4/30/15

Step 120 - I will remember my Knowledge today. (MP3) Entry for Step 119 - Review


Greetings All –

Step 120 - I will remember my Knowledge today. (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]


"I will remember my Knowledge today." Step 120

REMEMBER YOUR KNOWLEDGE TODAY. Remember that it abides with you regardless of where you go or what you are doing. Remember that it is given to you to serve you, to nurture you and to elevate you as well. Remember that you need not be aggravated with the world because you can accept the world as it is. Remember that you accept the world as it is so that you will be able to give to it, for the world is developing as you are. Remember that Knowledge is with you, and you need only be with Knowledge to realize its full impact.

REMIND YOURSELF UPON THE HOUR TODAY that Knowledge is with you and give this a moment of thought. Do not let raging emotions or deep depression cast a shadow upon your practice, for your practice is greater than your emotional states, which change like the winds and the clouds but cannot mask the universe above them.

THEREFORE, REALIZE THE LITTLENESS OF YOUR EMOTIONAL STATES and the greatness of Knowledge. In this way, Knowledge will balance your emotional states and will reveal to you the source of your own emotions, which is the source of your expression in the world. This is the mystery of life which you are now learning to explore.

PRACTICE 120: Hourly practice.

Yesterday: Step 119 - Review

From the journal:

Saturday, November 13, 1999

8 a.m. Who as the customers for the region? Those that use it. Build your value region – bound your necessary reality. May the universe be your backyard – we all live at the center of our personal universe. That center may contain our children who split off and become their own center –
As souls inhabit manifestation there are more and more relative centers. 

Learn to see your region, your backyard.

4:45 p.m. at Little Bear – Cool & twilight – Review time S2K. Instead of doing nothing productive at home – I mowed the lawn. I’m enjoying a body w/o back pain – pinched nerve, I like this direction – exercise will be required. On back porch it occurred to me that we/I can only experience a tiny part/a mere fragment of this great part of creation. The design which precedes us – the knowledge it reflects – man can hardly be the crown of creation.

>This is the time & place to review, but I have the wrong book. I do have the list of the Step phrases this week on a 3X5 card.

Review – beginning November 1

So, the journal entry gets us to the Review, this time for two weeks, but nothing about it. The Steps book:


Please note that these entries are from my first passage through the Steps, 1999-2000. What I wrote then is not the understanding I may have today, or what you understand in your practice of Steps, or even a guide to your understanding. 

These thoughts and reactions likely differ from yours, due to my life, my age, work and spiritual study, relationships, etc. What will emerge is how Steps helped me through a difficult time and came to answer important questions. For whatever reason you have begun this practice, then let us continue.

NNC
 

Journal second time x2 Step 119.  This is for those who have completed Steps once. Doing Steps with only the texts, messages and your life experience, including what you may have studied and practiced is your journey. I’m showing Step comments after the Step, so as not to influence you in advance. It is a wilderness trek to be left to your own wits, but then you can also listen more closely for guides, angels and teachers, always first saying: “I surround and protect myself with the Love and the Grace of God.” Thankfully, I was taught this practice in 1989.

P.S. If you’ve some interest due to this or other Steps, you should go to the beginning blog post. From here you will learn about Steps to Knowledge and can begin it on the day that makes sense; 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 post 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.

4/29/15

Step 119 - Review ~ GIVE YOURSELF TO THIS REVIEW so that you may understand how you learn. (MP3) Entry for Step 118 - I will not avoid the world today.


Greetings All –

Step 119 - Review ~ GIVE YOURSELF TO THIS REVIEW so that you may understand how you learn. (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]


IN THIS SPECIAL REVIEW, review the past two weeks of practice, reviewing each instruction and recalling each day of practice. Try to remember how seriously you thought about each day’s practice and how well you utilized that practice. Do not think you can complain rightfully about this preparation unless you are utilizing it to its fullest extent. Your role here is only to follow the steps as they are given and not to alter them according to your preferences. In this way, you place yourself in a position to receive, which is the position you now need to acquire for yourself.

IN YOUR TWO LONG PRACTICE PERIODS TODAY, each one given to one week of practice, review the past two weeks. Try to be very kind with yourself, but recognize if you are falling short of the requirements and do not deceive yourself in this regard. Rededicate yourself to deepening your practice and your resolve, reminding yourself of the simplicity of your life and the true value that is being given to you. In this way, you will learn a new way of living. You will learn how to receive and how to give, and your life will be free of the darkness of complexity. For simplicity must always be of the light; it must always be of the good.

THEREFORE, GIVE YOURSELF TO THIS REVIEW so that you may understand how you learn. These Reviews will demonstrate to you your own learning faculties and your own learning predispositions. They will teach you the necessary things that you will need to know in the future when you will be able to help others learn as well.

PRACTICE 119: Two long practice periods


From the journal:
7:36 A.M. - Friday, November 12, 1999 – The world expects a lot – and I am tired. Spirit expects a lot – and I am tired. My children need a lot – and I am tired. I am here to serve – I seek/am willing to be guided by KNOWLEDGE.

8:42 A.M. Bathroom time - I am here to serve the world. I will not avoid the world.

Sarah is back at home. Lloyd locked her out. The Sheriff’s deputy took her to Starlite.

Pain, pain, pain …

3:49 p.m. – I will not avoid the world today. Where will I get the energy?

2001 A Space Odyssey – the movie ended with Keir Dullea in a bedroom – almost a nursing home – old age situation. It was culturally – earth based/Western civilization projection – for a distant future – yet still a probable end. As I lay in bed writing this – It is a probable future for me. 

Really, could not avoid the world that day. Step 118 page has notes in green, 1999, blue 2000 and then there’s an entry form 2009. That says: “Knowledge is the true companion of the mind.” This is a useful recognition. It only took ten years to achieve, and another four now in 2014, to remember it. This Practice has continuing, long term benefits – so stick with it; that’s my recommendation.


Here’s a picture of the scene in 2001 that I reference. That movie was released in 1968 – the year I graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. I studied film and was going to make a movie that saved the world. Isn’t idealism a wonderful motivator? This film did stick with me and remains an important vision/test of vision. Some of that future has been realized, but not as much as we wanted way back in 1968.

The only difference between this and the movie scene is that the monolith has Greater Community Spirituality written on it in many languages.

NNC
 

Journal second time x2 Step 118.  This is for those who have completed Steps once. Doing Steps with only the texts, messages and your life experience, including what you may have studied and practiced is your journey. I’m showing Step comments after the Step, so as not to influence you in advance. It is a wilderness trek to be left to your own wits, but then you can also listen more closely for guides, angels and teachers, always first saying: “I surround and protect myself with the Love and the Grace of God.” Thankfully, I was taught this practice in 1989.

P.S. If you’ve some interest due to this or other Steps, you should go to the beginning blog post. From here you will learn about Steps to Knowledge and can begin it on the day that makes sense; 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 post 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.

4/28/15

Step 118 - I will not avoid the world today. (MP3) Entry for Step 117 - It is better to be simple than to be poor.

Greetings All –

Step 118 - I will not avoid the world today. (MP3)  [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

I will not avoid the world today. Step 118
THERE IS NO NEED TO AVOID THE WORLD because the world cannot dominate you when you are with Knowledge. When you are with Knowledge, you are here to serve the world. The world, then, is not a prison anymore. It is not a continual source of discomfort and disappointment. It provides for you an opportunity to give and an opportunity to re-establish your true understanding. Do not seek refuge in spiritual things, for your purpose is to give to the world. Allow the world to be as it is, and your condemnation of it will not come back to haunt you. For without condemnation, there is only the opportunity to give. This will draw upon your Knowledge, which will give of its own, and you will be the vehicle for its giving.

THINK OF THIS NOW. Allow yourself in your two practice periods to experience the presence of Knowledge in your life. Demand nothing of it. Seek not to question it. Only allow yourself to experience it, for with this all that you seek returns to you naturally without your effort. Utilize your self-discipline only to direct your mind in the proper direction. Once it is so engaged, it will return to Knowledge of its own accord. For that is its destination, that is its love, that is its true companion and that is its true marriage in life.

PRACTICE 118: Two 30-minute practice periods.

Note, the Steps says: “Do not seek refuge in spiritual things, for your purpose is to give to the world.” 


Picture:  Fire and Rescue vehicle responding, Paisley, Scotland.


From the journal:

6:20 a.m. Thursday, November 11, 1999 – a day of remembrance – a day of peace.

7:42 a.m. Where am I? November 11 is a day I usually go into the woods. It won’t be an option this day.

7:53 a.m. Where is my simple life? What is it? I love my wife, my children, my family, my work. I am but one in the world. I serve by promoting connectivity within the many wholes – regions of influence.

Here – energy does not go directly to the need. In manifestation, investment must be channeled.

As my soul orients to KNOWLEDGE, the ways of the world made less sense. I’m in the ACIM “I need do nothing” mode. Floating… pain free..

8:37 a.m. I am simple. I allow myself to be simple. Planning is about finding a better way – simple, well designed, elegant.

Every relationship simple. Cascading relationships – neural networks – in total – simplified.

1:32 p.m. I’ll do the second meditation.

This is Veterans Day. I spent the morning doing a presentation at the Warren County Chamber of Commerce Leadership Training. My job is to promote the regional framework. That I can do …

Watching the stock market again – its pattern nature is something I could track and benefit from … but I haven’t taken the time. Is there something wrong with me?

S2K says “It is better to be simple than to be poor.” I feel poor for all the opportunities I’ve missed. Why am I paralyzed by these things? It seems indolence and lack of worldly knowledge. What am I really seeking? Where am I really going?

On one hand, earth & the U.S. is chugging along just fine. On the other hand, it is potentially a coconut shell illusion that can crack and end up hollow.

I could do more … but I am tired and pre-occupied.

2:42 p.m. I allow myself to be simple. My problems are simple, I only need apply myself.

This I know.

11:48 p.m. 11/11 11:11 has passed A.M. & p.m. On to 12:12

This is an interesting Step, one that generated a good bit of ink in this day’s journal. It may have done the same for you. On the Step 117 page, in reference to truth (setting you free) is noted.

Let us continue.
NNC
 
Journal second time x2 Step 117.  This is for those who have completed Steps once. Doing Steps with only the texts, messages and your life experience, including what you may have studied and practiced is your journey. I’m showing Step comments after the Step, so as not to influence you in advance. It is a wilderness trek to be left to your own wits, but then you can also listen more closely for guides, angels and teachers, always first saying: “I surround and protect myself with the Love and the Grace of God.” Thankfully, I was taught this practice in 1989.

P.S. If you’ve some interest due to this or other Steps, you should go to the beginning blog post. From here you will learn about Steps to Knowledge and can begin it on the day that makes sense; 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 post 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.