選自：http://www.facimoutreach.org/
施宏揚‧林慧如合譯
關於自殺
以下這4個問題都是有關“自殺”的議題，在此一併回答：
1. 可否請你以「奇蹟課程」的觀點談談“自殺”這個問題？
2. 由「課程」的觀點來看，怎樣才是面對自殺的“正確”心態？
3. 我祖父自殺了。既然死亡只是我們與上主分裂後的一個幻覺。那麼自殺有錯？還是說，自殺時覺得與上主分裂的那種心態是錯的？當一個人真的自殺後，他會怎樣呢？人們離開了這個虛幻的世界後，是否會自然地與上主合一呢？
4. 我內人近日自殺了。她和我以前都是「課程」的學員。有時我納悶，倘若這一切都是幻覺，那我們為何還要繼續活下去？為什麼我們還要跟這場人生奮戰，怎麼說它都不屬於「真實世界」，不是嗎？這一切究竟為了什麼？
Q #135: The following four questions all address the issue of suicide and so will be answered together:
i. Could you please comment on the Course's view on suicide?
ii. What is the "right" way to cope with suicide, seen through the eyes of A Course in Miracles?
iii. My grandfather committed suicide. Death, our separation from God -- it’s all an illusion. So is suicide wrong? Or is it the state of mind -- feeling separated from God -- while committing suicide that is wrong? What happens if one does commit suicide? Do people automatically become one with God when they are not in the illusion of the world?
iv. My wife recently committed suicide. She and I were students of A Course in Miracles. Sometimes I wonder, if all this is an illusion, what is the purpose of our staying alive? Why should we struggle with this life that is not part of the real world anyway? What is the purpose of any of this?
答：從「課程」的觀點來看，每個死亡事實上都是自殺。如同耶穌說的「沒有人會死亡，除非他選擇死亡」(T.19.IV.C.1:4)，之後又提到「沒有人能夠不經自己的同意就死的。沒有一件發生的事不是出自你的願望，你所選擇的，一樣都少不了。」(W.pI.152.1:4,5)
A: From the perspective of the Course, every death is really suicide. For, as Jesus explains, "No one can die unless he chooses death" (T.19.IV.C.1:4), and again later, "No one dies without his own consent. Nothing occurs but represents your wish, and nothing is omitted that you choose" (W.pI.152.1:4,5).
但課程也清楚說明了，死亡只是心識裡的一個念頭而已，與身體無關(e.g., W.pI.163.1:1; W.pI.167.2:1,2,3)。小我之所以會有這種瘋狂卻虛幻不實的念頭，是因它相信可以藉此攻擊上主，為的是要從祂那兒奪取一個獨立的身份。這樣的想法，不僅代表了謀殺（宣判上主之死），也代表了自殺（宣判基督自性之死）。所以，由此瘋狂的想法衍生出來在這肉體世界的種種行為，是不可能真實或正常的。
But the Course also makes it clear that death is a thought in the mind that has nothing to do with the body (e.g., W.pI.163.1:1; W.pI.167.2:1,2,3). For the ego itself has its origins in an insane but illusory thought of death -- the belief that we can attack God in order to wrest a separate individual self from Him. Such a thought represents not only murder -- the death of God -- but also suicide -- the death of our true Self as Christ. And so whatever follows in the world of bodies and behavior from this initial insane thought can be no more real or sane.
「課程」總要求我們把焦點放在本質與目的上，而非形式與表相，因此，世上從小我的想法所衍生出來的各種死亡，我們都應一視同仁。小我在死亡底下隱藏的目的就是要證明天人分裂是真的，到頭來，上主終究以勝利者的姿態取回我們從祂那兒偷來的生命。我們可以持續抵抗，直到我們不得不屈服於外在這更強大的力量，要不然就乾脆向命運低頭，自行了斷算了。死亡將以哪一種形式出現，非關緊要，因為本質都一樣－－我們這羸弱而痛苦的生命只能暫時借用一陣子，之後我們勢必會失去它。
Because the Course always asks us to focus on content and purpose rather than form and appearance, all death in the world that comes from an ego thought will be viewed in exactly the same light. The ego’s purpose in all death is to prove that the separation is real and that, in the end, God triumphs over us by taking back from us the life that we have stolen from Him. We can either resist until we finally succumb to more powerful external forces, or we can resign ourselves to our fate and yield to death by our own hands. What form death may come in then does not matter, for the content is always the same -- our puny, painful life is ours only for a limited time before we inevitably must lose it.
另一方面，我們若與耶穌或聖靈一起去看，所有的死亡（包括自殺）只在形式上有所不同，但與我們在這世界裡所作的其他一切決定，本質上並無不同，因整個世界都是奠基於我們視自己為分裂、孤獨、痛苦、脆弱及受害的心態上。然而，我們會知道這種看法是有問題的，它是建立在一個錯誤的前提上：認定自己是這具肉體，困在一個非我們所造的惡劣且殘酷的世界裡，絕望地與種種難以跨越的障礙搏鬥，試圖在這無助且非我們能操控的處境下竊取些許平安與快樂。
On the other hand, looking with Jesus or the Holy Spirit, we would see all death, including suicide, as no different in content, but only in form, from every other choice we ever make here in the world that is based on our perception of ourselves as separate and alone, in pain, vulnerable and victimized. And yet we would know that that perception is false, based as it is on a faulty premise about ourselves, that we are this body, trapped in a harsh, cruel world, not of our making, desperately battling against insurmountable odds to find a little peace and happiness in a hopeless situation over which we have no control.
絕大多數的世俗觀點，都賦予了自殺某種罪名及負面的道德判斷，但那只不過是小我的一種自我防衛，為的是鞏固獨立自我的生命及那個自我的死亡都是真的這一想法。從「課程」的觀點來看，自殺背後的那個想法，只要是出自小我，就是一個錯誤，如此而已，它不是罪（耶穌說得很清楚，死亡也可以是在聖靈的引導下所做的決定），也不會要人承擔任何負面後果，跟我們以小我為師所做的其他決定並無任何不同，它們都是用來加深內疚的，下意識裡想盡辦法讓我們緊抓著內疚不放，就是要證明分裂果然是真的。因此，自殺這個錯誤與我們選擇降生到這世界的錯誤，並沒兩樣。兩者處理內疚的方法如出一撤，就是把注意力放在外頭這看似存在的世界與肉體上，以確保自己找不到出路。我們企圖解決世界的分裂問題，好似是這世界出了問題，而非我們的心。其實，心靈才是真正的問題所在，它才是這瘋狂的分裂一念隱藏之處。
From most of the world’s perspective, suicide has a stigma and a negative moral judgment associated with it, but that is simply part of the ego’s defense which insists that both life as a separate self and death of that self are real. From the Course’s perspective, the thought behind suicide, if it is ego-based [Jesus also makes clear that death can be chosen with the guidance of the Holy Spirit (M.12.5; S.3.II)], is a mistake, an error, but that is all. It is not a sin, nor does it entail any negative consequences any different from any other decision we make with the ego as our teacher -- they all reinforce the guilt we unconsciously are wanting to keep alive in our mind to prove that the separation is real. And so suicide is no more of a mistake than the mistake we made in choosing to be born into the world. In both cases, we are trying to deal with the problem of the guilt in our mind by focusing on the seemingly external world and our body, guaranteeing that we will not find a solution. We are attempting to solve the problem of separation in the world, as if the world were the problem, rather than in the mind, where the real problem -- the insane thought of separation -- is buried.
因此，不論我們是自殺或是以其他方式死亡，只要我們還相信死亡是真的，我們就仍會困在這小我強加在我們身上的分裂信念裡。死亡無法讓我們從小我的思想體系中解脫出來，也無法從這世界（即小我的防禦堡壘）中解脫出來。只有與耶穌或始終在我們身旁的聖靈一起，以不帶批判的眼光去看小我的思想體系，並做出一勞永逸的決定－－從此不再重視分裂的信念了，這樣便能幫我們回到與上主一體的經驗裡。因為世界無法奪走我們任何東西，只有我們選擇分裂的這個決定才會。
And so, whether we commit suicide or we die in any other way, believing that death is real, we will remain trapped in the self-imposed ego belief in separation. Death does not deliver us from the ego thought system, nor from the world that is its defense. Only looking at the ego thought system with the nonjudgmental presence of Jesus or the Holy Spirit beside us and deciding once and for all that the idea of separation holds no value for us can return us to the experience of our oneness with God. For the world is not depriving us of anything -- only our choice to be separate is.
僅管這世界是個幻，但只要我們還個別活在這兒（也就是我們認為從生到死的這個生命），我們就不會相信它是幻。若我們真的相信，而深切知道世界存在的目的是為了攻擊上主也因而攻擊了真正的自我，我們怎麼還會認為我們活在肉體裡？然而，我們的確是那樣過活的－－呼吸、飲食、娛樂等等，因此，僅管我們理智上可能相信「奇蹟課程」所說的，但與我們實際經驗到的是兩回事。
Even though this world is an illusion, as are our individual lives here -- a life we feel is bracketed between birth and death -- we don’t believe it. If we did, and truly knew the world’s purpose was to attack God and therefore our Self, then of course we would never think of ourselves as being in bodies. But the fact that we all live that way -- breathing, eating, drinking, recreating, etc. -- proves that while we might intellectually believe what A Course in Miracles tells us, it is certainly not our experience.
既然我們已降生於此，聖靈便要我們在此學習祂的寬恕課程，當然也包含「死亡是幻」這個終極課程，這世界便因此成了一間教室，供我們在其內快樂地學習祂要教我們的事。愈離開世界，愈強化了世界對我們的真實性而已。畢竟，除非你先把此地當真了，且覺得它了無生趣，否則哪會想離開呢？這也是為什麼耶穌在正文裡告訴我們「有誤把死亡當成平安的危險」(T.27.VII.10:2)。離開這個肉體世界並不會帶來真正的平安，惟有透過練習寬恕來鬆綁心中的內疚方可，因內疚是痛苦與苦難的唯一肇因，也是「死亡是真的」這個信念的肇因。因此，只要我們願意，我們可以踏著寬恕的步伐（快慢由自己決定），一小步一小步地前進，寬恕終將帶領我們回到那榮耀且永恆的自性那兒，我們是毀不了他的，即使我們愚蠢地退化到死亡的幻相裡，祂仍永遠是我們的真實身份。
Therefore, the Holy Spirit’s purpose for our being here, once we have been born, is to have us learn His lessons of forgiveness, including the ultimate lesson that death is unreal. The world then becomes a classroom in which we happily learn what He is teaching us. Wanting to leave the world simply reinforces its reality for us. After all, who would want to leave a place unless he first believed it were real and unpleasant. That is why Jesus tells us in the text: "There is a risk in thinking death is peace" (T.27.VII.10:2). True peace comes not from leaving the physical world, but only through the practice of forgiveness that undoes the mind’s guilt that is the only cause of pain and suffering, as well as the belief in the reality of death. And so, as we are willing, at the pace we choose, we take the small steps of forgiveness that will return us to the glorious eternal Self that we could never destroy, the Self that has remained our Identity despite our foolish digressions into the illusions of death.
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