聽神談【關於「背叛」】
尼爾(替15歲的奧立岡男孩問)：我的壓力來自每個地方。有許多是來自我的朋友。有時候，他們想要我做某事，或以某種方式表現，但那感覺不像我會做的事。而我從來不知道要怎麽辦。如果我忠於自己，我便跟不上團體。如果我忠於那團體，我便沒在做自己。
你一生都要記著這句話。它可能是你會聽到的最重要事情之一：
為了不背叛他人而背叛自己，依然是背叛。那是最大的背叛。(Betrayal of yourself in order not to betray another is betrayal nonetheless. It is the highest betrayal.)
如果你試圖避免背叛別人，但在這過程中必須背叛你自己，那麽你仍然是犯了背叛。那只是個「你在背叛誰」的問題，而非「你是否背叛」的問題。
然而當你背叛自己時，你也背叛了別人，因爲那個他們認爲的你，根本不是真正的你。那是個虛假的你。因此你已背叛了你自己和別人。
因此，永遠不要背叛你自己。記住莎士比亞在《哈姆雷特》裡，普羅尼爾斯(polonius)給他的兒子的這句話：「要對你自己誠實，如同夜晚必然跟隨白天般，你也必然不對任何人作假。」("To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.")
不用擔心那個「團體」。團體會消失。有一天，它會不在那裡。而你却永遠不會消失。你會與你真正的自己(Self)在一起，直到永遠。
尼爾：你的意思是，只要去做我想做的事？
這意思是，更誠實地决定你爲什麽想要做一件事。如果你想要做某件事是爲了取悅一個人或是另一個團體，並且如果做那件事會讓你不開心，但你想反正去做算了的情況時，就別去做。
摘自《與神對話青春版 》第6章
Neale: Oh, believe me. There's pressure from everywhere. A lot of it comes from my own friends, too. Sometimes they want me to do something, or they want me to do something, or act in a way. That doesn't feel like "me. I'm never sure what to do. If I stay true to myself, I'm on the outs with the group. If I stay true to the group, I'm not being myself.
Remember this for the rest of your life. It may be one of the most important things you will ever hear:
Betrayal of yourself in order not to betray another is betrayal nonetheless. It is the highest betrayal.
If you are trying to avoid betraying another but must betray yourself in the process, then you are still committing a betrayal. It is merely a question of whom you are betraying, not whether you are betraying.
Yet when you are betraying yourself, you are betraying another as well, because the "you" that they think you are is not who you are at all. It is a false you. You have betrayed yourself and another.
Therefore, never betray yourself. Remember the words of Polonius to Laertes in Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare:
"To thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."
Do not worry about "the group." The group will go away. One day it will simply not be there. Yet you will never go away. You will be with your Self until the end of time.
Does that mean to only do what I want to do?
It means, decide more honestly why you want to do a thing. If you want to do something in order to please another person or group, and if the doing of it does not please you but you are thinking of doing it anyway, don't do it.
