3. Fulfillment of the Obligations of Human Life
3. 圓滿履行人生的責任
The position of the person living the inner life becomes like that of a grown-up living among many children. At the same time there seems outwardly no such difference as is apparent in the ages of the children and the grown person, the difference lying in the size of his outlook, which is not always apparent.
過內在生活之人的處境，就好像一位成年人生活在許多孩子之中。表面上看來，並沒有像年紀差異那樣明顯的不同；真正的不同在於他眼光的寬廣程度，而這一點並不總是看得出來。
One who lives the inner life becomes much older than those around him, and yet outwardly he is the same as every other person. Therefore the man who has arrived at the fullness of the inner life adopts quite a different policy from the one who is just beginning to tread that path, and also a different one from that of the man who knows intellectually something about the inner life, but who does not really live it.
過內在生活的人，在內在上會比周遭的人成熟得多，然而在外表上，他看起來和任何人一樣。因此，那個已達到內在生活圓滿境地的人，他的處世之道，和剛踏上這條道路的人十分不同，也和那種只是在頭腦裡理解一點內在生活、卻沒有真正去活出來的人非常不同。
The action again is different in the world, for the latter person will criticize others who do not know what he thinks he knows, and will look upon them with pride and conceit, or with contempt, thinking that they have not risen to the mystery, to the height, to which he has risen, and which he understands. He wishes to disconnect himself from people, saying that they are backward in their evolution, and that he cannot go with them. He says, “I am more advanced; I cannot join them in anything; they are different, I am different.” He laughs at the petty ideas of those who surround him, and looks upon them as human beings with whom he must not associate, with whom he must not join in all the things they do, because he is much more advanced than they are.
他在世間的行動也就不一樣了。因為後者那種人——只憑一點頭腦裡的了解的人——往往會批評那些不懂他「自以為懂」之事的人；他以驕傲、自負或輕蔑的眼光看待他人，以為他們尚未上升到他已經達到、且「了解」的那個奧祕、那個高度。他想要把自己和他人切割開來，說他們在靈性進化上還落後，所以他不能與他們同行。他說：「我比較進步；我不能在任何事上和他們同流；他們不一樣，我也不一樣。」他嘲笑身邊的人那小家子的想法，把他們看作一群自己不該與之往來、不該與之共同參與任何活動的人，因為在他看來，自己比他們高明多了。
But for the one who comes to the fullness of the inner life it is a great joy to mingle with his fellow-man, just as it is for parents to play with their little children. The best moments of their lives are when they feel as a child with their children and when they can join in their play.
然而，對那個真正達到內在生活圓滿的人來說，能與同胞相處、交融，反而是一種莫大的喜悅；就好像父母和年幼的孩子一起玩耍一樣。他們生命中最美好的時刻之一，就是能在孩子面前自己也化作一個孩子，和孩子一起同樂。
Parents who are kind and loving, if a child brings them a doll’s cup, will pretend that they are drinking tea, and that they are enjoying it; they do not let the child think they are superior, or that this is something in which they must not join. They play with the child, and they are happy with it, because the happiness of the children is theirs also.
慈愛的父母，當孩子拿著玩具茶杯端給他們時，會裝作真的在喝茶，並且好像正享受其中；他們不會讓孩子覺得父母比較「高一等」，或者這是他們不屑參與的遊戲。他們會和孩子一起玩，也從中感到快樂，因為孩子的喜悅，就是他們自己的喜悅。
That is the action of the man who lives the inner life, and it is for this reason that he agrees and harmonizes with people of all grades of evolution, whatever be their ideas, their thoughts, their belief, or their faith; in whatever form they worship or show their religious enthusiasm.
這正是過內在生活之人的作為。因此，他能夠與所有不同靈性成長階段的人同意、相和，無論對方的觀念、思想、信仰、宗教為何；無論他們以何種形式敬拜、或表現他們的宗教熱誠。
He does not say, “I am much more advanced than you are, and to join you would be going backward.” The one who has gone so far forward can never go backward, but by joining them he takes them along with him, onward. If he went on alone he would consider that he avoided his duty towards his fellow-man, which he should perform.
他不會說：「我比你們進步得多，要跟你們一起就等於倒退。」真正走得那麼向前的人，是不可能倒退的；當他加入眾人時，他是帶著眾人一起往前走。如果他獨自一人向前行，他會覺得自己是在逃避對同胞應盡的責任。
It is the empty pitcher that makes a noise when you knock upon it, but the pitcher which is full of water does not make any sound; it is silent, speechless.
當你敲擊一個空水罐時，它會發出聲響；但那個裝滿水的水罐，卻幾乎不發出任何聲音——它是沈默的、無言的。
So the wise live among all the people of this world, and they are not unhappy. The one who loves all is not unhappy. Unhappy is he who looks with contempt at the world, who hates human beings and thinks he is superior to them; the one who loves them thinks only that they are going through the same process that he has gone through. It is from the darkness that he has to come into the light. It is just a difference of moments; and he, with great patience, passes those moments while his fellowmen are still in darkness, not making them know that they are in darkness, not letting them feel hurt about it, not looking upon them with contempt; only thinking that for every soul there is childhood, there is youth and maturity.
智者就這樣生活在世上的眾人之中，而他並不因此不快樂。愛一切眾生的人，不會不快樂。真正不快樂的人，是那個以輕蔑眼光看待世界、憎恨他人並自以為比人高上一等的人；而那個愛眾人的人，卻只會想到：他們正在經歷他自己曾經走過的歷程。他也曾從黑暗走向光明。兩者之間只是時間早晚的差別而已；於是他懷著極大的耐心，度過這些時刻——當他的同胞仍在黑暗之中時，他既不讓他們覺得自己在黑暗裡，也不讓他們因為這一點而受傷，更不帶著輕蔑的眼光看他們；他只是心裡明白：每一個靈魂都有童年、青年與成熟的階段。
So it is natural for every human being to go through this process. I have seen with my own eyes souls who have attained saintliness and who have reached to great perfection; and yet such a soul will stand before an idol of stone with another, with a fellow-man, and worship, not letting him know that he is in any way more advanced than other men, keeping himself in a humble guise, not making any pretence that he has gone further in his spiritual evolution. The further such souls go, the more humble they become; the greater the mystery they have realized, the less they speak about it.
因此，每一個人經歷這樣的過程，是再自然不過的事。我親眼見過一些靈魂，已達到聖者的境界，達致極高的圓滿；然而這樣的靈魂，仍會和另一個人、跟自己的同胞，一起站在石像之前敬拜，而不讓對方察覺自己在任何方面都比一般人更為進步。他保持謙卑的外貌，毫不誇示自己在靈性進化上走得更遠。這樣的靈魂走得越遠，就越謙卑；他所體認的奧祕越偉大，他關於這些奧祕所說出口的話就越少。
You would scarcely believe it if I were to tell you that during four years of the presence of my Murshid, hardly more than once or twice I had a conversation on spiritual matters. Usually the conversation was on worldly things, like everybody else’s; nobody would perceive that here was a God-realized man, who was always absorbed in God. His conversation was like that of every other person; he spoke on everything belonging to this world, never a spiritual conversation, nor any special show of piety or spirituality; and yet his atmosphere, the voice of his soul and his presence revealed all that was hidden in his heart.
如果我告訴你，在我與我的 Murshid 相處的四年間，幾乎不曾有超過一兩次的對話是談論靈性之事的，你大概很難相信。平常的談話，都是關於世間的事情，就像其他人一樣；沒有人會看得出來，這是一位在神裡覺悟的人，一位始終沈浸於神中的人。他的談話就像任何人一樣，所談的都是這個世界的事；幾乎沒有明說的靈性話題，也沒有任何刻意展現的虔誠或靈性姿態。然而，他周身的氣息、他靈魂的聲音，以及單單他在場的存在，都呈現出他心中所隱藏的一切。
Those who are God-realized and those who have touched wisdom speak very little on the subject. It is those who do not know who try to discuss it, not because they know, but because they themselves have doubts. When there is knowledge, there is satisfaction, there is no tendency towards dispute. When one disputes, it is because there is something not satisfied. There is nothing in this world, wealth, rank, position, power, or learning, that can give such conceit as the slightest little amount of spiritual knowledge; and once a person has that conceit, then he cannot take a further step, he is nailed down to that place where he stands; because the very idea of spiritual realization is in selflessness.
那些在神裡覺悟、那些真正觸及智慧的人，很少在這個主題上說話。反而是那些不了解的人，熱衷於談論靈性——不是因為他們知道，而是因為他們心中充滿疑惑。當真正有了認知，就會有滿足，就不會有爭辯的傾向；而一個人之所以爭辯，是因為內在有某個地方還沒有得到滿足。世間沒有任何事物——無論是財富、地位、職權、權力或學問——能像那一丁點靈性知識那樣，讓人如此容易生出自負。一旦一個人落入這種自負之中，他就再也無法向前跨進一步，彷彿被釘死在原地。因為所謂的靈性覺悟，其核心觀念就是「無我」。
Man has either to realize himself as something or as nothing. In this realization of nothingness there is spirituality. If one has any little knowledge of the inner laws of nature and is proud of it, or if one has any sense of thinking, “How good I am, how kind I am, how generous, how well-mannered, how influential, or how attractive, the slightest idea of anything of this kind coming into the mind closes the doors which lead into the spiritual world. It is such an easy path to tread, and yet so difficult. Pride is most natural to a human being. Man may deny a virtue a thousand times in words, but he cannot help admitting it with his feelings, for the ego itself is pride. Pride is the ego; man cannot live without it.
人終究會在兩種體認之間選擇其一：要麼把自己看作「某種了不起的存在」，要麼把自己看作「一無所有」。而在體認自身的虛無之中，才有真正的靈性。如果一個人對自然的內在法則稍有一點認識，便為此而驕傲；或者心裡哪怕稍微掠過這樣的念頭：「我多好、多善良、多慷慨、多有教養、多有影響力、多有吸引力」，只要這類念頭一絲一毫閃入心中，就會關上通往靈性世界的大門。這條路其實如此容易行走，卻也如此困難。驕傲，對人而言，是最自然不過的傾向。人或許在口頭上千百次否認自己的美德，但在感受裡卻仍舊無法不承認它，因為自我本身就是驕傲。驕傲就是自我；而人又不可能完全沒有自我地活著。
In order to attain to spiritual knowledge, in order to become conscious of the inner life, a person does not need to learn very much, because here he has to know what he already knows; only he has to discover it himself. For his understanding of spiritual knowledge he does not need the knowledge of anything except himself. He acquires the knowledge of the self which is himself, so near and yet so far.
為了獲得靈性的知識，為了對內在生活變得自覺，一個人其實不需要「再學很多東西」，因為在這裡，他所需要知道的，正是他早已知道的，只不過必須由他自己去把它發掘出來。要理解靈性知識，他不需要其他任何知識，只需要對自己的認識。他所獲得的，是對「自我」的認識——也就是對他自己本身的認識；這個自我離他如此接近，卻又彷彿如此遙遠。
Another thing the lover of God shows is the same tendency as the human lover’s: he does not talk about his love to anybody; he cannot talk about it. Man cannot say how much he loves his beloved; no words can express it; and, besides, he does not feel like talking about it to anybody. Even if he could, in the presence of his beloved he would close his lips. How then could the lover of God make a profession, “I love God’? The true lover of God keeps his love silently hidden in his heart, like a seed sown in the ground; and if the seedling grows, it grows in his actions towards his fellow-man. He cannot act except with kindness, he cannot feel anything but forgiveness; every movement he makes, everything he does, speaks of his love, but not his lips.
愛神之人展現出的另一個特徵，和人間戀人很相似：他不會向任何人談論自己的愛；他根本無法談論。人說不出自己有多愛所愛之人，沒有任何言語足以表達；而且，他也不會想要對任何人談這件事。即使能說，在所愛之人面前，他也會緊閉雙唇。既然如此，愛神之人怎麼可能滿口宣稱：「我愛神」呢？真正愛神的人，會把這份愛默默藏在心裡，就像種子被埋在土中；若是幼苗長出來，那是長在他對同胞的行動裡。他的行動不可能不是出於慈愛，他的感受不可能不是出於寬恕；他的一舉一動、他所做的一切，都在訴說他的愛——只是他的嘴唇保持沈默。
This shows that in the inner life the greatest principle that one should observe is to be unassuming and quiet, without any show of wisdom, without any manifestation of learning, without any desire to let anyone know how far one has advanced, not even letting oneself know how far one has gone. The task to be accomplished is the entire forgetting of oneself and harmonizing with one’s fellowman; acting in agreement with all, meeting everyone on his own plane, speaking to everyone in his own tongue, answering the laughter of one’s friends with a smile, and the pain of another with tears, standing by one’s friends in their joy and their sorrow, whatever be one’s own grade of evolution.
這一切顯示，在內在生活中，人所應遵守的最大原則，就是不矯飾而安靜：不炫耀自己的智慧，不顯露自己的學問，不抱著任何想要讓人知道自己已走多遠的心，甚至不讓自己去盤算已經走了多遠。這裡真正要完成的功課，是徹底忘卻自我，並與同胞和諧一致：在行動上與眾人同調，在每個人所在的層次上與他相遇，用每個人聽得懂的語言對他說話；以微笑回應朋友的笑聲，以淚水回應他人的痛苦；無論自己靈性成長的程度如何，都陪伴在朋友的喜悅與悲傷之中。
If a man through his life became like an angel he would accomplish very little; the accomplishment which is most desirable for man is to fulfill the obligations of human life.
若是一個人終其一生只成了像天使一樣的存在，他實際上所成就的反而有限；對人而言，最可貴、最值得嚮往的成就，是圓滿履行身為「人」的一切責任。