Step 273 - My Teachers hold the memory of my Ancient Home for me. Entry for Step 272 - My Teachers will guide me as I proceed.

Greetings All –

Step 273 - My Teachers hold the memory of my Ancient Home for me.

YOUR TEACHERS REPRESENT YOUR SPIRITUAL FAMILY that are beyond the world. They hold the memory of your origin and your destiny for you, which you must learn to realize through your experience in the world. They have traveled the ways of the world. They know of its opportunities and its difficulties. They know of the possible errors that you can commit, and they are aware of the errors you have committed already. They are fully prepared to guide you. They have the Wisdom and the accomplishment to do so.

THEREFORE, DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THEIR VALUE to you and always remember that they are present in your life to initiate you into Knowledge. They wish for you to become strong in Knowledge, eventually as strong as they have become. Thus, they serve your greatest need and purpose, and you must follow them, receive them and honor their presence, as a student honors a teacher. This will allow you to receive their gifts completely and will free you from any false associations you may make with them. This is a very responsible relationship, and you will mature within it.

ACCEPT, THEN, THE PRESENCE OF YOUR TEACHERS. Accept it upon the hour as you remind yourself that they are with you, and accept it in your two deeper meditation practices as you open yourself to receive them. This is a great opportunity for Knowledge. Your Teachers will initiate you into Knowledge, for they can only be known. Your images or concepts regarding them are relatively meaningless, except in that they might limit your approach. You must experience your Teachers’ essence, which is their presence, to fully know them. And you will find out from this experience, as it develops, that this is how you can experience life as a whole.

THOUGH YOUR SENSES WILL PERCEIVE the form of things, your heart will experience the essence of things, and this is how things will become known. Once they are known, you will realize how you are to participate with them. Thus, all your faculties of mind will be utilized for one great purpose, for Knowledge will utilize all your faculties and the faculties of the world for the redemption of the world, which is the redemption of Knowledge within the world.

PRACTICE 273: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Yesterday:  Step 272 - My Teachers will guide me as I proceed.

This Step begins: “YOU WILL REQUIRE TEACHERS TO GUIDE YOU as you proceed on the path to Knowledge, for you will be venturing far beyond your own concepts and assumptions….” This is not a new subject in the Steps, but the notion that we have Teachers – unseen to us, does take some mental adjustment.

The Step provides more information about them: “Your Inner Teachers represent your most primary relationships, for these relationships are completely based upon Knowledge, and they are given to you to cultivate   Knowledge safely and completely.”

The first time through Steps, there are many fine points that one may miss. One here is the notion of primary relationships.

Once again I will use this image, Hesiod Listening to the Inspiration of the Muse by Edmond-Francois Aman-Jean, to visualize the notion of having Inner Teachers. This may be romanticized, but there’s no need to have an ugly visualization.  

From the Journal:

4:05 a.m. Friday, April 14, 2000

No pain, no gain? I'm awake and hungry. The mind is churning. There will be a new Exec. Director – they kept my title as Senior Planner. They thought Exec. Planner would be a conflict – it's OK – I just want to plan. It hurts, yet I know it suits my soul – the ego is bruised – but this removes a great burden. I lost control of the staff – I built up enemies over time – I lost the title… And will be happy to lose the work. À la "The Sixth Sense" – like Bruce Willis, I was dead for a few years – I just didn't know it. They had to let me stop working too hard.

[comment added] 4/22/2000 – it came to my mind in the past week that I might have precipitated this change for myself.

4:55 a.m. “My teachers will guide me as I proceed.” (272) I'm having a title-echtomy. It was causing pain to me and others, so it has been removed. An artificial title has been implanted. The patient is expected to live and thrive. The LFPDC is becoming an institution – my plan worked and now my job changes.

→ The regional plan is more about having a focus for coordination of other plans. It is strategic planning – not so much of the written plan, but the operational plans.

---

11:11 a.m. At the route 17 Fredericksburg Burger King – needed food after my presentation – 9-10 a.m. – The audience was receptive – one planner – who came late – challenged the idea that communities had to grow in income/value – saying school enrollments would lower in the future and costs would go down – offsetting the need for income growth. I handled the question – need better technique.

11:25 p.m. Tired… An interesting day. Good movie – "High Fidelity" John Cusack. On the way home. The thought in response to the question this a.m. About the need for value/income to increase – "communities must create value." – Then thinking "community" creates "value" – just the networking is enough to create value. Guidance seemed OK today – I'm ready for it – not great progress on my own.

By the end here I recognize my own need for guidance. Even though my journals have many instances of the recording of thoughtful guidance, it is still a difficult notion.

Let us proceed. There are more Steps to help us get to an expanded perspective on life, creation, The Creator and all our relations.

NNC

 

P.S. At Step 271, 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. 

Step 272 - My Teachers will guide me as I proceed. Entry for Step 271 - I will accept responsibility today.

Greetings All –

Step 272 - My Teachers will guide me as I proceed.

YOU WILL REQUIRE TEACHERS TO GUIDE YOU as you proceed on the path to Knowledge, for you will be venturing far beyond your own concepts and assumptions. You will be engaged in a life that you have not yet comprehended. You will be accessing power and resources that you have not yet fully recognized. You will be venturing deeper into life, beyond human assumptions, beyond human beliefs and beyond human conventions. This will require very strong guidance for you, both from Knowledge and from your primary relationships. Your Inner Teachers represent your most primary relationships, for these relationships are completely based upon Knowledge, and they are given to you to cultivate   Knowledge safely and completely.

THEREFORE, ACCEPT YOUR LIMITATIONS AS A STUDENT of Knowledge so that you may proceed with the assistance that will be required. Be grateful that such great assistance can be given to you and that it can permeate any circumstance because it is invisible to your eyes. Be grateful that you can experience it in any circumstance and that you can receive the counsel of your Teachers at those junctures in life where it is called for.

AFFIRM THE PRESENCE OF YOUR TEACHERS TODAY so that you may have great courage and enthusiasm in your support of the emergence of Knowledge. Upon the hour remind yourself that your Teachers are with you. In your two deeper practice periods, enter into stillness and silence with them so that they may render their presence and their counsel to you if needed. Accept your studenthood so that you may learn to give to the world.

PRACTICE 272: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Yesterday:  Step 271 - I will accept responsibility today.

Here we are told: “ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY, which is your ability to respond.” Being a first responder is a term that has become well known in the States since 9-11.

Students of Steps to Knowledge have come to be equated with “first responders,” given the stamina needed for this work. Having been exposed to this message, there is this need to: “ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY TODAY. Accept this, for it represents your truest and greatest need. Responsibility will enable you to love and extend yourself into the world.”

 

On top of the page I note: “I have been willing to take responsibility, but have not wanted power.” In response to: “surround yourself with individuals who can support the emergence of Knowledge within you” I ask: “Who might these people be?”  When we first respond, is there anyone visible nearby? Do we have peers also responding? Though we experience our Teachers and Knowledge to some degree, in earth terms, the neighborhood is lonely – no others present.

The journal this day had little in terms of entries:  

7 a.m. Thursday, April 13, 2000

We need technology to deal with distance – nearly everything is distant – beyond the human scale – the built environment.

Last night Cindy said she's beginning to understand what I meant saying, "Sarah was special." She's understanding Sarah’s limitations and is therefore becoming more understanding. All these years Cindy wasn't understanding anything of what I was saying.

Relationships are getting more honest – better – which is Knowledge in my life.

I accept responsibility for my work in the world and I am open to direction by Knowledge to where I need to be.

Let us continue. Many Steps to complete to get through to Step 365.

NNC

P.S. At Step 272, we are well 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. 

Step 271 - I will accept responsibility today. Entry for Step 270 - With power comes responsibility.

Greetings All –

Step 271 - I will accept responsibility today.

ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY, which is your ability to respond. Accept this, cultivate it, cherish it and welcome it. It is what will make you strong. It is what will make you devoted. It is what will bring to you the relationships you have always desired. This is the empowerment you so desperately need which you are learning now to claim for yourself. With this empowerment come the conditions for empowerment that you respond to Knowledge and follow Knowledge, that you refrain from all motivations that are not born of Knowledge, that you become objective with yourself and your motives, that you question yourself without doubting yourself and that you surround yourself with individuals who can support the emergence of Knowledge within you and are free to tell you their own perceptions. This is essential for your well-being and development. This will protect you from self-error, which as you become more powerful will have greater and greater impact upon you and others.

ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY TODAY. Accept this, for it represents your truest and greatest need. Responsibility will enable you to love and extend yourself into the world.

UPON THE HOUR THINK OF TODAY’S IDEA. And as you enter meditation twice today, take full responsibility for being a student of Knowledge and enter into stillness and silence with your complete being. Let no thought or doubt dissuade you. Do not let ambivalence hold you back. Press onward. Open yourself. Enter the mystery of your life so that you may be able to respond to it, for this is the meaning of responsibility.

PRACTICE 271: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Yesterday:  Step 270 - With power comes responsibility.

Did I want to know this? I do want the world to be a better place, but seeking this from a position of powerlessness certainly is difficult, and then to be responsible with any power, well that is a greater challenge. This simple idea makes sense, but it also makes complaining more difficult, as responsibility for improvement lies with me and I don’t know what to do.

In the journal I dealt with some of this challenge including my fear of being a mono maniac, focused on a single thing like Captain Ahab in pursuit of Moby Dick, the white whale which had taken his leg in an earlier confrontation and led to tragedy for his ship and crew.

 

 

This analogy may not make sense to some, but it had been a concern of mine long before learning about Greater Community Spirituality.

As for this Step and others, there is some comfort to me and my being a slow learner in that, we aren’t expected to get it all of the understanding via experience in the first or even second consideration of a Step/Steps. Achieving the goals set out in Steps to Knowledge is consuming lifetimes, no doubt, but what else is there to do in time?

12:05 a.m. Wednesday, April 12, 2000 – Today I need movement –

– The transportation you need will be a function of land-use – the distances between home & work, shopping, school, recreation – and the number of units/Households/people – everyone with a vehicle

– Midway through the suburban century. 1950 – 2000 – 2050 – It doesn't work – yet that's where all the political power will be 2004. 25% cities – 50% suburbs 25% rural.

Can't build enough roads – manage traffic

1:03 p.m. Wednesday, April 12 – 1st Practice – "With power comes responsibility." I've not wanted power all my life because of the responsibility and conflict it brings. My presence, my ideas generate conflict – therefore I've stayed low on the radar.

It seemed to me that you could not have power unless you had physical might and strength – Getting others to use their strength on my behalf always got me into more trouble.

Looking at the Viet Nam time, I went and listed so I wouldn't be an officer sending people into battle. I understand the military and have those instincts, but leave that to others now.

I've avoided physical confrontations and danger always – I learned Tai Chi for defense, but never had to use it – ---

Fear of attack for my ideas is not new. If Knowledge wants to use me – fine – I'm just not into more pain. I stopped viewing myself as weak years ago – particularly because I'd been strong & responsible for the kids and the PDC. I was there to keep things going.

I'm subject to criticism – and it may be justified – I was doing the best I could and not getting all the help I could.

I understand completely and deeply that power leads to responsibility. My dilemma is that I'd like to change things – that requires power – and I'm afraid of it for reasons known and unknown.

My ambition is to improve the world w/o causing conflict for others. Some thrive on conflict – I'm tired of conflict. The times have been interesting too long.

There doesn't, however, seem to be a choice other than to align with Knowledge. I have squandered some of my power through ambivalence. We work on that later. Captain Ahab's mono mania scared me – any one-note song does.

Practice #2  9 p.m. I'm tired, wasted – I need my transportation futures speech tomorrow – must leave @ 7 a.m. To get to RADCO by 9 a.m.

9:55 p.m. – Well – I mapped out four pages of brain stretching transportation stuff. I'm glad David's room is clear now for my meditation. I'm relieved that I have the outline – my mind has always delivered – in the service of my spirit. (The final presentation)

My ideas about power!

Who needs it? Power for what? Raw natural power in the movement of wind, water, the land. The focused power of plants – turning soil/green into food, rock busters; or animals – power is the life force that must be doing something always to sustain and expand.

As people deal with one form of power they may seek to dominate – to impose their will on others. This is not being responsible.

Here in this room, in this house – 607 Midland – looking at all of the books, wood work furniture, the walls/ceiling, clothing – and it is the marvelous work of …

Responsibilities "…provide the protection and the guidance that you need so that you may develop appropriately, positively and completely."

Power is a difficult topic. Let us continue so that our understanding may improve to the point that we become useful to Knowledge in the world.

NNC

P.S. At Step 271, 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.