When you’re shut down and frightened, the world seems hostile; when you love what is, everything in the world becomes the beloved. Inside and outside always match -- they’re reflections of each other. The world is the mirror image of your mind.

當你沉默地被恐懼籠罩著，你就會覺得整個世界都不懷好意;當你愛上這個世界本身，你就會覺得世上的每樣東西都值得你愛。心中所想和外物所現總是息息相關，它們互相映襯，外界就是面鏡子，能映出你的內心。

Not believing your own thoughts, you’re free from the primal desire: the thought that reality should be different than it is. You realize the wordless, the unthinkable. You understand that any mystery is only what you yourself have created. In fact, there’s no mystery. Everything is as clear as day. It’s simple, because there really isn’t anything. There’s only the story appearing now. And not even that.

如果你不相信自己的想法，那么你就可以免受原始欲望的驅使：因為你的想法往往與現實不符。你意識到那是無可言表的、不堪設想的，你明白那只是你自己在故弄玄虛。事實上，并沒有什么懸疑事件發生，每件事都是一清二楚，很容易就可以明白，因為并沒有發生什么事。現在只是發生了一件事，它甚至不算是事。

When you realize that you can only see the world as you believe it to be, you look from a new perspective. The world is an optical illusion. In the end, it’s just you, crazed and miserable, or you, delighted and at peace. Everything happens for you, not to you.

當你意識到你只能看到你所相信的世界時，你就要從新的角度看待這個世界，它會給你一種錯覺，到最后，世界就是你，那個瘋狂又痛苦的你，或是愉快又平和的你，每件事都是為你發生，而不是發生于你。

I have questioned my thoughts, and I’ve seen that it’s crazy to argue with what is. I don’t ever want anything to happen except what’s happening. For example, a man sticks a pistol into my stomach, pulls the hammer back, and says, "I’m going to kill you." I am shocked that he is taking his thoughts so seriously. To someone identified as an I, the thought of killing causes guilt that leads to a life of suffering, so I ask him, as kindly as I can, not to do it.

我曾經質疑過我的思想，然后我明白了與此糾纏是不切實際的。除了正在發生的事情以外，我從未想過有什么事要發生。舉個例子，有人拿槍指著我的肚子，向后拉了一下擊錘，說：“我要殺了你。”我很吃驚，因為他這么認真地執行了他的思想，如果是像我這樣的人，殺人的想法會使我感到罪孽深重，讓我一輩子飽受煎熬。善良如我，讓他不要這么做。我并沒有告訴他這會讓他受到我所認為的煎熬，他說他不得不這么做。

I don’t tell him that it’s his suffering I’m thinking of. He says that he has to do it, and I understand; I remember believing that I had to do things in my old life. I thank him for doing the best he can, and I notice that I’m fascinated. Is this how she dies? Is this how the story ends? And as joy continues to fill me, I find it miraculous that the story is still going on. You can never know the ending, even as it ends. I am very moved at the sight of sky, clouds, and moonlit trees. I love that I don’t miss one moment, one breath, of this amazing life. I wait. And wait. And in the end, he doesn’t pull the trigger. He doesn’t do that to himself.

而我也明白了，我記起了我晚年必須要做的事。我要為他已經盡他所能而感謝他，我還注意到，我為此心馳神往。這就是她的死因嗎?這就是故事的終結嗎?當這種愉快的感覺不停地充斥著全身時，我發現故事并未結束。你根本就猜不中結局，即使故事完結了，你也猜不中。我感動于視野所及的藍天、白云、還有月色下的樹林，我愛著我平時沒注意的美妙生命中的每時每刻、每次呼吸。我等啊，等啊，等到了最后，他沒有按下扳機，他沒有做那件要發生于他的事。

What we call "bad" and what we call "good" both come from the same place. The Tao Te Ching says that the source of everything is called "darkness." What a beautiful name (if we must have a name)! Darkness is our source. In the end, it embraces everything. Its nature is love, and in our confusion we name it terror and ugliness, the unacceptable, the unbearable. All our stress results from what we imagine is in that darkness. We imagine darkness as separate from ourselves, and we project something terrible onto it. But in reality, the darkness is always benevolent.

我們稱之為“好”和我們稱之為“壞”的事物都來自同一個地方。道德經上說，事物的本源稱之為“虛無”。這稱呼多美(如果我們一定要給個稱呼)!虛無是我們的本源，最后，虛無成為了所有事物，它的本質是愛，而我們出于困惑，稱它為恐懼、丑惡，認為它無法接受、無法忍受。我們的壓力都是源于我們對虛無的想象，我們想象著把虛無從我們身上剝離出來，我們還把一些可怕的事物投影到虛無上面。但是實際上，虛無一直是親切仁慈的。

Darkness is the mind that doesn’t know a thing. This don’t-know mind is the center of the universe -- it is the universe -- there’s nothing outside it. And it’s the gateway to all understanding. Once the darkness is understood, you’re clear that nothing is separate from you. No name, no thought, can possibly be true in an ultimate sense. It’s allprovisional; it’s all changing. The dark, the nameless, the unthinkable -- that is what you can absolutely trust. It doesn’t change, and it’s benevolent. When you realize this, you just have to laugh. There’s nothing serious about life or death.

虛無只是一顆不諳世事的心。這顆“未知”的心是宇宙的中心，它就是宇宙，除它以外別無他物，它還是通往全知的必經之路。一旦你懂得虛無，你就會明白，沒有什么可以從你身上剝離出來。它沒有名字，沒有思想，可能是終極意義上的真實。一切從未停止，一切一直在變。無知、無名、無思——這是你能完全相信的。這一點從未改變，非常親切仁慈。當你意識到這點時，你只需一笑置之，是生是死，都不那么重要了。