Greetings All –
WITHOUT THE LIMITATION OF A PURELY HUMAN VIEWPOINT, you
will be able to see the evolution of your world in a greater context. Viewing
the world without the distortion of your personal wishes and fears, you will be
able to observe its greater movement and discern its overall direction. It is
essential, then, that you realize the direction of your world because this is
the context that gives meaning to your purpose and to your specific calling while
you are here in this world. For you have come to serve the world in its present
evolution, and your gifts are meant to serve it in its life to come.
YOUR WORLD IS PREPARING TO ENTER into a Greater
Community. The evidence of this is everywhere if you but look. Without belief
or denial, things can simply be recognized. In this, life’s demonstration is obvious
and need not be discerned from complexities. What makes life complex is that
people want life to be what life is not, they want themselves to be what they
are not and they want their destiny to be what it is not. Then they attempt to
gain from life that which confirms their own idealism, and because life cannot
confirm this, all becomes distressed, conflicted and complex. The mechanism of
life may be complicated in its minute details, but the meaning of life is
directly obvious to anyone who looks without the distortion of judgment or preference.
RECOGNIZE THAT YOUR WORLD IS PREPARING TO EMERGE into
the Greater Community. Do this without embellishing this recognition with your
own imagination. You need not give form to the future. Only understand the
present course of your world. In this, the meaning of your own inherent
abilities and their future application will become ever more evident to you.
UPON THE HOUR REPEAT THIS STATEMENT and consider it
seriously, for it is the absolute foundation of your life and it is necessary
that you understand this. It is not mere belief; it is the evolution of the
world. Within your two deeper meditation practices today, engage your mind
actively in considering this idea. Look at your own beliefs that speak for or
against this idea. Look at your own feelings about it. Examine yourself
objectively as you attempt to engage with this powerful idea. This is a time
for mental engagement. Utilize your practice periods with complete dedication
and involve yourself completely. Allow your mind to penetrate the
superficiality of its own surface ideas.
IN KNOWLEDGE EVERYTHING BECOMES STILL AND QUIET. Everything
becomes known. Here you begin to discern the difference between knowing and
thinking. You realize how thinking may only serve in the preparation for
Knowledge, but that Knowledge far exceeds the range and grasp of any
individual’s thinking. Here you will understand how the mind can serve your
spiritual nature. Here you will understand the evolution of the world.
PRACTICE 199: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
Note: “For
you have come to serve the world in its present evolution, and your gifts are
meant to serve it in its life to come.”
Yesterday: Step
198 - Today I will be strong.
From the Journal:
11:05 PM Monday, January 31, 2000
Where
am I? What do I know? What do I think? What do I want?
At
David’s in Copeville, Texas. I spoke to David today about the Four Pillars. It
was another lecture to him. …
Today’s
Step 198 is “Today I will be strong.” I don’t know in what way I can do that
for David and Sarah. Their lives are marginal in today’s American society, but
so is mine. I can’t judge – I am supportive – but I don’t know where they’ll
end up.
I
talked to Cindy on the phone – there was little there. A little snow – but no one went to work.
I
wonder about my life – I will complete the Steps – then see what happens.
The
development out here in rural Collin County is ugly – scattered – land will be
wasted in America.
Housing
developments are yuppie enclaves – the bubble continues to float – and may
burst.
From the journal, one can get the joy I have being
in Texas with my 21 and 23 year old kids. It is these problems that we want
spirituality to solve. It can’t. It does bring understanding, which leads to
patience and survival. Strength is needed everywhere, all the time in the modern
world. That may always have been true in life, but modern society makes it a
greater challenge. The Step of “being strong” is one needed every day. Let us go on.
NNC
P.S. At Step 199, 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.
