2、没有人知道人的生命是什么，除非他明白，生命就是爱。若不了解这一点，这个人会以为人的生命无非是感觉和活动，那个人会以为它仅仅是思维。而事实上，思维是生命的第一表现，而感觉和活动是它的第二表现。此处说到，思维是生命的第一表现；然而，思维也分内在的和更内在的，外在的和更外在的。实际上，至内在的思维，也就是对目的感知，才是生命的第一表现。这些事等到后面分析生命层级时再予以论述。
2. We cannot know what our life is unless we know that it is love. If we do not know this, then one person may believe that life is nothing but sensation and action and another that it is thought, when in fact thought is the first effect of life, and sensation and action are secondary effects of life. Thought is the first effect of life, as just noted, but there are deeper and deeper forms of thought as well as more and more superficial ones. The deepest form of thought, the perception of ends, is actually the first effect of life. But more on this below [179-183] in connection with levels of life.
2. No one knows what a person's life is unless he knows that it is love. Without knowing this, one may believe that a person's life is simply sensing and acting, another that it is thinking, when in fact thought is the first effect of life, and sensation and action its second effect.
(We say that thought is the first effect of life, but there exists an interior thought and a still more interior one, and an exterior thought and a still more exterior one. The inmost thought, which is a perception of ends or purposes, is actually the first effect of life. However, these levels of thought will be discussed below where we take up the degrees of life.)
2. No-one knows what the life of man is unless he knows that it is love. If he does not know this, one person can believe that man's life is only sensating and doing, another that it is thinking, when yet, thought is the first effect of life while the second effect of life is sensation and action. It is said that thought is the first effect of life, but there is thought [that is] more and more interior, also thought more and more exterior. The inmost thought, which is the perception of ends, 1 is actually the first effect of life; but these things will be treated of below, where degrees of life are considered.
Footnotes:
1. Ends-here meaning purpose or final use.
2. What the life of man is, no one knows unless he knows that it is love. If this is not known, one person may believe that man's life is nothing but perceiving with the senses and acting, and another that it is merely thinking; and yet thought is the first effect of life, and sensation and action are the second effect of life. Thought is here said to be the first effect of life, yet there is thought which is interior and more interior, also exterior and more exterior. What is actually the first effect of life is inmost thought, which is the perception of ends. But of all this hereafter, when the degrees of life are considered.
2. Nemo scit quid vita hominis, nisi sciat quod sit amor; si hoc non scit, potest unus credere quod vita hominis modo sit sentire et agere, alter quod sit cogitare, cum tamen cogitatio est effectus vitae primus, ac sensatio et actio est effectus vitae secundus. Dicitur quod cogitatio sit effectus vitae primus, sed datur cogitatio interior et interior, tum exterior et exterior; intima cogitatio, quae est perceptio finium, est actualiter primus vitae effectus: sed de his infra, ubi de gradibus vitae.