Practices

"With simplicity, humility and without false assumptions, remembering that you are a beginning student of Knowledge, you will be able to learn how to reveal greatness in the world."

"In your practice in stillness, if you are able to experience something greater than the mind, the mind will yield to Knowledge."

"We give only so much methodology as is necessary to aim your mind in the proper direction."

Directives

"Carry forth that which you need to do to deepen your practice, to utilize your practice, to utilize your experience in the world for practice, to carry your practice into the world and to allow your world to support your practice. Do not neglect this, for if you neglect this, you but neglect yourself, your certainty, your fulfillment and your happiness."

Core practices

Regular habits particular to The Way of Knowledge

Step practice

Following the guidelines in the texts Steps to Knowledge and Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training for consistent and thorough practice is an efficient initiation into the Way of Knowledge for those who haven't found adequate resource in other traditions. The texts require a three- to five-year commitment for completion.

"In your hourly remembrances and in your longer meditations in stillness today, allow your efforts to supplement the efforts of others, which will supplement your efforts. Allow the combination of your mutual dedication, then, to be a source of strength which you will experience this day and which will be experienced by those whom you have not yet met in this life."

Hourly

Suggestions for hourly practice

"Upon the hour think [about today's idea] after you repeat the idea for today."

"Upon the hour practice looking and seeing. Check the mental environment. Check how you feel. Check what is going on inside of you, taking this moment to come back to yourself."

"Repeat [the] affirmation upon the hour and consider it in light of all things that happen today."

Daily

Suggestions for meditation

"Enter into stillness and peace once again. Do not petition for answers because you do not need to do this in your meditation practices. Your time now is to practice receiving Knowledge."

"Repeat your idea for the day and enter into stillness once again. Allow this to be a day where Knowledge is strengthened."

"Attempt to give yourself wholeheartedly to your practice."

Invocative language

"Enter into stillness using the word RAHN to take you deep into meditation."

"Upon each exhale, speak the word RAHN. RAHN. RAHN. You only need speak the word RAHN upon the exhale in your meditation. Let this be your total focus. This word will serve to stimulate Ancient Knowledge within you and give you the strength that you most need at this time."

Suggestions for contemplation

"Actively engage your mind in considering the idea for today. Its true meaning is not superficial, and you must investigate it to understand its full value. Do not be complacent with premature conclusions. Do not stand on the outside of Knowledge and attempt to judge it for yourself. Enter into it so that you may be a student today, for you are now a student of Knowledge. You are now giving yourself to the world in your preparation."

"Actively engage your mind in thinking about [the idea for the day]. Let your mind be a useful instrument of investigation. Once again review all your ideas and beliefs that are associated with today’s idea."

"Engage your mind actively in attempting to understand the depth and the meaning of today’s idea. Recognize objectively all of the feelings and the thoughts that are in favor of it and all of the feelings and the thoughts that are opposed to it. Take special care to recognize any objection that you might have to today’s idea. Then, recognize the power of this idea within your own mind. This will give you a recognition of today’s idea and its true meaning. This will also help enable you to realize objectively the current construction of your mind. This is all part of your education as a student of Knowledge. Give yourself to considering today’s idea and do not be complacent with simple answers and explanations, for today’s idea contains a gift you have not yet experienced."

"These thinking meditations require mental work. Here you will not be still.You will be investigating. You will be exploring. You will be actively using your mind to penetrate things that you recognize exist there. This is a time for serious introspection. When you realize that what you thought you knew is only a form of imagination, then you will realize your great need for Knowledge."

"Exploration and analysis [constitute] a useful application of your mind. Think about [the] message and all of your ideas surrounding it, and you will begin to understand your own current belief system. You will be able to understand this objectively. Then, you will be able to work with it, for the mind is fixed in a certain structure until it is utilized for other purposes. Do not accept this structure as your reality, for the outward manifestation of your mind is a structure that you have imposed upon it. Yet, its real inward harmony and nature seek only to be expressed.To enable this to happen you must have an adequate structure in the mind to enable the mind to express itself in the physical world without restraint or distortion."

"Practice ... mental application so that you may learn to think constructively. For when your mind is not still, it should be thinking constructively. It should be investigating. Do not rely upon early conclusions. Do not rely upon self-comforting ideas. Allow yourself to be vulnerable today, for you are only vulnerable to Knowledge. Yet, Knowledge will shield you from all things of harm within this world and will provide a comfort and a stability that the world can never change."

Weekly

Steps review

"Review the practices and instructions for the preceding week. Review your progress objectively. Realize how great your learning must be. Your steps now are small, but substantive. Small steps lead you all the way."

"Review objectively the extent of your involvement and realize the opportunities to give yourself more fully and more completely."

"Beginning with the first day in this two-week period, read the lesson for that day and remember your practice. Continue on in this way to cover all the days in this two-week period, and then attempt to have an overview of your life during this practice time. Begin to see what has occurred in your life in this two-week period."

"Try to gain an overview of all that has transpired in the past [week or two]. Try to see how you could deepen and improve your practice. Recognize how much time and energy are wasted in ambivalence and idle speculation. Realize how much of your energy is being wasted in doubt and confusion when you need only abide with Knowledge."

"Review with great emphasis and discrimination. Do not allow yourself to miss the recognition of your learning process."

"Be very thorough in your investigation. Begin with the first lesson in the two-week period and follow it day by day. Recognize what happened in your life each day. Try to remember.Try to concentrate here. In this way, you will feel the movement of your own life. It is in recognizing this movement over a period of time and seeing how the stages of your life progress that you will realize that you are firmly on the road to Knowledge. You will then see that there will be less and less behind you to hold you back and that the future will open itself to accommodate you increasingly. This is the beneficence of life bowing before you who are becoming a student of Knowledge."

Occasional practices

Practices particular to our time or purpose

Advocacy

"Return to stillness and silence so that you may strengthen your ability to cultivate and prepare yourself to be an emissary of Knowledge in the world. This is your responsibility today."

"In your deeper practices in stillness today, recognize that you have a responsibility to cultivate your faculties of mind as a student of Knowledge. Exercise these responsibilities and do not drift away into imagination. Engage yourself as a student of Knowledge according to the requirements of your preparation, for you are now becoming a person of responsibility and a person of power."

Community

"In your deeper practices in stillness, receive the benefit of all who practice with you. Remind yourself that you are not alone and that their rewards are given to you as your rewards are given to them. Thus, you share in your accomplishments together. The power of your undertaking is so tremendously supported by the endeavor and the giving of others that it far exceeds your own abilities. When this is realized, it will give you all manner of encouragement and will banish forever the idea that you are inadequate to the tasks that are given to you. For your giving is supplemented by the giving of others, and this represents the Will of God in the universe."

"In your longer practice periods, engage your mind actively in attempting to understand ... what Spiritual Family really means. Try to understand that it is intrinsic to you. You did not choose it. You are simply born of it. It represents your accomplishment in Knowledge thus far."

"In your longer meditations attempt to penetrate [the] idea [of one world community]. Do not be complacent here, but actively engage your mind as your mind was meant to be engaged. Try to recognize your own ambivalence about the world becoming one community. Try to recognize your fears and concerns about this. Try to recognize as well your desire for one community and your understanding that this is necessary. Once you take inventory of your own thoughts and feelings concerning today’s idea, you will further understand why the world is in its current predicament. The world has a certain destiny and a certain course to follow, yet it is ambivalent about everything. Thus, the world itself must unlearn ambivalence, as you are now learning to do, and your accomplishments will assist it in its great undertaking, for this is your contribution to the world."

Practices addressing human inclinations

Topical issues with remedial practices

Ambition

"Allow yourself to be without ambition, for you do not know what to do with Knowledge. In your longer meditations, allow this to free you so that you may enter stillness and leave the world of physical things."

"Allow yourself to be instructed in how to reveal greatness in the world. Realize that the world is ambivalent and accept this, for this is the current state of the world. Realize that you must give with Wisdom and discernment. And realize that you must let Knowledge give of itself and not try to give from your own ambition or need to avoid a sense of inadequacy. Allow your giving to be true and your giving will be true."

Ambivalence

"Strengthen your conviction that you must escape from ambivalence. Realize the deadly cost of ambivalence. See how it keeps people lost in their ideas, denying their engagement with life. See the human cost around you. It is tremendous. Realize that with certainty everyone will find their rightful place."

"Once again realize how ambivalence is still robbing you of inspiration, robbing you of motivation, robbing you of courage and robbing you of relationship."

"In your deeper practice periods, escape your own ambivalence and re-enter the sanctuary of Knowledge where in stillness and in peace you can fully experience the power of Knowledge and the truth of your own nature."

"Recognize thus far how ambivalent you have been regarding your life and regarding this preparation. Realize that for this reason, this preparation has been given to you in very incremental steps, one step at a time, day after day. One step at a time, you learn to develop and to accept your desire and capacity for Knowledge and you learn to express Knowledge as well."

Change

"You are not expected to take great leaps, yet each small step will seem like a great leap, for it will give you so much more than you have ever had before. Allow your external life to become rearranged as your inner life begins to emerge and to shine its light upon you. Maintain your focus and accept change in your outer life, for it is for your benefit."

"Bear witness to the unfoldment of the world....[W]ith your eyes open, gaze upon the world around you. Spend these times alone, gazing upon the world around you. Look without judgment. Feel the world unfolding.You need not try to feel this. You will feel it because it is natural."

Complaining

"Each hour spend a minute not complaining about the world. Do not let the hours go by unattended, but be present for practice. Recognize the extent to which others are complaining about the world and how little it gives them and how little it gives the world."

"Thank the world ... for what it has given to you.... Do not complain about this day. Recognize that everything that happens is an opportunity for you to apply your practice and to develop the true faculties of your mind."

Conflict

"Dedicate yourself today to ending war within the world by ending war within yourself so that you may be a peacemaker and a peacekeeper. Upon the hour remind yourself [that 'ENEMIES ARE ONLY FRIENDS WHO HAVE NOT LEARNED TO JOIN'] and apply it to the world that you see around you. Apply it to all of the conflicts in the world of which you are aware. Try to understand its complete relevancy to these conflicts. This will require that you see these conflicts from a different point of view in order to realize the full impact and meaning of today’s idea. It is this point of view that you must cultivate, for you must learn to see as Knowledge sees, to think as Knowledge thinks and to act as Knowledge acts. All this you will most certainly accomplish as you follow Knowledge each day."

Confusion

"Today allow yourself to be confused, for you are confused, and you must always begin from where you are. Knowledge is with you. You are free to be confused. In your longer practice periods today, enter into stillness whether you are confused or not, for stillness, grace and peace are always available to you."

"Each hour as you look upon the world and all of its activities, judge it not, for it is merely confused. If you are in distress today, judge yourself not, for you are merely confused."

Fear

"Evaluate the existence of your fears and remind yourself that your reality is beyond them, but that you must recognize them to understand their damaging presence in your life. Close your eyes and repeat the idea for today; then consider each fear that arises in your mind. Remind yourself that the truth is beyond that specific fear.Allow all fears to arise and be evaluated in this way."

Judgment

"Upon the hour repeat this idea [that you do not understand the world] as you look upon the world. Remind yourself that you do not understand what you see, so you are free to look again. If you are not free to look, it simply means that you are attempting to justify your own judgments. This is not seeing. This is merely entertaining your own fantasies. In your two deeper practice periods today, allow your mind to enter stillness, for without the burden of attempting to justify your fantasies, your mind will naturally seek its true place in service to Knowledge."

Self-justification

"Upon the hour remind yourself that you do not understand yourself. Free yourself from the burden of justifying your own judgments. Look upon yourself in your deeper meditation practices and remind yourself that you do not understand yourself. Now you are free to enter into stillness, for you are not attempting to use your experience to justify your fantasies about yourself. Here your mind becomes free to be itself, and you become free to appreciate yourself."

Capacity-strengthening practices

The gifts of The Way of Knowledge

Certainty

"Allow your confidence to dispel fear, doubt and anxiety. Support your efforts today, for they require your support on behalf of a greater certainty that you are now learning to receive."

Clarity

"In your two deeper practices return to being with Knowledge, in humility and simplicity, in stillness and in silence. Breathe Knowledge in. Allow Knowledge to enter and fill your body. Allow yourself to be immersed in Knowledge and all things will become clear, for with Knowledge all things become clear and all questions disappear."

Confirmation

"Silently and in stillness, as you sink into the depths of Knowledge, receive the peace and the confirmation that are your birthright."

Consistency

"PRACTICE CONSISTENTLY. Practice upon the hour, reminding yourself to be consistent. In your two meditations, practice keeping your mind steady and focused, allowing it to settle into itself so that it may experience its own nature. Do not repress what is occurring within you. Do not control what is occurring without. Simply maintain consistency, and all things will find a right balance and relationship to this. Thus, you are bringing forth Knowledge into the world, for Knowledge is entirely consistent. This will render you a person of great presence and power. Others will come to experience your consistency in time as it is more fully received by you and more fully developed. They will find refuge in your consistency, and this will remind them of their purpose as well, which waits to be discovered."

Decision making

"In your two longer meditation practices today, using the word RAHN, enter deeply into Knowledge. Enter deeply into the presence of life. Enter deeply into this experience. Continue to direct your mind towards this accomplishment. Continue to set aside anything that affects you or holds you back. In this way, you train the mind and prepare it as well for that which is most natural to it to occur. Follow Knowledge this day. If Knowledge indicates something and you are very certain about this, follow it and be observant. See what happens and try to learn to distinguish Knowledge from your impulses, your wishes, your fears and your avoidances."

Detached observation

"Practice looking upon one simple mundane object. Do not take your eyes off of that object, but look and practice looking very conscientiously. You are not trying to see anything. You are simply looking with an open mind. When the mind is open, it experiences its own depth, and it experiences the depth of what it is perceiving. Choose one simple object that has very little meaning for you and gaze upon it twice today for at least 15 minutes. Allow your mind to become very still. Breathe deeply and regularly as you gaze upon this object. Allow your mind to settle down into itself."

Determination

"Try to see in your observations of others how captivating the world is and how captivating the mind is. Ultimately, the only thing that can keep you from Knowledge is the mind. It may seem like the world is dominating you, but in reality it is the mind. Observe this. You will not have to look far. It is all around you. You can look at your own experience to see how close at hand this is and how important it is for you to be present wherever you are and with whatever you are doing."

Intercession

"Think of someone in need and then give them a quality that you wish to receive yourself. Send that individual that quality. Send them love or strength or faith or encouragement or determination or surrender or acceptance or self-discipline—whatever they need to bring about resolution in their lives.”

Potency

"Know that all of your efforts on behalf of Knowledge are supplemented by those who practice with you—those whom you can see and those whom you cannot see. In your deeper practices allow your own self-discipline, which prepares you to enter into stillness and peace, to be supplemented as well."

Purpose

"In your deeper practice periods today, actively engage your mind to review all of your small personal problems. Review all of the things you think hold you back and all of the things you think you must resolve for yourself. As you look at each one objectively, without denial, remember and remind yourself that a greater calling is given you which will correct these things or make their correction unnecessary. Remind yourself that Knowledge will provide correction at all levels as your life becomes uniform and directed, as your Knowledge begins to emerge and as your true sense of self begins to be recognized and received."

"Upon the hour remind yourself not to define your purpose, and begin to think of the cost of doing so in terms of your own past experience."

Resolution

"What are the behaviors that you engage in now that are not in keeping with your values or your sense of integrity? Write these down and really focus upon them. And see what kind of behaviors or activities can replace these things that would be in keeping with your values and sense of integrity."

Simplicity

"In your two deeper practice periods, abide with Knowledge. Do not attempt to answer your problems, but simply be still and receptive. Knowledge is aware of what things must be addressed and will cast its influence upon you so that you may respond to it and follow its direction. Without continual interference from you, the obvious will arise, and you will learn what to do step by step. Thus it is that you will realize there is a simple answer for all problems that face you."

Further study

• The Great Practices

• Being a Person of the New Message: How We Live

See also

Spiritual practice

Recommendations for People Everywhere

Guidelines for Living the New Message

Stillness