《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 46 (97):與神邂逅
To understand what that experience was, what happened in there (by which I mean both "in the meditation cave" and "in me") brings up a topic rather esoteric and wild—namely, the subject of kundalini shakti.
欲理解此一體驗以及所發生的事情（即在“禪修洞”和“我的內心”發生的事情），使我們轉到一個奧妙狂放的話題——那就是，“昆達利尼莎克蒂”。Every religion in the world has had a subset of devotees who seek a direct, transcendent experience with God, excusing themselves from fundamentalist scriptural or dogmatic study in order to personally encounter the divine. The interesting thing about these mystics is that, when they describe their experiences, they all end up describing exactly the same occurrence. Generally, their union with God occurs in a meditative state, and is delivered through an energy source that fills the entire body with euphoric, electric light. The Japanese call this energy ki, the Chinese Buddhists call it chi, the Balinese call it taksu, the Christians call it The Holy Spirit, the Kalahari Bushmen call it n/um (their holy men describe it as a snakelike power that ascends the spine and blows a hole in the head through which the gods then enter). The Islamic Sufi poets called that God-energy "The Beloved," and wrote devotional poems to it. The Australian aborigines describe a serpent in the sky that descends into the medicine man and gives him intense, otherworldly powers. In the Jewish tradition of Kabbalah this union with the divine is said to occur through stages of spiritual ascension, with energy that runs up the spine along a series of invisible meridians.
世界上的每一種宗教，都有一小羣信徒追求與神之間進行直接而不平凡的體驗，脫離教義經文或教條學習，只爲了親身與神邂逅。有趣的是，這些神祕主義者在描述自身經驗時，每個人對所發生的事都有如出一轍的描述。大致而言，他們與神的結合都發生在禪修狀態，透過某種能量源傳送，使全身充滿快樂的電光。日本人和中國佛教徒稱這種能量爲“氣”，巴釐人稱之爲“塔克蘇”（taksu），基督徒稱之爲“聖靈”，卡拉哈里沙漠的原住民（其聖徒把它描述爲蛇一般的力量，爬上背脊，在頭上開出一個洞來，神穿洞而入）。伊斯蘭的蘇菲詩人把這種神的能量叫作“親愛的人”，寫聖詩讚頌。澳洲原住民描述天上的一條蛇降臨到世間，進入藥師體內，賜予他強大、非凡的力量。在猶太教的卡巴拉（Kabbalah）傳統，與神的結合，據說是通過數個階段的心靈提升而發生的，能量沿着一連串無形的天體經線攀上脊柱。Saint Teresa of Avila, that most mystical of Catholic figures, described her union with God as a physical ascension of light through seven inner "mansions" of her being, after which she burst into God's presence. She used to go into meditative trances so deep that the other nuns couldn't feel her pulse anymore. She would beg her fellow nuns not to tell anyone what they had witnessed, as it was "a most extraordinary thing and likely to arouse considerable talk." (Not to mention a possible interview with the Inquisitor.) The most difficult challenge, the saint wrote in her memoirs, was to not stir up the intellect during meditation, for any thoughts of the mind—even the most fervent prayers—will extinguish the fire of God. Once the troublesome mind "begins to compose speeches and dream up arguments, especially if these are clever, it will soon imagine it is doing important work." But if you can surpass those thoughts, Teresa explained, and ascend toward God, "it is a glorious bewilderment, a heavenly madness, in which true wisdom is acquired." Unknowingly echoing the poems of the Persian Sufi mystic Hafiz, who demanded why, with a God so wildly loving, are we not all screaming drunks, Teresa cried out in her autobiography that, if these divine experiences were mere madness, then "I beseech you, Father, let us all be mad!"
最具神祕主義色彩的天主教人物聖女大德蘭，其描述與神的結合是一種具體的上升光線，其穿越生命中的七個“心房”後，突然讓她看見神的存在。她經常深陷於禪坐的恍惚狀態，以致其他修女完全無法摸到她的脈搏。她請求修女朋友們切勿將她們看見的事說出去，因爲這是一件“很不尋常的事，可能引發議論”（還可能被宗教法官接見）。這位聖徒在回憶錄中寫到，最困難的挑戰，是在冥想之際，切勿挑動思維，因爲腦子裏的任何想法——即使是最熱誠的禱告——都會撲滅神的火焰。麻煩的腦袋一旦“開始構思演說，編造巧思辯論，很快就會以爲自己做的工作很重要”。但你只要能超越這些想法，大德蘭說道，爬升到神的頂端，“那可是一種光榮的迷惑，美妙的瘋狂，足以讓你從中取得真正的智慧”。波斯蘇菲神祕主義者哈菲茲（Hafiz）問道，神既然慈愛得瘋狂，我們何不每個人都成爲尖聲叫嚷的醉漢。大德蘭並未意識到與哈菲茲的呼求相呼應；她在自傳中呼喚，這些神性的體驗若純粹是瘋狂之舉，那麼，“我求求你，聖父，讓我們都發狂吧！”
Then, in the next sentences of her book, it's like she catches her breath. Reading Saint Teresa today, you can almost feel her coming out of that delirious experience, then looking around at the political climate of medieval Spain (where she lived under one of the most re-pressive religious tyrannies of history) and soberly, dutifully, apologizing for her excitement. She writes, "Forgive me if I have been very bold," and reiterates that all her idiot babbling should be ignored because, of course, she is just a woman and a worm and despicable ver-min, etc., etc. You can almost see her smoothing back her nun's skirts and tucking away those last loose strands of hair—her divine secret a blazing, hidden bonfire.
在接下來的句子當中，她像是屏住呼吸。今日閱讀大德蘭，幾乎能感覺到她從入神體驗中甦醒過來後，注視着周遭中世紀西班牙的政治局勢（她生活在史上數一數二、最惡劣的宗教專政之下），然後冷靜盡責地爲自己的激動狀態道歉。她寫道：“請原諒我的大膽”；再次重申別把她的胡說八道當一回事，因爲她只是個女子、小蟲、討人厭的害蟲，等等，等等。你幾乎看得見她順了順自己的修袍，整理好最後幾絲亂髮——她的神聖祕密將成爲藏在內心的熊熊烈火。
