Q #135关于自杀

开心树

摘要：我们企图解决世界的分裂问题，好似是这世界出了问题，而非我们的心。其实，心灵才是真正的问题所在，它才是这疯狂的分裂一念隐藏之处。  选自：
http://www.facimoutreach.org/

施宏扬 林慧如合译  若水修订   以下这4个问题都是有关“自杀”的议题，在此一并回答：  1. 可否请你以「奇迹课程」的观点谈谈“自杀”这个问题？  2. 由「课程」的观点来看，怎样才是面对自杀的“正确”心态？  3. 我祖父自杀了。既然死亡只是我们与上主分裂后的一个幻觉。那么自杀有错？还是说，自杀时觉得与上主分裂的那种心态是错的？当一个人真的自杀后，他会怎样呢？人们离开了这个虚幻的世界后，是否会自然地与上主合一呢？  4. 我内人近日自杀了。她和我以前都是「课程」的学员。有时我纳闷，倘若这一切都是幻觉，那我们为何还要继续活下去？为什么我们还要跟这场人生奋战，怎么说它都不属于「真实世界」，不是吗？这一切究竟为了什么？  答：从「课程」的观点来看，每个死亡事实上都是自杀。如同耶稣说的「没有人会死亡，除非他选择死亡」(T.19.IV.C.1:4)，之后又提到「没有人能够不经自己的同意就死的。没有一件发生的事不是出自你的愿望，你所选择的，一样都少不了。」(W.pI.152.1:4,5)  但课程也清楚说明了，死亡只是心识里的一个念头而已，与身体无关(e.g., W.pI.163.1:1; W.pI.167.2:1,2,3)。小我之所以会有这种疯狂却虚幻不实的念头，是因它相信可以藉此攻击上主，为的是要从祂那儿夺取一个独立的身份。这样的想法，不仅代表了谋杀（宣判上主之死），也代表了自杀（宣判基督自性之死）。所以，由此疯狂的想法衍生出来在这肉体世界的种种行为，是不可能真实或正常的。  「课程」总要求我们把焦点放在本质与目的上，而非形式与表相，因此，世上从小我的想法所衍生出来的各种死亡，我们都应一视同仁。小我在死亡底下隐藏的目的就是要证明天人分裂是真的，到头来，上主终究以胜利者的姿态取回我们从祂那儿偷来的生命。我们可以持续抵抗，直到我们不得不屈服于外在这更强大的力量，要不然就干脆向命运低头，自行了断算了。死亡将以哪一种形式出现，非关紧要，因为本质都一样－－我们这羸弱而痛苦的生命只能暂时借用一阵子，之后我们势必会失去它。  另一方面，我们若与耶稣或圣灵一起去看，所有的死亡（包括自杀）只在形式上有所不同，但与我们在这世界里所作的其它一切决定，本质上并无不同，因整个世界都是奠基于我们视自己为分裂、孤独、痛苦、脆弱及受害的心态上。然而，我们会知道这种看法是有问题的，它是建立在一个错误的前提上：认定自己是这具肉体，困在一个非我们所造的恶劣且残酷的世界里，绝望地与种种难以跨越的障碍搏斗，试图在这无助且非我们能操控的处境下窃取些许平安与快乐。  绝大多数的世俗观点，都赋予了自杀某种罪名及负面的道德判断，但那只不过是小我的一种自我防卫，为的是巩固独立自我的生命及那个自我的死亡都是真的这一想法。从「课程」的观点来看，自杀背后的那个想法，只要是出自小我，就是一个错误，如此而已，它不是罪（耶稣说得很清楚，死亡也可以是在圣灵的引导下所做的决定），也不会要人承担任何负面后果，跟我们以小我为师所做的其它决定并无任何不同，它们都是用来加深内疚的，下意识里想尽办法让我们紧抓着内疚不放，就是要证明分裂果然是真的。因此，自杀这个错误与我们选择降生到这世界的错误，并没两样。两者处理内疚的方法如出一撤，就是把注意力放在外头这看似存在的世界与肉体上，以确保自己找不到出路。我们企图解决世界的分裂问题，好似是这世界出了问题，而非我们的心。其实，心灵才是真正的问题所在，它才是这疯狂的分裂一念隐藏之处。  因此，不论我们是自杀或是以其它方式死亡，只要我们还相信死亡是真的，我们就仍会困在这小我强加在我们身上的分裂信念里。死亡无法让我们从小我的思想体系中解脱出来，也无法从这世界（即小我的防御堡垒）中解脱出来。只有与耶稣或始终在我们身旁的圣灵一起，以不带批判的眼光去看小我的思想体系，并做出一劳永逸的决定－－从此不再重视分裂的信念了，这样便能帮我们回到与上主一体的经验里。因为世界无法夺走我们任何东西，只有我们选择分裂的这个决定才会。  仅管这世界是个幻，但只要我们还个别活在这儿（也就是我们认为从生到死的这个生命），我们就不会相信它是幻。若我们真的相信，而深切知道世界存在的目的是为了攻击上主也因而攻击了真正的自我，我们怎么还会认为我们活在肉体里？然而，我们的确是那样过活的－－呼吸、饮食、娱乐等等，因此，仅管我们理智上可能相信「奇迹课程」所说的，但与我们实际经验到的是两回事。  既然我们已降生于此，圣灵便要我们在此学习祂的宽恕课程，当然也包含「死亡是幻」这个终极课程，这世界便因此成了一间教室，供我们在其内快乐地学习祂要教我们的事。愈离开世界，愈强化了世界对我们的真实性而已。毕竟，除非你先把此地当真了，且觉得它了无生趣，否则哪会想离开呢？这也是为什么耶稣在正文里告诉我们「有误把死亡当成平安的危险」(T.27.VII.10:2)。离开这个肉体世界并不会带来真正的平安，惟有透过练习宽恕来松绑心中的内疚方可，因内疚是痛苦与苦难的唯一肇因，也是「死亡是真的」这个信念的肇因。因此，只要我们愿意，我们可以踏着宽恕的步伐（快慢由自己决定），一小步一小步地前进，宽恕终将带领我们回到那荣耀且永恒的自性那儿，我们是毁不了他的，即使我们愚蠢地退化到死亡的幻相里，祂仍永远是我们的真实身份。     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?   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).   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.   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.   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.   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.   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.  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.  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  转自：奇迹课程中文部 Ken Wapnick专栏  2006/4/19