5/3/16

Today I will not pretend I am happy. Step 124 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices


Greetings All –

Today I will not pretend I am happy. Step 124 (MP3)  [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

Today I will not pretend I am happy. Step 124
YOU DO NOT NEED TO PRETEND THAT YOU ARE HAPPY, for this will only mask a sense of self-pity, compound your confusion and deepen your dilemma. Today be yourself, but be self-observant, keeping in mind that Knowledge is with you as you vacillate to and from, towards and away from Knowledge itself. Because Knowledge does not vacillate, it is a source of certainty, consistency and stability for you. Because it is unafraid of the world, it is a source of fearlessness for you. You are not pitiful, so you need not pretend.

DO NOT PRETEND TO BE HAPPY TODAY, for he or she who is truly satisfied may cast any expression upon the world, but within their expression will be the power of Knowledge. This is what is most important. Knowledge is not a form of behavior. It is an intense experience of life. Therefore, do not attempt to persuade yourself or others with a demonstration of behavior, for this is unnecessary.

REPEAT THIS STATEMENT UPON THE HOUR and feel its power and its gift of freedom. Allow yourself to be exactly as you are today. In your two deep meditation practices, allow yourself to enter stillness, for when you are not trying to be someone, you may have the luxury of stillness, which is the luxury of love.

PRACTICE 124: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture:  San Francisco street scene; people pretending to be happy?




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.