《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 66 (146):第四境狀態
The topic of the retreat, and its goal, is the turiya state—the elusive fourth level of human consciousness. During the typical human experience, say the Yogis, most of us are always moving between three different levels of consciousness—waking, dreaming or deep dreamless sleep. But there is a fourth level, too. This fourth level is the witness of all the other states, the integral awareness that links the other three levels together. This is the pure consciousness, an intelligent awareness that can—for example—report your dreams back to you in the morning when you wake up. You were gone, you were sleeping, but somebody was watching over your dreams while you slept—who was that witness? And who is the one who is always standing outside the mind's activity, observing its thoughts? It's simply God, say the Yogis. And if you can move into that state of witness-consciousness, then you can be present with God all the time. This constant awareness and experience of the God-presence within can only happen on a fourth level of human consciousness, which is called turiya.
靜修主題的目標，是“第四境”（turiya）狀態——難以捉摸的第四意識層。瑜伽士說，典型的人類經驗，始終遊走在三種不同的意識層之間——清醒、夢境，或無夢境的沉睡。然而另有第四個層次。這第四層見證其他三種狀態，是將其他三個層次連接起來的整體意識。這種純粹的整體意識可以——舉例來說——在你清晨醒來的時候彙報你的夢境。你進入夢鄉，你睡着了，但有人趁你沉睡時看守你的夢境——誰是這個目擊者？是誰始終站在腦部活動之外、觀察其思維？你若能進入此種目擊意識狀態，就能時時刻刻與神同在。這種不斷意識並體驗內心存在的神，只能發生在第四個意識層，此即“第四境”。Here's how you can tell if you've reached the turiya state—if you're in a state of constant bliss. One who is living from within turiya is not affected by the swinging moods of the mind, nor fearful of time or harmed by loss. "Pure, clean, void, tranquil, breathless, selfless, endless, undecaying, steadfast, eternal, unborn, independent, he abides in his own greatness," say the Upanishads, the ancient Yogic scriptures, describing anyone who has reached the turiya state. The great saints, the great Gurus, the great prophets of history—they were all living in the turiya state, all the time. As for the rest of us, most of us have been there, too, if only for fleeting moments. Most of us, even if only for two minutes in our lives, have experienced at some time or another an inexplicable and random sense of complete bliss, unrelated to anything that was happening in the outside world. One instant, you're just a regular Joe, schlepping through your mundane life, and then suddenly—what is this?—nothing has changed, yet you feel stirred by grace, swollen with wonder, overflowing with bliss. Everything—for no reason whatsoever—is perfect.
如何去分辨是否達到第四境狀態，是否處在永恆的幸福狀態？活在第四境的人不受波動的情緒影響，不畏懼時間，不因失去而受傷。“純淨、空無、平靜、無聲、無私、無盡、不化、堅定、永恆、清純、獨立，而且能恪守自身的偉大”——古瑜伽經《奧義書》（Upanishads）如此描述達到第四境狀態的人。歷史上的偉大聖人、偉大導師、偉大先知——他們始終活在第四境狀態。至於大多數的我們也到過那兒，即使只是短暫的片刻。我們多數人——即使一輩子只是短短兩分鐘時間——都經歷過某種無法解釋、隨機而發的完全幸福感，和外在世界發生的一切毫不相干。這一刻，你只是普通人，過自己的平凡生活，突然間——這是怎麼回事？——一切還是老樣子，然而你覺得蒙神感召，驚歎萬分，充滿幸福。一切——毫無理由地——都十全十美。Of course, for most of us this state passes as fast as it came. It's almost like you are shown your inner perfection as a tease and then you tumble back to "reality" very quickly, collapsing into a heap upon all your old worries and desires once again. Over the centuries, people have tried to hold on to that state of blissful perfection through all sorts of external means—through drugs and sex and power and adrenaline and the accumulation of pretty things—but it doesn't keep. We search for happiness everywhere, but we are like Tolstoy's fabled beggar who spent his life sitting on a pot of gold, begging for pennies from every passerby, unaware that his fortune was right under him the whole time. Your treasure—your perfection—is within you already. But to claim it, you must leave the busy commotion of the mind and abandon the desires of the ego and enter into the silence of the heart. The kundalini shakti—the supreme energy of the divine—will take you there.
當然，對我們大部分的人來說，此一狀態來得快、去得也快，就像挑動你發現自己的內在完美，卻又讓你迅速跌回“現實”，再度倒在原先的煩惱和慾望中。幾個世紀以來，人們試圖藉由各種外來方式抓住此種幸福的完美狀態——通過藥品、性愛、權力、感官刺激、積攢漂亮的東西——卻無法永久保有。我們四處尋找快樂，卻好比托爾斯泰故事中的乞丐，一輩子坐在一罈金子上，跟過路人討錢，卻不知財富始終在自己手中。你的財富——你的完美——已存在自己內心。若想領取，你就得遠離繁亂的腦袋，捨棄自我的種種欲求，走入心的寂靜。“昆達利尼莎克蒂”——神的至高能量——將帶領你。
