Greetings All – How can I judge myself when I do not know who I am? Step 262 (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.] How can I judge myself when I do not know who I am? Step 262 IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHO YOU ARE, you can only judge what you think you are. Your thoughts about yourself are largely based upon your expectations and disappointments. It is very difficult to observe yourself from within your personal mind, for your personal mind is made up of your personal thoughts, which are not born of Knowledge. To view yourself with Knowledge, you must be in relationship with Knowledge. This will lead you to experience yourself in an entirely new way. This experience must be repeated and expressed over and over again, in many, many situations. Then, you will begin to get a real sense and experience of who you are. This sense and experience will not be born of condemnation and unforgiveness, for only your idea of yourself can be disappointed. Life will disappoint you in this way, for life can only fulfill you according to your true nature and True Self. To realize this means you have realized the value and meaning of life and your inclusion in it. This requires discernment. This requires Wisdom. This requires a step-by-step preparation. This requires patience and tolerance. This requires that you learn to use your experience for good not for ill. THEREFORE, YOUR CONDEMNATION OF YOURSELF IS UNFOUNDED. It is based merely on assumptions. Remember this upon the hour and consider it in light of all the events this day, which will teach you the meaning of today’s lesson. In your two longer practice periods, once again engage your mind actively in attempting to comprehend the meaning of today’s lesson. AS YOU PENETRATE YOUR OWN SELF-JUDGMENT, realize it is born of your fear and based upon assumption. If you realize you don’t know who you are and you are completely confused about this, then you will place yourself in a position to become a true student of Knowledge. You will put yourself in a position to learn all things rather than attempting to defend your assumptions. This represents your studenthood. Your function in life now is to be a student of Knowledge. Use your mind purposefully today. Use your mind objectively. Use your mind to realize what you do not know and all that you need to know. Use your mind to appreciate and to utilize the steps that are being given to you now for you to reclaim Knowledge in the world. PRACTICE 262: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice. Picture: An individual in a passageway at an old steel mill site near Beijing –lost or just out of place? Journal entry link Step 261x1 Journal entry link Step 261x2 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. 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. Posts linked below 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.