Today: Step 69 - Today I will
practice stillness. (MP3)
Greetings All –
 |
|
Today I will practice
stillness. Step 69
|
IN YOUR TWO
30-MINUTE PRACTICE PERIODS TODAY, practice stillness. Allow your meditation to
be deep. Give yourself to it. Do not enter meditation with demands and
requests. Enter meditation to give yourself to it. It is the temple of the True
Spirit within you to which you bring yourself. In your practice periods, then,
be present and be still. Allow yourself to bathe in the luxury of emptiness.
For the presence of God is first experienced as emptiness because it lacks
movement, and then within this emptiness, you begin to feel the presence that
permeates all things and gives all meaning in life.
PRACTICE
STILLNESS TODAY so that you may know.
PRACTICE 69: Two
30-minute practice periods.
Picture:
Greek Orthodox Church Bell Tower, Winchester, Virginia. The bells are
still.
From the journal Step
68 - I will not lose faith in myself today.
7:20
a.m. Thursday, October 26, 2000 – I give up. I do not understand myself; the
world; life; others; anything. The world is full of moving things, all of which
can change, grow, where out, decline, disappear. Stillness is the absolute
alternative. It's not my time to go there.
7:55
a.m. My life – my family – we are part of the self organizing, self-managing
play out of the creation. To the degree I can become aware, I will contribute.
This perspective comes at a time when I'm tired and confused and in transition.
I thought I was following spirit. I believed I was doing my small part, yet there's
been little success it seems. With S2K – the challenge gets bigger and again
I'm a student. At least there is a curriculum –
11:30
p.m. I will not lose faith in myself today. This is been a hard day. Very
uncomfortable @ the CAO lunch – Steve returns – PDCs set to score money from
many places. I have to retrench. I've had encouragement on my ideas…but still
feel lost. … Why am I doing this life? On TV – prison lockup in Colorado – hard
and mean souls being dealt with harshly by society. An inmate says you don't
have to be super strong when you are super angry.
I'm
stuck in the middle. I worked late trying to get things caught up. Still
there's more to do. I keep trying to make the region work. That requires being
subversive.
Wine
tonight, beer last night – life has become frustrating.
…
Fortunately
time moves.
At
times like this I wait, hope, wish for the answer – those
words/thoughts/feelings that would make me at home in the world.
Based
on this journal entry, did I lose faith in myself this day? Dumped a lot. You
can do the same for yourself as needed in the journal. I did continue and that
is what counts. You can’t get this all in one reading, one day of practice or
one year of it all together.
Having a sense of progress and the magnitude of
the task was beneficial: “With S2K – the challenge gets bigger and again I'm
a student. At least there is a curriculum.” So, there is a
curriculum. Let us practice and 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment