Greetings All –
THIS STATEMENT REPRESENTS YOUR INTENTION to have Knowledge,
for unforgiveness is merely the application of blame towards a situation in
which you were unable to understand or to apply Knowledge. All your failures
are your own in this respect. This may look like a burden of blame at first,
until you realize the greater opportunity that it presents to you. For if all
failures are your own, then you will realize that all correction is given to
you to apply. The failure of another is not your own, but your condemnation of
it is your own failure. Therefore, any failure that engenders unforgiveness in you
is your failure, for another’s failure need not engender unforgiveness in you
or blame of any kind. In fact, the failures of others will engender your
compassion and the application of Knowledge in the future and need not give
rise to blame or unhappiness within you.
KNOWLEDGE IS NOT SHOCKED UPON LOOKING AT THE WORLD.
Knowledge is not dismayed. Knowledge is not discouraged. Knowledge is not
affronted. Knowledge realizes the smallness of the world and the errors of the
world. It realizes this because it only knows itself, and all that is not
Knowledge is merely the opportunity for Knowledge to be reapplied. Thus, your
unforgiveness is simply the opportunity for you to reapply Knowledge.
REPEAT TODAY’S IDEA UPON THE HOUR and do not
underestimate its value to you who now seek to be unburdened from grief and misery.
In your two deeper practice periods, think of those, one by one, for whom you
feel unforgiveness—individuals that you have known personally and individuals
that you have heard about or thought of, individuals that have been associated
with failure. They will come to mind as you call upon them, for they are all
waiting to be forgiven by you. Allow them now to arise one by one. As they do so,
forgive yourself for failing to apply your Knowledge. Remind them as they
appear to you that you are now learning to apply Knowledge and that you will
not suffer on their behalf and they, therefore, need not suffer on yours. The
commitment to forgive, then, is the commitment to realize Knowledge and to
apply Knowledge, for Knowledge dispels unforgiveness like the light dispels the
darkness. For there is only Knowledge and the need for Knowledge. That is all
that you can possibly perceive in the universe.
YOUR TWO PRACTICE PERIODS ARE, THEREFORE, dedicated
to facing those whom you have accused and forgiving yourself for failing to
apply Knowledge in your understanding of them and engagement with them. Do this
without any form of guilt or self-deprecation, for how could you possibly not
fail if Knowledge was not available to you or if you were not available to
Knowledge. Accept, then, your former limitations and dedicate yourself now to
perceiving the world anew, without blame and with the greatness of Knowledge.
PRACTICE 207: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
Yesterday: Step
206 - Love is flowing from me now.
This is a beautiful Step. The first time through, I
didn’t get it completely, even
as I used it. I don’t know which time I did, that is in the journal entries
far after the year 2000. Today I did get it, and spent my stillness in the
woods, enjoying the fireflies in the night.
Also, in Step 205 – just the day before, I saw a
critical point that I first considered a list, but as a whole thought is
critical for students. We all want to know if we are “with Knowledge.” What
does that feel like; what does it look like? Step 205 says simply: “Knowledge represents an overall shift in your
viewpoint, an overall change in your experience, an overall shift in your
emphasis and an overall transformation of your value system. This is the
evidence of Knowledge.”
Is it that simple, just a shift in viewpoint,
change in experience, shift in emphasis and transformation of my value system?
I’ve done all of that, but the question now is: “Transformation to what?” That has
become the mysterious part, so I continue as a student.
From the Journal:
7:57
AM Monday – February 7, 2000 – Ordering returns based on the project numbers.
It is all process and we don’t know exactly where it is going, through the
future can be predicted based on trends/what happens based on size.
Community
connect PD – a geographic community.
1970
– 2000 30 years of building the NSV Regional Community (Networking News)
Big
fish/little pond – all an issue of scale.
I
need to sit down and put to text, what is in my experience.
12:03
AM Tuesday, February 8, 2000 – from 11 to 12 I worked on organizing the
projects at work. Giving each the project code with a yellow Post-it has helped
sort project from non-project.
…
For
the world to be what it is there must be more to "people" than the
people themselves.
I
did not do long practice 2 except that throughout … tirade I did envision love
flowing from me.
From the Steps page – high points underlined:
Getting though the Steps the first time is a
challenging journey, well worth the experience. Let us continue.
NNC
P.S. At Step 207, 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. In earlier posts, picture links have been
broken and I am working to restore them.
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.
