TODAY’S
REVIEW WILL CONCENTRATE UPON THE PAST WEEK of training. It will emphasize once
again that you are learning to learn. You are learning to understand how you
learn. You are learning to understand your strengths and your weaknesses. You
are learning to understand your predispositions—those qualities in yourself
that you must cultivate and those qualities which you must arrest and bring
under conscious control. You are learning to be observant of yourself. Thus,
you are learning at last to be objective with yourself. This objectivity is
especially important, for it allows you to utilize that which is there to serve
you without your condemnation. In this way, your service to yourself becomes
immediate and effective.
IF
YOU CAN LEARN TO BE OBJECTIVE WITH YOURSELF, you can learn to be objective with
the world. This will allow Knowledge to shine through you, for you will not be
attempting to make the world into what you wish it to be, and you will not be
attempting to make yourself into what you wish yourself to be. This is the
beginning of true resolution and true happiness, but even greater than this, it
is the beginning of genuine contribution.
IN
YOUR ONE LONG PRACTICE PERIOD TODAY review the past week, keeping these things
in mind. Strengthen your experience of Knowledge today by supporting its
outward manifestations and doubt not the power of this preparation to bring you
to Knowledge itself.
PRACTICE
126: One long practice period.
From the journal Step
125 - I do not need to be someone today.
7:38
a.m. Friday, December 22, 2000 – I've made progress on my article submission.
Getting published is my strategy to get visibility and then research resources.
I've had the mandate to write for a long time. Now I'm getting time. This is
really amazing.
S2K
does not say believe, it says experience. It is incumbent on humanity to save
itself and not look to the skies. The U.N. should take action to prohibit
abductions as violations of human rights.
8:09
a.m. S2K – The message of the allies. An
independent, self-sufficient earth – human unity – is required. I can
contribute to this effort.
3:35
p.m. Time for Practice #1 – Shortly after the prior entry I came downstairs to
find the toilet overflowing. I went into the basement, saw more – then ran
outside to open the cleanout valves and release the pressure. It had occurred
to me recently to have the town clean it out – and earlier I heard a gurgle –
but in checking the sump pump area, did not realize what that warned of. Spent
the morning wiping up – went to Rotary – then
6:27
p.m. again ready for Practice #1 – Cindy feared smells in the basement when I
called her so she asked that I clean the floor with bleach. No problem. I said
I wanted to meditate first. She called back and asked me to put her first – I
did. Now done… I'm gainfully tired.
9:52
p.m. Writing an email to Larry … encouraging him to try Steps to Knowledge
exercises, I mentioned ACIM. I
went to my text to see when I started it – 1988 – and began reviewing it to see
why I moved on from it. The last time I looked I found something that said it
was not complete and there was more that told me then S2K was appropriate.
In
looking at ACIM again I wondered what caused me to move on? I felt very good at
the end. In 1990, when we were married, ACIM was what kept me cool in the
marriage when under attack. I ended up having to go to Caron to get straight on
alcohol issues and my dysfunction. I used ACIM for peace – but attack just
never seemed to end.
In
1995 – I was burned out at work and began to attack others – I was too
judgmental? Under too much pressure – job, marriage, David – RUOW and its "rage" made sense
of dysfunction. Then too with the Internet, other spiritual messages and the
alien thing. ACIM just didn't cover that. In my work – community was the focus
– holy instants happened – the woods saved me, Ken Carey [sample from the book The Third Millennium] was inspiration, but ACIM Holy Spirit
…
So –
in the physical, I have the spiritual salvation of ACIM, but live in the
manifest world which my mind cannot control.
So
the progression to S2K is traceable. Had I stuck with ACIM – lived it better,
it seems my life might not be here @ this point.
Relationships
remain challenging. ACIM is truth – it's just that I need more truth for it to
work.
Some mundane drama in today’s entries. There is the
retrospective tracing of the path to Steps to Knowledge. I had been on my
search for a very long time. If I’d found something complete, I would have
stopped, but I didn’t and thus kept going. As The Teachers say, there are other
messages and the New Message is not for everyone.
Comparing message to message, there are always some
exclusive differences and even the lack of acknowledgement that there are other
messages. A piece of advice through a channel relative to the differences
between The
Urantia Book and A Course in Miracles, was to, more or less, find the value
in each.
Pattern recognition, finding similarities, is what humans
do. Finding the common truths among messages is no doubt one thing needed for
the needed age of Human Unity and Cooperation that The Teachers call for.
Before we get to that, we need to learn more about
how we learn and use what is learned. 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.
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