Greetings All –
ANGER IS UNJUSTIFIED, FOR ANGER ALONE is merely your
response to your failure to apply Knowledge. This engenders anger at its very
source. But this need not happen, because anger is a response. As a response it
can generate anger in others and stimulate a violent response internally and
externally wherever it is applied. Knowledge, however, will redirect anger so
that it has no destructive qualities, for what you wish to express is that
which fortifies Knowledge in others. It is the strength of your conviction and
not your desire to hurt yourself or others that is the true efficacy of the emotion
that is the core of anger. Thus, it may be said that your anger is a true
communication that has been distorted by your own projections of blame and
fear. Once these distortions have been cleared away, the true communication
that is the seed of all anger can be expressed. This can only bring about good.
ANGER, THEN, IS NOT JUSTIFIED, for it is a
misinterpretation of a true communication. Your anger is not justified because
anger is born of confusion. Yet, confusion calls for preparation and the true application
of Knowledge. Therefore, the sinful are not punished but are attended to. The
wicked are not sent to hell but are prepared
for Heaven. This is the true nature of God’s purpose in the world. That is why
God can never be angry, because God is not offended. God is merely applying God
to a situation where God has temporarily been forgotten.
IN THE GREATER SCOPE OF THINGS, even the separation of all individual minds is a very
temporary occurrence. You cannot think yet at this level and will not be able
to do so for a long time, for you must undergo the various stages of
development that integrate your mind into greater and greater experiences of
relationship and life. But as you proceed and as you take each vital step that
expands your horizons, you will begin to understand that anger is unjustified.
It merely represents a failure to apply Knowledge in a particular situation. This
calls for remedy not for condemnation. Here you will realize that your anger is something to be understood. It is not to
be rejected, for if you reject anger,
you also reject the seed of anger, which is true communication. Therefore, we
wish to clean away that which has spoiled your true communication so that your true communication may
shine forth, for true communication always comes from Knowledge.
THINK OF THIS IDEA UPON THE HOUR. In your deeper
practice periods, actively engage your mind in looking at every single thing that
you are angry about, from very tiny things that are specific to things in
general that upset or discourage you. Remind yourself as you review your inventory of anger that your anger is unjustified. Remind yourself that it calls for the application of
Knowledge and that within each angry experience or feeling that you have, there
is a seed which is true. Therefore, your anger need not be rejected but
cleansed, for in cleansing your anger you will be able to communicate that
which you intended to communicate in the beginning where you initially failed. Then your self-expression will be complete, and
anger will be no more.
PRACTICE 241: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
This was a challenging Step. In the material it
says: “It requires Knowledge to follow Knowledge. It
requires Knowledge to prepare for Knowledge. Thus, Knowledge is exercised even
as you approach it.” That I
underlined on the Steps page.
I also wonder, relative to: “As your mind becomes more simple and open, it will
become a vehicle for Knowledge to express itself in the world.”
And write in green ink: “What shall happen – "
Comments from later Steps practices appear in other colored
ink, sometimes dated.
From the Journal:
7:50
am. 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.
>
Political boundaries – settlement patterns – and overlay on the natural
geography. Political geography →
>
Sarah said she didn't like working at the vet because of the killing of pets.
Not old animals that were sick – but pet's people just didn't want.
11:55
p.m. quite a day – Tuesday even more busy.
The
journal recordings are short and don’t add much to the S2K story, but more
reflect my life. The next practice, "Step 241 -
My
anger is unjustified," will take some energy.
NNC
P.S. At Step 241, 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.