7. The Ultimate Purpose of Life
人生的終極目的

And now we come to the ultimate purpose of life which is always one and the same: for every man has in the end to accomplish the same purpose, in whatever way he will. He will come to it either consciously or unconsciously, easily or with difficulty; but he has to accomplish it. That is spiritual attainment. One might wonder if a person who is so material that he never thinks about it and who refuses to consider this question will ever attain to spiritual realization, but the answer is yes; everyone, consciously or unconsciously, is striving after spiritual attainment. Sometimes he does not take the same way as we do, sometimes his point of view and his method differ, and sometimes one person attains to spiritual realization much sooner than another. It may be reached in a day, and another person may have striven for it all his life and yet not have attained to it. What determines it? It is the evolution of a particular soul.

現在，我們來到人生的終極目的；這個目的始終是同一個，因為每一個人到了最後，都必須以自己的方式完成同一個目的。他可能有意識地或無意識地達到它，可能容易，也可能艱難；但他終究必須完成它。這就是靈性成就。有人或許會疑惑，一個如此物質化、從不思考這件事，甚至拒絕考慮這個問題的人，是否也會達到靈性實現？答案是肯定的。每一個人，無論有意識或無意識，都在追求靈性成就。有時他走的路與我們不同，有時他的觀點與方法不同；有時，一個人比另一個人更早達到靈性實現。有人可能一天之內便達到，而另一個人可能終其一生為此努力，卻仍未達成。是什麼決定了這一點？是每一個靈魂自身的演化。

There are stories told in India of how a person was awakened to spiritual consciousness after hearing one word from his Guru. That one word inspired him instantly to touch the higher consciousness. And then again we hear the stories in the East of people who went to the forest or to the mountains, who fasted for days and months, who were hanging by their feet, their head downwards, or who stood erect for years and years. This shows how difficult it is for one person and how easy for another. We make a great mistake today when we consider every man’s evolution as the same. There are great differences between people. One is creeping, one is walking, one is running, and another is flying. And yet they all live under the same sun.

印度流傳著一些故事，說有人只因聽見自己的古魯（Guru，靈性導師）說了一句話，便有了靈性的覺醒。那一句話立刻啟發了他，使他觸及更高的意識。另一方面，我們也聽過東方的故事：有人走入森林或山中，禁食數日甚至數月；有人以雙腳倒懸，頭朝下；也有人一站便是許多年。這顯示出，同一件事對一個人可能極其艱難，對另一個人卻十分容易。今天，我們若認為每一個人的演化程度都相同，便犯了一個很大的錯誤。人與人之間有著極大的差異：有人在爬行，有人在行走，有人在奔跑，還有人正在飛翔。然而，他們全都生活在同一個太陽之下。

It is the custom in the East for those who begin to seek for a spiritual purpose to look for a spiritual teacher. They do not set forth on the spiritual journey by themselves, for thousands of years of experience have taught that to tread the spiritual path it is necessary to have some leader to whom one can give one’s confidence and trust in order to follow him to the end. No doubt in the West there is a general awakening. Everyone wishes to know something about the spiritual path; but the difficulty is that everyone does not stick to one and the same thing. There are many who will go first to one esoteric school and then to another, and so on. In the end they have learnt so much that they do not know what is true and what is false, which is right and which is wrong. It is just like visiting a restaurant and eating so much that one is not able to digest it. Besides when a person takes in all that is false and true, there remains no discrimination between false and true.

在東方，那些開始尋求靈性目的的人，通常會尋找一位靈性老師。他們不會獨自踏上靈性旅程，因為數千年的經驗已使人明白，要行走靈性道路，需要有一位引領者，使人能將信心與信任交付於他，並一路跟隨到底。毫無疑問，西方正普遍經歷一種覺醒。每個人都想了解一些靈性道路的事；然而困難在於，人們往往不能始終專注於同一件事。許多人先去一個祕傳學派，接著又轉往另一個，如此不斷。到了最後，他們學了如此多的東西，反而不知道什麼是真、什麼是假，什麼是對、什麼是錯。這就像去餐廳吃了太多食物，以至於無法消化。同樣地，當一個人把真假一併吸收進來時，便失去了辨別真假的能力。

To realize the preliminary purpose of our life we must find our natural rhythm. Today people adopt wrong methods. They go to a clairvoyant and ask him about the purpose of their life. They do not know it themselves. Anybody else must tell them except their own spirit, their own soul; they ask others because they do not tune themselves to that pitch where they can feel intuitively what they live for. If another person says, “You are here to become a carpenter or a lawyer or a barrister”, that does not satisfy our need. It is our own spirit that must speak to us. We must be able to still ourselves, to tune our spirit to the universal consciousness in order to know the purpose of our life. And once we know this purpose the best thing is to pursue it in spite of all difficulties. Nothing should discourage us, nothing should keep us back once we know that this is the purpose of our life. Then we must go after it even at the sacrifice of everything, for when the sacrifice is great the gain in the end gives a greater power, a greater inspiration. Rise or fall, success or failure does not matter as long as you know the purpose of your life. If ninety-nine times you fail, the hundredth time you will succeed.

要實現我們人生的初步目的，我們必須找到自己自然的韻律。今日，人們往往採取錯誤的方法。他們去找有透視能力的人，詢問自己人生的目的。他們自己並不知道；彷彿除了自己的靈、自己的靈魂之外，任何人都可以告訴他們答案。他們之所以詢問別人，是因為沒有把自己調到那個音高，使自己能憑直覺感受到自己為何而活。若另一個人對你說：「你來到這裡，是為了成為木匠、律師或出庭律師。」這並不能滿足我們真正的需要。必須是我們自己的靈向我們說話。我們必須能使自己安靜下來，使自己的靈與宇宙意識調和，從而知道自己人生的目的。一旦知道了這個目的，最好的做法，就是無論面對什麼困難，都繼續追求它。一旦我們知道這就是自己人生的目的，就不應讓任何事使我們氣餒，也不應讓任何事阻止我們前進。那麼，即使必須犧牲一切，我們也應當追求它；因為犧牲愈大，最終所得便會帶來更大的力量與更大的靈感。起或落，成功或失敗，都不重要，只要你知道自己人生的目的。即使九十九次失敗，第一百次你仍會成功。

Thus the ultimate purpose for which the soul is seeking every moment of our life, is our spiritual purpose. And you may ask how to attain to that purpose. The answer is that what you are seeking for is within yourself. Instead of looking outside, you must look within. The way to proceed to accomplish this is for some moments to suspend all your senses such as sight, hearing, smell, touch, in order to put a screen before the outside life; and by concentration and by developing that meditative quality you will sooner or later get in touch with the inner self which is more communicative, which speaks more loudly than all the noises of this world; and this gives joy, creates peace, and produces in you a self-sufficient spirit, a spirit of independence, of true liberty. The moment you get in touch with your self you are in communion with God. It is in this way, if God-communication is sought rightly, that spirituality is attained.

因此，在我們生命的每一刻，靈魂所尋求的終極目的，就是我們的靈性目的。你或許會問，要如何達到這個目的？答案是：你所尋求的，就在你自己之內。與其向外尋找，你必須向內觀看。要朝這個方向前進，可以暫時使視覺、聽覺、嗅覺、觸覺等所有感官停歇，彷彿在外在生活之前放下一道屏障；然後透過專注，並培養冥想的品質，你遲早會與內在自我接觸。這個內在自我更能與你溝通，它的聲音比世間所有的喧囂都更加響亮；而這會帶來喜悅，生起安寧，並在你之內形成一種自足的精神，一種獨立與真正自由的精神。當你與自己的自我接觸之時，你便與神相通。若以正確的方式尋求與神相通，靈性便是如此達成的。

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