiances and where they have committed themselves.

许多人发现他们无法真正自由地走向内识，因为他们害怕内识将把他们的生命指向另一个方向——一个不同于他们已然投身的生命的方向，一个不同于他们已忠诚的地方和他们已承诺的地方的方向。

This problem of allegiance is fundamental. It is entirely natural for you to want to return to Knowledge because this is the center of your life, this is the source of your integrity, and it is the source of your strength. This is what gives your life meaning and purpose and frees you from all the persuasions of the world around you. It is the antidote to evil and to addiction.

这个忠诚问题是根本性的。你想要回归内识是完全自然的，因为这是你生命的中心，这是你完整性的源泉，这是你力量的源泉。这赋予了你生命意义和目的，并让你摆脱了周围世界的所有说服。这是邪恶和成瘾的解药。

So you gravitate to Knowledge naturally as you find that everything else is shallow and disappointing, as you learn through your own experiences that the pleasures and the pains of the world do not reach deep enough within you to satisfy you, to satisfy the deeper need of your soul. So this brings you to reflect upon your life. And this brings you to reconsider your values and your actions and the meaning of your relationships with others.

因此，当你发现其他一切都是肤浅和令人失望的，当你通过你自己的体验了解到，世界的快乐和痛苦无法深入你的内心，无法满足你，无法满足你灵魂更深层次的需求时，你自然而然地被内识所吸引。因此，这让你反思你的生命。这让你重新考虑你的价值观、你的行动以及你与他人关系的意义。

While this attraction is the most natural attraction, you will find yourself at odds with your life, the life you have created already. And the more you have given yourself to people and places and things, the more this contrast is emphasized. Here there is resistance. There is a resistance to your natural attraction to Knowledge. You want to know, but you are afraid to know, afraid of how it might challenge your ideas, your beliefs, even your whole idea of yourself, for Knowledge is not bound by these things. You might be frightened of what it might mean for your circumstances, your financial security, your social network and your political allegiances.

虽然这种吸引力是最自然的吸引力，但你会发现你自己与你已经创造的生命格格不入。你越是把你自己交给人们、地方和事物，这种反差就越被强调。这里存在着阻力。你对内识的自然吸引力存在着阻力。你想要知道，但你害怕知道，害怕它可能挑战你的想法、你的信仰，甚至你对你自己的整个想法，因为内识不受这些事物的束缚。你可能会害怕它可能对你的环境、你的财务安全、你的社交网络和你的政治忠诚意味着什么。

Knowledge is not bound by these things. In essence, it is free, but you are not. The only way you can come into relationship with something that is free is to become free yourself. Those who are not free are frightened by those who are. They are intimidated; they are uncomfortable. It forces them to face their own restraints and circumstances.

内识不受这些事物的束缚。从本质上讲，内识是自由的，但你不是。与自由的内识建立关系的唯一方法就是你自己变得自由。不自由的人害怕自由的人。他们被吓倒了；他们感到不舒服。这迫使他们面对他们自己的束缚和处境。

Knowledge within you is free, but you are not. You must accept this as a starting point in taking the Steps to Knowledge, in beginning your journey back to your foundation. Perhaps you live in a free country and can exercise personal freedoms about what you do and where you go and who you can associate with. But compared to Knowledge, you are not free—you are bound, you are circumscribed, you are held back.

你内在的内识是自由的，但你却不是。在开展内识进阶、开始回归你基础的旅程时，你必须接受这一点作为起点。也许你生活在一个自由的国家，可以行使个人自由，决定你做什么、去哪里、与谁交往。但与内识相比，你并不自由——你被束缚、被限制、被阻碍。

If you are older, you have probably already committed yourself to many things that may not have anything to do with your greater purpose for being in the world. Knowledge is committed to this greater purpose within you, a greater purpose that you have not yet discovered. It is free, but only in the sense of being free to be what it really is and to support your life to be what it is meant to be. And this can be very different from what you have established thus far.

如果你年纪大了，你可能已经承诺了许多事情，这些事情可能与你身处这个世界的更伟大目的毫无关系。内识致力于你内在的这个更伟大目的，一个你尚未发现的更伟大目的。它是自由的，但只是在自由成为它真正的样子并支持你的生命成为它本该成为的样子的意义上。这可能与你迄今为止所建立的完全不同。

If you are discontented with your life as it is, then you will have an incentive for Knowledge. You will want to find freedom and purpose. Yet if you still think that your life is fine, and you are comfortable with it up to a point, then Knowledge will seem like a great threat. You will avoid it, which is tragic, because you will be avoiding yourself. You will be avoiding your deepest feelings, your emotional honesty, your integrity and your deepest and most fundamental values.

如果你对你现在的生命不满意，那么你就会有追求内识的动力。你会想要找到自由和目的。然而如果你仍然认为你的生命很好，并且在一定程度上你对它感到满意，那么内识就会看起来像一个巨大的威胁。你会回避它，这是悲剧性的，因为你将会回避你自己。你将回避你最深的感受、你的情感诚实、你的完整性以及你最深刻和最根本的价值观。

This is why people are strangers to themselves. They are identified with things on the outside, but they have very little relationship with themselves on the inside. They are not free. They are not free to be who they are and what they are and to follow their deepest inclination. Even if they are free on the outside and have political and social freedom of movement, which is rare in the world, this freedom does not reach to the depths of their own nature. And so they are not free.

这就是为什么人们对他们自己感到陌生。他们认同外在的事物，但内心却与他们自己几乎没有什么联系。他们不自由。他们没有做自己的自由，做他们想做的事，也没有自由追随他们内心深处的倾向。即使他们外表自由，拥有世界上罕见的政治和社会行动自由，但这种自由并没有触及他们自然的深处。因此他们并不自由。

They are not free to see, know and feel what is really there for them. They are bound by their ideas. They are bound by their commitments. They are bound by their beliefs and associations. They are bound by the preferences and the desires of others. They are bound by the emphasis and beliefs of their group or their culture [or] their families. So even if they have achieved outer freedom, which is difficult to achieve, within themselves they are strangers to themselves.

他们无法自由地去看、知道和感受到他们真正需要什么。他们被他们的想法所束缚。他们被他们的承诺所束缚。他们被他们的信仰和交往所束缚。他们被他人的偏好和愿望所束缚。他们被他们群体或文化[或]家庭的重点和信仰所束缚。因此，即使他们获得了难以实现的外在自由，但在内心深处，他们对他们自己来说仍然是陌生的。

This is really the source of all suffering, for you can never find any real happiness or contentment if you are a stranger to your Self. This Self within you is deeper and far beyond your intellect, beyond your beliefs and ideas, your habits and the nature of your personality. Your real nature is far deeper than this. So you build a kind of life in the pursuit of happiness, but it is not really an authentic life. It is not really a life that you are committed to wholeheartedly, for your soul is not committed to it even if you are attached to it in your own mind.

这其实是一切痛苦的根源，因为如果你对你的自我陌生，你就永远找不到任何真正的幸福或满足。你内在的自我比你的智力、你的信仰和想法、你的习惯和你人格的自然更深层次，远远超出了你的智力、你的信仰和想法、你的习惯和你的人格自然。你的真实自然比这更深层次。所以你在追求幸福的过程中建立了一种生命，但这并不是真正的真实生命。这并不是你全心全意投入的生命，因为即使你在你自己的心灵中依附于它，你的灵魂也不会投入其中。

So to begin to take the Steps to Knowledge and to feel the natural attraction to Knowledge, and to respond to this attraction, means that other things that you have created will have to be re-evaluated. For Knowledge is not bound by them. Perhaps only a very small part of your life as you know it really emphasizes or represents your deeper nature. So what do you do with the rest of your life? You have commitments. You have responsibilities. Perhaps you have a family to take care of or a business to run.

因此，开始开展内识进阶，感受内识的自然吸引力，并对这种吸引力做出回应，意味着你创造的其他事物将必须被重新评估。因为内识不受它们的束缚。也许你所知的生命中只有很小一部分真正强调或代表了你更深层次的自然。那么，你的余生该做些什么呢？你有承诺。你有责任。也许你有家庭需要照顾，也许你有生意需要经营。

Here you will have to give your faith to Knowledge to guide you. Knowledge will not destroy your existence as you know it. It will not dash your life as you have created it, but it will take everything that you have learned, and all of your skills, and all the wisdom that you have gathered in life so far and bring it to bear to set the real course of your life. This is often moving in a different direction, with a different understanding and a deeper set of values.

在这里，你必须把你的信仰交给内识来指引你。内识不会摧毁你所知道的存在。它不会摧毁你所创造的生命，但它将善用你所学到的一切、你所有的技能、你迄今为止在生命中积累的所有智慧，并使用它们来设定你生命的真正道路。这往往是朝着不同的方向前进，带着不同的理解和一套更深层次的价值观。

You will feel frightened and uncertain at choosing to follow the mystery of your life, for Knowledge will always be very mysterious, beyond the grasp and the reach of your intellect. Knowledge will re-establish your relationships with people, with places, with your possessions, with your culture, your family, your government and the whole world. But you must allow this to emerge.

在选择追寻你生命的神秘时，你会感到恐惧和不确定，因为内识永远非常神秘，超出你的智力所能掌握和触及的范围。内识将重建你与人、与地方、与你的财产、与你的文化、你的家庭、你的政府和整个世界的关系。但你必须允许它浮现。

You have been seeing the world from your intellect. You have been valuing things because of your desires and your fears of not having, but Knowledge has a very different emphasis. Its purpose is to take you to the people and the places and the circumstances where your greater purpose and service to the world can be realized.

你一直从你的智力看向世界。你一直因为你的渴望和对没有的恐惧而珍视事物，但内识有着非常不同的侧重点。它的目的是带你去见那些人、那些地方和那些环境，在那里你的更伟大目的和对世界的服务能够得到实现。

This will alter the course and the nature of your life. It will free you from any obligations or requirements that do not represent this greater purpose. And so, fundamentally, Knowledge is revolutionary. It represents a revolution within yourself and a revolution in your outer life, as your values shift and your priorities are changing, which they will naturally do as you become more inner directed rather than outer directed in your life.

这将改变你的生命轨迹和自然。它将使你摆脱任何不代表这个更伟大目的的义务或要求。因此，从根本上说，内识是革命性的。它代表着你内心的一场革命和你外在生命的一场革命，因为你的价值观正在转变，你的优先事项也在改变，而当你在生命中变得更加以内在为导向而不是以外在为导向时，它们自然会发生改变。

Here you must focus on the power and the presence of Knowledge. You will have other commitments in life, but they must be in harmony with Knowledge. You will establish relationships with people, you will provide services to others, you will have employment in the world, you will have associations with people and groups of people, you will still be a citizen of your nation, you will still be a member of your family. But the difference here is that your overall awareness and emphasis has shifted—shifted to the center of your life where it belongs. For this shift to occur, you may have to break away from many things and from many people who cannot help you or support you in the real direction that your life must go.

在这里，你必须专注于内识的力量和存在。你在生命中将有其他的承诺，但它们必须与内识和谐相处。你将与人们建立关系，你将为他人提供服务，你将在世界上有工作，你将与人们和群体建立联系，你依然是你国家的公民，你依然是你家庭的一员。但此处的不同之处在于，你的整体觉知和重心已经转变——转向了你生命的中心，它是内识所属的地方。为了让这个转变发生，你或许必须摆脱很多事物、摆脱很多无法帮助你或支持你走向你生命必须走向的真正方向的人。

It is to make this shift that is the greatest need of your life. It is this shift that will be your greatest contribution to your children and to your relationships with other people. It is this shift that will enable you to inspire others and to give things of real value to the world. It represents a great revolution within yourself and a great shift of emphasis in your life.

做出这个转变是你生命中最大的需求。这个转变将是你对你的孩子和与他人的关系的最大贡献。这个转变将使你能够激励他人，为世界带来真正有价值的礼物。它代表着你内心的一次伟大革命和你生命中重心的一次伟大转变。

It will bring new people into your life. And it will take you away from people who cannot support your true direction, who do not really understand your deeper nature and who are themselves not ready or are unwilling to face the Great Attraction within themselves. Perhaps they have a different journey to take in life than the journey that you must take. If this is the case, you must free them without condemnation, without blame. You must have the courage to follow the deeper power within yourself.

它将把新人带进你的生命。它将带你远离那些无法支持你真实方向的人，那些不真正理解你更深层次自然的人，那些他们自己还没有准备好或不愿意面对他们内在的伟大吸引力的人。或许他们在生命中要走的路与你必须走的路不同。如果是这样的话，你必须不加谴责、不加责备地释放他们。你必须有勇气去追随你自己内在更深层次的力量。

Your nation may call upon you for military service, to defend the nation or to engage in conflict within the interests that that nation has established for itself. But Knowledge must be your guide as to whether you will participate or not. Your family may want you to conform to its values and to its social activities, but it is Knowledge within you that will tell you whether you can do this or not.

你的国家可能会要求你服兵役，保卫国家，或参与该国为它自身确立的利益范围内的冲突。但内识必须指导你决定是否参与。你的家庭可能希望你遵守其价值观和社会活动，但你内在的内识会告诉你是否能做到这一点。

Knowledge will set certain boundaries. It certainly will not restrict your life totally because you are really here to be in the world. You are here to participate with people and to contribute to life. But Knowledge will set certain boundaries, and when you approach these boundaries, you will feel very uncomfortable within yourself. You will feel a great sense of restraint, as if something deep within you was trying to hold you back, to prevent you from saying something or doing something or committing yourself to something that is inappropriate.

内识会设定特定的界限。它当然不会完全限制你的生命，因为你来到这里真的是为了活在这个世界。你来到这里是为了和人们一起参与并为生命做出贡献。但是内识会设定特定的界限，当你接近这些界限时，你会在内心感到非常不舒服。你会感受到一种巨大的束缚感，仿佛你内心深处的有某种东西试图阻止你，阻止你说一些不合适的话、做一些不合适的事或承诺一些不合适的事。

As you become closer to Knowledge, you will feel this restraint exercising itself in many ways. For you will still be attracted to do the things you did before. You will still have the same desires and insecurities, and they will motivate you in certain ways. But you will feel that Knowledge will be restraining you, holding you back.

当你越来越接近内识时，你会感觉到这种克制以多种方式发挥作用。因为你仍然会被吸引去做你以前做过的事情。你仍然会有同样的渴望和不安全感，它们会以某种方式激励你。但你会感觉到内识在束缚你、阻碍你。

This is very important. To be able to discern the movement of Knowledge within yourself is very important and requires skill and preparation. It does not happen just like that. God does not cast a spell upon you, and all of a sudden you are in perfection.

这非常重要。能够辨别你自己内在内识的运动非常重要，需要技能和准备。事情不会就这样发生。上帝不会对你施咒，然后你突然就变得完美了。

Your spiritual practice, in whatever form that it is—if you have a spiritual practice at all—is all about building a bridge to Knowledge because ultimately Knowledge and your personal mind must work together, your personal mind serving Knowledge as a vehicle for Knowledge. This represents the real hierarchy of power within yourself, in its most natural and efficacious formation.

你的精神实践，无论以何种形式——如果你有精神实践的话——都是为了搭建通往内识的桥梁，因为最终内识和你的个人心灵必须一起工作，你的个人心灵作为内识的载体服务于内识。这代表了你自己内在力量的真正层级，以其最自然、最有效的形式出现。

Here your deeper conscience will tell you what to do and not to do, and you will feel you have boundaries in your life beyond which you cannot go: dangerous activities, dangerous attractions, dangerous commitments. They may attract you, they may seduce you, you may feel obligated to follow them, but Knowledge within you will hold you back. And you must be willing to face the consequences of this. For evil, which is what undermines Knowledge within you and within life, will always appear to offer you things you do not have or things that you want or think that you need. This is why so many people succumb to these attractions.

在这里，你更深层次的良知将告诉你该做什么、不该做什么，你将感觉到你的生命中存在着你无法超越的界限：危险的活动、危险的吸引力、危险的承诺。它们可能吸引你，它们可能引诱你，你可能感到有义务去遵循它们，但是你内在的内识将阻止你。你必须愿意面对其后果。因为邪恶——它破坏了你内在和生命内在的内识——总是会出现，为你提供你没有的东西，或者你想要或认为你需要的东西。正因为如此，如此多的人屈服于这些吸引力。

But within you, Knowledge will keep you on a steady course. It is not persuaded by these things. To Knowledge, wealth, beauty and power mean nothing. And to be free of these seductions is to have a freedom in life that is so unparalleled. When you are free like this, everyone else will look like they are in chains—slaves—and whether the chains are made of iron or made of gold, they are all the same.

但在你的内心，内识将让你保持稳定。它不会被这些事物所说服。对内识来说，财富、美貌和权力毫无意义。摆脱这些诱惑，就是拥有无与伦比的生命自由。当你如此自由时，其他人看起来都像是戴着锁链——奴隶——无论锁链是铁的还是金的，都是一样的。

God is trying to free you so you can be in the world and have the power that God has given you to express in this world, so that your true gifts may come forward, so that you may find where these gifts are to be given, and so that you may find the people who will help you to give them and who will honor them and value them.

上帝正在试图使你获得自由，让你能够在这个世界中拥有上帝赋予你的力量，以便在这个世界中表达自己，使你的真实礼物得以展现，让你找到这些礼物应被给予的地方，这样你才能找到那些愿意帮助你给予这些礼物、尊重和珍视这些礼物的人。

You may participate in daily life carrying on your daily activities, but you are [sensitive] to the presence of Knowledge. And as you learn to still your mind as you take the Steps to Knowledge, you will be able to feel and hear the guidance that Knowledge will give you, at every turn in the road, at every unexpected challenge.

你可以参与日常生命，继续你的日常活动，但你对内识的存在是敏感的。在开展内识进阶的过程中，当你学会静止你的心灵时，你将能够感受到并听到内识将给你的指导，在路上的每一个转折点，在每一个意想不到的挑战中。

For no matter how complex your life may become, or how uncertain the environment around you may become, Knowledge can navigate these things. It is the pilot of your life. It is your inner compass. Neglect this, and you will be a slave to the forces of the world and will become lost in the world—lost in a world of pleasure and pain, lost in the Great Waves of change that are coming to the world, a stranger to yourself and a stranger to others.

因为无论你的生命变得多么复杂，或者你周围的环境变得多么不确定，内识都能够指导这些事情。它是你生命的领航员。它是你内在的指南针。忽视这一点，你就会成为世界力量的奴隶，迷失在世界上——迷失在一个充满快乐和痛苦的世界里，迷失在即将降临世界的变革巨浪中，对你自己和他人来说都是陌生的人。

First God must rescue you from your condition in order to provide for you a greater journey and a greater accomplishment in life. You cannot simply add on higher purpose to your life as it is, for your life as it is will not support it because you are not free to follow a greater purpose yet. Following this purpose does not require perfection or enlightenment, but it does require a shift within yourself, a shift of allegiance away from your fears and desires to a greater power within you.

首先，上帝必须将你从你的处境中拯救出来，以便为你提供一段更伟大的生命旅程和一种更伟大的生命成就。你不能简单地为你现有的生命添加更高宗旨，因为你现在的生命无法支持它，因为你还没有自由去追随更伟大的目的。追随这个目的并不需要完美或开悟，但它确实需要你内心的转变，从你的恐惧和欲望转向你自己内心更伟大的力量。

When you have made this shift, and even in the process of making this shift, you will see the world very differently. You will have a very different vantage point, as if you have gotten high enough on the mountain to really see what is around you, whereas before, you were lost in the valleys and the trees below.

当你完成这个转变时，甚至在转变过程中，你都会以截然不同的眼光看待这个世界。你将拥有截然不同的视角，仿佛你已经爬上山，能够真正看到周围的一切，而之前，你迷失在山谷和下面的树林中。

Knowledge will indicate if you are to become involved in a political campaign or a campaign of social change. It will indicate if that is part of your education and destiny. To make these commitments without Knowledge is to cast yourself in life before you really know who you are and what your life is about. And you will be involved out of fear and anger. You will be involved because you resist or resent others and their actions. This is not the motivation that will bring real resolution to anything.

内识将指示你是否要参与一场政治运动或社会变革运动。它将指示这是否是你的教育和天命的一部分。在没有内识的情况下做出这些承诺，就是在你真正知道你是谁、你的生命是为了什么之前就把你自己投入到生命。你将出于恐惧和愤怒而参与其中。你将因为你抵制或怨恨他人及其行动而参与其中。这不是能给任何事情带来真正解决的动机。

Even if your cause appears to be noble and justified, if you are engaged because you are angry or resentful or fearful, then that is what you will contribute to the situation. That will only create opposition and more conflict in the world. Now you are fighting others for something that you want. Perhaps you are not using weapons. Perhaps you are only using words and actions that are lawful, but you are bringing more resentment and hostility into the situation, and those are things that the human family does not need more of.

即使你的事业看起来是高尚和正当的，如果你是因为愤怒、怨恨或恐惧而参与其中，那么这就是你对局势的贡献。这只会在世界上制造对立和更多冲突。现在你正在为你想要的东西与他人战斗。也许你没有使用武器。也许你只是使用了合法的言语和行动，但你却为局势带来了更多的怨恨和敌意，而这些正是人类大家庭所不需要的。

Your participation in life must be governed by a greater power within you if it is to be truly effective. Even those who oppose you will be affected if your intentions are clear and are guided by Knowledge. They may not agree with you, but they will respect you. For they realize you do not hate them; you do not wish them ill; you do not want to overthrow them or cast them down. That is a very great difference from what motivates people in their political behavior or campaigns, or even in their emphasis for social justice.

如果你希望你的生命真正有效，那么你必须由你内在的一个更伟大力量来管理你的生命。如果你的意图明确并受到内识的指引，那么即使是那些反对你的人也会受到影响。他们可能不同意你的观点，但他们会尊重你。因为他们意识到你并不恨他们；你不希望他们倒霉；你不想推翻他们或打倒他们。这与人们的政治行为或竞选，甚至他们对社会正义的强调有着巨大的不同。

How many times have you seen in the world revolutions only leading to a different set of oppressive powers? Perhaps with a different philosophy, but nonetheless, they are in a sense no better than the ones who preceded them. They only have a different base of support in the society or the country. And the cost of the revolution is terrible. Many people lose their lives. Many people now become oppressed by powers that do not favor them.

世界上有多少次革命最终只会导致另一套压迫性权力？也许它们有着不同的哲学，但无论如何，从某种意义上说，它们并不比之前的那些更好。它们只是在社会或国家中拥有不同的支持基础。革命的代价是可怕的。许多人失去了生命。现在，许多人被不利于他们的权力所压迫。

Perhaps your destiny is to become a social advocate or to enter a political arena, but it must be guided by Knowledge, and it cannot be governed by hostility and resentment. This does not mean you are not ferocious in your emphasis, but it does mean that your heart is open and that hatred is not your guide. Even if under very severe circumstances you are called to defend your nation against invasion or intervention from others, you cannot hate your enemies here.

或许你的天命是成为一名社会倡导者或进入政治舞台，但它必须受到内识的指导，而不能被敌意和怨恨所支配。这并不意味着你不会激烈地强调，而是意味着你的心灵是开放的，仇恨不是你的指导。即使在非常严峻的情况下，你被要求保卫你的国家免受他人的入侵或干预，你也无法在这里憎恨你的敌人。

Even at this time, humanity is facing intervention from races from beyond the world. They are not human; they are not like you. They view you in a cold, dispassionate way. But you cannot hate them, for they are sentient beings created by the same God that created you. Perhaps now they are functioning without Knowledge, which is certainly the case or they would not be intervening here. But you cannot hate them.

即便在此时此刻，人类也正面临来自世界之外种族的干预。他们不是人类；他们和你们不一样。他们以一种冷漠、无动于衷的方式看待你们。但你不能憎恨他们，因为他们是由创造你们的同一位上帝所创造的有情众生。或许现在他们在没有内识的情况下运作，情况肯定如此，否则他们就不会在这里进行干预。但你不能憎恨他们。

Knowledge is a very different emphasis. The quest for personal power, the quest for personal wealth, the quest for personal attractiveness or beauty and the hatred against those who would threaten these pursuits, this is not the emphasis of Knowledge. This is not natural to your deeper nature.

内识是一个非常不同的重点。对个人权力的追求，对个人财富的追求，对个人吸引力或美貌的追求，以及对那些威胁这些追求的人的仇恨，这不是内识的重点。这对你更深层次的自然来说是不自然的。

Only Knowledge within you knows how you can function in life in a different way, for a different purpose, generating a different outcome. Here you must be willing to journey alone, particularly at the outset, for many of your former friends and family will not be able to support you or understand what you are doing. You must, for a time at least, separate yourself from them to have the freedom to respond to Knowledge within yourself. You must undergo this revolution within yourself, for this is how God is going to save your life and rescue you from your own imprisonment and your own misery.

只有你内在的内识知道你如何能够以不同的方式、为了不同的目的在生命中运作，产生不同的结果。在这里，你必须愿意独自旅行，特别是在开始的时候，因为你的许多以前的朋友和家人将无法支持你或理解你在做什么。你必须至少在一段时间内与他们分开，才能拥有回应你内在内识的自由。你必须经历你内在的这场革命，因为这是上帝将如何拯救你的生命、将你从你自己的监禁和你自己的痛苦中解救出来。

In essence, you do not really know what you want for the world. You may think or believe that you want to live in a world of peace and prosperity and happiness, but you have no idea what this would look like, or even if you would enjoy it. To come to the realization that you do not really know what you want for yourself or the world is a profound position of self-honesty. It is a real reckoning within yourself.

从本质上讲，你并不真正知道你想要这个世界是什么样子。你可能认为或相信你想生活在一个和平、繁荣和幸福的世界，但你不知道这会是什么样子，甚至不知道你是否会喜欢它。认识到你并不真正知道你想要你自己或这个世界是什么样子，是一种深刻的自我诚实。它是你自己内心的一种真正的清算。

If there were peace and prosperity, the world would be stripped of its resources, and humanity would fail. If you thought everyone in the world should have a high standard of living, humanity would have a very short future. Yet this does not justify poverty or oppression in any way. But it simply demonstrates that your aspirations for yourself and your beliefs about the world are really not founded on Knowledge and probably have very little wisdom associated with them.

如果存在和平与繁荣，世界就会被剥夺资源，人类就会失败。如果你认为世界上的每个人都应该拥有高标准的生活，那么人类的未来将非常短暂。然而，这丝毫不能证明贫穷或压迫是合理的。它只是表明你对你自己的期望和你对世界的信念实际上并非建立在内识之上，而且很可能与智慧无缘。

You are not here to make Separation work. You are not here to perfect the world. You are here to contribute something to the well-being of people, to the well-being of life and to plant seeds for the future of humanity.

你来到这里不是为了使分离发挥作用。你来到这里不是为了完善世界。你来到这里是为了为人们的福祉、生命的福祉做出贡献，为人类的未来播下种子。

A seed is a very tiny thing. It does not look like it has any potency at all. You hold a little seed in your hand, and you say, “Well, what can this do?” But a seed can grow a great tree. Seeds can grow food. Those little tiny things in your hand look like they have no power, but they are really the source of future benefit.

种子是一个非常小的东西。它看起来似乎没有任何效力。你手里拿着一粒小种子，然后说：“嗯，这能做什么呢？”但一粒种子可以长出参天大树。种子可以种植粮食。你手中的这些小东西看起来似乎没有力量，但它们确实是未来利益的源泉。

You do not know what will work for the world. You do not really even know what your society needs because you are not yet guided by Knowledge. Even justice, how would that be accomplished? You cannot force it upon people, or you simply become another force of oppression.

你不知道什么对世界有用。你甚至不知道你们的社会需要什么，因为你还没有受到内识的指导。即使是正义，又该如何实现呢？你不能把它强加于人，否则你就会成为另一种压迫力量。

It is a conundrum, you see. You cannot really figure it out in your intellect. But justice is necessary. Peace is necessary. People’s well-being is necessary. They are all necessary, but how to accomplish them must be guided by a Greater Power, for only God knows how this can be done. You, with all of your ideas or political sophistication, cannot really figure this out.

你看，它是一个难题。你无法真正用你的智力来弄清楚。但正义是必要的。和平是必要的。人民的福祉是必要的。它们都是必要的，但如何实现它们必须由更伟大的力量来指导，因为只有上帝知道如何做到这一点。你，带着你所有的想法或政治成熟度，无法真正弄清楚这一点。

This frees you, and this returns you to the source of your power and your strength. You can believe whatever you want, you can give yourself to whatever you think is meaningful, but if you are not connected to Knowledge, then you are a stranger to yourself and a stranger to others.

这让你获得自由，这让你回归你的力量和实力的源泉。你可以相信任何你想要相信的事情，你可以把你自己交给你认为有意义的事物，但如果你没有与内识联接，那么你对你自己来说就是一个陌生人，对他人来说也是一个陌生人。

God knows what the world needs. God knows what is coming for the world. God knows about the Great Waves of change that are coming to the world and about humanity’s future and destiny within a Greater Community of intelligent life in the universe. God knows the nature and intention of those races who are intervening in human affairs, races from beyond your world. God understands the human condition. God understands what real freedom is. God has given you a greater purpose to be in the world at this time, facing these circumstances.

上帝知道世界需要什么。上帝知道世界将会发生什么。上帝知道即将降临世界的变革巨浪，知道人类在宇宙智能生命大社区中的未来和天命。上帝知道那些干预人类事务的种族的自然和意图，这些种族来自你们世界之外。上帝理解人类的状况。上帝理解什么是真正的自由。上帝赋予你一个更伟大的目的，让你在此时此刻身处世界，面对这些情况。

You cannot figure out what God knows. You can only follow and learn. God has put Knowledge within you to guide you, to protect you and to lead you to your greater accomplishments in life. Your intellect must be in service to this, for here you are not the master. You are an expression of something greater, and being this is the greatest joy for the heart and the soul.

你无法弄清上帝知道什么。你只能跟随和​​学习。上帝把内识放置在你的内心深处，来指导你、保护你并引领你实现生命中更伟大的成就。你的智力必须服务于此，因为在这里你不是主人。你是一种更伟大生命的表达，成为这种生命是心灵和灵魂的最大喜悦。

But you must take the Steps to Knowledge. You cannot simply assume your life is moving in the right direction. You cannot simply assume you are living your real purpose for being here. You cannot assume that your ideas and beliefs represent your deeper nature or the real truth of life. That is why you must have the commitment and the humility to take the Steps to Knowledge, to allow this greater power to emerge within you and to use all the powers of your intellect and all of your skills to assist you in receiving the great endowment of Knowledge.

但你必须开展内识进阶。你不能简单地假设你的生命正在朝着正确的方向前进。你不能简单地假设你正在过着你身处此地的真正目的。你不能假设你的想法和信仰代表着你更深层次的自然或生命的真正真理。正因为如此，你必须拥有承诺和谦逊来开展内识进阶，来让这个更伟大的力量在你内在显现，来运用你智力的所有力量和你所有的技能来帮助你接收内识的伟大恩赐。

This is the Calling. This is the power. This is your fundamental responsibility. Before you give yourself to the world, before you commit yourself to others, before you determine your life, you must come to Knowledge, and build a connection to Knowledge and take the Steps to Knowledge. This is why you must seek the Kingdom first—the Kingdom being Knowledge.

这是召唤。这是力量。这是你的根本责任。在你将你自己交给世界之前，在你把你自己承诺给他人之前，在你决定你的生命之前，你必须走向内识，建立与内识的联接，并采取内识进阶。这就是为什么你必须首先寻求王国——王国的存在就是内识。

Before you launch yourself out into the world, Knowledge will provide the steps and the pathway. But you must learn to listen, to relieve yourself of your constant activity, busyness and self-preoccupation—to listen to the deeper current of your life and to make this part of your daily life and your daily practice. For this is the emphasis of your spiritual practice.

在你踏入世界之前，内识将提供步骤和路径。但你必须学会​​聆听，让你自己从持续的活动、忙碌和自我专注中解脱出来——聆听你生命更深层次的潮流，并将其作为你日常生命和日常实践的一部分。因为这是你精神实践的重点。

Spiritual practice is not here to give you happiness or to assure prosperity or to transcend you out of this world. It is here to connect you with the deeper current of your life—a current that is moving, that has direction and that has somewhere to go.

精神实践不是为了给你带来幸福，也不是为了确保繁荣昌盛，更不是为了让你超脱尘世。它是为了将你与你生命的更深层次的潮流联接起来——这股水流正在流动，有方向，有去处。

You do not know where to go, but Knowledge within you does know where to go. When you realize that, you will be able to make the real connection that will make all the difference for you and for everyone who will know you.

你不知道该去哪里，但你内在的内识知道该去哪里。当你意识到这一点时，你将能够建立真正的联接，这种连接将对你以及所有知道你的人产生深远的影响。