向一位高中同学提到这本书，因为没有中文，翻译一下看他是否喜欢。同学肺癌已经骨转，希望他读后能得到一些安慰，没有严格按照原文翻译，只是节选。顺手贴一下这里。
你可能是一个非常伟大的人，你可能是世界的独裁者，但是当你睡着时，你会忘记你自己的标志 ---你的名字，你的身体，你的年龄，你的性别，你的国籍，关于你的一切。
或者你可能是一个谦虚，善良的人。每当你入睡，你就会忘记了罪恶，忘记了美德；你忘记了自己。这什么是基本事实呢？就是你当忘记自己作为一个个体的人，让你能够得到深深地休息。
在你入睡前，你可能与上百个女人或男人发生性关系。那时你很享受。但是当你入睡后，当你进入深层休息时，那种感官体验就不存在了。所以当你没有个体身份时，就没有负重。不去说你自己如何如何，说是你自己谁谁，是男人或女人。让你停驻在这一刻，从这一刻在往前行。这一刻是真实(truth)，是事实(fact)，从这里出发，你可以解脱(go to reality)。如果你停驻在没有个体特征这一刻(入睡进入深层休息状态），随后无论出现什么，都会自升自灭。譬如日出日落，自然消长。你不是某个具体特征或标签标志出的你，那不可能是真实的你自己。
每当你意识到自己是独立个人，个体时， 你会有很多需求：你想看电影，想听音乐，想去玩耍，想要性，想吃精美食物，想醉酒。但是每当那种个体感受不存在时（如睡中），你与周围是一个整体，这时你没有上述需求。灵性或者宗教主要是引导人们认识到这一点：你不需要身外的任何东西，这些都是真实的你的一部分。当你真正领悟到了这一点，这些欲望会都消失。但是只要你认为你是独立个体，是与周围分隔开的，你会发现自己会有各样欲望。
认为自己是独立个体是造成这世上的一切问题的根本原因。各种各样的事情行为，各样细节感受，阅读，追求知识，寻求愉悦，一切都是与此认知有关。一但这种个体认知改变，所有的问题也会为之消散解决。那么你所体验到的幸福就是真正的幸福。然而，改变个体认知，并不是说停止上述的各样活动。你可以做你想做的事，但是永远不要忘记真实，永远不要忘记真正的你。你不是你的身体，你不是仰赖存命与食物与空气。所有表现出来的，只是一个暂时状态，都会成为过去。
我上面所说的你们中的大多数人都不会明白，因为你们认为你们只是你们的那具躯体（你们认为身体是你们的全部）。我所传达的种种知识，不是针对躯体的，而是针对真正的你。只要你坚信你是那具躯体，无论我讲述什么，都不会对你有任何益处。因为你所吸纳进入的，都是经过那个躯体性的思维，只不过是扩增了你的现有知识库，然后会感受到自己更博学多识了而已。例如，明天一些占星家或者手相家可能想来告诉我：”我想告诉你你未来的事。”他怎么可能知道我的未来？因为我根本不在时空里。对你来说，当他预言你未来会成为美国总统，你可能会非常高兴。可是对我来说不会这样。
世上所的一切行为都因其属性和趋势性。譬如，一个人在一个月中离了四次婚。这个人的行为由这个数量和趋势表现出来。而主导这个行为的人是不止这两个属性的。对他来说，他是他感觉到的他自己” 我是” (“I am”)。当人感觉” 我是” ，周围的世界也出现了，一旦当” 我是”，这种我的感觉消失，周围世界也随之消失，如进入睡眠状态。所以＂我是＂是与周围的世界是一体的，不是分割的。” 我是” 是这个世界的目击者, 这个世界存在是因为＂我是＂这个个人感受存在。如果一个入睡时，他没有＂我是＂的认知，那一刻世界在他那里是不存在的。
就象太阳和它的光线一样。如果没有太阳，阳关就不存在了。同样的，一旦＂我是＂出现，周围的一切随之而来。如果这个目击者＂我是＂不在了，他周围的世界也就不存在了。这是我试图告诉你们的，但是你们想要别的东西，想知道关于你们未来的事情，但是你们的未来也只是依托＂我是＂而存在的表象，象阳光因了太阳存在一样。
这个＂我是＂是一种宣告，它不是真实的。这种＂我是＂的认知是真实衍生出来的。什么是真实呢？我无法告诉你，事实上是因为真实是无法描述，无法解释，它超越了表达。一切都在变动，每次我试图解释它，都被它否定：＂不是这个，不是这个。。。＂这是我的经验，我没有见到上帝，没有见到任何其他的，我所告诉你的基于我自己的经历，不是引用自任何人。
You may be a very great person, you might be a dictator of the world, but when you go to sleep you forget what you were---- your name, you body, you age, you sex, your nationality, everything. This sense of a separate identity is very limited and not the truth; in fact, it is totally false.
Or you may be a humble, virtuous person. Whenever you go to sleep, you forget sin, virtue; you forget yourself. What is the basic fact? It is that you forget yourself as an individual, which gives you deep rest.
When you go to sleep, you might have had sex with a hundred women or a hundred men. At that time you were enjoying it. But when you sleep, when you take rest, that sensory experience is not there. So when you don’t have an identity, no weight at that place. Don’t say you are so and so, you are an individual, you are a man or a woman. Just stay put; from there you can go to reality. And then whatever is manifested, will arise and subside. It is like sunrise and sunset, waxing and waning. That desultory manifestation you cannot be; it cannot be the real you.
Whenever there is a sense of individuality, personality, or a separations, you have so many wants. You want to see a movie, you want to hear music, you want to play, you want to have sex, you want to eat fancy foods, you want to consume intoxicant, but when that sense of seperateness is not there, when you are one with the totality, these things are not desired. And spirituality or what you call “religion” is mainly to understand this: that you don’t require anything, you are a part of the totality, or reality. When you grasp that, you don’t have any of these needs. But so long as you are separated from things, you need everything.
To exist as a separate individual constitutes the entire problem. And all these things, the various sense caterings, all reading, search for knowledge, for pleasure, everything is related to that. Once all that subsides, there is no more problem. Then the bliss you experience is true bliss. The foregoing, however, is not a ban on activities. Do whatever you want, but never forget the reality, never forget what you really are. You are not your body, you are not the food, you are not the vital air. Whatever has appeared is a state, and as such it has to go.
Most of you are not going to understand what is being said here, because you are taking yourself to be the body. Whatever knowledge I am conveying is not directed to the body—with you as bodily entities, as different persons.
So long as you are firmly convinced that you are the body, whatever I am telling is not going to be any use to you. Because whatever knowledge we take, we take it as body-mind, since it adds to our existing store of information. We then feel we have become more knowledgeable.
For example, tomorrow some astrologer or palmist may want to come and tell me: I would like to tell your future. How can he tell my future, when I am not there at all? You would be happy when told, OK, you will be President of the United State. But with me that is not the case.
Whenever behavior exists in this world, it is because of attribute, tendencies. For example, a person goes through four marriages and divorces in a month. Now that behavior stems from tendencies, qualities. But that which witnesses this behavior is beyond attributes. When that witness gone, all other things have disappeared, too. By the same taken, upon the arising of “I am,” the whole of manifestation takes place; these two are not separate, they are one. “I am” is the witness; the entire manifest world is there because of this.
What which is doing all this are the tendencies or attributes, or maya. Just like the sun and its rays; if the sun is not there, the rays are absent. Similiarly, if the witness is not there, the manifestation or maya is not present. When “ I am” arises, everything appears when “I am” subsides, everything subsides. Now this is what I am trying to tell you, but you want something else. You want something about your future, something which is part of manifestation, but I am trying to hit at it.
This “I am” is an announcement; it is not the real. It has come out of something else. What the real is, I am not telling you, it not the truth, because it has come out of that “I am”. The fact is, I cannot describe reality to you. I cannot explain it, because it beyond expression. So from that, everything flows; but every time I say something, I am aware that it is to be negated, “not this, not this”….. that is my experience. And further, I have not seen God, have not seen anything else. But about my own experience, I am very sure, and that is what I am telling you about. I am not quoting anyone.
