CT Step 68 - The world needs freedom. – Journal – CT Step 67

Today:  CT Step 68 - The world needs freedom. (MP3)

The world needs freedom. CT Step 68

Some people think freedom is the right to be anything they want to be without accountability to anyone else. They can say anything, do anything, have anything or be anything without consequence. This is chaotic. This is foolish. This is irresponsible. This is not freedom. When we speak of freedom, we mean the freedom to be what you are, to follow what you know, and to give what you came here to give. This is a definition of freedom in the more ultimate sense. But any other definition of freedom must lead towards this. People use freedom as an excuse to avoid responsibility in the world and not to be accountable to anyone. They use freedom against freedom. They do not want to know. They do not want to give. They do not want to belong. For they are afraid. Being without Knowledge, they believe such things would limit them, hinder them or imprison them.

Freedom here means the freedom to experience and to express Knowledge. This is a very simple definition, but very helpful. Knowledge is as rare in the universe as it is within the world. But it is present everywhere. The lack of freedom to experience and to express Knowledge makes humanity as a race vulnerable to other forces in the universe. It makes humanity vulnerable to its own dysfunction.

Therefore, the man or woman of Knowledge looks for the evidence of Knowledge and seeks to express the reality of Knowledge regardless of the specific circumstances around them. Knowledge is what they are looking for. They do not want to share belief systems. Their concern is not simply to share ideas and understanding, though sometimes that is helpful. Rather, they wish to confirm Knowledge and give people the encouragement to express and to follow what they know. This is what it means to be spiritual in the most complete way, in the most complete sense.

Therefore, exercise your freedom today in your practice in stillness. And exercise your freedom upon the hour by breaking away from the preoccupations of the moment to see where you are and what is happening around you. And take time today to think about freedom--your freedom, the freedom of those you love, freedom in the world and freedom in the Greater Community.

Practice 68:   One 30-minute stillness practice.

                         Contemplation practice.

                         Hourly practice.

Picture: Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted.

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

From the journal:  CT Step 67 - My freedom is awaiting me.

7:40 a.m. Wednesday, October 31, 2001

Do I need the world? Does the world need me? In my confusion, I was reading ahead in the Steps. The focus this week is on freedom. Do I really know what freedom is? I can understand it where it is not. I've been free to think and pursue Knowledge all my life. Being inconsequential has its advantages, but geography has been the most beneficial – born in the USA, getting an education, and moving through life as a seeker in an environment of religious freedom established long ago and maintained. Is earth an ends or a means? GCS suggest it is a means to soul growth. A future lesson says don't avoid conflict. Seek Knowledge for solutions, even if some people just won't change their mind.

For me conflict ='s death, so I've come to avoid it. Confrontation can lead to ventilation, but not necessarily resolution. I forget, others don't forget, or so it seems.

I feel most free in the woods when I'm alone. That isn't hard to understand. It restores me and gives perspective.

I have an emerging vision which I want to communicate, but I don't have everything needed to put it together. I am distracted/get self-distracted – and have conflict suck away my interest and energy.

Still breathing, still thinking – I have no option but to go forward. S2K thinks humanity will lose its freedom. Perhaps the majority of humanity has not experienced democracy – which is political and religious freedom.

To move humanity away from theocracy and have religious freedom takes a great mixing as has occurred in the US. What does history – the playing out of human relations on a larger scale, have to do with spirituality?

Mental environment – to what degree am I working with the mental environment? I could help build a cooperative community in the region, but not within the office or my family. The closer the relationships the greater the conflicts? This is very hard to understand.

8:13 a.m. Living in this world and preparing for the next world here. Reading "Carnage & Culture" last night about the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs – the reduction of the population from 8 million to 1 million from disease & war. The Aztecs and their related tribes had a ritual culture – and engaged in cannibalism and ritual sacrifice. Cortez had many allies in the surrounding tribes. This morning I saw the Spanish invasion as a knife into the social/cultural fabric of Central America. An isolated culture, they were not prepared for the external culture which destroyed them. Their own weakness, blindness, isolation stymied their progress.

"In the world, not of the world". When of the world we are in our little culture – whereas being in the world recognizes the relativity of cultural systems. All claim Gods-God/but is that the way God would act? Ritual sacrifice?

To be "free" of the cultural systems which try to replace the world.

9:40 a.m. Being in the world, rather than of the man-made world cultures – worlds – worldviews. I am that I am. How do I continue to be?

To understand that I'm more than a body…then what? As spirit leads the body – or body/mind run the show based on local input.

> To use boundaries and be free of boundaries – only one planet here.

> To speak as I did on Sunday @ UU requires more sacrifice. Is this for my earthly family? The deal I want with spirit is resources for my dependents. They say that's possible, but up to me.

> What is the true nature of the world? Can that be Known? Is it changing? Has it changed – or is it the cultural overlays which change? The Mental Environment of the world. S2K alerts me to the mental environment.

The biological directives in the continuation of humanity as an intelligent, adaptive life form. Biology makes technology – not the reverse.

> Do I need (A) to stop my life and go learn GIS/Database or(B) simply focus harder on attracting the resources to get the people/Team that can do this. – [B] –

10:35 a.m. Why do I…have this focus?

Co-operation. I assume/Know that knowledge moves life to cooperation. Within the environment there is a food chain – web of physical life adapted to the macro/micro environments. Is cultural Knowledge internal to every brain and transferred generation to generation, or is it external in artifacts, writings, databases?

Cultural memories – mental environments – the history of wrongs/wars is a barrier to communication today. Healing – or memory loss – or world vision – all could help.

8 p.m. Contemplation – Step 67 "My freedom is awaiting me". I thought a lot about this today. I am trying to understand "my freedom". Steve is a good boss – a wise boss and recognizing my value. At half speed I do more than others. Still – in reviewing the past, my character was brought down. Expectations are now only for show…! But, I can maneuver in the environment and win for those I can serve, as well as continue to learn. I can use my position to build my Knowledge.

8:33 p.m. At the point above I thought that since "maps" is part of my believed reason for being here and since I'd yet to begin the ARC GIS training that true action would be to start that training. Since I'm installed so little software, I'm having to redo that now.

Because I don't have the working skills to prototype my vision – I'm stuck. So…this I must learn. I have to isolate from Cindy and distractions to do this. It all feels insane – being in the world and stumbling through.

11:30 p.m. I should be in bed, but I'm wound up and will read more “Carnage & Culture”. Were I a perfectly motivated monk, I could be the perfect connector to Knowledge. That is not the case. I'm disconnected in ways I don't understand. I'm attracted the things/people in the world – still looking at women – that is body/instinct.

I guess time must pass. I'm not totally trained in the Way of Knowledge.

Steps contemplation is taking over my life, if journal entry is a measure. I ask and answer questions in the stream-of-consciousness. Your own practices may be following this pattern. 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.