Greetings All –
LET YOUR REVIEW OF EACH LESSON in the past two weeks
be a confirmation of the presence of Knowledge in your life. Review each lesson
and practice. Review objectively the extent of your involvement and realize the
opportunities to give yourself more fully and more completely. Realize how
meaningless your denial is and how great the promise of your reward, given your
participation in life. You will realize this as you review your practices, for
your practices demonstrate your ambivalence towards Knowledge and the presence
of Knowledge itself.
YOU WILL LEARN IN TIME that as you come closer to
Knowledge, all things that are meaningful and valuable will be affirmed, and as
you go away from Knowledge, you will enter the darkness of your own imagination.
This, then, will convince you of where you need to apply yourself. This will
convince you of the great presence that is with you to assist you. This will
convince you that you are included in life and that your Teachers are with you.
Whatever obstacle or inadequacy that you can recognize or imagine can be easily
overcome with Knowledge. It is your desire for Knowledge and your capacity for Knowledge
that need to be strengthened. And once this is done, Knowledge will express
itself and you will be the beneficiary of life’s greatest gift.
IN YOUR LONGER REVIEW TODAY, allow yourself to
undertake your practice with great depth and sincerity. Allow this day to
affirm your studenthood. Allow this day to affirm that you have been saved.
PRACTICE 252: One long practice period.
Note the last line: “Allow this day to affirm that you have been saved.”
If only there was no confusion in my relationships.
That Steps can take us out of confusion in the world is a surprising claim. The
only need is to abide with Knowledge. How does one do that? We’ve been working
on it for at least 251 days. Is there any progress, or still much more to
learn?
The Glencoe Trail-Scotland Photo credit - TJC
Just as the Glencoe Trail goes on from this point,
in Steps we’ve gone a distance, see the path continue, but we can’t see the summit
and are nowhere near the end.
The practice requires work: “…in your two longer practice periods today,
dedicate yourself to actively looking at every single primary relationship
involvement that you have had. Recognize in them the frustrations and the confusion,
the great expectations and the great disappointments, the bitterness over
error, the sense of failure and the projections of blame.” This will not be fun, but what choice is there?
We continue because the promise is great: “With Knowledge you may follow that which is
precisely beneficial to you and to your beloved, for all relationships are
honored and blessed through Knowledge, and all individuals find their rightful
place with one another. In this, each person is honored and his or her
Knowledge is confirmed. Let this be your understanding today.”
From the Journal:
5:20
a.m. Friday, March 24, 2000
Fight
or flight?
1. I
think I’m in trouble and w/o friends. I’ve been attacked for the past three years.
I want more time to build my case, but I may not get it. I know I must leave,
is question of sooner or later.
6:10
a.m. I feel as though there is no leverage in the situation.
Regions
Work – a company to assist business, industry and citizens to utilize the state
systems of regions.
There
is only the future. The technology of transportation and communication has made
local boundaries, so carefully created over the last 400 years of American
history –
Step
251 – “If I have by with Knowledge there will be no confusion in my
relationships.”
Do I
know who I am? Yes. Do I know where Knowledge is sending me? No. Do I trust
knowledge? Yes. Am I confused? Yes.
Looking
at primary relationships.
1.
Parents – ongoing and healed
2.
Friends of youth – what stands out? Sought E--- – little maturity, low
self-esteem based on physical body. Primary relationships with teachers helped
develop me. I grew from a tiny seed to see the whole world and the fear
enforced morality.
I
sought a primary relationship throughout college – found M.E. Right at the end
before going in the Navy. Carole C--- was important.
M.E.,
the Navy – Larry F---, Bob C---, – lesson upon lesson.
The
search for Knowledge has been continuous, relentless. That is been my primary
relationship. From planner I’ve moved to being a regional facilitator by
reflecting the relationship of individuals to their greater geography, greater
community.
Something
is wrong with my current primary work relationship. I make them look good and
they make me look bad.
--- I
have been patient in the past years since the Executive Committee over-rode my recommended
action on personnel and took responsibility for personal.
To
write Tom’s “Ballad”
8:49
a.m. – Regions Work – LLC – a Virginia corporation – a service firm to assist
in the use of regions. – LFPDC may be my 1st client. Our local
planet is composed of regions.
This
is the vision – whether it is Knowledge supported is something I will have to
continue to check.
---
Not too much drama here; really a mundane life
perhaps because: “The search for Knowledge has been continuous,
relentless.” So, I’ve been a spiritual nerd because what
was going on around me did not make sense. It still doesn’t. It seems possible
daily to find even more silliness, even as there is so much pain and suffering
in the world.
On the cross, Jesus says, “Father forgive them for
they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34 King James
That may be taken literally for the Romans who
divided his clothes and cast lots, but years ago, recognizing the failure of
intelligence in the world, it seemed that Jesus was asking forgiveness for all of
Humanity then, which can be extended to the present, for objectively still “they(we)
know not what they(we) do.”
Steps to Knowledge is a path to knowing, one more
direct and structured than the traditions of the historic traditions. Actual
knowing might also incur some risk if acted upon. Let us continue.
NNC
P.S. At Step 252, 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.
