CT Step 7 - The difficulties I see in the world today are the opportunities for me to develop discernment. – Journal – CT Step 6

Today:  CT Step 7 - The difficulties I see in the world today are the opportunities for me to develop discernment. (MP3)

The difficulties I see in the world today are the opportunities for me to develop discernment. CT Step 7

It is important in learning The Way of Knowledge to be able to face anything and everything that comes across your path. That does not, however, mean that you give these things equal value or meaning. There is great conflict in the world. This cannot be denied. Yet it must be understood clearly. You cannot put a happy face on it. You cannot say that it is merely a projection of your own imagination. Do not call it unreal and go seek out those things that are pleasurable instead. For in your relationship with the world, conflict is something that must be faced. If you can do this, it will give you courage and self-determination. The conflicts in the world give you the opportunity to develop true discernment - seeing what really is and knowing what really is, all without condemnation.

Look at the conflicts that cross your path today and take a moment to see them without judgment. Suspend your judgment so that you may see past what appears to be obvious at the surface and allow a deeper understanding to naturally and gradually come into being within your experience. Here you set aside all simple definitions and enter into the realm of experience. Here instead of putting labels on things, you begin to understand them.

In your practice in stillness, let your mind be free. In your hourly practices, apply the mind purposefully and meaningfully. Today look at conflict and see what you can see.

Practice 7:      One 30-minute stillness practice.

                         Contemplation practice.

                         Hourly practice.

Picture:  Holocaust Memorial Parade, Pécs, Hungary - May 26, 2010. At the time, I did not notice that the signs are names of Nazi concentration camps. The black banners indicated sadness and mourning. In 1969 – 72, as a sailor seeing Europe, I noticed people wearing black armbands. It seemed political at first until someone told me it was a sign of grieving for the death of a family member. A good time to be discerning.

From the journal:  CT Step 6 - My mind is here to serve Knowledge.

9:45 p.m. Thursday, August 30, 2001 – Contemplation. Sarah has been kept in the State hospital. This is better for the baby? In Cindy's reading it appeared that in six months the baby would be with Mary Ellen.

Step 6 – My mind is here to serve Knowledge. True harmony within yourself means that your mind is serving your Spirit and your body is serving your mind.

"Today I give myself to you, the Great Spirit that lives within me and beyond me and throughout the universe".

– The contemplation. The mind serves spirit. I thought the mind was to serve humanity for Spirit. That has been the focus for most of my life – serving the world, serving humanity, though humanity doesn't know how it wants to be served.

11:40 p.m. I thought I was serving Spirit? Was my mind serving itself? Even in ACIM, the ego-illusion was avoided – recognized. I sought to be a teacher of God. My work for humanity – the PDC and home relationships burned me and I failed. Mind was trying to serve the world. Ideas appeared – work went forward – even when successful I lost. I was working under a rock. PDC not respected – even with good works.

How do I serve the Greater Spirit? How do I follow its direction? Where are these people I'm to work with?

Questioning, questioning, questioning – the quest. This is work. We continue.

NNC

Note: If you’ve some interest, but this is the first time you’ve seen 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. Begin at the beginning.

If you do know about Steps, but have not done Steps twice completely, read the related materials, and have a sense of the direction of this study, you won’t get the experience. The Introduction begins:

“This is the Steps to Knowledge Continuation Training. It is designed to build upon the Steps that were learned in Steps to Knowledge to enable you to experience the grace, the power and the direction of Knowledge in your life and to become an expression of Knowledge in everything that you do. If you have completed the book, Steps to Knowledge, twice through and have followed the instructions as they were given without altering the curriculum in any way, then you are now ready to begin this more advanced study”.

If you are an independent student, that is certainly an option. 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.