间接引用自肯·威尔伯《超越死亡-恩宠与勇气》中在崔雅最艰难时，肯给崔雅读的。有点像奇迹课程。

“可以为我念《心无疆界》中的‘观者练习’那章吗?”某天傍晚，她突然这么对我说。这是我在几年前所写的书；觉照练习这一章讲的是世上许多伟大的重视神秘体验者，所采用的超越身心限制，体证觉性或目睹的各种方法。这是我从精神综合学派的创始者罗贝多·阿萨吉欧利(Roberto Assagioli)那儿撷取的观点，是标准的自我探究的方法，也就是对“我是谁?”的探索，把这个方法发扬光大的应该算是拉马纳尊者。

　　“亲爱的，当我念的时候，尽可能去领会其中的意涵。”

　　我有一副身体，但我并非自己的躯体，我能看见、感觉到自己的躯体，然而这些可以被看见与感觉到的东西并不是真正的观者。我的身体可能疲惫或兴奋，可能生病或健康，可能沉重或轻盈，也可能焦虑或平静，但这与内在的真我，也就是目睹或看全然无关。我有一副身体，但我并非自己的身体。

　　我有欲望，但我并非自己的欲望。我能知晓自己的欲望，然而那可以被知晓的并不是真正的知者。欲望来来去去，不会影响到内在的我，我有欲望，但我并非自己的欲望。

　　我有情感，但我并非自己的情感。我能感觉与知觉自己的情感，然而那可以被感觉与知觉的并不是真正的“感觉者”。情感流贯我，却不会影响内在的我，也就是那看或目睹。我有情感，但我并非自己的情感。

　　我有思维，但我并非自己的思维。我能看见与知晓自己的思维，然而那可以被知晓的并不是真正的知者。思维的生减，都不会影响内在的我。

　　接着，尽可能具体地肯定：我就是那仅存的纯粹的觉知，是所有思维、情感、感觉与知觉的见证。

　  当我们体会超个人的目睹或观照时，就会开始放掉个人的问题、忧虑与担心。其实，我们并不是要解决自己的问题与苦恼，我们唯一关切的是去‘看’某个特定的苦恼，单纯而没有任何知见地看着，不去评断、闪躲、强化、持续或抗拒它们。当感觉或知觉生起时，我们注视着它，对于这种感觉的嗔意生起时，我们也注意着它，如果恨这份嗔意的反应生起，我们仍旧注意着它，什么也不做，如果有任何造作生起，我们还是注意着它。存在这所有苦恼中的是‘无评判的觉察’，我们必须理解这些苦恼没有一样是我们的真我，也就是目睹或观照的本身。只要我们执著于这些苦恼，就会产生微细的想要操控它们的欲望，而我们为解决苦恼所采取的每一个行动，只会强化我们‘就是’苦恼的幻觉。所以原本想要避开苦恼，反而加深了苦恼，或使苦恼永远存在。

　　我们不与苦恼相抗，只是以一种疏离而完整的纯然觉察来面对它。许多重视神秘体验者与智者都喜欢把这种觉察的状态比成一面镜子。我们只是单纯地反映那些生起的感觉或思维，而不去固着或推开它们，就像一面镜子完整、毫不偏颇地反映那些存在于它面前的事物。如同庄子所言：‘至人用心若镜，不将不迎，应而不藏。’

　　“再推广下去，如果你能确实明白你并非自己的忧虑时，那些烦恼与忧虑就不再威胁你了。即使忧虑依然存在，它也不再淹没你，因为你已经完全与它无关了。你不再惧怕它、反抗它或逃避它。更彻底地说，你完全接纳焦虑，并且允许它自由活动。你没有因它的存在或消失而获得或损失什么，你只是单纯地旁观它从你的眼前经过，就像仰望天际，看着云朵从眼前飘过一样。

　　“因此，任何搅扰你的那些情感、知觉、思维、记忆或经验，都只是在阻碍你认识真我，认识那目睹和看的本身，而对治这些搅扰的最终解脱方法就是不认同它们。你要很彻底地把它们放下，明白它们并不是你——因为你可以看见它们，所以它们不是真正的观者，正因为它们不是你的真我，所以你没有任何理由去认同它们、抓住它们，或允许自己受它们的捆绑。客观目睹这些状态就是超越它们。

　　“如果你持续不断地进行这项练习，你的领悟就会加速，你对‘私我’的认识也会开始改变。你会感受到一份深刻的自由、光明与解放，即使周围正刮着忧虑与苦难的旋风，这个‘旋风的中心’仍能保持一份清醒的宁静。发现这个目睹的中心，就像纵身跳进波涛汹涌的大海，潜入那沉静而安宁的海底一般。刚开始时，你也许只能潜入几尺深，如果你持续下去，就可以潜入灵魂的深处，放松地躺在底端，以警醒而疏离的态度看着上面的波动。”

“或许，我们可以用这样的方式来了解这些重视神秘体验者的根本洞见——人人都具备了相同的自我和见证。也许你像大部分人一样觉得你和昨日的自己是同一个人，和一年前的你是同一个人。你觉得自己和过去的你完全是同一个人。换句话说，在你的记忆里，你从没有一刻不是你。然而可以肯定的是，你的身体已经和一年前不同，今日的觉受也和过去不一样了，你今天记得的东西和10年前也截然不同了。你的心智、身体和感觉都已经随着时间改变。但有某个东西是不变的，你也知道这个东西一直没有改变，自始至终它给你的感觉都是一样的。这是什么?

　　“一年前的此刻，你所关心的事、问题、当下的经验以及思想是完全不同的。这一切都消失了，但你心中有一样东西留下来了。让我们进一步来看，如果你搬到一个完全不同的国家，你会有新的朋友、新的环境、新的经验与新的思想，虽然如此，你仍旧保有基本的内在真我感。但更进一步说，如果你遗忘了人生中的最前10年、15年或20年的话，情况又如何呢?你仍然感觉有一个相同的自我，是不是?就算你只是暂时遗忘了过去发生在你身上的‘每一件’事，只是感觉有一个纯粹的内在真我，那么到底有没有‘任何’东西改变了?

　　“简单地说，你内在有某种东西——那份深刻的内在真我感——它不是记忆、思维、心智、身体、经验、环境、感觉、冲突、知觉或情绪。这所有的一切都会改变，这些改变并不会对内在的真我产生实质的影响。这个真我就是后人本的见证或者目睹，它不会随着时间的流逝而消失。

　　“那么，想领悟每一个有意识的生命都有相同的内在真我是非常困难的吗?这个超越的真我是万象一体的吗?我们已经说过，如果你没有一个不同的身体，你仍然有一个不变的真我，其他的人在当下的感觉都是相同的。那我们是否可以这么说，有个独一无二的真我呈现出各种不同的观点、记忆、感觉和知觉?

　　“不仅是当下，更是在每个时刻，包括过去和未来。因为你可以很清楚地感觉到(即使你的记忆、心智与身体都发生了改变)，你与20年前的自己其实是同一个人(不是相同的私我或身体，而是相同的真我)，那么，你难道无法同时感觉到两百年前那个相同的真我吗?如果真我不依赖于记忆，那又将意味着什么?物理学家薛定谔曾经说过，‘这些被视为自己的知识、感觉与选择，并不是在不久前的某个时刻从虚无跳进存在中的；相反的，这些知识、感觉与选择基本上都是恒常不变地存在于所有人、甚至是一切有知觉的众生身上。你的存在几乎和岩石一样古老，数千年以来，男人就必须努力从事生产，女人必须忍受生育儿女的痛苦，或许一百年前某个人也处在这样的情况中，和你一样，他在冰河旁怀着敬畏之心望着暮色的消沉，和你一样，他也是母亲生的，由父母生养的，和你一样，他也感觉到痛苦与短暂的欢愉，他会是其他人吗?他难道不就是你自己吗?’

　　“我们或许会说他不可能是我，因为我无法记忆当时所发生的事。这个说法犯了一个以记忆来确认真我的严重错误，我们必须明了的是，真我并非记忆，而是记忆的见证或目睹。你可能无法记忆上个月所发生的事，但你仍然有真我感。如果你无法记忆上个世纪所发生的事，那又如何?你仍旧拥有那份超越的真我感，这个真我在整个宇宙中是独一无二的，它与每一个新生儿的我是相同的。我们觉得它不同，是因为我们把它误认为个人的记忆、心智和身体。

　　“然而，那个内在的真我究竟是什么?它不随着你的身体而生，也不随着死亡而逝，它不认识时间，也没有苦恼，它没有颜色、形状、组织、大小，然而它却能看见出现在你眼前的世界。它能看见太阳、云朵、星辰与月亮，它自己却不能被看见。它能听见鸟叫、虫鸣和瀑布的高唱，自己却不能被听见。它能抓住落叶、古老的岩石、扭结的树枝，但它自己却不能被抓住。

　　“你不要试图看见自己超越性的自我，那是徒劳无功的。你的眼睛可以看见它自己吗?你需要做的是尽量摆脱自己对记忆、心智、身体、情感与思维的错误认同。这摆脱不能经由超人式的努力或理论而达到。你只需要了解一件事，那就是：你所看见的任何东西都无法成为看见的本身，你所知道的有关自己的每一件事都不是大我。这个内在的真我无法被觉知、界定或以任何方式使其成为一个客体。更进一步地说，在你与真实的大我接触时，你并不能看见任何东西，你只能单纯地感受到一种内在的自由、解脱与开放，它没有限制、压迫，也没有客体的存在。佛家称之为‘空无’。真实的大我不是一个东西，而是体认到一份透明的开放感，或不再认同任何的客体或事件，束缚其实就是目睹者对可见事物的错误认同，只要把这种错误的认同逆转过来，便可以轻易地获得自由。

　　“这是一种简单而困难的练习，然而它的结果却能构筑今生的解脱，因为超越性的大我无论在何处都被视为神圣者的光辉。原则上，你那超越的大我与神同一个本质，神只是透过你的眼睛去看，透过你的耳朵去听，透过你的唇舌去说。否则圣·克雷蒙怎么会说出‘认识自己就是认识神’这句话呢?

　　“无论美洲印第安人、道教、印度教、伊斯兰教、佛教或基督教的圣者、智者与重神秘体验论者，都有类似的名言：‘你灵魂的底层就是人类共通的灵魂，它是神圣的、超越的，它能把你从束缚引领到解脱，从梦境引领到觉醒，从时间引领到永恒，从死亡引领到不朽。’”

　　“这真是美极了，亲爱的，你知道的，这对我目前的情况实在是意义重大，”她说，“它们已经不再是一堆文字了。”

　　“我知道，亲爱的，我知道。”

"Read me the Witness exercise from No Boundary, would you?" she said around 6:00 P.M. This was a book I had written several years earlier; the Witness exercise was a summary of some of the ways that the world's greatest mystics have used in order to move beyond the body and mind and find instead the Witness. This particular version I had adapted from Roberto Assagioli, founder of Psychosynthesis, but it's a standard technique of self-inquiry – the primordial inquiry "Who am I?" – perhaps made most famous by Sri Ramana Maharshi.

"Sweetheart, as I read this, try to realize the meaning of each sentence as clearly as you can."

I have a body, but I am not my body. I can see and feel my body, and what can be seen and felt is not the true Seer. My body may be tired or excited, sick or healthy, heavy or light, anxious or calm, but that has nothing to do with my inward I, the Witness. I have a body, but I am not my body.

I have desires, but I am not my desires. I can know my desires, and what can be known is not the true Knower. Desires come and go, floating through my awareness, but they do not affect my inward I, the Witness. I have desires but I am not desires.

I have emotions, but I am not my emotions. I can feel and sense my emotions, and what can be felt and sensed is not the true Feeler. Emotions pass through me, but they do not affect my inward I, the Witness. I have emotions, but I am not emotions.

I have thoughts, but I am not my thoughts. I can see and know my thoughts, and what can be known is not the true Knower. Thoughts come to me and thoughts leave me, but they do not affect my inward I, the Witness. I have thoughts but I am not my thoughts.

Then affirm as concretely as you can: I am what remains, a pure center of awareness, an unmoved Witness of all these thoughts, emotions, feelings, and sensations.

"Thus, as we begin to touch the transpersonal Witness, we begin to let go of our purely personal problems, worries, and concerns. In fact, we don't even try to solve our problems or distresses. Our only concern here is to watch our particular distresses, to simply and innocently be aware of them, without judging them, avoiding them, dramatizing them, working on them, or resisting them. As a feeling or sensation arises, we witness it. If hatred of that feeling arises, we witness that. If hatred of the hatred arises, then we witness that. Nothing is to be done, but if a doing arises, we witness that. Abide as 'choiceless awareness' in the midst of all distresses. This is possible only when we understand that none of them constitute our real self, the Witness. As long as we are attached to them, there will be an effort, however subtle, to manipulate them. Every move we make to solve a distress simply reinforces the illusion that we are that particular distress. Thus, ultimately, to try to escape a distress merely perpetuates that distress.

"Instead of fighting a distress, then, we simply assume the innocence of a detached impartiality toward it. The mystics and sages are fond of likening this state of witnessing to a mirror. We simply reflect any sensations or thoughts that arise without clinging to them or pushing them away, just as a mirror perfectly and impartially reflects whatever passes in front of it. Says Chuang Tzu, 'The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing; it refuses nothing; it receives, but does not keep.'

"To the extent that you actually realize that you are not, for example, your anxieties, then your anxieties no longer threaten you. Even if anxiety is present, it no longer overwhelms you because you are no longer exclusively tied to it. You are no longer fighting it, resisting it, or running from it. In the most radical fashion, anxiety is thoroughly accepted as it is and allowed to move as it will. You have nothing to lose, nothing to gain, by its presence or absence, for you are simply watching it pass by, as you might watch clouds pass by in the sky.

"Thus, any emotion, sensation, thought, memory, or experience that disturbs you is simply one with which you have exclusively identified yourself, identified your Witness, and the ultimate resolution of the disturbance is simply to disidentify with it. You cleanly let all of them drop away by realizing that they are not you – since you can see them, they cannot be the true Seer. Since they are not your real self, there is no reason whatsoever for you to identify with them, hold on to them, or allow your self to be bound by them. To witness these states is to transcend them. They no longer seize you from behind because you look at them up front.

"If you persist at such an exercise, the understanding contained in it will quicken and you might begin to notice fundamental changes in your sense of 'self.' For example, you might begin intuiting a deep inward sense of freedom, lightness, release. This source, this 'center of the cyclone,' will retain its lucid stillness even amid the raging winds of anxiety and suffering that might swirl around its center. The discovery of this witnessing center is very much like diving from the calamitous waves on the surface of a stormy ocean to the quiet and secure depths of the bottom. At first you might not get more than a few feet beneath the agitated waves of emotion, but with persistence you may gain the ability to dive fathoms into the quiet depths of your soul, and lying outstretched at the bottom, gaze up in alert but detached fashion at the turmoil on the surface."

"Perhaps we can approach this fundamental insight of the mystics – that there is but one immortal Self or Witness common in and to us all – in this way. Perhaps you, like most people, feel that you are basically the same person you were yesterday. You probably also feel that you are fundamentally the same person you were a year ago. Indeed, you still seem to be the same you as far back as you can remember. Put it another way: you never remember a time when you weren't you. In other words, something in you seems to remain untouched by the passage of time. But surely your body is not the same as it was even a year ago. Surely also your sensations are different today than in the past. Surely, too, your memories are on the whole different today than a decade ago. Your mind, your body, your feelings – all have changed with time. But something has not changed, and you know that something has not changed. Something feels the same. What is that?

"This time a year ago you had different concerns and basically different problems. Your immediate experiences were different, and so were your thoughts. All of these have vanished, but something in you remains. Go one step further. What if you moved to a completely different country, with new friends, new surroundings, new experiences, new thoughts. You would still have that basic inner feeling of I-ness. Further yet, what if you right now forgot the first ten years, or fifteen years, or twenty years of your life? You would still feel that same inner I-ness, would you not? If right now you just temporarily forget everything that happened in your past, and just feel that pure inner I-ness – has anything really changed?

"There is, in short, something within you – that deep inward sense of I-ness – that is not memory, thoughts, mind, body, experience, surroundings, feelings, conflicts, sensations, or moods. For all of these have changed and can change without substantially affecting that inner I-ness. That is what remains untouched by the flight of time – and that is the transpersonal Witness and Self.

"Is it then so very difficult to realize that every conscious being has that same inner I-ness? And that, therefore, the overall number of transcendent I's is but one? We have already surmised that if you had a different body you would still basically feel the same I-ness – but that is already the very same way every other person feels right now. Isn't it just as easy to say there is but one single I-ness or Self taking on different views, different memories, different feelings and sensations?

"And not just at this time, but at all times, past and future. Since you undoubtedly feel (even though your memory, mind, and body are different) that you are the same person of twenty years ago (not the same ego or body, but the same I-ness), couldn't you also be the same I-ness of two hundred years ago? If I-ness isn't dependent upon memories, what difference would it make? In the words of physicist Schroedinger, 'It is not possible that this unity of knowledge, feeling and choice that you call your own should have sprung into being from nothingness at a given moment not so long ago; rather this knowledge, feeling and choice are essentially eternal and unchangeable and numerically one in all men, nay in all sensitive beings. The conditions for your existence are almost as old as the rocks. For thousands of years men have striven and suffered and begotten and women have brought forth in pain. A hundred years ago, perhaps, another man sat on this spot; like you he gazed with awe and yearning in his heart at the dying light on the glaciers. Like you he was begotten of man and born of woman. He felt pain and brief joy as you do. Was he someone else? Was it not you yourself?'

"Ah, we say, that couldn't have been me, because I can't remember what happened then. But that is to make the terrible mistake of identifying I-ness with memories, and we just saw that I-ness is not memory but the witness of memory. Besides, you probably can't even remember what happened to you last month, but you are still I-ness. So what if you can't remember what happened last century? You are still that transcendent I-ness, and that I – there is only one in the whole cosmos – is the same I which awakens in every newborn being, the same I which looked out from our ancestors and will look out from our descendants – one and the same I. We feel they are different only because we make the error of identifying the inward and transpersonal I-ness with the outward and individual memory, mind, and body, which indeed are different.

"But as for that inward I . . . indeed, what is that? It was not born with your body, nor will it perish upon death. It does not recognize time nor cater to its distresses. It is without color, without shape, without form, without size, and yet it beholds the entire majesty before your own eyes. It sees the sun, clouds, stars and moon, but cannot itself be seen. It hears the birds, the crickets, the singing waterfall, but cannot itself be heard. It grasps the fallen leaf, the crusted rock, the knotted branch, but cannot itself be grasped.

"You needn't try to see your transcendent self, which is not possible anyway. Can your eye see itself? You need only begin by persistently dropping your false identifications with your memories, mind, body, emotions, and thoughts. And this dropping entails nothing by way of super-human effort or theoretical comprehension. All that is required, primarily, is but one understanding: whatever you can see cannot be the Seer. Everything you know about yourself is precisely not your Self, the Knower, the inner I-ness that can neither be perceived, defined, nor made an object of any sort. To the extent you contact your true Self, you don't see anything, you simply sense an inner expanse of freedom, of release, of openness, which is an absence of limits, absence of constraints, absence of objects. The Buddhists call it 'emptiness.' The true Self is not a thing but a transparent openness or emptiness free of identification with particular objects or events. Bondage is nothing but the mis-identification of the Seer with all these things that can be seen. And liberation begins with the simple reversal of this mistake.

"This is a simple but arduous practice, yet its results are said to constitute nothing less than liberation in this life, for the transcendent Self is everywhere acknowledged as a ray of the Divine. In principle, your transcendent Self is of one nature with God (however you might wish to conceive it). For it is finally, ultimately, profoundly, God alone who looks through your eyes, listens with your ears, and speaks with your tongue. How else could St. Clement maintain that he who knows himself knows God?

"This, then, is the message of the saints, sages, and mystics, whether Amerindian, Taoist, Hindu, Islamic, Buddhist, or Christian: At the bottom of your soul is the soul of humanity itself, but a divine, transcendent soul, leading from bondage to liberation, from dream to awakening, from time to eternity, from death to immortality."

"That's beautiful, honey. It takes on a really urgent meaning for me now, you know," she said. "Those are no longer just words to me."

"I know, sweetheart, I know."