Today: Step 49 - REVIEW (MP3) – Journal Step 48
THIS
MARKS THE COMPLETION OF YOUR SEVENTH WEEK of practice. In this Review, it is
asked of you to review all seven weeks of practice, reviewing all instructions
and recalling your experience of using each one. This may require several
longer practice periods, but it is quite essential for you to gain a
comprehension of what it means to be a student and how learning is actually
accomplished.
BE
VERY CAREFUL NOT TO JUDGE YOURSELF AS A STUDENT. You are not in a position to
judge yourself as a student. You do not have the criteria, for you are not a
teacher of Self Knowledge. You will find as you proceed that some of your
failures will lead to greater successes, and that some of what you thought of
as successes may lead to failures. This will underscore your whole system of
evaluation and will lead you to a greater recognition. This will make it
possible for you to be compassionate towards yourself and towards others whom
you now judge for their successes and their failures.
REVIEW,
THEN, THE FIRST FORTY-EIGHT LESSONS OF PRACTICE. Try to recall how you
responded to each step and how deeply you involved yourself. Try to look at
your successes, your accomplishments and your obstacles. You have come this
far. Congratulations! You have passed the first test. Be encouraged now to
proceed, for Knowledge is with you.
PRACTICE
49: Several long practice periods.
From the journal Step
48 - True instruction is available to me.
12:51
a.m. Friday, October 6, 2000 – worked 7:30 – 9:10 PM. On TPTC minutes/agenda –
then wrote letters to send Texas/Colorado pics to family – then John Edwards,
Leno – TV trance. Now to bed.
11:54
PM. In the basement watching a "lost ships" episode about the
Bismarck. German pride, in me, yet knowing its fate – and necessity of that
fate.
In
my meditations – short of the 30 minutes – the lesson: "True instruction
is available to me." I've been receiving information for a long time. I've
books of it – ideas come constantly.
My
focus of “regional intelligence” has increased. Instead of focusing on the
stock market and investment – my time went other directions. There should have
been time – so my error creates guilt. I can only let it go…yet I've not…I'm still
in the middle.
On
the Steps page is the emphasis I responded to in 2000 on the second time
through:
In
ink I tried to visualize me as: “Part of a greater life.”
What
struck me today, beginning higher in the same paragraph is underlined and
bolded for the key point:
“You will begin to discern things that are present,
even though you cannot see them. You will be able to respond to ideas and
information, even though you cannot hear the source of the message yet. This is the actual process in creative
thinking, for people receive ideas; they do not create them. You are part
of a greater life.”
This
point will be made again, but the fact that we receive the ideas, bring my
favorite painting of Hesiod Listening to the Inspiration of the Muse.
This
is a depiction of what we have as our resource here on earth and why we must
listen closely, keeping a creativity
journal.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment