Cindy的書庫

PREFACE《序》

在「當下」的燦爛光輝中––羅勃·柏茲

I’m tremendously pleased that Rick Stack, the proprietor of New Awareness Network Inc., is publishing the eight-to-ten-volume set of The Early Sessions. These books consist of the first 510 “sessions” that my wife, Jane Roberts, delivered for that well-known “energy personality essence”, Seth, after she began speaking in a trance or dissociated state in December 1963. They cover a six-year period between November 20, 1963 and January 19, 1970.

我極度欣喜瑞克·史塔克（RickStack），新覺知網絡公司（NewAwarenessNetworkInc.）的經營者，正在出版一系列的《早期課》。這些書包含我太太珍·羅伯茲最早於一九六三年十二月開始在出神或解離狀態中說話，替知名的「能量人格元素」賽斯傳述的五百一十節，涵蓋了一九六三年十一月二十日到一九七O年一月十九日的六年期間。

Having this set published for the record is something I’ve long wanted to see take place, and Rick’s dedicated interest and time make it possible. (I told him more than once along the way that he’d better think twice—and more!— before taking on the job of publishing eight-to-ten books.) Jane died on September 5, 1984, at the age of 55. When she was close to death she asked me to publish all of her work. In my grief and shock I agreed, without understanding what a challenge that labor of love was to entail. I’m still working at it 12 years later!

出版這套書，留下記錄，一直是我長久以來的希望，瑞克奉獻關注和時間使之成為可能。（一直以來，我不只一次告訴他最好三思––甚至多想幾遍！再承擔出版這套書的工作。）珍死於一九八四年九月五日。臨終前，她要求我出版她所有的著作，在哀傷與震驚中，我同意了，卻不瞭解隨後而來的愛的工作是多大的一個挑戰。十二年之後，我還在繼續為它工作！

With the loving help of others I made several attempts over the years to publish various portions of Jane’s work, but with little success, for a variety of reasons. Also, even though I’d been so intimately involved with the Seth material from the very beginning, for example, I didn’t fully comprehend the volume of just the session material that we’d accumulated over a total of 21 years. Let alone the bulk of Jane’s other work: her poetry, novels both published and unpublished, her other published books, an unfinished autobiography, the records of her ESP class sessions, her journals and paintings, her singing in musical trance language, Sumari, her never-ending correspondence. My wife was— and is, I know, for I’m sure that she still lives—the most creative person I’ve ever met, and through her extraordinary abilities she’s left a body of work that I regard as a legacy of inquiry about our understanding of ourselves and our reality. In my opinion its “true value” is only now coming to be better acknowledged. Rick’s publication of The Early Sessions, then, is a very important advance in the marvelous journey of discovery that, I think, each one of us is inevitably involved in, that each one of us has chosen to create, in whatever way and for whatever purposes.

在其他人的關愛協助下，多年來我試過幾次，要出版珍的著作中許多不同的部分，但因為種種原因很不順利。而且，比方說，就算我一開始就深入參與賽斯資料，光是前後共二十一年賽斯課累積的大量資料，我也沒有全部領會。更別提珍一大批的其他著作：她的詩、已出版和未出版的小說、她其他已出版的書、一部未完成的自傳、ESP班的上課記錄、她的日記和畫作、她出神時用音樂語言「蘇馬利」唱出的歌曲、她未曾間斷的通信。我太太以前是––而且現在也是，我知道，因為我確定她還活著––我見過的人當中最有創造力的一個，透過她非凡的能力，她留下了大量著作，在我看來那是探詢我們對自己以及自己的實相有多瞭解的遺產。我的看法是，它的「真實價值」到現在才比較得到認可。所以，瑞克出版《早期課》，是這趟令人驚嘆的發現之旅中，非常重要的一個進展，我認為，我們每個人都不可避免參與了這趟旅程，而且也都選擇創造了這趟旅程––不管用什麼方式，也不管基於什麼目的。

These eight to ten volumes are meant to show Jane's and my growth—in the most literal way—but always that of my wife, above all else. From the start we felt that if our “psychic” work had value it should be presented as is, within all of its human connotations; not only its great successes, but with its gropings and mistakes, its questions and learnings along the way. Not edited or prettied up, but as is. Real. I still feel that way. These 510 sessions, then, are exact copies from the verbatim transcripts I made in my homemade shorthand while Jane spoke for Seth; I added notes and comments while typing the material after each session. Over half a dozen years we filed the typed sessions in 44 three-ring binders. The sessions in one of the volumes published by Rick are accompanied by my drawings of the objects used in the series of “envelope tests” we conducted, both for ourselves and long-range with a well-known scientist, over some 11 months.

這套書的本意是呈現珍和我的成長––以最如實的方式––但向來是以我太太為主，別的都是其次。從一開始，我們就感覺，如果我們的「心靈」工作有價值，就應該如實呈現，在它所有的人類內涵之中；不只是呈現它的偉大成就，也要呈現它一路走來的摸索和錯誤、疑問和所學。不編輯也不潤飾，而是呈現原貌、真實。我現在還是這樣覺得。所以，這五百一十節是我用自創的速記法，在珍替賽斯說話時逐字記錄的手稿複本；每節之後我在打字時加了註釋和意見。過了六年，我們用四十四個三環文件夾，將這些打字的記錄歸檔。瑞克出版的其中一卷附上我的畫，畫的是我們做的一連串「信封測驗」用到的物件，有我們自己，也有與一個知名的科學家遠距離做的測驗，歷時約十一個月。

I asked Rick to correct spelling, to delete the few notes I inserted in succeeding years, and to keep the presentation of the sessions uniform in the use of roman and italic types, punctuation, parentheses and brackets, dashes and hyphens, and so forth. This framework matches that in the already-published Seth books like Seth Speaks and The Nature of Personal Reality.

我請瑞克改正拼字錯誤，删掉我隨後幾年插入的少數註釋，並且維持羅馬字和斜體字、標點符號、圓括號和方括號、破折號和連字號等等的統一格式。這個架構與已經出版的賽斯書，像《靈魂永生》和《個人實相的本質》一致。

The Early Sessions are also very important for the sheer preservation and distribution of the Seth material. Many have asked about this, and I’m always conscious of it. The set is one more way to bypass the fragility of a lifework that’s so vulnerable on its brittle dime store paper in those old binders. The Seth material is a long way from being on computer—if that ever happens—and relatively few readers will make the journey to Yale University Library, to study the collection of Jane’s and my papers that’s available there for anyone to see.

《早期課》對於賽斯資料的保存和流通很重要，很多人要求這麼做，我也一直放在心上。畢生的工作記錄在那些老舊文件夾裡容易破裂的廉價紙張上，是如此的脆弱，這套書正是另一種克服這個問題的方式。賽斯資料要保存在電腦裡––如果真有那麼一天的話––還有一大段距離，而且會大老遠跑到耶魯大學圖書館，研讀珍和我的文件收藏，這種讀者相對來說也不多，雖然任何人都可以借閱。

I often think—like every day—that from “where she is now” in her larger reality, Jane must watch our all-too-human manipulations in this “physical” reality with great compassion and understanding, and probably with some amusement, too, as in our frantic days of living we try to get everything done. To do what we’re supposed to do as well as what we want to do, to finally get it all just right for our individual purposes.

我常常在想––幾乎每天––在珍更大的實相裡，她從「她所在之處」，一定是帶著極大的慈悲和瞭解，或許也有一點好玩的感覺，看著我們在這個「物質」實相裡種種非常人性的操縱––正當我們在瘋狂的生活中，試著做完每件事的時候，試著去做我們應該以及想要做的事情，最後為了個人的目的正確無誤地完成。

And Seth himself? Well, according to him that old guy has lived and died many times. He's seen plenty and done a lot. He’s known many places on earth, and many loves as man and as woman, but I’ll bet that even now his experiences are still new, and that he reinforces Jane’s living feelings for each one of us. And thanks us for what he learns as much as we thank him.

而賽斯本身呢？嗯，據他說，這個老傢伙已經生生死死好幾次。他見多了也做了很多。他知道地球上很多地方，也當過很多次男人和女人，但我敢說，就算現在，他的經驗依然是新的，而且他也為我們每一個人強化了珍活生生的感覺。

I want to thank so many for their help and reinforcement that it’s unbelievable. How do I thank all of those thousands and thousands who have written, let alone the millions who have bought books and told others about them? All have helped create the living psychic reality within which Jane's and my work has been nurtured and grown. Our work is really dedicated to one and all, then. I love to hear from readers—even if it does take me forever to answer sometimes. No letter is ever unread or unappreciated. I’ve saved them all from the beginning. Eventually they’re added to the collection of our papers at Yale University Library, while not being open to the public for privacy’s sake.

「我想要感謝的人太多了，他們給予的協助和增援真是不可置信。我該如何感謝那幾千上萬名寫過信的人，更別說數百萬買書以及跟別人說起這些書的人呢？這些人全都幫忙創造了活生生的心靈實相，在其中，珍和我的工作得到滋養也得到成長。所以，我們的工作真的是獻給每一個人。我很喜歡讀者的回應––即使有時候我得花很長的時間回信。沒有一封信不曾讀過或不受歡迎。我打從一開始就統統留存下來。最後它們也加入我們在耶魯大學圖書館的收藏之中，但基於隱私並不對外公開。

Now let me list some of those I know personally, and who have helped lane and her work so much: Tam Mossman, Richard Kendall and Suzanne Delisle, Sue Watkins, Debbie Harris, Laurel Davies, Janet Mills, Lynda Dahl and Stan Ulkowski, Bob Terrio, Norman Friedman, Jeff Marcus, Juan Schoch, Michael Goode. And oh, yes: Rick Stack and his wife, Anne Marie O’Farrell, who’s my literary agent. I don’t know what, if anything, I’d have accomplished in carrying out Jane’s wishes without the unstinting help Anne Marie has offered in so many ways.

現在讓我條列出本人認識的一些對珍與其工作幫助很多人：譚·摩斯曼（TamMossman）、李察·坎德爾（RichardKendall）、蘇珊·德利梭（SuzanneDelisle）、蘇·華京斯（SueWatkins）、黛比·哈莉絲（DebbieHarris）、蘿柔·戴維斯（LaurelDavies）、珍娜·米爾斯（JanetMills）、琳達·達爾（LyndaDahl）以及史丹·烏考斯基（StanUIkowski）、巴伯·泰瑞爾（BobTerio）、諾曼·弗利德曼（NormanFriedman）、傑夫·馬可斯（JeffMarcus）、璜·修赫（JuanSchoch）、麥可·谷德（MichaelGoode）。而且喔，對：瑞克·史塔克與其妻子、我的作家經紀人安瑪麗·歐法若（AnneMarieO'Farrell），如果沒有安瑪麗這麼多年來慷慨的協助，我不知道就算有，我到底能夠完成多少珍的心願。

So here’s to each one of us, willingly caught up as we are in the brilliance of this “now” even when we may think we’re not, exploring our individual and joint creation of reality in all of those uncountable variations that result in a seamless whole. Let’s keep doing just that. My wife, Jane Roberts, and I salute you!

所以這裡向我們每一個人，在這個「當下」的燦爛光輝中，即使我們可能以為沒有但其實自願被逮到，探索著個人與共同的實相創造，儘管有無數的變奏但結果卻是一個密合無縫的整體，讓我們繼續做這件事吧。我的妻子，珍·羅伯茲，我向你致意！

Robert F. Butts Elmira, New York January 1996

一九九六年元月於紐約州艾爾麥拉