Greetings All –
Step 281 - Above all else
I seek Knowledge. (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to
your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]
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| Above all else I seek Knowledge. Step 281 |
ABOVE ALL ELSE SEEK KNOWLEDGE, for Knowledge will
give you all else that you need. You will seek Knowledge with total conviction
when you realize that any other avenue of endeavor and any other use of your
mind and body will be hopeless and will lead you into greater confusion. For
without Knowledge, you can only learn that you need Knowledge, and with
Knowledge, all true learning will proceed. Your past has already taught you the
great need for Knowledge. You need not learn this again and again. Why repeat
the same lesson over and over, thinking that it will yield for you a different
result?
OF YOURSELF YOU CAN DO NOTHING. Without Knowledge
you can only generate more imagination. Therefore, there is one answer to your
one greatest need, and the one answer will meet all other needs that emanate
from your one great need. Your need is fundamental and the response to your
need is fundamental. There is no complexity here, for in essence you need
Knowledge to live meaningfully. You need Knowledge to advance. You need
Knowledge to realize your True Self. You need Knowledge to fulfill your destiny
in the world. Without Knowledge, you will simply wander around and come once
again to realize that you need Knowledge.
THIS IS A DAY OF THANKSGIVING, for your prayers
have been answered. Your need has been responded to. The gift has been given to
you to reclaim your Knowledge. Above all else seek that which will serve
everything through you. In this, your need and the remedy for your life will
become simple, and you will be able to proceed in certainty and patience,
becoming a consistent student of Knowledge. Day by day you are reclaiming your
True Self. Day by day you are escaping all else that seeks to pull you into the
darkness of confusion. Day by day that which is unreal begins to disintegrate
and that which is genuine begins to emerge.
UPON THE HOUR TODAY remember and affirm this great
truth—that you seek Knowledge above all else. In your deeper meditation
practices, allow yourself to enter stillness. Allow your life to be
transformed. Allow Knowledge to emerge so that you may be a vehicle for its
expression, for in this you will find happiness.
PRACTICE 281: Two 30-minute practice periods.
Hourly practice.
Yesterday: Step
280 - Review
Returning to the journal to read these entries of
15 years ago, I begin to see how Steps is changing, improving my life. The
stress I was under may have made the results seem greater, but it was the
stresses that pushed me along to the Steps.
Although I found many interesting things in
“Greater Community Spirituality,” the first book I read, it seemed to me like a
commercial for Steps. Throughout it, the reader was being advised to take Steps
to Knowledge. As it turned out, that was no commercial, but wise advice I was
slow to follow.
If you are in the Steps, you may have had similar
experiences. In the journal entry I’m bolding and underlining the comments that
bear out, at least to me, signs of benefit from the Steps practice.
2:20
p.m. Saturday, April 22, 2000 – at VA Beach – room 635 – Conference Center. I
spent the last 90 minutes eating and surfing TV. Nothing is on. I could go to
A.R.E. This is two-week review for S2K.
Cindy
is with her friend Penny. I have about 5 hours to myself. I'm fatigued from the week, the drive, from life. Yet – S2K lifts me
up.
I'll
walk the beach a little. There's no place to go. I've looked for a Word 2000/MS
Works book. I want to be prepared when I get my new PC. I want to be a power
user in order to present my region's content.
I
must learn the logic behind Word. I've not grasped that before. I can't worry
too much about software or technology wars. I just need to be the user.
---
2:50
p.m. The long practice – Step 280
Knowledge
has conveniently provided a lawn chair on the beach in front of the hotel. It
is windy, sunny – but not too cool for this practice that might otherwise be
done @ Little Bear. This is the
experience of freedom – here in this context – I am truly free – still in the
changing world. At peace – and wishing others were with me. It is like
being on the stern of the USS Barney DDG-6 – In the North Atlantic – perched
atop the ocean riding a steel hull – the power below – harmless, yet immense. At a time like this I feel I might
disappear into nature for several hundred years.
Step
267 – 279 → Get an overview of what has happened in the past
two weeks. I have gone from slave to my work to free man with time for my
mission of regions work. I have time for my other pillars –
3:22
p.m. Back on a new bench on the dune deck after getting another jacket for
below my wind breaker. Be prepared.
How to do this review? I just read my 3 x 5 with
the daily Steps. There has been great movement in my life these last two weeks.
I'm less ego driven Tom and more open to the world I can get into space easily
– as I've done a few times in writing this.
4:45
p.m. I've completed reading the
journal entries for the past two weeks. I Am a Student of Knowledge. This in
the core of my being – spirit leading mind and body, both of which are quite
tired.
6:15
p.m. Ate dinner, ice cream, coffee –
listening to HOS – caravan. Percussive music. As I pursue Knowledge these the
versions fall away? I don't know. My sense is that I'm not here to save the
world. No one is – reclamation of Knowledge is a greater work of the many. I
endeavor to remain open… I'm reading the Steps of the last 2 weeks as
the final piece of my practice.
As
you can see, I’m feeling well about having finally begun Steps and the changes
in my understanding brought about by these exercises. Even if the
recommendations of The Teachers were commercial, it really was a product I
needed.
One
surprise reading the journal was this: “I just read my 3 x 5 with the daily Steps. I have a file basket of 3 x 5 index cards, but
thought I began those the second year. In fact I started early on. These I
carried with me during the day so I could review them throughout the day. Now I
use the cell phone to reread the Step during the day.
This
is what they looked like – four cards scanned at once.
Here
are key points I recorded from the Steps:
267
– “…to find Knowledge you must become still and observant and learn to
disengage from fear and anxiety”.- problem solving – When you have a preference
that is governing your mind, you cannot see the obvious. As you learn to look
at problems w/K you will see the resolution as apparent.
268
– I will not be deceived by complexity today. …You must follow K and not
attempt to use K to solve things according to your own designs. – (Not TJC
designs – but K-designs.)
269
– The power of Knowledge will extend itself from me. … That is why you must
learn to be very discerning in relationships, for as you progress as a student
of K, your influence over others will be greater. You must not use this
influence for selfish purposes, or your activities will be destructive to you
and to others.
270
– It is very important that you recognize the relationship between power and
responsibility. Responsibility requires self-discipline, self-restraint and
self-control. It requires an objectivity about your own life which very few
have yet attained in this world. Responsibility is a burden until it is
recognized as a source of protection. It is the guarantee and the assurance
that your gift will find a wholesome and welcome expression within you and that
you will be advanced and accomplished by the rendering of your contribution.
271
– Accept responsibility, which
is your ability to respond. Accept this, cultivate it,
cherish it and welcome it. It is what will make you strong. Accept responsibility
today. Accept this, for it represents your truest and greatest need. R will
enable you to love and extend yourself into the world. (in stillness) Enter the
mystery of your life so that you may be able to respond to it, for this is the
meaning of R.
272
– You will require Teachers to guide
you. … for you will be venturing far beyond your own concepts and
assumptions. … Your Inner Teachers represent your most primary relationships,
for these relationships are completely based upon K, and they are given to you
to cultivate K safely & completely.
273
– Do not underestimate the value of your
Teachers
274
– Seek freedom from ambivalence,
for this is the source of all human confusion, misery and frustration.
Ambivalence is the indecision about participating with life. It is the
indecision about being in life. - K dispels ambivalence, for it sets a clear
direction.
275
– Freedom from uncertainty. – “In
essence, you either know what you are doing or you do not. If you do not know
what you are doing, you simply wait for Knowledge. If you know what you are
doing, you simply follow what you know”.
276
– “Knowledge is my salvation. … God
has given you the greatest possible gift: the means within yourself to correct
all error, to resolve all confusion and conflict and to set your life on a true
course that is aimed at your true destiny” (this current life).
277
– “My ideas are small, but Knowledge is
great”. “Knowledge is the great source of your being as it is expressing
itself in your individual life”. __ realize that there is a means for you to
escape the world of ideas and enter the world of relationship, where everything
is viable, real and based upon a foundation that can never change.
278
– Truth is changeless, but it
expresses itself within the world of changing circumstances and changing
understanding. Thus, it appears that truth is changeable, yet the source of
truth is not changeable. You who live in a world of change and are undergoing
change yourself must realize that your Source is unchangeable. ___ As you realize
that your true life is changeless, then you will feel free to allow it to
express itself in changing circumstances.
279
– Freedom is not a concept or an idea. It is an experience. Therefore, it must
be realized in many, many different circumstances for you to see its universal
application. This you are given time to accomplish. This will make all of your
activities meaningful, purposeful and valuable. To have genuine stability in
the world, you must identify with Knowledge and allow Knowledge to demonstrate
its power, its efficacy and its benevolence within the world. – “… you can only
be free when you are still inside, and if you are still inside, you are free already”.
280
– Review - It is by following that you are able to give and you are able to
lead. …be very thankful that Knowledge is being given to you, for you are
realizing that above all else it is Knowledge which you seek.
Use
of index cards has been a staple in my life. Other of these uses may come up in
the days ahead. This Review day was a good day, not because of any external
event, but because the prior 279 practices. I’d guess you’ve had some good
days, or you wouldn’t still be doing the practices. Let us continue.
NNC
Journal second time x2
Step 280. 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.
