Today: CT Step 15 - Let me look towards the Greater
Community to understand where my life is going. (MP3) –
Journal – CT Step 14
 |
| Let me look towards the Greater Community to understand where my life is going. CT Step 15 |
Again you return to the bigger picture of your
life, for it is within the bigger picture that you will see yourself in a
complete way. Here you will see yourself in relation to the world, to other
people, and to the movement of all life. This practice is added amidst your
other practices where you are learning to focus on your inner life and on you
outer involvement with people. Here you practice at every level,
simultaneously. Here you are brought into the minute aspects of your life and
into the greater aspects of your life, for they are all related and go
together. In this way, your awareness is built at many levels at once, but in
such a way that they are all united.
Today, spend time thinking of the meaning of the
Greater Community for you. Recall what you have read in Greater Community
Spirituality and in the Books of Wisdom. Return again to this greater
threshold. Look about in the world and see how few people are aware of life
around them, how preoccupied they are with their individual endeavors and
personal concerns or conflicts. See how much they are missing and how much you
are missing. Give this your attention today in addition to your one practice in
stillness and in your hourly practice in awareness and discernment.
You are part of a Greater Community. You are
emerging into a Greater Community. You are learning Knowledge from the Greater
Community. Be visionary today and see beyond the normal parameters of your
life. Just look. If you continue looking, you will see. If you can see, you
will know.
Practice 15: One
30-minute stillness practice.
Contemplation practice.
Hourly practice.
Plan B - If the MP3 doesn’t work, here’s the link
to the folder: New Message - Student Spoken Steps CT Recordings -
Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training - Working file
The process of taking
notes as part of the Steps review, begun the second time through Steps, continued
on with this training. Index cards met the need of writing something important
down shortly after it was recognized. This was taught in my college studies as
a key for any person intending to be a writer. Here’s a picture -
First CT Review – Points
from note cards
1 – Knowledge is with me, but where am I? … Look
beyond the obvious and you will see deeper things. Make this connection that
you must become close to Knowledge and stay close to Knowledge in your journey
in the world. In this way, you will be able to receive its grace, its wisdom
and its certainty.
2 – The gift of Knowledge is given you today.
Abide in its stillness. Receive its certainty. Share in its total commitment to
life. Rejoice in the reprieve that it gives you from the conflicts and the
horrors of the world.
3 – I must be patient in order to proceed. … what
is patience but relieving yourself of your own frantic pursuits to enjoy the
luxury of stillness and the depths of true understanding. At first, this will
seem difficult, for your mind is racing here and racing there and trying to
solve this and trying to establish that. But as you become quiet, you become
more receptive and more in harmony with your deeper nature.
4 –To serve the world, you must understand it.
You must understand its beauty, its conflict and its fundamental predicaments. …
See yourself as part of the bigger picture … to give something in the world
with other people.
5 – I must find my true relationships in order to know my direction. … People believe that they are weak and so they look for other powers in the universe to guide them and to protect them. But here you are learning The Way of Knowledge, which is the way of true initiation. For this you will need strong companions. And they must become strong for you and you must become strong for them.
6 – My mind is here to serve Knowledge. … True harmony within yourself means that your mind is serving your Spirit and your body is serving your mind. … today value your mind, but recognize that it must serve a Greater Power … Knowledge will direct you to those people that you are to serve and who can serve you.
7 – The difficulties I see in the world today are the opportunities for me to develop discernment. … There is great conflict in the world. This cannot be denied. Yet it must be understood clearly. … For in your relationship with the world, conflict is something that must be faced. If you can do this, it will give you courage and self-determination.
8 – There is a greater harmony in the world. You bring this harmony into the world by being close to Knowledge. There is no deception. There is no dishonesty. There is no avoidance.
9 – The Greater Community is in the world.
10 – I will forgive my past today. … All true contributors have suffered and can now use their own suffering to help others, to free others and to educate others. Their past now becomes a resource for giving, a reinforcement for the truth rather than a denial of the truth.
11 – I will remember those who have given to me. … The past must be a record of gratitude if it is to have any meaning or value at all, and today we learn to seek and to find that gratitude.
12 – Being happy is the natural result of being aligned with Knowledge within yourself … If you are to be a force for good in the world, then everything about your life must be in harmony. … the Four Pillars of your life are in an essential balance.
13 – I give myself to my practice today. … Here you participate in the world like your Creator, who uses everything for a greater purpose.
14 – Review. Begin to see where you were present and where you were not present. See how things influenced you, and how you influenced them.
9:55
a.m. Saturday, September 8, 2001. Slept late. Very tired. What is taking energy
how to be? Emotional attachment to Sarah? There is so much I need/want to do in
terms of writing to promote cooperation – For 95% of the world or more, it is
very mundane…
11:43
a.m. Review – Steps 1 – 13 – I am overwhelmed by what is flowing to me. My life
is more than full – because I see, feel, experience so much. Getting that out –
the difficulty – makes me feel as though I'm autistic – unable to communicate.
I need others to open to my perspective – and invest a little. The outcome is
inevitable, or perhaps not – humanity could remain divided.
→4 Pillars Review
–
1.
Relationships – Yes – prayer –
2.
Career – Yes – Work
3.
Health – Yes – Coffee – ok
4.
Spirit – Yes – Chips
3:07
p.m. Just got done talking to Dad. I called to tell Mom about Sarah, but she
was out with Penny. Dad and I had a long conversation. I talked to him about
love as our purpose in the world. It is another case where I should have been
taping because I said things I didn't know I would say. I told him about how I
saw him – losing control of our bodies – our inability to communicate as we age
– what happened to Grandpa and Grandma Christoffel. It happens, I said to young
people as well – Michael and Sarah – unable to communicate in this world.
I
told him he was losing more and more his control over his body and that he'd go
to a home, but there wouldn't be someone like Mom who knew how to help him
move. He would have to help make that decision – to allow Mom to be free and
not blamed by Diane and Penny.
I
said our lives – Mom, Dad and I were connected differently than those of Penny
& Diane, because I've been with them from the start.
He
said when it came for me to go to college he didn't have much. I told him, as I
recognized it, that it was the Germans – the migration to Wisconsin of the
Christoffels and the other families that valued education and made a University
System that made the extension available. It was the Rotary loans that made my
Junior & Senior years possible.
It
was our greater community of German culture moving to the USA that did it. I
said the Rotary loans help…and that's what counted.
7:25
p.m. Still needing to do the review. I was extremely tired. Decided to
meditate. Couldn't do well inside, went out on the porch. The white cat was at
the water dish. It has been coming close to the house, watching me as I mow. Is
it a sign – moving from great cats to white cats? Outside I felt better – then
the need to touch the grass. I thought about laying in it, then just touching
the ground with my feet. I moved now to the edge of the porch – bare feet in
the grass…connecting. Seeing myself doing tai chi – barefoot, backyard – again
– to that earth connection.
Mom
will call – after Dad is in bed I'm sure. I'll watch the race. Cindy is out
with Ruth. She is my true partner – at least becoming so more.
Mo S…
accepted the GCS & Steps books as gifts. I may not hear from him again. I
planted the seed. That is what counts.
1:13
p.m. In the Review – "How can I serve life? Are these journals the Dead
Sea scrolls? –
Answer:
"Life, Knowledge will show me".
12:58
a.m. Sunday, September 9, 2001 – Review complete.
1:33
a.m. Yes…late to bed again – but I am experiencing the benefit to others of my
praying for the emergence of Knowledge in their lives – for their own meaning,
purpose and direction. I see that the outcomes are better and I pray more, for
others as well.
As
the Continuation Training progresses, I am becoming a more serious student.
More thought, more writing, more fatigue in my life dealing with everything
going on. Your experience can be more or less, but giving this amount of time
does make one a more serious student.
I
remind you that you need not read all of my stuff – you may be writing your own
in even greater volume. The part of my experience here is just a companion journey
that other students might reference, should you need another viewpoint. We
continue.
NNC
Note: If you’ve some interest, but this is the
first time you’ve seen 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. Begin at
the beginning.
If you do know about Steps, but have not done Steps
twice completely, read the related materials, and have a sense of the direction
of this study, you won’t get the experience. The Introduction begins:
“This is the Steps
to Knowledge Continuation Training. It is designed to build upon the Steps
that were learned in Steps to Knowledge to
enable you to experience the grace, the power and the direction of Knowledge in
your life and to become an expression of Knowledge in everything that you do.
If you have completed the book, Steps to
Knowledge, twice through and have followed the instructions as they were
given without altering the curriculum in any way, then you are now ready to
begin this more advanced study”.
If you are an independent student, that is
certainly an option. 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment