这本书的主要目的，不是为你大脑添加新信息、新信条，或游说你信什么，而是为你带来觉识的转化，亦即觉醒。从这个意义上讲，这不是一本“有趣”的书，因为有趣意味着你可以把玩自己心中的见解、概念，与书保持距离，或赞同，或反对。而这本书是围绕你而写，将改变你的觉识状态，否则它将毫无意义。本书只能唤醒那些准备就绪的人，但并非人人已准备好，不过很多人已经就位，随着更多人的觉醒，人类集体意识中觉醒动力就会增长，其他人的觉醒变得更容易。如果你不知道何谓觉醒，请继续阅读。唯有通过觉醒，你才能明白该词的真正涵义。一次电光火石的闪现，已经足以启发觉醒进程，而且觉醒是不可逆转的。有些人在阅读本书过程中，就会有火花闪现；其他很多人即便没有意识到，事实上觉醒进程已经开始了。这本书会帮助他们明白这一点。对于某些人，觉醒进程肇始于失去或痛苦；对于其他人，则是通过接触精神导师或灵性教诲，通过阅读《当下的力量》或具有鲜活灵性和转化力的著作，或者以上的组合。如果你的觉醒进程已经开始，那么阅读本书将加速并强化这一进程。
觉醒的关键环节，是在思考、说话和做事时认清昏昧未觉的自己，亦即你的“自我”，并认清那些延续你昏昧状态的群体性精神约束因素。所以，本书展示了自我的主要样貌，以及在个体与群体中的运作方式。这样做很重要，相关原因有二：首先，除非你懂得自我运转的基本机制，否则你不能认清“自我”，它会哄骗你去一次又一次地认同它，这意味着，它会接管你，假冒你，顶替你。原因之二，认清自我，就是觉醒的方式之一。当你认清自己的昏昧无觉时，让你具备识别慧眼的，恰恰就是你苏醒的觉识，是你的觉醒。你根本不能在与自我的抗击中获胜，恰如你没法战胜黑暗。觉性之光，就是你的全部所需；你，就是那道光。
This book’s main purpose is not to add new information or beliefs to your mind or to try to convince you of anything, but to bring about a shift in consciousness, that is to say, to awaken. In that sense, this book is not “interesting.” Interesting means you can keep your distance, play around with ideas and concepts in your mind, agree or disagree. This book is about you. It will change your state of consciousness or it will be meaningless. It can only awaken those who are ready. Not everyone is ready yet, but many are, and with each person who awakens, the momentum in the collective consciousness grows, and it becomes easier for others. If you don’t know what awakening means, read on. Only by awakening can you know the true meaning of that word. A glimpse is enough to initiate the awakening process, which is irreversible. For some, that glimpse will come while reading this book. For many others who may not even have realized it, the process has already begun. This book will help them recognize it. For some, it may have begun through loss or suffering; for others, through coming into contact with a spiritual teacher or teaching, through reading The Power of Now or some other spiritually alive and therefore transformational book — or any combination of the above. If the awakening process has begun in you, the reading of this book will accelerate and intensify it.
An essential part of the awakening is the recognition of the unawakened you, the ego as it thinks, speaks, and acts, as well as the recognition of the collectively conditioned mental processes that perpetuate the unawakened state. That is why this book shows the main aspects of the ego and how they operate in the individual as well as in the collective. This is important for two related reasons: The first is that unless you know the basic mechanics behind the workings of the ego, you won’t recognize it, and it will trick you into identifying with it again and again. This means it takes you over, an imposter pretending to be you. The second reason is that the act of recognition itself is one of the ways in which awakening happens. When you recognize the unconsciousness in you, that which makes the recognition possible is the arising consciousness, is awakening. You cannot fight against the ego and win, just as you cannot fight against darkness. The light of consciousness is all that is necessary. You are that light.
