Greetings All –
My
practice is my contribution to the world. Step 340 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from
Drive – Step PDF also.]
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| My practice is my contribution to the world. Step 340 |
YOU
ARE A BEGINNING STUDENT OF KNOWLEDGE. As a beginning student, you engage
yourself completely with your practice. Do not imagine for yourself a great
role as a saviour or redeemer in the world, for this will only discourage you
because you are not yet prepared to carry forth things of greatness. Your duty
is to follow the steps as they are given. This is the requirement. In time,
greatness will grow within your experience, and you will experience greatness
within the world. Yet, as we have so often indicated in our preparation thus
far, the greatness you will experience will express itself in simple and
mundane things. Therefore, do not imagine grandiose ideas of yourself as a
saviour. Do not see yourself being crucified in the world, for these images are
born of ignorance and you do not comprehend their true meaning.
FOLLOW
EACH STEP, for each will require your complete attention and engagement.
Without your attempting to add what is unnecessary to your preparation, you may
then become fully engaged with your preparation. This will fully engage you and
will elevate all of your physical and mental abilities and give them uniform
purpose and direction. Your practice is your gift to the world. From your
practice all gifts that you will give in the future will be able to be given
with confidence, with love and with certainty.
UPON
THE HOUR REMIND YOURSELF that your practice is your gift to the world. If you
really wish to serve the world and if you really wish to exemplify within the
world that which you hold most dear and that which you honor within yourself,
then give yourself to your practice and do not neglect it this day. In your
deeper meditations give yourself to practice, for practice is an act of giving.
And you who are learning now to receive are also giving yourself to learn to
receive. Thus, you are learning to give as well. If you cannot give yourself to
practice, you will not be able to give to the world, for giving to the world is
a form of practice as well. Remember that all you can do is practice. No matter
what you do, you are practicing something, you are asserting something, you are
confirming something and you are studying something. Given this understanding,
give yourself to your true preparation, for this is your gift to yourself and
to the world.
PRACTICE
340: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.
Picture: These
are the Holy Days. Christmas is one of the Holy Days in the season of Holy Days
and this tree at the Galleria serving the Greater Dallas region – the Metroplex
or North Texas, is a symbol of multi-jurisdictional cooperation as a means of
contribution to the world.
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.
