10/9/14

Step 282 - I will learn to accept the responsibility of carrying Knowledge in the world. Entry for Step 281 - Above all else I seek Knowledge.


Greetings All –


CARRYING KNOWLEDGE IN THE WORLD requires responsibility. Your responsibility is to follow Knowledge and to learn to express Knowledge adequately and purposefully. In this, your human abilities will need to be cultivated and elevated. Discernment and all the other qualities of value within yourself will need to be cultivated as well, for you must learn to express that which you carry. You must learn to follow it and become a worthy vehicle for it. This is the true meaning of all individual development. This is where individual development has genuine purpose. This is where your growth and advancement have direction as well.


THEREFORE, ALLOW YOURSELF TO EXPERIENCE THE MEANING of today’s idea. Allow yourself to accept responsibility. It is not a weight upon your shoulders. It is a rite of passage for you, and in this all things that have confused and frustrated you within yourself will be given a new and purposeful application. Realize that Knowledge carries responsibility. In this, you need to treat it with the seriousness that it requires, and yet with this seriousness, you receive the greatness and the peace that it will render to you. Over time, you will become a very, very finely-tuned vehicle for Knowledge in the world. In this, all things that require development will find development, and all things which merely hinder your progress will be relinquished.


IN YOUR DEEPER PRACTICES IN STILLNESS TODAY, recognize that you have a responsibility to cultivate your faculties of mind as a student of Knowledge. Exercise these responsibilities and do not drift away into imagination. Engage yourself as a student of Knowledge according to the requirements of your preparation, for you are now becoming a person of responsibility and a person of power.


PRACTICE 282: Two 30-minute practice periods.



“UPON THE HOUR TODAY remember and affirm this great truth—that you seek Knowledge above all else,” begins the third paragraph of this Step. 

The component parts are: “rememberthat you seek Knowledge above all else”  and “affirmthat you seek Knowledge above all else.” It is  not a suggested activity, but one to remember, as inherent in our being. Once recognized, then we are to affirm that you/we/me: “seek Knowledge above all else.”  

It is not optional, we can recognize this or not, in life, but Knowledge is sought above all else. Understanding this should affect how we live.

Journal references are bold and underlined, should you want to skip to those alone, or choose to look at that in the context of this student’s life:

7:40 a.m. Sunday, April 23, 2000 –

Education is divisive, goals unite. Edward T. Hall observed that people who were more educated – officers in the military compared to enlisted men, were more out for themselves and less concerned about the others. In communities – the same may be true, so the personas of Clarke, Frederick, Winchester etc. Need to unite – and goals can do that.

Orders can be given from above, in a military command environment – if those lines of authority exist.

In networking, people come to the table as equals. Like computer networks, protocol is required. It is a type of diplomacy.
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Play region / what is your home base?
What is your range of movement – car/walk – one mile – 45 minutes – what?

We live to play –

9:25 p.m. Still Easter Sunday. It has been a weird day – from the start – the drive to Unity Chesapeake – there the minister, a different, even more dynamic woman minister Elizabeth Thompson – Stocks – in a full church.  ---

In the bookstore at Unity I checked out a book by Charles Whitfield about "Boundaries." It said a hurt/abandoned child adult would marry someone with the traits of the parent they felt hurt/abuse them as well as traits of the one that they liked. Perfectionism was a trait of a person w/boundary problems.

From church we went roaming to dine at a burger joint – then to Penny S… 's. We went to the Beach in separate cars. I was able to do practice #1 at A.R.E. The rest of the afternoon was lost – Easter Sunday the malls are closed, so there was nowhere to shop to dissipate the energy of frustration.

The Practice today "Above all else I seek Knowledge," was hard to envision as I withdraw from the world. Did lots of book searching at the Heritage Store and ARE – only looking for geographic stuff – no metaphysical stuff appears important. For dinner – Mexican – very good – and a large margarita.

Called the kids. David not home. Sarah at AA – so I talked to M. E. She's calmed down from Friday – I told her it is nice to say our son is in business, but after 7 years it isn't true – it's a fantasy.

11:17 p.m. S2K – I'm less responsive to the world's attractions.

What I could write today in terms of a close look at this Step, was not where I was able to go 14 years ago. There may be an urgency in our desire to progress, but often only time and experience can get us to relative understanding. Let us continue.  

NNC



P.S. At Step 282, 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