x2 Step 39 – Journal Step 38 - God knows the Way to Knowledge.

Today: Step 39 - The power of God is with me. (MP3)

Greetings All –

From the journal Step 38 - God knows the Way to Knowledge.

For September 26, 2000, Step 38, there was no journal entry that day.

This is an important Step. August 23, 1999, first time through, the focus went to: “only God knows Knowledge in you, and only Knowledge in you knows God,” which I diagrammed.

What stood out today, was the practice, with the emphasis on stillness: “practice feeling the presence of God, silently, in stillness. Not thinking about God, not speculating, not wondering, not doubting, but simply feeling. It is no fantasy that you are concentrating upon now, though you are used to concentrating upon fantasy. In stillness and quiet, everything becomes apparent. God is very still, for God is not going anywhere. As you become still, you will feel the power of God.

The irony to me in the New Message teaching is that God is still and to get close to God we become still. To catch up to God, we have to stop running, walking, moving. We have to be still.

Have we heard that before?  Psalm 46:10, King James Version, “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”

The New Message restates and explains historic truths. In our world of power for near constant movement, stillness may be difficult to imagine. In the past, in the time of the old and new testaments, relatively speaking, there would have been more quiet and stillness, and the experience of stillness might have been easier.

In my senior year of college, 1968, I had tried mediation, with little success. This was the time the Beatles were advocates for the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I was also in an existential mode as to the meaning of life, relative to challenges of the Viet Nam war. I don’t recall the situation exactly, but I decided to try to do nothing. I would be still and do nothing. That did not last long. It seemed quickly that I had to move, to do something as a living being, so the real question quickly became – since I had to do something, is what should that something be?

The envisioned academic goal was to learn the skills of movie-making and then do films that would save the world. Much more was to happen in my life and I would come to be able to be still in meditation 20+ years later. The phrase: “Be still, and know,” was a companion on that journey along with:

Let us continue.

NNC

Note: If you’ve some interest due to this or other Steps, you should go to the beginning blog post. From here you will learn about Steps to Knowledge and can begin it on the day that makes sense; then progress as needed. You can use the posts on this blog as a companion if it helps. They will remain in order in the archives - one post per Step.

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 here 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. There are options as well through the Free School of the New Message.