埃克哈特談祈禱
問題：從我還是小女孩的時候，我就作為天主教徒被撫養長大。我曾經一度變得完全否定上帝，不相信上帝。現在，感謝你的教導與分享被廣泛傳播，我了解到那個連接是存在的，那覺知、那寧靜是存在的。但是我開始有了這個念頭：我為什麼要祈禱？因為如果上帝是全知的、萬能的、博愛的，等等，我不認為他/ 她/ 它需要我說：“嘿，我的朋友正因為癌症快要死了，你能幫幫她嗎？”我不認為這樣做有必要，但我享受祈禱的過程。我想要聽聽你的看法；我們應該為什麼而祈禱？你相信祈禱嗎？
埃克哈特：也許你可以將你的祈禱從祈求的（“請讓這個發生”）升級為非頭腦指向的，比如昇級為寧靜指向的。非頭腦指向的依然要使用概念，因為每個祈禱都是由詞語和概念組成的 – 但它們只是去指向，是幫助你超越概念的。比如，你可以說這樣的肯定語 – 就像耶穌說過的：“我是世界之光”。這是一句肯定語 – 它是一個概念，它指向一個比這些詞語深遠得多的事實真相。如果你還是想要某種祈求的方式，你也可以說：“請讓我了解我就是那世界之光”。在通常的祈禱中，總是暗示著二元對立性。它暗示有一個上帝在那裡，而我在這裡，請求上帝。歸根結底，這個二元性是一個幻象，因為你就是上帝的表達。你和上帝是合一的。所以，最深的祈禱，不再是這種二元性的祈禱。不再是對上帝說什麼話，而是你開始發展出一種傾聽的態度。當然你享受對上帝說話，這也挺好。但是慢慢地你要脫離這種要求某人為你做某事的祈禱方式，因為它會使你卡在二元對立之中。
肯定語，如果被恰當使用，可以成為祈禱的非常美好的替代品。“我已被治愈，我是完全的，我是寧靜的”。然後，讓那裡成為一個空間。事實上，力量確實存在於那個空間裡。在那空間，你經驗到你已經完整。外在的形式也許會告訴你不一樣的故事。奇蹟課程說：“我是神聖的”。你確實是神聖的，所以這只是對事實真相的一個肯定表達而已。至於療愈其他人 – 也許你和那個人在一起，或者讓那個人來到你的腦海裡，那個人也許生病了。我發現，最具力量的療愈方法，是在腦海裡想著那個人的樣子，然後進入你自己的內在深處，那個完美無缺的生命存在之處。在那裡，一切圓滿，什麼也不需要。在那裡，你發現完美無缺同樣也存在於那個人之內 – 在最深的層面，超越外在形式的層面，他們已經被療癒了。就這樣，你從有形，進入了無形。
這就是Joel Goldsmith 所使用的療愈方法，他有一本很棒的書，書名叫“靈性療癒的藝術”。這個方法完全不是立足在需要療癒的外在情境上，而是只關注那個人的根本實相，它與你的根本實相是合一的，療癒者進入深深的內在寧靜之處，在那裡，什麼也不需要。Joel 常常接到電話，有時是在深夜。某個人急需療愈，他們會告訴Joel那個人的名字，以及他的痛苦來自於什麼。然後Joel 會立即掛斷電話，進入無念的狀態。片刻之後他就會聽到那個人的名字，會聽到他們的問題出在哪裡，他會立刻釋放那個部分，然後進入兩至三分鐘的無念 – 純粹的臨 在。在無形的層面存在的是絕對的完美。而這正是那個需要療癒的人的本質。如此，你將有形帶入了無形，在那裡，外在的形式不復存在。沒有什麼外在的情境被治療，什麼也不需要，只要進入到那裡。這就是Joel 實施療癒的方法。他是一位很有力量的療愈師。這就是療癒的終極形式，這確實是一種非二元性的祈禱。它超越了你常說的“求求你，上帝，請療愈”這一類的祈禱 – 你進入了那個源頭本身，這源頭與你的本質不可分離，與那個人的本質也不可分離。
慢慢地，祈禱可以從對上帝傾訴變成傾聽上帝。傾聽究竟是什麼意思？傾聽意味著一片空的、純粹的注意力的場域。傾聽不是說你在等待某個答案，因為那意味著你沒有真正在聽。聽的時候你完全沒有期待 – 而只是有著一片純粹的注意力。這是比任何言語都要深得多的祈禱。當祈禱也成為靜心，這就是真正的祈禱。不期待任何答案，只是在這寂靜之中就已足夠。有時候，一個答案來了，或者，有時候，某個問題突然得到解決了。傾聽。當你遭遇到任何麻煩，任何打擾，這些總是在發生著 – 在你身邊的人，或是頭腦裡的干擾，在這樣的情況下，進入那個純粹的覺知，傾聽存在。傾聽是一種臨在的方式。當你臨在時，那就好像你是在一種傾聽的狀態。通常我們所說的傾聽只是代表著聽覺的感官。但是，傾聽其實超越了聽覺的感官；它是一種存在於聽覺感官之下的某種意識狀態。每個人都明白那是什麼意思 – 因為當你真正去聽某個細微的聲音，在這傾聽之下的是一種什麼樣的意識狀態？那是一種純粹的、放鬆的警覺狀態。所以當我們用'傾聽'這個詞語，會很有幫助，因為每個人都了解傾聽是什麼意思。我只是在指出傾聽的本質並不是外在的感官覺知；傾聽的本質是在那之下的意識狀態，一種純粹的接收和警覺的臨在的意識狀態。
這就是為什麼我相信耶穌說了那些關於僕人的寓言，僕人保持著清醒，因為他不知道主人甚麼時候會回家。很多傳下來的東西被一定程度地曲解了，因為它是口述的，然後被記錄下來，在這個過程中，有些東西被誤傳了，或是丟失了。我想耶穌是在談論那種態度 – 一種意識狀態，僕人在等待著，只為聽見主人回家的聲音。這與我們通常所說的“等待”不同，通常意思的等待中，頭腦會說“這個什麼時候會發生？為什麼它還沒有發生？” –耶穌指的是一種完全不同的等待。耶穌多次談到保持清醒，這是他的教導中非常重要的一部分 – 保持清醒，不要睡著，保持臨在。無論你在祈禱中使用什麼詞語，要利用這些詞語指向這個覺醒的意識狀態。你可以說“我在傾聽”。
翻譯：遊由
~~原文如下~~
Eckhart on Prayer
Q: From the time I was a little girl, I was raised as a Catholic. I went completely full circle to denying God, not believing in God. And now, thanks to a large extent what you teach and share, I know that connectedness is there, awareness, Stillness is there. But I got the thought, why do I pray? Because if God is all-knowing, omnipotent, all-loving, and so on, I don't think he/she/it needs me to say, “Psst - my friend is dying of cancer, can you help her?” I don't think it's necessary, but I enjoy praying. I'd love to hear your thoughts; what would be appropriate to pray for? Do you believe in prayer?
ET: Perhaps you can upgrade your prayers from petitionary prayers (“please make this happen”) to little mental pointers, towards peace for example. Little mental pointers still use concepts, because every prayer consists of words and concepts – to point, to help you go beyond concepts. You could say, for example, an affirmation – like what Jesus said, “I am the light of the word”. It's an affirmation – it's a concept, it points to a reality far deeper than the words. You can say, if you still want some petition, “please let me know that I am the light of the world”. Duality is implied usually, in the usual prayer. It implies that there is God, and here is me, asking God. That duality is ultimately an illusion, because you are an expression of God. You and God merge. The deepest prayers, then, are no longer prayers as such. They are when you adopt a listening attitude rather than a saying of words. As long as you enjoy it, that's fine. But gradually get away from asking somebody to do something for you, because that keeps you stuck in duality.
Affirmations, if they are done rightly, can be very beautiful substitutes for prayers. “I am healed and whole and at peace”. And after that, let there be a space. And really, the power is in that space. In the space , you experience that you are already whole. The outward form might tell you something different – “I am holy”, A Course in Miracles says. You are, and so it's simply an affirmation of how it is. Healing, for somebody else – you are either with that person, or that person comes into your mind, that person may be ill. The most powerful healing, I find, is to hold an image of that person and then go deeper into yourself, where the wholeness of life lies . Where nothing is needed, nothing needs to be added. There you find the wholeness also of that person – they are already healed at the deepest level, beyond form. So you go from form, into formlessness.
That is the healing that was practiced by Joel Goldsmith, he has a lovely book called “The Art of Spiritual Healing”. That is really not to dwell at all on the condition that needs to be healed, but to focus on the essential reality of that human being which is one with your essential reality, and go into deep Stillness where nothing is needed. He would often get phone calls, sometimes in the middle of the night. Someone would desperately need healing, and they would tell him the name of the person and what they were suffering from. What he would then do is immediately put the phone down and go into absolutely no thought. For a moment he heard the name of the person, he heard what was wrong with them, and immediately let go of that, then for two or three minutes went into no thought – just absolute presence. There is absolute perfection in the realm of the formless. And that is the essence of the person who needed healing. So you take the form into the formless, where the form is no longer. No condition to be treated, nothing is needed, just go into that. That was his way of healing. He was quite a powerful healer. That is the ultimate form of healing, and that really is the non -dual kind of prayer. It's going beyond prayer where you say “Please God, heal” – you go to the very Source itself, that is inseparable from who you are, and is inseparable from who that person is.
Prayer can gradually become listening to God rather than talking to God. What does listening mean? Listening means there is a field of bare, pure attention. Listening does not mean that you are waiting for some answer, because then you are not really listening. In listening you are not waiting for anything – there is just a field of pure attention. That is a much deeper prayer than any words. True prayer is where prayer also becomes meditation. Not even wanting an answer, it's enough to be in the silence . Sometimes an answer comes, or the thing becomes resolved, sometimes, suddenly. Listen. Any trouble in this world, any disturbance, and they happen all the time – people around you, or a disturbance in the mind, goes into pure aware, listening presence. Listening is a way of speaking about presence. When you are present, it is as if you are in a state of listening. Now, listening is usually associated with the auditory sense perception. But this listening goes beyond the auditory sense perception ; it's the state of consciousness that underlies the auditory sense perception. Everybody knows what that is like – because when you are really listening for some faint sound, what is the state of consciousness that underlies this listening for the faint sound? It's a state of absolute, relaxed alertness. So when we say listening, it's a helpful thing because everybody knows what listening means. I am just pointing out that it's not the external sense perception that is the essence in listening; the essence in listening is the underlying state of consciousness, of absolute receptivity and alert presence.
This is why I believe that Jesus had parables about the servant and staying awake, because he doesn't know when the master is going to come home. Many of the things have come down in a somewhat distorted way, because it was transmitted verbally, and then written down, and in the process some things got turned around or went missing. I think he was talking about the attitude of that - a state of consciousness, the servant waiting just to hear the master come home. It's waiting in a different sense from the normal thing that we call 'waiting', which is the mind saying “When is it going to happen? Why isn't it happening yet?” – he uses waiting in a completely different sense. Many times Jesus talked about staying awake, that's a very important part of his teaching – stay awake, don't go to sleep, stay present. Any words you use in prayer, use them as pointers toward that. You could say “I am listening”.
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