Quotation No.387

Each worshipper of idols harbours hope his special deities will give him more than other men possess. It must be more. It does not really matter more of what; more beauty, more intelligence, more wealth, or even more affliction and more pain. But more of something is an idol for. And when one fails another takes its place, with hope of finding more of something else. 

（每一个偶像的崇拜者，都暗自希望他的特殊神祗能给他比别人更多的东西。必须多一点，不管是多出什么东西。多一点美貌，多一点智力，多一点财富，甚至多一点烦恼或多一点痛苦也好。想要更多的东西，乃是偶像存在的目的。一个偶像若不行，就再换一个，希望能找到更多其他的东西。） (Text-29 VIII.8:6)

Quotation No. 386

All idols of this world were made to keep the truth within from being known to you, and to maintain allegiance to the dream that you must find what is outside yourself to be complete and happy. It is vain to worship idols in the hope of peace. God dwells within, and your completion lies in Him. No idol takes His place. Look not to idols. Do not seek outside yourself.

（世上所有的偶像都是为了防止你得知自己内在的真理而造的。它们始终效忠于梦境，以为你只有藉着身外之物才能找到圆满与幸福。供奉偶像，根本不可能获得平安。上主安居于你内，你的圆满就在他内。没有偶像取代得了他的地位。不要把眼光放在偶像上。不要往身外去寻了。） (Text-29VII.6:1)

Quotation No. 385

Nothing survives its purpose… Think not that you can set a goal unlike God’s purpose for you, and establish it as changeless and eternal. You can give yourself a purpose that you do not have. But you can not remove the power to change your mind, and see another purpose there.

（任何东西若失去目的，便无法继续存在… 不要以为你能为自己设定一个有别于上主的目的，并把它立为永恒不易。你能给自己一个你所没有的目的，然而有个能力你却除不去。这能力可以改变你的心意，并从中看出其他的目的。）(Text-29 VI.3:1)

 

Quotation No. 384

This world you seem to live in is not home to you. And somewhere in your mind you know that this is true. A memory of home keeps haunting you, as if there were a place that called you to return, although you do not recognize the voice, nor what it is the voice reminds you of. Yet still you feel an alien here, from somewhere all unknown.

（你表面上活在其中的世界，并不是你的家。你的心冥冥中知道这个事实。家的记忆始终在你心里萦绕不去，好似有个地方一直在唤你回去，即使你认不出那个声音，也不清楚那声音究竟要提醒你什么。你一直感到自己是个异乡人，来自某个不知名之处。）（Workbook-182 1:1)

Quotation No. 383

Nothing at all has happened but that you have put yourself to sleep, and dreamed a dream in which you were an alien to yourself, and but a part of someone else’s dream. The miracle does not awaken you, but merely shows you who the dreamer is.

（什么也没有发生过，你只是陷入了沉睡，梦见你变成了一个自己不认识的陌生人，而且成了另一个人梦中的一景。奇迹并不唤醒你，只是让你看见谁在作梦罢了。）(Text-28 II.4:1)

Quotaton No. 382

The miracle does nothing. All it does is to undo. And thus it cancels out the interference to what has been done. it does not add, but merely takes away. And what it takes away is long since gone, but being kept in memory appears to have immediate effects. This world was over long ago.

（奇迹本身是无所为的。它只是化解而已。它只是解除已做出之事所形成的干扰。它不添加任何东西，只是解除。而它所解除之物，其实早就不存在了，只因记忆犹存，似乎仍具直接的影响。这个世界早已过去了。）（Text-281:1)

Quotation No. 381

No one can waken from a dream the world is dreaming for him. He becomes a part of someone else’s dream. He cannot choose to waken from a dream he did not make. Helpless he stands, a victim to a dream conceived and cherished by a separate mind.

（如果是世界在为他作梦，没有人能由这梦中清醒过来。他变成了别人梦中的一部分了。他无法由一个不是自己所作的梦中醒来。他束手无策，只好在另一颗心灵所想出而且珍爱的梦中受苦。）(Text-27 VII.8:1)

Quotation No. 380

In quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly resolved. In conflict there can be no answer and no resolution, for its purpose is to make no resolution possible, and to ensure no answer will be plain.

（万物都在宁静中得到了答复，每个问题都静静地解决了。在冲突中不可能有答复及任何解决办法的，因冲突的目的即是使问题不得解决，也保证不会有一个清晰的答案。） (Text-27 IV.1:1)

Quotation No. 379

Facts are unchanged. Yet facts can be denied and thus unknown, though they were known before they were denied.

（事实是不变的。然而，事实却可能遭到否定，因而不为人所知——虽然在遭受否定之前，原是人所周知的。）(Text-26 VII.9:6)

Quotation No. 378

Anything in this world that you believe is good and valuable and worth striving for can hurt you, and will do so. Not because it has the power to hurt, but just because you have denied it is but an illusion, and made it real. And it is real to you. It is not nothing. And through its perceived reality has entered all the world of sick illusions.

（在这世界上，不论是什么东西，只要你相信是好的、有价值的、值得你去争取的，它必会伤害你。不是因为它有伤害的能力，而是因为你不愿承认它是一个幻觉而把它弄假成真了。它对你就成了真的。它不再是虚无。透过它所认定的现实，充斥了病态幻觉的整个世界就跟着进来了。）(Text-26 VI.1:1)