Tag Archives: Step 79

We Have Some Suggestions For You

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Recomended stamp. We have some suggestions for you.I will readily admit that the New Message from God community has a number of big goals for the future. But we also recognize that not everyone will be interested in what we have to share. We recognize that we may encounter, uh, less than enthusiastic responses from time to time. And in the event you don’t respond with interest and resonance, we have some suggestions we would like you to consider. These suggestions for all people were given to the attendees at the 2014 Encampment. I have some comments about these suggestions.

We have some suggestions for you

1. Quiet time each day to consider the wisdom of your thoughts and actions. [Step 9 of Steps to Knowledge teaches “In stillness all things can be known.”]

2. Make no opinions about anything unless you have spent considerable time studying the problem and its many conceived solutions. Ask yourself if you are really certain about something or are only guessing. [Would you bet your life on it?]

3. Do not waste your precious time and energy complaining about something if you are not prepared to take action regarding it. [Time spent complaining might be better spent studying the problem.]

4. Forgive those who seem to err against you or the world. Ask yourself what genuine need they are attempting to express and fulfill by their behavior. [Their errors give birth to their Knowledge.]

5. Make sure that everything you own really serves you. Travel light and create time for more important things. [I consider this to be a short version of the New Message practice/attitude called the Deep Evaluation.]

6. Consider that you have Four Pillars that are upholding your life:

  • The Pillar of Relationships
  • The Pillar of Health
  • The Pillar of Work & Providership
  • The Pillar of Spiritual Development

To be happy and successful, you will need to build each of these Pillars and not sacrifice one for the others. [You may wish to consider the New Message revelation “Building the Four Pillars of Your Life.”]

7. Reduce your energy use by 25-50% to save your community and the world from depletion and ruin. [Resource depletion is one of the big ongoing disruptions known as the Great Waves of Change.]

8. Honor your parents and try to understand the circumstances that determined their decisions and behavior. [I think of this as a special instance of suggestion 4.]

9. Know that there is a New Message from God in the world, and that it is here to uplift a struggling humanity, beginning with the individual. [As in you. As in me.]

We have some suggestions for you. I hope this helps.

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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.

How Much Poison Are You Willing To Eat?

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Wendell Berry asks "How much poison are you willing to eat?"

My friend John Stewart recently introduced me to the American poet Wendell Berry. I had never heard of him before. A collection of his poetry is available in my local bookstore. Berry lives and farms and writes in the small community of Port Royal, Kentucky, a place people pass by on the way from Louisville, Kentucky to Cincinnati, Ohio. Wallace Berry received a National Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2010. Apparently my lack of awareness of Wendell Berry means I wasn’t paying attention.

How much poison are you willing to eat?

This poem has appeared in a number of locations.

Questionnaire

1.      How much poison are you willing
to eat for the success of the free
market and global trade? Please
name your preferred poisons.

2.     For the sake of goodness, how much
evil are you willing to do?
Fill in the following blanks
with the names of your favorite
evils and acts of hatred.

3.     What sacrifices are you prepared
to make for culture and civilization?
Please list the monuments, shrines,
and works of art you would
most willingly destroy.

4.     In the name of patriotism and
the flag, how much of our beloved
land are you willing to desecrate?
List in the following spaces
the mountains, rivers, towns, farms
you could most readily do without.

5.     State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes,
the energy sources, the kinds of security,
for which you would kill a child.
Name, please, the children whom
you would be willing to kill.

While I am a supporter of free markets, the more pertinent question is “How much poison are you willing to eat to sustain yourself in the manner to which you have become accustomed? How lucky do you feel? Would you bet your life on it? Oh wait…

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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 Will Practice Being Still And Knowing Today

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I will practice being still and knowing today.

Some people might think that Step 82, “I will not judge another today” of Steps to Knowledge is merely a recap of Step 76, “Today I will not judge another.” It is more than that. It is more than that because of some things that happened between Step 76 and Step 82.

I will practice being still and knowing today

In Step 79, “I will allow uncertainty to exist today,” I considered the possibility that I wasn’t entirely certain about my judgments. I considered the possibility that my judgments weren’t worthy of my betting my life on them.

In Step 80, “I can only practice,” I was told that judgment was one of a number of unexamined, habitual, detrimental practices that I was going to have to slowly back away from if I wanted to advance.

In Step 81, “I will not deceive myself today,” one particular type of judgment, self-condemnation, was examined in detail. While self-condemnation has certain social rewards, it is yet another unexamined, habitual, detrimental practice from which to slowly back away. I get the idea from this that the other detrimental practices mentioned in Step 80 most likely have certain social rewards as well.

Therefore, if I put Step 82 together with what has happened since Step 76, I get that judgment is a practice of not knowing. Judgment is a practice of not looking. Judgment is a practice of not listening. Judgment is a practice of not being still. Judgment is a practice with certain social rewards. Judgment is a practice I must slowly back away from if I want to attain to what Steps to Knowledge is offering. I must strengthen the practices of knowing, looking, listening and being still.

While Step 82 is “I will not judge another today,” it seemed good to state it positively, saying what I will do instead of what I won’t do. In the light of Step 80, it seemed good to state Step 82 in terms of what I will practice. When I stated Step 76 positively, it came out as “Today I will keep looking and wondering.” The total package of not judging involves looking, listening, being still and knowing. Therefore, the positive wording of Step 82 should be taken together with the positive wording of Step 76.

Today I will keep looking and wondering. I will practice being still and knowing today.

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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.

Would You Bet Your Life On It?

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Harry Callahan asks "Did I fire six shots or five? Would you bet your life on it?"

In the 1971 movie Dirty Harry, San Francisco Police Inspector Harry Callahan, played by Clint Eastwood, confronts a wounded criminal whose gun is in close reach,

I know what you’re thinking: ‘Did he fire six shots or only five?’ Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I’ve kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

I mention this because it relates to Step 79, “I will allow uncertainty to exist today” of Steps to Knowledge. At the beginning of studying Steps to Knowledge, some students might be so bold as to claim there were many things about which they were certain. But many ideas considered to be true have been challenged between Step 1 and Step 79. The benefit of judgment has been challenged from many different angles. The concept of aloneness is currently in the crosshairs of Steps to Knowledge.

Would you bet your life on it?

Step 79 declares, “.When you allow uncertainty to exist, it means that you are becoming honest, for in truth you are uncertain.” Someone might say that it’s presumptuous of Steps to Knowledge to say that in truth the student is uncertain. I find a good way of testing someone’s sense of certainty about something is to ask “Would you bet your life on it?” How about your fortune, or your sacred honor? I’m not trying to be flippant or sarcastic. It is merely my observation that people (myself included) tend to claim certainty regarding things about which they are not certain.

UPDATE:Dave Cavette has informed me that the aforementioned punk decided to try his luck with disastrous consequences.

The word “luck” does not appear in Steps to Knowledge. But it’s a good thing to be slowly backing away from a claim of certainty, if in truth I am uncertain. Would you bet your life on it?

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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.