WHENEVER YOU FALL INTO THE DARKNESS OF FEAR, you are
withdrawing from Knowledge and entering the darkness of imagination. Whenever
you fall into the darkness of your own fear, you are denying the reality of a
Greater Power in the world and are thus losing its beneficence for yourself. Whenever
you fall into the darkness of your own fear, you are following the teaching of
fear, which runs rampant in the world. You are allowing yourself to be a student
of fear. You are allowing yourself to be governed by fear. Recognize this and
you will realize that this need not be, that you have the power to redirect
your studenthood and that you have the ability to re-enter true preparation.
THINK OF THIS SERIOUSLY TODAY. Why should you be
afraid when a Greater Power is in the world? This Greater Power which you are now
learning to receive is the source of your redemption. What can you possibly
lose as this source becomes recognized, as you learn to come into relationship
with this source and as you serve this source and allow it to serve you? What
can the world take from you when the source of Knowledge is within you? What
can the world do to itself when the source of Knowledge is within the world?
THIS AWARENESS CALLS FOR YOUR COMPLETE
PARTICIPATION in the world and your complete service to Knowledge. It calls for
your complete engagement in contributing to others because you are a vehicle
for the Greater Power in the world. Yet, in this active participation you
understand as well that it is only a matter of time before all minds awaken to
the light of Knowledge within themselves. This can take a very long time, but
time is with you and in patience and in confidence you may proceed, for what
can undermine your preparation and your contribution but self-doubt and fear?
What can dissuade you from proceeding with certainty and complete engagement
but the doubt that Knowledge exists in the world?
THEREFORE, WHENEVER YOU ENTER INTO FEAR, practice
this day recognizing that a Greater Power is in the world. Utilize this recognition
to bring yourself out of fear by remembering that a Greater Power is in the
world and by remembering that a Greater Power is in your life. Think about this
on the hour and in your two deeper meditation practices, re-enter your
sanctuary where in stillness and in confidence you receive the Greater Power
that is in the world. Here you must realize that your preparation requires that
you step away from fear and darkness and that you step forward into the light
of truth. These two activities will confirm your nature and will betray nothing
that is real within you or within the world.
AS YOU LOOK UPON THE WORLD WITHOUT JUDGMENT and as
you look upon yourself without judgment, you will see that a Greater Power is
at work. This will restore happiness to you, for you will realize that you have
brought your Ancient Home with you and your Ancient Home is here as well. This
will lift the burden of fear, the oppression of anxiety and the confusion of
ambivalence from your mind. Then, you will remember why you have come, and you
will devote your life to contributing that which you have come to give. Then,
your life will be a statement of happiness and inclusion, and all who see you
will remember that they too have come from your Ancient Home.
PRACTICE 319: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
The notion that there is a true Greater Power is
powerful, but not necessarily understood this early in the Steps. I first
encountered “Higher Power” in the 12 Step program Al-Anon in 1982. Are
they the same? No, but they are related.
From the Journal:
6:56
a.m. Tuesday, May 30, 2000 – Breathing stretching morning start – it warms you
up.
7:20
a.m. I do not know the world, but I know Knowledge is present. I'm weak and
afraid, and in hiding –
7:55
a.m. Practice #1 – I'm one pair of God's regional hands in the world.
–
People are not regional by nature. They are local – local is comfortable – the
known, beyond local is unknown. Make the region local.
11:10
p.m. A strange, yet in some respects, good day. I spent about 90 minutes on the
PC tonight – checking out my ambivalent world. Worked until 8 PM. – so – little
energy once home. Practice 2 did not go deep.
Step
318 – "There is a Greater Power at work in the world" is comforting.
The text says: "You who are now learning to give up self-condemnation and
to escape ambivalence will see the efficacy of your own Inner Guidance casting
its spark of life upon the world."
–
When is stillness ambivalence – and drawing self condemnation?
–
the text says we must receive and express the Greater Power – the relationship
with Knowledge is: Thus, it is through your reliance upon Knowledge and
Knowledge’s reliance upon you that your union with Knowledge is made
complete."
I
Know, believe & accept all of this – yet do not have energy to do…
A long, tiring day. Let us continue.
NNC
P.S. At Step 319, we are less than two months from
the end – Step 365. 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.
