Greetings All –
HOW CAN STILLNESS BE A GIFT, you may ask. It is a
gift because it is an expression of certainty and peace. How can stillness be a
gift to the world? Because your stillness allows Knowledge to express itself
through you. How can stillness be a gift to the world? Because your stillness
enables all other minds to be still so that they may know. A mind in conflict
cannot be still. A mind that is desperately seeking for resolution cannot be
still. A mind that is turbulent with its own evaluations cannot be still. Thus,
as you present the stillness that you are now cultivating to the world, you
give all other minds that recognize you the opportunity and the demonstration
that will enable them to enter stillness themselves. You are, in essence, communicating
that peace and freedom are possible and that there is a great presence of
Knowledge in the world, calling upon each separated and tormented mind.
YOUR STILLNESS IS A GIFT. It will calm all minds.
It will still all controversies. It will have a calming, soothing effect on all
who suffer under the weight of their own imagination. This, then, is a great
gift. It is not your only gift, for you will also give through your ideas, your
actions and your accomplishments in the world. Here you will demonstrate the
evolving qualities of mind that are required of you as a student of Knowledge. Yet,
of all that you may contribute to the world, your stillness will have the
greatest effect, for in stillness you will resonate with all other minds, you
will calm all other minds and you will be extending true peace into the world
and the freedom that it demonstrates.
TODAY REMEMBER THE IMPORTANCE OF STILLNESS upon the
hour. Look about at the world of turbulence and realize its great application there.
In your two deeper meditation practices, give yourself again to stillness.
Allow yourself to escape the ambivalence and uncertainty that haunt you and
that hold you back. Come closer to the realm of stillness, which is the realm
of Knowledge, for there you will find peace and certainty. This is God’s gift
to you, and this will be your gift to the world.
PRACTICE 284: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
The term “ambivalent/ambivalence” is first used in
Step 173. It is also found in Wisdom I and II. What does it mean? Wikipedia
follows:
Simultaneously experiencing or expressing opposing
or contradictory feelings, beliefs, or motivations.
1. Alternately having one opinion or feeling, and
then the opposite.
This seems accurate, but there is more to this Step. In the margin
I wrote “to find the one direction that unites.”
Looking at the full pages:
Understanding this requires work over many hours, days,
years.
From the Journal:
April
24, 2000
-
Region as territory of peers. It includes your neighbors, but the relationship
is different. Your tribe/family – is the primary group network – it is
intentional.
Step
283 – the path of the peacemaker is organization – strategic organization –
that removes conflict. Peace is in organization – the gift of administration.
Organization for the
body of man.
We
live, as humans, in the model for the world – our own bodies.
Organs
are whole – parts of networks.
-
The humans of the world require a flexible organization to deal with the level
of change generated by population growth and the technology’s acceleration of
communication.
The
“region” is an organizing principle – local is more common. Dynamic regions are
needed.
The
“local” organizations – local organs – must incorporate the needs of the
greater body.
Regions
are DNA genetics.
Earth
as the body of Christ. -
My thoughts are an application of the Step to my line of thought. Still working on not being ambivalent. Let
us continue.
NNC
P.S. At Step 284, 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.
