赛斯不喜欢被崇拜！

“好，赛斯不喜欢被崇拜，”有天晚上赛斯对我们说。“首先，赛斯了解崇拜者。而且，当一个人了解崇拜者时，他就不会喜欢被崇拜！

“Now, Seth does not dig worship,” Seth said to us one evening. “For one thing, Seth understands worshippers. And, when one understands worshippers, one does not dig worship!

“如果你仔细想想这句话，就会明白那些崇拜者根本不是真的尊敬他们崇拜的对象。因为他们把所有的希望、所有的梦想、所有的不足之处，还有他们为自己的生命应负的所有责任，全都寄托在这个对象上；就算是一个神——一个明智的神——也会拒绝接受这样的崇拜。

“If you will think this sentence over, then you will realize that those who worship do no real honor to the object of their worship. For upon that object, they place all of their hopes, all of their dreams, all of their inadequacies, and all of the responsibility for their lives; and even a god—a sane god—would refuse to accept such a worship.

“这个神也会了解宇宙的本质，以及游戏性创造的本质，而且会知道这样的崇拜——现在说的是它的根本，它的基础——正是对生命活力的一种否定。

“The god would understand also the nature of the universe, and the nature of playful creativity, and would know that such a worship is—at its base now, at its base—a denial of the very vitality of life.

“因为一切万有赋予生物一种最伟大的潜在创造力。一个生物说，‘救救我，主啊，听听我的声音！看看我的罪孽，拯救我脱离罪恶，主宰我的生命——那的确是你赐予的生命，’其实真正说的是，‘哦，主啊，你没有给我推理能力，没有给我自由意志，没有给我力量，没有给我威信，也没有给我善良；而且既然你不对，没有给我所有神圣的美德，那么你倒不如保护我，因为我没有自己的能力，你也没有光荣地用荣誉造就我。你把这个可怜的世界踩在你的大脚之下，因此，保护它是你的责任！’”

“For All That Is endows creatures with a latent capacity for the greatest kind of creativity. And a creature who says, 'Save me, Oh Lord, and hear my voice! Look upon my iniquity and save me from my sin, and rule my life which Thou hast indeed given me,' says really, 'Oh, Lord, Thou hast given me no capacity for reason, no free will, no power, no authority, and no goodness; and since Thou hast wronged me of all the holy virtue, then Thou might as well protect me, for I have no abilities of my own, and Thou hast made me without honor. Therefore, it is Thy duty to preserve the poor world upon which indeed Thy mighty foot is placed!'

“所以，赛斯不喜欢被崇拜……但是崇拜者必须面对他们相信自己正在崇拜的神。因为他们说，‘你制造了一个低劣的产品——一个有缺陷的形象。我是可鄙的，所以，虽然我仰慕你并且说，‘是的，尽管我穿越了死亡之谷，等等，’虽然我说：‘我仰慕你，哦，主啊！’但我的意思是，‘我恨你，因为你将我造成一个低劣的生物，所以我会让你付出代价——因为我的罪孽，哦，主啊，就是你的罪孽。你造就了我的邪恶，我怎么可能善良呢？你造就了我的缺陷，我怎么可能在宇宙中昂首挺胸呢？所以，我跪地爬行，向你表明我无法在你面前直立，因为你造就了我的缺陷！’

“So, Seth does not dig worship…but worshippers have to face the god that they believe they are worshipping. For they are saying, 'You have made an inferior product—a flawed image. I am despicable, and therefore, although I adore you and I say, 'Yea, though I travel through the valley of death, et cetera,' and though I say, 'I adore you, Oh Lord!' what I mean is, 'I hate you because you have created me an inferior creature, and therefore I will make you pay—for my iniquities, Oh Lord, are yours. How can I be good when Thou hast made me evil? How can I hold up my head in the universe, when Thou hast made me flawed? Therefore, do I crawl upon my knees to show you that I cannot stand upright before Thee, for Thou hast made me flawed!'

“这种崇拜者理所当然地认为，神的造物是粗劣的——来自一间不完善的工厂——一条粗制滥造的宇宙生产线。福特汽车会召回有缺陷的产品，所以这样的崇拜者会说，‘哦，主啊，召回人类吧，因为我们有缺陷！’但是，没有人回答，所以似乎……

“Such worshippers take it for granted that the product of God is poor—from an inadequate factory—a poor cosmic assembly line. Ford calls back its products if they are flawed, and so such worshippers say, 'Oh, Lord, call back humanity, for we are flawed!' And, no one answers, so it seems…

“当旧有的答案和旧有的组织，对个人而言不再有任何意义时；当他自己的任何问题在官方的答案里都找不到反映时；那么这个人就会从内在振作起来；而且，就像当初这个文明的诞生一样，其他的文明也会以同样的方式崛起。人类向来都是从内在开始，接着进入心灵去寻求更新的启示；更新是因为它们对人类的源头而言更加新鲜——它们还没有被各种扭曲所侵蚀，也没有被各种组织如此内弯以致失去意义。

“When the old answers and the old organizations no longer have any meaning to the individual; when he can find reflected in the official answers none of his own questions; then the individual rises up from within itself; and, as once this civilization was born, so shall others be born in the same way. And so always from within itself does the race then go within its psyche for newer revelations; newer in that they are fresher to the source of itself—they have not been worn away by distortions and so in-turned by organizations that their meaning has become lost.

“所以你们每个人都来自于你们自己，来自于你们心灵的核心，而文明也将从其大众的心灵中浮现。”

“So you arise out of yourselves individually, and out of the heart of your psyche; and so shall the civilization also emerge out of its mass psyche.”

——摘译自《与赛斯对话》（上）