9/5/16

Alone I can do nothing. Step 249 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices


Greetings All –

Alone I can do nothing. Step 249 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]
Alone I can do nothing. Step 249
ALONE YOU CAN DO NOTHING, for nothing in life is done alone. This is so very obvious if you simply observe the activity around you. No one is doing anything alone. This is so very true; it cannot be denied if you look upon the world honestly. Even if you were alone on a mountaintop without another soul in sight, you would not be alone, for your Teachers would be with you, and everything that you would accomplish there would be a joint effort, as everything that you accomplish with other people is a joint effort. This affirms the intrinsic nature of relationships and gives complete evidence to the fact that nothing can be done alone. In this, you must learn to value your relationships, for they are the vehicles for accomplishment in all areas and in all avenues of expression.

THEREFORE, WE EMPHASIZE THE VALUE of your relationships to you who now seek to reclaim Knowledge. These relationships must be imbued with the Knowledge that you are reclaiming. Then they will have the stability, the efficacy and the grace that Knowledge contains for you. For only relationships based upon Knowledge can carry the Wisdom that Knowledge will exert within the world. Relationships based upon personal attraction or personal fantasy do not have the foundation to carry Knowledge and will fail abruptly in the presence of the demands and requirements of a true life.

THEREFORE, AS YOU RECLAIM KNOWLEDGE, you also learn the lessons of relationships. Remind yourself of this upon the hour and witness the obviousness of today’s lesson in whatever context you find yourself. If you look, you will see that nothing can be done alone—on any level, in any avenue. Nothing can be done alone. There is no individual creativity. There is no individual contribution. There is no individual invention. The only thing that can be made alone is fantasy, and in this a great deal has been produced. But even this is shared and fortified as each individual fortifies it within his or her own imagination. Therefore, even illusion is shared and substantiated through relationship. Nothing can be done alone. Even illusion cannot be done alone. There is no escape from this. Yet, the fact that there is no escape from life is the true promise of your redemption, for here life will redeem you, and all that you have brought into the world will be activated and contributed.

IN YOUR DEEPER PRACTICE PERIODS TODAY, bring yourself to Knowledge and bring yourself to your Teachers in stillness and humility. Realize that you can do nothing alone. Even your attempt to discipline your mind and to prepare yourself for meditation is something you share with others who are practicing and with your Teachers as well. All power of God can be expressed through you, for nothing can be done alone.

PRACTICE 249: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture:  A crew doing light rail construction, Norfolk, Virginia.


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.