x2 Step 151 - I will not use fear to support my judgments. Journal – Step 150

Today: Step 151 - I will not use fear to support my judgments. (MP3)

“I will not use fear to support my judgments.” Step 151

DO NOT USE FEAR TO SUPPORT YOUR JUDGMENTS of yourself and the world, for these judgments are born of your uncertainty and anxiety. Thus, they lack the foundation of Knowledge. Thus, they lack the meaning and value that only Knowledge can bestow. Do not rely upon your judgments of yourself and the world. As you withdraw from them, you will realize that their source is fear, for you have only been trying to comfort yourself with your judgments, to provide a false security, stability and identity which you feel you are lacking. Therefore, be without a substitute for Wisdom and Knowledge, and allow Wisdom and Knowledge to arise naturally.

UPON THE HOUR REPEAT YOUR STATEMENT, and consider it in light of all things that are occurring today. In your two deeper practices, consider the meaning of today’s idea as you think about it carefully. Apply your mind in a state of work as you attempt to penetrate the meaning of today’s lesson. Do not be comforted by premature conclusions. Investigate deeply with your mind in your practice periods. Use your mind actively. Consider many things within yourself while maintaining a concentration on today’s idea. If you do this, you will understand many things about Wisdom and ignorance, and your understanding will be born of compassion and true self- appreciation. For only from a place of self-love can you offer correction to yourself and to others.

PRACTICE 151: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

From the journal

10:45 a.m. Tuesday, January 16, 2000 –

At work – have I lost the heart for it?

→conflict between regional geographies – market region from a pole –, governmental boundaries – crossing for trade – transparent boundaries. – Only in an area of many boundaries do you see/feel/get conflicts.

10 p.m. Age 54 and learning to learn. Worked until 6:30 p.m. – Burned out @ home. TV 8 – 10 p.m. – Still burned – here in my study. Every little thing here I own – as I look @ it – it draws my energy, it drains me – the "ownership."

Practice #2 –

Not much in the journal. Probably a challenging day: “Age 54 and learning to learn.” I continued; you should too. Old is 106, so 54 is just a bit past halfway and even at 68, I still have many years ahead in which to learn and seek wisdom as a Beginning Student of Knowledge.

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.

x2 Step 150 - Today I will learn to learn. Journal Step - 149

Today: Step - 150 Today I will learn to learn. (MP3)

“Today I will learn to learn.” Step - 150

TODAY YOU LEARN TO LEARN. You learn to learn because you need to learn. You need to learn how to learn so that your learning may be effective and expedient, have depth and consistency and produce a sound advancement that you can rely upon in all circumstances in the future. Do not think that you already understand the process of learning, for you are learning about this now as you understand the meaning of advancement, the meaning of failure, the meaning of encouragement, the meaning of discouragement, the meaning of enthusiasm and the meaning of a lack of enthusiasm. That is why at the end of each week you review your practices so that you may understand your progress and understand the mechanism of learning. This is essential for you to realize, for until you do, you will misinterpret your steps, you will misconstrue your actions, you will not understand how to follow a curriculum and you will never learn how to teach a curriculum yourself.

THEREFORE, TODAY YOU LEARN TO LEARN. This places you as a beginning student of Knowledge, which gives you all rights and all encouragement to learn everything that is necessary, without presumption, without conceit, without denial and without falsity of any kind. As you learn to learn, you will realize the mechanism of learning. This will give you Wisdom and compassion in your dealings with people. You cannot teach people from idealism, for then you place upon them the burden of your own expectations. You require of them what even life cannot provide. But the certainty of your experience and your Knowledge, which you will give to others, will be sound, and they will be able to receive it and utilize it in   their own way. Then, you will not place any personal demands upon them in their learning, but will allow Knowledge within you to give to Knowledge in them. You will then be a witness to the instruction and to the learning as well.

THEREFORE, TODAY BEAR WITNESS TO YOUR OWN LEARNING and learn to learn. Upon the hour, remind yourself that you are learning to learn. In your two meditation practices, allow yourself to enter stillness and peace. Observe yourself as you move forward and as you   hold yourself back. Exert your will on your own behalf compassionately and firmly, and judge not your advancement because you are not in a position to judge, because you are learning to learn.

PRACTICE 150: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

I have always enjoyed the library. It was a place where independent learning could be pursued, as opposed to what was being taught in school. In the library I could explore ideas and follow thoughts were they led me.

The notion of "learning to learn" was something I’d been exposed to in my planning career. I’d heard a lecture by Donald M. Michael in the 1980’s at a World Future Society event, relating the perspective of his 1973 book: “On Learning to Plan – and Planning to Learn: The Social Psychology of Changing Toward Future-Responsive Societal Learning.” This was a man ahead of his time.

When visiting London in 2009, the British Library was a place I went to see and thus have a picture for this Step. The average tourist may not visit local libraries for anything other than Internet access, which is of course important, but my intent was to be in the presence of this collection of the work of human civilization. 

It is an evolutionary process still. Using the cumulative knowledge for wisdom in the world is what Steps to Knowledge is teaching so we might have Greater Community Wisdom. The work necessary is not precisely known, as this is an evolving reality. It is up to us to understand problems, consider methods of acting and then put the ideas into practice, cooperatively in communities. Simple, but not easy. 

From the journal Step - 149 My practice is my gift to the world.

12:38 a.m. Monday, January 15, 2001 – A holiday…. A speaker about regions? Pays more than just writing – PowerPoint – of course… – New Economy is the buzz – topic "New Community"→Networked Region

– making the region visible – so much is contextual.

7:55 a.m. The goals – make visible the regional maps that exist; focus on alignment – the governmental/services region. If it works for government, it can work for business & nonprofit & citizen. The market region for each local   x   is potentially a mono-polar globe.

local community is where I live – physical home; the region is where I work, shop, play – to have a small physical community and many, many choices, you need a high population region. If density is low, it needs to take in a greater geography.

ZIP Code – map your region.

→Recent thought – science discovers the designs of spirit, allowing those relationships to be used creatively – sometimes with value adding results where humanity and other times not.

9:30 a.m. I may already house a spiritual community. In my working group, I'm the physical host. Like Edgar Cayce, I get tired, distracted, but now that I entertain the idea, well how do we move forward with the emergence? I see and feel it all with increasing clarity, but articulating it and getting it graphically slow, slow, slow. The writing of bits and pieces here is important to capture thoughts – could never hold them all in my mind and rereading these journals convinces me I'm just a scribe for greater mind – not believing that eloquence comes from me. The Muses are partners. In my recreations, it is hard to know what is avoidance and what is serendipity with the purpose – a set up for contact.

10:47 a.m. After practice #1 149 – "My practice is my gift to the world." 30 minutes – then a spontaneous extension of ? – another half hour? Like regions – my personal need is alignment with others – the acknowledgment of relationship. – And from GCW I – Spiritual Community – not judging/being impatient with the world or attacking those you seek to save.

11:08 a.m. – This Monday, a holiday – I'm deep in thought – yet it is nice outside. I'm in need of raking the yard to be able to plant grass seed at the next snowfall. I don't like the thought of yard work – but I need to improve the grounds here for future visitors and Cindy. I will benefit – but this is an area of indolence.

11:42 a.m. Completed CH 15 – GCW-I – World Evolution – Succinctly – it is all there and coming to pass. It cross – references my own information – Christen's guides – Franck spokes-soul for a larger group.

My job – the Commission could have been more, but it was already too much for many. Heritage will be lost – condensed – not all of it to go forward through the funnel of time. To be regional is not to be provincial or parochial, but aware of differences in the territory encompassed by each mono-polar worldview.

No wonder I'm drawn to C-SPAN and world intelligence –

8:09 p.m. The afternoon was spent raking & mowing the yard. It is January, snow melted and I want to plant grass – so that's what I did. I listen to C-SPAN tapes…cleaned up the yard. A priority with time – this time.

Working on my life and thinking of what gifts I might have. Though we are here for a short time, given the span of time that this dimension has counted and has yet to go, relatively speaking – things go slow. A fair amount of The Mystery is involved here, so we aren’t in a position to understand what is at work, but can come to trust in the good intent of the Creator. 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.

x2 Step 149 - My practice is my gift to the world. Journal – Step 148

Today: Step - 149 My practice is my gift to the world. (MP3)

My practice is my gift to the world. Step – 149

YOU GIVE TO THE WORLD THROUGH YOUR OWN DEVELOPMENT at this time, for you are preparing to give a greater gift than you have ever given before. Thus, each day that you undertake the practice according to each step that is given, you give a gift to the world. Why is this? It is because you acknowledge your value and your worth. You acknowledge your Ancient Home and your Ancient Destiny. You acknowledge those who sent you and those who will receive you when you leave this world. All this is given to the world each time you practice sincerely, upon each day, upon each hour. This is a greater gift to the world than you can yet understand, but in time you will see the total need that it fulfills.

THEREFORE, YOUR PRACTICE IS A GIFT TO THE WORLD, for it gives that which you are affirming within yourself. What you affirm within yourself you affirm for all individuals, in all circumstances, in all worlds and in all dimensions. Thus, you affirm the reality of Knowledge. Thus, you affirm your Ancient Home while you are here.

UPON THE HOUR, GIVE TO THE WORLD through your practice of giving. Remind yourself of this. In your two longer practice periods, give yourself completely into stillness and silence. Give of your heart and give of your mind. Give all that you realize you can give, for this is a gift to the world. Though you cannot as yet see the result, have confidence that this giving will extend beyond your own mind and will touch all minds in the universe, for all minds are truly joined in reality.

PRACTICE 149: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Picture:  Bright orange poppies again, a picture symbolic of our practice as our “gift to the world”, but the poppies are not as full and vibrant as yesterday’s picture for our “gift to God,” nor as big. The difference to me, as the basis of choice of pictures, is that God would see our gifts fully, whereas the world is unlikely to see our gifts fully, or very much at all, and also because they are not yet fully developed.

“My practice is my gift to God.” Step - 148 of 365

From the journal Step - 148 My practice is my gift to God.

Sunday, January 14, 2001

8:10 a.m.→Rings of sophistication – moving out from central cities, central places – the neighbor/peer problem.

Boundaries, 99% of the time, are meant to focus us inward to delimit the world, manager responsibilities.

I could write my testimony to the California committee on regions.

It's not a question of if there are regions? They are already many regional schemes – public-private.

The challenge is to create alignment that creates stronger/more effective use of territory, assets.

The Walt Whitman of regions – Song of My Region.

I ran the PDC as a networker, matchmaker, integrator, advocator, data-baser –

In metro areas, coordination is the issue – with the need for increasing sophistication required. In rural areas with multi-hubs – small towns/cities – a network is used to increase the size of the market –

→An uncoordinated future is bumpy.

→Future impacts were not thought about when this development of sub-urbanization.

If you (are big and) want to be fast, you must be accurate. Speed is increased with accuracy. Designing and building for-speed than is reverse engineering/organizing for accuracy – that's what I built @ PDC. Speed is not the purpose/goal of Lillie's system. Too bad.

Wherever you find boundaries, you will need intelligence to enable peaceful crossing – are they boundaries or barriers – are they walls, liners or is osmosis designed in. Where the gateways, the customs houses –

Where is the veil/the veils/the lines of demarcation.

– because there's growth and change, boundaries are temporary – they can become obsolete, or out of fashion – but many never go away.

I have important work here – much of the thinking has been revealed, but it isn't organized, the graphics are in my mind, and the data hasn't been compiled. Christoffel's Theory of Regional Community – like that of Einstein – is not yet proven.

There is nothing eternal about earth. Things here can be perpetual – if sustained/sustainable.

→On earth, you might only get perpetuity, not eternity.

Rural prosperity through regional community networking. The goal is to infuse technological support in the mundane so that higher levels of performance are possible.

> Design that simplifies can increase the potential for speed. Ornateness slows – speed is not always the goal. God is still – creation whirls around the still center.

"In order to draw, you must be able to see."  [re: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - by Betty Edwards – 1979]

> There is no boundary-less world – Those seeking commercial advantage and having illusions of power would wish to go anywhere, anytime – the world is one/the universe is one, yet its structure is cellular – for organic life/manifestation and atomic/molecular for the inorganic.

My life as a mini-heretic. I've been through the Inquisition (did not recant on Marie's performance) the crucifixion (transfer to Senior Planner); now I'm working on the resurrection. In the Bardo transition time – it felt like I was present is a ghost – I was dead and didn't know it.

World of pain – we Know as souls the risks we take in entering the manifest world? That's the gist of the spiritual communication. Here in body, self awakening is various ways of throwing ourselves against walls – using pleasure to create pain & punish ourselves, harm others – Others who precede us – the biological parents – siblings, relatives – in their anger, pain, incompetence – can abuse us – even for religious purpose – Yet – with all that risk and potential for pain – souls come. We are bungee jumpers – with no rope – and risk trauma/experience trauma – gauntlets we must go through, we choose to go through.

I want beauty & pain – then go to earth. Manifestation is not eternal, yet it's not w/o use, purpose, consequence. We need to be conscious in order to shape the future.

– I think in testimony style, I'm addressing legislators – trying to communicate to a person – I simply have to do what I have to do.

Everyone/every organization maps a mono-polar world from where they sit. People who sit in more than one place can have more than one mono-polar world – and those worlds can be incompatible – because they don't see they created a mono-polar world – The regional/global business man or woman who on city council is internally focused by the boundaries.

– You can't act w/o information & coordination. Bureaus are the repositories of information for coordination.

– the delimited region is the cauldron for community – niche/affinity/interest-based community.

8:41 p.m. Ready for practice #2. I did #1 @ TLC. I met Bill L… there and we went to lunch. He’s supportive and understanding of my work. A good friend. I intended to hike, but didn't make it. Had a huge craving for food at 5 p.m. in spite of breakfast at Shoney's.

Mom called… She worries so… I'm being unburdened. Bill said I was in better shape than when we first got together a few months ago.

Regional Community becomes Local.

My Local Region –

Regional Beings: A Consequence of Suburbia –

Meaning, purpose, direction – materializes –

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.