Наслаждаться необременительной учебной программой

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Alisa

For English version click here.

Я продолжаю заниматься «Шагами к Знанию» и радуюсь тому, что можно наслаждаться необременительной учебной программой. Как часто студентам приходится сказать, что можно наслаждаться необременительной учебной программой? И что на самом деле представляет собой необременительная учебная программа?

Необременительная учебная программа – это когда можно изучать предмет, а не надо прийти к заключениям, не надо сделать выводы. Наслаждаться необременительной учебной программой означает расследовать обширные пространства вне моего ума (Шаг 16), чтобы заниматься внутреннем слушанием (Шаг 15), слышать истину (Шаг 17), познавать истину (Шаг 18), развивать умение видеть (Шаг 19) и не позволять сомнения омрачить продвижение (Шаг 20).

Когда я дошла до Шага 21, третий обзор в программе, во время которого предлагается пересмотреть вышеупомянутые шаги и замечать как развивается процесс и как я продвигаюсь, я чувствовала несомненную радость. Я радовалась тому, что мне не надо было прийти к никаким заключениям, не надо было сделать никаких выводов. Я помню, как я радовалась возможностью наслаждаться необременительной учебной программой.

В моих записях написано:

“Как хорошо знать, что не надо сделать никаких выводов на данном этапе, что я иду по течению, следуя за Знанием, которое ведет меня туда, куда нужно, без всякого усилия с моей стороны. Принимаю этот факт с вдохновением и облегчением. Жизнь становится легче и радостнее. Всё идет по высшему плану.”

Вот в чем прелесть Шагов к Знанию, и это только начало. Наслаждаясь необременительной учебной программой, принимая тот факт, что я начинающий студент, от которого не требуется обременительных усилий, я свободна двигаться дальше с легким сердцем, как беззаботная стебель, греясь на солнце и кивая в ветерке.

* * *

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.

Delighting In A Burden-Free Curriculum

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Alisa

As I continue my practice of Steps to Knowledge as a beginning student, I am happy to say that I am delighting in a burden-free currriculum. How often can students say that they are delighting in a burden-free curriculum? And what exactly is a burden-free curriculum, exactly?

A burden-free curriculum is one where judgments and conclusions are unnecessary, a burden-free curriculum allows students to engage in deeper inclinations, to explore the vast expanses that are beyond the mind (Step 16) in order to listen to their experience (Step 15), hear the truth (Step 17), feel the truth arising (Step 18), cultivate the ability to see (Step 19), and not allow doubt and confusion to cloud their progress (Step 20).

When I reached the Step 21 Review, which calls for looking back over the steps mentioned above, I remember feeling very happy. I felt very happy that I did not have to make conclusions. I remember feeling that this took the pressure off, I remember delighting in the burden-free curriculum offered by Steps to Knowledge. All that was required of me was to recognize the line of development and note the progress I had made thus far. I call this delightfully burden-free.

My notes say:

“It is so good to know that I don’t need to make any conclusions or judgments at this point, that I am just going with the flow, allowing Knowledge to guide me without even making a conscious effort, just going with it and allowing it to take me where it will. This is so refreshing and such a relief! Life has taken on a new lightness and joy. Everything is in perfect and divine order.”

This is the beauty of Steps to Knowledge, and we are only three weeks into the course. Delighting in a burden-free curriculum, accepting I am a beginning student freed from the burden of making conclusions and judgments, I am free to go on with a light heart, like a carefree stalk soaking up the sunshine and nodding in the breeze.

* * *

Познание истины

Posted on February 28, 2014 by Alisa

For English version click here.

Познание истины

Я продолжаю заниматься Шагами к Знанию, которые часто призывают к познанию истины, к тому, чтобы испытывать истину, ощущать её всем телом и существом, ведь только так можно проникнуть в суть истины.

А что для меня истина? И зачем в неё вникать? Суть вопроса для меня скорее кроется в том, чтобы определить для себя: иду ли я по верному пути по жизни или нет, делаю ли я всё в моих силах, чтобы развиваться духовно и помогать другим развиваться, выйти на высший уровень эволюции и повысить вибрацию нашей планеты? А всё начинается с себя, надо осознано жить, жить так, чтобы вложить свой маленький вклад в развитие человечества. А для этого надо восстановить Знание внутри себя, следовать Знанию, и позволить Знании вести меня по жизни. Тогда истина откроется.

Я недавно вспоминала то время, когда я впервые приехала в Россию в 1981 г. Я приехала в Москву, чтобы совершенствовать мой русский язык после окончания университета в Сан-Антонио, Техас. В ту пору я вела дневник и на днях читала его заново. Запись за 25 февраля 1981 г. поразила меня. Я написала её после того, как ходила вечером в одном из парков Москвы и наблюдала за закатом.

“Лучи заходящего солнца накрывают снежные сугробы темно-розовой шалью” писала я в дневнике. Я сидела какое-то время на лавке и наблюдала за этой красотой, погружаясь в таинственность и тишину. Я писала о том, что с моего приезда в Россию, что-то изменилось в себе, жизнь стала и сложнее и проще, яснее одновременно. Как будто я смотрела в прозрачную воду озера и увидела свое истинное отражение, не жалкое, ничтожное, а что-то ценное. Я увидела, как судьба моя становилась ясным, перед мной появилась цель, а все лишнее отпадало. “Я хочу ответственности, хочу знания, хочу познавать мир, хочу испытывать жизнь и свое место в ней”, писала я дальше в дневнике. Мне тогда было 23 года.

Познание истины

Сегодня, тридцать три года спустя, я могу сказать, что судьба с мной распределилась именно так, как я тогда хотела. Я знала тогда, что хочу жить в России, что моя судьба здесь, и так и получилось. Я переехала жить в России навсегда и ни на минуту не жалею об этом. Я тут как раз продолжаю свое духовное развитие, делаю свой маленький вклад в общую картину. Начинаю познавать истину.

Я недавно узнала, что Райнер Марии Рильке, поэт, которого я открыла для себя будучи студенткой, тоже впервые посетил Россию, когда ему было 23 года и был глубоко затронут ей, называя его “своей духовной родиной”.

Он полюбил Россию и хотел переехать туда на постоянное жительство, но по какой-то причине, его мечта не сбылась. А в какой-то момент он начал писать стихи на русском языке.

Я, как и Рильке, тоже считаю Россию своей духовной родиной.

Я, как и Рильке, тоже была глубоко затронута Россией во время моей первой поездки сюда.

Я, как и Рильке, хотела переехать в Россию на постоянное жительство. А, в отличие от Рильке, моя мечта сбылась.

Тут я познаю истину.

Я, конечно, ни в коем случае пишу тут о Рильке, как будто я рядом с ним стою. Отнюдь! Он же великий немецкий поэт, а я простая гражданка Алиса. Просто мне очень по душе эти совпадения. И ещё одно совпадение – я тоже начала писать на русском языке, не стихи, конечно, но в каким-то образом можно называть это «поэзией». Неграмотно пишу, с чудными особенностями, но от чистого сердца и «с любовью к языку, которого может быть даже хорошо и не знаешь».

Может кто-нибудь когда-нибудь прочтет мои неуклюжие, сумбурные строки, и что-нибудь поймет.

* * *

I Feel The Truth Arising

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Alisa

Step 18 Today I Feel the Truth Arising is bringing up memories from the past.

Part of the step reads:

The truth must be fully experienced … It is an experience, and so it is something that is deeply felt. … Truth is something you will feel with your entire body, with your entire being.

This confirms for me my own experience with knowing the Truth so far.

I would like to share an entry from a diary I kept during my first trip to Russia in 1981. I went to Moscow to study Russian for a semester after graduating from university in San Antonio, Texas. This is what I wrote (reproduced verbatim) on February 25, 1981 after walking in one of Moscow’s snowy parks at sunset. I was 23 years old at the time.

The dusky pink sun as it set this evening mirrored my heart, that mystery, that deep hushed silence, the pink quiet, I was completely content just sitting and watching, drinking in the calm and feeling a quiet joy in just being alive. I can’t explain what has happened since I’ve come here, but things have changed. All of a sudden life is more complex, yet clearer and simpler. I am beginning to grasp, experience, and understand feelings and ideas that before were just vague dreams, distant and unrealized. Suddenly my destiny is beginning to take shape before my eyes, I am becoming aware of who I am and what I want out of life. No matter what happens, where I go, what I do, I am me, true to my own purpose, and the things that are dear to me, that make me tick, make my heart beat, make me aware, are the most important. All the other superfluous things in life seem to be falling away and I look into a crystal clear pool, see my reflection, see that I am, see that I am worthwhile. I want responsibility, I want knowledge, I want to find out, want to understand, want to experience.

I feel the truth arising

Thirty-three years later I can say I have manifested in my life the yearnings of my younger self. I feel the truth arising, but now I am conscious of its source, it comes from Knowledge, the Knowledge I am reclaiming as I take Steps to Knowledge.

I recently found out that a poet I discovered in university, Rainer Maria Rilke, and felt a resonance with also first travelled to Russia when he was 23 years old and was deeply affected by it, calling it his “spiritual motherland.”

The article quoted above goes on to say, “On returning from his first trip to Russia, full of deep impressions and planning to move there permanently (a dream that never came true), Rilke suddenly found himself writing poems in Russian.”

Like Rilke, I was deeply affected by my first trip to Russia and felt it was my spiritual homeland.

Like Rilke, I wanted to move to Russia permanently.

Like Rilke, I found myself writing in Russian, although not poetry and not immediately. I did not think I could write in Russian until a few years ago, but I write today in Russian with the same linguistic idiosyncracies as Rilke wrote his Russian poems.

Step 18 “Today I Feel the Truth Arising” ends with:

Throughout the day as well, without doubt or hesitation, pursue your true goal in life. From this true goal will come all of the important things that you will need to accomplish and the great power of vision and discernment that will allow you to find those individuals that you have come into the world to find.

I did not know of this Step thirty-three years ago, but there it amazingly was in my life. Today I am consciously reclaiming it.

Some people may not see the significance or value in the coincidental dates and ages, but I do and I like them, which is why I am sharing Rilke’s story along with my story on this particular day, February 25, 2014.

* * *

Let’s Get To Business, Shall We?

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Douglas

Let’s get to business, shall we? Steps to Knowledge does. Steps to Knowledge, as early as Step 6, “I have a true foundation in the world,” describes the world as a place to which we have come. The world isn’t merely the scene of a biological accident. The world isn’t just a karmic prison which we don’t escape until we have paid the last penny. I wrote about this in more detail here.

But why have we come to the world? In Step 18, “Today I feel the truth arising within myself,” we are told we have come into the world to find certain individuals. In Step 34, “I am a beginning student of Knowledge,” we are told there are specific things we have come to do. I consider it most pertinent that that statement comes in the step directly after Step 33, “I have a mission in my life to fulfill.” In Step 55, “I will accept the world as it is,” we are told we have come to the world to serve. Step 65, “I have come to work in the world,” adds another clue to the mystery of why we have come to the world. Step 65 is also the first step to use the phrase “I have come” in the step itself.

Let’s get to business, shall we?

Step 65 is the first step since Step 33 to directly address the idea that there is a mission to fulfill, that there is work to do in the world. It is as if Steps to Knowledge sowed a seed in me in Step 33, and came back to water it in Step 65. Are we told what the mission is, what the work is? No. We are only told what it is not.

“Your work is greater than your current employment. Your work is greater than what you are currently attempting to do with people and for people. Your work is greater than what you are attempting to do for yourself. Understand that you do not know what your work is. That will be revealed to you and it will evolve for you, but understand today that you have come to the world to work.”

I have a thought that if I had a direct experience of my work which I came to the world to do, at the time I did Step 65, then I would be terrified out of my senses. I would run screaming from wherever I was, knowing full well that there was no place to run screaming to.

* * *

Can I Follow Instructions? Can I Take What I Get?

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Douglas

This is the third post in a series of seven posts regarding Step 49 of Steps to Knowledge, where I am instructed to review my practice and experience of the first 48 steps. I am sharing what I wrote when I originally did this step, with additional commentary as needed.

Step 15 – I shall listen to my experience today – “I don’t remember doing this step very well, but I’m sure I did it. Listening without judgment is good fer what ails ya.” What I meant is that I didn’t have much of a memory of my doing this step. I consider “good fer what ails ya” to be the only correct spelling of this idiom.

Step 16 – Beyond my mind is Knowledge – “I did the Step, but I don’t remember hearing any deeper inclinations at the time.” Does this mean I failed at the Step? Not necessarily. The Step 49 review states:

“You will find as you proceed that some of your failures will lead to greater successes, and that some of what you thought of as successes may lead to failures. This will underscore your whole system of evaluation and will lead you to a greater recognition. This will make it possible for you to be compassionate towards yourself and towards others whom you now judge for their successes and their failures.”

I have a tiny bit of mountain climbing experience, and from this I know that some paths which seem easy at the time result in dead ends, and some paths which seem unnecessarily difficult at the time are actually the paths with the highest probability of success. Therefore, the ability to take what I get from following the directions is important.

Step 17 – Today I want to hear the truth – “The truth totally disrupted my ideals to be a hero, a hunger-ender, an apostle, a Jedi Knight.” I’ve only been told all my life by people that they have great expectations of me. They have quoted the Bible verse “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12:48, New International Version). I have consistently disappointed both my expectations of myself, and other people’s expectations of me. I managed to simultaneously flunk out and get kicked out of theological seminary. I was ineffective at higher and higher levels of volunteering in the Hunger Project. The disappointment of ambition is an important milestone. Why am I telling anybody anything about anything? It’s what I do. I hope it helps.

Step 18 – Today I feel the truth arising within myself – “I did the Step, but I confess to be bewildered as to all the Steps that say ‘Feel this,’ ‘Feel that.’ The text [of Step 18] was helpful. I have to become the better person I want Knowledge to make me, in order to approach Knowledge. The whole Wizard of Oz thing. I remember thinking ‘Yeah, right, like I know my true goal in life.'” In the movie The Wizard of Oz, the Wizard gave a task to the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion which required them to bring forth the qualities they desired from the Wizard (intelligence, empathy, and courage, respectively).

Step 19 – Today I wish to see – “I did a hockey puck and a spoon, and I recall that I tried to imagine how the puck got its scratches, and that the light I saw reflected off the spoon was not the spoon. Just looking at something is loving that thing. Everything in nature (including me) will reveal its secrets to me if I look at it without trying to impose my thoughts and wishes on it.” I was improvising on the quote from American scientist George Washington Carver:

“Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also – if you love them enough.”

Step 20 – I will not let doubt and confusion slow my practice – “I did a rock, and something else. It’s as if they knew that at this point, doubt and confusion might arise.”

Step 21 – Review – “I did the review, and followed the instructions to chill out.” Ok, ok, the instructions didn’t literally say to chill out, but they did say to avoid making conclusions and observe the line of development.

* * *

Bootstrapping Knowledge

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Douglas

Every computer uses an operating system, like Windows, or Unix, or Linux, or Mac OS. An operating system is important because it decides what computer resources (processor, memory, disk space) will be used by what program at what time. Who decides what resources the operating system gets? When the computer is turned on, a small program stored in read-only memory (memory that persists even when the computer is turned off), tells the computer to load the operating system from the hard drive into memory. Why is this small program put in read-only memory? So that it can’t be altered, like information on the hard drive. How does the computer know to go to that small program in read-only memory? The creator of the computer wired it up that way. Because the small program in read-only memory is much smaller than the entire operating system, this practice came to be known as “bootstrapping,” later shortened to “booting,” as in “pulling one’s self up by one’s bootstraps”

I was thinking about mentioning this when I wrote about Step 44 in Steps to Knowledge. There was a sentence which said “You seek your strength, and you use it to find your strength.” That seemed (and still seems) to be self-referential to me. It also seems a little self-referential at first glance that an operating system should load itself. But on closer examination, the loading takes place because the computer is following the instructions in read-only memory, which it only “knew” to do because its creator designed it that way.

There was another idea like this in Step 48, “True instruction is available to me.” The step said “You must love yourself to become a student of Knowledge and continually love yourself to proceed.” Step 18 said that if I came into the proximity of Knowledge, I would become more whole, more consistent, more honest, more devoted, more concentrated, more self-disciplined, more compassionate and more self-loving. It’s as if I had to find a tiny smidgen of Knowledge, or some of its qualities, within myself to start a virtuous cycle of approaching Knowledge, and obtaining the qualities which would allow me to approach further.

* * *

Songs May Evoke The Truth

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Alisa

This song “Ivushka” (The Weeping Willow) written in 1957 by outstanding Soviet composer Grigory Ponomarenko to the words by Russian poet Vassily Alferov and performed by National Russian Folk Singer Lyudmila Zykina touches my heart-strings and opens up the deeper mind where I can hear, feel, and see the Truth.

Зорька золотая светит над рекой,
Ивушка родная, сердце успокой.
Ивушка зелёная, над рекой склонённая,
Ты скажи, скажи не тая, где любовь моя.

Были с милым встречи у твоих ветвей,
Пел нам каждый вечер песни соловей,
Ивушка зелёная, над рекой склонённая,
Ты скажи, скажи не тая, где любовь моя.

Но ушёл любимый, не вернётся вновь,
С песней соловьиной кончилась любовь.
Ивушка зелёная, над рекой склонённая,
Ты скажи, скажи не тая, где любовь моя.
Ты скажи, скажи не тая, где любовь моя.

I did not find an English translation of this particular song, so I will provide my own. This is not a word for word translation, but my personal interpretation of the meaning.

In the golden light of the setting sun, a weeping willow dips its green boughs over the river, bringing peace to the hearts of those who seek.

Its leaves whisper secrets of love, of amorous couples who meet under its branches to hear the nightingale sing. Love comes and goes, but the green weeping willow forever bends low over the river, whispering its secrets.

The video that accompanies the song depicts the Russia I have come to love, and I dream of living in a simple log cabin by a river where the weeping willow bends its boughs and whispers its Truth.

* * *

I Wish To Know The Truth

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Alisa

I often ask to be shown the Truth, I often wish to know the Truth, in fact this is a permanent, constant desire of mine. But how can I really know?

Steps to Knowledge infers that I can refine the faculties of my mind to hear, feel, and see the Truth. And I must confess that I felt a certain amount of delight when I reached the following Steps; they spoke to something deep within.

Step 17. Today I Want To Hear The Truth tells me, “Developing the ability to hear and the desire to hear will yield to you that which you seek.”

Yes, I seek, and Yes, I want to hear the Truth, this is an ongoing need for me.

Step 18. Today I Feel The Truth Arising Within Myself develops the concept, saying, “It is something you must feel. To have a feeling orientation, your mind must be still. Truth is something you will feel with your entire body, with your entire being.”

Words I used to try and describe this feeling in the past are “I just feel it in the core of my being,” “I feel it in the marrow of my bones.” It has to be experienced, felt, and then you just know. That is how it is with me.

Step 19. Today I Wish To See poses a trickier task since it calls for looking at a physical object, but also says, “The desire to see, then, is the desire to see a greater truth. This requires a greater honesty and a greater openness of mind.”

I wish to know the truth

When I did this Step, I wrote in my notes:

Frankly, I have been having trouble with this step because it calls for looking at a physical object and I am wondering “okay, so what’s supposed to happen when I do?” Like it’s going to miraculously turn into something else before my eyes if I look at it long enough. Huh?

But I realized just now that this is not the point, the physical object is just a solid reference point for starting off. This Step is rather an exercise in impartiality, or flexibility, if you will. It’s not the physical object that is the key, but the way I look at it, my ability to look without preconceived notions or expectations. And then this extends to everything else in the world around me–situations, other people, my own self and the way I perceive things, allowing me to go beyond what “seems” to be on the surface, to some deeper truth within.

I feel that this Step is directing me toward learning how to see with my inner eye, beyond the physical as it seems to appear before me.

All of this brings me back to one fundamental axiom for me in life—if you feel a persistent tug, go with it, for there you may find the Truth. I felt a persistent tug to return to Russia after studying in Moscow for a semester in 1981. I felt this tug for nine years, until I returned.

And here I have found the environment where the Truth is slowly being revealed to me.

* * *

What Does The Truth Feel Like Now?

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Douglas

I have a number of things to say about step 32 of Steps to Knowledge “The truth is with me. I can feel it.”

The practice of this step is a recap of the practice of step 18, “Today I feel the truth arising within myself.”

This step offered two separate strategies for getting past the constant restlessness of the mind. One is using the breath. There are much more sophisticated breath techniques that people use, than what is being offered here. The other strategy doesn’t have a formal name that I know, but I call it “consoling one’s mind.”

“If something permeates your mind and you have difficulty releasing it, tell yourself that you will look at it a little later, but that right now you are taking a small vacation from your mind.”

I don’t know whether this works for other people, but my mind finds this comforting.

This is a step where I wrote down something about my experience of doing this step in December of 2010.

“What does the truth feel like? I can only speak for myself. The truth doesn’t feel like the truth value of any particular proposition. The truth feels enormous, far greater than anything I could feel at any given moment. The truth feels in motion, up to something, purposeful. The truth feels like it will take me to other parts of the truth, if I am in its motion, if I am in its current. The truth bears witness to itself, supports its greater purpose. So I am seeing the image of the ocean currents, as my image of the truth. I haven’t seen these words in this order, but I grasp, ‘In stillness, truth is felt.’ And a very comforting feeling it is indeed. The feeling that truth can be felt is a very comforting feeling.”

* * *

Mystery of Ascension

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

Tag Archives: Step 18

Наслаждаться необременительной учебной программой

Delighting In A Burden-Free Curriculum

Познание истины

Познание истины

Познание истины

I Feel The Truth Arising

I feel the truth arising

Let’s Get To Business, Shall We?

Let’s get to business, shall we?

Can I Follow Instructions? Can I Take What I Get?

Bootstrapping Knowledge

Songs May Evoke The Truth

I Wish To Know The Truth

I wish to know the truth

What Does The Truth Feel Like Now?