7/8/15

Step 189 - My Spiritual Family exists in all places. (MP3) Entry for Step 188 - My life in this world is more important than I had realized before.


Greetings All –

Step 189 - My Spiritual Family exists in all places. (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

“My Spiritual Family exists in all places.” Step 189
YOUR SPIRITUAL FAMILY IS GREATER THAN YOU REALIZE. It exists in many worlds. Its influence is everywhere. That is why it is so meaningless to consider yourself to be alone when you are part of something so great that serves the greatest of all purposes. You must relinquish your self-condemnation and your sense of littleness to know this, for you have identified with your behavior in the world, which is little. You have identified with your personal mind and your physical body, which are little. Yet, now you are beginning to realize your relationship with life itself through Knowledge, which is great. This is done without punishing the personal mind or the physical body, for they become useful and enjoyable as they learn to serve a greater purpose. Then the body has health and the personal mind is utilized, rendering them meaning which they now lack.

YOUR PHYSICAL NEED IS FOR HEALTH, but your health is to serve a greater purpose. You need right utilization for your personal mind, which will give it meaning and value, for it only seeks to be included in that which is meaningful. What enables your personal mind and your physical body to find their rightful place in your life is Knowledge, which provides purpose, meaning and direction for you.

THIS IS TRUE IN ALL WORLDS. This is true throughout the physical universe of which you are a citizen. Expand your view of yourself so that you may learn to be objective about your world. Do not merely cast human values, assumptions and goals upon your world, for this blinds you to the world’s purpose and evolution and makes it far more difficult for you to appreciate that you are a citizen of a greater life.

TODAY, IN YOUR TWO LONGER PRACTICES, engage your mind in active investigation of this idea. Spend the first fifteen minutes engaged in this investigation in both of your two longer practice periods. Try to seriously investigate the meaning of today’s idea. Then, when your investigation is complete, allow your mind to re-enter stillness. Realize the contrast between active mental engagement and mental stillness. Understand that both are important and complement one another. Upon the hour repeat the idea and consider it as you view the world around you.

PRACTICE 189: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

No review this seventh day. Another week of Steps before we Review again.


“My Spiritual Family exists in all places,” is the Step. All places means, of course: “all places”! I could have picked any number of “place” pictures, and each would have been applicable, but this one of an American suburb from the air seemed most challenging. One might need to go door to door to find Spiritual Family members in this territory, but we also know there are educated people in such homes that should be of a mind to respond.


From the Journal:

6:20 a.m. Friday, January 21, 2000 – I’ve got my vitality back – until the next downturn. I like the way past actions begun insert people who crank me up when I’m in the dumps. I always try to keep up appearances no matter how down I get. Thinking of the future – maybe…will replace me? He’s got the perspective.

6:10 p.m. A long, hard day. … This time next week I’ll be enroute to Texas for Sarah’s birthday.

Ask not for whom the region works, it works for thee.

Nothing overtly Steps in these paragraphs. I reveal part of my personal strategy of serving others as a means of keeping myself motivated. My goal with my work was to make everyone I met a friend. To do so, I had to listen to people to find their interests and work to connect with them.

The Steps page has a few thoughts.


Many section of Steps appear to me as lists which I sometimes number in the text or, in this case, have listed at the bottom of the page. This is an old study habit – writing out ideas and facts so they stay with the individual.

NNC
 
Journal second time x2 Step 188.  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 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.