何苦受苦?——赛斯谈“受苦”（之四）

何苦受苦?——赛斯谈“受苦”（之一）

何苦受苦?——赛斯谈“受苦”（之二）

何苦受苦?——赛斯谈“受苦”（之三）

“地球是个好地方，但我不想住在那儿。”我相信这是对一句古语的曲解——事实却是，你是物质性的生物，因为你真的喜欢生活在地球上，你真的喜欢这环境。总的来说，你真的享受地球环境所提供的这种特定的挑战，特定的感知、知识和领悟。

从你们的角度看，这环境无疑包含了痛苦。如果喜悦一向是地球经验的一个特性，那么痛苦也一样，而这个主题将在本书中论及。不过，在此我只想提一个方面，即身体觉受的重要性，不论是哪种觉受——因为除了其它东西之外，身体的生命还提供给你一个感受或感觉的生命，一个光谱，这光谱必须在其整体范围内包括所有可能的觉受经验。

现在正如你看到的，所有的生物，不论高下，都能够并且确实在其实相范围内选择了它们将要体验的那些觉受——但在某种程度上，所有的觉受都会被感觉到。举例来说，稍后我们会讨论心智的部分及其对疼痛刺激的诠释，但我想强调的是，那些被肉身生活吸引的人，首先是觉受的品尝者。除此之外，总的来说，对于刺激有种种头脑上的分别。身体天生就是要反应的。身体天生就是要对自身之外的环境作出反应，要遭遇你们称之为自然压力的东西，借此去感受生命与活力。身体维持着它的平衡，借由对抗重力，借由与其它身体接触，借由改变自己的觉受，借由洋洋自得于平衡与不平衡之间。

因此，身体意识被赋予了一种对自身实相的极佳感觉、一种身份的确定感、一种天生的安全感，这使它在物质世界里不仅能够运作，而且能够成长。它被赋予了一种大胆无畏的感觉、一种天然的力量感。它完美地形成以切合环境——而环境也完美地形成以保有这样的生物。

存有，或者说意识的单位——由“一切万有”浩瀚无垠的心理领域爆入客体性的那些古老片段体——无畏无惧，因为它们在时空中欢天喜地地放纵自己。它们创造新的心理存有，打开了“之前”关闭着的一个神圣创造力的区域，因而在那个程度上扩张了“一切万有”的经验及无限存在。在如此放纵自己时，它们当然没被抛弃，因为它们的内在包含了与“一切万有”的固有关系。不妨说，“一切万有”也化为物质，在它神圣的深远处，被每一片从泥土窜入空气的草叶唤醒，被每一个生命的诞生、每一个生物存在的每一刻唤醒。

因此，“一切万有”沉浸在你们的世界里，呈现在每一个假设的点里，并形成了每一部分物质的基本结构。

疼痛虽令人不快，却也是一种方法——通过与加速的意识边缘相擦来熟悉自己的方法。任何一种升高了的觉受，不论舒适与否，对意识都有某种程度的刺激性效果。即使当这刺激可能非常恼人或是令人屈辱的不愉快，心理架构的某些部分却会不分青红皂白地接受它，因为它是一个鲜明的觉受。这种对痛苦刺激的默许是意识本质的一个基本部分，也是必要的部分。

甚至对这样一种刺激的迅速而自动的排拒或退缩，其本身也是意识认识自己的一个方法。自我可能试图逃避这种经验，但行动本身的基本天性是要在所有方面了解自己。以一种很深的说法，行动并不区分快乐和痛苦的行动。

这些差异后来才在另一发展层次上出现。但由于人格是由行动构成的，所以它包含了所有行动的特性。

在最深的细胞层面，所有的觉受和刺激都被即刻、自动、快乐地接受，不论其性质如何。在这个层面，并不存在对威胁的体认。“我”的分化尚不够明确到会害怕毁灭。

"Earth is a nice place, but I wouldn't want to live there." A twist on an old quote, I believe-but the fact is, you are physical creatures because you do like to live on earth, you do like the conditions, you do enjoy overall the particular kind of challenge and the particular kind of perception, knowledge and understanding that the earthly environment provides.

That environment, in your terms, certainly includes suffering. If joy has always been one of the characteristics of earth experience, so has suffering, and the subject will be covered in this book. Here, however, I only want to mention one facet, and that is the importance of physical sensation, of whatever kind-for the life of the body provides you, among all things, with a life of sensation, of feeling, a spectrum that must include the experience of all possible sensations within its overall range.

Now as you will see, all creatures, regardless of their degree, can and do choose, within their spheres of reality, those sensations that they will experience-but to one extent or another all, sensations are felt. We will later discuss the part of the mind and its interpretation, for example, of painful stimuli, but I want to make the point that those attracted to physical life are first and foremost tasters of sensation. Outside of that, basically, there are all kinds of mental distinctions made among stimuli. The body is made to react. It is made to feel life and vitality by reacting to an environment that is not itself, by encountering what you might call natural stress. The body maintains its equilibrium by reacting against gravity, by coming in contact with other bodies, by changing its own sensations, by glorifying in the balance between balance and off-balance.

The body consciousness is therefore given a superb sense of its own reality, a sureness of identity, a sense of innate safety and security, that allows it to not only function but to grow in the physical world. It is endowed with a sense of boldness, daring, a sense of natural power. It is perfectly formed to fit into its environment-and the environment is perfectly formed to have such creatures.

The entities, or units of consciousness-those ancient fragments that burst into objectivity from the vast and infinite psychological realms of All That Is-dared all, for they joyfully abandoned themselves in space and time. They created new psychological entities, opened up an area of divine creativity that "until then" had been closed, and therefore to that degree extended the experience and immense existence of All That Is. For in so abandoning themselves they were not of course abandoned, since they contained within themselves their inherent relationship with All That Is. In those terms All That Is became physical also, aroused at its divine depth by the thrusting of each grass blade through the soil into the air, aroused by each birth and by each moment of each creature's existence.

All That Is, therefore, is immersed within your world, present in each hypothetical point, and forms the very fabric from which each portion of matter is created.

...

While pain is unpleasant, it is also a method of familiarizing the self against the edges of quickened consciousness. Any hightened sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, has a stimulating effect upon consciousness to some degree. It is a strong awareness of activity and life. Even when the stimulus may be extremely annoying or humiliatingly unpleasant, certain portions of the psychological framework accept it undiscriminatingly because it is a vivid sensation. This acquiesence to even painful stimuli is a basic part of the nature of consciousness and a necessary one.

Even a quick and automatic rejection or withdrawal from such a stimulus is, in itself, a way by which consciousness knows itself. The ego may attempt to escape such experiences, but the basic nature of action itself is the knowing of itself in all aspects. In a very deep manner, action does not differentiate between enjoyable and painful actions.

These differentiations come later, on another level of development. But because personality is composed of action, it contains within it all action's characteristics.

At deepest cellular levels, all sensations and stimuli are instantly, automatically and joyfully accepted, regardless of their nature. At this level, no knowledge of threat exists. The “I” differentiation is not definite enough to fear destruction.