- 按：此是Maximos神父关于心念之病「The problem of Thoughts」的讲座。讲座十分精彩，会提供讲稿。注：本文参考了DeepL的中译。
- 若要引用本文，请按以下格式：Maximos神父《心念之病》（伦敦：光从东方来，2025年05月09日），阿甲整理修订，本网页网址，引用日期。具体也请参考版权申明
讲座部分
问答部分
正文
心念之病 The Problem of Thoughts
Fr. Maximos Constas, 同传：袁永甲
And we should say at the beginning that whatever we say today.Can only be an introduction. It’s a beginning, it’s a point of entry into a larger subject or a larger which always requires further thought And further study and further contemplation on your part But just to be clear that this is not an exhaustive。Account.But again, just a very basic introduction.
我们应该在一开始就说，我们今天所说的一切只能是一个引子。这是一个开端，是进入一个更大主题或更大范围的一个切入点，而这个主题或范围总是需要你进一步思考、进一步研究和进一步沉思。但需要明确的是，这并不是一个详尽无遗的叙述，而只是一个非常基本的介绍。
so anyone who has tried to practice the jesus prayer will almost immediately experience various thoughts memories, feelings, emotions, and mental images which will enter into our minds and pass through our minds.We use this phrase In English anyway, about the stream of consciousness as if thought was a sort of a moving。River that carried all kinds of things on its surface we sort of feel this stream of consciousness pouring or coursing through us as we just sit in our place and observe our thoughts go by.
任何尝试操练耶稣祷文的人都会很快的意识到，或者说体验到，当他坐在那里的时候，他心里面升起各种念头、记忆、感觉、情绪和心相都会在脑海当中，在他的心中闪过。当我们坐在自己的位置上，观察自己的念头流逝时，我们就会感觉到念流在我们身上涌动或流淌。
When we begin to pray.The thoughts that come to us are usually superficial thoughts fleeting thoughts and will not present to us significant distractions.So for example. I might begin to pray and try to focus and try to be attentive to my prayer But then the thought might come into my mind that thought Well, maybe I left the car windows open and it’s going to rain. Or maybe I left a pot or a teapot on the oven and it’s boiling and I need to go do something about. So usually the first thoughts that come tend to be Like I say, nothing terribly significant, but rather superficial. But those tend to come first these sort of minor distractions.
当我们开始祈祷时，脑海中浮现的念头通常都是肤浅的念头，转瞬即逝，不会让我们产生明显的分心。我可能会开始祷告，并努力集中精力，专心致志地祷告，但随后我的脑海中可能会浮现出这样的念头 好吧，也许我忘了关车窗，要下雨了。或者我把锅或茶壶忘在烤箱上了，它正在沸腾，我得去做点什么。所以，通常最先出现的念头往往就像我说的那样，没什么特别重要的，只是很肤浅。但这些念头往往会先出现在这些小杂念中。
But when the focus of our attention remains within ourselves for a prolonged period of time, we will necessarily unavoidably confronts deeper things within ourselves, deeper thoughts, deeper feelings and these are often the more regrettable aspects of our lives.。Or of our thoughts, unpleasant thoughts, unwelcome thoughts, even shameful thoughts, thoughts, that we would be reluctant to admit to anyone else, and these typically represent places, in life where we have gotten stuck right places in life, where we have gotten stuck where we are not free so we have become attached, to particular thoughts and particular ways of thinking into which we have become habituated, which means we’ve formed the habit of thinking about the world and ourselves in a very particular way, and all of that is based on our thoughts.
但是，当我们的注意力长时间停留在自己的内心时，我们必然会不可避免地面对自己内心更深层次的东西、更深层次的念头、更深层次的感受，而这些往往是我们生活中更令人遗憾的方面。或者是我们的念头，不愉快的念头，不受欢迎的念头，甚至是可耻的念头，我们不愿意向别人承认的念头，这些通常代表着我们在生活中陷入困境的地方，我们无法自由的地方，所以我们变得依恋特定的念头和特定的思维方式，我们已经习惯了这些念头和思维方式，这意味着我们已经形成了以一种非常特定的方式思考世界和我们自己的习惯，而所有这些都是基于我们的念头。
So when we begin to pray, we often have sort of superficial thoughts that distract us, but the longer we pray, we encounter deeper things within us often very uncomfortable things, painful memories, resentments and so forth which is why the teachers of the Jesus prayer, teach the Jesus prayer they say that when you pray first comes the bad and then comes the good first comes the bad, and then comes the good, which means that first we will experience confront our inner darkness. Before we see the light.
因此，当我们开始祈祷时，我们常常会有一些肤浅的念头来分散我们的注意力，但当我们祈祷的时间越长，我们就会遇到我们内心更深层次的东西，这些东西常常是非常不舒服的东西、痛苦的回忆、怨恨等等。这意味着在我们看到光明之前，会首先经历面对内心的黑暗。
if we turn to a writer in the Philokalia, Hesychios of Sinai, he says something very similar.。He says whoa to what is within, from what is without. In other words, how unfortunate is that which I have within myself, which came from what is outside of myself, in other words, our troubled thoughts the inner turmoil that we have the things within. our passions, our obsessions, our fixations, they all have their source in things that are outside of us. They have their source in our relationship and attachment to objects and experiences and things in the world, so woe to what is within for what is originally without, outside the world.
。这句话的意思是，我们烦恼的念头、我们内心的事物、我们的情欲、执念等，都源于我们身外的事物；它们源于我们与世界上的物体和情感的关系和依恋。 如果我们翻开《爱神集》1中的一位作家，西奈的圣赫斯科说：“那内心「所存都」源自于外在「事物的」人，有祸了。” 换句话说，我内心的东西是多么不幸，它来自于我之外的东西，换句话说，我们的烦恼的念头，内心的骚动和事物，我们的情欲、爱恋和固执，它们的源头都来自于我们之外的东西。我们内在这些事物都源于我们之外的事物，源自于我们在感受和经验世上事物时产生的关系和依恋，因此，那内心「所存都」源自于外在「事物的」人，有祸了。
Πράγματα 「客观」事物与 νοήματα 心相之别
Hesychios and other saints of the Eastern Church make a distinction between things or objects.Is the Greek word actual concrete objects or things in the world. On the one hand the mental representation of those things in our minds and that’s called Πράγματα the so it’s the things in the world obviously objects cars countries human beings all kinds of things right and in our minds we have mental images of those things and. it’s through the images, the mental representations of things in the world that we relate to those things in the world. We relate to them through the lens or through the filter of the images in our minds of them.
圣赫斯和东方教会的其他圣人对事物或对象「Πράγματα 客观世界的事物」和心相「νοήματα 这些事物的心里印象」进行了区分。一方面是前者是世界上的事物，显然是物体、汽车、国家、人类的各种事物；后者是在我们心中形成的对这些事物的心里图像，我们通过这些心相，世界上事物的心里印象，与世界上的事物建立联系。我们是通过这些心相，「就像」通过镜头或过滤器「一样」来与世上客观事物建立联系的。
how did this process begin? How did it happen that inside of us we have dark thoughts, negative thoughts, negative attachments to things, and obsessions with things? How did all of this come about? How does it happen that we are like this. Now it to help us understand more about this process. Writers like Saint Hesychios, and many other writers of the church have sort of analyzed the process into five, steps or five moments which we’d like to talk about now we can share the the page with with the listeners please. So again, the point is, how does this process begin? How does it develop within us? And what is the end of it?
这个过程是如何开始的？我们的内心怎么会有阴暗、消极的念头、对事物的消极的爱恋和痴迷？这一切是如何产生的？我们怎么会变成这样？现在，我们进一步了解这一过程。像赫斯科这样的作家，以及教会中的许多其他作家，都将这一过程分析为五个步骤或五个时刻「阿甲按：实际上有6步」，现在我们想谈谈这六个步骤或六个时刻，重点还是，这个过程是如何开始的？它是如何在我们体内发展的？它的终点又是什么？
情欲形成过程的第一步：挑衅 “Provocation” or “assault” (προσβολή)
So the very first thing that we experience is what these writers call a provocation or an assault, and the Greek word for this is προσβολή, which is a word that is still used in modern Greek. And it means sort of it can mean an attack, an assault, an injury, some sort of action, that is directed to me from outside. That’s a provocation or an assault. προσβολή means to throw or to cast something toward something else. So it’s a very concrete language that we’re using here. So this is the initial approach of a thought, a provocation is not yet a sin or sinful, because it does not come with any guilt. It’s not your fault that some idea enters your mind as long as the thought is not accompanied by an image. The thought itself might be generated. It might come from within us, such as an impulse surviving from our own passions, or it may come to us externally let’s say from a demonic suggestion, or from some other source outside of us but the point here is that the image, sort of appears or presents itself to our minds without our wishing it without our wanting it without our desiring or asking for it, which is why it’s understood as an assault or an attack.
因此，我们经历的第一件事就是这些作家所说的 “挑衅 ”或 ‘攻击’。“挑衅 ”在希腊语中是προσβολή，这个词在现代希腊语中仍在使用。它的意思可以是攻击、袭击、伤害，也可以是某种从外部针对我的行为。προσβολή的意思是把东西扔向或投向别的东西。因此，我们在这里使用的是一种非常具体的语言。因此，这是一种念头的初始方式，一种挑衅还不是罪过或罪恶，因为它并不带有任何负罪感。只要它没有伴随着图像，那么某个念头进入你的头脑就不是你的错。念头本身可能是产生的。它可能来自我们的内心，比如我们自己的情欲所产生的冲动，也可能来自我们的外部，比如恶魔的暗示，或者来自我们之外的其他来源，但这里的关键是，这个形象是在我们不希望、不想要、不渴望或不要求的情况下出现或呈现在我们的脑海中的，这就是为什么它被理解为一种攻击或袭击。
So let’s say I see money lying around, or expensive objects, and and I’m all by myself and the thought enters my mind to steal or, let’s say, I see a beautiful woman’s face, or a beautiful man. the thought comes into my mind a sexual or a lessful part, comes into my mind. That’s the provocation. If we’re paying attention to our thoughts the moment we understand that a provocation has taken place, what we should do is absolutely and completely rejected. Right, and if we do that, the process stops. But if we don’t do that, we move on to the second step. But the thing to do at this point is that it’s a completely and absolutely disregard and reject whatever negative thoughts come into our mind.
比方说，我看到钱或贵重物品，而我自己一个人，就会产生偷窃的念头，或者，比方说，我看到美女的脸或美男子，就会产生性欲或性满足的念头。 这就是挑衅。如果我们关注自己的起心动念，当我们意识到挑衅已经发生时，我们应该做的就是绝对、彻底地拒绝。对，如果我们这样做了，这个过程就会停止。但如果我们不这样做，就会进入第二步。但此时要做的事情是，无论我们心中出现什么负面念头，都要完全、绝对地无视和拒绝。
情欲产生的第二步：瞬间干扰 “Momentary disturbance” (παραρριπισμός)
So when the temptation comes to my mind, if it’s from food or from money, or from sex, or something like that, then the next thing that can happen is what they call παραρριπισμός which is a momentary disturbance. it’s sort of your mind now has been upset, unsettled disturbed because of what you have. Because of what’s presented itself to you. Now this is not necessarily part of the initial provocation. Because, while no one is free from provocations, not everyone is disturbed by them. Think of your body as a house, or as a temple of the Holy Spirit, and think of the provocation as a knock on the door. Now, when you hear that knock on the door, you may or may not be disturbed by it, but at this point you haven’t yet opened the door.
因此，当诱惑出现在我的心中时，如果它来自食物、金钱、性或类似的东西，那么接下来可能发生的事情就是人们所说的παραρριπισμός，这是一种瞬间干扰。因为你看到了什么。现在，这并不一定是最初挑衅的一部分。因为，虽然没有人可以免于挑衅，但并不是每个人都会被挑衅所困扰。把你的身体想象成一座房子，或圣灵的圣殿，把挑衅想象成敲门声。现在，当你听到敲门声时，你可能会受到干扰，也可能不会，但此时你还没有打开门。
情欲产生过程第三步：耦合或联结 “Communion” (ὁμιλία) or “coupling” (συνδυασμός)
So if we hear the knock on the door, and we open the door, then we invite the dark or the negative thought to enter into us. And here’s where the trouble really begins, because we enter into communion with the thought. We couple with the thought we voluntarily turn to the provocation, and we embrace it. We welcome it.We invited in, and we entertain it. We linger right. We spend time in that, though turning it over, examining it with increasing curiosity and pleasure. But so far we have not yet acted on the thought.We’ve simply welcomed it in into our hearts and minds.
因此，如果我们听到敲门声，并打开门，那么我们就会邀请黑暗或消极念头进入我们的内心。麻烦就在这里真正开始了，因为我们与这种念头产生了共鸣，我们与这种念头相伴，我们自愿转向挑衅，我们拥抱它，我们欢迎它。我们欢迎它，邀请它，招待它。我们流连忘返。我们花时间在这上面，翻来覆去地，带着越来越多的好奇和愉悦审视它。但到目前为止，我们还没有对这个念头采取行动，我们只是欢迎它进入我们的心灵。
It’s like the thought of something pleasurable comes to my mind, and I welcome that thought. And I begin to daydream to fantasize, to spend time with the thought. And now I have all these images in my mind of the pleasurable object of the pleasurable experience, and all of this fills my mind, and sort of captures my attention and now I am responsible for what is happening at this point because I have freely involuntarily accepted and welcome and entertaining the sinful or negative, or dark or selfish thought, whatever it is.
这就像我心中浮现出一些令人愉悦的念头，我欢迎这种念头。我开始做白日梦，开始幻想，开始花时间去想。现在，我的心中出现了所有这些关于愉悦的对象、愉悦体验的画面，所有这些充斥着我的心，某种程度上吸引了我的注意力，现在我要为此时此刻发生的一切负责，因为我已经自由地、不由自主地接受、欢迎并娱乐了罪恶的、消极的、阴暗的或自私的念头，不管它是什么。
And let me just say at this point that these various steps provocation, momentary disturbance, communion, they can happen instantly. These are processes that can take place so quickly that we don’t even see them happening. But the saints of the Church have examined these things very carefully and closely, and have given us this kind of map, for this kind of picture, of how this process works, even though it’s not always very easy to see.
现在我想说的是，挑衅、瞬间干扰、耦合，这些不同的步骤可以瞬间发生。这些过程可能发生得如此之快，以至于我们甚至没有看到它们的发生。但是，教会的圣徒们已经非常仔细地研究了这些事情，并为我们提供了这种地图和图景，告诉我们这个过程是如何运作的，尽管它并不总是非常容易看到。
属灵的感觉与肉体的五感
At the end of this paragraph number three, that the language of Communion, and coupling these words have have distinctly sexual connotations. They’re sort of metaphors for an active physical intercourse. And there’s an Christian tradition about what we call the spiritual senses. So you have your physical vision, for example, but you also have spiritual vision, and you have physical hearing, and you also have spiritual hearing, which is why Jesus says they have eyes, but they cannot see, and they have ears, but they cannot hear. He’s not talking about physical vision or physical hearing, talking about spiritual seeing, spiritual vision and spiritual hearing, so there’s a distinction between the outer senses and the inner senses.
在第三段末尾，“耦合 ”和 “联结 ”这些词有明显的性含义。它们隐喻着主动的肉体交合。 基督教有一个传统，我们称之为灵性感官。例如，你有肉体的视觉，但你也有灵性的视觉，你有肉体的听觉，但你也有灵性的听觉，这就是为什么耶稣说他们有眼睛却看不见，他们有耳朵却听不见。他说的不是肉体的视觉或听觉，而是灵性的视觉、灵性的视觉和灵性的听觉，所以外在感官和内在感官是有区别的。
And they say that all of the souls senses within us they’re inside of us, so the soul has eyes, the soul has ears, the the soul has a smell, it has taste, the soul also has a womb, but unlike the other senses it says the soul wears its womb on the outside, which means that the soul couples with everything that it comes into contact with it, in other words, the ability of the soul to receive something like everything in the womb, which means everything that we see, everything that we hear, everything that we encounter. We couple with very deeply and often in ways that we don’t even fully understand we think these might be casual kinds of connections but they go very very deep, psychologically emotionally, and spiritually. There’s a real intercourse.There’s a real coupling that takes place with the thoughts at this stage, and if the church fathers do not hesitate to describe it as an active kind of of intercourse but obviously elicit intercourse.
灵魂有眼睛、耳朵、嗅觉、味觉，灵魂还有子宫，但与其他感官不同的是，灵魂的子宫在外面，这意味着灵魂会与它所接触的一切事物结合，换句话说，灵魂有能力接收子宫里的一切事物，这意味着我们所看到的一切，我们所听到的一切，我们所遇到的一切。我们经常以我们自己都不完全理解的方式，非常深刻地结合在一起，我们认为这些可能是偶然的联系，但它们在心理上、情感上和灵性上都是非常非常深刻的。在这一阶段，念头与念头之间发生了真正的结合，如果教父们毫不犹豫地将其描述为一种主动的交合，显然是引起了交合。
So we have to be very careful about what we open ourselves up to. think about parents today, and their children.Parents are very concerned about the safety and the security of their children in the physical world, very concerned about the safety and security of their children in the physical world, but the same parents don’t pay much attention to their children in the virtual world, in the digital world where they spend most of their time so we try to protect our children from physical dangers in the physical world, where they don’t spend a lot of time, and we pay much less attention to the virtual digital world where they do spend their time and where they’re exposed to all kinds of negative things that enter into them through that medium.
因此，我们必须非常谨慎地对待我们所面临的挑战。想想现在的父母和他们的孩子。家长们非常关注孩子的身体安全和保障，但同样的家长们却不太关注孩子们在虚拟世界和数字世界中的安全和保障，因为孩子们大部分时间都是在数字世界中度过的，所以我们试图保护孩子们身体免受外在世界的危险，因为孩子们在外在世界中度过的时间并不多，而我们对孩子们在虚拟数字世界中度过的时间的关注要少得多，因为孩子们在虚拟数字世界中度过的时间很多，而且他们会接触到通过这种媒介进入他们体内的各种负面影响。
情欲产生过程第四步：同意 “Assent” (συγκατάθεσις)
So if the provocation comes to mind if I’m disturbed somehow by the provocation, if I invite or couple with the publication, then that leads me to the fourth step or a moment which is assent or agreement synthesis right this now goes beyond mere daydreaming or coupling with the image or the idea, because now we are on the way to acting the thought right now.The thought impels us, or pressures us to act on it. That’s what happens when we welcome it and embrace it and take pleasure, and it will try to make us act on it. So let’s say I have a problem with my mother, or I have a problem with my father.And I’m angry at them for things they did to me, or maybe I have a problem with one of my co-workers or someone else in my family that I know or a friend and I think about this and I think about the anger and the resentment and I think about the injuries they did to me more and more and more and more and more, and then it becomes very easy for me to become angry at them, and for those angry thoughts to make me angry, and to speak to them in anger to do what the gospel tells us not to do and that’s to strike back at the person that you think is hurting you.
所以，如果我心中浮现出挑衅，如果我被这个挑衅困扰，如果我邀请与这个挑衅结合，那么这就会把我引向第四个步骤，或者说是一个时刻，那就是同意或赞同，此时此刻已经超越了单纯的白日梦或与图像或念头的结合，因为现在我们正在将这个想法付诸行动。当我们欢迎它、拥抱它并感到愉悦时，就会发生这种情况，它会试图让我们付诸行动。比方说，我和母亲有矛盾，或者我和父亲有矛盾。我对他们对我所做的事情感到愤怒，或者我对我的同事、我认识的家人或朋友有意见，我想着这些，想着他们对我造成的伤害，就愤怒和怨恨，而且越来越多，越来越多。然后，我就很容易对他们发怒，这些愤怒的想法让我变得愤怒，愤怒地对他们说话，去做福音书告诉我们不要做的事情，那就是对你认为伤害你的人进行反击。
this is because the thoughts that we’re talking about here are not neutral. It’s not the thought one plus one equals two OR The capital of China is beijing. That’s a thought.The capital of France is Paris.That’s a thought. When that kind of thought come into my mind, doesn’t really disturb me. But if it’s the thought of someone I’m angry at, or if it’s the thought of someone, I have a problem with, let’s say, like my mother or my father, or my cowork, or whatever it is right that thought, comes, with a certain kind, of negative energy so that when that thought comes to mind, my blood pressure might rise. I might become upset. I might become physically agitated, these are not neutral thoughts, it’s sort of like thoughts that are tied up with very often very powerful psychological feelings, which is why they upset us so deeply because they impact not just our mind but our whole self. stress, for example, can kill people if there’s too much of it and all of that begins with thoughts.
这是因为我们在这里谈论的念头并不是中性的。中国的首都是北京，这是一个念头。法国的首都是巴黎，这是一个念头。当这种念头出现在我的心中时，我并不会感到困扰。但如果我想到的是某个我生气的人，或者我想到的是某个我有过节的人，比方说，比如我的母亲或父亲，或者我的同事，或者其他什么人，这种念头就会带着某种负能量，所以当这种念头出现在心中时，我的血压可能会升高。我可能会变得心烦意乱。这些都不是中性的念头，它就像是与很多时候非常强大的心理感受联系在一起的念头，这就是为什么它们会让我们如此心烦意乱，因为它们影响的不仅仅是我们的心，还有我们的整个自我。例如，如果压力过大，就会让人丧命，而这一切都始于念头。
情欲产生过程第五步：成见/成瘾 “Prepossession” (πρόληψις)
So the thought comes to mind. It disturbs me a little bit. I welcome it, begin to couple with the thought, spend time with the thought. I agree with the thought I adopted as a kind of something good for me. that takes us to five, which is prepossession, which means, after repeated instances of the process described above, we acquire a predisposition a tendency that makes us yield more easily to particular temptations in the same way that we can acquire the habit of virtue, of being naturally and spontaneously compassionate, patient, and understanding. So, too, can we acquire habits that are negative, addictive, self-destructive, and destructive of the world around us and the idea is that the more we do something the more times we do something the more deeply habituated we become in that activity or way of thinking and when something becomes habit, it assumes the kind of power over us, which is why Aristotle referred to habit as second nature. by nature, works with instincts, and Nature knows what to do. It does things without thinking. A habit is second nature, because it also takes the place of nature, and it impels you to do things or enables you to do things now without even thinking about them it just becomes sort of you have a predisposition you have a tendency Now. you have made that decision. You have made that choice so many times that now it becomes natural.
于是心中便有了这个念头。它让我有些不安。我欢迎它，开始与念头结合，与念头共度时光。我同意我所采用的念头，认为它是一种对我有益的东西。这就引出了第五个问题，即成见/成瘾，这意味着，在反复经历上述过程之后，我们会获得一种倾向，使我们更容易屈服于特定的诱惑，就像我们可以获得美德的习惯，自然而然地、自发地获得同情、耐心和理解一样。同样，我们也可以养成消极的、上瘾的、自我毁灭的、破坏周围世界的习惯。我们做的事情越多，做的次数越多，我们对这种活动或思维方式的习惯就越深。当某种东西成为习惯时，它就拥有了支配我们的力量，这就是亚里士多德把习惯称为第二本性的原因。它做事不假思索。习惯是第二性的，因为它也取代了天性，它促使你去做事情，或者让你现在就能做事情，甚至不假思索。你已经做了很多次这样的选择，现在它变得自然而然。
情欲产生过程第六步：情欲 “Passion” (πάθος)
the final stage in this process, which is known as Passion or πάθος in Greek. This is the last stage in the process, which is more or less equivalent to a deeply ingrained habit or addiction, as we become habituated to impassioned thoughts and behaviors we increasingly lose our power, of free choice with respect to those thoughts, and behaviors and our mind, in other words our ability to think our power of a reason and rationality what becomes enslaved to irrational pleasures and sensation. So at this stage the saints of the Church described this as being dragged off as a captive to a spiritual Babylon, and we have become, prisoners living in exile from the life of virtue and from the knowledge of God and the Greek word passion we have words like pathology in English and this is a pathology of the mind which drags the body along with it, and the word πάθος really means passivity with this pathology of the mind, we lose our agency, we lose so much of our freedom.
这个过程的最后阶段，希腊语称为 “情欲 ”或 “πάθος”。这是这个过程的最后一个阶段，或多或少相当于一种根深蒂固的习惯或瘾头，当我们习惯于情欲的念头和行为时，我们就会越来越失去自由选择这些念头和行为的能力，换句话说，我们心中的思考能力、理性和理智就会被非理性的快乐和感觉所奴役。希腊语中的情欲（passion）一词在英语中与病态（pathology）类似，是一种心中的病态，它拖着身体一起走，而πάθος一词的真正意思是被动，在这种心中的病态中，我们失去了主观能动性，失去了许多自由。
We lose our ability to control these things which now overtake us, in a way that we’re leaves us passive. So the problem now is that these thoughts arise within me without my even wanting them.But now I become compelled to act on it. It’s like the alcoholic.The alcoholic knows that he shouldn’t drink, and then, if he takes one more drink, he might lose his job. He might lose his family, he might lose all of his money, intellectually in his mind. He might know that he knows that the alcohol or the drug, or whatever it is bad for him, but he’ll still drink that drink.。He will still take that drug because he’s hooked now. He’s become ingrained, habituated into that way of thinking, and into that response, and into that behavior. That’s a bad.
我们失去了控制这些东西的能力，它们现在以一种让我们陷入被动的方式笼罩着我们。所以，现在的问题是，这些念头在我的内心产生，而我根本不想要它们，但现在我却不得不付诸行动。这就像酗酒者。酗酒者知道他不应该喝酒，但如果他再多喝一杯酒，他就可能失去工作。他可能会失去家庭，可能会失去所有的钱，在他的心中，理智上是这样的。他可能知道，他知道酒精或毒品，或任何对他有害的东西，但他还是会喝酒。 他还是会吸毒，因为他已经上瘾了。他已经根深蒂固，习惯了这种思维方式、这种反应和这种行为。这很糟糕。
主动思考与被动活动之别
so let’s take for a minute about the differences between active thinking and passivity, Active, versus, passive. if I’m having friends over for dinner, I have to think how many are coming, how many, how much food do I need to make? or maybe if I want to build a house, I need to make a plan. I have to make blueprints. I have to buy the materials. A lot of thought has to happen, but I’m the one who’s in charge of that thought. I’m the one who’s actively using my thoughts for a good reason.That would be active thinking. But when we come under the control of the passions, we’re no longer in control of our thoughts, I could be praying or reading the Bible and all of a sudden these thoughts come into my mind to do terrible things. I’m No longer those thoughts came to me passively right and I think that’s the real problem here is that we lose our agency we lose our freedom we become enslaved to these habituated patterns of thinking that take over our lives and basically force us to do what they want and not what we want.
因此，让我们先来谈谈主动思考与被动思考、主动与被动之间的区别。如果我要请朋友来吃晚饭，我就得想一想有多少人会来，有多少人，我需要做多少菜？如果我要建一所房子，我必须绘制蓝图，我必须购买材料。要经过很多念头，但我才是那个负责念头的人。我是那个为了一个好的理由而积极利用我的念头的人。那将是主动的起心动念。但当我们受到情欲的控制时，我们就不再能控制自己的念头了，我可能正在祷告或读经，突然间这些念头就进入了我的心中，让我去做可怕的事情。我不再是主动地想到这些念头，我认为这才是真正的问题所在，我们失去了主观能动性，失去了自由，我们成为这些习惯性思维模式的奴隶，它们控制了我们的生活，基本上强迫我们做它们想做的事，而不是我们想做的事。
我们是山，不是云
So so one of the things that happens is that we end up usually at an early stage in our life we begin to self-identify with these negative thoughts. We begin to identify with them, and to think that these thoughts are me right. We don’t make a distinction between who I am, and who are what these Thoughts are. But we often grab onto them and self-identify with them which is a terrible terrible mistake.
所以会发生的事情之一就是，我们通常会在人生的早期阶段开始自我认同这些负面念头。我们开始认同它们，并认为这些念头就是我。我们并没有区分我是谁，这些念头又是谁。但我们常常抓住它们，并自我认同，这是一个可怕的大错误。
if you’ve been in a place where there are mountains and water like Greece, which has a lot of water and a lot of mountains, islands, you will see that over the tops of the mountains clouds will form. so you have the mountain and then above the mountain you often see a cloud formation right right on top of the mountain. So in in Greece. What happens the the warm air goes over the surface of the water that it hits the side of the mountain, and it has nowhere to go. So it goes up, and when it goes up, when the air is forced up it becomes colder, and it becomes a cloud. So it’s actually the mountain that is making the cloud. The mountain is produced itself is helping to make that cloud that’s over the mountain.
如果你去过有山有水的地方，比如希腊，那里有很多水，也有很多山和岛屿，你会发现在山顶上会形成云。希腊也是如此。暖空气经过水面时，会撞击到山边，无处可去。所以它就往上升，当它上升时 空气就会变冷，变成云层 因此，实际上是山在制造云。山本身就是在帮助制造山顶上的云。
And you need to know that you are not the cloud, you are the mountain, you are not the cloud that accumulates of thoughts in your mind.。You are not the cloud, you are the mountain.
你要知道，你不是云，你是山，你不是那些积聚在心中的念头，即云。
我们无视邪念，不给它们留机会
And we’re we’re taught not to pay attention, not only not to identify with the thoughts. we should not identify with them, but we shouldn’t even think about them, we need to just ignore them. Even to try and to fight them, and resist them is the wrong thing to do. We should just not pay any attention to them.They should become like backgrounds noise. when you go to the supermarket. They have music playing, but you’re not really listening to it. It’s there. If you want to listen to it. But you don’t have to listen. It could be there in the background, and you don’t even hear it. That’s how we have to begin to ignore our thoughts, not welcome them, not lingering them, not give our assent to them, but reject them completely. Do not shine the spotlight of your attention on those negative thoughts.
我们被教导不要关注，不仅不要认同这些念头。我们不应该认同它们，但我们甚至不应该去想它们，我们只需要忽略它们。甚至试图与它们抗争，抵制它们，都是错误的做法。当你去超市购物时，它们就像背景噪音一样。他们在放音乐，但你并没有真正在听。它就在那儿。如果你想听 但你不必去听。它可能就在背景里，你甚至听不到。这就是我们要开始忽略念头的方式，不欢迎它们，不徘徊它们，不对它们表示赞同，而是彻底拒绝它们。不要把注意力的聚光灯照在那些消极的念头上。
So there’s the story about the man who went to the monastery, and he really enjoyed how peaceful and how tranquil it was at the monastery, but then he hears an aeroplane flying overhead and the airplane of course is making some noise and the man said to the monk says oh, he says even here you have airplanes flying by and the monk said yes, we have the airplanes fly overhead, but we have not built a runway for them. There’s nowhere for them to land, so you can have the thoughts, but don’t build the runway. Don’t build the airport that will allow them to land and enter into your mind.
有这样一个故事：有个人去了修院，他非常享受寺院的宁静和安详，但他听到一架飞机从头顶飞过，飞机当然会发出一些噪音，那个人对僧侣说，哦，他说：即使在这里也有飞机飞过，修士说：是的，我们有飞机从头顶飞过，但我们没有为它们修建跑道。它们无处降落，所以你们可以有念头，但不要建跑道。不要建造能让它们降落并进入你心中的机场。
And everyone is afflicted by thoughts. Every human being has this problem when you go to pray these thoughts and to your mind they could be thoughts of violence, points of anger, terrible dark negative things. This is part of the human condition. It’s not you. You’re not crazy for having crazy thoughts. This is what it means to be a human being. So when you pray, and these thoughts come to mind don’t be stored, Don’t get afraid, Don’t get angry at yourself. Don’t get frustrated just when you realize you’ve been distracted by these thoughts. Just gently, gently, recall your attention to the words of the prayer even if it happens a hundred times. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by these things.
每个人都会受到念头的困扰。每个人都有这个问题，当你去祈祷时，这些念头在你心中可能是暴力的念头、愤怒的念头、可怕的黑暗负面的念头。这是人之常情。这与你无关。有疯狂的念头并不是你疯了，这是人之为人「的一部分」。所以，当你祈祷，心中有这些念头时，不要储存起来，不要害怕，不要对自己生气。当你意识到自己被这些念头分散了注意力时，不要沮丧。只需轻轻地、悄悄地将你的注意力唤回祷告词上，即使这种情况发生了上百次。不要让自己被这些事情分心。
唯独借着主耶稣才能真正摆脱邪念
let’s say there are some things that we can do to help diminish the power of these thoughts, but we we can never be completely free of them. Without God’s grace. It’s only the grace of God. The gift of the Holy Spirit that can ultimately free us from the power that these thoughts have over us. It’s a gift of God’s grace. In the end we can’t do it ourselves.
比方说，我们可以做一些事情来帮助削弱这些念头的力量，但我们永远无法完全摆脱它们。没有上帝的恩典 只有上帝的恩典 圣灵的恩赐才能最终让我们摆脱这些念头对我们的影响。这是上帝的恩典。归根结底，我们自己做不到。
If I have fallen into bad habits and passions, if I’m in the grip of these things, if the devil has me in his grip, it’s like I’m tied up hand and foot and when you’re tied up handed foot you can’t free yourself when you’re in chains, you can’t free yourself you need someone else to come and free you, and that’s someone else’s God and God’s grace.That’s why we call him. This saves us from these things.
如果我染上了坏习惯和情欲，如果我被这些东西所控制，如果魔鬼把我控制住了，我就像被捆住了手脚，当你被捆住手脚的时候，你就无法解救自己，当你被锁链锁住的时候，你就无法救自己，你需要别人来救你，那就是上帝和上帝的恩典。他将我们从这些事情中拯救出来。
So these things will never go away. But what Saint Isaac the Syrians is that the dispassinate man in other words, the man who is dispassionate is not the man who has no passions, because everybody has these passions, but he does not act on.
因此，这些东西永远不会消失。但叙利亚人圣以撒所说的 “无欲的人”，换句话说，“无欲的人 ”并不是没有情绪情感的人，因为每个人都有七情六欲，而是不会因这些而陷入情欲的人『阿甲按：字面译为，不在其上行动』。
It’s okay to have a negative thought. It’s okay to have an angry thought or a lustful thought. The important thing is not to act on it, and that’s what it means to be dispassion doesn’t mean to be perfect somehow, and free of negative thoughts, but although God can do that too. But the idea is that you’re freed from the compulsion of acting on them.
有邪念没关系，有愤怒的念头或欲望的念头都没关系。重要的是不要付诸行动，这就是 “无欲 ”的含义。“无欲 ”并不意味着完美无缺，没有邪念，虽然上帝也能做到这一点。但我们要做的是，让你摆脱对这些念头的强迫「阿甲按：即免于情欲」。
This is why Jesus tells us, He says, My peace, I give to you my peace, he says, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you, as the world gives the world has its own kind of so-called peace, but the peace that Jesus can give us, and which He wants to give us, is so much greater and so much more beautiful than any peaceful thing the world can give us which is also why he says come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened as all of us and I will give you rest, I will give you rest. There’s no rest for the mind or the heart outside of the life of God.
这就是为什么耶稣告诉我们，他说，我的平安，我将我的平安赐给你们。我所赐给你们的平安，不像世人所赐给你们的那样，世人有自己所谓的平安，但耶稣所能赐给我们的平安，也是祂想要赐给我们的平安，比世人所能赐给我们的任何平安都要大得多、美得多，这也是为什么祂说，你们和我们一样疲乏担重担的人，可以到我这里来，我就使你们得安息，我就使你们得安息。在上帝的生命之外，心怀意念不得没安息。
But all of these negative thoughts within us that the turmoil and the agitation and the lack of peace, all of those things really get in the way of love. They are an obstacle that prevent us from being who we are, and being able to love freely without ideas.
但是，我们内心的所有这些负面念头，动荡、躁动、缺乏平静，所有这些东西都真正阻碍了我们去爱。它们是阻碍我们做自己的障碍，让我们无法无拘无束地去爱「上帝」。
When you’re with someone you love, you, pay attention to them. If you’re with someone you love, and maybe you hear I don’t know a car horn hunk outside the window. You’re not gonna leave the person you love to go. See what the noise was, and if you do, you’ll come back and say, oh, I’m sorry back in the hell right? when you love something, you pay attention to it, and if we love God the more we love God. the easier it will be to focus on God, and to be present to God without the distraction of all the inner noise.
当你和你爱的人在一起时，你注意力在他们身上。如果你和你爱的人在一起，也许你会听到窗外的汽车喇叭声，你不会离开你爱的人离开。如果我们越爱上帝，就越容易专注于上帝，越容易与上帝同在，而不受内心噪音的干扰。
So last word, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and just like in the ancient temple of Israel, unclean things were not allowed. They could not be brought into the ancient temple in Jerusalem. unclean animals, unclean things, and and the same is true with us. Think of your body as a temple, which is what it is. It’s the home, the House of the Holy Spirit. Do not allow unclean things which are like worshipping idols, do not allow anything else like that in your heart or in your mind, and when you see those things trying to enter into you, just turn away from them, reject them, completely have nothing to do with them. And you just focus your attention on Jesus Christ.
最后，你的身体是圣灵的圣殿，就像在以色列古代的圣殿中一样，不洁之物是不被允许的。不洁的动物、不洁的东西都不能带进耶路撒冷的圣殿，我们也是如此。把你的身体想象成圣殿，它就是圣殿。它是圣灵的家，圣灵的殿。不要允许不洁净的东西，这些东西就像崇拜偶像一样，不要允许任何其他类似的东西在你的心中或脑海中出现，当你看到那些东西试图进入你的殿时，就远离它们，拒绝它们，完全与它们无关。你只需将注意力集中在耶稣基督身上。
问答环节
一次祈祷「耶稣祷文」多长时间合适？
答： I think that varies from person to person, but I think, as a general principal, the emphasis should be on quality over quantity. so you might pray for a half hour, but not be very focused, and be filled with distractions. But it’s a pray for ten or fifteen minutes with greater focus, and so that your prayer has a greater quality. So let’s just start by saying that at the quality of your prayer is much more important than the quantity of it.
我想这是因人而异的，但我认为，作为一般原则，应该重质不重量。因此，你可能会祷告半小时，但不是很专注，而且充满了杂念。但如果你能更专注地祷告十分钟或十五分钟，那么你的祷告就会更有质量。因此，让我们首先说，祷告的质量比祷告的数量重要得多。
So I think you know, if you can, if you can say that Jesus prayer for even ten or fifteen minutes with a good focus that’s a great place to start. we have via things that we call prayer ropes that help you. You know. If you did, maybe one prayer rope with that’s to say one hundred Jesus prayers, if you could start by doing that, I mean or maybe you could only do fifty, but to to begin you know you should always start a little bit, smaller. And work your way up. And of course, if you can, you should try to do this in conjunction with a priest or a confessor, or someone who knows more about it has more experience about it.
所以，我认为，如果你能，如果你能说耶稣祈祷，甚至10或15分钟，有一个良好的专注，这是一个很好的开始。我们有祈祷的工具，我们称之为祈祷绳，帮助你。你知道吗？如果你做了，也许一个祈祷绳，说一百耶稣祈祷，如果你可以开始这样做，我的意思是，或者也许你可以只做50，但开始你知道你应该总是开始一点点。然后循序渐进 当然，如果可以的话，你应该试着和神父或忏悔者一起做，或者和更了解它、更有经验的人一起做。「阿甲按：即找一位老师」
I know that in many of the monasteries here in the United States they had kind of have a two-part approach to the way they see the Jesus Prayer, and they might start by saying, maybe a hundred times, fairly quickly, standing up. And say, Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. They say Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me quickly. That’s sort of like the warm-up that’s sort of like getting the engine primed, and when after they’ve done, that then they’ll sit down, and they’ll say that Jesus prayer more slowly and more let’s say meditatively without worrying about the speed right but it.
我知道，在美国的许多修道院里，他们对耶稣祷文的理解有两个部分，他们可能会先站起来念上一百遍。说，主耶稣基督，请怜悯我。他们很快地会说，主耶稣基督，请怜悯我。这有点像热身运动，有点像给发动机打气，当他们做完之后，他们就会坐下来，更缓慢、更默念式地念耶稣祷文，而不用担心速度问题。
it does help to make that initial kind of emphasis right? Say many Jesus Prayer as quickly, and then slowing down into a slower pace where you can actually meditate on the words of the prayer, much more closely so the first one you’re more concerned about how many and how quickly but in the second one you take your time and kind of meditate or contemplate on the word on Jesus more slowly than in the first, so sort of an exercise or preparation for a deeper way of saying the plan.
一开始强调这一点确实有帮助，对吗？先快速念很多遍耶稣祷文，然后放慢节奏，在那里你可以更仔细地默想祷文的字句，所以第一遍你更关心念多少遍和多快，但第二遍你要慢慢来，默想或沉思耶稣的字句，比第一遍更慢，所以这算是一种练习，或者说是为更深入地念计划做准备。
Let’s not forget about the importance of bowing, of making prostrations. Many, many people who say the Jesus prayer, they’ll say, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, and they’ll make a bow. I know that Chinese culture is familiar With bowing as a sign of respect. Some of them will be saying, and they’ll make a full prostration, and they’ll touch the ground with their hand. Right you can teach people and show people how to do that. And this is very important. Why?
让我们不要忘记鞠躬和跪拜的重要性。很多人在做耶稣祷告时会说：“主耶稣基督，上帝之子，请怜悯我。”他们会鞠躬。我知道中国文化以鞠躬表示尊敬。有些人会说，他们会完全跪下，用手触地。对了，你可以教人们，告诉他们怎么做。这一点非常重要。为什么？
Because prayer is not just an activity of the mind. But it’s an activity of the whole Person which includes the body. So the body to the physical self we are psychosomatic unity and it can’t just be the soul. It has to be the body too, working altogether. There are times when the mind is tired, and it can’t pray very well, but the body can always make that gesture of reverence of generation, and if you do that sometimes you make a few bodily prostrations and your soul will follow right. Maybe you didn’t have the energy to pray, or if you weren’t in the mood to pray. But if you physically make those gestures of veneration and of honoring God, the soul will wake up and say, Oh, Yes, this is, this is what is good and right, and natural for me to do so the whole self the body right is brought into the act of prayer.
因为祷告不仅仅是心灵的活动。而是包括身体在内的整个人的活动。因此，从身体到肉体的自我，我们是心身合一的。它还必须是身体的整体活动。有的时候，心中很疲惫，不能很好地祈祷，但身体总能做出那种崇敬生成的姿态，如果你这样做了，有时你做几个身体的跪拜，你的灵魂就会跟着对了。也许你没有精力祈祷，也许你没有心情祈祷。但如果你的身体做出了这些崇敬和尊崇上帝的姿态，灵魂就会苏醒过来，说：哦，是的，这就是，这就是我所做的美好和正确的事情，而且是自然而然的事情，这样，整个自我的身体就会被带入祈祷的行为中。
We say that if you honor God, God will honor you, if you lower yourself before God, God will lower Himself to you, which is why in the Gospel of Luke, we have the story of the public and and the Pharisee the public and bowed down to the ground it says he wouldn’t even look up to heaven and it says he who humbles Himself will be exalted, he who humbled a humble means to make yourself lowly, he who makes himself humble will be exalted. So if we humble ourselves for God with our whole being, God will exalt us, God will raise us up.
我们说，如果你尊崇上帝，上帝也会尊崇你，如果你在上帝面前降低自己的身份，上帝也会向你降低自己的身份，这就是为什么在《路加福音》中，我们有一个税吏和法利赛人的故事，税吏俯伏在地，他甚至不愿抬头看天，圣经也说说谦卑自己的人将被升高，谦卑的意思是使自己卑微，使自己谦卑的人将被升高。因此，如果我们全心全意为上帝谦卑自己，上帝就会让我们升高，上帝就会让我们复活。
祈祷时，应该闭眼吗？
答：Many people close their eyes, but you don’t have to. I think they also talk about. I mean creating silence around.I mean, you know you’re not gonna have the radio on on the television on, or you want to put yourself in a place where there’s outer silence so you can find your inner silence and sometimes closing your eyes closing your eyes is your you’re consenting to let go of the outside world for the time that you’re praying like sort of it’s symbolic, It can help you focus because it blocks out what you’re seeing visual things. It’s also a way of saying that. I will now just let go of the world around me, so that I can draw closer to God.。So closing your eyes could be a very helpful gesture.But it’s not.It’s not required.It’s not necessary.。Everyone has to find their own sort of comfort zone here.What works best for them?What time of day, how long to pray, under what conditions, right you can say that Jesus pair anywhere you know in the grocery store while driving your car we’re talking about a more intense a more focused practice of the Jesus prayer let’s say privately at home.
很多人都会闭上眼睛，但你不必这样。我想他们也谈到了 我的意思是，你知道你不会让收音机开着，电视开着，或者你想把自己放在一个外在安静的地方，这样你就能找到内心的安静，有时闭上眼睛，闭上眼睛是你同意在你祈祷的时候放下外界，就像一种象征，它可以帮助你集中注意力，因为它阻挡了你所看到的视觉事物。这也是一种表达方式 所以，闭上眼睛可能是一个非常有用的举动，但不是必须的。每个人都必须找到自己的舒适区。一天中什么时候祷告，祷告多长时间，在什么情况下祷告，你可以在任何地方说耶稣祷文，你知道在杂货店里，在开车的时候，我们这里谈论的是更强烈、更集中的耶稣祷文实践，特指每天安排时间专门的祈祷。
山和云能再解释一下吗？为什么？
答： if you are the mountain, the cloud represents the turbulent negative thoughts in your mind, let’s just say that to start with. Now this is an analogy. It’s a metaphor, and the idea is that the cloud does not come from the mountain.。It comes from outside the mountain, but the mountain has a role to play in forming the cloud. so I might.You know I might be working, let’s say, in the kitchen, and there’s a knife lying on the counter, and the thought come into my mind to pick up the knife and do something bad with it right that I I don’t want to do that I have no i’m not a killer you know by nature。i’m not a violent person, but sometimes a violent thought can just enter your mind.
如果你是山，云就代表你心中汹涌的负面念头，先这么说吧。这是一个比喻。它来自山的外部，但山在形成云的过程中扮演了一定的角色。比方说，我可能在厨房里工作，台子上放着一把刀，然后我心中就会冒出一个念头，拿起刀做点坏事，我不想这么做，我不是一个杀手，你知道，我天生就不是一个暴力的人，但有时一个暴力的念头会突然出现在你的心中。
I mean, you know, I think there’s a difference between your own thoughts and thoughts that come into your mind that they’re not from you. They’re alien. They’re strange there. You don’t want them to see. You go to church on Sunday, and you’re sitting there all of these terrible things into your mind. You didn’t go to church to think about terrible things.
我的意思是，你知道，我认为你自己的念头和进入你心中的念头是不同的，它们不是你自己的念头，是外来的，陌生的。你不想看到你周日去教堂，坐在那里，这些可怕的东西就会进入你的心中。你去教堂不是去想可怕的事情的。
So we have to understand that some thoughts come from us, and our habits and our character. But there are other things that come to us from. We don’t know where. outside of us other people, triggers that we see from the devils all kinds of sources.
因此，我们必须明白，有些念头来自我们自己，来自我们的习惯和性格。但还有一些东西临到我们，我们不知道从哪里来，也许来自别人，或许来自魔鬼的诡计，以及其他各种各样的因素。
the devil does not want us to remember God. He does not want us to think about God.。He does not want us to turn to God.He does not want us to have a relationship with God, so He fills our minds with all of these things to distract us so that we get about God and become absorbed in earthly things.
魔鬼不想让我们忆念上帝。他不想让我们回转向神。他不想让我们与神建立关系，所以他用所有这些事情充斥我们的心中，分散我们的注意力，让我们忘记神，沉迷于属世的事情中。
And you know we shouldn’t be too concerned about where the thoughts come from. We should be more concerned about me, rejecting them right, because, whatever the thought is, it’s negative, they say all thoughts are thieves because they steal the idea, of God from your mind. so we should just reject them, no matter where they come from.
你知道，我们不应该太在意念头从何而来。我们更应该关心的是拒绝它们，因为不管念头是什么，它都是负面的，他们说所有的念头都是贼，因为它们从你的心中偷走了上帝的念头。因此，不管它们从何而来，我们应该拒绝它们。
耶稣祷文要结合呼吸吗？
答：the teaching is that when you begin to practice the Jesus prayer, it should be first said orally, it should be a prayer of the lips. if you’re a beginner, you should just repeat the prayer out loud. gently, quietly, but it should be verbal. That’s the first step.
教导说，当你开始练习耶稣祷文时，首先应该口诵，应该是嘴唇的祈祷。如果你是初学者，你应该大声重复祷文「也是温柔，安静地，但是开口出声的」。这是第一步。
But over time it gets a little tiring to keep repeating something verbally and over time the prayer of the Lips. Then becomes something you say inside yourself, it becomes a prayer of the mind because you can repeat it to yourself without saying any words. That’s the second step from the lips to inside, outward to inward, from the lips to the mind.
但随着时间的推移，不停地重复口头上的话会让人觉得有点累，久而久之，“嘴唇的祈祷 ”就变成了你内心的祈祷。然后就变成了你在内心说的话，变成了心中的祈祷，因为你可以不说任何话，对自己重复它。这是第二步，从嘴唇到内心，从外到内，从嘴唇到心中。
It usually happens that someone who repeats the Jesus prayer over and over, either with their lips, or especially when it’s said within themselves, it’s only natural that the prayer will unite itself to your breath to your breathing.
通常情况下，如果一个人一遍又一遍地重复耶稣祷文，不管是用嘴说，还是在心里默念，祷文就会自然而然地与你的呼吸融为一体。
And what most people do. But again, there’s always differences depending on different factors. But what most, what happens with most people is that when they say the Jesus prayer, they’ll say, Lord Jesus Christ of God with the inhale of the breath, Lord Jesus Christ of God, and then with the exhale they’ll say have mercy on Me. So There’s an inhalation and an exhalation Lord Jesus Christ and I’ve got have mercy on Me this and sometimes that’s accompanied by the bowing that we talked about, but the important thing to know, so that this the synchronizing the words of the prayer with the breath should be natural. it should happen naturally we should never try to force our breathing in any way because it’s a natural physiological process that we don’t want to interference, so don’t hold your breath, You try not to be conscious of it. It just happens naturally, with with your natural respiration.
大多数人都是这样做的。但同样，不同的因素总会有不同的做法。但大多数人的做法是，当他们念耶稣祷文时，吸气时会说 “上帝的主耶稣基督”，呼气时会说 “请怜悯我”。因此，有一个吸气和呼气的过程，主耶稣基督，怜悯我，有时伴随着我们说过的鞠躬，但重要的是要知道，让祷告词与呼吸同步应该是自然而然的。因此，不要屏住呼吸，不要有意为之，让这自然发生，「让祷文自然地」随着你的呼吸。
Now the breathing should always be nasal. It should not be through the mouth that we should try to breathe through the nose, which is actually scientists, tell us that this, is much better for us, but this is also what the teachers of the Jesus prayer instruct us to do that the breathing should be slow and gentle but through the through the nose nasal。breathing.
现在，呼吸应该始终用鼻腔。这实际上是科学家告诉我们的，这样对我们更好，但这也是耶稣祷文的老师教我们做的，呼吸应该缓慢而轻柔，但要通过鼻腔呼吸。
And the last thing to say about breathing is that the idea or the goal is to sort of say the prayer from our from our depth, from our human center. But it’s not always easy to find that place within us. So what the teachers of the Jesus prayer recommend is that you focus on your breath and follow your breath, because when you inhale right your lungs expand and it places, a tiny bit of pressure in your chest and around your heart and that allows you to physically feel that center most point of yourself so if you’re having trouble getting there you follow the course of your breath to your heart, and then let your mind stay there. So that’s another important function of the breathing.
关于呼吸，最后要说的是，我们的想法或目标是从我们的内心深处，从我们的人类中心出发，说出祷告词。但要找到我们内心的那个位置并不容易。因此，耶稣祷文的老师建议你专注于你的呼吸，跟随你的呼吸，因为当你吸气的时候，你的肺部会扩张，它会在你的胸腔和心脏周围产生微小的压力，这可以让你身体感觉到自己的最中心点，所以如果你在到达那里时遇到困难，你可以跟随你的呼吸到达你的心中，然后让你的心中停留在那里。这就是呼吸的另一个重要功能。
What we should not do, we should not think of this as a kind of technique that we can use to somehow capture God somehow force God to come to us. We should not. It’s not a technique like that a method we shouldn’t think of it like that, cause they say that if you use, if you bring techniques to prayer well, you’ll find the technique, but you won’t find God. it’s like when you’re in love with somebody you don’t have a technique right so it has to be natural and spontaneous, and not calculating.
我们不应该这样做，我们不应该认为这是一种我们可以用来以某种技艺俘获上帝，以某种方法迫使上帝来到我们身边的技巧。我们不应该这样做。这不是一种技巧，或某种方法，我们不应该这样想，因为如果你使用，如果你把技巧带到祈祷中，你会找到技巧，但你不会找到上帝。就像当你爱上一个人时，你没有技巧，所以它必须是自然的、自发的，而不是刻意为之「算计好的」的。
These are just exercises or things that we do to help us prepare ourselves, and to open ourselves up more to God. But we don’t control God it’s like it says in the gospel. The farmer puts the seed in the ground and he waters it, and he takes care of it. He cultivates it, but the growth of the seed, the growth of the plant that doesn’t come from the farmer but comes from God, so All of these breathing, and the prayer ropes, and the prostrations. These are all things to help prepare our hearts for the the arrival of God.
这些只是我们为了帮助自己做好准备、向上帝敞开心扉而做的练习或事情。但我们不能控制上帝，就像福音书里说的那样。农夫把种子放在地里，浇水，照料。但种子的成长、植物的成长不是来自农夫，而是来自上帝，所以所有这些呼吸、祷告绳索和鞠躬。这些都是为了帮助我们的心灵做好准备，迎接上帝的到来。
在日常工作生活中，如何做到一天24小时耶稣祷文呢？
到此 28：40
Obviously, if you live in the world and you have a job, and you have responsibilities. If you’re not living in a monastery where you where things are different. If you’re living in the world, let’s say I do a lot of academic work. I read books. I take notes. I write things. My attention is on my work, so it’s very difficult to do your job. If you’re working at in a factory, or with machinery, your focus needs to be on what you’re doing. Otherwise you might hurt yourself, or you’ll make mistakes, or whatever it is. So you practice the Jesus prayer, when you have the time to do it, but if you keep practicing the Jesus prayer, it will become more present to you and the prayer will say itself, within you and you don’t even have to try to force it. but in the beginning obviously our attention has to be divided.
显然，如果你生活在世界上，你有工作，你有责任。如果你不是生活在修道院里，情况就不同了。如果你生活在世界上，比方说，我做了很多学术工作。我看书。我做笔记。我写东西。我的注意力都在工作上，所以很难完成工作。如果你在工厂工作，或者使用机器，你的注意力必须集中在你正在做的事情上。否则，你可能会受伤，或者犯错，或者其他什么。所以，当你有时间的时候，你可以练习耶稣祷文，但如果你坚持练习耶稣祷文，它就会更多地呈现在你的面前，祷文就会在你的内心深处自己说出来，你甚至不必去强迫它。
let’s see if your child is sick, you have to focus on taking care of your child. It might not be that easy to pray when you’re doing that. But if you develop that habit of prayer over time, that the presence of Christ will always be with you.
如果你的孩子生病了，你必须集中精力照顾孩子。当你在做这些事情的时候，可能就没那么容易祷告了。但如果你长期养成祷告的习惯，基督的同在就会一直与你同在。
Like if a husband doesn’t have to always be thinking about his wife, but somehow she’s always present to him, and the wife doesn’t need to be always thinking about her husband, but their lives have become one. And this this is the history of the Jesus prayer, because at some points, if we struggle, and if God grants us this as a gift, the prayer becomes what they call self-acactivating and st Paul in the letter to the Romans says God has sent the His Spirit into our hearts and the Spirit is the one who now prays within us. so this when the prayer becomes self-active like this. I’m no longer the one really saying it, but it’s the presence of the Holy Spirit within me that is invoking Jesus Christ and God the Father which is why they say, when they quotation from the song of Songs, where the bride says, I sleep But my heart is awake.
就像丈夫不必总是想着妻子，但不知何故，妻子总是在他身边，妻子也不必总是想着丈夫，但他们的生活已经融为一体。这就是耶稣祷告的方式，因为在某些时候，如果我们挣扎，如果上帝把它作为礼物赐给我们，祷告就会变成所谓的自动激活，圣保罗在给罗马人的信中说，上帝已经派遣他的灵进入我们的内心，而灵就是现在在我们内心祷告的人。我不再是那个真正说出来的人，而是圣灵在我内心，呼唤耶稣基督和天父上帝，这就是为什么教父们引用《雅歌》书，其中新娘说，我睡了，但我的心醒着。
But this comes much later, for some people maybe it never comes, which is why don’t try to say that Jesus prayer twenty-four hours a day. I said fifteen minutes a day. here’s really is really a very good practice when you’ve wake up in the morning, when you rise from sleep. St. Basil says, when you arise from sleep, turn the first movements of your mind to God. Don’t put on the Tv. Don’t open your iphone. Go to a quiet place and offer the first movements of your mind to God.
但这种自动祈祷要晚得多，对有些人来说，也许永远也做不到「阿甲按：即这是耶稣祷文的高阶阶段，对于没有神师的信徒而言几乎是不可能的」，这就是为什么不要试图一天24小时说耶稣祷文。我说的是每天十五分钟。当你早上醒来，从睡梦中醒来时，这真的是一个非常好的练习。圣巴西尔说，当你从睡梦中醒来，把你心中的第一个动作转向上帝。不要打开电视。不要打开手机。到一个安静的地方，把你心中的第一个动作献给上帝。
I mean, God is love. God is the universal power of love and love never forces itself on anybody. Love always gives you your freedom. God will never take away your freedom from you. He always leaves you free, which is why, say Basil says you have to get up. You have to ask God for help. You have to invite God to intervene in your life. He won’t do it unless you ask. He doesn’t want slaves or servants. He wants people who love him, and God will never override your freedom. He will never take away your freedom. He’s wait, but he’s waiting for you to ask for help to ask for assistance, and you have to give God permission to intervene in your life. Otherwise you won’t do anything.
我的意思是，上帝就是爱。上帝是普遍的爱的力量，而爱从不强迫任何人。爱总是给你自由。上帝永远不会剥夺你的自由。他总是给你自由，这就是为什么巴西尔说你必须站起来。你必须向上帝求助。你必须邀请上帝介入你的生活。除非你请求，否则他不会这么做。他不想要奴隶或仆人。他要的是爱他的人，上帝永远不会凌驾于你的自由之上。他永远不会剥夺你的自由。他在等待，但他在等待你请求帮助，请求援助，你必须允许上帝介入你的生活。否则，你将一事无成。
in the book of Revelation Jesus stands at the door outside the door, and He says, I am the one who stands at the door. Jesus doesn’t say I come to break the door down. He only knock on the door, and he needs us to open. Because the door is locked on the inside. We need to unlock that door to allow him to come in. He will not break down that door if you don’t want to open the door. It’s amazing to think that the most powerful thing that we know God who created the universe, and who sustains and maintains the universe. You would think there would be so much power here.
在《启示录》中，耶稣站在门外，他说：我就是那站在门外的。耶稣没有说我是来破门而入的。他只是敲门，他需要我们开门。因为门是锁在里面的。我们需要打开那扇门，让他进来。如果你不想开门，他是不会破门而入的。想想看，我们所知道的最强大的东西竟然是创造宇宙、维持宇宙的上帝。你会觉得这里有如此强大的力量。
But this power turns out to be the power of love, and it’s this. It’s the most gentle, humble power that anyone can ever know. Look how Christ comes to us in the Gospel, how not as a powerful emperor or king or President, but as a small, vulnerable baby. The baby needs to be held. He needs to be protected. He needs to be nourished. That’s how God gives Himself to us, not as some overwhelming, powerful, frightening force but as is very gentle thing which makes itself vulnerable to us.
但这种力量原来就是爱的力量，就是这样。这是最温柔、最谦卑的力量。看看基督在福音书中是如何来到我们身边的，如何不是作为一个强大的皇帝、国王或总统，而是作为一个弱小的婴儿。婴儿需要被拥抱。他需要被保护。他需要营养。上帝就是这样把自己赐给我们的，不是作为某种压倒性的、强大的、可怕的力量，而是作为一种非常温柔的东西，让自己在我们面前变得脆弱。