Step 212 - I gain strength from all who practice with me. (MP3) Entry for Step 211 - I have great friends beyond this world.

Greetings All –

Step 212 - I gain strength from all who practice with me. (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

I gain strength from all who practice with me. Step 212

YOU DO GAIN STRENGTH FROM ALL WHO PRACTICE WITH YOU, for every mind that attempts to engage itself with Knowledge strengthens all other minds in doing so as well. In this, you cast your influence upon the world. In this, all others who seek to serve a true purpose cast their influence upon you. This counteracts the ignorant forces of the world. This counteracts the destructive forces in the world. This casts its influence on all minds to begin to awaken.

RECEIVE FAITH FROM TODAY’S IDEA, then, for faith it will give you as you realize that your own application is so greatly supplemented by the application of others. This will transcend any sense of inadequacy that you may have. This will help you overcome any sense of ambivalence regarding true preparation, for all other minds that are engaged in the reclamation of Knowledge are available to assist you here and now.

THUS, GREATNESS IS WITH YOU, the greatness of Knowledge and the greatness of all those who seek to reclaim Knowledge. With them you share a true purpose, for your true purpose is to keep Knowledge alive in the world. From Knowledge all things of good, whether they be of a spiritual or material nature, are bestowed upon the races for whom they are intended.

UPON THE HOUR REPEAT TODAY’S IDEA, and in your deeper practice periods attempt to receive the influence of all who are attempting to reclaim Knowledge. Allow their gift to enter into your mind so that you may experience true appreciation for life and begin to understand the meaning and efficacy of your own efforts as a student of Knowledge.

PRACTICE 212: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Yesterday:  Step 211 - I have great friends beyond this world.

What does this mean? On the day I did this Step, February 12, 2000, I wrote on the Step page in my book:

“Knowledge: The Spiritual Inter Galactic Internet that connects family.” Trying to put in common terms what I’m hearing in the message.  

From the Journal:

Because I’d made reference to a Beatles tune on this day, I’ve proved a YouTube link. Also a link for the Learning Organization Dialogue.

6:34 a.m. Saturday, February 12, 2000 – Dad's birthday is the 16th. I'm up to continue S2K. I had a dream where David's purpose was his two children.

→ bottoms up regions – regions empower

7:26 a.m. – 211 – "I have great friends beyond this world." In stillness a connection and realization that regions and cooperation are issues everywhere.

– Beatles – "Here,There and Everywhere"

10:15 a.m. – Long reply to an individual who responded to my LO post – [Learning-Org Dialog on Learning Organizations]

Reward communication – taking the risk to say something.

the dominated survive more often than the dominators. Those without gentle power and perspective – will not be sustained.

→ Local governments are intentional communities – they were chartered to do and be some-thing.

Virginia PDC's are chartered as well – but the intent was weak because they didn't know what it was to do for them –

Staff/me – have held it together for them until they taken ownership.

Let's review the intent – but goal – my vision is that they see themselves as an intentional community – that they in fact are.

LTWK – and S2K have given me the tools/perspective I was seeking. It is proof that… ?

As the PDC names go their own way, we must not lose sight of the Planning District GIS

Virginia’s Statewide Planning District based GIS

Let us continue. We are building a greater perspective on the world, the universe and life at many scales.

NNC

Journal second time x2 Step 211.  This is for those who have completed Steps once. Doing Steps with only the texts, messages and your life experience, including what you may have studied and practiced is your journey. I’m showing Step comments after the Step, so as not to influence you in advance. It is a wilderness trek to be left to your own wits, but then you can also listen more closely for guides, angels and teachers, always first saying: “I surround and protect myself with the Love and the Grace of God.” Thankfully, I was taught this practice in 1989.

P.S. 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.

Step 211 - I have great friends beyond this world. (MP3) Entry for Step 210 - Review

Greetings All –

Step 211 - I have great friends beyond this world. (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

I have great friends beyond this world. Step 211

YOU HAVE GREAT FRIENDS BEYOND THIS WORLD. That is why humanity is seeking to enter into the Greater Community because the Greater Community represents a broader range of its true relationships. You have true friends beyond the world because you are not alone in the world and you are not alone in the Greater Community of Worlds. You have friends beyond this world because your Spiritual Family has its representatives everywhere. You have friends beyond this world because you are working not merely on the evolution of your world but on the evolution of the universe as well. Beyond your imagination, beyond your conceptual capabilities, this is most certainly true.

FEEL, THEN, THE GREATNESS OF THE UNIVERSE in which you live. Feel, then, the opportunity you have to serve the Greater Community of which your world is a part. You serve your great friends within the world and your friends beyond, for the work of Knowledge goes on everywhere. It is the attraction of God. It is the application of good. It is the force that redeems all separated minds and gives purpose, meaning and direction to the universe. Regardless of the mechanism of physical life, its value is determined by its origin and its destiny, both of which are beyond your comprehension. Realizing that Knowledge is the means that propels the world in its true direction, you can then value and receive that which gives your life purpose, meaning and direction.

UPON THE HOUR TODAY consider that you have friends beyond this world, both in other worlds and beyond the visible as well. Consider that you have this greater association. In your two deeper practice periods today, allow your mind to enter stillness so that such things may be experienced. Do not dwell upon them in your imagination, but allow instead for your mind to become still so that it may bestow Knowledge into your awareness and experience. You have friends beyond this world, and they are practicing with you today.

PRACTICE 211: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Yesterday:  Step 210 - Review

When making journal entries, it is important to note the right day, date and time. It was hard for me to figure out why the Review came on Friday instead of Saturday, as I’ paused early on to get that alignment. I had to go and review my calendars for that period to figure out why things did not match my expectation. Eventually I remembered that I’d skipped ahead for a more positive Step from 200 to 201, and that put me on a Friday for review, which is why the journal seemed confused.

Two graphics are included, the first a very simple mind map, a technique I’ve used since learning of it at a World Future Society event in the early 1980’s. It is a technique that is part of the Plan-Do personal planning process.   

From the Journal:

Friday, February 11, 2000

2:40 p.m. Here in the wilderness? – After Rotary – I need to connect. Went home for a short meditation; only could do 15 minutes, though timer set for 30. After that – a need/desire for coffee – my mind map attempt was basic and reproduced here:

[Yes - Knowledge is missing its last e, not a cropping error.]

So I went to LTWK – and in Spiritual Development reread about the differences between communities of law and communities of Knowledge. They are different. I want the Community of Knowledge. At work – in the world – we deal in communities of law. It is a matter of scale.

So my burn out work dilemma is that I'm trying to get the community of knowledge in a community of law

 

9:30 p.m. Two week review. S2K. How am I doing as a student? Very hard to do hourly – the meditations have been short this past week, though in Texas at David's not – no problem.

I've had some tough days relating this to the world and keeping my discipline. Energy with --- has been up and down.

>Regions – a new one planet geography of community e–regions

Why am I even concerned with regions?

Public focuses on taxes – not what is done with them.

The S2K goal – a stronger minds in service he spirit/KNOWLEDGE

11 p.m. As a student – average – C or C-/ too distracted – bringing in too much

The Steps page contains a self-evaluation from 2009:

It is easy to judge one’s self as a: “slow student,” however the slowness, looking again six years later – 2015, is just a consequence of the depth of the material. Each time one returns to a Step or text, there is always more in there than you had seen in prior readings. It is, I think, because as a student, one has lived in the world with the greater community perspective, contemplating the new perspective, expanding one’s own thought and receptivity to outside perspectives, and thus new insight appears. It is the thinking mind as a compost heap of ideas, generating richer soil. Like a tree, each season a new ring is added to the core, roots go deeper, branches reach higher, and stronger winds can be survived. As a student, I have certainly grown, yet remain from the greater community perspective, a “beginning student.” “In the beginning” is a vast territory.

For example, in the review today, done outdoors in the woods, reading again Step 202  – “I behold the Greater Community today,” this grabbed me: “You do not live in a human universe. You do not live in a human world. You do not live a purely human life.”

Spending time with that, I recognized that I’d been the only person on the trail most of the four hours I’d been there. This part of the world, Shenandoah National Park, was trees, rocks, plants, birds and mammals, to it was easy to again see that humanity in the world’s environment is as an optional species. Nature would not miss us. The world is not human, though humans now are the dominant species. Perspectives change as a consequence of this practice. Let us continue deliberately.

NNC

 

Journal second time x2 Step 210.  This is for those who have completed Steps once. Doing Steps with only the texts, messages and your life experience, including what you may have studied and practiced is your journey. I’m showing Step comments after the Step, so as not to influence you in advance. It is a wilderness trek to be left to your own wits, but then you can also listen more closely for guides, angels and teachers, always first saying: “I surround and protect myself with the Love and the Grace of God.” Thankfully, I was taught this practice in 1989.

P.S. 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.

Step 210 – Review ~ engaging your mind actively on its behalf. (MP3) Entry for Step 209 - I will not be cruel with myself today.

Greetings All –

Step 210 – Review~ engaging your mind actively on its behalf. (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]

 

TODAY REVIEW THE PAST TWO WEEKS OF PREPARATION, reading each lesson as it is given and recalling your practice for that day. In your long practice period today once again begin to assess the progression of events and all of your practices. Begin to see that there is a relationship between how you apply your mind and what you experience as a result. View your life objectively, without guilt or blame, so that you may understand how your life is truly emerging.

YOUR LONG PRACTICE PERIOD TODAY will see you engaging your mind actively on its behalf. You are learning to become objective about your own progress as a student. You are learning to become objective about the nature of learning itself. You are learning to become objective so that you may see. Allow this Review, then, to give you greater perspective about the work of Knowledge in the world and the presence of Knowledge in your life.

PRACTICE 210: One long practice period.

Yesterday:  Step 209 - I will not be cruel with myself today.

This Step includes a reference to “crown of thorns” in the first paragraph: 

“DO NOT BE CRUEL TO YOURSELF by attempting to wear your crown of thorns, which represents your system of beliefs and assumptions. Do not project upon yourself the weight of blame and unforgiveness. Do not attempt to force your mind to exemplify those qualities that you hold dear, for they will arise naturally from Knowledge.”

In Christianity, the placement of this crown on Jesus by the Roman soldiers is an act intended to humiliate Jesus. He did not put on the crown himself, nor do Christians, but the NM speaks of the crown this way in Greater Community Spirituality:

“This is what it means to wear a crown of thorns. This is when the mind is a crown of thorns. You wear it, but it torments you. It seems to give you a kingly title, but in fact it is a harness of misery. It seems to elevate you and give you stature in the world, but in fact it cuts you and hurts you, binds you and mocks you. In order for the mind to become a halo instead of a crown of thorns, you must affirm your authority.”

The only other teaching that has a similar use is "A Course in Miracles." As a Christian, it didn’t make sense there either, way back in the 1990's.

The first time on this Step, I made no note of this. In the last year I brought this up with other students as to how to understand it, as it may be a barrier. As of July 22, 2014, the first time I published this Step journal, I’ve resolved The Teachers use of the term in this way: for it to make sense, we have to be the Romans mocking ourselves. In fact, we and other Christians have done this due to the emphasis in Christian teachings on the suffering of Jesus. To be martyrs, to suffer as Jesus did, without sin, is something we may be taught to emulate. We judge ourselves, which Steps teaches us to avoid, and take on the burdens of the world, including the mistreatment of Jesus. This can be ego, our mind, making us fail due to idealism and judgement.

Shocking as it is, we may in-fact put on a “crown of thorns” to honor the suffering of Jesus, but that is the wrong message to receive and to send. This is the teaching as I understand it. Anyone without a strong Christian view of the "Crown of Thorns" as mocking may overlook the thinking connected to the term.

Little things can take a long time to resolve. On this point, for me – only fourteen years. Perhaps you’ll be quicker at it, or it’s not an issue at all.

From the Journal:

6:20 a.m. February 10, 2000 Thursday - there is no time for logic and rationality. The idea of maintaining models for transportation plans disappears w/o maintenance folks.

Step 209 - "I will not be cruel with myself today." Have I learned anything? Yes, but I've tried to learn too many things. I actually thought I had time to learn the flute, to drum, so I started too many things – interest was neither time nor talent. I've gone down hundreds of paths – now to prune the tree – focus on the fruitful areas – stay strong – get a broader perspective. Know the mission. (2/11/2000 – Actually – computer replaced/displaced drum/flute.)

– S2K – Practice 1 – In the stillness – "Allow yourself to be blessed so that you may bless the world. Allow yourself to bless the world so that you may be blessed."

---

8:15 p.m. --- I went to Winchester for Chips L… and his International Symposium. That will be work – every global org I find on the net I'm sending my local scale planet text and asking for feedback.

Practice #2 – only could do about 15 minutes.

community ='s market

regional market = regional community

There are whole's everywhere.

– scale – scale – scale

– I am not the PDC – I am using the pdc for my education.

There is much to learn and unlearn. Let us continue.

NNC

 

Journal second time x2 Step 209.  This is for those who have completed Steps once. Doing Steps with only the texts, messages and your life experience, including what you may have studied and practiced is your journey. I’m showing Step comments after the Step, so as not to influence you in advance. It is a wilderness trek to be left to your own wits, but then you can also listen more closely for guides, angels and teachers, always first saying: “I surround and protect myself with the Love and the Grace of God.” Thankfully, I was taught this practice in 1989.

P.S. 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.