Theosophy 神智学/精神科学 Chapter I

 An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man 超感官的知识与人类的天职

Chapter I. The Essential Nature of Man
                                                        第一章：人类本质

Everything related to human is just about choice.

The following words of Goethe point beautifully to the beginning of one way by which the essential nature of man can be known. “As soon as a person becomes aware of the objects around him, he considers them in relation to himself, and rightly so, because his whole fate depends on whether they please or displease him, attract or repel, help or harm him. This quite natural way of looking at or judging things appears to be as easy as it is necessary. A person is, nevertheless, exposed through it to a thousand errors that often make him ashamed and embitter his life.

歌德曾指出其中一种初期人类的本质，这称为：当那个人发觉周围的事物，他会认为它们与自己是有联系的，因为他的整个命运是受到自己喜欢不喜欢，吸引或抵制，有利或有害的决定。这是很自然不经意的看法或判断事物的存在价值。然而他也被暴露在成千个挫折，常常让他羞耻和怨恨生活。

However human must realise there is a reason for everything to exist, which humans have no right to judge the value of existence for anything  in the surrounding.

“A far more difficult task is undertaken by those whose keen desire for knowledge urges them to strive to observe the objects of nature as such and in their relationship to each other. These individuals soon feel the lack of the test that helped them when they, as men, regarded the objects in reference to themselves personally. They lack the test of pleasure and displeasure, attraction and repulsion, usefulness and harmfulness. Yet this test must be renounced entirely. They ought as dispassionate and, so to speak, divine beings, to seek and examine what is, not what gratifies. Thus the true botanist should not be moved either by the beauty or by the usefulness of the plants. He must study their formation and their relation to the rest of the plant kingdom. They are one and all enticed forth and shone upon by the sun without distinction, and so he should, equably and quietly, look at and survey them all and obtain the test for this knowledge, the data for his deductions, not out of himself, but from within the circle of the things he observes.”

“有一个更艰巨的任务是由那些对知识的渴望的人，促使自己努力观察物体的性质，在它们之间相互的关系。这些人很快就会感到缺乏实用感，作为人类，这算是给自己一个个人的参考事项。他们的快乐和不快，吸引和排斥性，实用性和危害性都缺乏实际。然而，这个研究必须完全放弃。他们本该不带任何情感，例如神圣的生命，寻求和观察的是什么，不是什么才能感到满足。因此，真正的植物学家不应移动美化植物或以实用性归类。他必须研究植物界里它们的形成和它们之间的依赖性。它们在阳光的诱惑与回照下是没有区分的，所以他应该均匀，静静地看着，并调查它们存在的意义，并取得这方面的知识后，对事物数据的加减，不是出于自己情感有关的判断标准，而是从圈内事物的联系上去观察。”

Humans are related and entangled to this world by senses, judgments and beliefs，the threefold.

This thought thus expressed by Goethe directs man's attention to three divisions of things. First, the objects concerning which information continually flows to him through the doors of his senses — the objects he touches, smells, tastes, hears and sees. Second, the impressions that these make on him, characterizing themselves through the fact that he finds the one sympathetic, the other abhorrent, the one useful, another harmful. Third, the knowledge that he, as a “so to speak divine being,” acquires concerning the objects, that is, the secrets of their activities and their being as they unveil themselves to him.           These three divisions are distinctly separate in human life, and man thereby becomes aware that he is interwoven with the world in a threefold way. The first division is one that he finds present, that he accepts as a given fact. Through the second he makes the world into his own affair, into something that has a meaning for him. The third he regards as a goal towards which he ought unceasingly to strive.

歌德表达的这些思想就包含了三个分类：一、我们通过感觉器官分解讯息，能碰、嗅、尝、听、看到的事物。二、我们在个人的情感上得到的印象，标示自己认为是同情的或憎恨、有利或有害的。三、我们所获得的咨询能是假象或是真理。人就以这三种方式与世界产生联系。         以上三区域清楚地划分人类的生活，从而发觉世界是三重层叠相互编织的：一、人类当下所感受到，接收到的事实证据见证。通过第二，人类以自己的事务意见筑造这个世界。三、人类认定应该不断向目标不断奋斗，追求着。

Human should realise that their emotions and perceptions have no relation nor connection with the law of nature.

Why does the world appear to man in this threefold way? A simple consideration will explain it. I cross a meadow covered with flowers. The flowers make their colors known to me through my eyes. That is the fact I accept as given. Having accepted the fact, I rejoice in the splendor of the colors. Through this I turn the fact into an affair of my own. Through my feelings I connect the flowers with my own existence. Then, a year later I go again over the same meadow. Other flowers are there. Through them new joys arise in me. My joy of the former year will appear as a memory. This is in me. The object that aroused it in me is gone, but the flowers I now see are of the same kind as those I saw the year before. They have grown in accordance with the same laws as have the others. If I have informed myself regarding this species and these laws, I then find them again in the flowers of this year, just as I found them in those of last year. So I shall perhaps muse, “The flowers of last year are gone and my joy in them remains only in my memory. It is bound up with my existence alone. What I recognized in the flowers of last year and recognize again this year, however, will remain as long as such flowers grow. That is something that revealed itself to me, but it is not dependent on my existence in the same way as my joy is. My feelings of joy remain in me. The laws, the being of the flowers, remain outside of me in the world.”

为什么世界以这三种方式出现呢？在我们走过一片开花的草地时，花绽放的色彩印入眼帘（那是我们看到的事实），接收了这个讯息我心生欢喜（把事实变成与个人的情感有关的）并感受到花与我自己生命同样的状态。过了一年再来到这个地方，我曾经经历过的欢喜心从记忆里浮现。过去让我欣喜的花已不在，但现在我看见一样品种的花在一样的规律下生长，如我已经告诉自己这品种与它的规律，每年的同一个时间都可找到它们。所以，也许我会沉思：过去的花已消逝而我的欣喜仍保留和束缚于与我同在的记忆中。我始终都会认得出这类花种，只要它一直都存在。这是自然揭露的事实，根我的存在和欣喜的心情毫无关系。我的感觉和回忆只留在于我自己，自然规律，花的本质，留在我以外，不依赖个人的宇宙里。

Humans consist of 3 sides of nature: body (shell), soul (emotions/ perceptions) and spirit(beliefs).

By these means man continually links himself in this threefold way with the things of the world. One should not, for the present, read anything into this fact, but merely take it as it stands. From this it can be seen that man has three sides to his nature. This and nothing else will, for the present, be indicated here by the three words, body, soul and spirit. Whoever connects any preconceived opinions or even hypotheses with these three words will necessarily misunderstand the following explanations. By body is here meant that through which the things in the environment of a man reveal themselves to him, as in the above example, the flowers in the meadow. By the word soul is signified that by which he links the things to his own being, through which he experiences pleasure and displeasure, desire and aversion, joy and sorrow in connection with them. By spirit is meant what becomes manifest in him when as Goethe expressed it, he looks at things as a “so to speak divine being.” In this sense man consists of body, soul and spirit.

这样，人就以三种方式与世界发生联系，人自己也就具有了这三重层面，就是躯体，灵魂（灵心）和精神。谁对这三个层面有了具体的观点（偏见）或假设，谁就免不了误会下面所要介绍的事情。在这里“躯体”指的是能通过感觉器官与物质的环境接触的这个范围。“灵魂”指的则是把事物联系到自己的情感，经历喜欢和讨厌、欲望和憎恨、高兴和悲伤等等。“精神”则是歌德说的那种，超出个人因素的认识。这样，人就具有了躯体，灵魂和精神。

By noticing the existence of these natures then we will understand the relationship between ourselves with the world around us

Through his body man is able to place himself for the time being in connection with things; through his soul he retains in himself the impressions they make on him; through his spirit there reveals itself to him what the things retain for themselves. Only when we observe man in these three aspects can we hope to throw light on his whole being, because they show him to be related in a threefold way to the rest of the world.

人通过身体与环境有接触；通过灵魂（更具体说是情感）把印象保存在心里；通过精神认识到事物的本质与真相。只有依此三方面观察人类，我们才有可能了解人与世界存在的三种联系。

Body=senses Soul=feelings Spirit=truth 3 aspects involve in every moment of our lives, which depend on whether we can observe them deeply enough.

Through his body man is related to the objects that present themselves to his senses from without. The materials from the outer world compose his body, and the forces of the outer world work also in it. He observes the things of the outer world with his senses, and he also is able to observe his own bodily existence. It is impossible, however, for him to observe his soul existence in the same way. Everything in him that is bodily process can be perceived with his bodily senses. His likes and dislikes, his joy and pain, neither he nor anyone else can perceive with bodily senses. The region of the soul is inaccessible to bodily perception. The bodily existence of a man is manifest to all eyes; the soul existence he carries within himself as his world. Through the spirit, however, the outer world is revealed to him in a higher way. The mysteries of the outer world, indeed, unveil themselves in his inner being. He steps in spirit out of himself and lets the things speak about themselves, about what has significance not for him but for them. For example, man looks up at the starry heavens. The delight his soul experiences belongs to him. The eternal laws of the stars that he comprehends in thought, in spirit, belong not to him but to the stars themselves.                     In this way, man is a citizen of three worlds. Through his body he belongs to the world that he also perceives through his body; through his soul he constructs for himself his own world; through his spirit a world reveals itself to him that is exalted above both the others.                     It seems obvious that because of the essential difference of these three worlds, a clear understanding of them and of man's share in them can only be obtained by means of three different modes of observation.

通过身体，人类感觉器官能感觉到的世界与自己的存在。外界物质材料和能量也组成我们自己身体的形成。人类观察外界的物质，也能观察到自己的身体。可是自己的灵魂是不能这样被观察到的，我心里的感受是别人的感觉器官无法看到的。所以灵魂的世界是跟外界物质不一样的，是每个人在个人的心里隐藏式的感受存档。通过精神，人类才能认识到外界中的规律，道理和真理。以精神，我们超出个人的范围并进入事物的本质本身。我们对晚上的天空（星星）的感受是属于自己个人内心的，可是我们认识到的宇宙规律是属于宇宙的。            就这样，人就参与了三种世界（层面）。以身体参与的是感觉器官能所感觉到的世界，以灵魂参与的是个人内心中建立的世界，以精神能认识到的是超出这两个世界的规律和真理。因为三种世界的不同，我们也只能以三种不同的观察方式去认识和理解它们和它们与人的关系。

1. The Corporeal Nature of Man                                           人类肉体的本质

Our body is formed by minerals to be able to exist, to be able to see.  Same goes to plants and animals.

We learn to know man's body through bodily senses, and the manner of observing it cannot differ from the way in which we learn to know other objects perceived by the senses. As we observe minerals, plants and animals, so can we also observe man. He is related to these three forms of existence. Like the minerals, he builds his body out of natural substances; like the plants, he grows and propagates his species; like the animals, he perceives the objects around him and builds up his inner experiences on the basis of the impressions they make on him. Thus, a mineral, a plant and an animal existence may be ascribed to man.

我们以感觉器官了解到我们的身体，就像我们也了解外界中的东西一样。像我们观察矿物，植物和动物那样，我们也能观察人类。人与这些物体是有关系的。人像矿物一样构成自己物质的身体；像植物生长和繁殖，像动物一样感觉到周围的事情并在内心中去体会和累计经验与记忆。从而矿物，植物和动物就等于人存在的三种方式（层面），而只有矿物的身体是感觉器官能感觉到的。

Humans although are basically quite similar to the other life forms yet there appears to be a distinct difference and that is the difference in the development of their mental capacity. The development of one’s mental capacity depends on how well the person’s brain development is.

The differences in structure of minerals, plants and animals correspond with the three forms of their existence. It is this structure — the shape — that is perceived through the senses, and that alone can be called body. Now the human body is different from that of the animal. This difference must be recognized, whatever may otherwise be thought of the relationship of man to animals. Even the most extreme materialist who denies all soul cannot but admit the truth of this passage uttered by Carus in his Oragnon der Natur und des Geistes. “The finer, inner construction of the nervous system and especially of the brain remains still an unsolved problem for the physiologist and the anatomist. That this concentration of structures ever increases in the animal kingdom and reaches in man a stage unequalled in any other being is a fully established fact — a fact that is of the deepest significance in regard to the mental evolution of man. Indeed, we may go so far as to say it is really a sufficient explanation of that evolution. Where, therefore, the structure of the brain has not developed properly, where its smallness and poverty are in evidence as in the case of microcephali and idiots, it goes without saying that we can no more expect the appearance of original ideas and of knowledge than we can expect the propagation of the species from persons with completely stunted reproductive organs. On the other hand, a strong and beautifully developed build of the whole man, and especially of the brain, will certainly not in itself take the place of genius but it will at any rate supply the first and indispensable condition for higher knowledge.”

不同矿物质的结构一样与三种层面构成它们的存在。不同形状的躯体一样有器官能感觉感应。不过，人还是跟动物有区别的。 Carus在性质和精神研究法里说到：“我们虽然还没有研究完人的神经系统，可是人的神经系统比动物的高级这个事实能证明，人具有动物没有的一种精神。神经系统没有人那么完善的动物就不可能在物质上表现出人能表现的那种精神。虽然不能说：只要有很好的物质的神经系统，就会有精神，不过，如果没有这个物质的神经系统，精神也无法被表现出来。”可见，我们还有人特有的一种，能造成自己世界的范围（自我意识）。

2. The Soul Nature of Man                                           人类灵性本质

Feelings are the outcome of the senses that are able to be sensitive to its surroundings and this makes a person perceive the surroundings as to how that person finds it appropriate and suitable. The additional factor that intensifies the senses is the will. This incorporation of the will makes a person response to the surroundings in a distinct manner.

Man's soul nature as his own inner world is different from his bodily nature. When attention is turned to even the simplest sensation, what is personally his own comes at once to the fore. Thus no one can know whether one person perceives even a simple sensation in exactly the same way as another. It is known that there are people who are color-blind. They see things only in various shades of grey. Others are only partially color-blind. Because of this they are unable to distinguish between certain shades of color. The picture of the world that their eyes gives them is different from that of so-called normal persons. The same holds good more or less in regard to the other senses. Thus it will seem without further elaboration that even simple sensations belong to the inner world. I can perceive with my bodily senses the red table that another person perceives but I cannot perceive his sensation of red. We must, therefore, describe sensation as belonging to the soul. If this single fact is grasped quite clearly, we shall soon cease to regard inner experiences as mere brain processes or something similar. Feeling must link itself with sensation. One sensation causes us pleasure, another displeasure. These are stirrings of our inner life, our soul life. In our feelings we create a second world in addition to the one working on us from without. A third is added to this — the world of the will. Through the will we react on the outer world thereby stamping the impress of our inner being upon it. The soul of man, as it were, flows outwards in the activities of his will.                     The actions of man differ from the occurrences of outer nature in that they bear the impress of his inner life. Thus the soul as man's own possession stands confronting the outer world. He receives from the outer world the incitements, but he creates in response to these incitements a world of his own. The body becomes the foundation of the soul being of man.

人的灵魂（灵魂）与身体不一样的，它具有内心世界的特点。我们感觉到的东西所引起的印象在每个人的内心中是不一样的。有的人的眼睛无法区分某些颜色，只有灰色深浅的印象根本不能理解颜色的景象。一样的别的感官也会有同样的情形。从这一点我们能知道，仅仅感觉所引起的印象已经是属于人的内心。我的眼睛虽然能像别人一样感觉到桌子的红色，可是我无法感觉到别人对于红色的感受。所以可以说，从感觉到的东西得到的印象是属于个人灵魂的。如恨清楚这一点的话，我们就要明白感受不是脑神经中的一种物质反应。我们根据印象来发挥感受或情感。我们以这种灵魂的情感来造自己的内心世界。灵魂除了（带来思考的）印象和情感这两种因素之外，还有第三种因素，就是意志。我们以意志的力量又影响到外界，让外界接受我们内心世界的一些因素。人做的事情与自然中发生的事情就这样不同：人的灵魂以意志的方式影响到环境。个人的灵魂面对了外界。我们从外界得到印象（思考的启发）并造出个人的内心世界（情感），再从我们的内心世界去影响外界（意志）。

3. The Spiritual Nature of Man                                           人类精神本质

Humans have the ability to decide what is best in life and this ability comes from analysing the surroundings. Thus, humans are able to think and rationalise in order to make proper and moral decisions.

The soul nature of man is not determined by the body alone. Man does not wander aimlessly and without purpose from one sensation to another, nor does he act under the influence of every casual incitement that plays upon him either from without or through the processes of his body. He thinks about his perceptions and his acts. By thinking about his perceptions he gains knowledge of things. By thinking about his acts he introduces a reasonable coherence into his life. He knows that he will worthily fulfill his duty as a man only when he lets himself be guided by correct thoughts in knowing as well as in acting. The soul of man, therefore, is confronted by a twofold necessity. By the laws of the body it is governed by natural necessity. It allows itself also to be governed by the laws that guide it to exact thinking because it voluntarily acknowledges their necessity. Nature subjects man to the laws of changing matter, but he subjects himself to the laws of thought. By this means he makes himself a member of a higher order than the one to which he belongs through his body. This order is the spiritual. The spiritual is as different from the soul as the soul is from the body. As long as only the particles of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen that are in motion in the body are spoken of, we do not have the soul in view. Soul life begins only when within the motion of these particles the feeling arises, “I taste sweetness,” or, “I feel pleasure.” Likewise, we do not have the spirit in view as long as merely those soul experiences are considered that course through anyone who gives himself over entirely to the outer world and his bodily life. This soul life is rather the basis of the spiritual just as the body is the basis of the soul life. The biologist is concerned with the body, the investigator of the soul — the psychologist — with the soul, and the investigator of the spirit with the spirit. It is incumbent on those who would understand the nature of man by means of thinking, first to make clear to themselves through self-reflection the difference between body, soul and spirit.

人的灵魂不仅从物质的身体得到引导，人不是毫无方向地从一个印象来到下一个印象，也不会在每一个感觉器官得到的印象下行动起来（反应）。人会思考，会认识到事物，也会把不同事情联系在一起。人知道，只有他从正确的思考中得到引导，认识和行动才会是具有道理的。 灵魂从两个方向得到引导，一是身体参与的这个有自然规律的物质世界，二是它自愿接受的真理。人以新陈代谢必须接受自然规律，人以思考自愿地接受真理并参与到比身体更高级的一种道理，而这个道理或真理就是精神。 身体与灵魂不同，灵魂与精神也不同。在观察身体里的化学过程时，我们就无法观察到灵魂。灵魂是对于所感觉到的事物的感受。同样，在观察内心感受时，我们也就无法观察到精神。身体仅仅是发挥灵魂感受所需要的载体（带来印象），而灵魂仅仅是接受精神所需要的载体。自然科学家研究的是身体，心理学家研究的是灵魂（灵魂），而精神科学家研究的是精神。如果要以思考的方式去了解人，我们首先要区分自己（人）存在的这三个范围。

4. Body, Soul and Spirit                             身体、灵魂、精神