Today: Step 207 - I forgive
those whom I think have hurt me. (MP3)
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| I forgive those whom I think have hurt me. Step 207 |
THIS STATEMENT REPRESENTS YOUR INTENTION to have Knowledge,
for unforgiveness is merely the application of blame towards a situation in
which you were unable to understand or to apply Knowledge. All your failures
are your own in this respect. This may look like a burden of blame at first,
until you realize the greater opportunity that it presents to you. For if all
failures are your own, then you will realize that all correction is given to
you to apply. The failure of another is not your own, but your condemnation of
it is your own failure. Therefore, any failure that engenders unforgiveness in you
is your failure, for another’s failure need not engender unforgiveness in you
or blame of any kind. In fact, the failures of others will engender your
compassion and the application of Knowledge in the future and need not give
rise to blame or unhappiness within you.
KNOWLEDGE IS NOT SHOCKED UPON LOOKING AT THE WORLD.
Knowledge is not dismayed. Knowledge is not discouraged. Knowledge is not
affronted. Knowledge realizes the smallness of the world and the errors of the
world. It realizes this because it only knows itself, and all that is not
Knowledge is merely the opportunity for Knowledge to be reapplied. Thus, your
unforgiveness is simply the opportunity for you to reapply Knowledge.
REPEAT TODAY’S IDEA UPON THE HOUR and do not
underestimate its value to you who now seek to be unburdened from grief and misery.
In your two deeper practice periods, think of those, one by one, for whom you
feel unforgiveness—individuals that you have known personally and individuals
that you have heard about or thought of, individuals that have been associated
with failure. They will come to mind as you call upon them, for they are all
waiting to be forgiven by you. Allow them now to arise one by one. As they do
so, forgive yourself for failing to apply your Knowledge. Remind them as they
appear to you that you are now learning to apply Knowledge and that you will
not suffer on their behalf and they, therefore, need not suffer on yours. The
commitment to forgive, then, is the commitment to realize Knowledge and to
apply Knowledge, for Knowledge dispels unforgiveness like the light dispels the
darkness. For there is only Knowledge and the need for Knowledge. That is all
that you can possibly perceive in the universe.
YOUR TWO PRACTICE PERIODS ARE, THEREFORE, dedicated
to facing those whom you have accused and forgiving yourself for failing to
apply Knowledge in your understanding of them and engagement with them. Do this
without any form of guilt or self-deprecation, for how could you possibly not
fail if Knowledge was not available to you or if you were not available to
Knowledge. Accept, then, your former limitations and dedicate yourself now to
perceiving the world anew, without blame and with the greatness of Knowledge.
PRACTICE 207: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
From the journal: Step
206 - Love is flowing from me now.
March
13, 2001
6:37
p.m. Practice #2 Step 206 – Love is flowing from a now.
A
different day. The living towns planning session was OK. Good discussion in
fact – solid work – just planning I suppose. Many projects @ critical points.
Their success is not dependent on me. Riding up Route 11 – it looked good in
Shenandoah County. The towns have not grown together – totally connected as a
Stras-Market strip. [Strasburg to New Market – 31 miles – Toms Brook,
Woodstock, Edinburg, Mt. Jackson lie between them.]
Last
night I was on the edge of mystery – feeling the bigger picture. Time here is
short. I spend lots of time waking up to get to this appreciation. GCW implies
that waking up is part of the goal – just being energized. I am closer to that
now – able to help in the flow for others. This is similar to ACIM – yet
different, deeper, so I continue.
The
kernal within us…that connection – the piece I had in boot camp – just as Dad
had when his ship was torpedoed.
My father survived a torpedo attack on his ship.
This was his first deployment as a sailor. The story follows:
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| USS Laramie (AO-16) |
USS Laramie (AO-16) departed Sydney, Nova Scotia
for Greenland 26 August 1942. On the evening of the 27th she was torpedoed
while steaming in convoy at the eastern end of Belle Isle Strait. Hit on the
port side forward, she immediately listed to port and went down by the bow some
37 feet. The blast demolished the forward crew's quarters, killing four men,
opened a hole 41 feet long and 34 feet high causing extensive flooding forward;
and ruptured the port gasoline tank, spraying the ship with volatile liquid and
explosive fumes.
During my agnostic period in college, about age 20,
after expressing my doubts about religion, my father challenged me: “How can
you not believe in God?” He went on to say: “I got out of the forward hold of
my ship, neck deep in water in the dark, carrying my mattress over my head to
keep from knocking myself out on the the overhead.”
This was his witness to me of his experience of God
in his life. It wasn’t until later in my
life, that I understood the importance of this witness. Because of Greater
Community Spirituality and Steps to Knowledge, now the New Message from God, my life was saved when my work life was torpedoed. I am using this blog to give my
witness so others might have this perspective on life and experience of creation.
I continued. Please do continue as well, whether or not you think any part of
your life requires saving at this moment.
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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