7/7/16

My Spiritual Family exists in all places. Step 189 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices



Greetings All –

My Spiritual Family exists in all places. Step 189 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]
My Spiritual Family exists in all places. Step 189
YOUR SPIRITUAL FAMILY IS GREATER THAN YOU REALIZE. It exists in many worlds. Its influence is everywhere. That is why it is so meaningless to consider yourself to be alone when you are part of something so great that serves the greatest of all purposes. You must relinquish your self-condemnation and your sense of littleness to know this, for you have identified with your behavior in the world, which is little. You have identified with your personal mind and your physical body, which are little. Yet, now you are beginning to realize your relationship with life itself through Knowledge, which is great. This is done without punishing the personal mind or the physical body, for they become useful and enjoyable as they learn to serve a greater purpose. Then the body has health and the personal mind is utilized, rendering them meaning which they now lack.

YOUR PHYSICAL NEED IS FOR HEALTH, but your health is to serve a greater purpose. You need right utilization for your personal mind, which will give it meaning and value, for it only seeks to be included in that which is meaningful. What enables your personal mind and your physical body to find their rightful place in your life is Knowledge, which provides purpose, meaning and direction for you.

THIS IS TRUE IN ALL WORLDS. This is true throughout the physical universe of which you are a citizen. Expand your view of yourself so that you may learn to be objective about your world. Do not merely cast human values, assumptions and goals upon your world, for this blinds you to the world’s purpose and evolution and makes it far more difficult for you to appreciate that you are a citizen of a greater life.

TODAY, IN YOUR TWO LONGER PRACTICES, engage your mind in active investigation of this idea. Spend the first fifteen minutes engaged in this investigation in both of your two longer practice periods. Try to seriously investigate the meaning of today’s idea. Then, when your investigation is complete, allow your mind to re-enter stillness. Realize the contrast between active mental engagement and mental stillness. Understand that both are important and complement one another. Upon the hour repeat the idea and consider it as you view the world around you.

PRACTICE 189: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

No review this seventh day. Another week of Steps before we review again.

Picture:  “My Spiritual Family exists in all places,” is the Step. All places means, of course: “all places”! I could have picked any number of “place” pictures, and each would have been applicable, but this one of an American suburb from the air seemed most challenging. One might need to go door to door to find Spiritual Family members in this territory, but we also know there are educated people in such homes that should be of a mind to respond.


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.