The Whole Elephant Institute delivered a Chinese-English Bilingual Lecture to 500 students through the WEI Bilingual Training Center WeChat Platform at 10:00 P.M. on January 8, 2016.

The voice recording of this lecture is uploaded onto Dropbox. Use this following link the general public and the students can listen to this lecture:

The Chinese-English Bilingual Teaching Material is presented here:

先知

第十三篇

祈禱

　　隨後一位女祭司說，請給我們談談祈禱。

　　他回答道：

　　你們在痛苦或需要時祈禱；希望你們在快樂的滿足中、在富足的日子裡也會祈禱。

　　因為你們的祈禱不就是你們的自我向生命的太空的延伸麼？

　　如果將你們的黑暗傾入太空是為了你們的舒解，那麼將你們的曙光傾入太空是為了你們的欣悅。

　　如果你們的靈魂召喚你們時你們只能哭泣，那麼她會在哭泣中一再鞭策你們，直到你們歡笑。

On Prayer

      Then a priestess said, "Speak to us of Prayer."
      And he answered, saying:
      You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
      For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether?
      And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.
      And if you cannot but weep when your soul summons you to prayer, she should spur you again and yet again, though weeping, until you shall come laughing.

在祈禱中你們將升舉雲天，從而見到同在祈禱的人，以及那些除了祈禱時你們永遠不會見面的人。

　　因此讓你們對無形聖殿的造訪，成為純粹的欣喜和甜美的交流。

　　因為你們若只為尋求而造訪聖殿，你們將不會被接待；

　　你們若為貶抑自己而來，你們也不會被提升；

　　甚或你們是為他人祈福而進入聖殿，你們也不會被傾聽。

　　你們只要隱匿地進入聖殿，這就足夠了。

When you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour, and whom save in prayer you may not meet.
      Therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion.
      For if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive.
      And if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted:
      Or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall not be heard.
      It is enough that you enter the temple invisible.

我不能教給你們用言語祈禱。

　　上帝不會傾聽你們的言語，除非是他自己引導你們從唇間吐出的話語。

　　我也無法教給你們海洋、森林和山巒的祈禱。

　　但你們，生於海、生於林、生於山的你們，可以在你們的心中找到它們的祈禱。

　　倘若你們在夜的寂靜中傾聽，你們就會聽到它們在沉默中說：

I cannot teach you how to pray in words.
      God listens not to your words save when He Himself utters them through your lips.
      And I cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains.
      But you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart,
      And if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence,

「我們的上帝，也就是我們生翼的自我，是你的意志在我們體內行使意志。」

　　「是你的願望在我們的體內表達願望。」

　　「是你在我們體內的衝動，想把我們的，實際是你的黑夜，變為我們的，實際是你的白晝。」

　　「我們不能向你索求什麼，因為早在這需求在我們心中形成之前，你就已經洞悉了它。」

　　「你就是我們的需求；當你把自己更多地給予我們時，你已將一切給予我們了。」

"Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.
      It is thy desire in us that desireth.
      It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also.
      We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us:
      Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all."

享樂

　　一位每年造訪城市一次的隱士走上前說，請給我們談談享樂。

　　他回答道：

　　享樂是一首自由的歌，

　　但它不是自由。

　　它是你們綻放的希望之花，

　　但不是它們的果。

　　它是深淵對峰巔的呼喚，

　　但卻不是深淵，也不是峰巔。

　　它是鎖在籠中伸展的翅膀，

　　但又不是周圍環繞的空間。

　　哦，千真萬確，享樂是首自由的歌。

On Pleasure

      Then a hermit, who visited the city once a year, came forth and said, "Speak to us of Pleasure."
      And he answered, saying:
      Pleasure is a freedom song,
      But it is not freedom.
      It is the blossoming of your desires,
      But it is not their fruit.
      It is a depth calling unto a height,
      But it is not the deep nor the high.
      It is the caged taking wing,
      But it is not space encompassed.
      Ay, in very truth, pleasure is a freedom-song.

我願你們全身心地歌唱它，卻不希望在歌唱時迷失自己的心。

　　你們中的一些年輕人追求享樂，彷彿它代表一切；他們受到評判和譴責。

　　我既不會審判他們，也不會譴責他們。我讓他們去追尋。

　　因為他們尋得的不僅僅是享樂；

　　享樂有七個姐妹，她們中最小的也比她美麗。

　　難道你們沒聽說過一個刨上尋根的人找到了寶藏的故事麼？

And I fain would have you sing it with fullness of heart; yet I would not have you lose your hearts in the singing.
      Some of your youth seek pleasure as if it were all, and they are judged and rebuked.
      I would not judge nor rebuke them. I would have them seek.
      For they shall find pleasure, but not her alone:
      Seven are her sisters, and the least of them is more beautiful than pleasure.
      Have you not heard of the man who was digging in the earth for roots and found a treasure?

你們中的一些老年人懊惱地回憶享樂，彷彿那是一種醉酒後犯下的錯誤。

　　但懊悔只會讓心智模糊，而不是受了懲戒。

　　他們應帶著感激回憶享樂，就像回憶夏季的收穫。

　　但如果懊悔使他們得到安慰，那就讓他們獲得慰藉吧。

  And some of your elders remember pleasures with regret like wrongs committed in drunkenness.
      But regret is the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement.
      They should remember their pleasures with gratitude, as they would the harvest of a summer.
      Yet if it comforts them to regret, let them be comforted.

你們中還有一些人既非充滿追求的青年又非沉浸於回憶的老人；

　　他們在對追求和回憶的恐懼中躲避所有的享樂，生怕自己疏遠或冒犯了靈魂。

　　但享樂也存在於他們的生活中，

　　因此即使他們用顫抖的手挖土尋根，他們也能找到寶藏。

　　不過請告訴我，有誰能冒犯靈魂呢？

 And there are among you those who are neither young to seek nor old to remember;
      And in their fear of seeking and remembering they shun all pleasures, lest they neglect the spirit or offend against it.
      But even in their foregoing is their pleasure.
      And thus they too find a treasure though they dig for roots with quivering hands.
      But tell me, who is he that can offend the spirit?

夜駕會冒犯靜夜，螢火蟲會冒犯星空麼？

　　你們的火炮和煙雲會冒犯風麼？

　　莫非你們以為靈魂是一地你們用一根木棍就可以攪亂的死水？

　　當你們極力抗拒享樂時，你們實際上是將享樂的慾望存儲在一個休眠的自我中。

　　誰不知道今天似乎被冷落的會等待到明天？

 Shall the nightingale offend the stillness of the night, or the firefly the stars?
      And shall your flame or your smoke burden the wind?
      Think you the spirit is a still pool which you can trouble with a staff?
      Oftentimes in denying yourself pleasure you do but store the desire in the recesses of your being.
      Who knows but that which seems omitted today, waits for tomorrow?

即使是你們的身體也瞭解自己的天然本性和合理需求，不會被蒙蔽。

　　你們的身體是你們靈魂的琴瑟，

　　它會發出甜美動人的音樂，

　　或者嘈雜之聲，那全在你。

Even your body knows its heritage and its rightful need and will not be deceived. And your body is the harp of your soul,
      And it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.

現在你們心中疑惑：「我們如何辨別享樂中的好與環呢？」

　　到你們的田園中去，你們就會知道採集花蜜是蜜蜂的樂趣，

　　而對於花朵，為蜜蜂提供蜜也是樂趣。

　　因為花朵對於蜜蜂是生命的源泉，

　　蜜蜂對於花朵是愛的使者，

　　對於兩者，蜜蜂與花朵，奉獻與接受的歡樂既是需要，也是無比情願。

 And now you ask in your heart, "How shall we distinguish that which is good in pleasure from that which is not good?"
      Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,
      But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.
      For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,
      And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,
      And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.

奧法利斯城的人們，像花朵和蜜蜂那樣享受你們的歡樂吧！

People of Orphalese, be in your pleasures like the flowers and the bees.

Dr. Lotus King Weiss also provided a comment on this assay in the area of male-female relationship in the world and the importance of Chinese traditional culture and the Cultivation Culture in helping modern people to manage and transform the innate human needs in the area of desire and lust.