10/12/16

I carry stillness into the world with me today. Step 286 - Steps to Knowledge: The Book of Inner Knowing ~ Spiritual Practices


Greetings All –

I carry stillness into the world with me today. Step 286 (MP3)[Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]
I carry stillness into the world with me today. Step 286

CARRY STILLNESS WITH YOU. Allow your inner life to be quiet as you move in the world of turbulence and confusion. There is nothing for you to resolve in your thoughts now, for you are learning to be with Knowledge. Knowledge will organize your thinking and give it true uniformity and direction. Carry stillness with you and be certain that all of your internal conflicts will be resolved through Knowledge, for you are following the source of their resolution. Each day will bring you closer to peace and fulfillment. And that which haunted you before and cast great dark clouds over your mind will simply be escaped as you walk the path of Knowledge.

CARRY STILLNESS WITH YOU INTO THE WORLD. This will enable you to be truly observant. This will enable you to see the world as it is. This will enable you to diffuse the world’s conflict, for here you are teaching peace by being at peace. This is not a false peace that you are teaching. It is born of a true association with Knowledge, for you are following Knowledge here. You are allowing Knowledge to provide the direction. You can only do this in stillness.

THINK NOT THAT STILLNESS WILL RENDER YOU INCAPABLE of genuine activity in the world. You will be active in the world, and you will participate in its mechanism, but you may be still inside as you do so. You will find, to your great delight, that you will be far more competent, more effective and far more responsive to others, with greater involvement and productivity as you carry this stillness into the world. Here your energy may be expressed in the world in a meaningful way. Here all the powers of your mind and your body are being contributed and are not wasted in internal conflict. Therefore, you become more powerful and effective, more certain and productive as you carry stillness into the world.

THROUGHOUT THE DAY REMIND YOURSELF that you are carrying stillness into the world, and in your two deep meditation practices seek the refuge of stillness. Escape the world that your senses report, and enter the serenity and the sanctuary of stillness and Knowledge. You will find as you proceed that your two longer practice periods will be times of great rest and relief, great moments of rejuvenation. They are where you attend the holy chapel of the Holy Spirit each day. They are where you and God meet through Knowledge.

THESE PRACTICE PERIODS, THEN, become the highlight of each day as you learn to receive the gifts that are being presented to you. You will look forward to your practice sessions as an opportunity to regenerate and to refresh yourself, to find true inspiration and comfort and to enable your mind to become stronger and stronger with Knowledge so that you may carry peace and stillness into the world.

PRACTICE 286: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture: A busy London street.


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 above 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.