Step 9 - In stillness all things can be known.
Time commitment - Two 15-minute practice periods.
- -
Yesterday, Step 8 - Today I will be still.
Stillness is a central practice of Steps. Is it meditation? That is answered in the message below. About 1989, I was taught that, when going into meditation and opening oneself, it was both wise and necessary to protect yourself. This was accomplished by saying: "I surround and protect myself with the love and the grace of God."
If you've meditated before, you may know of this, so just a reminder.
To answer the question about stillness/meditation it is best to go with The Teachers themselves:
...
Practicing
stillness of mind is really a prerequisite for gaining in touch with the real
undercurrent of what is going on with you and what is going on around you. Steps to Knowledge teaches you how to think about things
in a very constructive way. We call this contemplation. It is different from
meditation. It is contemplation. You are going to contemplate a question about
life. You are going to contemplate something, not simply to come up with
exciting answers, but really to try to penetrate it. Going deeper than the
surface where everyone is so caught up. And your stillness practice is really
your meditation because it enables your awareness to go deeper and to connect
with Knowledge, which knows. And throughout Steps
to Knowledge you set
the stage for this inner connection, and you have the opportunity to build this
connection every day in little increments. And your life begins to change and
your values begin to change and you become more connected to yourself and you
realize that you really want quiet more than stimulation, and you realize you
really want integrity more than thrills, and you realize you want relationships
that have real strength and real direction rather than just exciting interludes
with people. This is all the result of refocusing your attention and
redirecting your activities and exerting your power to do this....
This is from: "Taking the Steps to Knowledge" As revealed to Marshall Vian Summers on April 21, 2000 in Boulder, Colorado - You can get the full message here:
taking-the-steps-to-knowledge 2000-04-21.docx
taking-the-steps-to-knowledge 2000-04-21.docx
A .docx reader is available from Microsoft http://support.microsoft.com/kb/891090
NNC
