Greetings All –
Step 280 - Review (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to
your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]
REVIEW THE PAST TWO WEEKS, beginning with the first
lesson in your Review period and continuing on each day up until the last
lesson. Try to gain an overview of all that has transpired in the past two
weeks. Try to see how you could deepen and improve your practice. Recognize how
much time and energy are wasted in ambivalence and idle speculation. Realize
how much of your energy is being wasted in doubt and confusion when you need
only abide with Knowledge. Your ability to follow that which is beyond your comprehension,
which is necessary here, will lead you to the greatest possible certainty that
life can render to you. Through this certainty, your ideas, your actions and
your perceptions will gain a uniformity that will allow them to be a powerful
expression in the world, where humanity is confused and lost in the ambivalence
of imagination. It is by following that you are able to give and you are able
to lead. You will recognize this in time as you exercise your freedom and allow
your freedom to exercise itself through you.
YOU ARE NOW A STUDENT OF KNOWLEDGE. Dedicate
yourself to the application of your preparation with increasing devotion and
involvement. Allow the mistakes of your past to motivate you. They need not be
and should not be a source of self-recrimination. They are intended now to be
understood as the demonstration of your need for Knowledge. Thus, you may be
very thankful that Knowledge is being given to you, for you are realizing that
above all else it is Knowledge which you seek.
PRACTICE 280: One long practice period.
5:20
a.m. Sometimes in S2K I only read a phrase or sentence of the practice and then
must bask in the energy it releases – e.g. today Step 279 "Freedom is not
a concept or an idea. It is an experience."
That was how April 21, 2000 began, as recorded in
the journal.
On the Steps page header, this:
The “approximately equal” sign is used, relating "Knowledge" to "Greater Community?" and "Great" to "Smaller." I’ve got the symbol wrong – the wavy line ~ should be on top over the equals = sign.
These are in-ink/out loud thinking. Correct? Only as representative of the process of seeking understanding.
At the end of the page, these notes:
“Be
still, and know that I am God” is from Psalm 46
10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be
exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
This is joined by “Ye shall seek the truth,…” which
has been covered before. These were and remain foundation thoughts that have
helped me exert some discernment on my journey. Stillness, Truth and God are
related.
The journal did record inspiration accompanied by
thoughts and details of life that day.
4:54
AM. April 21, 2000
–
Tom Christoffel, Strategic Regions Futurist
"Have
Heart. Will facilitate."
No
losers, the times they are a changin’ –
Awakened
early. Excited about going to the beach [City of Virginia Beach]. I will use this time to incubate my 1000 ideas.
5:20
a.m. Sometimes in S2K I only read a phrase or sentence of the practice and then
must bask in the energy it releases – e.g. today Step 279 "Freedom is not
a concept or an idea. It is an experience."
8
AM. Preparing for the retreat to the beach – A.R.E. – Where Edgar Cayce came to
work, where I lived for a time and was introduced to A.R.E. by Larry F---.
With
the title change I have gotten unknown freedom – I've been reading –
re-enfranchised. I can take care of my children, my wife, my home, my local
community – I'm not burdened by staff personalities. The transition will work.
Every
local community needs a regional strategy – it is a political strategy and a
market strategy. The political region is easier to define, but harder to work
with.
10:50
PM. At home. Not en route to VA Beach. That will be in 7 hours. The Weather
Channel showed severe weather from Tidewater to Baltimore. I told Cindy we
shouldn't go tonight. It has benefited me.
Prayers
for David, Jamie, Lane & Emily – M. E. has lost it.
Feel
free to skip over the mundane or relationship drama. It can be helpful to write
about it. The drama of life. Reason to cultivate Stillness and Knowledge.
Tomorrow review. Let us continue.
NNC
Journal second time x2
Step 279. 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.
