Greetings All –
GREAT IDEAS, FANTASTIC IMAGES or wonderful belief
systems cannot meet your need for Knowledge. Ideas alone can set you on your
way, but they cannot take you on the journey. They may speak of greater things
awaiting you, but they cannot take you there, for Knowledge must be your guide
to your destiny and your fulfillment. With ideas you stand at the beginning,
pointing the way for others, but you yourself cannot go.
WHEN YOU ARE TRAVELING WITH KNOWLEDGE, Knowledge
will extend itself through ideas. It will extend itself through actions, through
gestures and through all the vehicles of communication in this world. Therefore,
do not be content with ideas alone. Do not think that by speculating upon ideas
that you are comprehending the nature of Knowledge and its true application in
the world. These things can be experienced and observed, but the individuals
experiencing and observing them must be moved at the very core of their being.
THEREFORE, DO NOT BE SATISFIED WITH LITTLE THINGS in
place of the greatness of your true being and your purpose in the world. Return
to Knowledge, and be grateful for the ideas that have pointed you in this
direction. But realize that the power that can move you, the power that gives
you the strength to prepare and participate, is born of the great Wisdom and
Knowledge that you carry. It requires Knowledge to follow Knowledge. It
requires Knowledge to prepare for Knowledge. Thus, Knowledge is exercised even
as you approach it.
DO NOT, THEN, REMAIN AT THE BEGINNING OF YOUR
JOURNEY with ideas alone. Do not accept little things in place of the greatness
of your function. Remind yourself of this upon the hour and in your deeper meditation
practices, once again enter stillness and peace. Come to your practice without
questions. Come to your practice without petitions. Remind yourself that in
Knowledge all things will be given, all things will be received and all things
will be applied as they are needed. As
your mind becomes more simple and open, it will become a vehicle for Knowledge
to express itself in the world.
PRACTICE 240: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
Yesterday: Step
239 - Freedom is mine today.
This was an interesting Step in 2000, and today. The
key thought for me was found at the end of this sentence:
When you
have the freedom to be with Knowledge in your two meditation periods, allow
yourself to enter stillness and let not any feeling, idea or thought dissuade
you from experiencing the great freedom that you have to escape from the
world into Knowledge.
That Knowledge was an escape from the world was an
interesting thought. Reaction appeared on the Steps page twice:
To this, going for perspective, I related this to: “Guides/teachers
saying they are not Knowledge. They point in its direction, give you hints and
clues.”
In stillness today, August 27, 2014, I sought the same
escape into Knowledge in stillness. Thus
I have the energy to complete this blog post, in spite of a cold.
From the Journal:
8:38
a.m. Sunday, March 12, 2000 – I got up @7:30 – stretched, showered, dressed,
went to the store for Sunday newspapers. Stretching is good – it wakes the
body. I'll do my practice before coffee and reading the papers.
10:20
a.m. Greater Community is my purpose.
Points to record
In
an unbounded universe, boundaries are how we keep track of wholes. It is how responsibility
(and blame?) is assigned. (3/11/2000 – on I-81)
Diplomacy
for regions needs to be taught to elected officials of large cities/counties –
to build up the hinterlands.
10:25
p.m. I could not go to work today. It has been a long good day. I went to
Chapel with Sarah, then to the Waffle House for lunch – don't need to do that
again. Then Walmart for groceries – then home to iron shirts/watch the race.
Dale Jarrett – DNF – not a good day for him. Then Sarah and I went to hike the
trail. I knew she wouldn't make Patience – but I figured we could meditate at Su-ne.
It was darkening as we started. It was my 2nd long meditation of the day.
It
was sensational – in that in the stillness I sensed a pulsing – thousands of
souls were flying in, and an equal number flying out. It wasn't flying – but
the pulsing.
7:50
a.m. Monday, March 13, 2000 – Life is life, lives go on. Today’s practice says
fantastic images can't sustain us. Last night I had a fantastic image. Neither
will ideas sustain us.
The journal does not capture the “escape”
thought, which shows the value of writing in the book as a related source. It does have some of the mundane
details of my life and insights related to my exploration of regions and regional
cooperation.
I did record a stillness sense in the last paragraph of the day, “stillness I
sensed a pulsing – thousands of souls were flying in, and an equal number
flying out. It wasn't flying – but the pulsing.” Step 240 text begins: “GREAT IDEAS, FANTASTIC IMAGES or wonderful belief
systems cannot meet your need for Knowledge.”
I included the beginning entry for the next day, which led me to write
of my experience of a fantastic image. The image still works, but is not the
center of my life, just visualization. Let us continue.
NNC
P.S. At Step 240, 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.