5/23/16

I will honor myself today. Step 144 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices


Greetings All –

I will honor myself today. Step 144 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

I will honor myself today. Step 144
HONOR YOURSELF BECAUSE OF YOUR HERITAGE, because of your destiny and because of your purpose. Honor yourself because life honors you. Honor yourself because God is honored in God’s Creation in you. This eclipses all the evaluations that you have made upon yourself. This is greater than any criticism that you have levied against yourself. This is greater than any pride that you have used to offset your pain.

IN SIMPLICITY AND HUMILITY REMIND YOURSELF upon the hour to honor yourself. In your two deeper practices today, allow yourself to experience the presence of Knowledge, for this honors you and honors Knowledge as well. Honor yourself this day so that Knowledge may be honored, for in reality you are Knowledge. This is your True Self, but it is a Self that you are only now beginning to reclaim.

PRACTICE 144: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture:  Honoring oneself with a hot fudge sundae – is this picture appropriate for Step 144?

GCW – I, Chapter 21 Enduring Happiness, page 145:
“It does not mean that you become an ascetic and give up all things .That is ridiculous. That is only for very specialized individuals.”

GCW-II, Chapter 23 Becoming Wise, page 147:

“What does it mean to become wise? How do you discern Wisdom in another? What are the results of achieving this state of mind and readiness? Of course, people have many images associated with Wisdom. It is often associated with asceticism or self-sacrifice, loneliness, suffering, mystery or an inexplicable quality in others. It is often held in very high regard, but in such a way that people feel that it is quite remote from them and quite beyond their reach or grasp.

Treating oneself well is a way to honor oneself. Of course, you need the resources for it. But when it is not an excuse to indulge, well it isn’t prohibited. This picture is of an outdoor café along the Vltava River in Prague. I did enjoy the moment.


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 Spiritualityand 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.