Greetings All –
WHAT IS COMMITMENT but the natural expression of
your true desire? It frees you; it does not bind you. It engages you; it does
not obligate you. It fortifies you; it does not limit you. True commitment is
born of true Knowledge, of which you yourself are born. In this final step in
this stage of your preparation, give yourself and your entire day to practice.
HONOR YOURSELF for accomplishing a remarkable and
substantial task in completing this one year of preparation. Honor your Knowledge
for giving you the desire to participate and the strength to participate. Honor
your Knowledge for giving you the vision that is now emerging. Honor all who
have served you in your life—your family, your parents, your friends and your
seeming enemies and adversaries. Honor all who have enabled you to value
Knowledge and who have given you the strength and the resolve to undertake the preparation
for Knowledge. Remember your Teachers as well, for they remember you and abide
with you even now. Remember that you are a student of Knowledge, and with this
you will be able to proceed forward in your preparation.
TODAY UPON THE HOUR and in your two deeper
meditation practices, give yourself. Consider all that is given to you. Let
this be a day of accomplishment and gratitude. Let this be a day to honor that Knowledge
is real in you and that you are real in Knowledge. Open yourself to the next
step beyond this program. The next step is awaiting you—a step that will
meaningfully engage you with other students of Knowledge, a step that will
meaningfully engage you with those who have advanced beyond what you have
accomplished thus far, a step that will engage you in serving those who are
only beginning to advance in the stage that you have just completed. Thus, you
receive from those ahead of you and you give to those behind you. Thus, all are
nurtured and supported in their return Home to God. Thus it is that you follow
and you lead, you receive and you give. Thus it is that all of your activities
become uniform and you find escape from all negative imagination. Thus it is
that you are a student of Knowledge. And thus it is that Knowledge blesses you
who are meant to bless the world.
Nasi
Novare Coram
NNC Drawing by Ellen
The notion of being carried by Knowledge becomes
comforting. The Step says: “Seen correctly,
you will realize your true relationship to Knowledge. You will realize that you
carry Knowledge within you and that Knowledge carries your well-being within
itself.”
All that is required is to practice and be attentive.
At the bottom of the page I pictured myself carrying Knowledge and my well-being:
“K → Tom’s well being within K.”
From the Journal:
12:19
a.m. Saturday, July 15, 2000 –
Step
364 – "Knowledge carries me because I am a student of Knowledge."
This feels good – I need to be carried some days – perhaps all days.
→ It will be
necessary to do Steps again.
→ Starting points
might be January 1, 2001 or October 16. I'd finish October 16, 2001 – age 55 –
lots that I might do…
1:19
a.m. Not yet ready to sleep – reading about relationships in–LTWK still learning how to live at age 53 –
trying to figure it out.
5:07
p.m. Step 364 – "Knowledge carries me because I am a student of
Knowledge." I've been carried all day preparing Regional Intelligence
Designs for the web and WFS as business cards. I could not stop for Practice
#1. Now done – I head for the trail. I read the lesson at 12:19 a.m.
In
looking at it this afternoon – I knew I was carried through this work.
6:22
p.m. @ Little Bear. Carried the 2 pound weights all the way up. Just before I
left Sarah called. She got a job as grocery carryout at Albertson's – I was so
happy for her – she passed her drug test and got the job on her own with no
help from MH/MR Services. I'm happy for my RI progress – but nothing exceeds
the joy I have for Sarah.
Walking
through the woods the thought of me carrying Knowledge, but in fact being
carried by Knowledge, was clear.
---
On this day I’m looking ahead to a second passage
through Steps and involved also with “Living The
Way of Knowledge” which I
started July 6, 2000, nine days before. It had just been made available by the
Society.
The blogging of my second time experience will
begin January 1, 2015 with Step 1, at this blog. To cover those elements of “a student
experience” in relation to other parts of the New Message, it seems that
another blog venue will be required.
Also, as a study aid in 2015, there will be audio
Student Spoken Steps available that are MP3 downloadable, to assist in
practice.
NNC
P.S. At Step 365 we finish passage through the Steps
today. 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. Doing so
on 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.
