Tag Archives: Step 11

Жизнь – Дерзкое Приключение

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Жизнь - Дерзкое Приключение

Coffee for Mister Yves Klein – Photo by Photographer Floriana Barbu

For English version click here.

Жизнь — либо дерзкое приключение, либо ничто.

Быть готовым к переменам и оставаться свободной личностью, несмотря на тяжелые обстоятельства — это та сила, которую ничто не сможет сокрушить.

– Helen Keller

Шаг 11 в книге «Шаги к Знанию: Книга Внутреннего Познания» призывает к осознанию своего полного включения в жизни, к осознанию своего единства с жизнью, со своем Источником, с Богом своего понимания, в конце концов.

Как мне видится, для этого надо избавиться от эгоизма, от гордыни, от ревности к своей исключительности, от склонности думать, что я сама всё знаю лучше всех, как быть, что делать.

Жизнь – Дерзкое Приключение

Мне очень нравится песня Криса Рия «Синее кафе» – она находит большой отклик у меня в душе, и я поняла почему, когда читала слова перевода на русском языке. В своей интерпретации, переводчик, по моему мнению, выражает истинный смысл песни. Я отождествляю с той, которая говорит «Я знаю всё сама», «не нужен лекций мне», но она, то есть, я, готова цену заплатить и прощаться с горячностью юности и невинности, оставлять разбитые мечты в прошлом и дерзко шагать вперед по дороги жизни вслед за тем, кто обладает знанием, кто покажет верный путь.

СИНЕЕ КАФЕ – перевод с английского Евгения Шпунта

Ждут лишь разбитые мечты
В конце моих земных путей.
“Где пропадал?” – спросила ты.
Мы в Синем встретились кафе.
Предупредить тебя пришел,
А ты: “Я знаю все сама”.
Я карты выложил на стол –
Горячность юности твоя
Влечет тебя вперед.

Где ты был?
В каких чужих краях?
Куда идешь сейчас?
Возьми с собой меня.
Что видел?
Что у нас в новостях?
Куда идешь сейчас?
Возьми с собой меня.

Мы в Синем встретились кафе…

Пора тебе в путь выходить,
Готова цену заплатить,
Пусть молодость, невинность
Навсегда уйдут.
Предупредить тебя пришел,
А ты: “Не нужно лекций мне”.
“Где пропадал?” – спросила ты.
Мы в Синем встретились кафе.

Мы в Синем встретились кафе…

Я признаю, что я сама ничего не знаю. Чтобы знать, надо сливаться в единое целое с жизнью, осознать, что я не отдельна от Бога, идти вслед за Знанием, и дерзко принять вызов Вселенной, иначе пропаду.

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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.

I Dare To Approach My Source

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I Dare To Approach My Source

Coffee for Mister Yves Klein: Photo by Photographer Floriana Barbu

When I say that I dare to approach my Source, I mean I am willing to do what it takes to overcome my ambivalence and doubt, to overcome my cowardice and arrogance, to understand my separation and embrace my desire not to be apart from life. The inner knowing that it is Knowledge that will reveal my Source is what draws me irresistibly to Steps to Knowledge.

Step 11 “I Am Not Apart From Life” first addresses the concept of separation and tells me that I am an individual unaware of my Source and my total inclusion in life. I can accept this and that my task is to become aware of my Source and total inclusion in life. However, my immediate question is, and how precisely am I supposed to do that?

One of the revelations of the New Message from God, The Separation, is dedicated to this very topic and is full of very thought-probing statements. I get the inkling that becoming aware of my Source and embracing my total inclusion in life is going to take quite a bit of effort when it says:

“You are a spiritual being living in a physical reality. This accounts for your dual nature and the fundamental conflict and confusion that permeate your mind and activities. It is the result of separation fundamentally, for you cannot yet be who you really are in this world and life without undergoing a great preparation.”

I Dare To Approach My Source

There is something about Chris Rea’s song “The Blue Café” that pulls at my heartstrings with its haunting melody and soul-searching words.

My world is miles of endless roads 
That leaves a trail of broken dreams 
Where have you been I hear you say 
I’ll meet you at the Blue Cafe . 
This is where the one who knows 
Meets the one who does not care 
Cards of fate, the older shows 
The younger one, who dares to take 
The chance of no return 

I think it is because I identify with the one who doesn’t care (read: the one who thinks she knows it all) who meets the one who [really] knows and wants to go with him. In essence, if I put myself in her place, I am admitting that I am lost and don’t know which way to go. I am willing to leave behind my arrogance, my thinking that I know it all, for I do not wish to be apart from life. I am unaware of my Source and my total inclusion in life, but I want to experience this. The one who knows warns that it will not be easy, I must be prepared to take the chance of no return (undergo a great preparation). I must dare to approach my Source.

Where have you been? 
Where are you going to? 
I want to know what’s new 
I want to go with you 
What have you seen? 
What do you know that’s new? 
Where are you going to? 
‘Cause I want to go with you 

I think this is the key to overcoming separation and not being apart from life. We have built great establishments for ourselves in this world to bolster our individuality, to give our separate lives structure and physical form, to remain within the limits of time and space.

The cost is great, the price is high 
Take all you know, and say goodbye 
Your innocence, inexperience 
Mean nothing now 
‘Cause, this is where the one who knows 
Meets the one who does not care 
Where have you been I hear you say 
I’ll meet you at the Blue Cafe. 

But we are spiritual beings with no form or boundaries to hamper and limit us. Do I dare to approach my Source and go with the one who knows? Do I dare to step out into the mystery of life? Do I dare to embrace my oneness with Source and take the chance of no return? For if I do, there will be no looking back. Once I acknowledge that I share something with all life, I cannot go back to being separate and unique.

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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.

You Are Not Alone

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You Are Not AloneSteps to Knowledge has been examining the nature of individuality from a number of different angles.  In Step 11, “I am not apart from life,” we learn that our total inclusion in life is true.  We are not aware of it, we must reclaim it.  In Step 25, “I am at one with the greatest truth in life,” we are told that great truth is the product of great relationship.  In Step 45, “Alone I can do nothing,” we are told everything is the product of relationship.  Step 53, “My gifts are for others,” hammers the point one more time, only a little harder:

“Alone you can do nothing. Alone you have no meaning. This is because you are not alone.”

In the Steps to Knowledge universe, “alone” is not a proposition with a truth value of false. It is not exactly true to say Steps to Knowledge teaches that you are not alone. It teaches that “alone” is a non-well-formed idea. As if I were to type “susujsdlossw.oAE.lwehjubaFbvl.oSVADFfe!” and demand that you understand, appreciate and celebrate it. (Yes, I was slapping my hands on the keyboard.  I’ve been wanting to do that from the very first time I used the phrase “non-well-formed”)

Suppose you were offered two choices for your destiny.

In one scenario, you receive everything you want.  You receive whatever you believe will make you happy.

In the other scenario, you intensely participate in life, meet every person you came to meet, give every gift you came to give, fulfill your mission in life, and slide into the grave with every last drop of contribution wrung out of your individuality, and the last words escaping from your lips are “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race.” Or “I gave what I came to give.”

That’s why I’m studying Steps to Knowledge.

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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.

It’s Been A While Since I Thought About Step 8

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This is the second posts in a series of seven posts describing my experience of Step 49 of Steps to Knowledge, where I am instructed to review my engagement with the first 48 Steps.  I am writing what I wrote when I did the Step, sometime in January of 2011, with any additional commentary if needed.

Step 8 – Today I will be still – “I thought ‘You don’t need to tell me how to be still, buddy.’  So while I didn’t do the Step exactly as instructed, I did the Step”  I notice my breathing becoming both slower and shallower as I enter stillness.  I also notice a certain inner brightness, unrelated to the amount of light in the room.

Step 9 – In stillness all things can be known – “Being still is building a bridge for Knowledge to emerge in an unguarded moment.”  An unguarded moment as in “a moment where I’m not guarding the idea that I am my body, or that I am my individuality.”

Why Am I Doing This, Anyway? – “‘a troubled dream,’ ‘a fever dream.’ I’m taking comfort that I’m not just waiting for the Reaper.”  A Course in Miracles uses the phrase “dreams of fever” to describe what passes for reality for most people.  It is my sincere hope that my study of Steps to Knowledge will be helpful to others, that it will help my life to be something better than a troubled dream.

Step 10 – What is Knowledge? – “Unlike my little self, Knowledge has no desire to be separate.  I think I’m trying to approach Knowledge, but it says here Knowledge is my True Self.  My True Self is calling my little self to ItSelf.”  I’ve heard the little self called the ego, the concocted self, the secondary self, the constructed self, the imagined self, and so on.

Step 11 – I am not apart from life – “A recap of ACIM [A Course in Miracles].  The Separation is unreal, unhappy perception, does not exist.  We consider perception as reality, but reality is far happier.”  The perception which passes for reality is that we are not included in life, the reality is that I am not apart from life.

Step 12 – My individuality is to express life itself – “Just as the body is a communication tool, my individuality, my little self, is to express life.  Thinking about expressing breast milk.”  Let me explain.  Nursing mothers occasionally express milk to be consumed at a time when they’re not available.  In the same way, life is expressed through my individuality.  Thinking of the body as a communication tool is one of the sections of Chapter 8 of the Text of A Course in Miracles.

Step 13 – I want to be separate to be unique – “The price of Separation is infinitely higher than the payoff of uniqueness, or what ACIM calls specialness.”  Everyone is at a different station of separation or prodigality: some are headed for the far country, some are coming to their senses in the pig pen, some are on their way back to their father’s house.

Step 14 – Review “As far as I know, I did the Steps as given.  I can so see myself in my mind’s eye moderating a group of people who are at various stages of Steps.”  This hasn’t happened yet.  I am not an early adopter by temperament, neither do I have a history of early adoption, but I believe I am an early adopter of Steps to Knowledge.

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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.

Maybe We Need To Think This Out Again

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As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. (Ephesians 2:1-3, New International Version)

What happens when people spend too much time and energy scratching the itches of the animal soul, the itches for survival, pleasure, power, and avoidance of responsibility?  Among other things, we become less magnanimous, we become less aware and expressive of our total inclusion in life.

Step 11 of Steps to Knowledge, “I am not apart from life,” is an affirmation rather than a description of a current condition, as the step says…

“What is mysterious is your mind. It seems to be a distinct point of understanding, but it is as much a part of life as your physical fabric.You are an individual unaware of your Source and your total inclusion in life.Your individuality is a burden now, but it will be a great happiness to you when it can express life itself.”

At this point, I recall the words of the apostle Paul, where he says he makes his body his slave, so that he might be of service to others.  I recall the words of Paul when he talks about taking every thought captive.  I recall the chapter in A Course in Miracles about how the body is a means of communication.

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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.