8/27/14

Step 239 - Freedom is mine today. Entry for Step 238 - Review


Greetings All –


FREEDOM IS YOURS WHO LIVE WITH KNOWLEDGE. Freedom is yours who need not burden yourself with the undue strain of unnecessary thinking and speculation. Freedom is yours who can dedicate yourself to your one purpose and to your specific tasks that emanate from this purpose. What greater freedom is there than the freedom to utilize your Knowledge and to fulfill its destiny in the world? Nothing else can be called freedom, for anything else is merely the freedom to be in chaos and to degenerate into misery.


YOU ARE FREE THIS DAY TO ALLOW KNOWLEDGE to abide with you. This day in your hourly practice and in your two deeper meditations, remember that you are free. When you have the freedom to be with Knowledge in your two meditation periods, allow yourself to enter stillness and let not any feeling, idea or thought dissuade you from
experiencing the great freedom that you have to escape from the world into Knowledge.


THESE PRACTICE TIMES ARE SO IMPORTANT for your overall wellbeing. The result of this involvement will give you greater access to Knowledge in all of your outward endeavors as you learn to abide in peace with Knowledge and as you learn to follow Knowledge as it exercises its  Wisdom in the world. You are free this day to be with Knowledge, for this day you are free.


PRACTICE 239: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Yesterday:  Step 238 - Review

Spent a good deal of time on this review. I used two days to get back onto Saturday as the review day. I’d engineered this earlier, but one day I skipped ahead to get a more positive Step. Just a need at that point. You might recall that early on I wondered if I could do two Steps a day, because I felt I need to progress quickly. Sounds a little weird; just a reflection of my hunger.

From the Journal:

Friday March 10, 2000 –
---
10:30 p.m. quite a day. The MIF got its full funding - I was pleased to learn at 3:30 p.m. so I could pass it on to Bev --- as the personnel committee was about to meet. They adjourned - Bev told me they wanted to advertise again for the old position. That's fine. The week ahead is full. Now to review the past two weeks of practice.

The Internet today - "It's as if there were no communications before the Internet." Tom's thought after watching CNN tech news.

11:30 p.m. Slow going on the long practice, tired from the events of the day. The Knowledge universe is beginning to emerge. It's a pattern of life is proving itself in response to my little faith.

5:46 a.m. March 11, 2000 – Saturday.

We run better lean. Every meeting I go to – I learn something. Jack Marsh’s vision of dealing with the cyber-law problem with Sherman anti-trust and other needs to beat cyber terrorism/hacking impacting the new economy. He wants to use the I-81 – Quad State Corridor as a model in which to iron out/test issues.

TJC: Regional Community Specialist

Now – to complete the practice –

Step 225 – Today I will be serious and lighthearted all at once.


– Reviewing the journal for this practice February 26 was very enlightening. I'm doing the long practice Saturday – which will get me back on that path.

– The relationships are becoming more clear – so I'm able to be more bold in my ideas.

Step 226 – "Knowledge is with me. I will not be afraid."

The text says "being in life is practice is always a form of service.

It is so amazing that in this world I can be sitting in my kitchen, drinking Starbucks coffee, warm, dry and food always handy, and doing my spiritual correspondence course with the Greater Community. This is the life I was meant to have and I shall do my small part to the rest of my ability.

7:05 a.m. it is clear to me at this moment, where I came from, what I am doing here, and where I'm going. I know the beginning, the middle and the end. Like all stories – it begins "Once upon a time ___ and ends – and they lived happily ever after."

Step 227 "I will not think that I know today." This step suggests my prior paragraph was wrong; or maybe I've learned since this lesson. Okay

Spatial data – people don’t get its value, but understand that in real estate its location, location, location – latitude, longitude, elevation

Step 228 – "I will not be poor today." This perspective came at a very important time. The very long, somewhat tedious ACIM exercises were great preparation.

The text states "Knowledge…once it is allowed to emerge…it begins to balance and harmonize the mind that is its vehicle…" This is my result – and the passing of the "truth test" for it gives me freedom to be about the creator's work.

Step 229 – "I will not blame another for my pain."

Review – this was important and timely – Peace is not the illusion, it is the reality.

Step 230 – "My suffering is born of confusion." The whole truth is what I find – the truth about "wholes." I feel so privileged to have these insights…and want to share them with others – to have an audience. I feel I've reclaimed a piece of Knowledge – nothing new under the sun.

231 – I have a calling in the world. > The practice is written for many levels of Student. I’ve felt my calling emerge for many years. It could change or become more focused. It was my calling and led me to S2K looking for "greater community" tools.

232 – My calling in life requires the development of others.
– Lesson response – "yes"

233 – I'm part of a Greater Force for good in the world. – OK – no problem

Everything that looks local is, upon inspection, a network of entities – a region of cooperation – and located within a greater context. Every entity is whole – a node in a network – yet a network itself.

10:40 p.m. Back to finish the review. Bernice and Sarah are friends again. I took work alone for the ride, but – of course, there was no time. The week ahead is full – I keep doing my best. S2K is helpful in gaining perspective.

234 – Knowledge serves humanity in all ways. YES –

235 The power of Knowledge is becoming evident to me. Yes

236 With Knowledge I will know what to do. OK –

237 – I'm only beginning to comprehend the meaning of my life. Yes.

A great amount of time went into this review. Some insights and progress points were recorded.Something I found interesting and truthful: “It is so amazing that in this world I can be sitting in my kitchen, drinking Starbucks coffee, warm, dry and food always handy, and doing my spiritual correspondence course with the Greater Community.”  The Steps are quite a bit to take in. It may be time to mentally think about continuing with the second pass through the Steps.



Formats are not consistent. The original is hand written – and I’m only correcting the worse grammar, spelling and punctuation errors. Entries need not be format perfect – this is a journal just for you. So, that is why the text isn’t too pretty – lots of dashes, new paragraphs, consistent with how it was written. I say, that is OK.  Let us continue.
  
NNC



P.S. At Step 239, we are into Part Two of Steps, so if you’ve found this and find some appeal in this or other Steps, you should really go to the beginning blog post. From here you learn about Steps to Knowledge and can begin it on the day that makes sense and then progress as needed. You can use the posts on this blog as a companion if it helps. They will remain in order in the archives - one per Step.

Often it takes 18 months to get through the Steps once. For this blog, the pace is one-a-day, but it really makes no difference how fast you do it, only that you begin, persist and repeat. Posts here provide a trail that may let you have a virtual companion when and if you want one. One may have to study alone, as I did in the beginning. There are other Steps students blogging their experience and you might find a person more like you as a companion, or use a number of such Steps journeys. There are options as well through the Free School of the New Message