Step Eight

Step 8. Today I Will Be Still.

In your two meditation practices today, practice stillness for 15 minutes. Begin by taking three deep breaths and then focusing on an internal point. It may be an imaginary point or it may be a point in your physical body. With eyes closed, simply give this your full attention, without judgment and evaluation. Do not be discouraged if early attempts prove difficult. Beginning anything important in life can be difficult at first, but if you persist, you will achieve this great goal, for in stillness all things can be known.

Practice 8: Two 15-minute practice periods.

Here you will find the entire book free for download http://stepstoknowledge.com/

Here you will find pointers for getting started if this is your first encounter with this practice: Taking the Steps to Knowledge

November 12, 2012 Round One: I too know that answers will come in stillness, and being still is something I practice, or try to. What I find hard though is being still for longer than a few minutes. This Step calls for practicing stillness for 15 minutes at a time. I need to be more disciplined and allow myself to be still for longer.

What keeps coming to mind though as I practice stillness is the ability to pay attention. I think it is a great gift to be able to really pay attention and take heed of what is being offered.

July 2, 2014 Round Two: Stillness is something that requires constant practice. I do not believe I have really mastered it yet. I am very partial to the fact that in stillness all things can be known. This I truly believe. However, the trick is to be still long enough for these things to be known. I don’t think I have yet achieved the stillness of mind required for this.

First practice -  I wanted to enter my sanctuary during this first practice, but I could not. Instead I saw a kaleidoscopic rainbow configuration, first gazing on it in my mind’s eye and then planting myself in the middle. This was the point I focused on. I tried to clear my mind and not think of anything in particular. As the practice progressed I was no longer seeing the rainbow configuration from an objective viewpoint, it was as though I had entered it and merged with it, as though I was in the midst of the pulsating colors. I was not rewarded with any knowing insights however.

Second practice – stillness is a vast and boundless space with no beginning and no end. I can enter this space and abide there in total safety, it is nourishing and receptive.

June 24, 2018 Round Three: So the Stillness practices begin. I have been persistent and already developed some skill in Stillness.

First Stillness practice: 5.12-5.27 am
I am going to change my practice and do it sitting up, instead of lying down (Marshall recommends this). Sasha is gone at the moment, so I can do my stillness practice sitting in bed. It worked well. I surrounded myself with the love and the grace of God. I concentrated on my chakras. I went to the golden realm of the 12th chakra. I held a vision of Claire surrounded by golden light and free of the “voices.” It is time for them to leave her. I felt expansion/pressure in my head, I felt the presence of my Spiritual Family. It was an energy, not any specific image. I felt their love and approval. I held my focus on this space and in this energy and brought my focus back any time thoughts tried to penetrate and distract me. It was powerful. I will be still today.

Second Stillness practice: 19:18-19.33
Sitting on bench in garden. I was able to be in stillness, even though I was conscious of Volodya’s movements. I was hidden from his sight and he didn’t notice me. I can make myself invisible. Powerful stillness. Expansion, in a vast, quiet place, some intruders, but I rose above them to a light place of divine beings. Friends and family swam into view, surrounding them in light. Knowledge is vast and luminous.