CT Step 71 - Let me become aware of the mental environment in which I live. – Journal – CT Step

Today:  CT Step 71 - Let me become aware of the mental environment in which I live. (MP3)

Let me become aware of the mental environment in which I live. CT Step 71

You live in a mental environment as well as a physical one. The mental environment is filled with forces and thought forms, generated by thinking beings everywhere. You have experienced this. You experience it every day. Walk into any house, any building, any place where people are congregated, and you will experience the mental environment of that place--an environment that is created through the predominating thoughts and interactions of the people who dwell there.

Become sensitive to your environment. Feel it wherever you go. Out of doors, the mental environment dissipates, though places in genera can have an overall feel to them, depending upon what has occurred there in the past and what the prevailing ideas are in that particular location.

Indoors particularly and in close proximity to others, you will experience a unique mental environment. Some of these environments you will find agreeable. Some you will not find agreeable. The question to ask yourself is, "Where do I need to be?" Sometimes you need to be in a disagreeable place to understand it, to discern it and to learn further about the forces in the mental environment. These are forces that influence you every day and that on many occasions govern you completely. This is an essential part of your preparation for the Greater Community, where the emphasis on control of the mental environment has been developed to a far greater degree than is apparent in your world. Here you can practice everywhere you go because everywhere you go, there is a mental environment. With everyone you spend time with closely, you create a mental environment

The question to ask yourself is, "Is this the right place for me to be?" If it is the right place, then you must begin to learn about where you are. How does it feel? What are the characteristics? What are the prevailing notions, ideas or sentiments that exist there? What do they motivate in you? Do they encourage you? Do they discourage you? Do they make you feel stronger? Do they make you feel weaker? Do they dissipate your energy or do they charge your energy?

Beyond your practice in stillness today and your hourly practice, carry on this investigation and do not forget. This is a day of practice, a day to deepen your understanding and to gain new skill and authority in your life.

Practice 71:    One 30-minute stillness practice.

                          Contemplation practice.

                          Hourly practice.

Picture:  O'Hare Airport, Chicago, Illinois.

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 70 – REVIEW

Note: Lengthy entry.

8:52 a.m. The Saturday, November 3, 2001 –

Beginning of Step 70 – Review. Only three pages [left] in this volume. Can I conclude with something useful or inspiring?

The regional community blurbs continue to flow. Shenandoah University/Winchester is the historic center of the region – so it is a useful hub for the nested regions <nested – Hawk> 1:33 PM.

Neighbors and peers – if we can't find peers in our neighborhood we go out into a greater geography, a region.

The Lt. General who spoke at Rotary yesterday said that in an effort to combat terrorism, coordination was essential at all levels and between levels. This is the reason humanity must regionalize. Form regional communities with those who may not be exact peers, but whose cooperation is needed. It is regions networked that become humanity’s safety net.

Though this recognition is needed today, I and presumably others, are working on these concepts. Europe – Australia use regions – so the field is not without resources, but in the USA – there is a barrier – much of it is systemic.

Outside in, regions are drawn from a higher perspective based on assets, needs and opportunities. By not reinventing the wheel – and using alignment to existing regions, we can be efficient. The benefit of efficiency is freedom. Efficiency includes some reserve/some fat in a biological sense, for a reserve.

War makes one alert. Psychological war – and mental environments, are tied together.

The LFPDC – it's local officials – have given itself a makeover. They own the NSVRC [Northern Shenandoah Valley Regional Commission] – and are proud. The real work of cooperation is done outside the region's office.

Next – we need and "Applied Technology" vision for the region. We must build intellectual capacity for higher levels of work.

There is a need for SETNET to reconvene. Technology drive/demand/lifelong learning. A learning regional community.

[New journal]

9:30 a.m. Saturday, November 3, 2001 – where am I? I just finished the last volume with a three-page vision update. At the RC I've spent 30 years building the capacity, getting the resources, now I return to pure planning/futuring with tools and resources – my network. It is wise for me to remain hidden.

Now I can begin the review having understood better "freedom" in the greater community. It must relate to hunger, the physical hunger that keeps me stuffing my face.

9:40 a.m. Review the past six Steps.

10:41 a.m. Further distraction.

Q: Can humanity maintain the freedom established through the U.S. constitutional government based on religious freedom, expand that into the world, make it a conscious human preservation strategy for dealing in the Greater Community? What is the choice?

11:19 a.m. In review – Step 67 – What is making me "unfree" at this moment? Simply that I've only glimpsed a bit of what GCS/freedom is. I have a beginning of understanding.

67 – "My freedom is awaiting me". Says in the text: "What is freedom accept the ability to unite with who you are and why you are here?"

<hinterland tourism – NSV for D.C. CMSA>

11:57 a.m. Four Pillars review.

→ the world becomes rigid when groups fear change and resort to sabotage. Instead of blowing up buildings with airplanes, why didn't the Islamic jihadist jam ATMs? Terror tactics create alertness and paranoia. Eco-terrorists putting spikes in trees to thwart loggers. – Danger everywhere.

12:32 p.m. Reviewing Steps of the past week and my musings. It is clear that my experience must go far deeper – and I need to commit even more to my exploration.

12:41 p.m. The reading goes on. I note, as of 9:40 a.m. Wednesday, that my writing reflects expanded experience – perhaps movement toward Knowledge on my part – and evidence of awakening, yet I'm not able to bring this out into the world. Though I hate the pain, that is the stimulus to seek perspective. The world exists for my edification. I did not create it – (that is a silly metaphysical notion that disables people – the idea that I create the world). So, experience, communicate Knowledge – simple, but hard.

1 p.m. Freedom through Knowledge allows one to be in the world, not of the world, and to deal with risk by being in contact with the presence of Knowledge. The antidote to the poison is there in the environment.

1:13 p.m. A new Declaration of Independence is needed – one for global spirituality, for the life force can only be free on earth in cultures where religion is a means to spirituality, not an end.

A religion is the means, not the end to achievement of human spirituality. Spirituality is characterized by a respect for life and tolerance for variations that are respectful of freedom and choice. Godix – an open system.

1:40 p.m. SETNET – Re-visioning> DSB, RC, LFCC, SU, Revisit progress – plan to move forward with CAIT> Community Applied Info Technology.

→ Review complete – Pillars –

1. Relationships – Y

2. Career Providership – Y

3. Health – mind & those –Y

4. Spiritual – Y

1. Healthy expansion – Front Royal – Kelly, Doug, build up local community; Greater Region – Sarah & David must engage – put their skills to use, develop them. Loosen the bond, yet be available.

2. Congratulations – expand the foundation. Be the observer, perspective given. Don't seek local fortune – invest broadly. It will limit bias. Focus on creating a positive mental environment in response to the trends of change.

3. Tai Chi – get exercises – Visit Father – be present with mother and father

4. Nasi Novare Coram – from going nowhere fast to going slow/low/powerful asTai Chi.

10:18 p.m. To bed. The situation in Two Rivers will not be fun. The situation here is not fun. Cindy went off a few times today. What my life is, compared to what humanity needs, is not much of a trade-off. I’ll continue to work to learn to be an intermediary for Knowledge. As such I will be invisible in the sweep of time. I need to be persuasive with the Knowledge, but I am not the Knowledge.

This review had much processing. It is useful to have the reviews fall on a day of the week where one is likely to have a little extra time. There is more to deal with, or perhaps it must be dealt with in depth. 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.