Freedom is with me. Step 57 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices

Greetings All –

Freedom is with me. Step 57 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

Freedom is with me. Step 57

FREEDOM ABIDES WITHIN YOU, waiting to be born within you, waiting to be claimed and accepted, waiting to be lived and applied and waiting to be honored and followed. You who have lived under the weight of your own imagination, you who have been a prisoner to your own thoughts and to the thoughts of others, you who have been intimidated and threatened by the appearances of this world now have hope, for true freedom abides within you. It awaits you. You have brought it with you from your Ancient Home. You carry it with you each day, each moment.

WITHIN THIS PROGRAM OF DEVELOPMENT, you are now learning to turn towards freedom and away from fear and the darkness of your own imagination. In freedom you will find stability and consistency. This will give you the foundation upon which to build your love and sense of self-worth, and this foundation shall not be shaken by the world, for it is greater than the world. It is not born of the misgiving of separation. It is born of the truth of your total inclusion in life.

UPON THE HOUR REPEAT TODAY’S IDEA and take a moment to feel that freedom is with you. As you come closer to freedom throughout the day, you will be able to recognize more and more clearly what holds you back. You will realize that it is but your adherence to your own thoughts that holds you back. It is your interest in your own imagination that holds you back. This will lighten your burden, and you will realize that a true choice is available. This realization will give you the strength to come to freedom today.

IN YOUR TWO DEEP MEDITATION PRACTICES, repeat today’s idea and attempt to allow your mind to be still, which is the beginning of its freedom. This practice in stillness will enable your mind to shake loose the chains that bind it—its unforgiveness from the past, its anxiety over the future and its avoidance of the present. In stillness your mind rises above all that keeps it small, hidden and isolated within its own darkness. How close is freedom to you today who need but be still to receive it. And how great is your reward, you who have come into the world, for freedom is with you.

PRACTICE 57: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture: A crow flies freely in the winter sky - Front Royal, Virginia.

Journal entry link Step 56x1

Journal entry link Step 57x2

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.

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. Posts linked below 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.