6/28/16

I complain because I am lacking Knowledge. Step 180 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices


Greetings All –

I complain because I am lacking Knowledge. Step 180 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

I complain because I am lacking Knowledge. Step 180
WHEN YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT LIFE, you are asking for Knowledge. Knowledge has its own statement about life, but it is very different from the lament which you hear within yourself and around you. Therefore, as you approach Knowledge today, recognize the nature of complaint—how it emphasizes your weakness and the world’s domination over you and how much it is in contrast to what you are learning now. You are learning now to discover your greatness and your domination over the world. You are in relationship with the world. Let this relationship become healthy and meaningful. Let the world’s contribution be given to you. Let your contribution be given to the world.

THEREFORE, THANK THE WORLD ONCE AGAIN TODAY for what it has given to you. In your deeper meditation practices today, enter stillness and silence. Use the word RAHN to help you enter this deeply. Use the word RAHN to orient your mind and thinking so that your mind may become unified with the sound of this one ancient word.

THIS IS A DAY OF IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION. Do not complain about this day. Recognize that everything that happens is an opportunity for you to apply your practice and to develop the true faculties of your mind. Your complaint would only be a denial of the world’s contribution to you. Therefore, do not deny this. Do not complain about the world today so that you may receive its gifts.

PRACTICE 180: Two 30-minute practice periods.

Where else do we complain, either silently or out loud, than when waiting in line? The picture is at a railroad ticket counter in Piacenza, Italy. Is tolerating the slowness of people really a problem of Knowledge? Sometimes it is while other times it is an exercise that builds our skill of being patient.


Picture: Train station, Piacenza, Italy. I do not know the language, so I can’t understand the schedule. Did I complain? In the past I may have, thinking everything should be in English. I lacked the knowledge of Italian, but that may not stop me or others from complaining.


Plan B - If the MP3 doesn’t work, here’s the link to the folder:  New Message - Student Spoken Steps Recordings - Steps to Knowledge - Working file
If this is your first time seeing one of the “Steps to Knowledge”, then welcome. There are 365 Steps, daily spiritual practices if one seeks to complete them in a year, but that is not necessary. They can be used by people of any religious tradition or no religious tradition. They will help one to become mindful in the world.

The Step today is from the book: Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing. The practices were brought to the world through Marshall Vian Summers, The Messenger for The New Message From God. Important background for the Steps is in: “Greater Community Spiritualityand the “Wisdom Books - I and II”. Hard copies are available from the New Knowledge Library Store. The Society for the New Message from God also has a Free Book Project. If you need the books now, PDF files can be found here: http://goo.gl/RJuuGP

Keeping a journal is recommended. If you have a Steps book, write your reactions and comments, highlight or underline points that strike you, and date the note. In this way, your Steps book can be a partial journal.

Using the PDF, you can print out pages as you need them, or use the software to maintain a digital copy where you can enter notes and highlight text that stands out.

Other modern methods of keeping a journal include having a document on your PC or phone to keep notes. You could send yourself an email or use the voice recorder function. It is important to capture insights and reactions because it is by this means that you can understand change. Sometimes it may just be a word or short phrase, an image or a scene.

To end this post I again offer the blessing: "May the presence of the Teachers be with you." In the invocative language of Knowledge this blessing is: "Nasi Novare Coram" (pronounced NAH-see no-VAHR-ay co-RAHM)

The short form of Nasi Novare Coram used by students is NNC.

NNC

P.S. Often it takes 18 months to get through the Steps once. For this blog, the pace is one-a-day, but it really makes no difference how fast you do it, only that you begin, persist and repeat. Posts linked below provide a trail that may let you have a virtual companion when and if you want one. One may have to study alone, as I did in the beginning. There are other Steps students blogging their experience and you might find a person more like you as a companion, or use a number of such Steps journeys.
Doing Steps with only the texts, messages and your life experience, including what you may have studied and practiced is your journey. I’m showing Step comments after the Step, so as not to influence anyone in advance. It is a wilderness trek to be left to your own wits, but then you can also listen more closely for guides, angels and teachers, always first saying: “I surround and protect myself with the Love and the Grace of God.” Thankfully, I was taught this practice in 1989.