埃克哈特网站电子刊物摘录www.EckhartTolle.com

嘉静

埃克哈特谈个人的爱 - 摘自埃克哈特网站2011年4月电子刊

问题：如果我们是一体的，为什么我们还会被某些人所吸引，对他们有一种被称为“个人的爱”的感情？

埃克哈特：真正的爱是超越一切的。如果你无法发现在你之内的无形，你就没有那真正超越一切的爱。如果你无法发现在你之内的无形，你也就无法发现在他人之内的无形。在本质上认出他人即你自己 – 而不是外在形式 – 就是真正的爱。只要那个受限的头脑还在运作，而你完全与之认同，就没有真正的爱。也许会有些替代品存在，那些被称作是“爱”的东西，但它们不是真正的爱。举个例子，“坠入情网”……可能我们大多数人都经历过。也许这一刻，一个人，或者两个人一起“在爱之中”，而那些坠入过情网的人也经历过“离开情网”。

我们要记得去了解真正的爱与那所谓的爱的各种外在形式之间的区别。在相对的层面，我们作为形式存在，而在绝对的层面，我们是无形的意识。人类(human being)包含两个层面：人(human)和存在(being)。人(human)是外在形式，而存在(being)是那个无形的、永恒的意识本身。有时，一个人会亲近其他人。原因可能有很多。一个人从那个被称为你的母亲的形体之中诞生，这样这个形体就与那个形体有了一种亲密感。你对你的母亲有一种爱，它也许被称为“个人的”。这种对他人有亲密感的另一种表现是男女之间的。你可能会对另一个身体感到性的吸引，有时它也被称为“爱”。特别是当性行为被长久遏制的时候，它很可能发展成为偏执的爱……非常强烈，所以，在一些文化中，如果结婚前你不可以有性行为，坠入爱河也许会是很大的一件事，甚至可能导致自杀。人们很自然地会感到被异性吸引，男性/女性正是形式的不完整。外在形式最主要的不完整就体现在你要么是个男人，要么是个女人。那个合一变成了男性/女性的二元分化。

那个朝向另一个人的驱动力是一种试图通过相反的一极来找到整体、完整、满足感的尝试，是想要找到那个合一的尝试。对合一的渴望成为这个互相吸引的基础。这与外在形式相关，因为在形式的层面你不是一个整体 – 你是整体的一半。简单来说，人类整体的一半是男人，一半是女人。

你对别人具有吸引力，也许是因为他想在自身寻找可以与你内在某种特质共鸣的相同的特质。或者，如果不是共鸣，也许是那个令你感到被吸引的相反的特质。如果你是一个非常平静的人，也许你会被一个充满戏剧性的人所吸引，或者反之。再一次同样地，你是在渴望某种完整。你对另一个人升起一种亲近感，这可以被称为“个人的爱”。如果个人的爱仅限于此，那么那个超越一切的无形的层面就被忽略了 – 而真爱恰恰是在这无形的层面升起的。这无形的层面是不是个人的爱的一部分呢，还是说这个属于个人的层面就已经是全部了呢？对这个问题的回答决定了这所谓的“爱”是否最终将变成痛苦和挫折，抑或是得到深化。

也许两个人之间最初的吸引力是关于性的。如果他们开始一起生活，性的吸引力无法一直持续，它无法令你从这段关系中得到持久的满足。到了某个点，性的或是情感的吸引力需要被深化，那个超越一切的层面需要在一定程度上加入进来，从而能够令深化发生。然后，真爱就经由个人的爱而闪耀出来。重要的是，真爱，是自你真正所是的那个永恒的、超越形式的层面散发出来的。这真爱是否正穿越那个只喜爱外在形式的个人的爱而闪耀出来？如果不是这样，那么它就是与形式完全认同了，而与形式完全认同的就是小我。

你也许很多次都这样想“就是它了！”，然后你们生活在一起一段时间之后，你发现“这是一个错误”，或者“我真是鬼迷心窍了”。甚至，在特别固着于形式层面的亲子关系中，如果那超越一切的层面未能闪耀出来，孩子与父母之间的爱最终也会变成其他的东西。这就是为什么很多人都与父母有着问题重重的关系。

有些关系一开始纯粹建立在形式之上，然后，过了一段时间另一个层面进入了。也许那得是在遇到很多问题之后，也许你们几乎要决裂了，这时突然发生了一个深化，然后，你才能够将空间带入你们的关系。

关键就是，问自己：“在这段关系中，是否有空间存在？”还是只有一堆想法和情绪？如果你与一个人住在一起，而你们只不过有一堆想法和情绪，那你们是生活在一个可怕的监狱里。有时你们觉得尚可，但是争吵、冲突常常发生。

我们需要认识到属于个人的相互吸引确实存在。但是它们本身无法令人感到终极的满足。在更多的情况下，这些相互吸引其实是痛苦的源头。当那超越一切的层面缺失的时候，爱反而成了痛苦的源头。那这超越一切的该如何进入呢？通过当你和另一个人在一起的时候，让自己成为空间这种方式。它本质上的意思就是，当你看着对方的时候，在你的内在连接上那个宁静。

没有头脑的噪音，没有情绪的波动。这并不是说不能有情绪或是念头，而是说在这关系中有一些其它的东西存在。这不仅仅适用于亲密关系，也适用于工作之中的一些比较粗浅的关系。

对任何人类的关系来说，问题就是，“是否有空间存在？”这是一个指示牌。空间就是想法变得不重要了 – 甚至情绪也变得不重要了。

当人们住在一起，有时，在日常生活之中，因为有那么多琐碎的事情要做，你不再注意到身边这个人。当你早晨醒来，是否有那么一刻，你注意到身边这个人的存在？

如果你可以作为空间与另一个人在一起，而不是作为一个人，这就是世上最美好的事情。就在当下这一刻，你可以作为一个人存在，或者，你也可以选择作为那个空间存在。



翻译：游由

~~原文如下~~

Eckhart on Personal Love

Q:  If we’re all one, why do we feel drawn toward certain individuals in an expression of “personal love”?

ET:  True love is transcendental.  Without recognition of the formless within yourself, there can be no true transcendental love.  If you cannot recognize the formless in yourself, you cannot recognize yourself in the other.  The recognition of the other as yourself in essence – not the form – is true love.  As long as the conditioned mind operates and you are completely identified with it, there’s no true love.  There may be substitutes, things that are called “love” but are not true love.  For example, “falling in love”…perhaps most of us have experienced it.  Maybe one or two at this moment are “in love”, and those who have experienced it have also experienced “falling out of love”.

We need to remember to understand [the difference between] true love and other forms of so-called love.  We are in the relative as form, and in the absolute as formless consciousness.  The two dimensions that the human being embodies are the ‘human’ and the ‘being’.  The human is the form, the being is the formless, the timeless consciousness itself.  It sometimes happens that the form has an affinity with other forms.  It could happen for a number of reasons.  One being that this form has come out of another form – called your mother – and so there is an affinity of this form with that other form.  You have a love toward your mother that might be called ‘personal’.  Another aspect of affinity with another form is male/female.  You can be drawn to another body in a sexual way, and it’s sometimes called “love”.  Especially if the sexual act is denied long enough, it’s more likely to develop into obsessive love…so much so, that in cultures where you could not have sex until you were married, falling in love could be a huge thing and could lead to suicide.  Naturally, there is an affinity of the male/female, the incompleteness of this form.  The primary incompleteness of this form is that you are either a man or a woman.  The oneness has become the duality of male/female.

The pull towards the other is an attempt to find wholeness, completeness, fulfillment through the opposite polarity, in an attempt to find the Oneness.  That lies at the basis of the attraction.  It’s to do with form, because on the level of form you are not whole – you are one half of the whole.  One half of humanity is male, one half is female, roughly.

You have the attraction for the other, then there may be finding certain qualities in another human being that resonate with certain qualities in yourself.  Or, if they don’t resonate, it may be the opposite that you feel drawn to.  If you are a very peaceful person, maybe you feel drawn toward a dramatic person, or vice-versa.  And again, you are hoping for some completion there.  You can have an affinity with another form, which can be called ‘personal love’.  If personal love is all that there is, then what is missing is the transcendental dimension of the formless – which is where true love arises.  Is that part of the personal love, or is the personal level all that there is?  That determines whether that so-called “love” is going to turn into something painful eventually, and frustrating, or if there is a deepening.

There may be an attraction that is initially sexual between two humans.  If they start living together, this cannot endure for that long and be the fulfillment of the relationship. At some point, sexual/emotional [attraction] needs to deepen and the transcendental dimension needs to come in, to some extent, for it to deepen.  Then true love shines through the personal.  The important thing is that true love emanates from the timeless, non-formal dimension of who you are.  Is that shining through the personal love that is to do with affinity of forms?  If it is not, there is complete identification with form, and complete identification with form is ego.

Many times you may think “that’s it!” and after living together for a little while you realize “that was a mistake”, or “I was completely deluded”.  Even in parent-children relationships, which is a very close bond on the level of form, if the transcendental dimension does not shine through, eventually the love between children and parents turns into something else.  This is why so many people have very problematic relationships with their parents.

Some relationships may start as purely form-based, and then the other dimension comes in after a while.   Perhaps only after a lot of problems, and perhaps you get close to a breakup, when suddenly there is a deepening and then you are able to bring in space.

The key is to ask, “Is there space in this relationship?”  Or are there only thoughts and emotions?  It’s dreadful prison to inhabit if you live with a person and all you have are thoughts and emotions.  Occasionally you are okay, but there is disagreement, friction.

We need to acknowledge that there are personal affinities.  But in themselves, they are never ultimately fulfilling.  More often than not, they are a source of suffering.  Love becomes a source of suffering when the transcendental is missing.  How does the transcendent come in?  By being spacious with the other.  Which essentially means that you access the Stillness in yourself while you look at the other.

Not mental noise, not emotional waves.  That does not mean that there cannot be emotions or thoughts, but there is something else present in the relationship.  That applies not only to close personal relationships, but also to more superficial relationships at work.

With any human relationship, the question is, “Is there space?”  It’s a pointer.  Space is when thought becomes unimportant – even an emotion becomes unimportant.

When people live together, sometimes the other is no longer acknowledged in daily life because there is so much to do.  If you wake up in the morning, is there a moment when you acknowledge the presence of the other?

It’s the most wonderful thing if you can be there for the other as space, rather than as a person.  At this very moment, you can either be here as a person, or you can be here as the space.

嘉静

摘自埃克哈特网站8月电子刊物，翻译：游由

埃克哈特回答你的问题：谈话中的临在

问题：当我与其他人在一起时如何保持临在？我如何才能将临在带入谈话中？

埃克哈特：这并不容易。在你们开始说话的那一刻，两个头脑相遇了，它们互相强化对方。一个流动开始了，连续不断的念头的流动。上一刻你还是临在的，然后有人开始说话。在谈话中，空间丢失了。参与谈话的两个人完全丧失了对空间的感知。剩下的只是词语、念头和语言的表达，连续不断的念头转化成了声音。他们完全被它接管了。它有自己的动能 – 它几乎就是一个小的实体，一个不愿停止的流动。

时常地，它会在身体上引发情绪。而情绪又会强化和巩固它。如果连续不断的念头引发了情绪，事实是它经常会这么做，特别是当我们谈论到其他人的时候，他们做了什么，他们没做什么，他们对你做了什么，他们对别人做了什么，评论，说闲话，所有这些情绪化的东西，这时小我就进来了。当你批评别人时，小我感到更强大。通过贬低别人，在小我的虚幻的系统中，你的自我形象得到了一些加强。任何针对别人的批评都是这个能量流动的一部分。然后情绪也进来了，它们又对念头进行了强化。这就是空间的丧失。

你要如何重新找回空间，不是说：“我再也不说话了”，有一件事是必须的，就是意识到，你丧失了空间。除此之外，你什么也做不了 - 你是如此地被念头之流接管，以至于你都意识不到你被它接管了 - 你什么也做不了。“原谅他们吧，他们不知道自己做了什么。”他们是无意识的。他们是念头的续流。作为念头之流，你不愿意停止，因为你不愿意终止你自己。每一个实体都希望尽可能长时间地保持住有形。

如果你意识到你丧失了“空间”，哪怕这意识非常轻微，这一刻你有了一个选择。你的选择是什么？你可以选择在这一刻，在头脑的续流中，带入一点临在，一点空间。但是你如何做到呢？

它不仅仅会从你自己的内在到达你，它也会从其他人那里到达你。觉知发生了，但可能仅仅维持三秒钟，然后觉知又消失了。这两三秒，你意识到了空间的丧失，你必须充分利用它，在这个空间中，你可以自由采取行动，做点什么。通过一个有意识的选择，你将注意力从念头中拔出来 - 但你必须在其他什么地方将它固定住，否则没有用。所以你选择将注意力放在呼吸、身体，或者是周围你可以感知到的其他东西上面。当你在和另一个人交谈的时候，最容易的方法可能就是利用你的呼吸或者内在身体。

在情况容易些的时候，事先做练习，这样你就可以在需要的时候做它了。进入你的内在身体，感受你体内活生生的能量场。然后你会注意到，你没有在思考。你可以继续聆听。这真奇妙，你可以如此自在地、美丽地聆听另一个人，而没有思考。

你在聆听，但你部分的注意力放在你的能量场上 - 这样你就将注意力从你的念头上移开。在背景处有一种活力的感觉。

最终它会是无形的。它已经是进入无形的一个入口。感受一下，你坐在那里聆听，而你已经走出了念头之流。然后，互动的质量瞬间转变。另一个人可能没有意识到发生了什么，他可能会继续说一会儿。这也并不意味着你不再回应。只是你回应的方式和回应的质量也不一样了。你不再只是贡献负面的能量了，虽然在大多数谈话中是这样。

然后，你说出来的话语也将携带着一些宁静。它非常微妙，另一个人也许意识不到。继续保持注意力在你的内在身体，让它成为锚，然后你就会变得临在。如果你再次丢失了它，如果另一个人说了什么有挑战性的话，然后过了一会儿你重新记起 - 你继续回到内在身体。这是一个强有力的锚，然后一切都从这里开始变得不一样。这需要持续不断的练习。


~~~~~~原文如下~~~~~~
Eckhart Answers your Questions: Presence in Conversation
Question:  How do I maintain a sense of presence when I’m in the company of another person?  How do I bring presence into conversation?

Eckhart:  It’s not easy.  The moment you start talking, the two minds come together and so they strengthen each other.  A flow starts, a stream of thought.  A moment ago you were present, and then somebody starts talking.  What applies here is the loss of space during the conversation.  Both participants of the conversation have lost any sense of space.  There are only the words, the mind, the verbalization, the stream of thinking that becomes sounds.  They are taken over by that.  It has its own momentum – almost a little entity, a stream, that doesn’t want to end.

Often, it generates emotions in the body.   That strengthens it, amplifies it.  If the mental stream triggers emotions, which it often does, especially when talking about other people, what they did, failed to do, did to you, did to others, criticisms, gossip, all kinds of emotional [things], the ego comes in.  When you can criticize another, the ego feels a little bit stronger.  By diminishing another, in the delusional system of the ego, you have enhanced your own self-image a little bit.  Any criticism of another is a part of that energy stream.  And then emotions come, and they amplify the thoughts. It’s the loss of space.

For you to regain space, without saying “I’m not talking anymore”, one thing is necessary for you – which is the realization that you’ve lost space.   Without that, there’s nothing you can do – when you’re so taken over by a stream of thought, that you don’t even know you’ve been taken over by a stream of thought – there’s nothing you can do.  “Forgive them, for they know not what they do”.  They are unconscious.  They are the stream of thought.  And as the stream of thought, you don’t want it to end – because you don’t want your own end.  Every entity wants to remain in form for as long as possible.

If there’s the slightest realization that you’ve lost [space], at that moment you have a choice.  What is your choice?  Your choice is to bring some presence, some space, into the stream of thought.  But how do you do that?

It’s coming at you not only from within your own mind, but it’s coming at you from the other person too.  The awareness is there, and it may only last three seconds, and then it’s gone again.  So you have to use those two or three seconds, where you realize the loss of space, and do something in that space where you have some freedom to act.  By a conscious choice, you take your attention out of thinking – but you have to anchor it somewhere else, otherwise it won’t work.  So you choose your breath, or your body, or some other sense perception around you that you become aware of.  When you are actually talking to another person, it’s probably easiest to either use your breath or your inner body.

Practice this beforehand, when conditions are easier, so that you can do it once it’s necessary.  Go into your inner body, feel that your energy field is alive.  And you’ll notice, you’re not thinking anymore.  You can still listen.  The amazing thing is that you can listen to another person, without thinking, easily, beautifully.

You are listening, but part of your attention is on your energy field – so you’ve taken attention away from your thoughts.  There is a sense of aliveness in the background.
It’s ultimately formless; it’s already the doorway into the formless.  Feel that while you sit there and listen, and you’ve stepped out of the stream of thinking.  Then, the quality of the interaction immediately changes.  The other person may not consciously notice what’s happening, and may carry on for a while. It also does not mean that you cannot respond anymore.  But how you respond and the quality of your response changes, too.  You are no longer contributing to the negative nature, which is often the case, in conversations.

A certain amount of stillness, then, will also be a part of the words that you speak.  It’s so subtle that the other person probably will not notice it, consciously.  So hang on to the inner body, let it be the anchor, and then you become present.  If you lose it again, if the other person says something challenging, then after a little while you remember – and you go back into the inner body. That’s a powerful anchor, and then everything changes from there. It takes continuous practice.

嘉静

*摘自埃克哈特网站2012年1月电子刊

埃克哈特谈临在与吸引力法则

问: 请问您关于临在的教导与现在流行的所谓吸引力法则的教导之间的基本区别是什么？在吸引力法则教导的背后真正的问题是关于欲望的，我总是感觉自己非常倾向于苏菲的教导，它说在我的欲望背后深深隐藏的是对神的渴望。然而，吸引力法则的倡导者们说如果你以某种方式思考或是感觉，那么你可以拥有你想要的任何东西，或是成为你想成为的任何样子。当我听到这个说法的时候，我总是看见一个红色警示，因为我想如果用这个方法，自我可能会变得疯狂。我的问题是，有没有一种更深层次的渴望，是并非来自于自我的？

答：当苏菲说，归根结底，每个欲望事实上都是一个被掩盖的对神的渴望，苏菲当然是对的。它是乔装打扮的对终极的满足与达成的渴望，对完完全全成为你自己的渴望。从根本上说，我们在谈论的是那个源头，认识到所有生命的源头。每个人都在渴望着源头，但是在绝大多数人心里有一个对我有时称之为“回归的旅程”的渴望，回到生命的那个源头。只有到那时，当你有意识地发现了它，找到了它，你才能真正感受到生命的圆满。这正是宇宙渴望的。宇宙渴望两件事，如果你观察自己你将知道这是真的。你就是宇宙。你可以通过观察自己学习到关于宇宙的很多事情，因为你就是宇宙，宇宙就是你。上，即是下。

人类有着在有形世界创造的倾向或渴望，人类想要让某些事物诞生，无论它是什么。也许是一件东西，也许是其他什么。人类有着参与创造活动的渴望。当然，即使没有人类，创造活动也在发生。每一刻，在这个星球上，无数的生命形式自己来到存在之中。简直难以想象每时每刻有多少生命形式在这个星球上被创造着，各种各样无数的生命 – 当然，它们同时也在死去。出生、死亡，出生、死亡，无穷无尽。人类也在被创造着，我可以说，每一刻，都有一个人正在出生，而在星球的另一个地方，一个人正在死去。就在这一刻，在这个星球上，有人正在死去，如此这般，循环往复。

存在着宇宙参与其中的创造活动，而且创造的复杂性正在增加。如果你看看我们的星球，你会发现它曾经是一片荒芜的土地，存在的只有矿石。接着，有了植物，然后是其他的生命物种，越来越复杂的生命。就像是一棵树，一开始只有一根主干，一根枝干，接着从中出现了一些更小的枝条。它变得枝繁叶茂。即使人类这个生命形式也是这样；如果你回溯人类历史，人类社会，你会发现几千年前的人类非常简单，即使只是几百年前，相较于现在，人类也很简单。那时人们的个人生活，他们需要处理的事情的复杂性要小得多，集体层面上也是如此。宇宙在发展着复杂性，也许它就是热衷于创造活动，渴望创造，喜欢创造。否则，事情不会这样发生。宇宙有创造的渴望，而它就是这么做的。这个渴望也在人类身上反映出来。

我们参与到这个想让事物诞生的渴望中，创造的活动可以发生在人类身上，人类可以创造。从这个角度来说，我们与动物不同，因为我们可以创造各种各样全新的事物 – 我们可以创造音乐、科技，以及其他许多事物。艺术、哲学、图画、电影、组织、华尔街…所有这一切。你可能发现在你自己之内，有个部分想要参与创造活动，想要带来某样在这个有形世界中不曾存在过的东西。也许是你想写的一本书，或是一段音乐，或者你想创造一个改变世界的开悟的组织，或者你想帮助那些正在受苦的人。

你可以创造一个能带来帮助的机构，但是还存在那个想要获得什么的欲望。有些比较深地处于自我意识中的人，在给予财产然后创造的时候，无法看见这个欲望。你必须在一定程度上超越自我，如果创造是来自于你在你的内在感受到的圆满，只有从那里，你才能够真正地创造。在自我意识中，他们也对有形世界很有兴趣，但是自我意识不是那么来自于想要给予，而是想要拥有。所以自我会说：“我能得到什么？”，而从临在之中，当你参与到创造里，更多的是：“我能带来什么？”- 这就是区别。

有形世界中正在增长的复杂性里有一个自我的层面，这个自我的部分就是想要得到什么。自我不是来自于圆满而是来自于匮乏，来自于“不够”的感觉，这就是自我的欲望。自我说：“我想要那辆车，因为当我坐在里面，驾驶着它的时候，我真的会感觉更好 – 尤其是如果有人看见我在车里的话。”如果没有其他人，这就不大能起作用。只有当别人有了和你不一样的车时，它才开始为自我所用，一幢房子或是你拥有的任何东西，任何财产，都一样。即便没有自我从中攫取快感，或是强化它自己，你也可以好好地享受一幢漂亮的房子或是一辆很棒的车。我不是说如果你没有自我就不能享受美好的东西，你仍然可以享受它们，只是不是因为它们加强了你对自己的感觉。它只是一个对美好事物的简单欣赏，也许它是一个人创造出来的 – 一件漂亮的家具，一幢美丽的房子。当你不是从自我出发，你可能不会想要拥有一幢有20间卧室的房子，临在不大可能会说：“我喜欢一幢有20间卧室的房子！”

两方面都存在，自我想要占有的层面，以及宇宙想要创造更多形式，体验更多形式的非自我的渴望。没有人类，宇宙也可以创造，但是当那个更伟大的智慧，或是意识经由人类创造，就有了一个更丰满的维度进来。这就是为什么我们有这个说法：我们成为了神的“共同创造者”。神创造了海里的鱼类，创造了植物，以及所有的动物，还有人类的身体。然后经由人类这个形式，经由人类的头脑，包括思想 – 宇宙可以创造那些没有人类就无法创造的事物。所以欲望真的是自我的现象。当你从超越自我的层面创造，它就不是从欲望中诞生的创造，因为欲望暗示着某种缺失。真正的创造来自于想要给予，来自于你在内在感受到的圆满。

当我写那些书，是那些书想要出来，我可以感受到它想要被创造。倒不是我有写一本书的渴望。这本书想来。这就是当它不是来自于自我时的创造。自我的创造，就像我刚才提到的，如果你深入观察，它是一个被掩盖的对神的渴望，对灵性认出的渴望。那些被卡在自我之中的人不知道他们真正在追寻的不是银行账户或房子或车子或是别人的认同，或名声，或者其他任何自我以为能给它带来满足的事物。他们真正在追寻的是他们自己，一个关于他们自己的更完整的版本。那么你的本质究竟是什么？你是那个源头。你的本质是意识本身。如果神是太阳，打个比方 – 意识就是太阳之光。神是那个源头，那个未显化的，对于这个你无法说什么，因为无论你说什么都是一个失真的表达。要谈论那个不可思议的简直是荒谬的，就像《道德经》中说的，道可道，非常道。但无论如何，《道德经》终究还是被写成了文字。

被自我的欲望紧紧束缚的人们最终会经验到沮丧和痛苦，即使他们获得了一切想要的事物。然后他们发现这似乎没有用，他们依然感觉到那个不满足，当他们不再有任何事物可以在头脑里将自己投射于它时，他们也许会感到更强烈的不满足。当你拥有了这个世界能够提供给你的一切，你会发现追求外在事物的无益，这些东西无法带给你终极的完成，终极的满足，一种恒久不变的感觉，一种充满活力的内在的安详。这些东西无法带给你那个。但是同时，只要人们还没有来到这个领悟，他们可以自由地练习显化，他们可以自由地练习显化某辆车，某幢房子，在某种程度上它可以起作用。当你是从自我意识出发时，你会被稍稍限制，所以你显化的力量是有限的，但无论如何你拥有一定的显化能力。

另外，伴随着这幢房子这辆车而来，自我也会显化它自己的功能失调。在自我能够显化一幢房子，一辆车或是任何它想要的东西的同时，它也同样会显化在这幢房子里的婚姻的戏剧性事件。因为自我内置的功能失调，它也会显化围绕着它显化的东西的不间断的冲突事件。最终，你意识到这个世界无法提供你满足，然后你就开始觉醒了。

有两种方式可以让显化发生。一种是从自我的匮乏来显化，另一种是从临在的圆满之中，你也可以显化。即使是来自于临在的圆满，临在也可以利用人类的头脑。临在可以流经头脑，可以激活你的想法，这些想法不再是功能失调的。无论临在想要经由你显化什么，它可以利用思想的力量来显化。它将是来自于一个给予，有一个给予的渴望，而不是获得。思维可以被利用，当自我不再干扰时，思维可以被更强有力地利用。

当人类成为神的共同创造者，临在就会流经人的头脑，利用人的思维来创造崭新的事物，这是一件很美的事。从临在中你不是因为你想要创造任何东西来让你满足 – 而是因为你是从满足中创造，从临在中创造。然后创造的原因就是创造活动本身的快乐。在自我中你没有这个，它不是创造的快乐，它是创造的压力。你也许会有些快乐的时刻，当自我暂时休息时，但是接着那个压力又会回来。

这可以产生非常大的压力。任何自我所承担的努力都会成为压力，成为冲突。如果你观察一些组织，当自我们聚集在一起，他们会有些大的企业。即使是那些善意的自我依然是自我。这就是为什么那句箴言说：“通往地狱的道路以善意铺就。”它是在说自我。看看医院的行政管理 – 一个有潜力提供疗愈的地方。看看大学，一个有潜力提供学习和智慧的地方。显化并没有什么错。当你从自我之中显化，最终你会发现你对于任何你创造的东西都感到不满。我并不打算拿走自我在创造过程中感受到的快乐或痛苦。我永远不会劝任何人：“不要奋力追求物质的东西，因为那不会为你带来任何好处”。这样说是没有意义的。人们必须亲尝这个真理的滋味。越来越多来到这个世界的人可能不再需要经历整个自我的疯狂的发展过程。现在有越来越多来到这里的人也许会在他们的青春期经验自我的阶段，然后当他们成年，就从自我之中脱离出来。这也许会是一件非常棒的事情，因为这真的就是事情该是的样子：它本来就是一个暂时的不成熟的阶段，一个迷妄的阶段，然后你走过这个成长的部分，进化成一个完全有意识的人。

宇宙想要创造。创造并没有什么不好，尤其是来自于生命的圆满的创造。宇宙也想要深深的内在安祥。它也希望你存在，而不是作为，它希望你回到源头。事实上，这就是临在。临在就是对一切生命的源头的有意识的认出。这也是自我原本想要的，当自我在追寻其他什么东西的时候，它真正想要的是找到这个。当你是有意识地和万物的源头连接着的，一件不可思议的事情会发生。你可以平衡地安住在源头觉知中，它就是宁静，就是临在，就是觉知。觉知就是源头，意识之光知道自己是意识之光。这是一件很美的事。

你可以为这个有形世界做出贡献，允许宇宙，源头经由你而创造，如果你想，你可以参与到意识创造的活动中。或者，你可以停留在源头，不再移动。

这种情况曾经在一定程度上发生在我身上，它也曾经在拉玛纳马哈希身上发生过，在他还是个年轻人的时候。他完全回到源头，进入所谓的自我认出，知道他自己是意识，是本体，他停止说话。他不再想说话，因为说话是作为，而没有什么要做。只是安住于源头。他坐在庙宇下面，在源头觉知中充满喜悦。他不再进食，因为进食有什么意义？朝圣者没有将他送进精神病院，在西方，也许人们会这么做，朝圣者们会定期拜访寺庙，将食物放进他的嘴里。过了几年，慢慢地，他又出来了。他逐渐地可以重新开始与人互动，甚至语言也回来了。在回归的旅途上有过一次极端的情形。他本来可以一辈子都停留在源头。

那样的情形发生过，我们不是要谴责或赞同它，但它可能发生。我不是将它作为一个你必须去做的事情告诉你这个，特别是在西方。他从未失去和源头的连接，即使是当他开始说话。有人向他提问，他几乎未受过什么教育。他们带来古代的经文，问他：“这是什么意思？”然后他立刻就能解释每一篇经文。他住于源头，临在本身在经由他说话。所以他成为伟大的圣人，他没有做任何事情，围绕着他开始发展出一个道场。创造确实经由他在一定程度上发生了。宇宙，经由他，创造了那个道场。一位灵性导师真正指向的是回到源头的路。一位灵性导师主要的兴趣不在于告诉你要如何做才能在这个有形世界改善你的生活。这就是为什么我很少谈及如何显化这个或是那个，如何在生活中获得成功。有某种比在外在世界成为一个伟大的成功要深得多的东西。

宇宙有两个运动，它想要创造，同时它也想要知道它自己。神，让我们姑且用这个词……神显然喜欢创造。看看宇宙中，无数的恒星，无数的星系，无边无际的广阔和丰富，还有无以计数的，在这个星球上的丰富的生命形式。显然神喜欢创造活动，喜欢形式之舞。既然我们在这里，我们就是这个创造的一部分，我们也是形式。我们也可以享受这个有形世界，或者经由创造新的形式，或者如果我们是频率的持有者或冥想者，我们可以经由观照身边的美好，把意识之光带入已经存在于此的事物之上，来享受这个有形世界。你享受这个有形世界的方式有两种，作为共同创造者，带来新的形式，无论它是什么。你也可以在同时成为这个不可思议的生命多样性的观照者，这些生命一直环绕着你，你惊奇地看着周遭的奇迹，无论你在哪里。



翻译：游由


~~原文如下~~



Eckhart on Presence & The Law of Attraction

Q: What is the fundamental difference between your teaching of presence and the current popular teaching called The Law of Attraction? Behind that teaching is really a question about desire, and I have always felt very drawn to the Sufi teaching, which says that hidden deeply behind my desire is the desire of God. And yet, the proponents of The Law of Attraction are saying that you can have or do or be anything that you want, if you think and feel in a certain way. I always see a red flag when I hear that, because I think the ego could go wild with that approach. My question is, is there a deeper level of desire which is not that of the ego?

A: The Sufis are right, of course, when they say that, ultimately, every desire is really a disguised desire for God. It’s a disguised desire for ultimate satisfaction and fulfillment, and being completely who you are. Basically, we’re talking about the Source, realizing the Source of all life. Everyone is longing for that, but in most humans there is a longing for what I sometimes call “the return journey”, to return to the very Source of life. It’s really only then, when you have discovered it, found it, consciously, that there is a completion of life. That’s what the Universe wants. It wants two things, which, if you observe yourself you’ll know are true. You are the Universe. You can learn a lot about the Universe by observing yourself, because you are it and it is you. As above, so below.

The human being has the tendency or the desire to create in the world of form, to give birth to whatever it may be. It may be a material thing, it may be something else. There is a desire in humans to participate in the act of creation. Of course, the act of creation is there even without humans. Millions of life forms on this planet alone come into being every moment. Millions of life forms of different kinds, it staggers the imagination how many life forms on this planet alone are being created at every moment – and of course die at the same time. Birth and death, birth and death, continuously. Humans are being created, every moment I can say a human being is being born, somewhere on the planet, and a human being is dying. At this moment, somebody is dying on the planet, and again, and again.

There’s the act of creation that the Universe is engaged in, and creation is increasing in complexity. If you look at our planet alone, you see that there was a time when it was barren, there were only minerals. Then came plant life, then other levels of life, in increasing complexity. Like a tree, first there’s only one branch, a stem, and then smaller branches coming out of that. It goes into complexity. Even human life forms; if you go back in human history, human society and the human being were both fairly simple thousands of years ago, even a few hundred years ago compared to now. There was much less complexity in people’s personal lives, what they had to deal with, and in the collective. The Universe is growing in complexity, and is indulging in or wanting or delighting, perhaps, in the act of creation. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be happening. It is a desire of the Universe to create, and that is what it does. That is reflected in humans.

We participate in this wanting to give birth, the act of creation can happen to the human, the human can create. In that sense we are different from animals because we can create all kinds of things that are totally new – we can create music, science, and many other things. Art, philosophies, pictures, movies, organizations, Wall Street. All kinds of things. And you can probably find, in yourself, there’s part of you that would like to do and participate in the act of creation and bring something into this world that wasn’t here before, in the world of form. Maybe it’s a book you want to write, or a piece of music, or you want to create an enlightened organization that changes things in the world, or you want to help people who are suffering.

You can create a structure that is helpful but there’s that desire to acquire something. Some people who are very much in the egoic consciousness don’t see it so much as giving from your treasure and then creating something. You must, to some extent, have gone beyond ego if the creation comes through the fullness that you sense inside you, and from there you can truly create. In the egoic consciousness, they are also very interested in the world of form, but the egoic consciousness does not come so much from wanting to give, but wanting to have. So the ego goes, “What can I get?” and from Presence, when you participate in the creation, it’s more “What can I give birth to?” – that’s the difference.

There’s an egoic aspect of increasing complexity in the world of form, where the egoic part is wanting something. The ego comes not from fullness but from neediness, from a sense of “not enough”, and that is the ego desire. The ego says, “I desire that car because I will really feel better when I am sitting in that car and driving it – especially if other people see me in it”. Without other people, it doesn’t really work. It only begins to work for the ego if other people have cars that are not like yours, the same with a house or anything else that you acquire, any possession. You can perfectly enjoy a nice house or nice car without the ego deriving any pleasure from it, or enhancing itself. I’m not saying things cannot be enjoyed if you have no ego, you can still enjoy lovely things but not because they add to your sense of self. It’s a simple enjoyment of a beautiful thing that perhaps a human has created – a beautiful piece of furniture, a beautiful house. You would probably not want to acquire a 20-bedroom house for yourself when you are not coming from ego, it is unlikely that Presence would say, “I’d love a twenty-bedroom house!”

There is both the egoic aspect of wanting to have, and the non-egoic desire of the Universe to give birth to more forms and experience more forms. The Universe does it without the humans, but an added dimension comes in when the greater intelligence, or consciousness, creates through the humans. This is why we have the expression that we become “co-creators” with God. God creates the fishes in the sea, and the plant life, and all the animals, and the human bodies. Then through the human form, the human mind, including thought – the Universe can create things that wouldn’t be there without the human. So desire as such is really an egoic phenomenon. When you create beyond ego, it’s not so much a creation out of desire, because desire implies some kind of lack. Creation comes as wanting to give, from the fullness that you sense within you.

When I wrote the books, the books wanted to come out and I could feel it wanted to be created. It’s not so much that I had a desire to write a book. The book wanted to come. That is creation when it does not come from ego. The desire of the ego, as I mentioned earlier just now, if you look deeply it is a disguised desire also for God, for spiritual realization. Those that are trapped in ego don’t know that what they are really looking for is not the bank account or the house or the car or the recognition for others, or the fame, or whatever it is that the ego thinks would give it fulfillment. What they’re really looking for is themselves, a fuller version of themselves. And who are you in your essence? You are the Source. Who you are in your essence is consciousness itself. If God is the sun, so to speak, an analogy – consciousness is the light of the sun. God is the Source, the unmanifested, of which you cannot speak because whatever you say is a distortion. It’s absurd to speak of that mystery, as the Tao Te Ching says, you cannot speak of the Tao, and nevertheless we are speaking. And nevertheless, the Tao Te Ching did get written in words.

The people who are impaled by egoic desire eventually experience frustration and suffering, even if they attain whatever they desire. Then they realize it doesn’t seem to work, and they still feel this unfulfillment, perhaps even more strongly when they no longer have anything that they could mentally project themselves with. When you have everything that this world can offer you, you can realize the futility of desiring things that cannot give yourself ultimate fulfillment, ultimate satisfaction, a sense of permanency, vibrantly alive inner peace. These things cannot give that to you. But in the meantime, as long as people don’t come to that realization, they are free to practice manifesting, they are free to practice manifesting the car, the house, and to some extent it can work. You can be a little bit hampered when you are coming from ego consciousness, so your powers of manifestation are limited, nevertheless you have some.

In addition, what the ego also manifests is its own dysfunction that comes with the house and the car. While the ego can manifest a house and a car and whatever else it wants, it can also manifest the drama in the marriage that’s in the house as well. Because of its inbuilt dysfunction, it can also manifest continuous conflict around whatever else it manifests. Eventually, you realize that this world does not provide you with satisfaction, and then you begin to awaken.

There are two means by which manifestation comes about. One is the ego’s neediness to manifest, and another is out of the fullness of Presence, you can manifest. Even coming from the fullness of Presence, Presence can use also the human mind. Presence can flow through the mind and can energize your thoughts, and they are no longer dysfunctional. Whatever Presence wants to manifest through you, it can use the power of thought to manifest. It will come from a giving, there is a desire to give, not to get. Thought can be used and can be used more powerfully when the ego is no longer interfering.

When the human becomes co-creator with God, then Presence can flow into the human mind and use also human thought and create original things, and that’s a beautiful thing. From Presence you do not create because you want whatever you create to satisfy you – because you are creating out of the satisfaction, out of Presence. The reason for creating then, is the joy of the act of creation. In the ego you do not have that, it’s not the joy of the creation, it’s the stress of the creation. You may get moments of joy, when momentarily the ego subsides, but then it comes back in again.

It can be very stressful. Any endeavor that the ego undertakes becomes stress, and becomes conflict. If you look at organizations, whenever egos come together, and they have some big enterprise. Even well-intentioned egos are still egos. That’s why the proverb applies: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. It’s talking about the ego. Look at the administration of hospitals – a place of healing, potentially. Universities are a place of learning and wisdom, potentially. There’s nothing wrong with manifestation. When you come from ego, eventually you will learn that you become dissatisfied with whatever you create. I am not going to take away the pleasure or pain that the ego has in creating. I would never dissuade anybody by saying, “Don’t strive after material things because it won’t do you any good”. There’s no point in saying that. Humans have to taste the truth of it for themselves. More humans are actually coming into this world now that may not need to go through the full-fledged development of the egoic madness. There are more humans coming in now who perhaps will go through the egoic phase in their adolescence, and then grow out of it when they become adults. That perhaps would be a wonderful thing, because that’s really how it should be: a temporary stage of immaturity, of delusion, that you go through as part of your growth into a fully conscious human being.

The Universe wants to create. There’s nothing wrong with creation, especially the creation that comes from the fullness of life. The Universe also wants deep inner peace. It also wants you to be, rather than to do, to return to the Source. Really, this is what Presence is. Presence is conscious realization of the Source of all life. That’s what the ego originally wanted, when it was looking for something else. It really wanted to find that. When you are consciously connected with the Source of all life, then a miraculous thing can happen. You can actually be in balance between dwelling in Source awareness, which is the Stillness, which is the Presence, which is the awareness. Awareness is Source itself, the light of consciousness knowing itself as the light of consciousness. That’s a beautiful thing.

You can contribute to this world of form and allow the Universe, the Source, to create through you, and participate in the act of conscious creation if that’s what you want. Or you can stay in the Source and don’t move again.

This happened to me to some extent, it happened to Ramana Maharshi, when he was a young man. He went completely back to the Source, into what is called self-realization, knowing himself as consciousness, as the self, and stopped speaking. He didn’t want to speak anymore, because that’s doing, and there was nothing to do. There was just dwelling in the Source. He sat by the foot of a temple, delighting in Source awareness. He didn’t eat anymore, because what was the point? Instead of taking him to a mental home, as they would have done in the West, some pilgrims who regularly visited the temple would put food in his mouth. After a few years, gradually, he came out again. Gradually he began to interact again, and even words came back. There was an extreme form of the return journey. He could have stayed there for the rest of his life.

Cases like that have occurred, and that’s not for us to condemn or approve, but it can happen. I’m not pointing this out to you as necessarily a desirable thing for you to do, in the West particularly. He never lost connection with the Source, even when he began to speak. He was asked questions, and he was relatively uneducated. They brought ancient scriptures, and asked “What does this mean?” and immediately he could explain every scripture. He was dwelling in Source, and Presence itself was speaking through him. So he became a great sage, and without doing anything as such, an ashram grew up around him. Creation did happen to some extent, through him. The Universe, through him, created the ashram. A spiritual teacher really points the way back to the Source. The spiritual teacher is not primarily interested in showing you what you can do to improve your life out here in the world of form. That’s why I rarely talk about how to manifest this or that, how to be a great success in life. There’s something much deeper than being a great success out there.

There are two movements in the Universe, it wants to create but it also wants to know itself. God, let’s use the word… God obviously delights in creation. Look out into the Universe, at the infinite abundance of suns and galaxies and so on, billions and billions, the infinite abundance of creation on this planet, the complexity of life forms. Obviously God delights in the act of creation, and the dance of form. As we are here, we are part of that, we are form also. We can also delight in the world of form, either by creating new forms, or if we are frequency-holders or contemplatives, we can delight in the world of form by witnessing all the beauty that is already here around us, and bringing this light of consciousness into the world of forms that are already here. There are two ways you can delight in the world of form, as a co-creator and give birth to new forms, whatever it may be. You can also, even at the same time, be the witness of the incredible multiplicity of life forms that are continuously around you, and look in amazement at the miracle that surrounds you no matter where you are.

嘉静

*摘自埃克哈特网站2011年11月电子刊

埃克哈特谈创造力


创造力是从一个特定的层面升起的。这有点像灯芯上燃烧着火焰，而令这火焰得以燃烧下去的是燃油 – 它在一盏油灯之中，而你是那火焰。顺便说一句，所有这些类比，都是有所欠缺的，它们只不过是一种距离遥远的近似说法，用来带你进入关于那个地方的感觉而已。你是那火焰，你感觉到了进入那个源头的道路 – 在你的内在，沿着灯芯直达燃油。这就是那个地方，那个源头，所以如果说有任何东西是新的，是有创造力的，那么它一定携带着那源头的香气。

不知为何，人类，即便是依旧非常认同于他们的头脑的人类，依然有很多人，当他们看见，或是听见，或是以任何其它方式接触到，无论是一件艺术作品，或是一首曲子，甚至有可能只是某个人在说话，他们都会被那个来自于更深层面的某个东西所触及。那些话语是从那更深处升起的。有可能只是某个人有很强的幽默感 – 即使那也已经是一种创造的形式。即兴的幽默是当有人突然看见了通常其他人都看不见的某个东西 – 一种看上去不相关的两样事物之间的连接，突然，你将它们连接起来，然后所有人都笑了。有些人有这个天赋。有的人在一个小的领域中充满创造力，这个能力就足以让你感到满足，并带来足够的收入，它可以支持你的一生 – 同时你也可以将这个天赋贡献给大家。

比如，伟大的讲笑话的表演者就有那个天赋。当然，并非他们所说的一切都是即兴的，但是，在他们准备段子时，他们必须是有创造力的。我不知道此刻这里是否有人曾经试过要成为一名笑话表演者，但这真的不容易。很多人都试过。逗乐真的很难。但是有的人有这个本事，这真是奇妙 – 那些为数不多的拥有那个天赋的人真是让人称奇。那个自发升起的幽默感也令人赞叹，它就这么来了。它一直是与那个连接着的。能与那个连接上真是太妙了，能感受到来自于那里的力量流经你进入这个世界真是奇妙极了。当然，要做到这一点，你需要某种管道，因为那个力量需要流入某种外在形式之中。

你也能触及到那个地方，在你的内在，但它不一定会成为一种创造力，因为你还没有为这股力量发展出一个管道。那个令创造力升起的同一种力量也有可能以我们并不称之为创造力的其它方式显化。比如在你与其他人进入互动关系的那一刻，这股力量有可能作为一种疗愈的力量开始起作用。这是一种广义上的疗愈，而不仅仅指身体上的疗愈。如果你从未碰过任何乐器，你不会仅仅因为在你的内在与那个地方接触，就突然成为一名伟大的音乐家。在我的故事中，那股力量不会显化为一个伟大的科学发现，因为这管道不是为那个准备的。我的头脑不是准备用于科学发现的。这个头脑甚至无法那样运作。所以，期待我开创出统一场理论，那个爱因斯坦没能发现的，在他发现相对论之后，用剩余的一生为之努力的统一场理论 – 我可没法捣鼓出来。这不大可能。那个管道没有准备好。我也不会成为一位伟大的钢琴家，因为我压根儿不会弹钢琴。所以不管我向内走得多深，这股力量都不会流向那里。你需要为创造力准备好管道。

相较于管道来说，更重要的是那个地方 – 要使你自己能够进入到内在那个充满振动的活生生的宁静场域，创造力正是从那里升起。你可以进入那里，如果没有管道，它不会以任何外在的创造力的形式表达它自己，不会以任何传统意义上的创造力的形式表达。但是它其实可以以其它方式来表达它自己。我刚刚提到了其中的一个，在人们的互动之中，它流淌出来 – 那是一种 – 很难用语言来形容的流淌，但是你可以感觉到它，当你遇见一位在互动中完全临在的人时，你可以感觉到。有一种完全不同的能量频率在运作。而这个就是疗愈。它是如此无形，它不需要一个事先准备好的管道。你可以就这样存在着。你散发着“本体”。





翻译：游由


~~原文如下~~



Eckhart on Creativity

There’s a particular dimension where creativity arises.  It’s a little bit like the wick burning the flame, and its sustenance is the oil – it’s in an oil lamp, and you are the flame.  All the analogies, by the way, are very deficient, but it’s just a distant approximation to get you into a sense of what that place is.  So you are the flame, and you feel your way into the very source – down the wick into where the oil is, inside yourself.  That’s the place, the source, so if anything is new, creative, then it has a fragrance of the source.

Somehow, humans, even humans who are still very much identified with their mind, many of them are touched by when they see or hear or whatever – come into contact with – something that came out of that deeper level, whether it’s a work of art, or a piece of music, or it could just be somebody talking.  And the words come from that deeper level.  It could just be somebody who has a good sense of humor – even that is already a form of creativity.  Spontaneous humor is to suddenly see something that one wouldn’t normally see – a connection between two seemingly unconnected things, and suddenly you connect them and everybody laughs.  Some people have that. Some people have one small area in which they can be creative, and that can be enough to provide you with fulfillment and an income, for the rest of your life – and to contribute that gift to others.

Great stand up comedians, for example, have that gift.  Of course, not everything they say is spontaneous, but when they prepare their stuff, they have to be creative.  Now I don’t know if anybody here has tried to be a standup comedian, but it’s difficult.  Many people try.  It’s hard to be funny.  But some have it, and it’s amazing – those few that have that gift.  And there too, the sense of humor is spontaneously something arises, and there it comes.  It’s being in touch with that.  It’s wonderful to be able to be in touch with that, and feel the power that flows from there, out into this world.  Now for that, of course you need some kind of vehicle, because the power needs to flow into some kind of form.

You can touch that place also, within, and it may not flow into creativity, because you have not developed a vehicle for it.  The very same power that gives rise to creativity can also manifest itself in different ways that we would not call creativity.  It could be a healing power that comes into effect the moment you enter into relationships with others.  Healing in a wider sense, not just physical healing.  You will not suddenly become a great musician if you have never touched an instrument, just because you touch that place within yourself.  It’s not going to manifest as a great scientific discovery in my case, because the vehicle is not prepared for that.  My mind is not prepared for that.  It doesn’t even work that way.  So for me to expect to come up with the Unified Field Theory that Einstein didn’t come up with – he tried after the theory of relativity, he tried for the rest of his life to come up with that – I am not going to come up with that.  It’s very unlikely.  The vehicle has not been prepared. I am not going to be a great pianist, because I don’t know how to play the piano.  So no matter how deeply I go within, it’s not going to flow into that.  You need to prepare the vehicle for creativity.

More important than that is the place – to be able to go within to that place of vibrantly alive stillness, where creativity arises.  And you can go in there, and if there’s no vehicle, it will not express itself in any form of creativity, not any conventional form of creativity.  But it may actually express itself in different ways.  I just mentioned one, which is an outflow in human interactions – and outflow of – very hard to put a word to it, but you can sense it, when you meet a person who is present in the interaction.  It’s a different energy frequency that operates.  And that is healing.  It is so formless that it does not require a previously prepared vehicle.  You can just be.  And you emanate Being.

嘉静

*摘自埃克哈特网站2011年10月电子刊

埃克哈特谈灵魂暗夜

问题：您是否经历过灵魂暗夜？您的教导总是对经历这样的困难时刻很有帮助。您能否谈谈这个主题？

埃克哈特：“灵魂暗夜”这个说法从很早的时候就有了。是的，我也曾经经历过灵魂暗夜。这个词语是用来描述，你可以称之为，一次生命的表面上的意义的坍塌……一种深深的无意义感在你生命中的爆发。在某些情况下，那个内在的状态与我们常说的抑郁很接近。什么事都变得没意思，生活毫无目标。有时它是被某件外在发生的事所引发，也许是外在的层面发生的某个灾难。某个与你亲近的人的逝世可能会引发它，尤其是过早的死亡，比如如果你的孩子死去。或者你辛苦构建了你的生活，你赋予了它意义 – 然后这些你赋予的意义，比如你从事的活动，你的成就，你要去的地方，你认为重要的事，这些你赋予你的生命的意义，因为某个原因，坍塌了。

如果某件事发生，令你再也无法将它解释过去，某个灾难降临，似乎使你过去的生活的意义变得荡然无存，灵魂暗夜可能会在这样的时候发生。其实真正坍塌的是关于你的生活的整个概念框架，是你的头脑赋予它的意义。就这样，这个发生导致了一个黑暗之处。但是人们走入了这个黑暗的地方，然后，有一种可能性产生了，你也许能从这暗夜中走出，而进入一种全新的意识状态。生命再一次有了意义，但它已经不再是一个你可以斩钉截铁地解释的概念性的意义了。人们已经从对现实的概念性解读中醒了过来，它已然瓦解，通常这就是那新生命意义的所在。

他们醒过来，进入了某个更深的东西，它不再基于你头脑中的概念。那是某种更深的目的感，或是一种与更大的生命的连接感，它再也不依赖于任何诠释或是概念性的东西。它是一种重生。灵魂暗夜是一种死亡，你死去了。死去的是那个基于小我的自我感。当然，死亡总是痛苦的，但其实并没有什么真的东西死去 – 只除了一个虚幻的身份。现在，那些经历过这个转变的人们很可能已经认识到，他们必须经历这个过程，从而带来一次灵性的觉醒。灵魂暗夜常常都是觉醒过程中的一部分，旧的我死去了，新的我诞生了。

奇迹课程的第一课中说：“我在这间房间里看到的任何东西都毫无意义”，它叫你环顾房间的四周，对你看见的任何东西说“这个毫无意义”，“那个毫无意义”。这样的一堂课究竟是什么目的？这有点像是重塑灵魂暗夜中可能发生的情况。它是对头脑制造出来的意义，概念性的意义，关于生命……对你以为你明白“这一切是怎么回事”的全然瓦解。练习奇迹课程，就是对人类头脑所投射出来的意义的主动放弃，你故意不断地说着：“我不知道这意味着什么”，“这个毫无意义”。你将黑板擦拭干净了。在灵魂暗夜，它瓦解了。

你注定要来到一个概念变得毫无意义的所在。或者你可以称之为一种无知的状态 – 在那里，事情失去了你原来赋予的意义，那些意义都是受限的，与文化背景相关的等等。然后你就可以看着这个世界，而不再强加任何头脑制造的关于意义的框架。当然，这看上去就像是你不再了解任何事。这就是为什么当它发生在你身上的时候，你并没有真正有意识地拥抱这个发生，反而，它会让你感到如此恐慌。它的发生可以带来灵魂暗夜。去作为一个天真无知的临在遨游这个宇宙，而不再总是不由自主地在头脑里诠释它。你看着事情，看着人们，等等，带着一种活生生的感觉。经由你自己的活生生，你感受着这个活力，但你不再总是试图将你的体验归入一个概念性的框架里。



翻译：游由

~~原文如下~~

Eckhart on the Dark Night of the Soul

Q: Have you ever experienced the dark night of the soul?  Your teachings have been so helpful through this difficult period.  Can you address this subject?

A: The “dark night of the soul” is a term that goes back a long time.  Yes, I have also experienced it.  It is a term used to describe what one could call a collapse of a perceived meaning in life…an eruption into your life of a deep sense of meaninglessness.  The inner state in some cases is very close to what is conventionally called depression.  Nothing makes sense anymore, there’s no purpose to anything.  Sometimes it’s triggered by some external event, some disaster perhaps, on an external level.  The death of someone close to you could trigger it, especially premature death, for example if your child dies.  Or you had built up your life, and given it meaning – and the meaning that you had given your life, your activities, your achievements, where you are going, what is considered important, and the meaning that you had given your life for some reason collapses.

It can happen if something happens that you can’t explain away anymore, some disaster which seems to invalidate the meaning that your life had before.  Really what has collapsed then is the whole conceptual framework for your life, the meaning that your mind had given it.  So that results in a dark place.  But people have gone into that, and then there is the possibility that you emerge out of that into a transformed state of consciousness.  Life has meaning again, but it’s no longer a conceptual meaning that you can necessarily explain.  Quite often it’s from there that people awaken out of their conceptual sense of reality, which has collapsed.

They awaken into something deeper, which is no longer based on concepts in your mind.  A deeper sense of purpose or connectedness with a greater life that is not dependent on explanations or anything conceptual any longer.  It’s a kind of re-birth.  The dark night of the soul is a kind of death that you die.  What dies is the egoic sense of self.  Of course, death is always painful, but nothing real has actually died there – only an illusory identity.  Now it is probably the case that some people who’ve gone through this transformation realized that they had to go through that, in order to bring about a spiritual awakening.  Often it is part of the awakening process, the death of the old self and the birth of the true self.

The first lesson in A Course in Miracles says “Nothing I see in this room means anything”, and you’re supposed to look around the room at whatever you happen to be looking at, and you say “this doesn’t mean anything”, “that doesn’t mean anything”.   What is the purpose of a lesson like that?  It’s a little bit like re-creating what can happen during the dark night of the soul.  It’s the collapse of a mind-made meaning, conceptual meaning, of life… believing that you understand “what it’s all about”.  With A Course in Miracles, it’s a voluntary relinquishment of the human mind-made meaning that is projected, and you go voluntary into saying “I don’t know what this means”, “this doesn’t mean anything”.  You wipe the board clean.  In the dark night of the soul it collapses.

You are meant to arrive at a place of conceptual meaninglessness.  Or one could say a state of ignorance – where things lose the meaning that you had given them, which was all conditioned and cultural and so on.  Then you can look upon the world without imposing a mind-made framework of meaning.  It looks of course as if you no longer understand anything.  That’s why it’s so scary when it happens to you, instead of you actually consciously embracing it.  It can bring about the dark night of the soul. To go around the Universe without any longer interpreting it compulsively, as an innocent presence.  You look upon events, people, and so on with a deep sense of aliveness.  Your sense the aliveness through your own sense of aliveness, but you are not trying to fit your experience into a conceptual framework anymore.

嘉静

*摘自埃克哈特网站2011年9月电子刊

埃克哈特谈失去之后的宁静

问题：十个月前，我的儿子在海里溺水身亡。我确实臣服了，但当我感觉到随之而来的宁静与安详时，我又觉得怪怪的。面对这样的失去却感到宁静安详，这不大对。

埃克哈特：在挚爱的人死后，自然的存在方式是，起初我们会感到痛苦，然后，会有一个深化。在那个深化之中，你会来到一个地方，在那里，死亡并不存在。你有那样的感受，代表你已经进入得足够深，你到了那个死亡不存在的地方。你的头脑被社会，也就是你居住的当代世界，所限制，这个世界对于那个层面一无所知 – 于是，你的头脑告诉你这样是不对的。你的头脑说：“我不应该感到宁静，这不是一个人在这样的情形下应该有的感觉”。但这只是一个被你生活中的文化所限制的念头罢了。因此，当它发生，当这个念头来临，我们可以认出它 – 认出它只是一个受限制的念头，它不是真的。

这并不意味着悲伤从此不再一波一波地回来。而是说在这一波一波的悲伤之间，你感受到宁静的存在。当你感受到那个宁静，你也就感受到了你的孩子的真正本质 – 那永恒的本质。所以死亡是一件非常神圣的事情 – 不只是一件悲伤的事。当你对形式的丧失升起习性反应，这才是可悲的。

当你进入得够深，来到那无形之境，这件悲伤的事就不再是悲伤的，而是神圣的。然后，当某个与你亲近的人死去之后，你会经验到两个层面。在形式的层面，是的，这很令人悲伤。而在那更深的层面，它是神圣的。死亡可以使你找到在你内在的那个层面。如果你在你之内找到了那个层面 – 那个生命的神圣的层面，你就是在帮助无数的人。死亡可以帮助你发现那生命的神圣层面 – 在那里，生命无法被摧毁。

臣服可以为你打开那扇门。彻底接纳它。对那神圣的层面表示敬意，并且意识到那些你的头脑在说的，不是真的，那只是一个受限的形式罢了 – 它不是真相。你感到宁静和安详是非常正确的。

面对死亡总是那扇进入无形的窗。当你接纳它，臣服于它时。因为那个外在形式消失了，当你臣服于死亡时，你的头脑变得寂静。你并不是经由合理化的解释来接纳死亡。你可以有一些解释，一些头脑里的解释，比如，嗯，他/她会轮回转世，或是会去到某个地方安息。这样的解释可以带来安慰，但是你可以进入一个比这更深的地方，在那里，你不需要解释 – 那是一种对于死亡的神圣性的即刻了悟的状态，因为当形式消融，在那里开启的就是超越形式的生命。这正是那唯一神圣的事。这正是那神圣的层面。

当你失去某个东西，并且全然接纳它的消失时，你可以对此有微微的一瞥。这是对于死亡的微微的一瞥，它可以带给你一个小小的领悟 – 也许不止是小小的，如果你准备好了的话。



翻译：游由

~~原文如下~~

Eckhart on Peace After a Loss
Q:  My sons drowned in the sea ten months ago. I did surrender, but when I felt the peace and calm coming over me, it felt wrong. It was not right to feel peace and calm with such a loss.
ET:  The natural way of being after death of a loved one is suffering at first, then there is a deepening. In that deepening, you go to a place where there is no death. And the fact that you felt that means you went deep enough, to the place where there is no death. Conditioned as your mind is by society, the contemporary world that you live in, which knows nothing about that dimension – your mind then tells you that there is something wrong with this. Your mind says “I should not be feeling peace, that is not what one feels in a situation like this”. But that’s a conditioned thought by the culture that you live in. So instead we can recognize when this happens, when that thought comes – recognize it as a conditioned thought that is not true.  
It doesn’t mean that the waves of sadness don’t come back from time to time. But in between the waves of sadness, you sense there is peace. As you sense that peace, you sense the essence of your children as well – the timeless essence. So death is a very sacred thing – not just a dreadful thing. When you react to the loss of form, that’s dreadful.
When you go deep enough to the formless, the dreadful is no longer dreadful, it’s sacred. Then you will experience the two levels, when somebody dies who is close to you. Yes it’s dreadful on the level of form. It’s sacred on the deeper level. Death can enable you to find that dimension in yourself. You’re helping countless other humans if you find that dimension in yourself – the sacred dimension of life. Death can help you find the sacred dimension of life – where life is indestructible.
Surrender can open that door for you. Complete acceptance of it. So honor that sacred dimension and realize that what your mind is saying, that it isn’t right, is just a form of conditioning – it isn’t the truth. It is supremely right.
This is always the window into the formless. As you accept it, surrender. Because the form is gone, your mind becomes still when you surrender to death. It’s not through explanations that you accept death. You can have explanations, mental explanations that say, well, he or she will move on or reincarnate, or go to some place of rest. That can be comforting, but you can go to a deeper place than that, where you don’t need explanations – a state of immediate realization of the sacredness of death, because what opens up when the form dissolves is life beyond form. That is the only thing that is sacred. That is the sacred dimension.
You can get tiny glimpses of that when you lose something, and you completely accept that it’s gone. This is a tiny glimpse of death and it can give you a tiny realization – maybe even more than tiny, if you’re ready.

嘉静

*摘自埃克哈特网站2011年8月电子刊

埃克哈特谈业力

问题:你谈到临在和本体是我们享受有形、创造积极的环境，或使周围的环境变得更温和的关键。那么业力是如何融入这一切的呢？

埃克哈特：每个人都会出生在一个特定的外在环境里。同时，每个人天生就携带着某些特质 – 这些特质也许部分是遗传的，也可能源自其它。换句话说，一个人天生就有着某些既定模式。我们不需要去研究这些模式从哪儿来，但事实就是一个人会出生在一个特定的环境里。也许是一个充满暴力的环境，也许是一个相对平和的环境。一个人生来就继承了某种内在模式。即使痛苦之身也有一部分是继承的。

当你进入一个环境，你会遇到一整套的限制。而那个环境会进一步限制你，在这其中没有‘选择’的余地 – 有的只是‘影响’。你发现自己身处在这个携带着某些无意识模式的世界里，这些模式限定了这个人会成为什么样。业力，在我看来，就是那些掌控着你的生活的无意识的习性。业力，一部分是属于集体的，一部分是属于个人的。如果你将业力看作是在你之外的某个抽象的东西，你就无法了解它，只有藉着观察你自己，你才能够明白什么是业力，然后，你会了解很多其他的事情。如果你想要弄懂业力，你需要去看你自己。

当某种完全不属于业力的东西在我的内在升起时，我才开始了解什么是业力。关键就是：扬升的意识，或者说临在，或者说灵性的觉醒，并不是业力的一部分。它是在另外一个层面的，它打破了因果循环。你并不是靠积累，在东方人们所谓的“善业”，来使自己觉醒。当然，对这个层面来说这没什么不好，你可以在你的监狱之中搭建一些围墙或设施，以使这监狱更加舒适一些，但是，还有一个东西，来自于完全超越业力的地方，它可以随时进入你的生命。

再一次出生当然是业力的一部分。再一次出生更深层的含义是与形式认同。我们甚至不需要去相信轮回转世或其它说法，你只需要在你自己的生活中去观察再一次出生。每一次，当你与脑海中升起的念头认同，也就是与形式认同，你就降生在思维之中。你的身份，你的关于自己的感觉就是在念头里面。这就是业。你的业力就是对你所继承下来的，那些受限制的模式的无意识认同。这是将意识完全与那些受限的反应模式等同起来。有人会说，意识就是梦。这就是为什么在很多灵性的传统中，我们使用“觉醒”这个词的原因。意识其实是觉醒，但是当你将它与无意识的模式混为一谈，意识就会是在一种做梦般的状态。一天中有很多次，你都在情绪或思维的习性反应中再一次出生，在脑海里升起的念头中再一次出生。

在外在，业力会创造出情境来证明自己是对的。所以，如果你相信这世界充满了坏人，你就会遇到很多坏人 – 或者说，无意识的人。即使如果有人是介于有意识和无意识之间，你的信念也会将他们拽入无意识之中。业，就是有意识的临在的完全缺席。它是机械的。业力自动演绎着它自己。

时间无法将你从业力之中释放出来。“只有当你花费了足够的时间，才能从业力之中解脱出来”，这是一个误解。业力会不断更新它自己，不断重复它自己。唯一可以使你从业力之中解脱出来的是临在的扬升。在业力之轮转动的任何一个点，临在都可以进来。它可以发生在一个已经被判处死刑的身处监狱的罪犯身上。它可以发生在一个从未听说过任何与灵性有关的事情的人身上。它可以发生在一个已经静心冥想三十年的人身上。

临在将你从业力之中解脱。不是一瞬之间完全解脱。业力有一个巨大的动能。思维模式、情绪模式、习性反应模式。随着临在的升起，慢慢地业力渐渐削弱，你会感到自己逐步地从这些模式里退出。它们变得不再那么重要，因为一旦你是临在的，这些思维模式可能依旧会升起，但是它们不再是问题重重。它们不再像从前那样制造痛苦，因为它们已经在觉知之光中被看见。在这觉知之光中，这些模式不再掌控着你的人生。

痛苦之身是业力的一部分，在有的人身上，痛苦之身可能很强烈，在其他人身上也许不那么强。当临在升起，你就从业力中被释放。然后，有另一种完全不同的因素进入你的生活。比如，一个人需要相当程度的临在的支持，才能从集体的业力中被释放出来。然后，这业力会将你删除，也许在你的内在，你感到不再受这业力影响，或者你可能会发现自己搬迁到其他的地方生活。

对一个出生在巨大的集体业力之中的人来说，要想不被这业力之流卷入，需要很大程度的临在。当希特勒上台，很少有人能够使自己抽离出来。有的人做到了，他们离开了。他们可以看清楚正在发生的事，他们足够强大，可以使自己不与这集体认同。要将自己从集体业力之中脱离出来需要很多临在 – 有的人拥有这能力。于是，这成了我们的命定之路：藉着成为临在的接收器，去超越业力。

每一个正在觉醒的人迟早会发现他们成为了别人的老师。一位灵性导师所做的就是指出我们可以不再认同这些无意识的模式，指出从中觉醒的可能性。灵性导师教导你超越业力。这就是你的作用，这作用会日益增强，于是，你要么成为一位正式的导师，要么成为一位非正式的导师。

灵性的觉醒与走出业力是同一件事。很多人会被你吸引。任何正在经历觉醒过程的人都已经是一位老师。教导的意思是当某人提到或问到某个问题，或是告诉你关于他们的苦恼时，你发现自己在空间中聆听。你可能会发现那个答案从你聆听的宁静场域之中出现。你并没有感到“我现在要来教导这个人”。你会发现这教导是自发的。你将帮助人们走出与无意识的认同，也就是超越业力。这适用于每一位正在觉醒的人。

当你教导的时候，意识与你的头脑和谐一致。你的头脑与更深的意识对频，头脑被作为一个管道使用。然后词语自然从你的口中流淌而出。归根结底，真正的老师只有一位：那觉醒的意识就是这位老师。它只能教导那些在一定程度上准备好了的人。这个教导需要被接收。如果只有头脑的密度的话，这个教导不会发生。

当人们被你吸引而来 – 那些准备好了的人 – 你会感到吃惊不已，因为你发现自己在说一些甚至你自己都不知道的东西。只有当问题被提出，那个意识才会回应。你教导的时候，你也在学习。很多了悟会出现。教与学是同一个过程。当你教导的时候，你加深了你的了悟。你在这里是为了帮助人们超越业力。

重要的是要了解时间不会将你从业力中释放出来。小我的头脑会说“我需要更多的时间才能解脱”。人们需要更多时间的唯一理由是“他们需要时间来意识到他们并不需要时间”。也许需要再经历二十年的痛苦，他们才能发现，其实他们并不需要时间。在他们意识到那个永恒的力量之前，他们也许需要再多遭受一些痛苦。当然，这个永恒，就是业力的终结。



翻译：游由

~~原文如下~~


Eckhart on Karma
Q:  You talk about Presence and Being as the keys to enjoying form, and creating positive circumstances, or softening circumstances. How does karma fit into all of that?
ET:  Everybody is born into a certain external environment. Also, everyone is born with certain predispositions – they may be partly genetic, they may be other things. A person is born with certain patterns, in other words. We don’t need to examine where they come from, but the fact is that a human being is born into a certain environment. It may be violent, or it may be relatively peaceful. A person is born with inner patterns that you inherit. Even painbody is partly inherited.  
There’s a whole set of conditioning that happens when you come into an environment. The environment conditions you further, and there’s no choice involved – it’s just influences. You find yourself in this world with certain unconscious patterns that have become the conditioning of who the person is. Karma, as I see it, is the unconscious conditioning that runs your life. Karma is partly collective, and partly personal. You can only understand karma not as an abstract subject external to yourself, you can only understand it by observing yourself, and then you know many other things. If you want to understand karma, you need to look at yourself.
I began to understand what karma is when something arose that was not part of karma at all. Here is the key – the arising of consciousness, or Presence, or spiritual awakening, is not part of karma. It is another dimension that breaks into the karmic realm. You do not become awakened by accumulating, as they sometimes say in the East, “good karma”. That’s fine on this level, you can make the walls or furniture in your prison a little more comfortable, but there’s something totally from beyond karma, that can come into your life at any point.
Re-birth is of course part of karma. The deeper meaning of re-birth is identification with form. We don’t need to even believe in transmigration, or whatever, you can look at re-birth in your own life. Every time you identify with a thought that arises, which is form, you are born into that thought. Your identity, your sense of self is in it. That’s karma. Your karma is the unconscious identification with these patterns that you have inherited – the conditioned. It is complete identification of consciousness with the conditioned patterns. Consciousness is dreaming, one could say. That is why we use the word “awakening” in many spiritual traditions. Consciousness is awakening, consciousness is in a dream-like state, when you are identified with the unconscious patterns. Many times a day, you are re-born into an emotional or mental reaction, into thoughts that arise.
Karma creates, in the external, confirmation that it is correct. So if you think the world is full of evil people, you will meet many evil people – in other words, unconscious people. Even people who are halfway between being conscious and unconscious, your belief will pull them into unconsciousness. Karma is the complete absence of conscious Presence. It is automatic. It plays itself out.
Time does not free you of karma. That is a misperception, that if you only spend enough time, eventually you can become free of karma. Karma renews itself and repeats itself. The only thing that can free you of karma is the arising of Presence. At any point in the wheel of karma, Presence can come in. It can happen to a criminal in prison, condemned to death. It can happen to somebody who’s never heard of anything spiritual. It can happen to somebody who’s been meditating for thirty years.
Presence frees you from karma. Not all at once. Karma has an enormous momentum. The thought patterns, the emotional patterns, the reactive patterns. As Presence arises, gradually karma diminishes and you will experience a fading out of those patterns. Not that it matters that much anymore, because once you are present, those thought patterns may still arise, but it is no longer problematic. They no longer cause the suffering that they would have caused before, because they are seen in the light of awareness. In the light of awareness, the patterns no longer dominate your life.
Painbody is part of karma, which may be strong in some and not so in others. As Presence arises, you are freed from karma. Then you have another completely different factor coming into your life. For example, for a person to become free of collective karma, you need a considerable amount of Presence for that to come in. It then will remove you, either internally or you may find yourself somewhere else.
For a person who is born into vast collective karma, it requires considerable Presence for one not to be drawn into that. When Hitler came into power, not many people were able to remove themselves. Some were, and they left. They could see what was happening and they were strong enough not to be identified with the collective. To take yourself out of that collective karma requires considerable Presence – and some people had it. It is our destiny, then, to go beyond karma by being the receptacles for Presence.
Everyone who is awakening will find that sooner or later that they become a kind of teacher to others. What a spiritual teacher does is point out the possibility of awakening out of identification with unconscious patterns. The spiritual teacher teaches you to go beyond karma. That is your function, and will become increasingly so, whether you become a formal teacher, or an informal teacher.
Spiritual awakening and stepping out of karma are the same thing. Many people will be drawn to you. Anybody who is going through the awakening process is already a teacher. Teaching means you find yourself listening from spaciousness, when somebody speaks or asks a question, or tells you about their problems. You may find that the answer comes out from that Stillness in which you listen. You don’t have a sense that “I’m going to teach this person now”. You will find that teaching is spontaneous. You will help people to step out of identification with unconsciousness, which means going beyond karma. This applies to everybody who is awakening.
As you teach, Consciousness is becoming aligned with your mind. Your mind is able to tune in to the deeper Consciousness and can be used as an instrument. Then the words come out of your mouth. There is ultimately really only one teacher, the awakened Consciousness is the teacher. It can only teach those in whom there is a degree of readiness. The teaching needs to be received. If there is only a density of mind, the teaching won’t happen.
You will be amazed when people are drawn to you – people who are ready – and you find yourself saying something that you didn’t even know yourself. It’s only when the question was asked, that the Consciousness responded. As you teach, you learn. Realizations come. Teaching and learning is the same process. A deepening happens, as you teach. You are here to help people go beyond karma.
The important thing to know is that time does not free you of karma. The egoic mind says “I need more time to become free”. The only thing that people may need more time for is that they need time to realize that they do not need time”. It may be another twenty years of suffering for them to realize that they do not need time. They may need to suffer a bit more before they realize the power of the timeless. The timeless is of course the end of karma.

嘉静

摘自埃克哈特网站2011年7月电子刊
埃克哈特谈祈祷

问题：从我还是小女孩的时候，我就作为天主教徒被抚养长大。我曾经一度变得完全否定上帝，不相信上帝。现在，感谢你的教导与分享被广泛传播，我了解到那个连接是存在的，那觉知、那宁静是存在的。但是我开始有了这个念头：我为什么要祈祷？因为如果上帝是全知的、万能的、博爱的，等等，我不认为他/她/它需要我说：“嘿，我的朋友正因为癌症快要死了，你能帮帮她吗？”我不认为这样做有必要，但我享受祈祷的过程。我想要听听你的看法；我们应该为什么而祈祷？你相信祈祷吗？

埃克哈特：也许你可以将你的祈祷从祈求的（“请让这个发生”）升级为非头脑指向的，比如升级为宁静指向的。非头脑指向的依然要使用概念，因为每个祈祷都是由词语和概念组成的 – 但它们只是去指向，是帮助你超越概念的。比如，你可以说这样的肯定语 – 就像耶稣说过的：“我是世界之光”。这是一句肯定语 – 它是一个概念，它指向一个比这些词语深远得多的事实真相。如果你还是想要某种祈求的方式，你也可以说：“请让我了解我就是那世界之光”。在通常的祈祷中，总是暗示着二元对立性。它暗示有一个上帝在那里，而我在这里，请求上帝。归根结底，这个二元性是一个幻象，因为你就是上帝的表达。你和上帝是合一的。所以，最深的祈祷，不再是这种二元性的祈祷。不再是对上帝说什么话，而是你开始发展出一种倾听的态度。当然你享受对上帝说话，这也挺好。但是慢慢地你要脱离这种要求某人为你做某事的祈祷方式，因为它会使你卡在二元对立之中。

肯定语，如果被恰当使用，可以成为祈祷的非常美好的替代品。“我已被治愈，我是完全的，我是宁静的”。然后，让那里成为一个空间。事实上，力量确实存在于那个空间里。在那空间，你经验到你已经完整。外在的形式也许会告诉你不一样的故事。奇迹课程说：“我是神圣的”。你确实是神圣的，所以这只是对事实真相的一个肯定表达而已。至于疗愈其他人 – 也许你和那个人在一起，或者让那个人来到你的脑海里，那个人也许生病了。我发现，最具力量的疗愈方法，是在脑海里想着那个人的样子，然后进入你自己的内在深处，那个完美无缺的生命存在之处。在那里，一切圆满，什么也不需要。在那里，你发现完美无缺同样也存在于那个人之内 – 在最深的层面，超越外在形式的层面，他们已经被疗愈了。就这样，你从有形，进入了无形。

这就是乔.戈德史密斯（Joel Goldsmith）所使用的疗愈方法，他有一本很棒的书，书名叫“灵性疗愈的艺术”。这个方法完全不是立足在需要疗愈的外在情境上，而是只关注那个人的根本实相，它与你的根本实相是合一的，疗愈者进入深深的内在宁静之处，在那里，什么也不需要。乔尔常常接到电话，有时是在深夜。某个人急需疗愈，他们会告诉乔尔那个人的名字，以及他的痛苦来自于什么。然后乔尔会立即挂断电话，进入无念的状态。片刻之后他就会听到那个人的名字，会听到他们的问题出在哪里，他会立刻释放那个部分，然后进入两至三分钟的无念 – 纯粹的临在。在无形的层面存在的是绝对的完美。而这正是那个需要疗愈的人的本质。如此，你将有形带入了无形，在那里，外在的形式不复存在。没有什么外在的情境被治疗，什么也不需要，只要进入到那里。这就是乔尔实施疗愈的方法。他是一位很有力量的疗愈师。这就是疗愈的终极形式，这确实是一种非二元性的祈祷。它超越了你常说的“求求你，上帝，请疗愈”这一类的祈祷 – 你进入了那个源头本身，这源头与你的本质不可分离，与那个人的本质也不可分离。

慢慢地，祈祷可以从对上帝倾诉变成倾听上帝。倾听究竟是什么意思？倾听意味着一片空的、纯粹的注意力的场域。倾听不是说你在等待某个答案，因为那意味着你没有真正在听。听的时候你完全没有期待 – 而只是有着一片纯粹的注意力。这是比任何言语都要深得多的祈祷。当祈祷也成为静心，这就是真正的祈祷。不期待任何答案，只是在这寂静之中就已足够。有时候，一个答案来了，或者，有时候，某个问题突然得到解决了。倾听。当你遭遇到任何麻烦，任何打扰，这些总是在发生着 – 在你身边的人，或是头脑里的干扰，在这样的情况下，进入那个纯粹的觉知，倾听存在。倾听是一种临在的方式。当你临在时，那就好像你是在一种倾听的状态。通常我们所说的倾听只是代表着听觉的感官。但是，倾听其实超越了听觉的感官；它是一种存在于听觉感官之下的某种意识状态。每个人都明白那是什么意思 – 因为当你真正去听某个细微的声音，在这倾听之下的是一种什么样的意识状态？那是一种纯粹的、放松的警觉状态。所以当我们用‘倾听’这个词语，会很有帮助，因为每个人都了解倾听是什么意思。我只是在指出倾听的本质并不是外在的感官觉知；倾听的本质是在那之下的意识状态，一种纯粹的接收和警觉的临在的意识状态。

这就是为什么我相信耶稣说了那些关于仆人的寓言，仆人保持着清醒，因为他不知道主人什么时候会回家。很多传下来的东西被一定程度地曲解了，因为它是口述的，然后被记录下来，在这个过程中，有些东西被误传了，或是丢失了。我想耶稣是在谈论那种态度 – 一种意识状态，仆人在等待着，只为听见主人回家的声音。这与我们通常所说的“等待”不同，通常意思的等待中，头脑会说“这个什么时候会发生？为什么它还没有发生？” – 耶稣指的是一种完全不同的等待。耶稣多次谈到保持清醒，这是他的教导中非常重要的一部分 – 保持清醒，不要睡着，保持临在。无论你在祈祷中使用什么词语，要利用这些词语指向这个觉醒的意识状态。你可以说“我在倾听”。



翻译：游由

~~原文如下~~

Eckhart on Prayer
Q:  From the time I was a little girl, I was raised as a Catholic. I went completely full circle to denying God, not believing in God. And now, thanks to a large extent what you teach and share, I know that connectedness is there, awareness, Stillness is there. But I got the thought, why do I pray? Because if God is all-knowing, omnipotent, all-loving, and so on, I don’t think he/she/it needs me to say, “Psst - my friend is dying of cancer, can you help her?” I don't think it's necessary, but I enjoy praying. I’d love to hear your thoughts; what would be appropriate to pray for? Do you believe in prayer?
ET:  Perhaps you can upgrade your prayers from petitionary prayers (“please make this happen”) to little mental pointers, towards peace for example. Little mental pointers still use concepts, because every prayer consists of words and concepts – to point, to help you go beyond concepts. You could say, for example, an affirmation – like what Jesus said, “I am the light of the word”. It’s an affirmation – it’s a concept, it points to a reality far deeper than the words. You can say, if you still want some petition, “please let me know that I am the light of the world”. Duality is implied usually, in the usual prayer. It implies that there is God, and here is me, asking God. That duality is ultimately an illusion, because you are an expression of God. You and God merge. The deepest prayers, then, are no longer prayers as such. They are when you adopt a listening attitude rather than a saying of words. As long as you enjoy it, that’s fine. But gradually get away from asking somebody to do something for you, because that keeps you stuck in duality.  
Affirmations, if they are done rightly, can be very beautiful substitutes for prayers. “I am healed and whole and at peace”. And after that, let there be a space. And really, the power is in that space. In the space, you experience that you are already whole. The outward form might tell you something different – “I am holy”, A Course in Miracles says. You are, and so it’s simply an affirmation of how it is. Healing, for somebody else – you are either with that person, or that person comes into your mind, that person may be ill. The most powerful healing, I find, is to hold an image of that person and then go deeper into yourself, where the wholeness of life lies. Where nothing is needed, nothing needs to be added. There you find the wholeness also of that person – they are already healed at the deepest level, beyond form. So you go from form, into formlessness.
That is the healing that was practiced by Joel Goldsmith, he has a lovely book called “The Art of Spiritual Healing”. That is really not to dwell at all on the condition that needs to be healed, but to focus on the essential reality of that human being which is one with your essential reality, and go into deep Stillness where nothing is needed. He would often get phone calls, sometimes in the middle of the night. Someone would desperately need healing, and they would tell him the name of the person and what they were suffering from. What he would then do is immediately put the phone down and go into absolutely no thought. For a moment he heard the name of the person, he heard what was wrong with them, and immediately let go of that, then for two or three minutes went into no thought – just absolute presence. There is absolute perfection in the realm of the formless. And that is the essence of the person who needed healing. So you take the form into the formless, where the form is no longer. No condition to be treated, nothing is needed, just go into that. That was his way of healing. He was quite a powerful healer. That is the ultimate form of healing, and that really is the non-dual kind of prayer. It’s going beyond prayer where you say “Please God, heal” – you go to the very Source itself, that is inseparable from who you are, and is inseparable from who that person is.
Prayer can gradually become listening to God rather than talking to God. What does listening mean? Listening means there is a field of bare, pure attention. Listening does not mean that you are waiting for some answer, because then you are not really listening. In listening you are not waiting for anything – there is just a field of pure attention. That is a much deeper prayer than any words. True prayer is where prayer also becomes meditation. Not even wanting an answer, it’s enough to be in the silence. Sometimes an answer comes, or the thing becomes resolved, sometimes, suddenly. Listen. Any trouble in this world, any disturbance, and they happen all the time – people around you, or a disturbance in the mind, goes into pure aware, listening presence. Listening is a way of speaking about presence. When you are present, it is as if you are in a state of listening. Now, listening is usually associated with the auditory sense perception. But this listening goes beyond the auditory sense perception; it’s the state of consciousness that underlies the auditory sense perception. Everybody knows what that is like – because when you are really listening for some faint sound, what is the state of consciousness that underlies this listening for the faint sound? It’s a state of absolute, relaxed alertness. So when we say listening, it’s a helpful thing because everybody knows what listening means. I am just pointing out that it’s not the external sense perception that is the essence in listening; the essence in listening is the underlying state of consciousness, of absolute receptivity and alert presence.
This is why I believe that Jesus had parables about the servant and staying awake, because he doesn’t know when the master is going to come home. Many of the things have come down in a somewhat distorted way, because it was transmitted verbally, and then written down, and in the process some things got turned around or went missing. I think he was talking about the attitude of that - a state of consciousness, the servant waiting just to hear the master come home. It’s waiting in a different sense from the normal thing that we call ‘waiting’, which is the mind saying “When is it going to happen? Why isn’t it happening yet?” – he uses waiting in a completely different sense. Many times Jesus talked about staying awake, that’s a very important part of his teaching – stay awake, don’t go to sleep, stay present. Any words you use in prayer, use them as pointers toward that. You could say “I am listening”.

嘉静

摘自埃克哈特网站2011年6月电子刊
帮助孩子们超越


问题：我们是否可以帮助我们的孩子们，和其他我们深爱的人，超越他们的无意识？还是他们必须靠自己来走这一趟觉醒之旅？

埃克哈特：现在，有越来越多新生的孩子们可能不必经历成年人所经历的，当然也是我所经历过的深度无意识。同时，也有越来越多新生孩子们的父母正处于意识觉醒的过程之中，或者这些父母已经相对来说更有意识。在我成长的年代，我想不出有任何有意识的父母。或许也有一些这样的父母，但是非常罕见。现在他们虽然依旧人数不多，但已经不像从前那么稀有了。我爱我的父母，但是他们非常无意识。所以，问题是如何帮助孩子们保持相对地有意识，从而不被那群体无意识所吞没，这群体无意识现在依旧遍布在主流的文化中，也渗透在加速了无意识和上瘾行为的科技之中。

最有力的教导不是你对他们说了什么或做了什么，而是你在家里的意识状态。你的意识状态正是教育孩子们的基础所在。它与教育无关，意识转化的基础甚至不带任何要转化他们的意识的期望，而只是当你在家中与他们互动时，保持那个临在的空间。而且，当你在与丈夫互动时，也尽量保持临在的空间。这里总是有一个关系会影响到孩子们：你与临在的关系，或者是你与痛苦之身的关系。

最关键的事情就是，在你哪怕只是想到去做任何事情之前，成为有意识的。他们观察你的种种表现，他们在某种程度上采纳你的行为。当然，另一个影响是主流文化，因为他们更多时间是在学校里。有时也许你可以给他们指出一些东西，好让他们与即刻的、感官的体验保持联结。不要让他们失去与大自然的联结。现在有那么多的小孩沉迷于电脑游戏之中，他们不再体验到大自然。大自然对他们来说显得如此陌生。这真的是一件非常有害的事情。这是一个巨大的损失，对大自然世界的直接体验被剥夺了，在大自然中你得以与你的内在本体的深处连接。在家中养一只动物会有很大的帮助。当孩子们与小狗连接时，这是一个超越思考的关系。你可以摸摸小狗，照顾小狗。定期地离开家里，走入大自然，别让孩子们带着那些不离身的电子产品。

看电视是半昏迷的催眠状态。要放下这些活动可能不太容易，因为其他所有人都在做着这一类的事情。并不是说你必须完全消除这一类的活动，而是劝导孩子们不要将100%的业余时间都花在这些事情上。带他们到大自然中去，没有电子产品。鼓励他们去获取直接的感官体验 – 去触摸、去感觉、去观察。鼓励他们去辨识出真正的知识或体验，与头脑的贴标签之间的区别。

当孩子们学习语言时，鼓励他们不要将概念等同于事实。当你教他们某一个东西时，鼓励他们去触摸它、观察它、感觉它，而不是只是说“这个叫做这个或那个”。继续观察它。否则，你终止了体验 – 你所获得的全部就只是一个头脑的标签而已。

提问者：他们也同样给自己贴标签。我在我女儿身上注意到这一点，她会回到家里，宣称在这方面或那方面“我很笨”。

埃克哈特：这是一个很好的机会去鼓励她不要与她的念头认同。如果你可以指出这不过就是一个念头而已，他们不必相信每一个来到他们头脑里的念头。如果你能够以某种方式引导他们，令他们意识到他们不是他们的念头，这样在他们和他们的念头之间就有了一个空间，去观察他们的念头，然后当念头来了，你可以向他们解释“这不过就是一个念头而已”，它也许不是事实，它也许不是真的。

绝大多数人都有痛苦之身。藉着向他们指出痛苦之身而帮助他们摆脱与痛苦之身的认同。我经常说不要对孩子们使用“痛苦之身”这个词。给它一个名字，叫它某个别的东西，一旦他们被痛苦之身接管的时候，提起这个名字。然后当痛苦之身平息之后，向他们指出它：“刚才是什么？是什么掌控了你？”这样觉知的层面就开始发展了。有情绪存在，同时也有觉知。鼓励这个觉知的发展，这样他们就能够看着那个一次又一次接管他们的情绪。在情绪爆发的事件之后，而不是在事件之初，对他们说:“昨天你开始尖叫的时候，是什么掌控了你？那是什么？”，然后说“它感觉起来像什么？”或者发明一些游戏，这样你就可以使它成为他们能够明白的某个东西。然后“让我们等待它下一次的到来，看看它感觉起来怎么样”。如果你有了痛苦之身的名字，那么你就可以在你从痛苦之身中醒来之后辨识出它 – “同样的事情又发生在我身上了”。教育的关键是向他们显示出“成为有意识的”的可能性，而不是总是与他们头脑中升起的一切认同。



翻译：游由

~~原文如下~~

Helping Children Transcend
Q: Can we help our children and others that we love to transcend their unconsciousness?  Or is it necessary for them to go through it on their own?
ET: There are more children born nowadays who may not have to go through the deep unconsciousness that [adults] had to go through, certainly that I had to go through.  And also there are more children born nowadays to parents who are in the awakening process, or relatively conscious parents.  In my generation, I can’t think of any conscious parents.  There might have been some, but it was rare.  They are still rare now, but much less rare than before.  I loved my parents, but they were deeply unconscious.  So, the question is how to help the children stay relatively conscious, so that they do not get drawn into the mass unconsciousness that still pervades mass culture, and the technology that promotes unconsciousness and addictive behavior.
The most powerful teaching is not what you say or do to them, but your state of consciousness at home.  That’s the very foundation for teaching your children.  It has nothing to do with teaching, the foundation for transmitting consciousness is not even wanting to transmit consciousness to them, but to hold the space of presence as you interact with them at home.  Also, to hold presence as much as possible as you interact with your husband.  There’s a relationship there that will infect them, with either presence or painbody.
The most vital thing is, before even thinking of doing anything, is being conscious.  They observe how you behave, and they take that on board to some extent.  Of course, another influence is mass culture, as they spend more time at school.  Occasionally there may be things that you can point out to them, so that they stay in touch with immediate experience, sensory experience.  Don’t let them lose touch with nature.  So many children these days are so involved in technological games, they don’t experience nature anymore.  It’s something totally alien to them.  That’s a very harmful thing.  It’s a great deprivation, to be deprived of the immediate experience of the natural world, which puts you in touch with deeper levels of your own being.  To have an animal at home is a great help.  If children relate to the dog, it’s a non-conceptual relationship.  You can touch the dog, look after the dog.  Getting out into nature periodically, without the gadgets that [kids] usually have.
[Watching] television is a state of semi-comotose hypnosis.  It may not be easy because everybody else is doing that kind of thing.  It’s not that you have to eliminate that kind of activity completely, but discourage them from spending 100% of their free time with those things.  Take them into nature, without the gadgets.  Encourage them to direct sensory experience – to touch, to feel, to look at things.  Encourage them to not confuse conceptual labeling with true knowledge or experience.
When [kids] are learning language, encourage them not to equate concepts with reality.  When you teach them what something is, encourage them to touch it, to see it, to feel it, not just to say, “this is called such-and-such”.  Continue to look at it.  Otherwise, you stop experiencing – and all you have is a mental label.
Questioner: They label themselves, as well.  I’ve noticed this with my daughter, she will come home and say “I’m stupid” at this or that.
ET: That’s a good way to encourage her not to identify with her thoughts.  So if you can point out that it’s just a thought, and that they don’t have to believe in every thought that comes.   If you can somehow work with them to have them realize that they are not their thoughts, so that there’s a space between them and their thoughts, to observe their thoughts, and when thoughts come you can explain “it’s no more than a thought” and it may not be the reality, it may not be true.
Most humans have painbody.  Dis-identify from the painbody by pointing out that this is the painbody.  I’ve often said not to call it “painbody” for the children.  Give it a name, call it something, and mention it when occasionally they get taken over by it.  Point it out to them afterwards, “what was that, that took you over?” so that an awareness develops.  There’s the emotion, and there’s the awareness.  Encourage that kind of thing, so that they are able to look at the emotion that takes them over from time to time.  And after the event, not during the event initially, say to them, “What was it that took you over when you started screaming yesterday?  What was that?” and say, “What does it feel like?” or invent some game, so that you can make it into something that they can be aware of.  Then “let’s wait for next time it comes, and see how it feels”.  If you have it, then you can point out after you’ve woken up from your painbody – “the same thing happened to me”.  The key in education is to show the possibility of being aware, rather than always being identified with what arises in their mind.

嘉静

摘自埃克哈特网站2011年5月电子刊
埃克哈特谈找到平衡

问题：我们该如何在个体的意志与整体的生命之流之间找到平衡？

埃克哈特: 藉着与当下时刻保持一致，你就将你的意志与宇宙的意志协调一致，你也可以称之为“神的意志”。你不再有一个分离的意志。那个分离的意志希望加强或巩固一个人的自我感。它很关心“我”(me)、“我”(I),和我执。但是还有一个神圣的意识、合一的意识存在，有一个进化的驱动力存在。每一刻我们在这里所做的，都是要将我们自己与这个合一意识调至同一频率。

关键就是不抗拒，因为只要你还在与当下时刻抗争，你就会陷落在小我的意志的圈套里。小我的意志需要让位 – 这就是臣服于当下时刻，臣服于本然。当你在内在与本然协调一致，起初看上去像是软弱无力，它可能会被误解为是要阻止你去采取有效的行动。然而，对本然的接纳，其实与回应当下时刻所需是一个意思。无论这一刻是什么想要被创造出来，想要被显化，想要被完成 – 要与它协调一致，你首先需要接纳这一刻，无论它是以何种形式显现。

只要挑选出当下这一刻。比如说，当你生病的时候，你并不是要说“我需要接纳这个疾病，事实就是我病了，我正在因为这个疾病而遭受痛苦”，因为这些都只不过是一个概念上的故事。你需要接纳的仅仅是当下存在的这一刻。在此刻，从来没有一个疾病真正存在过，存在的只是一个身体的状况。也许是疼痛，也许是虚弱、无力、不适。这些感受也许存在，这就是你需要接纳的。就是当下如是的这一刻。

如果你在某处陷入泥沼，你并不是要说“好吧,我正身处泥沼，我必须接纳它，我在这里 – 我什么也不做，因为我必须接纳事实”。这一刻总是如实存在的，关于这一点你什么也做不了。这就是你要接纳的。一旦接纳，那个升起的行动会有一种不同的能量。那个流入你的行动之中的意志不再是基于小我。如果你没有接纳此刻，这个意志会和宇宙作对 – 这正是小我喜欢做的。它是负面的，它认为不应该是这样，于是与之争斗。如果你使用消极负面，你就陷入了小我的圈套。这个“小我的意志”必须让位于那个更强大的意志，让它流过，让它来处理那个情形。它创造，它不是与整体隔离的。它是与整体合一的。当事情这样运作时，对那宇宙意志的表达的另一个词就是智性。只有当你看着一个情形，完全接纳当下本然时，智性才会运作，接下来，当然可能会需要采取一些行动。

一旦有敞开，经由接纳，你接下来采取的下一步将有力得多。佛教的说法是“正行”，而这只能从正确的意识状态之中升起。只有当你走出小我，你才能够采取正确的行动。佛所谈论的是从那觉醒的意识状态之中流出的行动。小我意志的臣服指的是对当下时刻说“是”。这不是什么大不了的事，只要对存在的说“是”- 因为无论如何它都已经存在了。为什么要对已经存在的事情抱怨呢？这是疯狂的，但也是常见的。

要放弃小我意志，你需要做的就是不抱怨已经发生的事。与当下本然保持一致 – 当下的人、当下的情形，或是其他 – 它已经是如此了。这是存在的必然性。对当下本然变得善意友好，你就会首次成为有智慧的。

只需要臣服于当下时刻的必然性，随着这个简单的动作，另一种能量流入了。你可以称它为宇宙意志，你可以称它为智性，你也可以称它是对那个所谓的“问题”的创造性的解决方案。你还可以说是力量涌入进来，它是那个大于你的受限的头脑的力量。或者这股力量可以使用你的头脑，突然，如果情形需要的话，你开始说一些正确的话。突然，一些词语到来了 – 它们从哪里来？你不知道下一刻你要说什么。这些词语来自于一个更深的层面，因为是那个智性在使用这个头脑。

你和这个宇宙合一了，这样一来，宇宙就经由你这个形式在创造。这就是它的美妙之处。当那个未显化的流入这世界，它呈现出形式。那些处于尚未觉醒的状态的人们的想法大多都是古老的不断重复的思想，是被过去所限制的思考。所有你可以依赖的只能是你在过去所累积的，你是在用受限的思考来处理问题。当那个简单的臣服的动作打开了你的头脑，它就可以被作为一个乐器使用。然后，也许会有一个原始的、新鲜的念头流入进来。这就是形式的诞生。念头的诞生创造了形式的诞生。宇宙利用你作为一个媒介或是一条管道，它经由你而创造。你就是一。它使用你的头脑，它从无形变成了思维、语言、最后成为有形的事物。就是通过这样的方式，头脑实际上可以是一个很有帮助的工具 – 只要它与那个更大的智性保持一致，与合一的意识保持一致。

这一切都起始于当下这一刻，起始于你与当下这一刻的关系。是朋友抑或是敌人？你是否允许它，还是在与它战斗，与它抗争？这就是小我的终结 – 因为小我需要抗争。小我通过抱怨而存活，通过否定或是对当下以外的事情的渴求而存活。

当下时刻就是你的老师。与它合作 – 这真的就是你所需要的全部了。这就是小我意志的终结，反正它也不怎么有力量。无论它创造什么，都只不过是在制造更多的麻烦罢了。

这看上去如此简单，而它真的就是这么简单。然而，由于这是人们几千年以来的习性，常常有人对我说“要完全处在当下时刻，允许它如实存在，这实在是太难了”。当然，真相正好相反。如果你不这么做的话，生活才会变得很难。你所要接纳的只是这一刻的形式而已。没有别的。然后，看看需要做什么。只有当这种情形发生，你才是真正的有智慧。

有时，仅仅是安住于临在的空间，就会激活一些其他的因素，然后，这些看上去从外面进来的因素，改变了这个情形。你激活了整体的智性。不一定要经历这个形式。这就是为什么人们会提到同步性事件的发生，突然，一个有帮助的因素进来了，突然一个对的人出现了，对的事情发生了。当你不知道这是自然现象时，它几乎是神奇的，它看上去像是个奇迹，因为大多数人还不习惯这个。

当你保持临在，有时改变并不经由你的行动而发生。有很多的情况是此时此刻无法采取行动。有时你什么也做不了，但是你可以继续临在。然后，一个更大的智性被启动了。你常常会发现那个情形正在发生改变。

这个更大的智性不是那个你可以用IQ试题来测量的头脑层面的智力。这是非概念性的智性。概念性的智力是存储信息的能力，是分析、比较之类的能力。这是智性之中很小的一个部分。这个非概念性的智性无限广大。我们命定要走这条路，好让我们的整个生命成为一件艺术品。并不仅仅是当你在进行创作性的工作时才进入那个意识状态。任何创造性的事物都有一簇火花，一种活力，一个品质，一份崭新和鲜活。你在内在警觉的宁静的层面与这非概念性的智性连接。每个人都有它，它是每个人的本质。这就是真正的智性。你与之连接到什么程度，无法通过IQ试题来测量。从根本上说，你无法测量创造力。

常常，当下时刻的外在形式看上去像是对你生命的限制，看上去它影响了你的自由。身体也许会生病，你也许发现很难移动身体。当一些极端的情况发生，如果你可以学着接纳它，会有一点空间感进入你的生命。你会说“情况就是这样”。一点小小的空间开启了，你不再是一个不断抗争的实体。接着，你发现自己的本质是无形的空间。换句话说，你找到了内在空间。一开始，它在背景里温柔地存在，它存在于每一个情形之中。那个宁静充满力量。它可以变得如此有力量，它几乎可以扫除一切。宁静是你内在的那个无形。藉着接纳有形，你内在的无形开启了。正是这样，看上去很糟糕的事 – 一个限制 – 变成了令你认识真正的自己的一个开端。



翻译：游由

~~原文如下~~

Eckhart on Finding Balance
Q: How do we find balance between our individual will and the natural flow of life?
ET: By living aligned with the present moment, you also align your will with the universal will, which you could call “the will of God”.  You don’t have a separate will.  The separate will wants to enhance or strengthen one’s sense of self.  The separate will is concerned with the “me”, the “I”, the ego. But there is a divine Consciousness, the one Consciousness, there is an evolutionary impulse.  What we are doing here at every moment, is to align ourselves with that.
Non-resistance is vital because as long as you are in resistance to the present moment, you will be trapped in the little egoic will.  The egoic will needs to subside – that’s surrender to the present moment, and surrender to what is.  When you align yourself with what is internally, it looks at first almost like a position of weakness, and it can be misinterpreted as something that prevents you from taking effective action.  But the acceptance of what is, is totally compatible with responding to whatever the present moment requires.  Whatever wants to be created, manifested, done, at this moment – to be aligned with that, you need to first accept whatever form this moment takes.
Single out this moment only.  For example, when you are ill, you don’t say “I need to accept this illness, the fact that I am ill, that I am suffering from this” because that is a whole conceptual story.  All you need to accept is this moment as it is.  There is never actually an illness in this moment, there is only a physical condition.  There may be pain, there may be weakness, disability, discomfort.  Those things may be there, and that’s the only thing you accept.  This moment is as it is now.
If you are stuck in the mud somewhere, you don’t say, “Okay, I am in the mud, I have to accept it, and here I am – I’m not taking any action because I have to accept what is”.  This moment is already always as it is, and there’s nothing you can do about that.  That’s what you accept.  Then, action that arises has a different energy to it.  The will that flows into what you do is no longer egoic.  When you have not accepted this moment, the will goes against the Universe – that is what the ego does.  It is negative, it fights something that it says shouldn’t be there.  If you use negativity, you are trapped in ego.  The “little will” has to subside for the more powerful will to flow through and deal with the situation.  It creates, it is not isolated from the totality.  It is one with the totality.  When that operates, another word for that universal will is intelligence.  It’s only when you look at a situation, completely accept the is-ness of this moment, and then of course action may be required.
Once the opening is there, through acceptance, the next step that you take will be much more powerful.  There’s a Buddhist term “right action”, that can only arise out of the right state of Consciousness.  You have to get out of the ego first before you can have right action.  The Buddha was talking about that which flows from the awakened state of consciousness.  To surrender the little will is to say ‘yes’ to the present moment.  It’s not a big thing, just say yes to what is – because it already is anyway.  Why complain about something that is?  It’s insane, but normal.
To give up the egoic will, all you have to do is not complain about what is.  Be aligned with the isness – people, situations, whatever – this is already as it is.  It’s the inevitability of is.  Become friendly with what is, and you become intelligent for the first time.
With the simple act of surrender to the inevitability of the present moment, another energy comes.  You could call that universal will, you could call that intelligence, you could call that the creative solution to whatever the so-called “problem” is.  You could call that power coming in, that is greater than the limited power of your mind.  Or it may use your mind, and suddenly you say the right thing, if that’s what the situation requires.  Suddenly the words come – where do the words come from?  You don’t know what you’re going to say next.  They come from a deeper level because that intelligence uses the mind.
You and the Universe become one, and as such it creates through you as this form.  That’s the beauty of it.  When the unmanifested flows into this world, it assumes form.  Most thoughts that people have in the unawakened state are repetitive old thoughts, conditioned thinking, conditioned by the past.  All you can rely on then is what you have accumulated in the past, you deal with things through conditioned thinking.  When the simple act of surrender opens your mind, it can then be used as an instrument.  Then, a thought may come in that is original and fresh and new.  That is the birth of form.  The birth of thought creates the birth of form.  The Universe uses you as a vehicle or a channel through which to create.  You are one.  It can use your mind, and become thought, words, physical things.  That’s the way in which the mind can actually be a helpful tool – alignment with the greater Intelligence, the One Consciousness.
It all starts with the present moment, and your relationship with the present moment.  Friend or enemy?  Are you allowing it, or are you fighting it, resisting it?  That’s the end of ego – because the ego needs resistance.  The ego survives through complaining, it survives through denying, or wanting something else.
The present moment is the teacher.  Work with that – that’s all you need, really.  That’s the end of the “little will”, which isn’t all that powerful anyway.  Whatever it creates, creates more problems.
It seems so simple, and it is simple.  And yet, because of the many thousands of years of habit-patterns, often people tell me “It’s so difficult to be in the present moment and allow it to be”.  Of course, the opposite is true.  Life becomes difficult if you don’t.  What you accept is the form of this moment.  No more.  Then, see what’s needed.  You are not truly intelligent until that happens.
Sometimes holding that space of simple Presence activates other factors that then come in, seemingly, from the outside to change the situation.  You have activated the intelligence of the totality.  It’s not necessarily coming through this form.  That is why people speak of synchronistic things happening, suddenly a helpful factor comes in, suddenly the right person appears, the right thing happens.  Almost miraculous when you don’t know that it’s natural, it seems like a miracle at first because most humans are not used to that.
When you hold Presence, sometimes the change may not happen through your action.  There are many situations where action at this moment is not possible.  Sometimes there’s nothing you can do, however you can continue to be present.  Then, a greater intelligence is activated.  Very often you will find change happening in the situation.
This greater intelligence is not the conceptual intelligence that you can measure with IQ tests.  It is non-conceptual intelligence.  Conceptual intelligence is the ability to retain information, analyze, compare, and so forth.  It’s a tiny fragment of what intelligence is.  There is a vastness of non-conceptual intelligence.  Our destiny is to be in that way, so that our whole life is to become a work of art.  Not just be confined to that state of consciousness when you do your creative work.  Any creative thing has a spark, an aliveness, a quality, a newness, a freshness.  You connect with non-conceptual intelligence in the alert Stillness within.  Everybody has that, as their essence.  That is true intelligence.  To what extent you are connected with that could not possibly be measured through any IQ test.  Ultimately, you cannot measure creativity.
Very often, the form of the present moment seems like a limitation on your life, something that is impinging on your freedom.  The body could become ill, you may find it hard to move.  When something drastic happens, if you can learn to accept it, a little bit of spaciousness comes into your life.  You say, “this is what is”.  A little bit of space just opened up, and you’re no longer just a resisting entity.  Then, you realize that you are essentially formless space.  In other words, you find inner peace.  At first it is very gentle in the background, in the midst of any situation.  That peace is powerful.  It can become so powerful, that is obliterates almost anything.  Peace is the formless in you.  By accepting the form, the formless within you opens up.  This is how something seemingly bad – a limitation – becomes an opening for realization of who you truly are.

嘉静

摘自埃克哈特网站2011年3月电子刊
真正的爱以及超越二分性
- Kim Eng 与埃克哈特的对话

(游由注：以下KE代表Kim Eng, ET代表埃克哈特)

KE: 在我的旅行中，最常被问到的问题之一是“与一个开悟的人交往是怎样的？”为什么会问这个问题？也许他们有关于一个完美的关系的概念或是图像，也许他们想知道更多与它相关的事。也许他们的头脑想要将自己投射到未来的某一刻，那时他们也有了一份完美关系，并且通过这个关系找到了他们自己。

与一个开悟的人交往是怎样的？ 只要我头脑中有这样的念头：“我有一个亲密关系”或是“我正身处一个关系之中”，无论是和谁，我都会痛苦。这就是我所学到的。

随着“关系”这个概念而来的是期待、关于过去的关系的记忆，以及一堆关于“一个关系应该怎样”的概念，而这些概念受限于个人或是文化的头脑。然后我会努力使现实符合这些概念。而它从未符合。然后我再一次感到痛苦。事实是：根本没有关系(relationship)这回事。有的只是当下这一刻，而在这一刻中，存在的只有关联(relating)。

我们关联得如何，或者说我们爱得如何，取决于我们将想法、概念、期待清空得如何。

最近，我请埃克哈特谈谈关于小我对“爱的关系”的寻求。我们的谈话很快就触及到了人类存在的最深的一些层面。

以下就是他所说的：

ET: 通常人们所谓的“爱”是一种小我逃避臣服的策略。你希望某个人带给你某种感觉，但这种感觉只有当你在臣服的状态中才能来到你身上。小我利用这个人作为逃避不得不臣服的替代品。西班牙语在这个方面是最诚实的。它用同一个动词te quiero来代表“我爱你”和“我要你”。对小我来说，爱和需要是一回事，然而真正的爱里没有需要，没有占有的欲望，没有要你的伴侣改变的期待。小我挑选出某个人并使他们变得特别。它利用这个人来掩盖心底持续不断的不满足感，“不够”的感觉，愤怒和憎恨的感觉，这些感觉都是互相紧密关联的。这些感觉是一种潜藏在人类深处的感受的不同面向，而这感受与小我的状态密不可分。

当小我挑选出某个东西，并说“我爱”这个或那个，这是一种无意识的企图，它想要掩盖或去除那内心深处总是与小我如影随形的感受：那种人人都很熟悉的不满足、不快乐、不丰裕的感受。在短时间内，这幻象确实有效。然后，无可避免地，到某个点的时候，这个你挑选出来的人，或者你眼中的特别的人，不再能够掩盖你的痛苦、怨恨、不满或不悦，这些感受都源自于那个匮乏和不完整的感觉。然后，那个一直被掩盖的感受跑了出来，被投射到这个被挑选出来的特别的人身上 – 这个你以为可以彻底“拯救你”的人。突然，爱变成了恨。小我没有意识到这个憎恨实际上是你内在感受到的全宇宙的痛苦的一个投射。小我认为是这个人造成了这个痛苦。它没有意识到这个痛苦是属于全宇宙的，你感受不到与你自身存在的深处连接的痛苦 – 无法与你自己合一的痛苦。

爱的对象是可以更换的，正如小我渴望的对象可以不断更换一样。有的人经历很多不同的关系。他们不断地坠入情网，又分手。他们爱上一个人，直到这不再奏效为止，因为没有任何人可以永久地掩盖那个痛苦。

只有臣服才能给你那个你一直在你所爱的对象身上寻找的东西。小我说不必臣服，因为我爱这个人。这显然是一个无意识的过程。在你完全接纳当下如是的那一刻，你的内在的某个东西显露出来，它过去一直被小我的欲望所掩盖着。这是一种与生俱来的，内在的安详，寂静，和生命力。它是那不受限的，你的本性。它是你在爱的对象里一直寻找的。它就是你自己。当这情形发生时，一种完全不同的爱出现了，它不再取决于爱 / 恨。它不再挑选出一件特别的事或是一个特别的人。我们甚至用同一个字“爱”来称呼它，这有些荒唐可笑。现在，即使在通常所说的爱/恨的关系中，它也可能偶尔发生，你进入了臣服的状态。临时地、短暂地，它发生了：你经验到一种更深的宇宙的爱，和一种全然的接纳，即使是在小我的关系中，它有时也会闪耀出来。然而，如果臣服没有保持住，它会再一次被旧有的小我模式所掩盖。因此，我并不是说那个更深的真正的爱在通常的爱/恨关系中不会偶尔出现。但是它很少见，而且常常是短暂的。

无论何时，当你接纳当下所是，会有个比当下所是更深的东西显露出来。所以，你可能陷在最痛苦的困境中，外在或内在，那最痛苦的感受或是情境里，而一旦你接纳了当下所是，你就超越了它，你战胜了它。那痛苦可能还在那儿，但是，突然，你来到了一个更深的地方，在那里，它变得不再那么重要了。这整个非凡的宇宙之所以存在，是因为相对立两者之间的矛盾。冷和热、增长和衰退、获得与失去、成功与失败，这两级性是存在的一部分，当然也就是每段关系中的一部分。

KE: 那么是不是说，我们永远无法消除两级对立？

ET: 在外在形式的层面，我们无法消除两极对立。然而，你可以通过臣服超越两极。这样你就连接上了你的内在深处，在那里，一如既往地，不再存在对立。它们持续地存在于外在的层面。然而，即使是在外在，当你身处接纳或臣服的状态时，你生命之中的两极性的显化的方式也开始发生了某些变化。它显化的方式变得更加友善和温柔。

你越是无意识，你就越是与形式认同。无意识的本质就是：认同于形式，无论是一个外在的形式（一个情境、一个地方、一件事或是一个经历），还是一个想法或者一种情绪。你越是固着于外在形式，你就越不臣服，而你所经历到的两极对立就会变得越极端，越暴力，越严酷。在这个星球上，有些人过着几乎地狱般的生活，同样是在这里，另一些人却过着相对宁静的生活。那些内在安详的人仍旧会经验到两极，但却是以更温和的方式，而不是像许多人经历的那种极端的方式。所以，我们经历两极对立的方式确实会改变。两极对立本身无法被消除，但可以说，整个宇宙正在变得更加仁慈友善。它不再那么具有伤害性。这世界不再被看作是像小我以为的那样充满敌意。

KE: 如果觉醒，或是在觉醒的状态中生活，并不会改变事物的本来秩序，不会改变二元对立，不会改变相对立二者之间的矛盾，那在觉醒的状态生活会带来什么呢？它会影响这个世界吗？还是仅仅影响一个人在这个世界的主观体验？

ET: 当你在臣服中生活，一些不属于这个世界的东西通过你进入了这个二元世界。

KE: 它真的会改变外在的世界吗？

ET: 内在与外在终究是一。当你不再将世界看做是充满敌意的，就再也没有恐惧，当恐惧消失，你思考、说话、行动的方式会变得不同。爱和慈悲升起了，它们会影响这世界。即使当你发现自己身处一个冲突的情境中，也会有一股宁静流入这两级对立。于是，有些东西改变了。有一些老师或者是教导会说，没有什么会改变。不是这样的。有某些非常重要的东西会改变。那个超越形式的经由形式闪耀着，那个永恒之光经由形式照射进这个有形世界。

KE: 是否可以说，是你的针对某事的“习性反应”的缺乏，是你对于这世界两级对立的接纳，给这些矛盾显化的方式带来了一些改变？

ET: 是的。对立依旧会发生，但你不再给予它们养料。你刚才所说的是很重要的一点：“缺乏习性反应”指的是两级对立不再被喂养。这意味着，你经常经验到两极对立的土崩瓦解，比如在一个冲突的情境里。再没有任何人，任何情境被制造成一个“敌人”。

KE: 所以，两极对立变得被削弱了，而不是被加强。也许这就是它们开始消融的方式。

ET: 是的。以这样的方式生活是终结这二元对立的世界的开端。



翻译：游由

~~原文如下~~

Kim Answers: True Love and the Transcendence of Duality
A dialogue between Kim Eng and Eckhart Tolle


During my travels, one of the most frequently asked question is "What is it like to be in relationship with an enlightened being?" Why this question? Perhaps they have the idea or image of an ideal relationship, and want to know more about it. Perhaps their mind wants to project itself to a future time when they, too, will be in an ideal relationship and find themselves through it.

What is it like to be in relationship with an enlightened being?  As long as I have the idea in my head "I have a relationship" or "I am in a relationship," no matter with whom, I suffer. This I have learnt.

With the concept of "relationship" come expectations, memories of past relationships, and further personally and culturally conditioned mental concepts of what a "relationship" should be like. Then I would try to make reality conform to these concepts. And it never does. And again I suffer. The fact of the matter is: there are no relationships. There is only the present moment, and in the moment there is only relating.

How we relate, or rather how well we love, depends on how empty we are of ideas, concepts, expectations.

Recently, I asked Eckhart to say a few words on the ego's search for "love relationships." Our conversation quickly went deeper to touch upon some of the most profound aspects of human existence.

Here's what he said:


ET: What is conventionally called "love" is an ego strategy to avoid surrender. You are looking to someone to give you that which can only come to you in the state of surrender. The ego uses that person as a substitute to avoid having to surrender. The Spanish language is the most honest in this respect. It uses the same verb, te quiero, for "I love you" and "I want you." To the ego, loving and wanting are the same, whereas true love has no wanting in it, no desire to possess or for your partner to change. The ego singles someone out and makes them special. It uses that person to cover up the constant underlying feeling of discontent, of "not enough," of anger and hate, which are closely related These are facets of an underlying deep seated feeling in human beings that is inseparable from the egoic state.

When the ego singles something out and says "I love" this or that, it's an unconscious attempt to cover up or remove the deep-seated feelings that always accompany the ego: the discontent, the unhappiness, the sense of insufficiency that is so familiar. For a little while, the illusion actually works. Then inevitably, at some point, the person you singled out, or made special in your eyes, fails to function as a cover up for your pain, hate, discontent or unhappiness which all have their origin in that sense of insufficiency and incompleteness. Then, out comes the feeling that was covered up, and it gets projected onto the person that had been singled out and made special - who you thought would ultimately "save you." Suddenly love turns to hate. The ego doesn't realize that the hatred is a projection of the universal pain that you feel inside. The ego believes that this person is causing the pain. It doesn't realize that the pain is the universal feeling of not being connected with the deeper level of your being - not being at one with yourself.

The object of love is interchangeable, as interchangeable as the object of egoic wanting. Some people go through many relationships. They fall in love and out of love many times. They love a person for a while until it doesn't work anymore, because no person can permanently cover up that pain.

Only surrender can give you what you were looking for in the object of your love. The ego says surrender is not necessary because I love this person. It's an unconscious process of course. The moment you accept completely what is, something inside you emerges that had been covered up by egoic wanting. It is an innate, indwelling peace, stillness, aliveness. It is the unconditioned, who you are in your essence.  It is what you had been looking for in the love object. It is yourself. When that happens, a completely different kind of love is present which is not subject to love / hate. It doesn't single out one thing or person as special. It's absurd to even use the same word for it. Now it can happen that even in a normal love / hate relationship, occasionally, you enter the state of surrender.  Temporarily, briefly, it happens: you experience a deeper universal

love and a complete acceptance that can sometimes shine through, even in an otherwise egoic relationship. If surrender is not sustained, however, it gets covered up again with the old egoic patterns.  So, I'm not saying that the deeper, true love cannot be present occasionally, even in a normal love / hate relationship. But it is rare and usually short-lived.

Whenever you accept what is, something deeper emerges then what is.  So, you can be trapped in the most painful dilemma, external or internal, the most painful feelings or situation, and the moment you accept what is, you go beyond it, you transcend it. Even if you feel hatred, the moment you accept that this is what you feel, you transcend it. It may still be there, but suddenly you are at a deeper place where it doesn't matter that much anymore.  The entire phenomenal universe exists because of the tension between the opposites. Hot and cold, growth and decay, gain and loss, success and failure, the polarities that are part of existence, and of course part of every relationship.

KE: Then it's correct to say, we can never get rid of the polarities?

ET: We cannot get rid of polarities on the level of form. However, you can transcend the polarities through surrender. You are then in touch with a deeper place within yourself where, as it were, the polarities no longer exist. They continue to exist on the outer level. However, even there, something changes in the way in which the polarities manifest in your life when you are in a state of acceptance or surrender. The polarities manifest in a more benign and gentle way.

The more unconscious you are, the more you are identified with form. The essence of unconsciousness is this: identification with form, whether it is an external form (a situation, place, event or experience), a thought form or an emotion. The more attached to form, the more unsurrendered you are, and the more extreme, violent or harsh your experience of the polarities becomes. There are people on this planet who live virtually in hell and on the same planet there are others who live a relatively peaceful life. The ones who are at peace inside will still experience the polarities, but in a much more benign way, not the extreme way in which many humans still experience them. So, the way in which the polarities are experienced does change. The polarities themselves cannot be removed, but one could say, the whole universe becomes somewhat more benevolent. It's no longer so threatening. The world is no longer perceived as hostile, which is how the ego perceives it.

KE: If awakening or living a life in an awakened state does not change the natural order of things, duality, the tension between the opposites, what does living a life in the awakened state do? Does it affect the world, or only one's subjective experience of the world?

ET: When you live in surrender, something comes through you into the world of duality that is not of this world.

KE: Does that actually change the outer world?

ET: Internal and external are ultimately one. When you no longer perceive the world as hostile, there is no more fear, and when there is no more fear, you think, speak and act differently. Love and compassion arise, and they affect the world. Even if you find yourself in a conflict situation, there is an outflow of peace into the polarities. So then, something does change. There are some teachers or teachings that say, nothing changes. That is not the case. Something very important does change. That which is beyond form shines through the form, the eternal shines through the form into this world of form.

KE: Is it right to say that it is your lack of "reaction against," your acceptance of the opposites of this world, that brings about changes in the way the opposites manifest?

ET: Yes. The opposites continue to happen, but they are not fueled by you anymore. What you said is a very important point: the "lack of reaction" means that the polarities are not fueled. This means, you often experience a collapse of the polarities, such as in conflict situations. No person, no situation is made into an "enemy."

KE: So, the opposites, instead of becoming strengthened, become weakened. And perhaps this is how they begin to dissolve.

ET: That's right. Living in that way is the beginning of the end of the world.

嘉静

摘自埃克哈特网站2011年2月电子刊
我们这充满创造力的宇宙

问题：关于我们是这充满创造力的宇宙中一个充满创造力的力量，您会给我们什么教导，使我们能够记得，或者意识到这一点？

埃克哈特：觉醒的过程有两个方面，或者说两个向度。一个是发现内在的源头，也就是你的本质。然后，将它越来越多地带入你的日常生活中 – 好让你的生活充满那宁静。随着你的生活逐渐被那宁静充满，你的自我慢慢开始消褪。你代表着一个不一样的能量场 – 就好像有从另一个次元来的东西通过你进入这世界。

随之而来的是“觉醒的做”，我有时会这样称呼它，而最重要的，是在这所有“觉醒的做”之下的基础。这世界到处都是在“做”的人，但大多数都是“无意识的做”。它来自于不快乐的状态，或者制造更多不快乐的情形。我们第一个任务是把那个次元，那另一个次元，带到这个世界上。在你日常的生活中，试试看临在是否可以流入那些最琐碎的事情 – 倾听别人时，走路时，等等。临在指的是接受当下的一切，与当下的外在形式和谐一致，将它作为一个灵性练习。你越是与当下的外在形式合作，流经你的能量越多。

根植于日常生活中的临在对我们来说非常重要。这个基础就是对当下的如是(is-ness)的持续不断的接纳。经由接纳，临在越来越多地升起。正如你们的老师所说的，你与当下时刻合作。带入一个“是”。跟随着这个“是”，临在进入了。你必须先达到对如是的接纳 – 不是针对世界局势 – 仅限于接纳你自己的现实情况。过一阵子，你将会注意到临在有另一个方面。临在不仅仅是静止不动 – 它也有动态的层面。这正是“觉醒的做”进入的层面。

首先它将改变你与别人相处的方式。有一天，有些事情会想要被完成。你也许感觉到这是你需要做的事。突然你就知道了你需要做什么。它来自于内在，或者来自于外在 – 某些你生命中的情境。然后，“觉醒的做”开始发生。这个做不是自我的做，自我的做是无论你做什么都只是一个达到目的的手段。而在“觉醒的做”之中有很深的愉悦。这里面没有对达成的极度渴望，但实际上你却达成得更多 – 因为在做的过程之中有那么多快乐，而结果会自己照看自己。一个完全不同的做升起了，它不是被欲望所驱使。而通常情况下人们会想：“我必须达成这个”。

当临在通过你行动，它不再是基于欲望，它是基于欢乐。它不需要任何东西，因为你就来自于富足。这个行动不是设计来满足你的，不是要给你添加点什么。这个行动来自于你已身处其中的富足 – 所以并不存在任何需要。

障碍会出现，特别是如果你所做的与这现实世界背道而驰 – 你可能会发现障碍。同时你也可能会发现有巨大的力量在帮助你。

障碍也许会以不合作的人或事来显现，但巨大的力量也会流入你的行动之中，它会在很多方面帮助你。恰巧在合适的时间，遇到合适的人，发生恰到好处的事情。当障碍出现，它们不会被看作是敌人。自我总是将阻碍它的行动方案的任何障碍都看成是敌人。

一个障碍如其所是地被接纳，你与它合作 – 而不是反对它。你可以选择处理它，或者先接受它的能量然后转变它。它将融入你所要做的事情之中。你在困难的情境或是不合作的人身上再也看不到敌人。每一件事都如其所是地被拥抱，被接纳，然后它被转化了。这不像是你在做这件事，你成了这个做的媒介。它通过你发生。当这个力量想来，它就会来。

在那个发生在我身上的转化出现之后的几年，我的外在生活没有发生什么事情 – 然后，渐渐地，人们跑来问我问题。有一些行动，一些演讲在发生。回答突然就来了，那样的情形持续了几年。我知道有一个力量在这里，但因为某些原因它没能够到达很多人。这种情况还没有发生。那时的情形也还好，人们每周来一到两次问些问题。接着这里开个工作坊，那里开个工作坊，然后是比较大规模的。

有一次我在英国萨默塞特小镇的一个乡村教堂里，这个教堂空无一人 – 突然，有些词从我里面蹦了出来：“利用我吧”，“我想要加速”。我不知道我在和谁说话。也不知道这些词从哪里来。好像是那意识在倾听。起初什么也没发生，我回家了。几个星期之后，我清晨起来，知道我必须离开英国搬到北美西岸。我也不清楚为什么。这仅仅是个开端，最后写作在那里开始了。那个加速发生了。那时我还不知道这就是我曾经请求的加速的一部分。然后事情越来越快。要小心你所请求的。

我完全不觉得是我做了这些事情。我只是随顺它。我是作为一个人在演说吗？不，那是意识通过这个头脑在发表演讲，来表达对此时此刻最有帮助的东西。所以为它服务吧。你正身处在这服务之中。抛弃那个你作为单独的个体必须去“做”任何事情的念头。无论它想要在这世界显现的是什么，对它保持开放，然后“觉醒的做”会通过你发生。每一个所谓的“个体”在这世界都有独特的作用。当你越不碍手碍脚，当你能够将临在带入日常生活中，那么它究竟想要在这个世界显现什么的答案就将通过你而出现。

与它共舞是一趟绝妙的冒险旅程。现在有很多东西想要穿透过来。它并不在人们之间做选择，它不会说“你是特别的，我打算选择你”。无论何时当一个人对它变得透明，它就穿透。它不会问：“你是谁？你有哪些证书？”，它也不会问：“你有怎样的个人经历？你值不值得？”。它是永恒的临在。它对你过去的历史毫无兴趣，也不在意你是否是最高尚的人。无论在哪里，只要有敞开，光就会照射进来。

翻译：游由

~~原文如下~~

Our Creative Universe

Q:  What kind of guidance would you offer to people to remember, or be aware that we are a creative force in a creative Universe?


ET:  The awakening process has two aspects, or two dimensions, to it. One is the finding the Source within, as yourself.  Then, [there is] bringing that into your life more and more – so that your daily life becomes interspersed with that Stillness.  As your life becomes interspersed with that Stillness, the ego then begins to fade.  You embody a different energy field – as if something from another dimension were coming through you into this world.

The most essential thing is the foundation for all subsequent “awakened doing”, as I sometimes call it.  The world is full of people who are doing, but it’s mostly unawakened doing.  This comes out of unhappy states, and creates more unhappy states.  Our first task is to bring that dimension, the other dimension, into this world.  With your normal everyday life, see if Presence can flow into the smallest things – listening to another person, walking from here to there, and so on.  Presence implies acceptance of whatever is, in the Now, in alignment with the form of the Now, as a spiritual practice.  The more you are aligned with the form of the Now, the more this energy comes through.

It’s vital for us to be grounded in the Presence of everyday life.  The foundation is continuous acceptance of the is-ness of Now.  Through that, Presence arises more and more.  You work with the present moment, as your teacher so-to-speak.  Bring a “yes” to it.  With that, the Presence comes.  You have to first come to an acceptance of the is-ness of things – not the world situation – just your limited reality.  After a little while you will notice that there is another aspect to Presence.  It’s not just still - there’s also a dynamic aspect to Presence.  That’s where “awakened doing” comes in.

First it changes the way in which you deal with others.  One day, something else wants to be done that needs doing.  You might perceive it as something that you need to do.  Suddenly you know what it is that you need to do.  It comes from within, or it comes from without – some situation in your life.  Then, “awakened doing” begins to happen.  That doing is not the egoic doing, where whatever you do is a means to an end.  There is deep enjoyment in the doing.  There is not an excessive desire to achieve, but you achieve actually more - because there’s so much enjoyment in the doing that the end result looks after itself.  A very different kind of doing arises, that is not motivated by desire.  The normal way is thinking “I need to achieve this”.

As Presence moves through you, it’s not based on desire anymore, it’s based on enjoyment.  It’s not based on wanting or needing anything, because you’re coming from fullness.  The action is not designed to fulfill you.  It’s not designed to add something to you.  The action is coming out of the fullness in which you already dwell – so there’s no neediness in it.

Obstacles arise, as they will, especially if you do things that go against the conditioning of the world – you may find obstacles.  You also may find enormous power helping you.

Obstacles may come in the form of uncooperative people, or situations, but enormous power will also flow into what you do and help you in many ways.  Just the right thing, just at the right moment, just the right person.  When obstacles do arise, they are not regarded as enemies.  The ego regards any obstacle to its course of action as an enemy.

An obstacle is accepted for what it is, and you work with it – not against it.  Or you work around it, or you take its energy and turn it around.  It becomes incorporated into what you have to do.   You don’t see any more enemies in the form of unhelpful situations, uncooperative people.  Everything is embraced for what it is, accepted for what it is, and transformed.  It’s not so much that you are doing it, you become a vehicle for the doing.  It happens through you.  The power comes when it wants to come.

For several years after the shift that happened to me, there was not much happening externally – and after that, gradually, people came to ask questions.  There was some doing, some speaking happening.  Answers were suddenly coming, and that lasted for several years.  I knew somewhere that there was a power here, but it’s not reaching many people for some reason.  It wasn’t happening yet.  It was fine, people would come once or twice a week and ask questions.  A workshop here, a workshop there, and then big spaces.

I was once in a country church in England, in a small village in Somerset, and the church was completely empty – and suddenly the words came out of me that said “Use me”, and “I’d like acceleration please”.  I don’t know who I was talking to.  The words, where they came from, I don’t know.  The Consciousness was listening, it seems.  At first nothing happened and I went back home.  A few weeks later, I woke up knowing that I had to leave England and move to the west coast of North America.  I did not know why.  That was the beginning, and eventually the writing started there.  That was the acceleration happening.  I did not know [at the time] that it was part of the acceleration that I had asked for.  And then things accelerated more and more.  Be careful with what you ask for.

I don’t have the sense that I am “doing” any of this.  I just go with it.  Am I speaking as a person? No, its Consciousness speaking, using this mind, to express what is most helpful for this moment.  So be in the service of that.  You are in the service of that.  Get rid of the idea that you have to “do” anything as a separate entity.  Be open to what it is that wants to be done in this world, then conscious doing happens through you.  Every so-called “individual” has a different function in this world.  The more you get out of the way, you do it by bringing Presence into everyday life, then the answer of what it is that wants to be done comes through you.

It’s a wonderful adventure to be aligned with that.  There is a lot that wants to come through at this time.  It doesn’t choose between people, it doesn’t say “You are special, I’m going to choose you”.  Whenever a person becomes transparent to it, it comes through.  It doesn’t ask “Who are you, what are your credentials?”  It doesn’t ask, “What is your personal history?  Are you worthy?”  It’s timeless Presence.  It’s not interested in your past history, whether you were the most virtuous person.  Wherever the opening is, the light comes through.

嘉静

摘自埃克哈特网站2011年1月电子刊
艺术或者音乐能否传达临在的自我？

问题：我通过音乐经验到了临在，这是一种非常美妙的感觉，我感到……我正在被演奏，我感到自己是一个乐器。在某种程度上，我们称之为乐器的反而是声音。我的问题是关于与那个创造者的连接，以及那些被创造出来的作品。艺术或者音乐能否传达临在的自我？一个人该如何成为这显化的一部分，但又不涉入过深，怎样能够保持距离，才不至于太沉浸在这个过程中？

埃克哈特：一方面，你有这个创造的过程 – 音乐，或是艺术。然后，你有了成品 – 这首被演奏的乐曲，或是那幅被观赏的作品。

当你问：“艺术或者音乐能否传达临在的自我？” – 自我对临在一无所知，所以答案是不能。必须在自我中有些敞开，你才能够接收到来自于那个深处的音乐或艺术中所存在的能量。

有很多音乐和艺术并不一定是从那深处被创造出来的，而是自我想要显得更聪明。让我们来谈谈那些真正从宁静，或临在的连接之中诞生的音乐或艺术作品。在一定程度上，这个艺术作品，或者这首曲子，仍然携带着那个能量场。它可以连接上一个人内在更深的向度。这需要有一些敞开。如果仅仅有自我的密度，那么这个转化的可能性将得不到实现。需要观赏者或者聆听者的一些敞开，这样倾听一首乐曲或者欣赏一件艺术作品将成为很棒的一件事。也许仅仅是短暂的一刻，你可以被带走，进入那警觉的宁静之中，这作品正是从那儿而来。这是很美的一件事。

另一方面是“迷失自己” – 进入得太深，几乎在创造力发源之地迷失了自己。在创造的过程中，总是需要一个平衡你才不至于在存在中迷失自己。这可能发生在一个艺术家或者灵性上觉醒的人身上 – 他们突然如此地深入到存在里，以至于失去了对“做”的全部兴趣。这曾经发生在一些灵性大师的身上，他们花去几年时间只是存在，什么也不做。

比如，印度的拉玛那·玛哈希被喂食了几年，因为他甚至不能拿起食物。他如此融入存在之中，就只是坐在那里。人们意识到某种不寻常的事情发生在他身上 – 在西方人们可能意识不到 – 他们将食物放入他的嘴里。但这必然失去了一些平衡，他失去了在世间生活的能力。这个当然是一个极端的例子。慢慢地，几年之后，他开始重新获得这种能力，他在应对外在事物和与存在保持连接之间取得了平衡。这样的情形也曾比较轻微地发生在我身上，那时我完全失去了“做”的兴趣，闲晃了两年。这对我来说不是个“问题”，只是对那些看着我，或者认识我的人来说，才是个问题。这样有一段失去平衡的时间，但渐渐地这个平衡会自己重建。我并没有上师，就是这样，它是一个自然的过程。

你只要进入内在，为那个沉静于无形之中的东西赋予形式，为它所用 – 这样通过你，它可以进入这个有形世界。不要留在那里而迷失你自己 – 没有这个必要。

音乐是一个与内在的宁静连接的美妙的方式。

然而，对聆听者来说，有一件重要的事，那就是不要依赖于任何帮助你进入临在状态的外在事物。音乐固然可以是一个助力，但同样的，这也需要一个平衡。如果你只能在聆听某种音乐时才能变得宁静，那么这不太对，因为你在依赖于外在事物与存在连接。只是作为一个帮助来使用它，就像一位灵性导师或是灵性教导一样 – 聆听一卷录音带或是看一个视频，会有很大的帮助，但不要完全依赖于那个。每一位好的灵性导师都会告诉你，当时机成熟，“够了就是够了”。真正的老师在你的内在。你在我身上所看到的，那个你在我身上发现的珍贵的东西，一定也存在于你之内 – 否则你不可能看到它。一个好的老师总是引导你回到自身，而不是助长任何形式的依赖。

知道什么会有帮助，利用它，但不依赖它。最终你必须不借助任何外力也能到达那里。你仍然会感激老师们，感激这些教导。我喜欢聆听其他的灵性导师，如果他们是来自于深处。我会非常高兴，我会想“哇，这真是太棒了”。或者阅读一本来自于最深处的灵性教导的书籍 – 这仍然带给我很多乐趣。这与需要无关，我享受着对于同样深的真理的不同表达。这简直太棒了。

同样的，你也可以看见它，无论它在哪里 – 无论它隐藏于何种形式之中。你可以看见真理在它隐藏之处闪耀着光芒。它也许隐藏在古老的宗教中，隐藏得非常深。你看见它在那里，穿透出来闪耀着 – 也许有很多神话围绕着它，很多文化的信仰围绕着它，但在那深处，你仍然可以看见这是真理，它穿透所有围绕着它的神话和其他的东西，闪耀着。你就是它。

翻译：游由

~~原文如下~~

Can art or music inform the ego of Presence?

Q:  I’ve experienced Presence through music, and it’s a very profound sense of Grace that I feel… I am being ‘played’, in a sense I am an instrument.  In a way, what we call instruments are voices.  My question is about this connection to the Creative, and the artifacts that come.  Does art and music inform the ego of Presence?  How does one be part of that manifestation but not get too involved, to keep the distance, so one doesn’t become to obsessed with that process?

ET:  On the one hand, you have the creative process - music, or art.  And then you have the finished product - the piece of music that is played, or the work of art that somebody contemplates.

When you ask, “Can art or music inform the ego of Presence?” – the ego doesn’t know anything about Presence, so it can’t do that.  There needs to be some opening in the ego in order [for you] to be receptive to the power that is latent in music or art, that was created from that deep place.

There’s a lot of music and art that’s not necessarily created from that deep place, but the ego is trying to be clever.  Let’s talk about some piece of music or work of art that comes out of connectedness with Stillness, or Presence.  To some extent, the work of art or the piece of music still carries that energy field.  It can put [a person] in touch with the deeper dimension within.  A there’s a little bit of an opening is required.  If there’s only the density of the ego, then the transformational possibilities of art or music are not realized.  A little opening is required in the viewer, or the listener, and then it can be quite a wonderful thing to listen to music or to contemplate a work of art.  You can be transported, if only for a moment, into that alert stillness out of which it originally came.  That’s a beautiful thing.

Another aspect is “losing oneself” – going too deep, almost losing oneself in the ground out of which creativity comes.  In the creative process, there’s always a balance that’s needed, so that you don’t lose yourself in Being.  It could happen to an artist, it can happen to some people who awaken spiritually – they suddenly plunge so deeply into Being that they lose all interest in doing.  That happened to some spiritual masters, who spent several years being without doing anything.

For example, Ramana Maharshi in India had to be fed for several years because he would not even pick up food.  He was so immersed in Being that he just sat there.  People recognized something extraordinary about him – which they would not have done in the West – and they put food in his mouth.  But there was certainly a loss of balance, he could no longer function in this world.  This of course, is an extreme example.  Gradually, after a few years he was beginning to function again, and he was able to regain a balance between dealing with things out here and connectedness with Being.  In a slightly minor way it happened to me, when I lost interest completely in ‘doing’ and drifted around for two years.  It wasn’t a “problem” to me, it was only a problem to people who were watching me, or who knew me.  So there was a loss of balance for a while, but gradually the balance re-established itself.  I didn’t have a teacher, as such, so it turned out to be a natural process.

As long as you go within, and give form to that which is resting in the formless, be used by it – so that through you it can come into this world of form.  Don’t stay down there and lose yourself in it – that’s not necessary.

Music is a wonderful way of getting in touch with the stillness within.

For the listener, it is important not to become dependent, however, on anything external to enter the state of Presence.  Whereas music can be a help, there too needs to be a balance.  If the only time you can become still is when you listen to a certain kind of music, then that’s not quite it, because you are depending on something external to get in touch with that.  Use it as a help, and this is the same as a spiritual teacher or spiritual teaching – it can be a great help to listen to a tape or see a video, but don’t become totally dependent on that.  Every good spiritual teacher will tell you, when the time comes “enough is enough”.  The true teacher is within you.  What you see in me, that which you find so precious in me, must be in you - otherwise you wouldn’t see it.  A good teacher will always direct you back to yourself, and not foster any kind of dependency.

Knowing what is a help, using it, but not becoming dependent.  Eventually it is necessary for you to go there without any help.  You can still appreciate teachers, and teachings.  I love listening to other spiritual teachers if they come from a deep place, I have great joy, and I think “Wow, this is so wonderful”.  Or reading a spiritual book that comes from the deepest place – there’s still great joy in that.  It has nothing to do with needing, it’s enjoying a slightly different expression of the same deep truth.  It’s wonderful.

Also, you can see it wherever it is – no matter in what form it is hiding.  You can see the truth shining through wherever it is hiding.  It might be hiding in some ancient religion, very deeply.  There you see it, shining through – there may be a lot of mythology around it, a lot of cultural beliefs around it, and yet deep down there you can see this is the truth, shining through all the mythology around it and so on.  It is who you are.

嘉静

摘自埃克哈特网站10月电子刊
埃克哈特谈失业

问题：对于我们这些目前失业并想找份工作的人，如何保持与源头的联结，与内在神性的联结，同时还要面对现实情况和个人戏剧以及想要找份工作的痛苦？

埃克哈特: 这很具有挑战性。挑战有可能变成好事 – 它们要么唤醒你，要么将你拖入更深的反应模式、无意识或者痛苦之中。每一个你生命中的挑战都可以成为二者之一。挑战具有潜在的帮助。挑战意味着这样或那样的限制。我很感谢我生命中的挑战。如果没有它们，我将不是现在的我，你们很多人也意识到如果没有挑战，你也不会是现在的你。

对于这件事我有一点个人的体验。或者可以说是很丰富的个人体验 – 因为在我成年后的大多数时间里，我也处于失业的状态。在大部分的时间里，我生活得相对来说很简单，甚至在三十多岁的那几年，我生活在贫困线以下。那时候我读报，有一次报纸上提到某个人的收入水平被认为低于贫困线，然后我想：“我可比他低得多！”但是我并不觉得自己“贫穷”。我意识到有一些东西我买不起。我可以买番茄酱，但是我买不起意面酱。番茄酱更便宜，便宜多了。很多年我都吃番茄酱。甚至就在4年前，我发现自己仍然因为价钱便宜而选择番茄酱不选意面酱。

有一些现实的事情你需要重新调整和面对。你需要采取些行动以应对新的情况，所有这些都是在现实的层面。除此之外还有头脑的层面。痛苦就是从头脑的层面引发的，而不是现实的层面。蘸着少量的番茄酱，而不是精心烹制的特殊酱料，吃意大利面，这并不痛苦 – 这只是个很小的例子，它可以代表很多事情。但是如果念头突然升起：“事情变成这样”，“我得吃这世上最便宜的毫无味道的酱”或者“我失败了”，“我很可能再也找不到另一份工作了，因为有这么多人在找工作，这毫无用处”或者“我明天还得吃一模一样的食物”– 痛苦就是从这些念头之中升起的。

痛苦也来自于降低了的自我价值感。它在哪儿呢？当然是在你的头脑中。“我毫无用处”，“我太老了，没人会愿意再雇用我”或者“我本应该接受更好的教育”– 无论这些念头是什么，它制造了低价值感。这是因为你从前的自我价值感来自于你在这个世界的作用 – 这种事很平常。但它并不是真正来自于你的作用，而是来自于你的头脑所告诉你的，你在这个世界的作用。你从你的头脑中的某些想法来提取你的自我价值感，也许有人给你一些反馈，他们告诉你你是有用的 – 你是这些有工作的人们之间互动的一部分。你有一个老板，这个老板也许告诉你你干得很棒、你将获得晋升、你的客户们都很喜欢你，等等 – 于是你从你和其他人的思维之中建立起了你的自我价值感。

现在机会来了，当你的自我价值感被缩减，你有机会进入到一个更深的地方，在那里，你的自我价值感与你在这个世界从事的工作毫无关联。与任何人告诉你的关于你是谁也毫无关联。这是一种与思维结构没有任何关系的自我价值感。你可以利用这个挑战来试试看你是否能找到什么 – 在你内在更深的地方 – 那是比你能够从思维中提取的要大得多的东西。

当你失去了工作，你的自我形象受到了损害。痛苦随之升起。自我形象是由思维组成的。受损的自我形象会导致更多的痛苦，它会持续下去 – 它会将你拖入更深的痛苦之渊。也许它们还会说：“没错，你是对的”。或者，最终，你放弃在思考中提取你的自我感。你进入了本体的生命之中，进入了临在。你意识到，你真正所是，比你所能想到的任何事物都要重要得多。

你头脑中的念头 – 那些关于你是谁和你的价值的想法 – 本质上都是虚幻的。无论这些想法是正面的还是负面的，它们都是虚幻的。当念头是负面的，导致了痛苦，这个虚幻的本质也许会更容易被认出。痛苦可以成为唤醒者。

利用这个自我价值感和自我形象缩减的机会，超越它。然后，也许你会找到一份工作 – 但是你的自我价值感不再依附于你所做的，或者你没做的，你所达成的，或者你没达成的。你将发现某种超越，你将这超越带入下一份工作中。头脑形象的依赖消失了。当这依赖不再存在，你会惊讶自己在这下一份工作中表现得多么好。

在那个意识状态中，你更有可能成功，但这个成功将不会成为你感到满足的理由，因为这种满足已经直接被发现，就在当下这一刻，就在你真正所是的深处。你不再从外在的情境中寻求满足。奇迹就是，当你放弃从外在寻求满足，外在的情境反而会变得使你满足。这样你就可以利用挑战作为你的觉醒的一部分。

在现实事物中没有痛苦。有一段时间我甚至没有家，只是四处漂泊。幸运的是我已经从物质认同中走出来了。如果我仍然陷在头脑的盒子里，那将会是一段非常痛苦的时光，因为我的头脑会告诉我关于我的一些事情，我很可能会完全相信它。“我失败了”，“我抛弃了生命给我的所有机会”，“我毕业于一所著名大学”，“我本来可以做些伟大的事情”，“是我把它扔掉了”，“这为什么会发生在我身上”，“我真没用”，“没人会雇我” – 这就是痛苦。

幸运的是，我已经从这之中走出来了，所以没有痛苦，只有这一刻的情境。在这情境之中实际上蕴含着无限的美好和生命力。自我价值感不再依附于我在这个世界上做什么。

任何挑战，无论是这一类的挑战，还是身体上的挑战，无论它是什么 – 它都可以被用作将无意识燃烧殆尽的火焰。

~~~~~~原文如下~~~~~~
Eckhart on Unemployment


Question:  For those of us who are unemployed and seeking employment, how do you stay connected to the Source, and to your own sense of divinity, and still deal with the reality and the drama and the pain of trying to find a job?

ET: It’s challenging. Challenges are good, potentially – they can either wake you up, or they can pull you into more reactivity, unconsciousness and suffering. Every challenge that comes into your life can go either this way, or that way.  Potentially the challenge is very helpful.  Challenge means limitation in one form or another.  I’m certainly grateful for the challenges that came into my life.  I wouldn’t be here, and many of you realize that without the challenges in your life, you wouldn’t be here either.

This is something I have a little bit of personal experience with also.  Or maybe even quite a lot of personal experience – because for a large part of my adult life I was actually not employed, as such.  For a large part I lived on relatively little, for quite a few years, even in my thirties, below the poverty line.  At that time I read the paper, and it mentioned the income level for a single person, for what was considered to be below the poverty line, and I thought “I’m much below that!”  But I didn’t realize I was “poor”.  I realized that there were things I couldn’t afford to buy.  I could buy tomato sauce but I couldn’t buy spaghetti sauce.  Tomato sauce is cheaper, much cheaper.  That stayed with me for many years.  Even as recently as four years ago, I still find myself getting tomato sauce instead of spaghetti sauce because it’s cheaper.

There are practical things that you need to re-adjust and deal with.  There’s some action you need to take, in order to adjust to the new situation; all that is in the practical realm.  Then there is the mental realm.  In the mental realm is where the suffering could arise, not in the practical realm. There’s no suffering in eating spaghetti with a thin tomato sauce – this is just one little example here, that stands for many things – rather than a nice, specially prepared sauce for pasta.  But if, suddenly thought arises, and you think “this is what it has come to”, or “I have to eat this watery sauce, the cheapest food there is”, or “I’ve failed” or “I probably won’t find another job, because billions of people are now looking for jobs and it’s pointless” or “I’ll have to eat the same thing tomorrow” – and [these thoughts] are where the suffering comes from.

The suffering also comes from the diminished sense of self-worth, now where is that?  Of course that’s in your head.  “I’m useless”, or “I’m too old and nobody will employ me anymore” or “I should have had a better education”, whatever the thoughts are – it creates a diminished sense of self-worth.  That is because your self-worth before was derived from your function in this world – which is a very normal thing. But it wasn’t really derived from your function, it was derived from what your mind told you about your function in this world.  You derived your sense of self-worth from certain thoughts in your head, and you got perhaps some feedback from others who also told you that you were useful – you were part of all that interaction that people have when they have a job.  You have a boss, the boss might tell you that you’re doing well, you’re getting a promotion, the clients love you, and so on - and you’ve built up your sense of self from your thoughts and the thoughts of others.

The opportunity now, when you have a diminished sense of self-worth, is to go to a deeper place where a sense of self-worth has nothing to do with what you are doing in this world.  Nothing to do with what anybody tells you about yourself.  It is a sense of self-worth or value that has nothing to do with the structure of thinking.  You can use this challenge to see if you can find something – a deeper place in you – where there is something far greater than anything that could be derived from thinking about yourself.

When you lose your job, the self-image can be damaged.  And that is where the suffering comes from.  The self-image is made up of thinking.  The damaged self-image can lead to more suffering, and it will just go on and on – and it can pull you deeper.  And perhaps they will even say “yes, you’re right”.  Or, you step out of deriving your sense of who you are – ultimately – from thinking. You go into the aliveness of Being, of Presence.  And you realize that who you actually are is much more vitally there than anything you can think about.

The ideas in your head – the thoughts that tell you something about who you are and what you are worth – are ultimately illusory.  It is illusory both when the thoughts are good, and when the thoughts are negative.  The illusory nature can perhaps be more easily recognized when the thoughts become negative and cause suffering.  Suffering can be an awakener.

Use that opportunity of a diminished sense of self-worth and self-image, and step beyond.  Then, perhaps, you’ll find a job – but your sense of worth no longer depends on what you do there, or what you don’t do, or achieve or don’t achieve.  You will find some transcendence, and you can bring that transcendence into your next job.  The clinging to mental images is not there anymore.  You’ll be surprised how well you’ll do, in your next job, when the clinging to images isn’t there anymore.

The success that you are more likely to encounter in that state of consciousness will not be the cause of your feeling of fulfillment because the fulfillment has already been found directly – in the present moment, in the depth of who you are.  You no longer look to external situations to fulfill you.  When you no longer look to external situations to fulfill you, the miracle is that external situations become quite fulfilling.  That is where you can use this challenge as part of your awakening.

There is no suffering in the practical things.  For a while I didn’t even have a home and I would just drift around.  Fortunately, I had already stepped out of identification with money.  If I had still been stuck in the mental box, it would have been a time of great suffering, because my mind would have told me certain things about myself, which I would have completely believed.  “I have failed”, “I have thrown away all these opportunities that life has given me”, “I was a graduate student at a great university”, “I could have done great things”, “I’ve thrown it all away”, “Why did this happen to me”, “I’m useless”, “Nobody’s going to employ me” – that’s suffering.

Fortunately, I had already stepped out of that, so there was no suffering, just the situation of this moment.  There was actually beauty and aliveness in it.  Self-worth was no longer dependent on what I was doing in this world.

Any challenge, whether it’s that kind of challenge, or a physical challenge, whatever it may be – it can be used as the fire that burns up unconsciousness.

嘉静

摘自埃克哈特网站9月电子刊
埃克哈特网站9月电子刊物，翻译：游由


一个亲密关系的共同挑战

发问者：我和我丈夫结婚16年了。他对灵性的事情一点兴趣也没有。我感到我对这个问题的态度影响了我的成长，令我俩产生了隔阂。

Kim Eng (游由注：埃克哈特的伴侣): 是的，它确实影响了你。你有一个欲望，一个念头，那就是你的丈夫最好也和你喜欢一样的东西。不论他是不是有灵性 – 有的人可以是所谓的‘有灵性的’但究其一生却从未找到过它。事实上我们都是充满灵性的，这是我们的本体。这就是我们的真实存在。这是我们的本来面目。那么你的念头是什么？你想要什么？你希望你的丈夫应该用你的语言与你沟通？

发问者：我希望他也喜欢听埃克哈特的演讲, 也喜欢看埃克哈特的书，可以和我聊聊……但他完全没这意愿。他之前在Youtube上听过一个片段，但他从来不说起它，他完全没兴趣讨论关于上帝的事，他说：“如果有上帝，挺好，如果没有上帝，也不错。我没兴趣。”

Kim Eng：好吧，我们现在将注意力转到他身上一会儿。就算不与他谈论灵性成长，他有什么令你觉得他是灵性的？他所展现的，或者他所做的，所说的，你看到有什么是灵性的？

发问者：嗯…有几件事。其中之一是，他很支持我。无论我想做什么，都可以。他不批评我。

KE：看来他接纳你如你所是，但你不接纳他如他所是。

发问者：我内心有冲突。

KE：所以这与他无关，而是关于你，是你的道途。你正在放下这些念头和欲望，你开始与他的本质相处，接纳他，允许他如他所是。但最重要的是，在你做到这一点之前，接纳你自己，允许你自己如实存在。成为空间。

很多人问过我：“哇哦，你一定与埃克哈特有很棒的亲密关系吧 – 你们俩一定经常讨论灵性的事情！”我说：“不，实际上，我们很少讨论它。有什么可以讨论的呢？关于成为灵性的？那是谈话，是形式。最重要的是成为宁静，成为空间，然后看什么在升起。并不是说我们从来不谈话，而是我们并不是总在谈话。需要聊的时候，我们就聊。到要做晚饭的时候，我们就做晚饭。当需要谈论一些其他事情，我们也谈论。

在我们与当下的关系中，最重要的是你与宁静的关系。这是首要的关系。而我们与伴侣、丈夫或是妻子的关系，是次要的。真正的婚姻是与你的内在结婚。与内在的神，与内在的宁静融为一体。这是真正的融合。当你与内在和谐一致，你将会发现眼前的一切 – 丈夫、妻子、孩子、动物、陌生人 – 他们的内在本质的合一。

去觉察你所有关于“完美关系”的期待、渴望和念头，你会发现那只是你与你头脑中的念头的关系，而不是与你面前的真实存在。


~~~原文如下~~~
A Common Relationship Challenge

Questioner:  My husband and I have been married sixteen years, and he is not at all interested in spiritual things. And I feel that my attitude about that is affecting my progress, and driving a wedge between us.

Kim Eng: Yes, it does affect your progress.  So you have a desire, and an idea, that your husband should perhaps enjoy the same things as you do.  So regardless of whether he is spiritual or not – because somebody can be so-called “spiritual” and have never seeked in his life.  We all are spiritual – that is our being.  That’s our being-ness.  That’s who we are first most.  So your idea, what is your idea, and your desire? That your husband should communicate in the same sort of words as you?

Questioner:  That he would like to listen to Eckhart, and read the same books, and talk about it…and he has no desire to do that.  He did listen to a clip on Youtube... but he doesn’t talk about it, he is not at all interested in talking about God, he said, “if there’s a God, great, if there’s not, then great.  I have no interest.”

KE:  Okay, let’s turn it to him for just a second here.  What makes you see in him that he is spiritual, without having to talk about it [with him]? What is it that you see in him that is spiritual?  What is it that he may show, or do, or even something that he says, or communes with, that is spiritual?

Questioner: Well, a couple things.  One is that he is very supportive of me.  No matter what I want to do, it’s fine. He has no criticisms.

KE: So he accepts you, as you are?  But you don’t accept him, as he is.

Questioner:  I struggle with that.

KE: So it’s not about him. It’s about you, and your path.  You are shedding your ideas and desires, and you begin to then live with the essence of who he is, accepting and allowing him to be as he is.  But most importantly, before you can even do that, you then need to accept and allow yourself to be who you are.  Be the space.

Many people have asked me, and they go “Wow, you must have a great relationship with Eckhart – you must talk about spiritual things all the time!”  And I say, no, actually, we hardly ever talk about it.  What is there to talk about, being spiritual? That’s talk, form.  The most important thing is to be the stillness, be the space, and then see what emerges.  It’s not that we don’t talk about it, but we don’t talk about it all the time.  And when it’s necessary, it comes up, it’s there. When it’s time to make dinner, it’s there.  When it’s time to talk about other things, it’s there.

The relationship that we have with the form of this moment includes your relationship with Stillness, as primary importance.  That’s the primary relationship.  So then, our loving partners, our husbands, our wives, it’s just a secondary sort of factor.  The true marriage is the marriage within.  To the God within, to Stillness.  That’s the true union.  And when you come into that union with yourself, then you see the union that is just right there in front of you – husband, wife, child, animal, stranger – their essence.

Take a look at all the desires that you have, the expectations, the ideas, of what you think may be the “perfect relationship” and you will see that the only relationship you are having is with an idea in your head.  Instead of the being that is right there in front of you.