10/4/14

Step 277 - My ideas are small, but Knowledge is great. Entry for Step 276 - Knowledge is my salvation.


Greetings All –


REALIZING THE TRUTH OF THIS STATEMENT will allow you to align yourself with the source of all Knowledge. Then you can escape the darkness of the world of imagination. Imagination is unstable, and even its brightest moments can turn to darkness in a second. Even  its greatest inspirations can be bitterly discouraged with the slightest provocation. Here there is no certainty. Here there is no reality. Here nothing is trustworthy, for only change can be expected. That which is gifted and valued will most certainly be lost. That which is grim and destructive will most certainly pursue you.


SUCH IS A LIFE LIVED IN IMAGINATION. Such is a life lived in the isolation of your own thinking. Do not underestimate the power of Knowledge to liberate you from this hopeless situation where nothing genuine can be discerned, where no true meaning can be acquired and where nothing that is permanent and real can be realized and established. It is your salvation out of the darkness of your separate imagination that will lead you into the reality of life and will redeem you there.


REALIZE HERE THAT EVEN YOUR GREATEST IDEAS, even those ideas born of Knowledge, are small in contrast to Knowledge itself. Knowledge is the great source of your being as it is expressing itself in your individual life. Therefore, honor what is great and realize what is small. Realize that in time as Knowledge begins to emerge within you and as you allow it to express itself ever more freely, you will begin to recognize those thoughts that emanate from Knowledge and those thoughts that are merely imagined. Yet, even thoughts from Knowledge, which are far more powerful and effective than any other thought that you can imagine, even these thoughts which are the  seeds of true understanding in the world are small in  contrast to Knowledge.


REMEMBER UPON THE HOUR THE POWER OF THIS IDEA, for it is given to liberate you from your own confusion and false assumptions. In your deeper practice periods today, apply your mind actively. Attempt to look at every idea that you hold dear, whether it be positive or negative. Look at any idea that you believe in or adhere to. Examine your relationship to the primary ideas that govern your life. Then, remind yourself after you look at each one that Knowledge is far greater than that idea. Here you will realize that there is a means for you to escape the world of ideas and enter the world of relationship, where everything is viable, real and based upon a foundation that can never change.


PRACTICE 277: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.



Salvation! Many religions promise salvation from our sins, errors, missing the mark, being born with original sin, or carrying Karmic debts, perhaps recorded in the Akashic Records. In our lives we get the feeling that something is wrong and correcting that, we learn, requires salvation.

This day, October 3, 2014, I took comfort in it as an affirmation: “Knowledge is my salvation.” I’m at the 2014 Encampment of the New Message, at the YCMA of the Rockies near Estes Park, Colorado with a hundred other Students. Perhaps one day you will attend one of these events. Though many of the concepts are simple, it is not easy. No “Instant Karma.”

Looking to the day of this Step in 2000, I underlined almost every sentence on the page.



When it came to the journal, there was not much recorded, beyond some of the personal pain associated with my unburdening:

6:40 a.m. Tuesday, April 18, 2000 – Feeling hurt by the title/responsibility change – even though it has set me free. We've gone from mean and lean to bureaucratic. It was necessary – and probably for the best – but it is a hammer hit that's hard on my ego.

On to S2K. When it is time to act I will act.

12:15 a.m. Wednesday, April 19, 2000

Tuesday had movement on 2 issues -  project.  A regional housing organization and the beginning of the public mobility project.

Tom Christoffel - is my brand.

Many Steps can be recognized as affirmations, though they may not feel like that when initially encountered for study. “Knowledge is my salvation.” How so? Let us continue.

NNC



P.S. At Step 277, 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