My mission is great. Step 166 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices

Greetings All –

My mission is great. Step 166 Therefore I am free to do small things. (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

My mission is great. Step 166

IT IS ONLY IN YOUR GRANDIOSE IDEAS, which are a cover for fear, anxiety and despair, that you would avoid the small things that are required of you to do in the world. Again, do not confuse the greatness of your mission with the smallness of your duties. Greatness expresses itself in the smallest thing, in the tiniest action, in the most fleeting thought, in the simplest gesture and in the most mundane circumstances. Thus, maintain your small actions in the world so that Knowledge in time may express itself through them. Actions in the world are small in contrast to the greatness of Knowledge. Prior to your preparation, the world was considered great and Knowledge small, but you are now learning that the opposite is true—that Knowledge is great and the world is small. This also means that your activities in the world are small, but they are vehicles through which Knowledge may express itself.

THEREFORE, BE CONTENT DOING SMALL THINGS IN THE WORLD. Be simple and humble in the world so that greatness may flow through you without obstruction.

THIS PRACTICE WILL REQUIRE REPETITION upon the hour and deep consideration in your two longer practice periods, where you will engage your mind actively in comprehending the meaning of today’s idea. Use your mind for investigation. Allow yourself to consider these things. Do not rely on conclusions but continue your exploration. This is the right use of your mind which will lead you to a greater understanding. Here the mind is not merely weaving visions and illusions to take itself away from its own anxiety. Here the mind is examining its own content. Here the mind is working on behalf of Knowledge, as it was intended to do.

PRACTICE 166: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture:  On the right edge of the picture, the student, here a worker at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is doing something small, perhaps aware of a mission as great as this grand columned space.

Journal entry link Step 165x1

Journal entry link Step 165x2

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 Spirituality” and 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.