Greetings All –
ABOVE ALL ELSE SEEK KNOWLEDGE, for Knowledge will
give you all else that you need. You will seek Knowledge with total conviction
when you realize that any other avenue of endeavor and any other use of your
mind and body will be hopeless and will lead you into greater confusion. For
without Knowledge, you can only learn that you need Knowledge, and with
Knowledge, all true learning will proceed. Your past has already taught you the
great need for Knowledge. You need not learn this again and again. Why repeat the
same lesson over and over, thinking that it will yield for you a different
result?
OF YOURSELF YOU CAN DO NOTHING. Without Knowledge
you can only generate more imagination. Therefore, there is one answer to your
one greatest need, and the one answer will meet all other needs that emanate
from your one great need. Your need is fundamental and the response to your
need is fundamental. There is no complexity here, for in essence you need
Knowledge to live meaningfully. You need Knowledge to advance. You need
Knowledge to realize your True Self. You need Knowledge to fulfill your destiny
in the world. Without Knowledge, you will simply wander around and come once
again to realize that you need Knowledge.
THIS IS A DAY OF THANKSGIVING, for your prayers
have been answered. Your need has been responded to. The gift has been given to
you to reclaim your Knowledge. Above all else seek that which will serve
everything through you. In this, your need and the remedy for your life will
become simple, and you will be able to proceed in certainty and patience,
becoming a consistent student of Knowledge. Day by day you are reclaiming your
True Self. Day by day you are escaping all else that seeks to pull you into the
darkness of confusion. Day by day that which is unreal begins to disintegrate
and that which is genuine begins to emerge.
UPON THE HOUR TODAY remember and affirm this great
truth—that you seek Knowledge above all else. In your deeper meditation practices,
allow yourself to enter stillness. Allow your life to be transformed. Allow
Knowledge to emerge so that you may be a vehicle for its expression, for in
this you will find happiness.
PRACTICE 281: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
Yesterday: Step 280 - Review
Returning to the journal to read these entries of 14
years ago, I begin to see how Steps is changing, improving my life. The stress
I was under may have made the results seem greater, but it was the stresses
that pushed me along to the Steps.
Although I found many interesting things in “Greater
Community Spirituality,” the first book I read, it seemed to me like a
commercial for Steps. Throughout it, the reader was being advised to take Steps
to Knowledge. As it turned out, that was no commercial, but wise advice I was
slow to follow.
If you are in the Steps, you may have had similar
experiences. In the journal entry I’m bolding and underlining the comments that
bear out, at least to me, signs of benefit from the Steps practice.
2:20
p.m. Saturday, April 22, 2000 – at VA Beach – room 635 – Conference Center. I
spent the last 90 minutes eating and surfing TV. Nothing is on. I could go to
A.R.E. This is two-week review for S2K.
Cindy
is with her friend Penny. I have about 5 hours to myself. I'm fatigued from the week, the drive, from life. Yet – S2K lifts me
up.
I'll
walk the beach a little. There's no place to go. I've looked for a Word 2000/MS
Works book. I want to be prepared when I get my new PC. I want to be a power
user in order to present my region's content.
I
must learn the logic behind Word. I've not grasped that before. I can't worry
too much about software or technology wars. I just need to be the user.
---
2:50
p.m. The long practice – Step 280
Knowledge
has conveniently provided a lawn chair on the beach in front of the hotel. It
is windy, sunny – but not too cool for this practice that might otherwise be
done @ Little Bear. This is the
experience of freedom – here in this context – I am truly free – still in the
changing world. At peace – and wishing others were with me. It is like
being on the stern of the USS Barney DDG-6 – In the North Atlantic – perched
atop the ocean riding a steel hull – the power below – harmless, yet immense. At a time like this I feel I might
disappear into nature for several hundred years.
Step
267 – 279 → Get an overview
of what has happened in the past two weeks. I have gone from slave to my work
to free man with time for my mission of regions work. I have time for my other
pillars –
3:22
p.m. Back on a new bench on the dune deck after getting another jacket for
below my wind breaker. Be prepared.
How to do this review? I just read my 3 x 5 with
the daily Steps. There has been great movement in my life these last two weeks.
I'm less ego driven Tom and more open to the world I can get into space easily
– as I've done a few times in writing this.
4:45 p.m. I've completed reading the journal
entries for the past two weeks. I Am a Student of Knowledge. This in the core
of my being – spirit leading mind and body, both of which are quite tired.
6:15
p.m. Ate dinner, ice cream, coffee –
listening to HOS – caravan. Percussive music. As I pursue Knowledge these the
versions fall away? I don't know. My sense is that I'm not here to save the
world. No one is – reclamation of Knowledge is a greater work of the many. I
endeavor to remain open… I'm reading the Steps of the last 2 weeks as
the final piece of my practice.
As
you can see, I’m feeling well about having finally begun Steps and the changes
in my understanding brought about by these exercises. Even if the
recommendations of The Teachers were commercial, it really was a product I
needed.
One
surprise reading the journal was this: “I just read my 3 x 5 with the daily Steps. I have a file basket of 3 x 5 index cards,
but thought I began those the second year. In fact I started early on. These I carried
with me during the day so I could review them throughout the day. Now I use the
cell phone to reread the Step during the day.
This
is what they looked like – four cards scanned at once.
Use
of index cards has been a staple in my life. Other of these uses may come up in
the days ahead. This Review day was a good day, not because of any external
event, but because the prior 279 practices. I’d guess you’ve had some good
days, or you wouldn’t still be doing the practices. Let us continue.
NNC
P.S. At Step 281, 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.