Круги на воде

Posted on June 29, 2014 by Alisa

For English version click here.

Шаг 40. «Сегодня я почувствую силу Бога» в книге «Шаги к Знанию: книга внутреннего познания» предлагает почувствовать силу Бога без фантазии, то есть, без вызова в воображении фантастические картины. Я должна её ощущать, ведь она везде и имеет огромную благосклонность.

Сила Бога тихая и всё остальное является «временные движения в великой тишине Бога», как гласит Шаг 40. Когда я читала это снова сегодня, пришла на ум образ – круги на воде. Они появляются, распространяются и исчезают. По мере их распространения, они могут оказать некое воздействие, вызывать движение, возбуждать волнение, но они временные, они приходят и уходят.

Этот Шаг описывает такие вещи, как смерть, болезнь, потерь и разрушение, конфликты, которые часто имеют огромное значение для людей, как временные явления в великой тишины Бога. С этой точки зрения, кажется бессмысленно вкладывать столько страданий и слез, чрезмерно напрягаться по поводу таких вещей. Ведь сила Бога намного больше, намного благотворнее, «настолько совершенной и всесторонней, что он воодушевляет всё». Это не значит, что сила Бога устраняет эти временные явления, их предотвратит, это просто значит, что они незначительные по большему счету, в великом плане бытия, где обитает сила Бога. Они круги на воде.

Эти стихи Валерия Брюсова кажутся мне подходящими.

Круги на воде

От камня, брошенного в воду,
Далеко ширятся круги.
Народ передает народу
Проклятый лозунг: «мы – враги!»

Племен враждующих не числи:
Круги бегут, им нет числа;
В лазурной Марне, в желтой Висле
Влачатся чуждые тела;

В святых просторах Палестины
Уже звучат шаги войны;
В Анголе девственной – долины
Ее стопой потрясены;

Безлюдные утесы Чили
Оглашены глухой пальбой,
И воды Пе-че-ли покрыли
Флот, не отважившийся в бой.

Везде – вражда! где райской птицы
Воздушный зыблется полет,
Где в.джунглях страшен стон тигрицы,
Где землю давит бегемот!

В чудесных, баснословных странах
Визг пуль и пушек ровный рев,
Повязки белые на ранах
И пятна красные крестов!

Внимая дальнему удару,
Встают народы, как враги,
И по всему земному шару
Бегут и ширятся круги.

Чувствую ли я силу Бога? Не знаю, скорее всего нет. Но сегодня я понимаю эту силу как чистый импульс, вневременный момент узнавания. Она входит глубже чем круги на воде, в глубь сознания, вызывая далекую и забытую память. Я стремлюсь к тому, чтобы вспоминать эту силу сегодня.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Ripples on the Surface

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Alisa

Step 40. “Today I will feel the power of God” of Steps to Knowledge asks me to attempt to feel the power of God without conjuring up magical images. It is something I need to feel, for it is everywhere and it has great benevolence.

The power of God is still and all else is “temporary movements in the great stillness of God,” Step 40 tells me. What came to mind as I read this again today is ripples on the surface of a body of water. They spread out and disappear. While they are spreading, they may have some effect, stir some movement, cause some agitation, but they are temporary, they come and they go, they appear and they disappear.

This Step describes things that seem of great importance to most humans, such as death, illness, loss and destruction, and conflict, as temporary movements in the great stillness of God. Put this way, it does seem futile to invest all the blood, sweat and tears that are so often invested in these things. For the power of God is far greater, far more beneficent, “so complete and so inclusive that it infuses everything.” This does not mean, as I see it, that the power of God will fix these “temporary” things, prevent them from happening, it just means that they are inconsequential in the greater scheme of things where God’s power resides. They are ripples on the surface.

Ripples on the surface

I did not write much in my notes for this Step when I first did it back in December 2013. All I wrote was, “I am tentatively beginning to feel this power, and without conjuring up magical images. It is not anything that can be described in words, it can only be felt and experienced.”

That does not really say anything, I could even say now that I was taking the easy way out and glossing things over, creating a few ripples on the surface. Whether I actually felt and experienced the power of God is a moot point today. I may have, but on the other hand, I may not have.

What I understand today to be the power of God as I write this post is something that can be felt in a pure impulse, in a timeless moment of recognition. It goes deeper than just ripples on the surface, it echoes down the Ancient Corridors of my mind, evoking some long-forgotten and distant memory. I seek to remember this power today.

* * *

Don’t Let Me Forget

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Douglas

I recalled this poem by Rabindranath Tagore as I contemplated Step 95 “How can I possibly fulfill myself?” of Steps to Knowledge. Here is the portion of Step 95 which sparked a memory:

“Only in fantasy and imagination can you possibly even entertain the idea of fulfilling yourself. There is no fulfillment here, only increasing confusion. As the years progress, you will feel a growing darkness within you, as if a great opportunity has been lost. Do not lose this opportunity to realize life as it truly exists and to receive fulfillment as it is truly offered to you.”

Don’t let me forget

I recall Step 95 having a significant impact on me when I did it in October of 2011. I consider this another step to be addressed in a series of posts, like Step 26, “My errors give birth to my Knowledge,” and Step 51, “Let me recognize my fears so that I may see beyond them.” I am letting Rabindranath Tagore open the discussion. This is a slightly modernized version provided by Robert Bly. The original version is here.

If I am not to meet you again in this life then I want to feel that I have missed the meeting, don’t let me forget, let me feel the pain of it in my dreams and while awake.

As the time passes in the black dust of the body, and I get fat with money, I want to feel that I have gotten nothing out of it all — don’t let me forget, I want to feel the slivers of pain in my dreams and while awake.

When I walk up the steps, exhausted and tense after a long trip, or when I climb into some lonely bed, I want to feel that the long trip is still ahead of me — don’t let me forget, I want to feel the pain in my legs both while asleep and while awake.

When my house is all cleaned, and drinks are set here and there, and I hear people laughing, I want to feel that I haven’t invited you to my house — don’t let me forget, I want to feel the pain of that grief both while asleep and while awake.

* * *

Are You Happy With Your Purchase?

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Douglas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKzaXrP1nnw

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner were regular guests in my childhood world.

In the above video, a portion of the 1960 theatrical animated short Hopalong Casualty, the chronically inept, technology-enamored Coyote scatters some Acme Earthquake Pills on the road, hoping that the Road Runner can mistake them for birdseed. The Road Runner obligingly eats them, but they have no effect as he zooms away. In disgust, the Coyote swallows an earthquake pill himself, and then even more disgustedly swallows all of the remaining pills. After jumping up and down several times in an attempt to trigger an earthquake, he contemptuously chucks the empty bottle over his shoulder, but immediately leaps after the bottle with bulging eyes to catch it before it shatters in the middle of the road. He is too late; Wile E. reads the fine print at the bottom of the bottle’s label: “Not effective on Road Runners”. As soon as he sees this, he gulps nervously, now knowing what he faces. As he gingerly takes his first step to get out of the middle of the road, the product takes effect on him, causing him to shake, rattle and jerk helplessly across the landscape, getting flattened by a huge boulder and almost falling off a narrow rocky arch in the process. When the product finally wears off, the Coyote feels so relieved when he steps out without looking where he is going and strides off the edge of a cliff.

Are you happy with your purchase?

I am telling you this to confess that I harbored a secret, irrational hope, and a secret, irrational fear during my study of Steps to Knowledge.

The secret, irrational hope was that studying Steps to Knowledge would cure my autism (it was once called Asperger’s Syndrome, but that is now lumped with the rest of autism in DSM-5). It was mostly irrational because Steps to Knowledge offers no promises of cures of medical conditions. The only way it was not irrational is that it took the prayer of the Step 28 review at its word. “I accept the miracles of my life as a demonstration of the presence of Knowledge…”

I also harbored a more rational hope that studying Steps would offer some compensations, coping strategies and perspective which would make my autism less of an inconvenience. That hope has been fulfilled to a certain degree, and the fulfillment is growing and ongoing. Studying Steps has helped me to feel that I’m not without resource in the face of the difficulties of my life. Steps tells me that I have brought a great treasure to this world. Steps tells me that engaging with my mission, my purpose, my role, will either require that I solve my pathetic little personal problems, or render their solution unnecessary. At the 2012 Encampment, someone said “God doesn’t take away your disability. He gives you something important to do.”

What was my secret irrational fear? It was that somewhere along the way, like Wile E. Coyote, I would read some fine print in Steps to Knowledge that I had foolishly ignored at an earlier time. The fine print would say “Caution: This won’t work for people with Asperger’s Syndrome.” It was an irrational fear, because five minutes worth of computer searching could determine if such fine print actually existed. It doesn’t.

I am writing this because I believe some people are thinking “I say, Douglas, you’ve invested quite a bit of time, effort and trust into this Steps to Knowledge thing. Are you happy with your purchase?” I’m definitely not a spiritual windowshopper. I have definitely started an exchanging flow. I found some of the things I was looking for, and a certain degree of perspective on the things I still haven’t found.

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Сила Бога – Высший План.

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Alisa

Высший план.

For English version click here.

Шаг 39 в книге «Шаги к Знанию» называется «Сила Бога со мной». Что это за силу? Для меня это великая тайна.

Этот шаг гласит, что сила Бога присутствует в моем познании. Я должна применять собственную силу, чтобы направлять свои мысли и не сдаться сомнениям и страхам. Сила Божья представляет собой таинственность моей жизни, она представляет собой силу, которую я принесла с собой от Бога для правильного использования в мире по Высшему Плану. Интересно, что фраза «Высший План» употребляется всего два раза в Шагах к Знанию, и тут первый раз, так что я не буду сосредоточить свое внимание на эти слова. Я легко могу допускать, что существует некий Высший План во Вселенной, но познавать его находится вне моего нынешнего понимания. Он остается тайной на данный момент.

Сила Бога, однако, заслуживает мое внимание. Чтобы чувствовать силу Бога, я должна заниматься с усердием, с простотой, и со смирением. С этой силой не балуешь, не используешь в собственных интересах, ради собственного выгода. Эта сила требует ответственности. Надо её испытывать, она является составляющей моего взаимоотношения с Богом. Если я смогу познавать и ощущать Бога, войти во взаимоотношение с Богом, то я смогу почувствовать силу Бога со мной.

Я бы хотела знать эту силу поближе, раскладывать её в более мелкие составляющие, чтобы подробно рассматривать и анализировать. Но увы, это невозможно, ведь эта сила – тайна, и я должна осознать это.

Сила Бога – Высший план

Если всё-таки попробовать описать эту силу в словах, то она выглядит приблизительно следующем образом: для меня сила Божья представляет собой движение в правильное направление, когда Знание пробуждает меня идти туда и заниматься тем, что мне суждено в этой жизни. Сила Божья – это синхронизация событий, которая ведет к счастливому исходу, к тому, куда я стремлюсь.

Я испытывала синхронизацию событий на прошлой недели, когда я ездила на природу. Я выбрала именно вышеизложенное фото, чтобы иллюстрировать эту запись потому, что эти руины, до сих пор достойные и великолепные, стоят на холме над деревней, где я присматривала дом моей мечты. Череда событий, которая вела меня сюда я могу только описать, как сила Божья, выраженная через Знание внутри себя по мере того, как я учусь его восстановить.

* * *

The Mystery of the Power of God

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Alisa

Step 39 of Steps to Knowledge is titled “The Power of God is With Me.” What is this power? I call it a mystery.

This Step says that the power of God is within my Knowledge. I am to utilize my own power to direct my mind and not let doubts or fears dissuade me. The power of God represents the mystery of my life, it represents the power I have brought with me from God to be utilized properly in the world according to the Greater Plan. Interestingly enough, “Greater Plan” is only used twice in Steps to Knowledge, this being the first time, so I am choosing not to focus too much attention on it. I have no trouble accepting that there is a Greater Plan in the universe, but it is beyond the humble state of my present mind. It remains a mystery at this stage in the game.

The power of God, however, is something that requires my attention. To feel the power of God, I am to enter into practice with dedication, with simplicity, and with humility. It is not power to be bandied around and used for my personal ambitions. With this power comes responsibility. It is to be experienced and is part of my relationship with God. If I can understand and experience God, have a relationship with God, I will be able to feel the power of God with me.

The mystery of the power of God

I find I want to know this power in greater detail, break it down into more manageable pieces for scrutiny and analysis. But this is not to be, for this power is a mystery and I must accept it as such.

If I do try and put the mystery of this power into words, however, this is what I come up with. The power of God for me is movement in the right direction, being moved by Knowledge to go and do what is required of me in this life. It is a synchronization of events that brings about the result I am striving for.

I experienced a synchronization of events this past week when I travelled out into the Russian countryside on yet another fishing/camping trip. I chose the photo above to illustrate this post because these ruins, still proud and majestic, stand on higher ground overlooking a village where I might have found my country home. I can only describe the synchronization of events that led me there as the power of God working within my Knowledge as I learn to reclaim it.

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What Is Your Freedom Good For?

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Douglas

Today, the descendants of American slaves, and friends of freedom commemorate the landing of Major General Gordon Granger at Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War was over, and that the enslaved were now free. American poet Langston Hughes wrote:

With John Brown at Harper’s Ferry, Negroes died.
John Brown was hung.
Before the Civil War, days were dark,
And nobody knew for sure
When freedom would triumph
“Or if it would,” thought some.
But others knew it had to triumph.
In those dark days of slavery,
Guarding in their hearts the seed of freedom,
The slaves made up a song:
Keep Your Hand On The Plow! Hold On!
That song meant just what it said: Hold On!
Freedom will come!
Keep Your Hand On The Plow! Hold On!
Out of war it came, bloody and terrible!
But it came! Some there were, as always,
Who doubted that the war would end right,
That the slaves would be free,
Or that the union would stand,
But now we know how it all came out.
Out of the darkest days for people and a nation,
We know now how it came out.
There was light when the battle clouds rolled away.
There was a great wooded land,
And men united as a nation.

What is your freedom good for?

But what is freedom for? Jesus taught his disciples, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 25:25-28, New International Version)

The 16th-century German Christian Martin Luther seems to me to echo that vibration in his treatise “On the Freedom of the Christian,” when he writes

“A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.”

I consider Steps to Knowledge to confirm, in its own way, the truth of the words of Jesus, and the truth expressed by Martin Luther. The word “freedom” is first mentioned in Step 52, “I am free to find the source of my Knowledge.” The word “freedom” appears 16 times in three different steps between Step 52 and Step 93. It appears 13 times in Step 94, “My freedom is to find my purpose.” The word “purpose” is one of the major themes of Steps to Knowledge. The word “purpose” appears 29 times in 16 different steps between Step 12 and Step 93. It first appears in a step in Step 71, “I am here to serve a greater purpose.”

I consider Step 94 to be watering the seed sown in Step 52:

“What value can freedom possibly have except to enable you to find your purpose and to fulfill it? Without purpose, freedom is merely the right to be chaotic, the right to live without external restraint. But without external restraint, you will merely act out the harshness of your internal restraint. Is this an improvement? Overall it is not an improvement, though it can lead to opportunities for self-discovery.”

In studying Steps to Knowledge, we are getting free to be our true selves, true selves which are not apart from life. We are getting free to find our purpose. Will we succeed? All I know is that we’re working on it.

What is your freedom good for?

* * *

God Bless The Child That’s Got His Own

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Douglas

Billie Holiday was not only the first artist to record this song, but she was one of the writers of the song as well. Just like the song “Without A Song,” “God Bless the Child,” first recorded in 1941, has been recorded at least once in every decade since. I remember using the gospel-tinged Keith Jarrett Standards Trio version on an answering machine recording in the 1980’s. But I have other reasons for sharing this great song.

Them that’s got shall get
Them that’s not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news.
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that’s got his own
That’s got his own

God bless the child that’s got his own

I was having a conversation with a friend recently. We agreed on the proposition that freedom was a good thing, a condition to be sought. We agreed that some nations of the world were more free than others.

Yes the strong gets more
While the weak ones fade
Empty pockets don’t ever make the grade
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that’s got his own
That’s got his own

We failed to reach agreement on the proposition that freedom has the requirement of self-sufficiency. I consider it intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that since beggars can’t be choosers, beggars are not free. It was not intuitively obvious to my friend.

Money, you’ve got lots of friends
Crowding round the door
When you’re gone, spending ends
They don’t come no more.

It would seem that I need to think about this some more, or work on my advocacy skills, or both.

Rich relations give
Crust of bread and such
You can help yourself
But don’t take too much
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that’s got his own
That’s got his own

Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that’s got his own
That’s got his own
He just worry ’bout nothin’
Cause he’s got his own

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_1LfT1MvzI&feature=kp

* * *

How Will We Leave This Lovely, Dangerous Place?

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Douglas

No, no, I’m not talking about a plane crash or a falling piano. Neither am I thinking about the biological processes involved. Some vital part is stressed beyond its capabilities and fails. So it goes. I’m particularly interested in the attitude, the frame of mind, with which certain people approach the day of their death.

How will we leave this lovely, dangerous place?

Someone who is contemplating becoming a student of Steps to Knowledge might reasonably wonder (among other things), “What does Steps to Knowledge teach about death?” They might also wonder, “How do students of Steps to Knowledge approach the day of their death?’

In the steps of Steps to Knowledge I have blogged about so far (steps 1 through 93), the word “death” is mentioned exactly once, in Step 40, “Today I will feel the power of God.”

“All the seeming powers of your world—the forces of nature, the inevitability of your death, the ever present threat of illness, loss and destruction and all appearances of conflict—are all temporary movements in the great stillness of God.”

Death, while significant, is not as significant as our cultural perspective. Step 65, “I have come to work in the world,” contains the following:

“You have come from a place of rest to a place of work. When the work is done, you go home to a place of rest. This can only be known, and your Knowledge will reveal this to you when you are ready”

While Steps to Knowledge claims that we go home to a place of rest, it also admits that this is something which can neither be observed by one’s senses, nor inferred or deduced by one’s intellect.

I only know of two students of Steps to Knowledge who have died. One of them was mentioned in an online chat. I never met them. The other person was a gentleman I met at the 2012 Encampment. As a matter of fact, we were roommates at Encampment, and we had a number of significant and fruitful conversations. We had a number of online and phone conversations between the time I met him in September of 2012, and the time he died in November of 2013. When he died, I was told he was diagnosed with colon cancer in the summer of 2013. I remember thinking to myself “Dead? Dead?!? I didn’t even know he was ill!” I consider him to have been remarkably discreet and undramatic about his illness.

Therefore, from what I have read in Steps to Knowledge, and what little I have observed of students, my answer to the question “How do students of Steps to Knowledge approach the day of their death?” is “With discretion, and without drama.” If they sing their noble death song, they sing it only to themselves, and die like a hero going home.

A fellow student shared something with me that I believe provides an excellent exclamation point:

“The man or woman of Knowledge knows that this life is a small and yet important part of much bigger lives that we’re all living. As such, they see their lives as brief missions on Earth and when they are done, they return to this greater life as a member of a Greater Community with knowledge of their mission on Earth done or not done.”

* * *

Photoquoting – An Emerging Practice

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Douglas

The word photoquote has not yet appeared either in formal English dictionaries, or slang dictionaries like urbandictionary.com, but I believe it will in the not-too-distant future. I consider the noun form of photoquote to mean “the arrangement of a quotation in an image illustrating the quotation.” Just as the word “quote” is both a noun and a verb, the word photoquote is both a noun and a verb. As a verb, photoquoting could be used either intransitively (“I should do some photoquoting for my presentation on Thursday”) or transitively (“I just photoquoted Step 1 of Steps to Knowledge.”)

Photoquoting – an emerging practice

Some of my fellow students of Steps to Knowledge have been photoquoting the steps, among other teachings of the New Message from God. This photoquote recently came across my path.

I’ve seen a number of New Message photoquotes. But for reasons I don’t understand, this one sparked a desire in me to give this photoquoting thing a try.

I have made photoquotes of the first five steps so far. I have created a page where people can look at them. There was not very much technical skill involved. I used Microsoft Paint, the graphic tool equivalent of stone knives and bear skins. It is my hope that other students will share their photoquotes of the steps in the not-too-distant future. It seems to be a useful exercise for me to put together what I see in my mind’s eye when I think of a particular step, with the step itself. Got that? It seems to be a useful exercise for me to share my photoquoting of the steps.

Words like “clouding” and “photoquoting” describe how the New Message from God community is using technology to tell its story.

* * *

Mystery of Ascension

A great mystery / Is my true self that I bring / From my ancient home

Monthly Archives: June 2014

Круги на воде

Круги на воде

Ripples on the Surface

Ripples on the surface

Don’t Let Me Forget

Don’t let me forget

Are You Happy With Your Purchase?

Are you happy with your purchase?

Сила Бога – Высший План.

Сила Бога – Высший план

The Mystery of the Power of God

The mystery of the power of God

What Is Your Freedom Good For?

What is your freedom good for?

God Bless The Child That’s Got His Own

God bless the child that’s got his own

How Will We Leave This Lovely, Dangerous Place?

How will we leave this lovely, dangerous place?

Photoquoting – An Emerging Practice

Photoquoting – an emerging practice