3/5/15

Step 64 - Today I will listen to another. (MP3) Entry for Step 63 – Review


Greetings All –

Step 64 - Today I will listen to another. (MP3)  [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

Today I will listen to another. Step 64

ON THREE SEPARATE OCCASIONS TODAY, practice listening to another. Listen without evaluation and without judgment. Listen without your mind being distracted by anything else. Simply listen. Practice with three different individuals today. Practice listening. Be still when you listen. Attempt to hear beyond their words. Attempt to look beyond their appearance. Do not project images upon them. Just listen.

PRACTICE TODAY LISTENING TO ANOTHER. Do not become engaged with what they are saying. You need not respond inappropriately to them, if they are speaking directly to you, in order to practice with them. You will be engaging your whole mind in your conversation. Take time, then, to practice listening without speaking. Allow others to express themselves to you. You will find that they have a greater communication for you than you might at first have anticipated. You do not need to figure this out. Simply practice listening today so that you may hear the presence of Knowledge.

PRACTICE 64: Three practice periods.

Listening, yes, it can be learned.

Yesterday:  Step 63 – Review

From the Journal: My review was six pages, much of which is excerpts from the text of the Steps. Writing things out long hand is a memory technique from school. A few excerpts:

Step 58 - Knowledge must be felt/experienced. Monday, the day of this exercise was productive - have I sensed Knowledge/did I/do I? - I have - but that aspect of spirit - I just don't know it by that name. I do Know Spirit and have experienced it deeply.

Step 59 - "Think of your life in terms of long-term development, not in terms of immediate sensation & gain." I was to "become objective" about my abilities & circumstances. Patience for me is and has been a continuing lesson - I have my own guide for this in SNP.

Step 60 - Not judging the world is an ACIM lesson. It still needs repetition. S2K text is more clear on the difference between discernment/judgment as opposed to judgment/judgment.
-----
[A thought that came up at that time of this review.]
Mythology is better than science because it is stories that have a beginning, a middle and an end. Science however is always the most current batch of theories, all of which will be replaced in the future. At best a scientific theory is in the middle and solid enough that design criteria can be based on it. Even when a theory is bypassed, designs based on it will continue to work - since action is independent of thought.
----

Step 60 - a different perspective is given on judgment. Knowledge represents a greater judgment, but it is very different from your own, for it is not born of fear."

The narrative says, "The world does not need blame. It needs service. It needs truth. And above all, it needs Knowledge." For me, I responded to this description by seeing the world as a hurt child.

Step 61 "If you are present to love, then you will be present to the world and love will speak through you."

Step 62 - If I am present to the world, to life, to God, to myself, I will be able to hear the world, life, God and myself. Lots of listening to be done. It is done to develop "a faculty of mind that will be necessary for you to be able to give and to receive the greatness of Knowledge."

I am greater than my emotions. The world is a place to cultivate Knowledge. Knowledge comes from relationships - my relationship with my self is a Knowledge feeling.

5:10 p.m. End of review - I remain a student who wishes to learn.



Note that on this page I wrote: "For lo, I am with you always." My memory from what is Matthew 28:20 (KJ21) "...teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Amen.

There is a good correlation between the thoughts in the New and Old Testaments, and Steps to Knowledge/The New Message from God. For me this provides confirmation.
NNC


Journal 2nd Time Step 63.  This is for those who have completed Steps once. 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 my first year Step comments after the Step, so as not to influence you 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.


P.S. If you’ve some interest due to this or other Steps, you should go to the beginning blog post. From here you will learn about Steps to Knowledge and can begin it on the day that makes sense; then progress as needed. You can use the posts on this blog as a companion if it helps. They will remain in order in the archives - one post per Step.

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 here 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. There are options as well through the Free School of the New Message.