…important to focus on the Four Pillars of your life. REVIEW Continuation Training Step 14

… important to focus on the Four Pillars of your life. REVIEW CT Step 14 (MP3)

Here we have our first Review Practice in the Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training. In Our Reviews, it is important to focus on the Four Pillars of your life. This is "checking in", so to speak, while building the foundation that you need to build, each day.

Today, review all the former lessons. Read through them, and if you have kept a journal, which is recommended, recall what happened to you on those days. See what has occurred. Begin to see where you were present and where you were not present. See how things influenced you, and how you influenced them. Begin to see these kinds of relationships in action.

 

Also today in this Review, check in on the Four Pillars of your life, remembering that each Pillar is equally important. Though one may require more effort or attention at any given moment, they are all equally important. Like the four legs of a table, each must be strong. None can be sacrificed for the others. You cannot build one to the neglect of all the others, or nothing great can be given to you and nothing great can be realized.

Come then to the Pillar of Relationship in your practice today. Instead of practicing stillness, do this Four Pillars Review. Come then to the first Pillar, the Pillar of Relationship, and ask within yourself, "Is there anything I need to know about any of my relationships?" Ask this question in such a way that only a “yes” or a “no” can be an answer. If the answer is “no”, that is fine. Yet if the answer is “yes”, seek out who that might be. Maybe it is the relationship that you need to attend to at this moment. Ask yourself, "Is there something I need to know here?" Then open yourself to receive what that could be. This may only take a moment, but you must be very present.

Then go on to the Pillar of Career and Providership, the Pillar that deals with work, money and contribution in the world. Continue the same process: "Is there anything I need to know regarding my career and providership in the world?" If something comes to mind, ask yourself, "Is there something I need to know here?" Then open yourself to what that could be.

Then go on to the Pillar of Health and you ask yourself, "Is there anything that I need to know about my health or about the health of those who are close to me?" If something comes to mind, ask yourself, "Is there something I need to know here?" If there is, open yourself to it. Face it. Receive it.

Then go on to your Pillar of Spiritual Advancement and ask yourself, "Is there something I need to know regarding my spiritual advancement?" And as with all of the other Pillars, if something comes to mind, ask yourself, "Is there something I need to know here?"

This process of visiting your Four Pillars represents your primary practice for this Review. Take as long as necessary to complete this process. You will be repeating this Four Pillars Review in each of your Review Practices in the Continuation Training. This will give you a focus in your life: to maintain an awareness in these four fundamental areas of activity. Here you begin to build, brick by brick, stone by stone, a foundation that the world cannot shake or undermine.

In addition today, practice your hourly practices until they become automatic, until your mind becomes present in every situation that you are in. This is the goal towards which you are working every day.

Practice 14:    Four Pillars Review.

                         Hourly practice.

 

Plan B - If the MP3 doesn’t work, here’s the link to the folder: New Message - Student Spoken Steps CT Recordings - Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training - Working file

 Chapter 14: What must be avoided?

Reading link – (you will note many other reading options are available). We continue.

NNC

Note: If you’ve some interest, but this is the first time you’ve seen 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. Begin at the beginning.

If you do know about Steps, but have not done Steps twice completely, read the related materials, and have a sense of the direction of this study, you won’t get the experience. The Introduction begins:

“This is the Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training. It is designed to build upon the Steps that were learned in Steps to Knowledge to enable you to experience the grace, the power and the direction of Knowledge in your life and to become an expression of Knowledge in everything that you do. If you have completed the book, Steps to Knowledge, twice through and have followed the instructions as they were given without altering the curriculum in any way, then you are now ready to begin this more advanced study”.

If you are an independent student, that is certainly an option. 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.

I give myself to my practice today. Continuation Training Step 13

I give myself to my practice today. CT Step 13 (MP3)

I give myself to my practice today. CT Step 13

No matter what is happening in your life at this moment, no matter what challenge you may be facing, or what difficulties may be preoccupying you, you have an opportunity today to apply everything to your practice and to deepen your practice. Here you participate in the world like your Creator, who uses everything for a greater purpose. The Creator does not come and destroy the wicked and take control of everyone and everything and force a unity that people would resist and could not choose for themselves. Instead, everything is set in motion for redemption, for reunion, for contribution, for empowerment, for forgiveness and for true recognition.

Today your life gives you the tools to do this. It gives you the laboratory experiment. Use everything today. In your practice time and in your hourly practices, use today. Stay with this. The world teaches you about Knowledge and about the denial of Knowledge and the ignorance of Knowledge. Use this. Let the world serve you through its demonstration. Observe yourself and see for yourself how easily your concentration is lost, how easily you give yourself away to things that seem to overtake you, things that do not have nearly the power that you do. See how your fear overtakes you, overwhelms you and how are at its mercy. Today can serve you in your practice if you are present.

Practice 13:    One 30-minute stillness practice.

                         Contemplation practice.

                         Hourly practice.

Picture:  The signage on this building in Milan, Italy is an indicator of the economic challenges present in the world. May 30, 2015

Plan B - If the MP3 doesn’t work, here’s the link to the folder: New Message - Student Spoken Steps CT Recordings - Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training - Working file

 Chapter 13: What must be unlearned?

Reading link – (you will note many other reading options are available). We continue.

NNC

 

Note: If you’ve some interest, but this is the first time you’ve seen 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. Begin at the beginning.

If you do know about Steps, but have not done Steps twice completely, read the related materials, and have a sense of the direction of this study, you won’t get the experience. The Introduction begins:

“This is the Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training. It is designed to build upon the Steps that were learned in Steps to Knowledge to enable you to experience the grace, the power and the direction of Knowledge in your life and to become an expression of Knowledge in everything that you do. If you have completed the book, Steps to Knowledge, twice through and have followed the instructions as they were given without altering the curriculum in any way, then you are now ready to begin this more advanced study”.

If you are an independent student, that is certainly an option. 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.

Today I will not try to be happy. Continuation Training Step 12

Today I will not try to be happy. CT Step 12 (MP3)

 

Today I will not try to be happy. CT Step 12

Being happy is the natural result of being aligned with Knowledge within yourself and of being close to those who are meant to be with you and close to that which you are meant to do. This is a deeper kind of happiness, a confirming kind of happiness, a happiness that resonates all through your life. It establishes a rightness with yourself, a sense of integrity and harmony despite whatever difficulties may be facing you in the moment. For if you are not right with yourself, then what pleasantries on the outside can allay the pain and the discomfort that this produces? And yet most people suffer under this duress, for they are not where they need to be, and they are not with whom they need to be. They are often not engaged in the right activities. And this produces a discomfort, a sense of wrongness that is very difficult to avoid.

Therefore, today do not try to be happy. Instead, look at all the activities that people do to try to be happy. Look at the expense-of money, of time, of energy trying to be happy. Look at the rewards. What a high cost is being paid for such fleeting experiences. And look deeper at whether someone is really right with their own life. The more that people are not right with their lives, the more that they have to engage in outside activities to try to allay their own suffering and discomfort. The more desperate this becomes, the greater the costs, and the more energy invested. Desperately seeking relief, they are trying to be happy.

Today you do not need to try to be happy. In your practice in stillness and in your hourly practices in awareness and discernment, take another step towards bringing your life into true balance. This cannot be done all at once. It is a process with many steps and many important decisions along the way. But each step in this direction gives you a firm foundation. This is a gift that keeps giving itself within you. Then you find happiness in work and work in happiness. And the desperate attempt to escape the world and your condition will not be so prevailing. You will find a greater comfort and a greater ease being in the world even as it is.

If you are to be a force for good in the world, then everything about your life must be in harmony. That does not mean that everything that happens to you is good. It does not mean that the world is in harmony around you. Yet it does mean that the Four Pillars of your life are in an essential balance.

Beyond your practice in stillness and your hourly practices, think about this today.

Practice 12:    One 30-minute stillness practice.

                         Contemplation practice.

                         Hourly practice.

Picture:  Las Vegas, Nevada strip – a place people go to be happy. November 11, 2006.

Plan B - If the MP3 doesn’t work, here’s the link to the folder: New Message - Student Spoken Steps CT Recordings - Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training - Working file

Chapter 12: Whom will you meet?

Reading link – (you will note many other reading options are available). We continue.

NNC

 

Note: If you’ve some interest, but this is the first time you’ve seen 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. Begin at the beginning.

If you do know about Steps, but have not done Steps twice completely, read the related materials, and have a sense of the direction of this study, you won’t get the experience. The Introduction begins:

“This is the Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training. It is designed to build upon the Steps that were learned in Steps to Knowledge to enable you to experience the grace, the power and the direction of Knowledge in your life and to become an expression of Knowledge in everything that you do. If you have completed the book, Steps to Knowledge, twice through and have followed the instructions as they were given without altering the curriculum in any way, then you are now ready to begin this more advanced study”.

If you are an independent student, that is certainly an option. 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.