12. Ways of Receiving the Message
12. 領受神聖訊息的方式

August 4, 1925
1925 年 8 月 4 日

My Blessed Mureeds,
我蒙福的門徒們：

There are two ways of receiving the divine Message: receiving from the heart, and receiving through the head. The Message received through the head will whirl around the head, till the wind of reason rises and blows it off. The Message that is received into the heart will settle in the heart, will remain in the depth of the heart, out of which virtues, morals, merits, and inspirations, besides the strength and power will come. It is easy to perceive the Message through the head. One has only to give a thought to it. And it is difficult to receive the Message into the heart, because one has to prepare the heart first to receive it.

領受神聖訊息有兩種方式：從心中領受，以及透過頭腦領受。透過頭腦領受的訊息，會在頭腦中盤旋，直到理性的風升起，把它吹散。領受進入心中的訊息，則會安住於心，停留在心的深處；從那裡會生出美德、道德、功德與靈感，以及力量與能力。透過頭腦理解神聖訊息是容易的，我們只需要對它思考一下。然而，要把神聖訊息領受進入心中卻很困難，因為我們必須先預備自己的心來領受它。

There is a saying of the mystics that spiritual things, the spiritual teachings, can be given from the heart, can be taken into the heart. That is what the sign of the Sufi Movement denotes. It requires a certain preparation to make the heart a receptacle of the Message. By concentration, by contemplation, and by meditation, the heart is purified, enlarged, and made into a receptacle of the Message. Therefore it is that among many thousand mureeds, if you begin to take the real benefit of the Message, although others are benefitted in another way, the full benefit of the Message is received by knowing how to take the Message.

祕士中有一句話說，靈性之事、靈性的教導，可以從心中給出，也可以領受進入心中。這正是蘇菲運動的標誌所象徵的意義。要使心成為承載神聖訊息的器皿，需要某種預備。藉由專注、觀想與冥想，心得到淨化、擴展，並成為承載神聖訊息的器皿。因此，在成千上萬的門徒之中，如果你開始真正從神聖訊息中獲益，雖然其他人也以另一種方式從中受益，但唯有懂得如何領受神聖訊息，才能得到神聖訊息完整的益處。

And now coming to the question: what are the principal things that the Message must give to people?

現在來到這個問題：神聖訊息必須帶給人們的主要事物是什麼？

• The first principal thing is to understand the essence of religion and to practice outwardly, by putting in a universal form, which are Universal Worships.
  
  第一件主要的事，是理解宗教的本質，並以一種普世的形式在外在生活中實踐它；這就是普世敬拜。

• The next is practicing the love and sympathy which one has cultivated through devotion in one’s practical life, regarding pleasure and displeasure of our fellowmen, and being gentle, kind, tolerant, and patient to them, rendering any service we can render. And this idea is represented by our Brotherhood activity.
  
  接著，是把我們透過奉獻所培養出的愛與同感，實踐在日常生活中；顧念我們同胞的喜悅與不悅，以溫柔、仁慈、寬容與耐心對待他們，並盡我們所能提供任何服務。這個理念由我們的人類手足情誼活動所代表。

• To dive deep into the self and to rise as high as the consciousness can rise; to widen one’s horizon, making it larger than the universe; to realize the meaning of God: it is this that the Sufi Order, our esoteric school, represents.
  
  深入自我之中，並提升到意識所能抵達的最高處；擴展自己的視野，使之比宇宙更廣大；證悟神的意義——這正是蘇菲教團，也就是我們的祕傳學校，所代表的。

If a mureed says, “One activity of the Sufi Message appeals to me and the other does not appeal to me, ” he does not yet understand that all these three activities — the Universal Worship, the Brotherhood, and the esoteric school, the Sufi Order — all three help one to perfection.

如果一位門徒說：「蘇菲神聖訊息的其中一項活動吸引我，而另一項活動並不吸引我。」那麼他還不明白，這三項活動——普世敬拜、人類手足情誼，以及祕傳學校，也就是蘇菲教團——三者都在幫助一個人走向圓滿。

God Bless You.
願神祝福你們。

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