Greetings All –
I
am in the world to work. Step 346 (MP3) [Open
in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF
also.]
 |
| I am in the world to work. Step 346 |
THIS
IS YOUR WORK. Do not think at this moment that you can understand what this
work is and do not try to give it definition beyond what we have given you. It
is all right not to know fully what this means. It is all right to apprehend
the mystery of your life without attempting to make it concrete.
YOU
ARE IN THE WORLD TO WORK. Therefore, apply yourself so that your application
may reveal to you the source of your purpose, meaning and direction. It is
through your work and meaningful activity that you will experience your value—the
value of your individual life and the assurance of your true destiny. Your true
work guarantees you all things of value and provides you escape from all things
that conceal you and render you helpless and miserable.
REMIND
YOURSELF OF TODAY’S IDEA upon the hour. In your two deeper practices, once
again engage your mind actively in considering today’s idea. Consider how you
view work itself and all of your associations with work. Review how you have
responded to work in the past—your desire to work, your ambivalence concerning
work and your resistance to work. Recognize how all desire to escape work has
really been a desire to discover Knowledge. Realize that Knowledge will engage
you with work with new purpose, new meaning and new direction. Examine your
thoughts. You must understand your thoughts, for they are still very effective
in influencing your perception and your understanding. When you can become
objective with your own mind, you will be able to allow Knowledge to shine upon
it, and you will be able to use the power of decision to prepare yourself and
to work with the content of your mind. This is effective within your range of
participation, for it is not given you to determine the purpose, the meaning or
the direction of Knowledge, but to become the recipient of Knowledge, to
experience Knowledge and to allow Knowledge to express itself through you.
THUS,
IN YOUR TWO LONGER PRACTICE PERIODS engage your mind actively. Concentrate on
this one idea. Recognize all the thoughts and feelings that are associated with
it. In the last portion of each long practice period, allow all thoughts to
leave you. Re-enter stillness and receptivity so that you may come to know.
Knowledge does not require your thinking when you are experiencing Knowledge
itself, for all thinking is a replacement for Knowledge. Yet, Knowledge will
direct all your thinking to serve a greater purpose.
PRACTICE
346: Two 40-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.
Picture: The
Unity Temple of Unitarian Universalist congregation was designed by Frank Lloyd
Wright. It was dedicated in 1909 and is in service today. Restoration of this
historic property began with development of a plan which started in 2000.
Actual work began in 2015. A plan is preparation for work. We prepare.
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. The 1x and 2x links above 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.
