With Knowledge I cannot be at war. Step 287 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices

Greetings All –

With Knowledge I cannot be at war. Step 287 (MP3)  [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

With Knowledge I cannot be at war. Step 287

WITH KNOWLEDGE YOU CANNOT BE AT WAR. You cannot be at war within yourself or with others, for with Knowledge there is only Knowledge and there is confusion in the world. Confusion does not require attack. Therefore, with Knowledge you are not at war, for you have one mind, one purpose, one responsibility, one direction and one meaning. The more your mind becomes uniform, the more your external life will become uniform as well. How can you be at war within yourself when you are following Knowledge? War is born of ambivalence where opposing value systems conflict with each other to gain your recognition. Competing ideas, competing emotions and competing values all wage war on one another, and you are caught in the middle of their great battles.

WITH KNOWLEDGE ALL OF THIS IS ESCAPED. With Knowledge you cannot be at war within yourself. In time, all of your self-doubt, uncertainty, fear and anxiety will wear away. As they do so, you will increasingly feel that you are not at war and will enjoy the full benefit of being at peace. This will enable you to turn your eyes upon the world with the full force of your involvement, for all of your mental and physical energy will now be available for you to contribute to the world. What you will contribute will be greater than your actions or your words, for you will carry stillness and peace into the world.

HERE YOU WILL NOT BE IN OPPOSITION TO ANYONE, though others may choose to be in opposition to you. Here you will not be at war with anyone, even if others choose to be at war with you. This will be your greatest contribution, and this is what your life will teach through demonstration. Here Knowledge will bestow itself upon the world and teach the great lessons that you are now learning to receive for yourself. This teaching will occur naturally. You need not force it upon the world, and you need not attempt to change anyone else, for Knowledge will accomplish its true task through you.

UPON THE HOUR REALIZE THE MEANING OF TODAY’S IDEA and realize the power of Knowledge to end all of your suffering and eventually the suffering of the world. In your deeper practice periods, return to your great sanctuary and once again become a recipient of Knowledge in openness and humility. Then, you will be able to carry your abiding relationship with Knowledge into the world with greater and greater certainty. Then, what needs to be contributed will radiate from you effortlessly.

PRACTICE 287: Two 30-minute practice periods.

Hourly practice.

Picture: Military history display at the Virginia Scottish Games, Great Meadow, The Plains, Virginia.

Journal entry link Step 286x1

Journal entry link Step 286x2

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.