Greetings All –
My
true friends are with me. I am not alone. Step 114
(MP3)
[Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive –
Step PDF also.]
 |
| My true friends are with me. I am not alone. Step 114 |
HOW
CAN YOU BE ALONE WHEN YOUR TEACHERS ARE WITH YOU? What truer friend do you have
than he or she who abides with your Knowledge? These friendships are not born
of this world. They have been created beyond the world, and they exist to serve
you now. You will feel the presence of those who are with you once your mind
settles down. Once you cease to be preoccupied with your own fervent wishes and
fears, you will begin to feel this presence which is so graceful, so gentle and
so reassuring.
UPON
THE HOUR TODAY, remind yourself that your friends are with you. In your two
deep practice periods, allow your mind to receive their presence so that you
may understand the true nature of relationship in the world. With practice,
this understanding will become so strong that you will be able to receive the
ideas, the encouragement and the correction from those who are more potent than
you, who exist to serve you in your true function in the world. They are your
initiators into Knowledge, and they are in relationship with your Knowledge,
for your Knowledge contains your true relationships with all of life.
PRACTICE
114: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.
Picture: Princes
Street Gardens, a public park in the center of Edinburgh, Scotland where friends
meet.
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. 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.
