Today: Step 327 - I will be at
peace today. (MP3) [Open in Drive or copy to
your Drive – Download folder or play from Drive – Step PDF also.]
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| I will be at peace today. Step 327 |
YOU CAN BE AT PEACE TODAY, even while you consider
greater things in the world and beyond the world. You can be at peace today even
while you meet the challenge of becoming a student of Knowledge and the
challenge of observing your world with objectivity. How can you be so active
and have such challenge and still be at peace? The answer is that Knowledge is
with you. As you abide with Knowledge, feel Knowledge and carry Knowledge out
into the world, within yourself you will be still, though on the outside you
may be actively engaged. There is no contradiction between peace and movement,
between inner stillness and outer engagement. Though the world is a difficult
and frustrating place to be, it is a natural recipient of Knowledge. Its
difficulties and its frustrations need not affect your internal state, which is
becoming ever more unified and harmonious.
REMIND YOURSELF UPON THE HOUR to be at peace while
you are in the world. Release all fear and anxiety and fortify your adherence
to Knowledge as you do so. In your two deeper practice periods when you take
refuge from the world, rekindle the fire of Knowledge and take comfort in its
warm presence. Realize that within this fire all things that are imaginary and
harmful are consumed. The fire of Knowledge will not burn you, but it will warm
your soul. You can enter this fire without fear of pain or harm. It will purify
and cleanse you, for it is the fire of love. Today be at peace, for today is a
day of peace, and peace is given you to receive this day.
PRACTICE 327: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly
practice.
This was a confirming Step for me the first time
through. Those that have stayed with the Steps and do it a second time or more,
probably have had confirmations along the way. Two notes on the Steps pages
give my response from year one and remained true year two, and now in year 15:
I wrote: “Knowledge is unity! The community already
exists.” My work in regional planning led me to understand
that community precedes cooperation. That train of thought is in the journal entries,
but it might be something you’ve skipped over. The work challenge to do
something new or different usually means the need to work across boundaries. The
way ideas and action spread, as I’ve come to see it, is to build/recognize
community around issues. This may sound academic, pedantic, bureaucratic, but
it is really experiential.
While
Greater Community is the challenge to Humanity, it is also the solution.
Humanity must itself become a Greater Community. It is the path of evolution we
are told, as hard as that might be to accept.
From the journal:
12:30
a.m. Wednesday, July 11, 2001 – Step 326 "GC is something I can feel, but
not understand". Text talks about becoming "one person". Am I
not one person – am I, are most people, split personalities? My behavior is
inconsistent. Sometimes reliable, sometimes not. Sometimes moral, sometimes not
so moral.
Do I
know anyone who is not a multiple personality – different in different
environments? And then we judge.
text:
"You need to see yourself as one person
you need to see your world as one
community
need to see your universe as a Greater
Community.
– all trying to unify –
to un-bang the Big Bang?
What
would it mean to see and feel myself as one person? I would be consistent – not
exercise one moment and over eat the next; do what I said I’d do – not
procrastinate; nor make commitments I didn't want; not try to do the work of
many; organize and manage time; not stay up late, expecting to get up early;
not do half-assed/half-baked things; not create a crisis in order to pressure
to do what needs to be done; not go too fast; let parts be done in order –
–
text "Understanding comes through participation". &
"…understanding is born of hindsight and true application". (7/21/01
how do you turn hindsight into foresight?)
→ K…is meant to free
you from the disability of your own imagination.
– I
imagine being different people – more than one – which disables me from being
one person – myself.
– I
need to feel being one person. Obviously only feel one body – but how many
drivers?
Goal
– GC? – individuality with integration/without fragmentation
–
regional councils – a potential for regional community [the framework]
8:30
p.m. M.E. drops the hammer. Sarah is in detox – she's in a shelter or on the
street. M.E.'s taking the trailer away. She's putting David and Jamie out of
the house. David and Sarah are failing as functional adults. Therefore I failed
as a parent. I could not teach. At work I could not teach – I could not find
the people I need. [M.E. blames it all on the fact David and Sarah have been
diagnosed as bipolar 7/21/01]
Natural
Light beer – opening a bottle of beer – the sound of failure.
As a
parent, I've been unsuccessful. I've some experience.
The
Step today says we are, I am – becoming one person.
Life
begins again? Do I feel one with life or separated? One with life, yes,
separated from my children.
My
failed experiment at parenting.
What
I've Known and what I've done are/have been separated. If I could have been the
one person who has Known/did Know – my life would be different.
I've
added some value to society – and have potential for more. That is the one
person I can be. Far simpler, more focused…
Trying
to be too much? Too many people?
Popeye
– "I am what I am and that's all that I am".
Otis
Redding – Sitting on the
Dock of the Bay – "I can't to be what ten people want me to be, so
I'll remain the same.
–
Fantasy/illusion – wounds, kills, disappoints,
Relationship
failure – perpetuates and teaches failure. The domino effect of dysfunction.
Yet
humanity fails forward.
So…
I am humble…contrite…confused…resigned…sad.
I am
just sad, sad and helpless – for the teaching and the help did not say them
from pain.
10:46
p.m. From now on I am only going to be one person. Time to consolidate – I'm
becoming R… My work is to integrate ideas for regional/community – that is the
pattern I recognize and wish to bring to the forefront.
Let
us continue. If you are writing in you journal, entries may be getting longer
as it does take thought and it is useful to keep track of new or changed
thinking. New thoughts, I’ve found, are often guidance – so, record them when
you can. 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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