9/30/16

I seek freedom from ambivalence today. Step 274 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices


Greetings All –

I seek freedom from ambivalence today. Step 274 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]
I seek freedom from ambivalence today. Step 274
SEEK FREEDOM FROM AMBIVALENCE, for this is the source of all human confusion, misery and frustration. Ambivalence is the indecision about participating with life. It is the indecision about being in life. It is the indecision about being alive. From this indecision all manner of self-imposition, all manner of attack and all manner of confrontation are created. It is from this indecision that people live in fantasy without Knowledge.

BEWARE OF AMBIVALENCE THEN. It is a sign that you are functioning without Knowledge and that you are trying to make your decisions based purely upon speculation, personal preference and fear. It is decision making without foundation that leads humanity astray. It is decision making without foundation that has led you astray. Knowledge dispels ambivalence, for it sets a clear direction. It is unconcerned with choices and with deliberation, for it simply knows what is correct and leads you towards your fulfillment, step by step, with certainty and abiding conviction.

REMEMBER UPON THE HOUR THAT YOU WISH TO ESCAPE from ambivalence. Realize as you repeat your lesson how much of your life is wasted in trying to decide between this and that, in asking yourself, “What should I do now,” in querying yourself about what is right and what is wrong and in wondering and worrying about the best choice and its possible consequences. Knowledge liberates you from this taxing and wasteful application of your mind. Knowledge does not deliberate. It simply waits for the time to act and then it acts. It is absolutely certain in its direction. It is unshakable in its conviction. If you follow this, which is God’s greatest gift to you who live in the world of ambivalence and confusion, you will find that you will have purpose, meaning and direction and that day after day they will be very available to you.

IN YOUR DEEPER MEDITATIONS attempt to give yourself wholeheartedly to your practice. Do not be ambivalent about your practice. Do not hold back out of fear or uncertainty, for you are participating in this preparation because Knowledge has called you to do so, and every day you give yourself because Knowledge calls you to do so. Thus, as we proceed through our preparation together, your Knowledge is strengthened day by day, for it is the basis of your participation here. What other reason could you possibly have for becoming a student of Knowledge?

THEREFORE, IN YOUR DEEPER PRACTICES and in your hourly remembrances, strengthen your conviction that you must escape from ambivalence. Realize the deadly cost of ambivalence. See how it keeps people lost in their ideas, denying their engagement with life. See the human cost around you. It is tremendous. Realize that with certainty everyone will find their rightful place. The world will proceed without the friction that it now must bear. In this way, all things seek fulfillment together in inclusion in life. That is The Way of Knowledge.

PRACTICE 274:Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture:  Two people at a windmill in Brugge, Belgium – one ascends to look and returns, the other ambivalent?


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.