宇宙与自我
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中文
宇宙与真我
自然界中的一切事物，皆从某种精微的种子形态升起，变得越来越粗重，存在一段时间后，又回归到最初的精微形态。以我们的地球为例，它从星云状态中诞生，逐渐冷却，最终凝结为我们所居住的这颗结晶行星；而在未来，它又将分崩离析，回归到最初的星云形态。这一过程自无始以来便在宇宙中周而复始地发生。这便是人类的全部历史，自然的全部历史，生命的全部历史。
每一次演化之前，必有一次内卷。整棵大树都存在于种子之中——种子是它的因。整个人类存在都蕴含在那一团原生质之中。整个宇宙都存在于那精微的宇宙原初之中。一切事物都以精微形态存在于其因之中。这种由精微向粗重形态逐步展开的演化过程是真实的，但每一个个案之前都有一次内卷。整个宇宙在显现之前必定曾经内卷，然后展开为这一切纷繁的形态，最终又将再次内卷。以一株小植物的生命为例，我们发现有两样东西使这株植物成为一个自足的统一体——它的生长发育，以及它的衰败死亡。这两者构成了植物生命的一个完整统一体。如果我们将这株植物的生命仅仅视为生命链条中的一环，那么我们可以将整个系列视为一个生命整体，从原生质开始，到最完美的人类为止。人是其中的一环，各种兽类、低等动物和植物则是其他环节。现在回溯到源头，回到万物由之起始的那些最精微的粒子，将整个系列视为一个生命整体，你就会发现，这里的每一次演化，都是对先前已然存在之物的演化。
万物从哪里开始，就在哪里终结。这个宇宙的终极是什么？是智性，不是吗？按照进化论者的说法，在创造的顺序中最后出现的是智性。既然如此，它也必定是创造的原因、创造的开端。在太初之时，那智性处于内卷状态；到了终末，它得以演化展开。因此，宇宙中所展现的智性之总和，必定就是那内卷的宇宙大智在自我展开，而这宇宙大智就是我们所说的神——正如经典所言，我们从祂而来，又归于祂。你可以用任何其他名称来称呼它，但你无法否认，在太初之时，存在着那无限的宇宙大智。
什么构成了复合物？复合物是众因结合而成果的事物。因此，这些复合之物只能存在于因果律的范围之内；因果法则所及之处，才有复合与组合可言。超越了因果律，便无法谈论组合，因为在那里没有任何法则适用。法则只在我们所见、所感、所闻、所想象、所梦到的这个宇宙中有效，超越此范围，我们便无法安置任何关于法则的观念。那便是我们感知或想象的宇宙——我们感知的是直接知觉范围之内的事物，我们想象的是心智范围之内的事物。超越身体的，便超越了感官；超越心智的，便超越了想象，因而也超越了我们的宇宙，因而也超越了因果律。人的真我（Atman）超越因果律，故而不是复合物，不是任何原因的结果，因此永远自由，是一切处于法则之内事物的主宰者。真我不是复合物，故永不消亡，因为死亡意味着回归到组成部分，毁灭意味着回归到原因。因为它不能死，所以它也不能生；因为生与死不过是同一事物的两种显现模式。所以，灵魂超越生死。你从未被生，也永不会死。生与死只属于身体。
一元论（不二/Advaita）的学说认为，这个宇宙就是存在的一切；无论粗重还是精微，一切都在此处；果与因都在此处；解释也在此处。所谓特殊者，不过是宇宙整体在微细层面上的重复。我们通过对自身灵魂的研究获得关于宇宙的观念，而在灵魂中为真的，在外部宇宙中同样适用。关于天堂以及各种境界的观念，即便它们是真实的，也都在这个宇宙之内。它们共同构成了这个统一体。因此，第一个观念是：存在一个整体、一个统一体，由无数微细粒子组成，而我们每一个人都可以说是这个统一体的一部分。作为显现的存在，我们看似分离；但作为实相，我们是一体的。我们越是认为自己与这个整体分离，就越痛苦。所以，不二论是伦理学的基础。
English
THE COSMOS AND THE SELF
Everything in nature rises from some fine seed-forms, becomes grosser and grosser, exists for a certain time, and again goes back to the original fine form. Our earth, for instance, has come out of a nebulous form which, becoming colder and colder, turned into this crystallised planet upon which we live, and in the future it will again go to pieces and return to its rudimentary nebulous form. This is happening in the universe, and has been through time immemorial. This is the whole history of man, the whole history of nature, the whole history of life.
Every evolution is preceded by an involution. The whole of the tree is present in the seed, its cause. The whole of the human being is present in that one protoplasm. The whole of this universe is present in the cosmic fine universe. Everything is present in its cause, in its fine form. This evolution, or gradual unfolding of grosser and grosser forms, is true, but each case has been preceded by an involution. The whole of this universe must have been involute before it came out, and has unfolded itself in all these various forms to be involved again once more. Take, for instance, the life of a little plant. We find two things that make the plant a unity by itself — its growth and development, its decay and death. These make one unity the plant life. So, taking that plant life as only one link in the chain of life, we may take the whole series as one life, beginning in the protoplasm and ending in the most perfect man. Man is one link, and the various beasts, the lower animals, and plants are other links. Now go back to the source, the finest particles from which they started, and take the whole series as but one life, and you will find that every evolution here is the evolution of something which existed previously.
Where it begins, there it ends. What is the end of this universe? Intelligence, is it not? The last to come in the order of creation, according to the evolutionists, was intelligence. That being so, it must be the cause, the beginning of creation also. At the beginning that intelligence remains involved, and in the end it gets evolved. The sum total of the intelligence displayed in the universe must therefore be the involved universal intelligence unfolding itself, and this universal intelligence is what we call God, from whom we come and to whom we return, as the scriptures say. Call it by any other name, you cannot deny that in the beginning there is that infinite cosmic intelligence.
What makes a compound? A compound is that in which the causes have combined and become the effect. So these compound things can be only within the circle of the law of causation; so far as the rules of cause and effect go, so far can we have compounds and combinations. Beyond that it is impossible to talk of combinations, because no law holds good therein. Law holds good only in that universe which we see, feel, hear, imagine, dream, and beyond that we cannot place any idea of law. That is our universe which we sense or imagine, and we sense what is within our direct perception, and we imagine what is in our mind. What is beyond the body is beyond the senses, and what is beyond the mind is beyond the imagination, and therefore is beyond our universe, and therefore beyond the law of causation. The Self of man being beyond the law of causation is not a compound, is not the effect of any cause, and therefore is ever free and is the ruler of everything that is within law. Not being a compound, it will never die, because death means going back to the component parts, destruction means going back to the cause. Because it cannot die, it cannot live; for both life and death are modes of manifestation of the same thing. So the Soul is beyond life and death. You were never born, and you will never die. Birth and death belong to the body only.
The doctrine of monism holds that this universe is all that exists; gross or fine, it is all here; the effect and the cause are both here; the explanation is here. What is known as the particular is simply repetition in a minute form of the universal. We get our idea of the universe from the study of our own Souls, and what is true there also holds good in the outside universe. The ideas of heaven and all these various places, even if they be true, are in the universe. They altogether make this Unity. The first idea, therefore, is that of a Whole, a Unit, composed of various minute particles, and each one of us is a part, as it were, of this Unit. As manifested beings we appear separate, but as a reality we are one. The more we think ourselves separate from this Whole, the more miserable we become. So, Advaita is the basis of ethics.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。