Step 363 - Knowledge is my true desire because I am a student of Knowledge. Entry for Step 362 - I am learning to learn because I carry Knowledge within me today.

Greetings All –

Step 363 - Knowledge is my true desire because I am a student of Knowledge.

KNOWLEDGE IS YOUR TRUE DESIRE. Think not that your desires are false, for all desires, if recognized, are for Knowledge. It is because you have misinterpreted your desires or have attempted to use them to fortify other things that they have led you astray. Do not attempt to be without desire, for life is desire. Desire is purpose. Desire is meaning and direction. Yet, you must recognize your true desire, which is the desire for Knowledge to fulfill itself and to claim itself, the desire for Knowledge to save you and for you to save Knowledge. How can you save Knowledge? By holding it within yourself, by being a student of Knowledge, by carrying Knowledge everywhere you go, by reinforcing your awareness of Knowledge, by being simple with Knowledge and by not attempting to use Knowledge to fulfill your own aims and your own purposes.

CARRY FORTH THE NORMAL ACTIVITIES OF THE DAY, but carry Knowledge with you. If Knowledge is not in doubt, you need not be in doubt. If Knowledge is not afraid, you need not be afraid. If Knowledge is not changing the situation, you need not change the situation. Yet, if Knowledge holds you back, hold yourself back. If Knowledge changes the situation, change the situation. If Knowledge tells you to leave a circumstance, leave a circumstance. If Knowledge tells you to stay in a circumstance, stay in a circumstance. Here you become as simple and as powerful as Knowledge. Here you become Knowledge itself.

UPON THE HOUR REPEAT THE IDEA FOR TODAY and experience it. Within your inner life, experience it as well in your deeper meditation practices. Your inner and outer life are where you apply yourself and where you give yourself. They are where you carry Knowledge. In time, you will see that Knowledge will carry you.

PRACTICE 363: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Yesterday:  Step 362 - I am learning to learn because I carry Knowledge within me today.

Though formatted as a paragraph, the beginning of Step 362 seems to me that it might be shown and read, as a poem, line by line, for the true emphasis to emerge:

YOU ARE LEARNING TO LEARN.

You are learning to receive Knowledge.

You are learning to value Knowledge.

You are learning to carry Knowledge.

You are learning to express Knowledge.

You are learning to cultivate all of your mental and physical faculties that are essential for this overall preparation.

You are a consummate student.

Therefore, be totally engaged with your studenthood today, which will free you from false assumptions and from placing impossible burdens upon yourself.

The third paragraph begins: 

“LEARN TO LEARN. Learning to learn means that you are learning to participate.”

Learning to learn was a concept introduced to me in my planning career in a presentation I heard from Donald N. Michael, a professor of planning and public policy at the University of Michigan. The theme was, “learning to plan and planning to learn,” essentially the feedback loop of communications and design where you make improvement by comparing the actual results to what was intended.

It is a systems approach, but one that is time consuming and requires critical appraisal. That, it turns out, is hard for humans to do, because errors need to be recognized. Evolution does this; if adaptations are not made, there will be a reduction in population and possibly extinction.

Professor Michael published the book pictured in 1973, which though I would have liked to own it, I could not afford in the 1980’s.  In 2007 I was finally able to get a used copy through Amazon for $4.38, including shipping.

By owning the book, I recognize Professor Michael, now deceased, as a man of Knowledge, a teacher whose work greatly inspired and benefited my education and growth. You could get this book, if it is in your field, but consider the teachers in your life and field who gave to you and may still be contributing to Humanity's evolution, and honor them in some way.   

Like journaling, personal planning is important. I developed a system in the 1980’s and taught it for a while. You can download Plan-Do for free. It will be some work, but goals and objectives work better than New Year’s Resolutions. The plan you generate for yourself or group, will sync with the Four Pillars. At the same link is the Insight Journal pieces and something new, a version called Creativity Journaling: The Good Ideas Trapper Keeper. It is one page also, but for a younger audience. I did it for my grandchildren and two nieces for New Year’s.  

Learning is a great and continuous challenge.

Again, the journal entries are few:

7:50 a.m. Thursday, July 13, 2000 – Besides trying to be and do too much, what is my problem?

I'm nearing the end of the Steps which I'll repeat soon.

This morning, on rising, I decided the challenge was to make the most of this temporary life for the benefit of my true life. Life – that was the "answer" to the question unknown, as I passed Naked Mountain – truth – yesterday about 8 p.m.

Today's Step – 362 – "I am learning to learn because I carry Knowledge within me today."

5:33 p.m. At home – on the patio. Practice #1 –

11:30 p.m. Practice #2 was at 5 trees on the trail. Harder to get into the stillness – once there – don't want to leave. – Now to focus on the Four Pillars.

Three more days until year’s end, and on January 1, 2015, the entries will be based on my journal entries from the second time. I will also review the first year Step posts and correct or add as needed. The format and style changed a bit as I went through my history. There will be a year one Tweet and year two Tweet, so at either round, one can use my experiences as a companion.

Because I’ve not been looking ahead in the journals, as I began to prepare for January 1, 2015 – I saw that I took a month off between round one and round two to study “Living the Way of Knowledge.” I’ve decided to begin with Step 1, round two on January 1 and will have to figure out how to cover what happens that month.

My general experience has been that I do better when I have a Step a day. Trying to use a Greater Community book as a source of Steps, say a chapter a day or so, has not worked well.

Just like my hike to Patience on the Dickey Ridge trail is never the same, Steps are never the same, because there is more experience that we can bring to them each time.

Anticipating completion of this phase, let us continue.

NNC

 

P.S. At Step 363, we are two Steps from the end – Step 365. 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. January 1, 2015 is an option. 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.