x2 : Step 266 – Review ~ You are beginning to learn how to learn, and you are seeing the world change as a result. – Journal – Step 265

Today:  Step 266 – Review~ You are beginning to learn how to learn, and you are seeing the world change as a result. (MP3)

TODAY AS BEFORE REVIEW THE PAST TWO WEEKS of preparation. Take this opportunity in your long practice period today to review all that has transpired in these past two weeks concerning the directions given in this preparation, your experiences of the practices and the overall results in your life. Carry on this Review with as much objectivity as you can, especially regarding the results in your life, many of which you still cannot assess objectively.

MANY THINGS WILL CHANGE AS YOU PROGRESS in your studies. Some things will fall away from you; other things will begin to build. Worldly problems will press upon you that require your engagement and application. Other things that you thought were problems will become increasingly remote and unnecessary for you to concern yourself with. Thus, your outer life adjusts itself so that you can recognize where you are to apply yourself now. Then, your inner life and outer life can reflect one another. This is very important. You are beginning to learn how to learn, and you are seeing the world change as a result. The quality of your experience will be transformed in time so that all things, both common and extraordinary, will be viewed from a different viewpoint than before. You can then learn to take advantage of all opportunities and thus learn to appreciate life, even in its disappointments.

PRACTICE THIS IN THE REVIEW TODAY. Be very thorough in your investigation. Begin with the first lesson in the two-week period and follow it day by day. Recognize what happened in your life each day. Try to remember. Try to concentrate here. In this way, you will feel the movement of your own life. It is in recognizing this movement over a period of time and seeing how the stages of your life progress that you will realize that you are firmly on the road to Knowledge. You will then see that there will be less and less behind you to hold you back and that the future will open itself to accommodate you increasingly. This is the beneficence of life bowing before you who are becoming a student of Knowledge.

PRACTICE 266: One long practice period.

Yesterday:  Step 265 - There is a greater freedom awaiting me.

From the journal:  Step 265 - There is a greater freedom awaiting me.

Friday, May 11, 2001

11 p.m. Back from FR Rotary's 75th anniversary. A chain of leadership since 1926 for the community. What would it be like were Rotary not there? Progress is slow, but cumulative.

It still amazes me – all that TR had and how little a FR had – all due to resources and migration. As I got to the Shenandoah Country Club and walked to the dining room through the parking lot I asked myself, "Why am I in Virginia?" "Why have I stayed so long?"

I am the student, not the teacher.

Step 265 – Practice #2 "There is a greater freedom awaiting me".

5/12/01 Knowledge requires you to be:

     w    1. free of the past

     w   2. free of anxiety over the future

     √   3. present with life

     √   4. open and honest

     √   5. to have faith & consistent self application

     w   6. to not be in conflict

     √   7. have great love & respect for yourself

     √   8. great appreciation for the world

     √   9. be able to experience your spiritual family

     w  10. recognize your true place in the universe.

All this to extend self to Knowledge to accept it. The goal is achieved by taking the Steps.

There is no magic formula where all of a sudden you become free.

– In Urantia – the goal of fusing with your thought adjuster and disappearing from Earth in a flash visible from above – one site of flashes representing this soul achievement – fireflies in the heavens – but that not the view now – very few connections/flashes/assumptions.

I had the sense often in ACIM that if I could truly understand some of the simple phrases/ideas – that same fusion/disappearance would take place. The S2K way – work, work, work – no flash – just work on the goals.

The Plan is perfect. We are not, but following the plan will lead to the solution.

→ Enter into stillness and freedom. It is a great freedom to immerse myself in K, and presence, and the actual substance of true relationship. This is my freedom.

→

– Cindy came in – I'd meditated for more than an hour. I'd come out and was restless, but didn't hear the alarm. I thought I was under 30 minutes and was criticizing myself for being unable to be still.

There is no secret to it – you just learn, practice, learn – get there.

For Practice #2 I listed the requirements of Knowledge, then the next day marked my assessment on those requirements. The “w” means working and √, the check, means I’m doing that, or at least I think so.

Note: If you think you read this yesterday, you did. My calendar wasn’t working. If you want to check the correct Step 264 entry, go back one day.

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.