40. The Stages toward Perfection
40. 通往圓滿的階段

1. The Work of the Mind
頭腦的工作

The three stages towards this perfection are the following. The first stage is to make God as great and as perfect as your imagination can. It is in order to help man to perfect God in himself that the teachers gave various prayers, the prayers to God, calling Him the Judge, the Forgiver, most Compassionate, most Faithful, most Beautiful, most Loving. All these attributes are our limited conceptions. God is greater than what we can say about Him.

通往圓滿有三個階段。第一個階段，是在我們的想像所能及的範圍內，將神想得盡可能偉大、盡可能圓滿。老師們之所以傳下各種向神祈禱的祈禱文，稱祂為審判者、寬恕者、最慈悲者、最信實者、最美者、最有愛者，正是為了幫助我們，使心中對神的觀念臻於圓滿。所有這些屬性，都只是我們有限的觀念。神遠比我們所能言說的更加偉大。

And when by all these conceptions and by our imagination we make God as great as we are able to, it must still be understood that God cannot be made greater than He is. We cannot give God pleasure by making Him great.

當我們藉由這一切觀念與想像，盡自己所能將神想得如此偉大時，仍然必須明白：我們不可能使神變得比祂原本更加偉大。我們也不會因為將神想得偉大，而使神因此感到喜悅。

But by making God great we ourselves arrive at a certain greatness; our vision widens, our deepens, our ideal reaches higher. We create a greater vision, a wider horizon, for our own expansion. We should, therefore, by way of prayer, by praise, by contemplation, make God as great as we can possibly imagine.

然而，當我們將神想得偉大時，我們自己也會抵達某種偉大；我們的視野拓寬，內在變得更深，我們的理想也提升到更高之處。我們為自己的擴展創造出更廣大的視野、更寬闊的地平線。因此，我們應當透過祈禱、讚頌與觀想，將神想得如我們所能想像的那般偉大。

The truth behind this is that a person who sees good points in others and wants to add what is lacking in others, becomes nobler everyday. By making others noble, by thinking good of others, he himself becomes nobler and better than those of whom he thinks good; and the one who thinks evil of others in time becomes wicked, for he covers up the good in him and produces thus the vision of evil.

其中的真理是：一個能看見他人優點，並願意補足他人所欠缺之處的人，會一天比一天更加高尚。當我們看見他人的高尚，對他人懷有良善的看法時，我們自己也會變得更加高尚、更為美好，甚至超越自己所認為良善的那些人；而一個總是把他人往惡處想的人，久而久之，自己也會走向邪惡，因為他遮蔽了自身的善，於是形成了一雙只看見惡的眼睛。

Therefore the first stage and the first duty of every seeker after truth is to make God as great as possible, for his own good, because he is making an ideal within himself; he is building within himself that which will make him great.

因此，每一位真理追尋者的第一個階段，也是第一項責任，就是盡可能將神想得偉大。這是為了他自己，因為他正在自己的內在建立一個理想；他正在自己之內建造那將使他變得偉大的事物。

2. The Work of the Heart
心的工作

The second stage is the work of the heart. The first is of the head. To make God great intellectually, with thought and imagination, is really the painter’s work, but still more important is the work of the heart.

第二個階段是心的工作。第一個階段屬於頭腦。透過思想與想像，在理智上將神描繪得偉大，其實就像畫家的工作；然而，比這更加重要的，是心的工作。

In our everyday life we see the phenomenon of love.

在日常生活中，我們可以看見愛這種現象。

The first lesson that love teaches us is: “I am not; thou art.” The first thing to think of is to erase ourselves from our minds and to think of the one we love. As long as we do not arrive at this idea, so long the word love remains only in the dictionary. Many speak about love but very few know it. Is love a pastime, an amusement, a drama; is it a performance? The first lesson of love is sacrifice, service, self-effacement.

愛教給我們的第一課是：「我不在，唯有你在。」首先，我們要從自己的頭腦中抹去自己，只想著所愛的人。只要我們還沒有抵達這一點，「愛」這個字就仍然只存在於字典裡。許多人談論愛，但真正認識愛的人卻很少。愛是一種消遣、一種娛樂、一齣戲嗎？它是一場表演嗎？愛的第一課，是犧牲、服務，以及讓自己從中心的位置退去。

There is a little story of a peasant girl who was passing through a field where a Muslim was offering his prayers. And the law was that no one should pass by a place where somebody was praying. After a time this girl returned by the same way, and the man said, “O girl, what a terrible thing you have done today.” She was shocked and asked, “What did I do?” He said, “You passed by this way! It is a great sin. I was praying, thinking of God!” She said, “Were you thinking of God? I was going to see my young man! I did not see you; how did you see me when you were thinking of God?’

有一個小故事，說的是一位農家女孩走過一片田野，當時有一位穆斯林正在那裡禮拜。按照規矩，有人在禮拜時，別人不應從他禮拜之處經過。過了一會兒，女孩沿著原路回來，那人便對她說：「女孩啊，你今天做了一件多麼糟糕的事！」她吃了一驚，問道：「我做了什麼？」他說：「你剛才從這裡走過！這是很大的罪。我正在禮拜，心裡想著神！」女孩回答：「你真的在想神嗎？我是去見我的心上人！我連你都沒有看見；如果你真的在想神，你又怎麼會看見我呢？」

To close the eyes for prayer is one thing, and to produce the love of God is another thing. That is the second stage in spiritual realization; where in the thought of God one begins to lose oneself the same way that the lover loses the thought of self in the thought of the beloved.

閉上雙眼祈禱是一回事，真正生起對神的愛，又是另一回事。這就是靈性證悟的第二個階段：當我們想著神時，開始漸漸忘卻自己，就如同愛人在思念摯愛者時，忘卻了對自己的念頭。

3. Self-Realization
對自身本性的證悟

And the third stage is different again. In the third stage the beloved becomes the self, and the self is there no more. For then the self, as we think it to be, no longer remains; the self becomes what it really is. It is that realization which is called self-realization.

而第三個階段又有所不同。在第三個階段，摯愛者成為了自身，而原先所認為的那個自己已不復存在。因為到了此時，我們原本以為是「自己」的那個自己已經不再留下；自身顯現為它真正的本來面貌。這樣的證悟，就是所謂的「對自身本性的證悟」。

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