Greetings All –
I will not blame another for my pain. Step 229 (MP3)
[Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive –
Step PDF also.]
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| I will not blame another for my pain. Step 229 |
PAIN
IS ALWAYS A DECISION THAT YOU MAKE in response to any stimuli in your
environment. The body will have physical pain if it is so stimulated, but that
is merely a sensory response. It is not the true pain that hurts you. The pain
that hurts you is the crown of thorns of your own ideas and assumptions, your
own misgivings and misinformation and your own unforgiveness towards yourself
and the world. This produces a pain both within your mind and upon your body as
well. It is this pain we wish to alleviate this day.
THEREFORE,
CONSIDER TODAY’S IDEA AS A FORM OF REMEDY against pain. If another is the cause
of your pain, you have no remedy except to attack or to change the other
person. Even your attempt to change them for good will be a form of attack, for
underneath your altruism will be hatred and resentment. Therefore, there is no
remedy for pain if its cause is beyond you. But there is remedy for all pain
because Knowledge is with you.
THEREFORE,
ALL PAIN MUST BE RECOGNIZED as the result of your own decision. It must be
recognized as the result of your own interpretation. You may feel that you have
been wronged by another or by the world. This feeling is actually present in
your mind, so it need not be denied, but you must look beyond it to its source
and to the mechanism for its emergence. To do this, then, you must utilize your
own faculties. This will give you great strength. You will be able to do this
because Knowledge is with you and because with Knowledge you can do all things
that Knowledge asks you to do.
WITHOUT
CONDEMNATION, THE WORLD IS SO RELIEVED that it can begin to recover itself.
Therefore, upon the hour repeat this idea and consider its meaning. Go deeply
within it to discover what it truly holds for you. In your longer practice
periods, enter stillness and peace, for without condemnation upon the world and
upon yourself, the mind is at peace already.
PRACTICE
229: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.
Picture: Winter
on Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California.
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.
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.
