8/30/16

I do not need to be special to give. Step 243 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices


Greetings All –

I do not need to be special to give. Step 243 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]
I do not need to be special to give. Step 243
THE ATTEMPT TO BE SPECIAL UNDERLIES ALL HUMAN AMBITION. All human ambition that is not born of Knowledge is born of the attempt to offset the grave disappointment and great anxiety of separation. The attempt to be special is the attempt to fortify separation. It is the attempt to make yourself greater at the expense of others. It always denies life and Knowledge and always leads to greater confusion, frustration and despair.

YOU ARE FREED THIS DAY FROM ATTEMPTING to make yourself special, for in this way you will find the true relief that you have sought in all of your previous endeavors. What is special in you is your unique form of expression of that which is inherent in all life. Then, that which joins life and is life is affirmed. Your individuality is affirmed as well, but not to the exclusion of the value of any other expression of life. Here you are not special. You are simply you. You are greater than an individual because you are part of life, and yet you are an individual because you express life individually. Here all conflict and confusion end. That which is limited expresses that which is unlimited, and that which is unique expresses that which is inherent and intrinsic. This is the resolution that you seek, for you do not really wish to be special. You only wish to have your individual life have purpose, meaning and direction.

UPON THE HOUR THINK OF THIS after you repeat the idea for today. In your deeper practices, enter into stillness and peace once again. Do not petition for answers because you do not need to do this in your meditation practices. Your time now is to practice receiving Knowledge, in which your individuality is honored and confirmed for its true purpose and in which your specialness, which has only been a grave and impossible burden for you, is gently lifted from your shoulders. Do not seek to be special today, for that is not the purpose of your life. Then, all fear of death and destruction will leave you. Then, all judgment and comparison with others will leave you. Then, you will be able to honor life and honor your relationships, which are an expression of everything today’s lesson will teach you.

PRACTICE 243: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture: Yachts, Miami, Florida. Something special.


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.