7/16/16

Today I will be strong. Step 198 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices


Greetings All –

Today I will be strong. Step 198 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

Today I will be strong. Step 198
BE STRONG TODAY. Follow the plan that is given to you. Do not hold yourself back or alter the instructions in any way. There are no shortcuts here; there is only the direct way. You are given the steps. Follow them. Be strong today. Only your ideas of yourself speak of weakness. Only your evaluation of yourself says that you are pathetic, incapable or inadequate. You must have faith in your strength and exercise this faith to realize your strength.

UPON THE HOUR REPEAT THIS STATEMENT and attempt to experience it in whatever circumstance you find yourself. Within your two deeper practice periods today, use your strength to engage in stillness completely. Allow your mind to be freed of the chains of its own concepts. Allow your body to be freed of a tormented mind. In this, your mind and your body will settle into their natural function, and all things will fall into right order within you. Knowledge will then find expression through your mind and through your body. From this you will be able to bring into the world that which is greater than the world, and your life will be confirmed as a result.

PRACTICE 198: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture:  The joint here connecting two steel beams  for a bridge.


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.