Greetings All -
YOU WILL ASK THIS QUESTION SOONER OR LATER and perhaps on many occasions. It is born of your expectations of yourself that you would ask this question.Yet, when you look carefully at your life, you will see that you have required instruction for everything that you have learned. Perhaps things that you felt inside yourself appeared to be created by you, but they, too, are the result of instruction.You have been prepared through relationships for everything that you have learned, whether it be a practical skill or a deeper insight.To realize this engenders great appreciation for relationships and a full affirmation of the power of contribution in the world.
IF YOU WERE INTENDING TO HONESTLY APPROACH LEARNING any skill, first you must recognize how much you do not know, then you must recognize how much you need to learn, and then you must seek the best form of instruction possible.This must apply to the reclamation of Knowledge. You must realize how little you know, how much you need to know and then receive the instruction that is provided. Is it a weakness to need a teacher? No. It is an honest recognition based upon an honest evaluation. If you realize how little you know and how much you need to know and the power of Knowledge itself, you will understand how obvious this is. How can you give to those who think they already have, when in reality they are poor? You cannot. And their poverty will be self-inflicted and self-maintained.
WHY DO YOU NEED A TEACHER? Because you need to learn. And you need to unlearn that which you have learned that is holding you back. In your two practice periods today, with your eyes closed in meditation, consider why you need a Teacher. Observe any thoughts that seem to indicate that you could do it on your own if you were smart enough or strong enough or met some other qualification.
If these expectations arise, recognize them for what they are. They are an insistence that you remain ignorant by proclaiming yourself an adequate instructor. You cannot teach yourself what you do not know, and the attempt to do so merely recirculates old information and binds you closer to where you are now.
THEREFORE, IN PRACTICE TODAY RECOGNIZE your need for true instruction and your resistance, if it is there, to the presence of true instruction which is available to you now.
PRACTICE 47: Two 30-minute practice periods.
Yesterday: Step 46 - I must be small to be great.
From the Journal:
12 A.M. - Sept 1 S2K #46 I must be small to be great. "Look objectively. You are meant to be a vehicle for a Greater Reality to express itself in the World." It has been clear to me for some time that I'm a very small player. ACIM suggests we do our small part. This is parallel. We have big ideas in our small bodies. The gap between what we want - what we envision - is so great, and can get greater. Some work with a martyr's zeal - I'm not there. In context I see myself as tiny. I'm playing out one reality.
Thank God for the millions, billions of souls that keep this amusement park/amazement quark going.
5:45 p.m. - S2K #46 - No. 2 - I am small. There are things/beings/smaller - By being/acknowledging small, I can be humble. Which I am - yet my personality projects command and irritates others. I'm irritated because they don't see. Who"s being small? To say a person is being small means they miss the picture. My manifestation is small in the context of the world. Many great builders have preceded me and now exist. It is not my goal to be great - that is ego - but since I need resources for the vision I will need to be great enough to attract the people/resources.
Jesus supported these thoughts. He said, don't go to the head table, wait to be invited there.
I've not sought to be a leader, but got there by default. In picking planning I thought it was just technical, not political. It requires that people believe me to be credible.
I'm a little willing to be a vehicle, though more preparation seems required.
A lesson or more, quickly comes into focus with S2K exercises. They are more than the text suggested.
These lessons, though seemingly short, can require we deal with much.
Jesus supported these thoughts. He said, don't go to the head table, wait to be invited there.
I've not sought to be a leader, but got there by default. In picking planning I thought it was just technical, not political. It requires that people believe me to be credible.
I'm a little willing to be a vehicle, though more preparation seems required.
A lesson or more, quickly comes into focus with S2K exercises. They are more than the text suggested.
These lessons, though seemingly short, can require we deal with much.
NNC
