You could say that this book is “God’s latest word on things,”
你可以说,这本书是“上帝对事物的最新论语”,
although some people might have a little trouble with that,
虽然这么说对有些人可能有些小麻烦,
particularly if they think that God stopped talking 2,000 years ago or that,
特别是如果他们认为上帝在2000 年以前已经不再说话,
if God has continued communicating,
或者如果上帝继续交流的话,
it’s been only with holy men, medicine women, or someone who has been meditating for 30 years, or good for 20, or at least halfdecent for 10 (none of which categories includes me).
也只是与一些圣人、女巫医,或者一些打坐30 年,行善20 年,或者至少10 年来非常正派的人(哪一类都不包括我)。
The truth is, God talks to everybody.
真理是:上帝与每一个人交谈。
The good and the bad. The saint and the scoundrel.
好人和坏人。圣徒和恶棍。
And certainly all of us in between. Take you, for instance.
当然为也包括介于其间的我们所有人。比如你。
God has come to you many ways in your life, and this is another of them.
上帝多次来到你的生活中,现在这一次又是其中一次。
How many times have you heard the old axiom :When the student is ready, the teacher will appear? This book is our teacher.
“当学生准备好的时候,老师将会出现”,这句格言你听到过多少遍了?这本书就是我们的老师。
Shortly after this material began happening to me, I knew that I was talking with God.
当我遇到这份材料不久,我知道我是在和上帝谈话。
Directly, personally. Irrefutably.
直接地,亲自地,不容辩驳地。
And that God was responding to my questions in direct proportion to my ability to comprehend.
并且,上帝是在直接用我能够理解的方式回答我的问题。
That is, I was being answered in ways, and with language, that God knew I would understand.
也就是说,我得到回答的方式、语言,上帝知道我能够理解。
This accounts for much of the colloquial style of the writing and the occasional references to material I’d gathered from other sources and prior experiences in my life.
这本书大部分采用口语化风格,以及偶尔会提到的我从其他来源和我以前的生活体验中收集的材料,就是这个原因。
I know now that everything that has ever come to me in my life has come to me from God,
现在我知道,我的生活中曾经发生的一切,都是从上帝而来,
and it was now being drawn together, pulled together, in a magnificent, complete response to every question I ever had.
现在正在把它们拉到一起,对我曾经有的每个问题给予神奇的全面的答复。
And somewhere along the way I realized a book was being produced—a book intended for publication.
在这一路途上的某个地方,我意识到,正在产生一部书,一部将出版的书。
Indeed, I was told specifically during the latter part of the dialogue (in February 1993) that three books would actually be produced,
事实上,我是在这一对话的后半段(1993 年2 月),才具体地了解到正在出三卷书,
and that
它们是:
1. The first would deal mainly with personal topics, focusing on an individual’s life challenges
and opportunities.
1. 第一卷将主要涉及个人问题,聚焦在个人生活中的各种挑战和机遇。
2. The second would deal with more global topics of geopolitical and metaphysical life on the
planet, and the challenges now facing the world.
2. 第二卷将涉及更带全球性的问题,这个星球上的地域政治和超自然的生活。以及这个世界正在面临的挑战。
3. The third would deal with universal truths of the highest order, and the challenges and opportunities of the soul.
3. 第三卷将涉及最高秩序的宇宙真理,以及灵魂面临的机遇和挑战。
This is the first of those books, completed in February 1993.
这本书是这些书的第一卷,完成于 1993 年2 月。
For clarity I should explain that,
为了明白起见,我解释一下,
as I transcribed this dialogue by hand, I underlined or circled words and sentences which
came to me with particular emphasis—as if God were booming them out—and these were
later placed in italics by the typesetter.
这部对话是我手写的,我把特别重要的词和句子划线或圈起来,好像上帝用低沉的声音说出的,后来排字时排成了斜体字。
I need now to say that I am—having read and reread the wisdom contained here—deeply embarrassed by my own life,
我现在想说的是,在反复阅读这本书的慧语真言之后,我对我自己的生活感到非常难为情,
which has been marked by continued mistakes and misdeeds, some very shameful behaviors, and some choices and decisions which I’m certain others consider hurtful and unforgivable.
那里充满了许多持续不断的错误和错误行为,一些非常可耻的行为,一些其他人可能认为是伤害人的和不能原谅的行为。
Though I have profound remorse that it was through others’ pain, I am unspeakably grateful for all that I have learned, and found that I have still yet to learn, because of the people in my life.
虽然我深深感到自责,因为这一点是通过其他人的痛苦得到的,但对我学到的东西,我感到无法言喻的感激,并且由于我生活中的那些人,我发现我仍有很多要学。
I apologize to everybody for the slowness of that learning.
对我的学习过程的缓慢,我对每个人表示歉疚。
Yet I am encouraged by God to grant myself forgiveness for my failings and not to live in fear and guilt but to always keep trying—keep on trying—to live a grander vision.
但我得到了上帝的鼓励,对我的失败给自己以原谅,不要生活在恐惧和负疚之中,而要一直保持尝试、继续尝试生活在更大的理解之中。
I know that’s what God wants for all of us.
我知道这是上帝对我们所有人的期望。
Neale Donald Walsch
Christmas 1994
尼尔.唐纳德.瓦尔施
中心角区,俄勒冈
1994 年圣诞