Today: Step 351 - I serve a
greater purpose which I am now beginning to experience. (MP3)
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| I serve a greater purpose which I am now beginning to experience. Step 351 |
The Teachers have provided this paragraph for,
perhaps, a greater perspective on the Steps to Knowledge.
FINAL LESSONS
YOU ARE ABOUT TO BEGIN THE FINAL STEPS in our
preparation. These are not the final steps in your overall approach to
Knowledge or in your utilization and experience of Knowledge. Yet, they are the
final steps in this one great stage of development in which you are now engaged.
Therefore, give yourself to the next section of practice with increased desire
and intensity. Allow Knowledge to direct you in your participation. Allow
yourself to be this powerful, this strong and this involved. Do not think of
your past, but realize the reality of Knowledge in the moment and its great
promise for the future. You are honored who honor the source of your
preparation. You are honored this day as you begin the final steps in this essential
stage of your development.
Step 351 - I serve a greater purpose which I am now
beginning to experience.
REPEAT THIS IDEA UPON THE HOUR and do not forget. As
you strengthen this understanding, it will become ever more real and apparent
to you. As it becomes ever more real, all other ideas and notions that compete
with it will fade away, for this one great truth has substance. All other
things which pretend to be the truth and are in conflict with this will fade
because they are without substance. That which is true exists whether you want
it or not, whether you believe in it or not and whether you adhere to it or not.
That is what makes it true.
YOU HAVE THOUGHT IN THE PAST that all things exist
because you wanted them to. This is only true in the realm of imagination, a
realm that you are learning now to escape. Even in the realm of imagination, you
learn to value that which is closest to the truth so that you may escape the
realm of imagination. For the realm of imagination is not the realm of
Creation. What creates, creates from Knowledge. This is Creation that is
permanent, meaningful and has true power and value even in the world. It is not
the realm of imagination.
IN YOUR DEEPER PRACTICE PERIODS ENTER STILLNESS.
Come with great reverence for what you are attempting to do. Remind yourself of
the importance of these times of stillness. Remind yourself that these are
times of worship, times of true dedication, times where you open yourself and
times where Knowledge opens itself. Allow this day to be a day of greater
comprehension. Allow this day to be a day of greater devotion, for you are a
true student of Knowledge today.
PRACTICE 351: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
Picture:
The World Parliament of Religions Plenary Session October 15, 2015 – Salt Lake
City, Utah.
Yesterday: Step
350 - Review
Points from note cards:
337
– Alone I can do nothing. … In
your inclusion is your happiness. In your isolation is your misery. Your misery
has no foundation, for you are not alone and your success is guaranteed, for
alone you can do nothing.
338 –
Be attentive and you will penetrate the false and you will receive the true. … you
strengthen this (ability to be attentive) for yourself and for the world, which
needs to be recognized. For the world
needs to be loved, and love only comes through true recognition.
339
– The presence of love is with you,
within the fire of K within you. … It is still; therefore, it abides with
everything. … You have been sent into the world to bring the light into the
world, not to confirm the world’s darkness. … You who are a student of K are
now learning step by step to receive the light of K and the fire of K. … God’s
presence is permanent. The world itself is temporary. The physical universe is
temporary. God’s presence is permanent. … BE ATTENTIVE and experience the
presence of love in the world. If you are attentive, you will experience this.
In your deeper meditation practices experience the presence of love within
yourself, which is the fire of K. Remember as you look upon this, within your
world and within yourself, that from the stillness of this presence emanate all
good works, all important ideas and the motivation for all important
activities. This is what drives humanity and even the G C of Worlds towards K
and, with K, towards becoming one community.
340
–Your practice is your gift to the world. From your practice all gifts that you
will give in the future will be able to be given with confidence, with love and
with certainty ... Remember that all you can do is practice. No matter what you
do, you are practicing something, you are asserting something, you are
confirming something and you are studying something.
341
– As you learn to become a student of Knowledge, you learn to live the truth.
The simplicity of this is ever present to you, for truth is simple and evident
to all who look for truth and to all who look without the weight of
condemnation or judgment.
342
– I am a student of K today. … When you think, think constructively, for all
thinking must be constructive. When thinking isn’t necessary, K will carry you
forth.
343
– Remember that you can only serve that which you value. If you value K, you
will serve K. … Honor that which serves you.
344
–K is your gift to the world,
but first you must become a vehicle for it to express itself. You must accept
it, receive it, learn from it and give what it gives you to give. … From your K
will come everything—all meaningful activities, all important contributions,
all important thoughts, all meaningful expressions of emotion and all
motivation to reassure, to comfort, to love, to heal, to join and to liberate
others. This simply means that the real you is finally expressing itself. This
is your gift to the world.
345
– The return to God is the return to inclusion in relationship. This is beyond
your ability to comprehend, and it is certainly beyond your ideas and your
idealism. It can only be experienced.
346
– You are in the world to work. … Your true work in the world is to discover
your Knowledge and allow it to express itself through you. … Examine your
thoughts. … When you can become objective with your own mind, you will be able
to allow K to shine upon it, and you will be able to use the power of decision
to prepare yourself and to work with the content of your mind. … all thinking
is a replacement for K. Yet, K will direct all your thinking to serve a greater
purpose.
347
– Be attentive this day and learn to observe your outer life and your inner
life objectively. … Within your deeper meditation practices, in stillness and
receptivity, observe your inner life unfolding. Observe your outer life and
inner life unfolding together as they must. Here you will feel the movement of
your life. Here you will know that your life is being guided and directed.
348
– … the power of Knowledge is the power of being, of which you are a part. … as
you begin to realize Knowledge within your life, you will realize K within the
world. … As you see K guiding you into effective action, you will see Knowledge
in the world guiding others … Thus, as you learn to have compassion towards
yourself, you will learn to have compassion towards the world.
349
– I am happy that I can finally serve
the truth. [I have always wanted to serve the truth] … Feel happy now
that you can represent the truth and serve the truth, for the truth gives you
all that is true. … This enables your own individual nature to become simple
and evident, for in simplicity all things are known. In complexity all things
are concealed. Only what is mechanical in the world can be complex, yet its
essence is simple and can be directly experienced. (It is a complexity that can
and must be managed step by step) Thus, your approach to life must be simple,
whether you are dealing with simplicity or complexity. [Any complexity can be
dealt with in simple steps.]
350
– Review - … view the overall movement of your life. View your life unfolding.
This is preparing you for the future, for this program is preparing you for the
future.
From the journal:
12:38
a.m. Saturday, August 4, 2001 – Step 350 – Review prior to final 15 Steps. This
time all have a plan – a liturgy for my spiritual year. 1/2 hour practice every
day, a Step? – begin again Part 2?
9:05
a.m. – On waking – about an hour ago – Knowledge gave me the awareness that it
is the invisible hand of cooperation in life. It is the hand behind Adam
Smith's invisible hand of the economy?
This
called to mind the smack in RUOW. The smack is the judgment by spirit against
physical for not being as perfect as the vision, and the reverse being – in
spirit, failure to recognize the nature of manifestation – it's dynamism as
opposed to a static vision.
But
– to return to the comfort of the Knowledge – that the reason all things work
together for good – is the invisible hand. [8/31/02 – later to be understood as
community]
Last
night, before I went to sleep I read in GCS – from Chapter 27 – "What is
the evolution of religion in the world?" –
Page
351 – "…you have now reached the great threshold where the world must
become one community. Perhaps at this moment it seems incomprehensible that
this could be brought about given the current state of the world and people's
current attitudes regarding cooperation. However, we are speaking of evolution
and not the wishes and will of the people".
11/9/01
– disasters like 9 – 11 will make people cooperate globally.
12:16
p.m. Long Review – Step 350 – here at Samuels Public Library – in Front Royal,
Virginia – my community of residence. I feel at my back the hand of cooperation
nudging me along. It is the truth I serve as soul of the Creator –
father/mother/God. It is the purpose I study with my guides and teachers and
assumed to be the base value of my spiritual family.
…
350
– Review –
–
Where practice needs to be strengthened –
–
Stillness – entrance is often noisy. I do not have a regular time. I'll need a
regimen at the end of the next session – options – repeatable Steps? Take one
two-week card every week.
Hourly
prayer for strengthening –
UU weekly?
Join that?
–
Reread GCS – the clutter comedy collect in my life? Recreation – xylophone?
Community arts program.
…
2:35
p.m. Review in process – Step 348 –
"Beginning
is Knowledge". – That's why in ACIM – the ultimate is "being without
question" that can quote be unquote where being is K. Each souls being is
part of K – whether or not body and mind are conscious of it – rather – mind is
conscious.
Body
serves mind
Mind
serves K – which is "being".
3:56
p.m. Sharing power – people/orgs don't like cooperation because it means they
must share power and no longer have control
–
sharing power cooperatively creates greater power – more benefit, it may
minimize those who originally share? Do those who isolate become
powerful/wealthy? Or is it those who cooperate?
As
I look at ending Steps for the second time, I’m preparing to continue practice.
As it will turn out, a week after, I’ll begin the Continuation Training. The Holy
Days, the Christmas season, is often a busy time which makes having time for
practices difficult. Let us continue.
NNC
Note: 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.
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