第一章. 靜謐與寂照 Silence & Stillness
When you lose touch with inner stillness, you losetouch with yourself.
When you lose touch with yourself, youlose yourself in the world.
Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness.
This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.
當你與內在寂照失去了連繫，你便與自己失去了連繫。當你與自己失去了連繫，你便在這世界中丟失了自己。
你內心最深處的自我感，對於「我是誰」的認知，與寂照是密不可分的。寂照即是遠比名稱或肉體形相更為底層的「我本是」。
Stillness is your essential nature. What is stillness?
The inner space or awareness in which the words on this page
are being perceived and become thoughts.
Without that awareness, there would be no perception,
no thoughts, noworld.
You are that awareness, disguised as a person.
寂照是你的本質天性，它是什麼呢？它是一種內在空間或察覺知曉的能力。因為有它，你對本頁文字才能感知，並轉為種種念頭。沒有這覺曉能力，也就沒有了感覺、思考，甚至世界。
你就是那個覺性——只是化裝成人的形相出現。
The equivalent of external noise is the inner noise of thinking.
The equivalent of external silence is inner stillness.
Whenever there is some silence around you — listen toit.
That means just notice it. Pay attention to it.
Listening tosilence awakens the dimension of stillness within yourself,
because it is only through stillness that you can be aware of silence.
See that in the moment of noticing the silence around you,
you are not thinking. You are aware, but not thinking.
內在思維的嘈雜與外界的喧囂是等量齊觀的；內在的寂照與外界的靜謐也是如此。
無論何時，當你的周遭有那絲靜謐時，傾聽它——僅只覺察它、關注它。傾聽這絲靜謐，將喚醒你內在的寂照，因為唯有透過寂照，你才能覺察到那絲靜謐。
在你留意身邊那絲靜謐時，注意，那一刻你並沒有在進行思考。你在覺察，但沒有在思考。
When you become aware of silence, immediately there
is that state of inner still alertness.
You are present.
Youhave stepped out of thousands of years of collective human conditioning.
一旦你開始覺察到靜謐，你便立即進入了內在寂止的警醒狀態，你「臨在」了，同時你也跨出了人類數千年來的集體制約。
Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it.
How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being.
Allow nature to teach you stillness.
凝視一棵樹、一朵花、一株植物，讓覺察停留在那裡。它們是如此地寂靜，如此深刻地根植於本體之上，讓大自然來教導你何謂「寂照」吧！
When you look at a tree and perceive its stillness,
you become still yourself. You connect with it at a very deep level.
You feel a oneness with what-ever you perceive in and through stillness.
Feeling the oneness of yourself with all things is true love.
當你凝視著一棵樹，並感知其寂照之際，你自己也將變得靜寂，你與那樹將在極深處產生連結。當你處於寂照之中，並透過寂照去感知一切事物時，你將感覺與感知對象合而為一；這種與萬物一體的感覺，就是真愛。
Silence is helpful, but you don’t need it in order to find stillness.
Even when there is noise, you can be aware of the stillness
underneath the noise, of the space in which the noise arises.
That is the inner space of pure awareness, consciousness itself.
You can become aware of awareness as the back- ground
to all your sense perceptions, all your thinking.
Becoming aware of awareness is the arising of inner stillness.
要尋覓寂照，靜謐可以幫得上忙，但並不是非它不可。即使眾聲喧嘩，你依然可以覺察到那嘈雜下的寂照，覺察到那噪音生起之空間，那裡是你內在的純然覺性，即意識所在之空間。
你將覺察到覺性是你所有感官知覺與念頭的背景，而能夠有此覺察，就是內在寂照的生起。
Any disturbing noise can be as helpful as silence. How?
By dropping your inner resistance to the noise, by allowing
it to be as it is, this acceptance also takes you into that realm
of inner peace that is stillness.
Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is — no
matter what form it takes — you are still, you are at peace.
靜謐可以幫你找到寂照，擾人的噪音一樣也可以。怎麼說呢？只要你能把對噪音的那份抗拒放下，接納噪音就是噪音， 這份接納就會把你帶進內在平安之境——寂照。
任何時候，當你全然地接納當下的如實狀態，不管出現的是什麼樣的情況，你都能夠平心靜氣。
Pay attention to the gap — the gap between two thoughts,
the brief, silent space between words in a conversation,
between the notes of a piano or flute,
or the gap between the in-breath and out-breath.
When you pay attention to those gaps, awareness of
“something” becomes — just awareness.
The formless dimension of pure consciousness arises
from within you and replaces identification with form.
請留意間隙，譬如兩個念頭之間的空白，或一段對話之中語詞間短暫的靜默，鋼琴或長笛演奏時音符之間的休止，乃至是一呼一吸之間的停頓。
當你注意到這些間隙時，覺察到「什麼」將僅只是覺察。無形、無相的純粹意識層面將從你內在生起，取代了你原本對於「形相」*1的認同。
True intelligence operates silently.
Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.
真正的本智*2是默默在運行的。在寂照中，你可以找到解決問題的方法和創造力。
Is stillness just the absence of noise and content? No, it is intelligence itself — the underlying consciousness out of which every form is born. And how could that be separate from who you are ? The form that you think you are came out of that and is being sustained by it.
It is the essence of all galaxies and blades of grass; of all flowers, trees, birds, and all other forms.
難道寂照就只是無聲、無物嗎？不，它是本智本身——它是藏在萬相之下的意識，所以，它怎能與真正的你有所分離呢？你所認為的這個有形有相的你，也是源自於它、仰賴著它才得以存在。
它也是所有星系、草葉、花朵、樹木、鳥禽與萬相的本質。
Stillness is the only thing in this world that has no form.
But then, it is not really a thing, and it is not of this world.
寂照是這個世上唯一不具形相的「東西」，事實上，它也不是「東西」，它不屬於這個世界。
When you look at a tree or a human being in stillness,
who is looking? Something deeper than the person.
Consciousness is looking at its creation.
In the Bible, it says that God created the world and saw
that it was good. That is what you see when you look from
stillness without thought.
當你在寂照中凝視著一棵樹或一個人時，是誰在觀看呢？ 是某個比你這個人更為深沉的什麼在觀看，是意識在觀看它的創作。
《聖經．創世記》中提及，神創造了世界，並「看著一切所造的都甚好」，當你透過寂照觀看而不起念頭時，你所看見的正是神所看見的那個「好」。
Do you need more knowledge?
Is more information going to save the world,
or faster computers, more scientific or intellectual analysis?
Is it not wisdom that humanity needs most at this time?
But what is wisdom and where is it to be found?
Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen.
No more is needed. Being still, looking,
and listening activates the non- conceptual intelligence within you.
Let stillness direct your words and actions.
你需要更多的知識嗎？更多的資訊、更快速的電腦、更多的科學或知性分析，可以拯救世界嗎？此時此刻，人類此刻最需要的難道不是智慧嗎？
但什麼是智慧？何處可以找到它？智慧隨著靜觀寂照的能力一起出現，只要保持寂照，單純地看和聽，便足以啟動你內在那無概念的本智。且讓寂照導引你的一言一行吧！
＊1形相 form
「form」做名詞用時，一般將它翻譯成「形狀」或「形相」，經常用來指稱一個物體的物理體態。但是在本書中，作者對「form」一字的使用指涉的範圍更為廣泛，除了物理體態之外，它可以是抽象思維與情緒上的「form」，因此，舉凡物體、情緒、念頭、反應等等，所有能被「覺性」 感知到的「對象」，無論具有或不具有物理體態，都算是「form」的一種。在中文中難有適切的字來對應，因此只能就上下文來選擇使用字眼。
＊2本智 intelligence
「intelligence」原有「智能、智慧、理解力」之意，但都容易產生誤解為小我心智的能力，因此本書採用「本智」，取其「生命本然的智慧」之意，以避免被誤會為小我的智能。
2024專利防護中