《美食祈祷和恋爱》Chapter 66 (146):第四境状态

The topic of the retreat, and its goal, is the turiya state—the elusive fourth level of human consciousness. During the typical human experience, say the Yogis, Most of us are always moving between three different levels of consciousness—waking, dreaming or deep dreamless sleep. But there is a fourth level, too. This fourth level is the witness of all the other states, the integral awareness that links the other three levels together. This is the pure consciousness, an intelligent awareness that can—for example—report your dreams back to you in the morning when you wake up. You were gone, you were sleeping, but somebody was watching over your dreams while you slept—who was that witness? And who is the one who is always standing outside the mind's activity, observing its thoughts? It's simply God, say the Yogis. And if you can move into that state of witness-consciousness, then you can be present with God all the time. This constant awareness and experience of the God-presence within can only happen on a fourth level of human consciousness, which is called turiya.

静修主题的目标，是“第四境”（turiya）状态——难以捉摸的第四意识层。瑜伽士说，典型的人类经验，始终游走在三种不同的意识层之间——清醒、梦境，或无梦境的沉睡。然而另有第四个层次。这第四层见证其他三种状态，是将其他三个层次连接起来的整体意识。这种纯粹的整体意识可以——举例来说——在你清晨醒来的时候汇报你的梦境。你进入梦乡，你睡着了，但有人趁你沉睡时看守你的梦境——谁是这个目击者？是谁始终站在脑部活动之外、观察其思维？你若能进入此种目击意识状态，就能时时刻刻与神同在。这种不断意识并体验内心存在的神，只能发生在第四个意识层，此即“第四境”。

Here's how you can tell if you've reached the turiya state—if you're in a state of constant bliss. One who is living from within turiya is not affected by the swinging moods of the mind, nor fearful of time or harmed by loss. "Pure, clean, void, tranquil, breathless, selfless, endless, undecaying, steadfast, eternal, unborn, independent, he abides in his own greatness," say the Upanishads, the ancient Yogic scriptures, describing anyone who has reached the turiya state. The great saints, the great Gurus, the great prophets of history—they were all living in the turiya state, all the time. As for the rest of us, most of us have been there, too, if only for fleeting moments. Most of us, even if only for two minutes in our lives, have experienced at some time or another an inexplicable and random sense of complete bliss, unrelated to anything that was happening in the outside world. One instant, you're just a regular Joe, schlepping through your mundane life, and then suddenly—what is this?—nothing has changed, yet you feel stirred by grace, swollen with wonder, overflowing with bliss. Everything—for no reason whatsoever—is perfect.

如何去分辨是否达到第四境状态，是否处在永恒的幸福状态？活在第四境的人不受波动的情绪影响，不畏惧时间，不因失去而受伤。“纯净、空无、平静、无声、无私、无尽、不化、坚定、永恒、清纯、独立，而且能恪守自身的伟大”——古瑜伽经《奥义书》（Upanishads）如此描述达到第四境状态的人。历史上的伟大圣人、伟大导师、伟大先知——他们始终活在第四境状态。至于大多数的我们也到过那儿，即使只是短暂的片刻。我们多数人——即使一辈子只是短短两分钟时间——都经历过某种无法解释、随机而发的完全幸福感，和外在世界发生的一切毫不相干。这一刻，你只是普通人，过自己的平凡生活，突然间——这是怎么回事？——一切还是老样子，然而你觉得蒙神感召，惊叹万分，充满幸福。一切——毫无理由地——都十全十美。

Of course, for most of us this state passes as fast as it came. It's almost like you are shown your inner perfection as a tease and then you tumble back to "reality" very quickly, collapsing into a heap upon all your old worries and desires once again. Over the centuries, people have tried to hold on to that state of blissful perfection through all sorts of external means—through drugs and sex and power and adrenaline and the accumulation of pretty things—but it doesn't keep. We search for happiness everywhere, but we are like Tolstoy's fabled beggar who spent his life sitting on a pot of gold, begging for pennies from every passerby, unaware that his fortune was right under him the whole time. Your treasure—your perfection—is within you already. But to claim it, you must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego and enter into the silence of the heart. The kundalini shakti—the supreme energy of the divine—will take you there.

当然，对我们大部分的人来说，此一状态来得快、去得也快，就像挑动你发现自己的内在完美，却又让你迅速跌回“现实”，再度倒在原先的烦恼和欲望中。几个世纪以来，人们试图藉由各种外来方式抓住此种幸福的完美状态——通过药品、性爱、权力、感官刺激、积攒漂亮的东西——却无法永久保有。我们四处寻找快乐，却好比托尔斯泰故事中的乞丐，一辈子坐在一坛金子上，跟过路人讨钱，却不知财富始终在自己手中。你的财富——你的完美——已存在自己内心。若想领取，你就得远离繁乱的脑袋，舍弃自我的种种欲求，走入心的寂静。“昆达利尼莎克蒂”——神的至高能量——将带领你。