七月三日，星期三
本译文由人工智能辅助工具生成，可能存在不准确之处。如需查阅权威文本，请参考英文原文。
AI-translated. May contain errors. For accurate text, refer to the original English.
中文
（由弟子S·E·沃尔多小姐记录）
一八九五年七月三日，星期三。
一般而言，人类的宗教始于恐惧。"敬畏主是智慧的开端。"然而后来出现了更高的理念："完全的爱驱除恐惧。"恐惧的痕迹将伴随我们，直到我们获得知识，认识到神是什么。基督作为人，不得不看见不净并加以谴责；但神无限崇高，不见罪孽，也不会发怒。谴责绝非最高境界。大卫双手沾满鲜血，他无法建造圣殿。（《圣经·撒母耳记》第十七章末。）
我们在爱、美德与圣洁中成长得越多，便越能在外部世界看到爱、美德与圣洁。一切对他人的谴责，实际上都是在谴责我们自己。调整好小宇宙（这在你的能力范围之内），大宇宙自然会为你而调适。这犹如流体静力学的悖论——一滴水便可平衡整个宇宙。我们无法在外部看到我们内在所没有的东西。宇宙之于我们，犹如巨大的引擎之于微型引擎；微型引擎中任何错误的迹象，都会使我们推想大引擎亦有故障。
世界上每一步真正的进步，都是通过爱而获得的；批评从来不能成就任何善事，这已经被验证了千百年。谴责一无所成。
一个真正的吠檀多修行者必须同情一切。一元论，即绝对的一体性，乃是吠檀多的灵魂所在。二元论者天然倾向于不宽容，认为唯有自己的道路才是正途。印度的毗湿奴派信徒是二元论者，也是最不宽容的教派之一。在湿婆派（另一个二元论教派）中，流传着一位名叫"钟耳"（Ghantakarna）的虔信者的故事。他是如此虔诚的湿婆崇拜者，以至于不愿听到其他任何神灵的名字；于是他在双耳上各系了一只铃铛，以淹没一切念诵其他神名的声音。由于他对湿婆的强烈虔信/Bhakti，湿婆想要教导他：湿婆与毗湿奴之间并无分别，于是以半身毗湿奴、半身湿婆的形相出现在他面前。那一刻，虔信者正在向神挥舞薰香，但钟耳的偏执如此之深，当他看到薰香的芬芳飘入毗湿奴的鼻孔时，竟用手指将其堵住，不让这位神灵享受那缕清香……
食肉动物如狮子，猛击一次便罢休，而耐心的公牛却整日不停，边走边吃边歇。"精力充沛的美国人"竞争不过食米的中国苦力。当军事力量主导之时，食肉之风犹存；但随着科学的进步，战争将日益减少，届时素食者将占据主导。
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我们将自己一分为二来爱神——自我爱着真我/Atman。神创造了我，我也创造了神。我们按自己的形象创造神；是我们创造了他作为我们的主人，而非神使我们成为他的仆人。当我们认识到我们与神是一体的，我们和他是朋友时，平等与自由便随之而来。只要你与这永恒的太一之间还有一丝毫的隔阂，恐惧便不会消失。
永远不要问那个愚蠢的问题：这对世界有什么好处？让世界去吧。爱，而不要求什么；爱，而不要再期望什么。爱，然后忘掉一切"主义"。饮下爱的圣杯，沉醉其中。说"归于你，永远归于你，主啊！"然后纵身投入，忘却一切。神的本质就是爱。看到一只猫爱护她的小猫，便驻足祈祷吧。神在那里显现了；要从字面意义上相信这一点。反复念诵"我属于你，我属于你"，因为我们处处都能看见神。不要寻觅他，只需看见他。
"愿主永远守护你的生命，世界之光，宇宙之魂！"……
绝对者不能被崇拜，因此我们必须崇拜一个显现体，一个具有我们人性的显现体。耶稣具有我们的人性；他成为了基督；我们也能如此，我们也必须如此。基督和佛陀是一种应当证得的境界的名称；耶稣和乔达摩是将此境界显现出来的人。"母亲"是最初也是最崇高的显现，其次是诸基督与诸佛陀。我们创造自己的环境，我们亲手砸碎枷锁。真我/Atman是无畏的。当我们向外在的神祈祷时，这是好的，只是我们不知道自己在做什么。当我们认识了真我，便会明了。爱的最高表达便是合一。
"曾有一时，我为女子，他为男子。 然而爱不断增长，直到既无他也无我； 我只隐约记得，曾有过两个人的时候。 但爱降临于其间，使他们合为一体。"
——波斯苏菲诗歌
知识永恒存在，与神共存。发现一条灵性法则的人是受到启示的，他所带来的便是天启；但天启同样是永恒的，不应被固化为最终定论而盲目遵从。印度教徒多年来被征服者批评，以致他们（印度教徒）自己也敢于批评自己的宗教，而这反使他们获得了自由。外来统治者在不知不觉中打碎了他们的枷锁。这个地球上最具宗教精神的民族——印度教徒实际上没有亵渎神明的概念；以任何方式谈论神圣之事，在他们看来本身就是一种神圣化。他们对先知、经典或伪善的虔诚也没有任何矫饰的敬意。
教会试图将基督纳入其框架之中，而非将教会融入基督；因此只有那些适合当时目的的文献才被保存下来。这样一来，这些经书便不可依赖，而经书崇拜是最糟糕的偶像崇拜，束缚了我们的脚步。一切都必须服从经书——科学、宗教、哲学；这是最可怕的暴政，这种新教《圣经》的暴政。在基督教国家，每个人头上都顶着一座巨大的教堂，教堂之上还压着一本书，而人依然活着，依然成长！这难道不正证明了人即是神吗？
人是存在的最高生灵，而这是最伟大的世界。我们无法形成比人更高的神之概念，因此我们的神即是人，而人即是神。当我们上升超越并发现更高的存在时，我们必须跳出心智、跳出身体和想象，离开这个世界；当我们上升到绝对者时，我们便不再处于这个世界之中。人是我们所能认知的唯一世界的顶峰。我们对动物的一切了解都不过是类推，我们以自身的行为和感受来判断它们。
知识的总量永远不变，只是有时显现得多些，有时显现得少些。知识唯一的源泉在内心，也唯有在那里才能找到。
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一切诗歌、绘画和音乐，都是通过文字、色彩和声音来表达的感受……
那些罪过迅速得到报应的人是有福的，因为他们的账目更快得以结清！那些惩罚被延迟的人有祸了，因为那惩罚将更加沉重！
那些达到平等之境的人，被称为住于神之中。一切仇恨都是"自我杀害真我"，因此爱便是生命的法则。上升到此境界便是圆满；然而我们越是圆满，就越少能做所谓的"事业"。悦性/Sattva的人看到并知晓一切不过是孩童的游戏，不为任何事情所扰。
给予一击很容易，但止住那只手却极其艰难——站定不动，说"主啊，我皈依于你"，然后等待他来行动。
English
(RECORDED BY MISS S. E. WALDO, A DISCIPLE)
WEDNESDAY, July 3, 1895.
Generally speaking, human religion begins with fear. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." But later comes the higher idea. "Perfect love casteth out fear." Traces of fear will remain with us until we get knowledge, know what God is. Christ, being man, had to see impurity and denounced it; but God, infinitely higher, does not see iniquity and cannot be angry. Denunciation is never the highest. David's hands were smeared with blood; he could not build the temple. (Bible, Samuel, Chap. XVII — end.)
The more we grow in love and virtue and holiness, the more we see love and virtue and holiness outside. All condemnation of others really condemns ourselves. Adjust the microcosm (which is in your power to do) and the macrocosm will adjust itself for you. It is like the hydrostatic paradox, one drop of water can balance the universe. We cannot see outside what we are not inside. The universe is to us what the huge engine is to the miniature engine; and indication of any error in the tiny engine leads us to imagine trouble in the huge one.
Every step that has been really gained in the world has been gained by love; criticising can never do any good, it has been tried for thousand of years. Condemnation accomplishes nothing.
A real Vedantist must sympathise with all. Monism, or absolute oneness is the very soul of Vedanta. Dualists naturally tend to become intolerant, to think theirs as the only way. The Vaishnavas in India, who are dualists, are a most intolerant sect. Among the Shaivas, another dualistic sect, the story is told of a devotee by the name of Ghantâkarna or the Bell-eared, who was so devout a worshipper of Shiva that he did not wish even to hear the name of any other deity; so he wore two bells tied to his ears in order to drown the sound of any voice uttering other Divine names. On account of his intense devotion to Shiva, the latter wanted to teach him that there was no difference between Shiva and Vishnu, so He appeared before him as half Vishnu and half Shiva. At that moment the devotee was waving incense before Him, but so great was the bigotry of Ghantakarna that when he saw the fragrance of the incense entering the nostril of Vishnu, he thrust his finger into it to prevent the god from enjoying the sweet smell. . . .
The meat-eating animal, like the lion, gives one blow and subsides, but the patient bullock goes on all day, eating and sleeping as it walks. The "live Yankee" cannot compete with the rice-eating Chinese coolie. While military power dominates, meat-eating still prevail; but with the advance of science, fighting will grow less, and then the vegetarians will come in.
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We divide ourselves into two to love God, myself loving my Self. God has created me and I have created God. We create God in our image; it is we who create Him to be our master, it is not God who makes us His servants. When we know that we are one with God, that we and He are friends, then come equality and freedom. So long as you hold yourself separated by a hair's breadth from this Eternal One, fear cannot go.
Never ask that foolish question, what good will it do to the world? Let the world go. Love and ask nothing; love and look for nothing further. Love and forget all the "isms". Drink the cup of love and become mad. Say "Thine, O Thine for ever O Lord!" and plunge in, forgetting all else. The very idea of God is love. Seeing a cat loving her kittens stand and pray. God has become manifest there; literally believe this. Repeat "I am Thine, I am Thine", for we can see God everywhere. Do not seek for Him, just see Him.
"May the Lord ever keep you alive, Light of the world, Soul of the universe!" . . .
The Absolute cannot be worshipped, so we must worship a manifestation, such a one as has our nature. Jesus had our nature; he became the Christ; so can we, and so must we. Christ and Buddha were the names of a state to be attained; Jesus and Gautama were the persons to manifest it. "Mother" is the first and highest manifestation, next the Christs and Buddhas. We make our own environment, and we strike the fetters off. The Atman is the fearless. When we pray to a God outside, it is good, only we do not know what we do. When we know the Self, we understand. The highest expression of love is unification.
"There was a time when I was a woman and he was a man. Still love grew until there was neither he nor I; Only I remember faintly there was a time when there were two. But love came between and made them one."
— Persian Sufi Poem
Knowledge exists eternally and is co-existent with God. The man who discovers a spiritual law is inspired, and what he brings is revelation; but revelation too is eternal, not to be crystallised as final and then blindly followed. The Hindus have been criticised so many years by their conquerors that they (the Hindus) dare to criticise their religion themselves, and this makes them free. Their foreign rulers struck off their fetters without knowing it. The most religious people on earth, the Hindus have actually no sense of blasphemy; to speak of holy things in any way is to them in itself a sanctification. Nor have they any artificial respect for prophets or books, or for hypocritical piety.
The Church tries to fit Christ into it, not the Church into Christ; so only those writings were preserved that suited the purpose in hand. Thus the books are not to be depended upon and book-worship is the worst kind of idolatry to bind our feet. All has to conform to the book — science, religion, philosophy; it is the most horrible tyranny, this tyranny of the Protestant Bible. Every man in Christian countries has a huge cathedral on his head and on top of that a book, and yet man lives and grows! Does not this prove that man is God?
Man is the highest being that exists, and this is the greatest world. We can have no conception of God higher than man, so our God is man, and man is God. When we rise and go beyond and find something higher, we have to jump out of the mind, out of body and the imagination and leave this world; when we rise to be the Absolute, we are no longer in this world. Man is the apex of the only world we can ever know. All we know of animals is only by analogy, we judge them by what we do and feel ourselves.
The sum total of knowledge is ever the same, only sometimes it is more manifested and sometimes less. The only source of it is within, and there only is it found.
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All poetry, painting, and music is feeling expressed through words, through colour, through sound. . . .
Blessed are those upon whom their sins are quickly visited, their account is the sooner balanced! Woe to those whose punishment is deferred, it is the greater!
Those who have attained sameness are said to be living in God. All hatred is killing the "Self by the self", therefore love is the law of life. To rise to this is to be perfect; but the more perfect we are, less work (so-called) can we do. The Sâttvika see and know that all is mere child's play and do not trouble themselves about anything.
It is easy to strike a blow, but tremendously hard to stay the hand, stand still, and say, "In Thee, O Lord, I take refuge", and then wait for Him to act.
文本来自Wikisource公共领域。原版由阿德瓦伊塔修道院出版。