x2 Step 289 - Today I am a student of Knowledge. – Journal – Step 288

Today:  Step 289 - Today I am a student of Knowledge. (MP3) Entry for Step 288 - Enemies are only friends who have not learned to join.

Greetings All –

Step 289 - Today I am a student of Knowledge. (MP3)

Today I am a student of Knowledge. Step 289

BE A REAL STUDENT TODAY. Give yourself entirely to your learning process. Do not assume anything, for true students do not assume anything, and that is what enables them to learn everything. Realize that you cannot comprehend Knowledge; you can only receive it. You can only experience its extension through your life into the world.

THEREFORE, ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE RECEPTIVE TO KNOWLEDGE. Do not allow yourself to be receptive to the ambivalence that permeates the world. Maintain your distance from this ambivalence, for you are not yet strong enough with Knowledge to face ambivalence and to render your gift into an ambivalent world. Do not be ambitious in this regard, or you will overstep your capacity and will fail as a result. As Knowledge grows and develops within you, it will lead you into areas where you are able to serve. It will lead you into situations where you have an adequate capacity to render it.

BE A STUDENT TODAY. Do not try to use the learning to fulfill your own ambitions with it. Do not let your own personal ideas guide you today, but be a student of Knowledge. When you are certain of something, carry it forth as wisely and as appropriately as possible. When you are uncertain of something, return to Knowledge and simply be at peace with Knowledge, for Knowledge will guide you. In this way, you will become a true and active agent of Knowledge in the world. Knowledge will extend itself through you into the world, and all that you receive will be given into the world through you.

IN YOUR DEEPER PRACTICES TODAY strengthen your ability to enter into the realm of Knowledge. Today go deeper than you have ever gone before. Today be a student of Knowledge. Enter Knowledge. Experience Knowledge. In this way, you will become more and more engaged with its power and its grace. In this way, you will realize its purpose in the world, which can only be realized through participation.

PRACTICE 289: Two 30-minute practice periods.

Picture: When I first did this Step, I wrote out on the back of a business card: “Tom Christoffel A Student of Knowledge 5/1/2000”. It is in my “Day Runner” calendar, address and to-do list pocket binder. These have been replaced by smart phones for most, but I still keep the paper calendar – because technology fails. This statement of intent is still operational and I’m still a beginning student.

From the journal:  Step 288 - Enemies are only friends who have not learned to join.

2:13 a.m. Sunday, June 3, 2001 – Step 288 – "Enemies are only friends who have not yet learned to join".

11:30 a.m. In 1997 I attended the first National Regional Summit. A wide range of experts and practitioners decried the state of regionalism. My simple reaction in response to the assembled group was to state that, after 30 years, regions were still invisible.

Governmental officials – local, state and Federal knew there were regional councils, but chose not to use them. My experience in Virginia was that, at least in our region, work was being done because of the shared geography of many regional agencies.

Bob Foeller – first director of the SEVA RPC told me that, at the start in the 1960s his goal was to have the other regional agencies using the same sets of data – as a means to coordinate their own planning and implementation region wide.

It was my own experience that "regions worked". In 1998 – at the World Future Society – I presented the Regions Work Initiative. It had the following agenda (from PowerPoint)

→ National data sets based on existing regions.

→ Region + or - neighbors (region or county) to create the regional design that fits the market/issue.

→ Make visible to citizens, business and industry, non-profits.

→State databases on regional geography.

→ Regional Public Corporate Database

Compared to the academics, I felt that regions needed to be defined nationwide. Individually I have pursued my goal – all the time seeking to understand how regions worked. The conclusion is very simple – they see themselves as community. With "regional community", the region became "local" and an accepted part of the way needs are met.

The way than to make regionalism effective is to make it local. That is done with DNA. Regions are defined geographically, named and aligned with other regional organizational territories/communities.

My observation is that “community precedes cooperation” [first use of phrase which becomes the first thesis] – so in order to get regional cooperation – regional community.

I thus propose the establishment of the Center for Regional Communities. Such regional communities are first intentional. They are defined, named, aligned. The scale is appropriate to the community issue which is at the core of their purpose.

There is no perfect region for all issues, needs or interests. Boundaries separate it from the rest of the world and make it local.

2 p.m. Mowing the lawn. Although regionalism is about boundary crossing, it does not follow that regions should not have boundaries nor that those boundaries should change with every decade’s change in economic relationships – e.g. commuting pattern.

If the regional geographic territory is ever-changing – then there can be no benchmarking or trend measurement to determine growth, change or significant issues.

Regions – bounded become local and are thus subject to parochialism – rural regions versus urban regions – in the state legislatures – and in the national government as well.

Any region is always yet a piece of the global geography of our local planet.

Planetary boundaries being entirely physical – based on water, land, ice – atmosphere and thereby true limits on human movement and settlement – unless of course, aided by technology.

7:59 p.m. Practice #2 – on the back porch. I was going to go to the trail, but message was "Home". I spent 2.5 hours sorting my accumulation of papers define the report to send Mark Warner. I had copies – including the letters of response… but no can find. It is amazing to me how things get lost. No spiritual meaning to this says S2K – I have one copy – that must be mailed tomorrow. I wonder about my life.

It was a week ago I was in Colorado – my thinking rescaled by S2K. It seems it will take some time to act on that. I need to progress – day by day – seeking to contribute.

I'll go $100 a month to the Society for July to December – $600 for the year – or $75? Decide tomorrow.

8:21 p.m. Now indoors – too much noise outside. A mental conversation with Mark Warner I'd like to have – a dream?

Today's Step is a strong one. "Enemies are only friends who have not learned to join". I can treat people this way because my life has had little conflict. Somehow, in the next ten years – I need to figure out how to have money for retirement and my extended work.

– "Recognize, then, that all war and conflict simply express a lack of capacity for those involved to join. When individuals join, they recognize a common need, which becomes their primary need. This must be born of K and not idealism if it is to be actualized… you become a peacemaker and a peacekeeper in the world as you follow as a Student of K". – fear & ambivalence become weaker – and the war within – "…you must learn to see as Knowledge sees, to think as Knowledge thinks and to act as Knowledge acts".

11:13 p.m. If I'm supposed to be someone or do something, I don't Know if I'll get there. S2K moves me to stillness, silence and peace – doing nothing. I've been unburdened to the point of disappearance.

It is a Sunday, so there is more time to write and I took advantage of that, trying to integrate my thinking – contribute to the world from the perspective of my experience and, be evermore, a student of Knowledge. 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.