Greetings All –
LET US NOW REVIEW THE PAST TWO WEEKS OF PREPARATION.
Once again review each step, rereading its instructions carefully and recalling
your practice for that particular day. Carry this forward for all the days in
this two-week period. Be objective and recognize where your practice could have
become deeper or more conscientious. Recognize how you still let the world
overtake you and how you need to reapply yourself with greater certainty and determination.
Do this objectively. Condemnation will only discourage you and will only lead
you to quit your participation, for condemnation is simply the decision not to
participate and the justification for not participating.
THEREFORE, DO NOT FALL INTO THIS HABIT, but view
your participation objectively. Here you will learn how to learn, and you will
learn how to prepare yourself and govern yourself. You must choose to
participate, and you must choose to deepen your participation. Every decision
you make on behalf of Knowledge is supported by the decisions of all others who
are making the same decision and by the power and the presence of your Teachers
who are with you. Thus, your decision for Knowledge, whenever it is made and supported,
is greatly amplified by the presence of all who practice with you and by the
presence of your Spiritual Teachers. This is certainly adequate to overcome any
obstacle you view within yourself or within your world.
THE POWER OF DECISION IS GIVEN TO YOU. Here the
power of decision is to view your participation objectively and to recognize where
it can be deepened and strengthened. Resolve within the next two weeks of
practice to carry forth what you have recognized as necessary this day. Here
you will be acting powerfully on your own
behalf, and the application of your power will be in the service of Knowledge,
for you are preparing to receive Knowledge. Here your will and your
determination are confirmed, for they serve a greater good.
PRACTICE 322: One long practice period.
Paragraph one of Step carries, what was for me, “The Great
Promise,” a life free of conflict.
There are other promises in this Step. Many
benefits in life to be a Student of Knowledge.
From the Journal:
12:30
a.m. Friday, June 2, 2000 – Spent the last 90 minutes reading my obits – 1980 –
87 – long, hard years. It is a wonder I made it. After the Harmonic
Convergence/Urantia/ACIM – things got better. The kids also went to RI – And
TLC became part of my life – and the relationship with Cindy. No wonder I was
desperate – I've gotten this far S2K – but PDC upset – though the departure
goal was always there.
Starting
in 1989 – I was getting soul communication and the obits stopped. Only one –.late
one in 1997 –. The journal process became very strong.
→ New levels of
ignorance – I'm a beginning student, though age 53 – I must accept that in
spite of searching and attempting to learn, I encounter new levels of my own
ignorance.
As a
soul – I feel I have some value and gain some insight, done some things on the
order of contribution.
At
the surface we see good and bad, and live out what is ugly often.
7:03
p.m.. "The world is awaiting my contribution." This is in a new life?
It is very frustrating to me that I've got good instincts – but don't follow
through. Monday was the low point for stocks – I consider moves all weekend –
but never did it. – 1/3 – S&P is what it looks like I should do –
9 p.m.
Funky Friday. Too much at work. A gaf with Bev thanks to Henry M---. I cannot
do all the work – but there is no one else to do it.
Saturday,
June 3, 2000 – an idea while mowing: Rt 37/Fred. Co. – Make a local
strategy regional, embed it in a regional plan to make it stronger – use the
region to solve your problem. Everyone can use the region/the planet
Ending with that “regions.” It may become important
to your perspective at some time. It had been and remains my work. In the
journal I mention obits – short for obituaries. As I was working on techniques
for developing a personal plan in the 1980’s, writing of one’s obituary was a
means of determining what you wanted to be remembered for upon your death.
Such
a listing of accomplishments or non-accomplishments was to reveal your goals in
the world. I put in in my early Plan-Do process, but
people were not drawn to such an exercise, so I eliminated it. Personally it
was a great way to get rid of overwhelming stress. Here from June 15, 1987, the
start: “Death From Anxiety
Thomas J. Christoffel died today from ingrown
anxiety. The nameless fears rattled his brain away and he evaporated on a
redwood strained picnic table in the neighbor’s back yard. Tom had a promising
career ahead of him as a planner and futurist. It was his own present that he could
not handle. …”
In this day’s entry, I did mention the Harmonic
Convergence, which I heard about on TV, but was not aware of the “New Age” at
that time in 1989.
The journey was long, up to the point of meeting
Marshall Vian Summers, finding Greater Community Spirituality, and beginning
Steps to Knowledge.
Here, 14 years later, rereading my journals and
putting them up on this blog, is another level of learning and
self-understanding. It is my goal that others who journey alone, with their
thoughts and unseen guides as companions, find solace and recognition in this journey,
be it better, worse or simply different than their own.
Let us continue, for there is much more to
experience.
NNC
P.S. At Step 322, we are 43 Steps from the end –
Step 365. This is not the place to begin this Practice. If you’ve some interest
due to this or other Steps, you should go to the beginning blog post. From here you will learn about Steps to Knowledge
and can begin it on the day that makes sense; 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 post 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.
