Greetings All –
ONLY THE FREE CAN LOVE THE WORLD, for only the free
can give to the world. Only they can fully recognize the world’s need and their
own contribution. Only the free can love the world because only they can see
that the world has supported and served them to enable them to become free and
to become contributors to the world. Because the world so yearns for your
contribution, it has given itself to your preparation so that you may learn to
be a contributor. It has fortified this through the truth that exists in the
world and through the denial of truth that exists in the world.
IN ALL WAYS THE WORLD SERVES THE EMERGENCE OF KNOWLEDGE.
Though the world contradicts Knowledge and seems to deny, to reject and to
attack Knowledge, if seen from this perspective, you will realize that it
actually serves Knowledge. How can anything compete with Knowledge? How can
anything deny Knowledge? Anything that seems to deny Knowledge only calls for
Knowledge and pleads for Knowledge to come. Those in confusion, in darkness and
in despair yearn for relief and comfort. And though they do not understand the message
of their own plight, those who are with Knowledge can perceive this and through
Wisdom will learn how to serve these individuals, all individuals and the world
as a whole.
TODAY UPON THE HOUR REMIND YOURSELF that as you
become free, you will be able to love the world. As you learn to love the
world, you will be able to become free because you are in this world but not of
this world. Because you are in this world, you are representing that which you
have brought with you from your Ancient Home. How simple and clear this is with
Knowledge, and yet how difficult it is to grasp when you are in your own
imagination and are entertaining your own separate ideas. That is why you
practice—so you may confirm that which is natural to you and step away from
that which is unnatural to you.
IN YOUR DEEPER MEDITATION PRACTICES once again
receive the freedom that comes to you in stillness and receptivity. A mind that
is still is a mind that is unfettered and free. It will naturally expand
itself, and within this expansion it will naturally express that which is most natural
to it. Thus, in your deeper meditations you practice receiving, and in your
hourly practices you practice giving. You are free to love the world today, and
the world needs your freedom because it needs your love.
PRACTICE 329: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
Even though this Step had been done before, on this
day, June 9, 2000, noting is recorded in the journal. All I have is the entries
on the Steps page.
In response apparently to the notion that some: “have given you a reminder that Knowledge is
necessary, and they have demonstrated to you a life without Knowledge,” I wrote: “People who have only pain to give.” The next paragraph contains the amazing thought: “If there were no denial of Knowledge in the world, you
could not learn here.”
We only learn here because of denial of Knowledge.
Useful information, but not encouraging at this point.
A few more thoughts on the second page relating to:
“Difference
between what is known and what is practiced – the learning gap. Learn to avoid
failure – or need to learn from failure.”
I’d spent most of my life learning up to this
point, and the notion of needing to learn from failure was not new. An
engineering friend of mine said of local governments, challenged to understand the full value of
infrastructure investment, rather than doing the absolute minimum, “If we are
going to fail, then we should at least fail forward.”
The final note on the page was true then, and has
remained true all my years of study:
Let us continue.
NNC
P.S. At Step 329, we are 36 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.
