The Greater Community is a greater reality. I must be prepared. Continuation Training Step 53

The Greater Community is a greater reality. I must be prepared. CT Step 53 (MP3)

The Greater Community is a greater reality. I must be prepared. CT Step 53

The Greater Community is a greater reality. And it is overshadowing everything that you are doing today and everything that you will do tomorrow. To comprehend the Greater Community and to prepare for it, you must have a very firm foundation. Your life cannot be collapsing underneath you. You must build a table with four strong legs and be able to stand upon it. Otherwise, you will not be able to see and you will not be able to give. You will be one of life’s casualties and not one of life’s contributors.

The Greater Community and the preparation for the Greater Community both represent a tremendous threshold. You do not get to choose this, for the Greater Community is upon you. The choice is whether to respond or not to respond. The choice is whether to prepare or not to prepare. Therefore, in learning Steps to Knowledge, you learn to build the foundation, for that is half the preparation right there. If you do not build the foundation, well, you cannot really exercise your greater abilities. You will not become a force in the world, a force for good.

Here you work simultaneously at all levels—-relationships, work, health, spiritual development and Greater Community awareness—-because that is half the preparation. The other half of the preparation is in learning about the Mental Environment. This represents a more elevated level of training and preparation. For this, you must have a tremendous foundation. Your life must be in order, and you must be right with your own life.

Today think about these things. Look carefully. See what today’s lesson can mean for you and for others. Practice stillness in your deep meditation. And exercise your authority by using awareness and discernment in the moment upon the hour when you are out in the world. Remember here that you are preparing for something greater, something that is already happening, something that needs your participation and awareness.

Practice 53:   One 30-minute stillness practice.

                         Contemplation practice.

                         Hourly practice.

Picture:  The Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.

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

For the continuation of reading material, the next book in Volume 3 of The Message is “Living The Way of Knowledge”. Five chapters are available as downloads.

Chapter 9:  Sharing The Way of Knowledge with Others

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.

My spiritual advancement will fail if my other Pillars are not built. Continuation Training Step 52

My spiritual advancement will fail if my other Pillars are not built. CT Step 52 (MP3)

My spiritual advancement will fail if my other Pillars are not built. CT Step 52

You can see clearly in your own experience how people will give away everything for one Pillar. They will cast away everything for relationships. They will neglect everything for their work. They will even neglect everything for their spiritual advancement, only wanting to meditate all day long and be in a high state. You will see how people give away everything for their health and their health concerns and how this Pillar dominates them for their whole life.

This is not the way for a student of Knowledge. There is no stability here. There is no foundation here. Yes, if someone has a true calling to be masterful at one activity, this will dominate their life and experience. But these cases are exceptional and often these people suffer greatly because of it, having never developed their other Pillars sufficiently.

Here you must learn a balanced approach. This serves as an antidote to eccentricity, to compulsive behavior, and to erratic thinking. It provides a balance, which is often the very element that is lacking in people’s lives. Here you are not a superstar in any area, but you are capable in them all. This frees you to do greater work, to learn greater things and to make a greater contribution.

If your Pillars are always crumbling beneath you, they will dominate your life. Here you may not have perfect health, perfect relationships, a perfect job or a perfect spiritual practice. Instead, you work in all these areas and, as a result, they will all grow and become strong. Then the Creator can give you a gift for the world and you will not crumble under its weight. Then you can bring something into the world without failing yourself.

How obvious this is when you think about it. And today we want you to think about it. Think about the examples of those who neglect one of their Pillars or all of their Pillars for the one preferred area of their life. Even in the realm of spiritual practice, people will give over everything for one Pillar. Recognize how inappropriate this is. Even in monasteries, people have to live Four Pillars. They have to work to maintain the facility. They have to get along with other people. They have to deal with mundane activities. They have to deal with practical necessities. The problem arises when people have self-appointed destinies. They do not want to join the convent or the monastery, but they want to live a very spiritually focused life and have everything be very spiritual. Yet they cannot give to the world because they do not have the power or the stability to do it. And they are unwilling to yield to the world because they are out of relationship with it.

Today it is important to think about these things. Beyond your practice in stillness and your hourly remembrances, think about this. Keep your spiritual development in perspective. Realize how it is dependent upon the other Pillars in your life. And realize how they are dependent upon your spiritual development. Think deeply about this and you will see things that can help you and that can help others.

Practice 52:   One 30-minute stillness practice.

                         Contemplation practice.

                         Hourly practice.

Picture:  Santa Maria delle Grazie ("Holy Mary of Grace") church and Dominican convent in Milan, Italy. The mural of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is in the refectory of the convent. The day I visited, there were no tickets for the mural, so we went to this part where there was an exhibition and this replica of the mural with a history.

Replica of The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

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

For the continuation of reading material, the next book in Volume 3 of The Message is “Living The Way of Knowledge”. Five chapters are available as downloads.

Chapter 7:  Your Relationship with Your Spiritual Family

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.

My work is an expression of my life. Continuation Training Step 51

My work is an expression of my life. CT Step 51 (MP3)

My work is an expression of my life. CT Step 51

In the world, there are two kinds of work. There is the greater work that you have ultimately come here to do and there is the work that will enable you to find this greater work. Your true work requires your development and the development of others who will share your true work with you. You may not be ready for this, and they may not be ready for this. In either case, this lack of readiness can prevent you from discovering your greater work in the world. Therefore, the emphasis in most cases falls upon the work you have to do to find your real work. The work that people do to find their real work accounts for 99% of the work that is being done in the world today.

The work you do today either serves you or it does not. Therefore, in your Review of the Four Pillars, you want to make sure that the work that you are doing is assisting you in finding your greater work. Here the requirements for your work are not so great. Your work does not have to fulfill you. It does not have to represent your greatest values. It does not have to hold the ultimate meaning of your life. It simply needs to support you in your greater endeavors. It is like working your way through school. If your work in the world cannot fulfill this, then you will have to make changes in this Pillar.

One of the problems is that people often confuse their real work with the work they are doing in the world. They try to make the work they are doing in the world their real work. Or they try to avoid all work in the world and only do the work that is their real work before they are really ready to do it, before it can be done in such a way that it can support them. This is a problem in discernment. It is a problem in confusing levels.

It may take you a long, long time to find your real work and a much longer time for it to support you financially. In the interim, you do work that supports your real work. This is perfectly all right. In fact, it has to be this way. If you live in poverty because you have refused to do any work other than what you think is your real work, you will not have the power, the stability or the foundation to do your real work, even if it becomes known to you.

Here we have a problem in patience as well as a problem in the confusion of levels. People want things right now! "I want it now! I won't wait for it! I'll get it now!" They think that they can do this themselves, and so they choose some kind of occupation that they think will make them very happy. And they think, "Ah, that is my real work!" And they drop everything and sacrifice everything to go off and do that, but it’s not it. People’s real work is rarely what they think it is.

Your real work resides in the Mystery because if you were to discover your real work before you were able to do it, it would be a great tragedy for you, a great failure. Therefore, it is better that you not know. It is as if your real work were around the other side of the mountain, and you had to get over there to find it. From where you are now, you cannot see it. So you do the work necessary to get there. If you have humility, you will do this work. You will find a job that meets your primary needs, that supports you in your Four Pillars, and there are usually many choices here. If you are mature and can advance, you will not be in constant complaint about this work even though it is not really what you are ultimately here to do. This represents maturity, for here you are working for something greater than your personal fulfillment.

In today’s practice, think about these things. Consider what is being said here. Think about your own experience. Consider your own impatience. Think about the compromise you have to make here. It is not really a compromise at the level of Knowledge. It simply compromises your goals and ambitions. Can you wait? Can you work towards that which is truly worthy? Can you wait for the full expression of this? Are you willing not to know? Can you trust in Knowledge and in the Creator that these things are awaiting you in the future. Make these questions all part of your contemplation today.

In your time of stillness, let all these questions go and simply be close to Knowledge. Let your mind be free of its own thoughts and conditioning. Upon the hour practice awareness and discernment, but remember today to think about work.

Practice 51:    One 30-minute stillness practice.

                         Contemplation practice.

                         Hourly practice.

Picture:  Camera crew at airport.

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

For the continuation of reading material, the next book in Volume 3 of The Message is “Living The Way of Knowledge”. Five chapters are available as downloads.

Chapter 2:  The Four Pillars of Life

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.