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The other objective of religion, of course, is to try to make sense of our chaotic world and explain the inexplicabilities we see playing out here on earth every day: the innocent suffer, the wicked are rewarded—what are we to make of all this? The Western tradition says, "It'll all get sorted out after death, in heaven and hell." (All justice to be doled out, of course, by what James Joyces used to call the "Hangman God"—a paternal figure who sits upon His strict seat of judgment punishing the evil and rewarding the good.) Over in the East, though, the Upanishads shrug away any attempt to make sense of the world's chaos. They're not even so sure that the world is chaotic, but suggest that it may only appear so to us, because of our limited vision. These texts do not promise justice or revenge for anybody, though they do say that there are consequences for every action—so choose your behavior accordingly. You might not see those consequences any time soon, though. Yoga takes the long view, always. Furthermore, the Upanishads suggest that socalled chaos may have an actual divine function, even if you personally can't recognize it right now: "The gods are fond of the cryptic and dislike the evident." The best we can do, then, in response to our incomprehensible and dangerous world, is to practice holding equilibrium internally—no matter what insanity is transpiring out there.
當然，宗教的另一目標是嘗試理解這個混亂的世界，說明每天在地球上演的費解難題：善人受苦，惡人得賞——我們如何明白這一切？西方傳統認為：“一切在死后獲得解決，無論在天堂或地獄。”（當然，所有的公理都由喬伊斯所謂的“劊子手上帝”分配出去，此一父親形象坐在森嚴的審判座位上，懲惡獎善。）然而在東方，奧義書并未企圖去理解世界的混亂，甚至對于世界的混亂與否，持保留意見，或許因為我們視野有限，所以才看到這樣的表象。這些教義未保證給任何人公理或復仇，盡管表示一舉一動皆有其后果——因此你必須選擇適當的行為。盡管短期內或許看不到結果。瑜伽始終著眼于長久的打算。此外，奧義書認為所謂混亂或許具有實際的神效，即使個人暫時看不出來：“神靈喜愛神秘，不喜愛顯而易見的東西”。因此我們面對這令人費解的危險世界所能做出的最佳回應，即是練習保持內在的平衡——無論世界發生任何瘋狂的事情。
Sean, my Yogic Irish dairy farmer, explained it to me this way. "Imagine that the universe is a great spinning engine," he said. "You want to stay near the core of the thing—right in the hub of the wheel—not out at the edges where all the wild whirling takes place, where you get can frayed and crazy. The hub of calmness—that's your heart. That's where God lives within you. So stop looking for answers in the world. Just keep coming back to that center and you'll always find peace."
我的愛爾蘭酪農瑜伽友人西恩如此對我說明。“設想宇宙是一個巨大的旋轉引擎，”他說，“你須待在接近核心的地方——即中軸處——而非瘋狂旋轉的邊緣地帶，使自己磨損而瘋狂。寧靜的輪軸處——即你的心。即神居住在你當中之處。因此停止在世界尋找答案，只要不斷地回到此中心所在，永遠都能找到平靜。”
Nothing has ever made more sense to me, spiritually speaking, than this idea. It works for me. And if I ever find anything that works better, I assure you—I will use it.
在我看來，就心靈而言，沒有任何事情比這個想法更合理了。這讓我很受用。倘若發現更好的想法，我保證會去用它。
I have many friends in New York who are not religious people. Most, I would say. Either they fell away from the spiritual teachings of their youth or they never grew up with any God to begin with. Naturally, some of them are a bit freaked out by my newfound efforts to reach holiness. Jokes are made, of course. As my friend Bobby quipped once while he was trying to fix my computer: "No offense to your aura, but you still don't know shit about downloading software." I roll with the jokes. I think it's all funny, too. Of course it is.
我在紐約有許多朋友不信教。應該說，大部分人都不信教。他們不是放棄年輕時代的心靈教導，就是從一開始就未與神一同成長。可想而知，他們有些人受不了我新發現的神圣探索。當然還有人開我玩笑。我的朋友鮑比有回幫我修電腦的時候，嘲弄地說：“我無意冒犯你的‘靈氣’，只不過你對下載軟件連個屁都不懂。”這笑話讓我前仰后倒，當然我也覺得很逗趣。
What I'm seeing in some of my friends, though, as they are aging, is a longing to have something to believe in. But this longing chafes against any number of obstacles, including their intellect and common sense. Despite all their intellect, though, these people still live in a world that careens about in a series of wild and devastating and completely nonsensical lurches. Great and horrible experiences of either suffering or joy occur in the lives of all these people, just as with the rest of us, and these megaexperiences tend to make us long for a spiritual context in which to express either lament or gratitude, or to seek understanding. The problem is—what to worship, whom to pray to?
盡管我看見一些朋友隨著年歲增長而渴望信仰“某種東西”。但此種渴望與種種障礙相違背，包括他們的才智與見識。盡管擁有智慧，這些人依然生活在東倒西歪、荒誕無稽的世界中。這些人在自己的生活中體驗偉大或可怕的苦難或喜悅，如同我們每個人，而這些巨大的體驗使我們渴望某種心靈線索與脈絡，來表達哀痛或感激，或尋求了解。問題是——敬拜什么？向誰祈禱？
