A prominent author, W.S. Wily, once said, 'The existence of the immortal in man is becoming increasingly discredited under the influence of the dominant schools of modern thought.' The belief in the immortality of the soul is a dogma that is contradicted by the most solid, empirical truth.
著名作家威利曾经说过:“人有不朽的存在的说法在现代各种思想流派的作用下越来越不足以信。” 相信灵魂不朽是与最实在的经验真理相悖的教条。
The mere belief in an immortal soul, or the conviction that something in us survives death, does not make us immortal unless we know what it is that survives and that we are capable of identifying ourselves with it. Most human beings choose death instead of immortality by identifying themselves with that which is perishable and impermanent by clinging stubbornly to the body or the momentary elements of the present personality, which they mistake for the soul or the essential form of life.
仅仅相信灵魂不朽,或者什么我们死亡后留存下来的东西,并不能使我们不朽,除非我们知道那留存下来的东西是什么,而且我们能够认明我们就是那东西。大多数的人因为不能放弃身体或现有的但不能延续的个性,即他们所错误认为的灵魂或者生命的本质,他们把自己和会变质和消亡的东西联系在一起,从而选择了死亡,而不是永恒。