Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices

This is a spiritual practice. It has been given to Humanity so it might be able to respond to the growing planetary necessity for Human Unity and Cooperation. We are encouraged to undertake Steps to Knowledge. This site is a simple aid to introduce people to this practice. There is much more to learn for anyone who becomes a student. As a Steps student since June 27, 1999, I am a witness for its benefit. Tom Christoffel

5/31/16

I will not follow fear within the world. Step - 152 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices

Greetings All –

I will not follow fear within the world. Step - 152 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

I will not follow fear within the world. Step - 152

HUMANITY IS GOVERNED BY WAVES OF FEAR that draw people here and there, waves of fear that dominate their actions, their thinking, their conclusions, their beliefs and their assumptions. Do not follow the waves of fear that move across the world. Instead, remain steadfast and still in Knowledge. Allow yourself to observe the world from this point of stillness and certainty. Do not be swayed by the waves of fear. In this way, you will be able to contribute to the world and not be its victim only. You are here to give, not to judge, and in stillness you are without judgment upon the world. Recognize, then, the waves of fear, but do not let them touch you, for in Knowledge they cannot touch you because Knowledge is beyond all fear.

REPEAT YOUR IDEA FOR THE DAY UPON THE HOUR, and consider it in light of all that you experience today. In your two longer practice periods, apply your mind actively in attempting to understand today’s lesson. Again, this is a form of mental application. We shall not practice stillness and mental silence today but mental application so that you may learn to think constructively. For when your mind is not still, it should be thinking constructively. It should be investigating. Do not rely upon early conclusions. Do not rely upon self-comforting ideas. Allow yourself to be vulnerable today, for you are only vulnerable to Knowledge. Yet, Knowledge will shield you from all things of harm within this world and will provide a comfort and a stability that the world can never change. Learn of this today so that you may be a source of Knowledge within the world so that your Source may express itself through you.

PRACTICE 152: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Note: “You are here to give, not to judge, and in stillness you are without judgment upon the world. Recognize, then, the waves of fear, but do not let them touch you, for in Knowledge they cannot touch you because Knowledge is beyond all fear.”

Picture: This replica fort is on the Army Heritage Trail at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The need for security leads to the building of defensive structures in the world. Fear can lead us to create mental defenses that operate in a similar way. There is always a gate somewhere to get in or out.

Journal entry link Step 151x1

Journal entry link Step 151x2

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.

5/30/16

I will not use fear to support my judgments. Step 151 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices

Greetings All –

I will not use fear to support my judgments. Step 151 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

I will not use fear to support my judgments. Step 151

DO NOT USE FEAR TO SUPPORT YOUR JUDGMENTS of yourself and the world, for these judgments are born of your uncertainty and anxiety. Thus, they lack the foundation of Knowledge. Thus, they lack the meaning and value that only Knowledge can bestow. Do not rely upon your judgments of yourself and the world. As you withdraw from them, you will realize that their source is fear, for you have only been trying to comfort yourself with your judgments, to provide a false security, stability and identity which you feel you are lacking. Therefore, be without a substitute for Wisdom and Knowledge, and allow Wisdom and Knowledge to arise naturally.

UPON THE HOUR REPEAT YOUR STATEMENT, and consider it in light of all things that are occurring today. In your two deeper practices, consider the meaning of today’s idea as you think about it carefully. Apply your mind in a state of work as you attempt to penetrate the meaning of today’s lesson. Do not be comforted by premature conclusions. Investigate deeply with your mind in your practice periods. Use your mind actively. Consider many things within yourself while maintaining a concentration on today’s idea. If you do this, you will understand many things about Wisdom and ignorance, and your understanding will be born of compassion and true self- appreciation. For only from a place of self-love can you offer correction to yourself and to others.

PRACTICE 151: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture: The Frederick, Maryland fleet of police cars contained an armored vehicle in 2009. Is this rational or irrational fear?

Journal entry link Step 150x1

Journal entry link Step 150x2

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

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.

NNC

5/29/16

Today I will learn to learn. Step - 150 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices

Greetings All –

Today I will learn to learn. Step – 150 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

Today I will learn to learn. Step - 150

TODAY YOU LEARN TO LEARN. You learn to learn because you need to learn. You need to learn how to learn so that your learning may be effective and expedient, have depth and consistency and produce a sound advancement that you can rely upon in all circumstances in the future. Do not think that you already understand the process of learning, for you are learning about this now as you understand the meaning of advancement, the meaning of failure, the meaning of encouragement, the meaning of discouragement, the meaning of enthusiasm and the meaning of a lack of enthusiasm. That is why at the end of each week you review your practices so that you may understand your progress and understand the mechanism of learning. This is essential for you to realize, for until you do, you will misinterpret your steps, you will misconstrue your actions, you will not understand how to follow a curriculum and you will never learn how to teach a curriculum yourself.

THEREFORE, TODAY YOU LEARN TO LEARN. This places you as a beginning student of Knowledge, which gives you all rights and all encouragement to learn everything that is necessary, without presumption, without conceit, without denial and without falsity of any kind. As you learn to learn, you will realize the mechanism of learning. This will give you Wisdom and compassion in your dealings with people. You cannot teach people from idealism, for then you place upon them the burden of your own expectations. You require of them what even life cannot provide. But the certainty of your experience and your Knowledge, which you will give to others, will be sound, and they will be able to receive it and utilize it in their own way. Then, you will not place any personal demands upon them in their learning, but will allow Knowledge within you to give to Knowledge in them. You will then be a witness to the instruction and to the learning as well.

THEREFORE, TODAY BEAR WITNESS TO YOUR OWN LEARNING and learn to learn. Upon the hour, remind yourself that you are learning to learn. In your two meditation practices, allow yourself to enter stillness and peace. Observe yourself as you move forward and as you hold yourself back. Exert your will on your own behalf compassionately and firmly, and judge not your advancement because you are not in a position to judge, because you are learning to learn.

PRACTICE 150: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture: I have always enjoyed the library. It was a place where independent learning could be pursued, as opposed to what was being taught in school. In the library I could explore ideas and follow thoughts were they led me.

The notion of "learning to learn" was something I’d been exposed to in my planning career. I’d heard a lecture by Donald M. Michael in the 1980’s at a World Future Society event, relating the perspective of his 1973 book: “On Learning to Plan – and Planning to Learn: The Social Psychology of Changing Toward Future-Responsive Societal Learning.” This was a man ahead of his time.

When visiting London in 2009, the British Library was a place I went to see and thus have a picture for this Step. The average tourist may not visit local libraries for anything other than Internet access, which is of course important, but my intent was to be in the presence of this collection of the work of human civilization.

It is an evolutionary process still. Using the cumulative knowledge for wisdom in the world is what Steps to Knowledge is teaching so we might have Greater Community Wisdom. The work necessary is not precisely known, as this is an evolving reality. It is up to us to understand problems, consider methods of acting and then put the ideas into practice, cooperatively in communities. Simple, but not easy.

Journal entry link Step 149x1

Journal entry link Step 149x2

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

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.

NNC