I am free to be confused today. Step 221 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices

Greetings All –

I am free to be confused today. Step 221 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

I am free to be confused today. Step 221

DO NOT VIEW YOUR CONFUSION AS A FAILURE. Do not view your confusion as something that endangers you or belittles you. Confusion here is merely a sign that you are realizing the limitations of your own ideas and assumptions. You must give these up to allow Knowledge to become apparent to you, for in the face of all important decisions that require your attention this day, Knowledge has already provided an answer. It is not an answer that you can find amongst the many answers that you provide for yourself or that you assume others provide for you.

THEREFORE, LET ALL SUBSTITUTES FOR KNOWLEDGE fade from you. Allow yourself to be confused, for in your genuine confusion Knowledge may arise naturally. This, then, represents your freedom, for in freedom you are free to be confused.

REMIND YOURSELF OF THIS IDEA upon the hour, and do not be complacent with simple explanations or assumptions about its great meaning for you. You must consider it deeply and realize that the true understanding that it holds for you will be revealed in time. Today allow yourself to be confused, for you are confused, and you must always begin from where you are. Knowledge is with you. You are free to be confused. In your longer practice periods today, enter into stillness whether you are confused or not, for stillness, grace and peace are always available to you.

PRACTICE 221: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

I have been confused many days. It is good to have this freedom.

Picture:  Basement level at gift shop - Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C.

Journal entry link Step 220x1

Journal entry link Step 220x2

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.