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The world is sacred.
It can't be improved.
If you tamper with it, you'll ruin it.
If you treat it like an object, you'll lose it.
天下神器，不可為也。為者敗之，執者失之。
～《道德經》，老子
The world is perfect. As you question your mind, this becomes more and more obvious. Mind changes, and as a result, the world changes. A clear mind heals everything that needs to be healed. It can never be fooled into believing that there is one speck out of order.
這個世界是完美的。每當你自願質疑自己所珍惜的信條，這一點就越會來越清晰。心靈改變後，世界也會隨之改變。一個神智清明的心靈能夠治癒需要被治癒的一切。它不會被迷惑，誤以為有任何事物不在完美之中。
But some people take the insight that the world is perfect and make it into a concept, and then they conclude that there's no need to get involved in politics or social action. That's separation. If someone came to you and said, “I'm suffering. Please help me,” would you answer, “You're perfect just the way you are,” and turn away? Our heart naturally responds to people and animals in need.
然而，有些人卻將「世界是完美的」變成了一種信條，而且推導出「沒有必要參與政治及社會活動」的結論。這其實是一種分裂。如果有人來到你的面前，對你說：「我好痛苦，請幫幫我。」難道你會回答：「你一切都很完美」，然後轉身離去？我們的心會自然而然地回應需要幫助的人們或是動物。
Realization has no value until it's lived. I would travel to the ends of the earth for the sake of one person who is suffering. The desperate, the hopeless, are unenlightened cells of my own body. It's my own body I'm talking about—the body of the world is my body. Would I let myself drown in water that doesn't exist? Would I let myself die in an imagined torture chamber? My God, I think, there's someone out there who really believes there's a problem. I remember when I used to think there was a problem. How can I say no when that person asks for help? That would be saying no to myself. So I say yes and I go, if I can. It's a privilege. It's some than that: it's self-love.
除非生活出來，不然自識沒有價值。我可以往到世界的盡頭，只為了幫助一名正在受苦的人。那些沮喪的、無助的人們，正是我身體中尚未痊癒的細胞。我其實是與我的身體對談，整個世界都是我的身體。難道我會任由自己溺死在根本不存在的水中？難道我會任由自己死在幻想出來的處刑室裡？相對的，我會這樣想：「天呀！有人相信那兒存在著問題呢！」我記得當我相信某處有個問題時的感受。我如何能對向我求助的人們說不呢？那難道不成了拒絕自己求助的呼聲？所以我回答「好」而且前去幫忙，只要我能力所及。這是我的榮幸。不僅於此，這其實是我自愛的表現。
People are perfect just the way they are, however deeply they're suffering, but they don't realize that yet. So when I meet someone who's suffering, I don't say, “Oh, there's no problem, everything is perfect.” Though I can see that there's never a problem, and I'm available to help him see that, telling him what I see would be unkind. That part of my body is suffering, everything is not perfect for him, because he believes it's not. I, too, have been trapped in the torture chamber of the mind. I hear what he thinks he needs, I hear his sadness or despair, and I'm available. That's full-blown activism. In the presence of someone who doesn't see a problem, the problem falls away—which shows you that there isn't a problem.
人們的確是完美的，無論他們受到多深痛的苦難，他們只是尚未體悟到這點而已。所以，當我會面某位正在受苦的弟兄，我不會說：「喔，我看不出有任何問題，一切都很完美。」雖然我確實看得出實際上並沒有任何問題，而且我能夠幫助他也看出這點，直截了當地告訴他我所看到的真相並不是一件仁慈的事。我身體的這一部份正在受苦，所有事情對他而言都不完美，因為他如此相信。我也曾經深陷於心靈的苦刑室。我傾聽他認為他需要的，我傾聽他的悲傷和失落，而且我在。這是完全的奉獻。透過一個能夠看出一切安全無虞的人的存在，所有籠罩住問題的面紗自然落下──使他自行看出，一切真的沒有問題。
People ask me, “How can you listen to all these problems, day after day, year after year? Doesn't it drain your energy?” Well, it doesn't. I've questioned my stressful thoughts, and I've seen that every single one of them is untrue. Every thought that used to look like a poisonous snake is actually a rope. I could stand over that rope for a thousand years, and never be frightened of it again. I see clearly what some people don't yet see for themselves. Everyone in the world might come upon that rope and run screaming the other way, and I wouldn't be afraid for them, feel sorry for them, or worry about them at all, because I realize that they're not in danger, they're absolutely not in harm's way. As they cry snake, I see only rope.
人們時常問我：「你如何能日復一日，年復一年地傾聽這麼多的問題呢？難道這些問題不會耗盡你的心力？」其實，真的不會。我已經質問過我充滿壓力的念頭，而我已經看出它們每一個都不是真實的。每一個看起來像是兇猛毒蛇的念頭，其實只是一條無害的繩索而已。我能夠自在地站在一條繩索旁邊千年之久，而不會再次恐懼它。我能清晰地看出人們尚未能夠認出的。即使有人會因為看見這條繩索而失聲尖叫，我也不會絲毫懼怕他們，或為他們感到抱歉，或是擔心他們受到傷害，因為我知道他們全然安全無虞。當他們尖叫說那裡有一條毒蛇時，我看到的是一條繩索。
If you have a problem with people or with the state of the world, I invite you to put your stressful thoughts on paper and question them, and to do it for the love of truth, not in order to save the world. Turn it around: save your own world. Isn't that why you want to save the world in the first place? So that you can be happy? Well, skip the middleman, and be happy from here! You're it. You're the one. In this turnaround you remain active, but there's no fear in it, no internal war. So it ceases to be war trying to teach peace. War can't teach peace. Only peace can.
如果你覺得自己與他人或是這個世界之間恆梗了一個問題，我邀請你將那些充滿壓力的想法寫到紙上，然後一條一條地質問它們。為了知道愛的真相而做，而不是為了拯救世界而做。將受益對象反轉過來：拯救我們自己的世界。這難道不是你之所以想要拯救世界的初衷嗎？為此你才能快樂？因此，何不跳過中間人，從此時此刻獲得快樂！在這個轉向思考中，你獲得了主導權，而且不帶恐懼，內心也沒有戰爭。於是戰爭不再試圖教導和平。戰爭無法教導和平。只有和平可以。
I don't try to change the world—not ever. The world changes by itself, and I'm a part of that change. I'm absolutely, totally, a lover of what is. When people ask me for help, I say yes. We inquire, and they begin to end their suffering, and in that way they begin to end the suffering of the world.
我不試圖改變世界──不再了。世界會改變自己，而我是這改變的一部分。我全然地只是熱愛真相。當人們求助於我時，我回答「好的」。然後我們一起反躬自省，然後他們開始結束他們的痛苦，而在此同時，他們也結束了世界的痛苦。
I stand in my own truth and don't presume to know what's best for the planet. Knowing that the world is perfect doesn't mean that you withdraw or stop doing what you know is right for you to do. If, for example, you're concerned about the environment, please give us all the facts. Do a whole study of it, go to graduate school if you have to, help us out here. And if you talk us clearly, without an agenda or any investment in the results, we can hear you, because you're on our level. You're not talking to us from a superior, I-know position. If you know that we're all equal, that we're all doing the best we can, you can be the most powerful activist on the planet.
我穩立於我的實相，不試圖假定什麼才是對世界最好的。知道這個世界是完美的，不代表放棄了或是捨棄了你認為對你而言正確的事情。舉例來說，如果你關心生態議題，請告訴我們所有的事實。請詳盡地研讀所有相關資料，如果有必要，去學校上課學習，在那裡幫助我們。而如果你不帶假設地、不預設結果地告訴我們一切事實，我們會傾聽你，因為你站在我們的立場。你不是從一個自視優越的角度來教導我們。如果你知道我們全部都是平等的，而且我們全都已經盡力而為，你就能成為世上最有影響力的實踐家。
Love is the power. I know only one way to be an activist who can really penetrate the human race, and that is to give the facts, to tell your experience honest, and to love without condition. You can't convince the world of anything, even if it's for the world's own good, because eventually your righteousness will be seen through, and then you're on a stage debating a corporate polluter, and you start pointing your finger in outrage. That's what you've been hiding when you believe “I know what's best for the planet.”
愛是一切的力量根源。我只知道一種方法，可以真正地改善人類的生活，而那就是給予事實、誠實地描述自己的經驗、並且無條件地去愛。你無法強迫說服世界任何事情，就算以愛之名也做不到，因為最終你的正義必須被識破，而你將不得不為此與你的道友反目相向。
When you attack a corporate official for destroying the atmosphere, however valid your information, do you think that he'll be open to what you're saying? You're threatening him with your attitude, and the facts can get lost, because you're coming from fear and righteous anger. All he'll hear is that you think he's doing it wrong, it's his fault, and he'll go into denial and resistance. But if you speak to him without stress, in total confidence that everything is just the way it should be in this very moment, you'll be able to express yourself kindly, effectively, and with no fear about the future.
你若指摘企業們應該為了污染環境而負責，無論你的情報如何正確，你真的期待他們會敞開心胸聆聽你嗎？當你用你的恐懼和義怒威脅他們時，你所想要指出的事情反而失去了焦點。他們唯一能夠聽到的，是你指摘他們所做的都是錯的，而且全部都是他們的錯。他們勢必誓死抗拒，負隅頑抗的。你若能用不帶壓力、全然耐心的態度告訴他：當下的一切是事情必然的演變，你才能慈祥地、有效率地表達，而不害怕未來的一切。
Violence teaches only violence. Stress teaches stress. If you clean up your mental environment, we'll clean up our physical one much more quickly. That's how it works. And if you do that genuinely, without violence in your heart, without anger, without pointing at corporation as the enemy, then people begin to notice. We begin to listen and notice that change through peace is possible. It has to begin with one person. If you're not the one, who is?
暴力只會教導暴力，正如壓力只會教導壓力。你若能清理內在的環境，我們將能夠有效率地清理周遭環境。這是世界的運作方式。如果你能純正地做這件事，不帶絲毫暴力和憤怒，不預設企業必然是敵人，人們才會開始傾聽。我們才會開始相信：透過和平去改變，是可能的。這必須由某個人開始，而你若不是那個人，誰是呢？
The world will test you in every way, so that you can realize that last little pice that's unfinished inside you. It's a perfect setup. Checkmate.
世界會用各種方式來測試你，你才能知道還有哪一小塊你尚未寬恕。這是完美的設定。
- 《A Thousand Names For Joy》 , Byron Katie
