Greetings All –
What is small expresses that which is great. Step
331 (MP3)
[Open in Drive or copy to
your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]
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| What is small expresses that which is great. Step 331 |
LOOK AT NATURE
AROUND YOU. Look at the tiniest creature and realize the mystery of that
creature’s existence, the wonder of its physical mechanism and the truth of its
total inclusion in nature as a whole. The smallest creature can express the
greatest truth. The simplest thing can express the power of the universe. Does
a creature that is small express life and inclusion in life any less than a
creature that is great? Using this analogy, realize that the smallest activity
can embody the greatest teaching. Realize that the simplest word, the most
common gesture, can express the deepest feeling and emotion. Realize that the
simplest thing can add to your practice and confirm the presence of Knowledge
within you.
AS
YOU BECOME ATTENTIVE TO LIFE, you will begin to witness the mystery of life in
all things. How great this will be for you who are now awakening from the sleep
of your own separate imagination. The mystery of life will inspire you and call
to you. It will confirm the mystery of your own life, which is becoming ever
more real and demonstrative to you.
YOU
MAY FEEL SMALL, but you express the great. You do not need to be great to
express the great because greatness is within you, and your physical vehicle is
small in comparison to it. Your reality is born of the greatness that is with
you that wishes to express itself in the simplicity of your small vehicle. Here
you understand that you are of the great and you are working through the small.
Here you will not contradict the relationship between the great and the small,
where the small must express the great, which it does naturally. Does a little
creature have to attempt to express the great? No. The great merely expresses
itself through the little creature.
THUS,
IN YOUR LIFE—which at any moment may look small to you, which at any moment may
look separate and confined—greatness is with you. Therefore, the small is
utilized, confirmed, honored and blessed. Then, there is no basis for
self-condemnation and hatred. All things great and small become appreciated,
for all things great and small are together.
UPON
THE HOUR, THEN, WITHIN WHATEVER SMALL TASK, within whatever expression or
gesture and within whatever small view, allow the great to express itself. In
your two deeper practice periods, come again into the proximity of that which
is great within you. Re-enter the fire of Knowledge which purifies you. Take
sanctuary in the sanctuary of Knowledge. Here you encounter the great
completely. This is beyond all form. Here that which infuses all form and gives
it purpose, meaning and direction awaits you to receive it. The small expresses
the great, and the great blesses the small.
PRACTICE
331: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
Picture: Butterflies
feasting on the Dickey Ridge Trail, Shenandoah National Park, Warren County,
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 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.
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. 1x and 2x links 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.
