The Pillar of Spiritual Development
As received by Marshall Vian Summers on October 13, 1994 in Boulder, Colorado
1994 年 10 月 13 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 must bring the idea of spiritual development into a more complete approach. In order to have any kind of spiritual practice and understanding develop and bear fruit in your life, you must develop the other three Pillars of your life concurrently. All Four Pillars together must be in balance with the needs and demands of your life.
你必须将精神发展的想法带入更完整的方法中。为了让任何一种精神实践和理解在你的生命中发展并结出果实，你必须同时发展你生命中的其他三个支柱。所有四个支柱必须与你生命的需求和要求保持平衡。
If you approach spiritual practice as a focus for education apart from this foundation, it loses its efficacy in life and becomes more of an escape, more of a retreat from life rather than an activity in life that is meant to develop your inherent strengths and abilities.
如果你脱离这个基础而将精神实践作为教育的重点，它就会失去它在生命中的功效，而变成一种逃避，一种对生命的退缩，而不是一种旨在发展你内在力量和能力的生命活动。
The idea of spiritual development must also be broadened because any activity that brings you into contact with Spirit—in other words, any activity that engages you with Knowledge—is, in essence, a spiritual practice and a form of spiritual development. Spiritual development has more to do with the motive than with the activity. And here we must question the fundamental elements of what motivates people to do things. If the motivation is for personal gain, then it cannot be said to be a form of spiritual development. If the activity is to control or dominate others or to escape from the real demands of life, then it cannot be said to be a form of spiritual development.
精神发展的想法也必须得到拓展，因为任何让你接触精神的活动——换言之，任何让你参与内识的活动——本质上都是一种精神实践和一种精神发展形式。精神发展更多地与动机有关，而非与活动有关。在这里，我们必须质疑激励人们做事的根本因素。如果动机是为了个人利益，那么它就不能说是一种精神发展形式。如果活动是为了控制或支配他人，或是为了逃避生命的真实需求，那么它就不能说是一种精神发展形式。
People, of course, can become very obsessed with spiritual development, just as they can in the other Four Pillars where they are obsessed with establishing, maintaining and breaking off relationships, with maintaining or developing health, or becoming ambitious with work and trying to amass a fortune. Obsession in the realm of spiritual development, however, can be more difficult to confront and to undo because everything that is done here looks at the surface to be so edifying. But is it edifying? If spiritual practice disables a person from being able to participate effectively in life and takes them away from their fundamental responsibilities to such an extent that they become estranged from other people and estranged from their existence in the world, is this a healthy thing?
当然，人们可能会对精神发展变得非常痴迷，就像在其他四大支柱中一样，他们痴迷于建立、维持和断绝关系，维持或发展健康，或者对工作充满野心并试图积累财富。然而，精神发展领域的痴迷可能更难对抗和消除，因为这里所做的一切表面上看起来都很有教育意义。但它有教育意义吗？如果精神实践使一个人无法有效地参与生命，使他们远离基本责任，以至于他们与他人疏远，与他们在这个世界上的存在疏远，这是健康的事情吗？
If one is preparing to live a monastic life, there is some usefulness here. However, most people who are involved in spiritual development do not live a monastic life and are not part of a religious community. For them, it is an individual pursuit. Instead of love and wealth, they seek spiritual immunity from life—the ultimate form of spiritual welfare. They seek power and control over the forces of the world. They seek escape. They are looking for a way out, or they are looking for a way to dominate their experience or to control the experience of others.
如果一个人准备过修道院生活，那么这里会有一些用处。然而，大多数参与精神发展的人并不过修道院生活，也不属于宗教群体。对他们来说，这是一种个人追求。他们寻求的不是爱和财富，而是对生命的精神免疫力——精神福利的终极形式。他们寻求权力和对世界力量的控制。他们寻求逃避。他们在寻找出路，或者他们在寻找一种主宰他们经历或控制他人经历的方法。
You will not find this in The Way of Knowledge, for The Way of Knowledge does not teach isolation. It does not promote selfishness. It does not take you away from the world, except perhaps temporarily, in order to give you an opportunity to reorient yourself and to refresh yourself. The Way of Knowledge brings you into the world and prepares you to participate in the world in a greater way, by equipping you with those fundamental tools that you have brought with you from your Ancient Home. In order to do this, The Way of Knowledge must emphasize an essential and translatable spirituality, a spirituality that can be experienced, expressed and communicated to others regardless of their religious affiliations or background.
你不会在内识之路中找到这一点，因为内识之路并不教导孤立。它不提倡自私。它不会让你远离这个世界，除非是暂时的，目的是给你一个重新调整你自己和恢复你自己的机会。内识之路带你进入世界，让你做好准备以更伟大的方式参与世界，为你配备那些你从古老家园带来的基本工具。为了做到这一点，内识之路必须强调一种基本且可翻译的精神性，一种可以被体验、表达和传达给他人的精神性，无论他们的宗教信仰或背景如何。
Essentially, then, real spiritual development enables you to build a foundation for learning and living The Way of Knowledge. There are specific activities that can be called spiritual practices, but for them to be truly effective and to be truly meaningful, they must be integrated with a more complete approach that we are outlining here. There are Four Pillars of life, not one. And as we have said, if you neglect all of them for one, you will pay a very great price. And whatever you attempt to establish will not be stable and will not be able to stand in the world. A table cannot stand on one leg. Nothing can be built upon a weak foundation. If you build a house on sand, it will collapse at the slightest movement of the world. You must find solid bedrock—the bedrock of Knowledge, the bedrock of spiritual reality, a reality that, though different from the reality of the world, is meant to support the world’s human advancement and evolution.
因此，从本质上讲，真正的精神发展使你能够为学习和践行内识之路奠定基础。有些特定的活动可以称为精神实践，但要使它们真正有效、真正有意义，就必须将它们与我们在此概述的更完整的方法相结合。生命有四大支柱，而不是一个。正如我们所说，如果你为了其中之一而忽视了所有支柱，你将付出巨大的代价。无论你试图建立什么，都不会稳定，也无法在世界上立足。桌子不能单腿站立。没有任何东西可以建立在薄弱的地基上。如果你在沙地上建房子，世界只要有一点点动静，房子就会倒塌。你必须找到坚实的基石——内识的基石，精神现实的基石，这个现实虽然不同于世界现实，但旨在支持世界人类的进步和进化。
Build this foundation. The world supplies the elements for this building, and you bring the elements that the world does not contain. You have part of the answer and the world has part of the answer. Why would you escape the world when it holds part of the answer that you yourself cannot provide? Why would you seek to become spiritually superior to everyone else when The Way of Knowledge will join you with everyone else and emphasize that which is common to all?
建立这个基础。世界为这座建筑提供元素，而你带来世界所不具备的元素。你有部分答案，世界也有部分答案。当世界拥有你自己无法提供的答案时，你为什么要逃离世界？当内识之路将你与其他人连接在一起并强调所有人的共同点时，你为什么要寻求在精神上超越其他人？
To be a true beneficiary, to become a practitioner of spiritual practice and to maintain and support real spiritual development, you must have the correct approach. You must not come seeking personal escape or personal power or glory. There are many illusions about spiritual power, spiritual glory and spiritual transcendence. However, these are not in keeping with the reality of the purpose that has brought you into the world. You are not here to escape the world. You are here to serve the world. When you leave the world, you go home to your Spiritual Family. You go home to inherent reality, with either your mission completed or your mission left undone.
要成为真正的受益者，要成为精神修行的实践者，要维持和支持真正的精神发展，你必须有正确的方法。你一定不能来寻求个人的逃避或个人的力量或荣耀。关于精神力量、精神荣耀和精神超越有很多幻想。然而，这些并不符合你来到这个世界的目的的现实。你来这里不是为了逃避世界。你来这里是为了服务世界。当你离开这个世界时，你会回到你的精神家庭。你回到固有的现实，要么你的使命完成了，要么你的使命没有完成。
Would the Creator send you into the world only to have you seek escape, only to have you avoid the opportunity of being here, only to have you deny the gift of the world, which provides part of the foundation for learning and living a life of Knowledge, of spiritual reality? No, the Creator would not do this and does not do this. However, if spirituality for you only represents comfort and reprieve, only escape and rejuvenation, then spirituality will seem more like a vacation from life, and you will use it for this purpose. You will want to lose yourself in it. You will want to enter a state of bliss and remain there, like a person who is continuously intoxicated.
难道造物主派你来到这个世界，只是为了让你寻求逃避，只是为了让你逃避身处此地的机会，只是为了让你拒绝这个世界的礼物，而这份礼物为学习和过上一种内识生活、精神现实的生命提供了部分基础？不，造物主不会这样做，也不会这样做。然而，如果精神性对你来说只代表着舒适和缓和，只代表着逃避和复兴，那么精神性看起来更像是一种逃避生命的假期，你会为此而利用精神性。你会想在其中迷失你自己。你会想进入一种极乐的状态，并停留在那里，就像一个不断陶醉的人。
There is no ability here. You cannot give truth, peace or encouragement if you are unable to communicate to others in the world or relate to their situation here. If you have not built a bridge to the world, nothing can pass over, nothing can come through you to give to the world. You will be like a person who is being charmed, who has found a wonderful intoxicant, a beautiful escape, and there you will be by the side of the road. Have you made great strides forward? No, you have simply fallen into another hole. And when your confinement becomes oppressive and intolerable, you will call for help, and the help will come—a ladder will be sent down to you. But it will not be the ladder of escape and pleasure. It will be the ladder of work and self-application. It will be the ladder of forgiveness and renewal. It will be the ladder of relationship—not with the Divine but with the Divinity in the world.
这里没有能力。如果你无法与世界上的其他人沟通，无法与他们在这里的处境联系起来，你就无法给予他们真理、和平或鼓励。如果你没有架起一座通向世界的桥梁，就没有任何事物可以通过你，没有任何东西可以通过你给予这个世界。你就会像一个被迷住的人，找到了一种美妙的陶醉，一种美丽的逃避，然后你就会在路边。你已经大步向前了吗？没有，你只是掉进了另一个坑里。当你的禁锢变得令人压抑和难以忍受时，你就会寻求帮助，而帮助就会到来——一架梯子会被送到你的面前。但这不是逃生和享乐的阶梯。它将是工作和自我应用的阶梯。它将是宽恕和新生的阶梯。它将是关系的阶梯——不是与神圣的关系，而是世界中的神性。
WHAT IS SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT?
什么是精神发展？
Spiritual development, said in the simplest of ways, is reclaiming your relationship with Knowledge—the immortal and eternal aspect of yourself that you have brought into this world.
用最简单的方式来说，精神发展就是重新获得你与内识的关系——你带入这个世界的你自己的不朽和永恒方面。
HOW IS SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT ADVANCED AND FULFILLED?
如何实现精神发展并实现自我价值？
By following The Way of Knowledge and by learning to live The Way of Knowledge in the world.
通过遵循内识之路并学习如何在世界上践行内识之路。
HOW IS SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT CONTRIBUTED TO OTHERS?
精神发展如何为他人做出贡献？
By becoming a vehicle for Knowledge, a bridge from this world to your Ancient Home, anchored firmly in the world and deeply connected to your life beyond the world.
通过成为内识的载体，成为从这个世界到你的古老家园的桥梁，牢牢扎根于这个世界，并与你在世界之外的生命紧密相连。
HOW CAN KNOWLEDGE BE FOUND?
如何找到内识？
By following the steps to Knowledge.
跟随内识的步骤。
HOW CAN SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT BE UNDERSTOOD AND COMPREHENDED?
如何理解和领悟精神发展？
By understanding the nature and direction of the evolution of the world and by finding your place within it.
通过理解世界进化的自然和方向，并找到你在其中的位置。
WHO IS SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT FOR?
精神发展适合谁？
It is for anyone who can respond to the calling.
它适合任何能响应召唤的人。
HOW IS SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT FINALLY ACHIEVED? DOES IT HAVE AN END POINT?
精神发展最终是如何实现的？它有一个终点吗？
Yes, it has an end point within this world. It is achieved by building a foundation for Knowledge and then expressing Knowledge according to your nature and design and the nature and design of those individuals who have come to assist you in your mission. It is complete when your mission is complete.
是的，它在这个世界上有一个终点。它是通过为内识建立一个基础，然后根据你的自然和设计以及那些来协助你完成使命的个体的自然和设计来表达内识来实现的。当你的使命完成时，它就完成了。
DOES SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT LEAD TO COMPLETE HAPPINESS?
精神发展会带来完全的幸福吗？
Spiritual development leads to complete participation and contribution in the world. This provides a satisfaction and happiness that nothing else can.
精神发展会带来对世界的完全参与和贡献。这会带来其他任何事情都无法带来的满足感和幸福感。
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO FULFILL MY SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE WORLD?
我需要多长时间才能完成我在世界上的精神发展？
It will take the rest of your life, but the degree to which you advance and fulfill your purpose here is up to you.
它将花费你余生的时间，但你在这里的进步和实现目的的程度取决于你自己。
WHO AND WHAT IS SUPPORTING MY SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT?
谁和什么在支持我的精神发展？
Your Spiritual Family beyond the world is supporting your spiritual development by communicating to you through the Mental Environment. The Unseen Ones are supporting your spiritual development by overseeing your participation in the world and by participating with you at the critical turning points of your life. And the Creator is supporting your spiritual development because the Creator has given you Knowledge—a pure, guiding intelligence within you. Beyond the reach of the world and worldly contamination, it remains ever pure and ever complete within you.
你在世界之外的精神家庭通过心理环境与你沟通，支持你的精神发展。不可见者通过监督你参与世界并在你生命的关键转折点与你一起参与，支持你的精神发展。造物主支持你的精神发展，因为造物主赋予了你内识——一种你内在纯粹的指导性智能。它超越了世界的范围和世俗的污染，在你的内在永远纯洁和完整。
However, before you can begin the journey, you must have the right orientation and your approach must be in keeping with the reality of the journey itself. It is pointless to promise you wonderful things without orienting you to the reality of the pursuit itself. That is why we bring you to the Four Pillars of life as a complete preparation. The fourth cornerstone of this preparation is called spiritual development. This involves spiritual practice of various kinds to enable your mind to think in harmony with Knowledge and to gain a greater perspective and understanding of the world and a thorough appreciation of your nature in relationship to the world.
然而，在你开始旅程之前，你必须有正确的方向，你的方法必须符合旅程本身的现实。如果不让你适应追寻本身的现实，那么向你承诺美好的事情是没有意义的。正因为如此，我们把你带到生命的四大支柱，作为一种完整的准备。这个准备的第四个基石被称为精神发展。这包括各种类型的精神实践，以使你的心灵能够与内识和谐地思考，获得对世界的一种更伟大视野和理解，并透彻地认识到你的自然与世界的关系。
We have provided Steps to Knowledge as the means for learning a Greater Community Way of Knowledge, for your task now is not only to experience human spirituality but to experience spirituality as it exists in the universe, in its universal component. That is why we give you a translatable spirituality, a spirituality that is not hindered, limited or concealed by ritual, custom and history. We give you the pure Fire of Knowledge. We do not give you cathedrals and rituals and past traditions, though The Way of Knowledge has a history that extends far beyond human history. What you need now is the actual Fire of Knowledge, the actual reality of Knowledge, the spark itself.
我们提供了内识进阶，作为学习大社区内识之路的方法，因为你现在的任务不仅是体验人类的精神性，而是体验存在于宇宙中的精神性，体验内识普遍组成部分。正因为如此，我们赋予你一种可转译的精神性，一种不受仪式、习俗和历史阻碍、限制或掩盖的精神性。我们赋予你纯粹的内识之火。我们不赋予你大教堂、仪式和过去的传统，尽管内识之路有着远远超出人类历史的历史。你现在需要的是真正的内识之火，真正的内识现实，火花本身。
The history of The Greater Community Way of Knowledge is so vast and so great that you do not have the capacity or the historical background to appreciate it. It represents a tradition that is offered to all worlds as they prepare to emerge into the Greater Community, where their own religious traditions are eclipsed by a greater reality and a greater set of problems and opportunities. The Way of Knowledge is not here to replace human religion but to give it a new context and new promise for the future. For what religious tradition can thrive in the Greater Community when its entire historical background has been focused on human activity alone?
大社区内识之路的历史如此浩瀚、如此伟大，你没有能力或历史背景去欣赏它。它代表着一种传统，它被提供给所有准备迈入大社区的世界，在那里，他们自己的宗教传统被更伟大的现实和更严重的问题与机遇所掩盖。内识之路并非要取代人类宗教，而是要赋予它一种新的背景和对未来的新承诺。因为当宗教传统的整个历史背景都只关注人类活动时，它能在大社区中繁荣昌盛吗？
Your world is preparing now to emerge into the Greater Community. Therefore, it is time for a Greater Community Way of Knowledge and a Greater Community Spirituality to be introduced into the world. This is a great turning point in your evolution, and it is a great turning point in your spiritual development as well.
你们的世界现在正准备迈入大社区。因此，是时候将大社区内识之路和大社区精神性引入世界了。这是你们进化过程中的一个伟大转折点，也是你们精神发展过程中的一个伟大转折点。
All of the great spiritual emissaries in this world who have contributed to humanity’s advancement—all of the great teachers and all of the great traditions—and all those who have been imbued with Knowledge and have responded to Knowledge throughout human history support the world’s emergence into the Greater Community. They support humanity learning a Greater Community Way of Knowledge because they realize the great threshold ahead, for they can see beyond the limited parameters of human awareness. They can see the future. They know what is coming.
这个世界所有为人类进步做出贡献的伟大精神使者——所有伟大的老师和所有伟大的传统——以及整个人类历史中所有被内识灌输并回应内识的人，都支持世界向大社区的迈进。他们支持人类学习大社区内识之路，因为他们意识到前方的伟大门槛，因为他们能够超越人类觉知的有限参数。他们能够看到未来。他们知道会发生什么。
The human mind is anchored in the past. It is conditioned by the past. Its reflexes are determined by the past. But now you must prepare for the future like you have never had to before. This will give you certainty and security in the present, for without preparation for the future, you live in a state of increasing anxiety, confusion and despair. In fact, you see this occurring in your societies at this time.
人类的心灵扎根于过去。它受到过去的影响。它的反应由过去决定。但现在你必须为未来做好准备，这是你以前从未做过的。这将给你现在的确定性和安全感，因为没有为未来做准备，你就会生活在一种日益焦虑、困惑和绝望的状态中。事实上，你会看到这种情况正在你的社会中发生。
In some ways, the requirement for spiritual development is much greater now than it has been in the past, for the world is larger and its needs are more demanding. The world requires a greater understanding, a greater ability and a more complete approach. Here the emphasis is not on one or two people becoming saints or great practitioners in their traditions. Here the emphasis is on developing the skills of humanity at large. Here the emphasis is not on heroes and heroines within a spiritual universe. Here the emphasis is on selfless activity within the mundane world. This has always been the case in terms of real spiritual development, but we must make these distinctions because so much has been misunderstood and misconstrued about spiritual development.
从某些方面来说，现在对精神发展的要求比过去要高得多，因为世界更大，它的需求也更苛刻。世界需要一种更伟大的理解、一种更伟大的能力和更全面的处世之道。这里的重点不在于让一两个人成为圣人或成为他们传统的伟大实践者。这里的重点在于发展全人类的技能。这里的重点不在于精神宇宙中的英雄和女英雄。这里的重点在于世俗世界中的无私活动。就实际的精神发展而言，情况一直如此，但我们必须做出这些区分，因为人们对精神发展存在太多错误理解和错误解释。
People think that spiritual development is a process of amplifying and granting divine powers to their personal minds. This has never been the case, for the reality is that spiritual development is meant to bring your personal mind back into service to Spirit so that the mind may take its rightful place in the trinity of truth, in its true relationship to the body and the Spirit. All the great practitioners have known this, and this has been the real way despite popular and fantastic notions to the contrary.
人们认为，精神发展是一个将神圣力量放大并赋予其个人心灵的过程。事实并非如此，因为现实是，精神发展旨在让你的个人心灵重新服务于精神，以便心灵能够在真理的三位一体中，在与身体和精神的真正关系中占据应有的位置。所有伟大的修行者都知道这一点，尽管流行和荒诞的观念与此相反，但这才是真正的道路。
Your culture is very much involved in hero worship, and so everyone is denigrated except for a few individuals who are endowed with supernatural powers and who are considered godlike. This is a cultural defect in your societies, and it is a defect born of the nature of human development. The Greater Community will temper such an understanding and such an approach, for you will see that what appears godlike is simply a more advanced state. And in the future the Greater Community, being a far greater arena of life, will demonstrate what higher levels of intelligence really look like.
你们的文化非常热衷于英雄崇拜，因此除了少数被赋予超自然力量并被视为神一般的人之外，每个人都被贬低。这是你们社会的文化缺陷，也是人类发展自然的缺陷。大社区将缓和这种理解和方法，因为你将看到，看似神一般的生命只不过是一种更先进的状态。而在未来，大社区，作为一个更广阔的生命舞台，将展示更高层级的智能真正是什么样子。
The Greater Community will provide a contrast and an environment for learning that is unparalleled in your past. Yet it holds greater risks as well. Humanity must outgrow its adolescent stage of development where it proudly flaunts its newfound powers but cannot work together as a group. Its social cohesion is being splintered now. It is losing its tribal identity, but it has not been able to find a greater foundation upon which to stand together. For humanity to become unified, individuals must become unified, within themselves and with other people.
大社区将提供一种对比和一个学习环境，这是你们过去所未曾有过的。然而它也蕴含着更大的风险。人类必须走出其发展的青春期，在这个阶段，人类骄傲地炫耀其新发现的力量，但却无法作为一个群体共同努力。它的社会凝聚力现在正在分裂。它正在失去它的部落身份，但却无法找到一个更伟大的基础来团结起来。为了让人类统一起来，个人必须统一起来，无论是在他们自己内部，还是与他人。
This is how a new fabric of unity is established. The great tapestry of life is woven strand by strand, person by person. Do not think another will do this for you. Do not think such great things are only left up to people who are great, who are heroes or heroines, for this is your responsibility. This is your calling—not to gain spiritual immunity, not to become all knowing or all powerful, but to join your mind with other minds in Knowledge, to become stronger than you are or ever could be as an individual.
这就是一种新的团结结构建立的方式。生命的伟大挂毯是由一缕一缕、一个人一个人编织而成的。不要认为其他人会为你做这件事。不要认为只有伟人、英雄才能做这样的大事，因为这是你的责任。这是你的召唤——不是获得精神免疫力，不是变得无所不知或无所不能，而是将你的心灵与其他心灵在内识中结合起来，变得比你现在或作为一个个体所能达到的更强大。
The Greater Community is made up of communities. That which is powerful in the Greater Community is communities. Your mind alone, no matter how developed, cannot contend with a community mind. That is why we teach the Four Pillars of life, so that you have the basis for learning how to join with others—genuinely, truthfully, honestly, effectively. We do not send you off on your solo pursuit for spiritual enlightenment. We bring you into the world and teach you how to engage with others and join with others to bear fruit here within the world. In so doing, you will have to confront your own personal limitations as well as the defects that are inherent within your culture.
大社区是由社区组成的。大社区里最强大的就是社区。你一个人的心灵，无论多么发达，都无法与社区心灵抗衡。正因为如此，我们才教授生命的四大支柱，这样你就有基础学习如何与他人结合——真诚、真实、诚实、有效地结合。我们不会送你独自去追求精神启蒙。我们把你带到这个世界，教你如何与他人互动、与他人结合，在这个世界上结出果实。这样做，你将不得不面对你自己的个人局限，以及你的文化中固有的缺陷。
You have the power to do this because Knowledge is with you. No matter how conditioned your mind is and no matter how anchored it is in the past, it can learn anew because Knowledge is with you. It is up to you.
你有能力做到这一点，因为内识与你同在。无论你的心灵受到怎样的制约，无论它如何固着于过去，它都可以重新学习，因为内识与你同在。这取决于你。
You cannot teach yourself The Way of Knowledge. You cannot figure it out from your past. You cannot pick little pieces of each religious tradition and create your own eclectic approach and hope to have any advancement in The Way of Knowledge. You must learn The Way of Knowledge as it is being presented. You must learn The Greater Community Way of Knowledge as it is being presented, for the means is provided as well as the promise and the responsibility. This is part of the perfect plan of the Creator.
你无法自学内识之路。你无法从你的过去中找出答案。你无法从每个宗教传统中挑选出一些小部分，创造你自己的折衷方法，并希望在内识之路上取得任何进步。你必须学习被呈现的内识之路。你必须学习被呈现的大社区内识之路，因为它提供了方法、承诺和责任。这是造物主完美计划的一部分。
Spiritual practices for learning and living The Way of Knowledge are presented in Steps to Knowledge. When you are ready to have a real practice in life, a practice you can carry into all of your activities, then you can begin to take the steps to Knowledge. Practicing will lead you one step at a time, to bring your mind into harmony with Knowledge and to teach you a way of seeing the world as the world really is. It will provide a means of escape from the conventional myths and falsities that condition humanity and have led it astray, even in the face of the Greater Community.
学习和践行内识之路的精神实践在内识进阶中呈现。当你准备好在生命中进行真正的实践，一种你可以带入你所有活动的实践时，你就可以开始开展内识的进阶。实践将引领你一步一步，让你的心灵与内识和谐相处，并教你一种看待世界真实面貌的方式。它将提供一种逃离传统神话和虚假的方法，这些神话和虚假制约着人类，甚至在面对大社区时也将其引入歧途。
Only a greater intelligence could provide such a preparation. It is preparing you to be in life as it is today and as it will be tomorrow. It is providing a Greater Community preparation because this is your future. Your future is and will be in the Greater Community. It is not associated with the past. It is new. It is about the present and the future. The future is coming towards you, over the horizons of your life. You can see this if your vision is developed. You can feel this if you are aware of what you feel. You can gain your strength if your mind can become focused and unified.
只有一种更伟大的智能能够提供这样的准备。它让你为今天和明天的生命做好准备。它提供一种大社区准备，因为这是你们的未来。你们的未来现在和将来都在大社区中。它与过去无关。它是新的。它关乎现在和未来。未来正在向你们走来，越过你们生命的地平线。如果你的视野得到发展，你就能看到这一点。如果你觉知到你的感受，你就能够感受到这一点。如果你的心灵能够变得专注和统一，你就能够获得你的力量。
There are many great challenges in life—the challenge of uniting with another person, the challenge of choosing to do something with Knowledge, the challenge of learning about the Greater Community, the challenge of being still and present in the moment, the challenge of being moved by the greater power of Knowledge within you, the challenge of being patient as you build the foundation for Knowledge. These are great challenges. They are challenges that are an inherent part of your life in the world at this time. Some of them have always been challenges for humanity, but others are challenges that are occurring now because of what is emerging on the horizon.
生命中有许多伟大挑战——与另一个人结合的挑战，选择带着内识做某事的挑战，学习大社区的挑战，保持静止并活在当下的挑战，被你内在内识的更伟大力量所推动的挑战，在你构建内识基础时保持耐心的挑战。这些都是伟大挑战。它们是你此刻在世界上生命的固有组成部分。其中一些一直是人类面临的挑战，但其他一些则是现在因为地平线上正在出现的变革巨浪而正在发生的挑战。
Humanity has a destiny and a future. These are not a function of humanity’s past, for humanity is not alone in the universe, and its future will be determined by the Greater Community and by humanity’s response to the Greater Community. Here you must start as a beginner, as a beginning student of Knowledge. This is necessary because much of what you think and what you think you know you will have to leave behind.
人类拥有一个天命和一个未来。这些并非人类过去所决定的，因为人类在宇宙中并不孤单，它的未来将由大社区以及人类对大社区的回应决定。在这里，你必须以初学者的身份开始，以内识的初级学生的身份开始。这是必要的，因为你将不得不抛弃许多你认为和你认为你知道的事情。
Steps to Knowledge will take you to a higher vantage point in life where you can see, hear and know things you could not see, hear and know before. However, to make the journey up the mountain to this higher vantage point, you must go with as little encumbrance as possible. You will not understand the way because it is new. You will have to go with your heart open and with your explanations left incomplete. That is an act of faith, and if it is moved by Knowledge, it will take real faith and real courage.
内识的步骤将带你到达生命中更高的观测位置，在那里你可以看到、听到和知道你以前看不到、听到和知道的事情。然而，要踏上通往这个更高观测位置的登山之旅，你必须尽可能少地负重前行。你不会理解这条路，因为它是新的。你必须敞开心扉，带着不完整的解释前行。这是一种信仰行为，如果它被内识所推动，它将需要真正的信仰和真正的勇气。
The means have been provided for preparing to be in the world, for finding your greater purpose and mission here and for preparing for your life in the Greater Community, for this is the direction and destiny of human life. However, to begin this approach, to begin this preparation, it is important to have the right orientation at the outset. Steps to Knowledge will call upon Knowledge within you and orient your thinking and experience to the presence of Knowledge. There are many steps in this process because it takes time. There are many areas of application. And there are many opportunities for advancement.
我们已经提供了方法，让你为身处世界做好准备，让你在这里找到更伟大的目的和使命，让你为你在大社区中的生命做好准备，因为这是人类生命的方向和天命。然而，要开始这种方法、开始这种准备，重要的是从一开始就有正确的方向。内识进阶将召唤你内在的内识，并将你的思维和经验导向内识的存在。这个过程有许多步骤，因为它需要时间。有许多应用领域。也有很多进步的机会。
You will find in Steps to Knowledge that the steps will not require a great deal of time. That is because your spiritual development is only one of the Four Pillars of your life. You will find that Steps to Knowledge will not encourage obsessive behavior of any kind, even in the name of spirituality. You will find that Steps to Knowledge will temper your ambitions and provide a contrast to much that you have thought before in order to give you the clearest opportunity to see life anew and to experience yourself as you really are. Steps to Knowledge will point you to the future. It will teach you about the future because the future is where you are going. The past is over. Steps to Knowledge will prepare you to become resourceful and adaptive because you are living in a world of tremendous change and upheaval. Steps to Knowledge will teach you how to experience affinity with others because you need to learn to communicate effectively with one another, and in the future you will need to learn how to communicate with forces from the Greater Community. Steps to Knowledge will focus on Knowledge because that is your foundation. It is part of the foundation building.
你将发现，在内识进阶中，这些进阶并不需要花费大量时间。这是因为你的精神发展只是你生命的四大支柱之一。你将发现，内识进阶不会鼓励任何形式的强迫行为，即使以精神性的名义。你将发现，内识进阶将缓和你的野心，并提供与你之前所想的许多对比，以便给你最清晰的机会重新看待生命，体验真实的你自己。内识进阶将指引你走向未来。它将教你关于未来，因为未来是你要去的地方。过去已经结束。内识进阶将让你做好准备，变得足智多谋、适应性强，因为你生活在一个巨大变化和动荡的世界中。内识进阶将教你如何体验与他人的亲和力，因为你需要学会有效地与他人沟通，未来你将需要学会如何与来自大社区的势力沟通。内识进阶将专注于内识，因为内识是你的基础。它是基础建设的一部分。
Take the steps one at a time, and do not change them. Steps to Knowledge is a form of work that complements your work in the other three Pillars of your life. It is part of a complete approach. You cannot use it for escape. You cannot use it for self-glorification. You cannot use it to gain control over others. You cannot use it to isolate yourself any further in life, for it undoes all of these things and provides contrast to them.
一次迈出一步，不要改变它们。内识进阶是一种工作形式，它补充了你生命其他三个支柱的工作。它是一个完整方法的一部分。你无法利用它逃避。你无法利用它自我荣耀。你无法利用它控制他人。你无法利用它在生命中进一步孤立你自己，因为它瓦解了所有这些事情，并与它们形成对比。
In the study of Steps to Knowledge, you devote small amounts of time each day to developing your inner sensitivities. The areas of focus are developing stillness of mind and the ability to think constructively, learning how to undo the effects of the past through the re-employment of your experience and capabilities, learning to forgive and learning to recognize others as they really are, without condemnation and without placing them above or below you. Seeing clearly, thinking clearly, acting with certainty and being still are the primary areas of focus for Steps to Knowledge. As your life, then, becomes simpler, it becomes more focused and more powerful. As all aspects of you begin to function together in harmony, you are able to demonstrate this harmony to others. As your foundation for learning and living The Way of Knowledge becomes established, great things will be given to you to give to others, and people will find refuge around you because you renew them and remind them of their ancient calling.
在内识进阶的研究中，你每天会花少量的时间来发展你的内在敏感性。重点领域是发展心灵的静止和建设性思考的能力，学习如何通过重新运用你的经验和能力来消除过去的影响，学习原谅和学习认识他人的本来面目，不谴责，不将他们置于你之上或之下。清晰地看，清晰地思考，坚定地行动和保持平静是内识进阶的主要关注领域。当你的生命变得更简单时，它就会变得更专注、更强大。当你的所有方面开始和谐地一起运作时，你就能够向他人展示这种和谐。当你学习和生活在内识之路的基础建立起来时，伟大的礼物将被赋予你去给予他人，人们将在你身边找到庇护，因为你让他们焕然一新，并提醒他们古老的召唤。
There is a way to Knowledge. The way will save you time because you need to save time now. You are needed in the world, and your preparation must become accelerated. You do not now have the luxury of endless exploration and diversion, for the world needs you. It is emerging into the Greater Community. This is not a time to fiddle with your mind or your emotions or play around with different therapies or modalities because The Way of Knowledge is being offered to you. You are needed in the world. It is time to prepare. It is time to become focused and determined. There is no escape from this, for only those who are developed in The Way of Knowledge will have capability in the future and will be able to maintain their freedom in a Mental Environment that will be increasingly influenced by the Greater Community.
有一条通往内识的道路。这条道路将节省你的时间，因为你现在需要节省时间。你是这个世界所需要的，你的准备必须加快。你现在没有无休止探索和消遣的奢侈，因为世界需要你。它正在迈向大社区。现在不是摆弄你的心灵或你的情绪，或玩弄不同疗法或模式的时候，因为内识之路正在被提供给你。你是这个世界所需要的。现在是准备的时候。现在是变得专注和坚定的时候。这是无法逃避的，因为只有在内识之路上发展的人，未来才有能力，并能够在一个将日益受到大社区影响的心理环境中保持他们的自由。
This is simply the way of the future for you. If you are complacent, if you are lazy, if you lack courage, and if you are not able to experience the great reward that is meant for you, you will deny yourself the opportunity and the fulfillment that can only come through experiencing and expressing the gift. What else is there to do? What greater advantage could you seek? Life will be more difficult in the future than it is today. And thus as clouds darken over humanity, a great calling is being placed in the world for people to rise to the occasion, to develop their abilities, to unify their lives, to engage with their inherent Wisdom, and to learn The Way of Knowledge.
这只是你们未来的道路。如果你固步自封，如果你懒惰成性，如果你缺乏勇气，如果你无法体验到注定属于你的伟大回报，你就会剥夺你自己的机会和满足感，而这种机会和满足感只有通过体验和表达礼物才能获得。你还能做什么呢？你还能寻求什么更大的优势呢？未来的生命将比现在更加艰难。因此，当乌云笼罩人类时，世界正在向人们发出一个伟大的召唤，要求他们迎接挑战，发展他们的能力，统一他们的生命，运用他们与生俱来的智慧，学习内识之路。
If your life were not important, if you had not come from your Ancient Home bearing gifts, if the world did not need you and were not facing grave risks and dangers, then becoming a man or a woman of Knowledge would seem an option amongst many other options, and it would be valued only insofar as it could provide pleasure, comfort and reprieve. But there are no other options, and the world is as the world is, not as it is imagined to be. You have an opportunity to experience the world as it is rather than trying to create some other reality and thus immersing yourself deeper into fantasy.
如果你的生命不重要，如果你不是带着礼物从古老家园而来，如果世界不需要你，也没有面临严重的风险和危险，那么成为一名内识男人或女人似乎是众多选择之一，它的价值只在于它能提供快乐、舒适和缓解。但是没有其他选择，世界就是世界本来的样子，而不是想象中的样子。你有机会体验世界的本来样子，而不是试图创造其他现实，从而让你自己更深地沉浸在幻想中。
If you were not important, if the world were not important, if life were not important and if your destiny and happiness were not important, then perhaps none of this would matter so much. You would be free to find escape and to hide your eyes from the world and to deny your deeper inclinations and to avoid the discontent that in essence will bring you back to Knowledge and to the meaning of your life.
如果你并不重要，如果世界并不重要，如果生命并不重要，如果你的天命和幸福并不重要，那么也许这一切都不会那么重要。你可以自由地寻找逃避，将目光从世界上移开，否认你更深层次的倾向，避免不满情绪，而这种不满情绪本质上会让你回归内识，回归生命的意义。
But this is a calling. Our words are a calling. Do not deny yourself by denying these words. Do not deny your greater need by denying the calling of life. This is for you. Regardless of what you have done in the past, this calling is now. This is your moment and your opportunity. Do not take it lightly or casually. Search your heart not your mind for the appropriate response. There are no heroes here. There is no one to worship. There is a foundation to be built. There is work to be done. There is a preparation to undergo. And there is a world to serve.
但这是一种召唤。我们的话语就是一种召唤。不要因为否认这些话语而否定你自己。不要因为否认生命的召唤而否定你更伟大的需求。这是为你而设的。无论你过去做过什么，这个召唤就是现在。这是你的时间和你的机会。不要轻视或漫不经心地对待它。在你的内心而不是心灵中寻找适当的回应。这里没有英雄。没有人可以崇拜。有基础需要建立。有工作要做。有准备需要经历。还有整个世界需要服务。
Spiritual development is part of your overall approach because the mind must learn to serve Spirit. Spirit does not replace the mind but employs it. Spirit does not destroy the intellect but gives it a greater endeavor and a greater unity within which to work. Spirit does not come and take over your life like a tyrant. It remains hidden and secretive so that its benefits can be fully experienced at all levels of life and so that every aspect of your nature—your body, your mind and your spiritual identity—are all blessed and are all recognized for their great value.
精神发展是你整体方法的一部分，因为心灵必须学会服务精神。精神不会取代心灵，而是雇用它。精神不会摧毁智力，而是赋予它更伟大的事业和更伟大的团结，让它在其中工作。精神不会像暴君一样来接管你的生命。它保持隐匿和秘密，这样它的益处就能在生命的各个层面得到充分体验，这样你自然的每个方面——你的身体、你的心灵和你的精神身份——都会受到祝福，都会因其伟大价值而得到认可。
You are preparing now for the world and for the Greater Community. The Way of Knowledge prepares you for the world, and the Greater Community Way of Knowledge prepares you for the Greater Community. They all go together now because this is the threshold, the great threshold that everyone in the world faces together. It is this great threshold that will finally give people the common need to join together, to unify their abilities. Only a greater need that confronts every person can do this. The growing environmental and social problems of the world will require a new unity as well, but the Greater Community will be the real motivating force.
你现在正在为世界、为大社区做准备。内识之路让你为世界做准备，大社区内识之路让你为大社区做准备。它们现在走到一起，因为这是门槛，世界上每个人共同面对的伟大门槛。正是这个伟大门槛最终将让人们产生共同的需求，去团结起来，去统一他们的能力。只有每个人都面对的更伟大需求才能做到这一点。世界上日益严重的环境和社会问题也需要一种新的团结，但大社区将是真正的推动力。
This is the world that you have come to serve. This is what your Knowledge is about. This is where it will take you. This is what it is prepared to do. And only within this context will your nature and your design make any sense or have any meaning. Only within this context will you understand who to be with, what relationships to establish, where to give your time, your energy and so forth. In time you will learn to see as Spirit sees, to know as Spirit knows and to evaluate as Spirit evaluates. This is the result of learning The Way of Knowledge, but you must advance, for this represents an advanced state.
这就是你来服务的世界。这就是你的内识。这就是它将带你去的地方。这就是它准备做的事。只有在这个背景下，你的自然和你的设计才会有意义。只有在这个背景下，你才会理解应该和谁在一起，应该建立什么样的关系，应该把你的时间和能量给予哪里等等。假以时日，你将学会以精神的眼睛看待问题，以精神的知道去知道，以精神的评估去评估。这是学习内识之路的结果，但你必须进步，因为这代表着一种高先进的状态。
Begin where you are. Begin as a beginner. Everyone is a beginner at the outset, regardless of what they have studied, what they have learned, and how great their ideas may seem to them. Be where you are now. Be a beginner. Life is about new beginnings. This is a new beginning.
从你所在的地方开始。从初学者开始。每个人一开始都是初学者，无论他们学过什么，学到了什么，无论他们的想法在他们看来有多伟大。站在你现在的位置。做一名初学者。生命就是新的开始。这是一个新的开始。
