6/26/16

I will remember those who have given to me today. Step 178 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices


Greetings All –

I will remember those who have given to me today. Step 178 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

I will remember those who have given to me today. Step 178
THIS IS A SPECIAL DAY OF ACKNOWLEDGING THE PRESENCE of genuine relationships in your life. It is a special day of acknowledging the gifts that have been given to you. It is a day meant for gratitude.

UPON THE HOUR, THEN, REPEAT THIS STATEMENT and take a moment to recall those who have given to you. Try to think very carefully of the individuals who have given benefit to you, both by demonstrating their Wisdom and their error. Think of those who have illustrated the way to go and the way not to go. As you inquire further into this in your two longer practice periods today, try to think more carefully and allow any individual who comes to mind to be the subject of your investigation. This is an active practice time in your meditation periods.

IN YOUR LONGER PRACTICE PERIODS, repeat the statement at the beginning of practice and allow individuals to come to you. Learn to recognize their contribution to the reclamation of Knowledge. Learn to recognize their contribution to your physical and emotional well-being. Learn to recognize how they have served you. In this way, your entire concept of giving and receiving and of service in the world may be expanded and developed. This will give you a true vision of the world so that you may learn to be compassionate with yourself and with others.

THIS, THEN, IS A DAY OF AFFIRMATION and a day of gratitude. Allow your practices to be meaningful and effective so that you may receive their reward.

PRACTICE 178: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

This Step says:  “It is a day meant for gratitude.” The importance of gratitude will be revealed in the Steps.

Picture:  Santa Monica, California beach showing the passage of many people in a day. 


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.