x2 Step 215 - My Teachers are with me. I am not alone. – Journal – Step 214

Today: Step 215 - My Teachers are with me. I am not alone. (MP3)

My Teachers are with me. I am not alone. Step 215

YOUR TEACHERS ARE WITH YOU, in the background. They are very careful not to extend their influence upon you too strongly, for you are not yet capable to receive this and to utilize it on your own behalf. Realize, then, that you travel through life with great assistance, for your Teachers are with you to help you to realize and to cultivate Knowledge.

FIRST, THEY MUST HELP YOU TO REALIZE YOUR NEED for Knowledge, for your need for Knowledge must be fully established before you can engage in the reclamation of Knowledge. You must realize that without Knowledge life is hopeless, for you are without purpose, meaning and direction. Then only your errors can teach you, and only they can support your unforgiveness.

REALIZING THE FAILURE OF YOUR OWN IDEAS to be a substitute for Knowledge, you can then turn to Knowledge and become the happy recipient of its true gifts. Here all things that you have truly sought will be meaningfully satisfied. Here you will have a true foundation in life. Here Heaven and Earth will come together within you and all separation will end. Here you can accept the limitations of your physical existence and the greatness of your spiritual life. Turning to Knowledge, therefore, is of the greatest benefit for you.

REMIND YOURSELF OF THIS IDEA upon the hour, and in your two deeper practices today, enter stillness, using the word RAHN if it helps you. Be happy today that you can receive that which frees you.

PRACTICE 215: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Guardian Angels, Saints, guiding spirits, thought-adjusters, …Teachers with me? Human artists have pictured them to help us. Center of this picture, “Saint Francis of Assisi in His Tomb” by Francisco de Zurbarán at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Maybe we are in the other room.

From the journal:  Step 214 - I do not understand myself.

12:22 a.m. March 21, 2000 – Would have been 32 years of marriage today. That it did not work saddens me – though our beliefs were too different for it to last. I live in the same place, but my mind is learning to truly see on a continuous process. Beliefs only carry you to the next set.

8 a.m. A day of rain – MIF – discussion of this issue. S2K #214 "I do not understand myself".

5:53 p.m. What do I think, want, know? I think I'm on a path to nowhere. I have far too many ideas, none of which lead to my earning or rather investing so that I can have some ability to promote regional cooperation/community in future. These are fearful thoughts. I think I've not done well with my investments because I’m self-trained, have not followed good instincts, and fundamentally and not prepared. I was distracted, wasted time and money waiting for others to change.

I want some partnership on my mission. I need to pace myself and get perspective so I can pace myself and be less stressed.

What do I know? With S2K, GCW I am on the right path. The Step yesterday "I do not understand the world" and today "I do not understand myself" are accurate.

10:59 p.m. Relatively good day @ work – getting watershed interest from Rockingham & Harrisonburg→

> Bill D… email→I see the regional needs/options/idea different

Regions – the Goldilocks Solution – just right size – not local, not state – in between size.

Conclusion: I do not understand the world or myself. OK, let us continue to work on that.

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.

x2 Step 214 - I do not understand myself. – Journal – Step 213

Today:  Step 214 - I do not understand myself. (MP3)

I do not understand myself. Step 214

 

THIS IS NOT A STATEMENT OF FAILURE OR LIMITATION. It is simply a statement to liberate you from your own impediments. How can you possibly understand yourself if Knowledge is not revealing all things to you? How can you possibly understand the world when Knowledge is not revealing the world to you? This is pure experience, beyond all concepts and beliefs, for concepts and beliefs can only follow the experience and attempt to provide a structure where the experience can arise again. In no way can beliefs, assumptions or ideas possibly imitate Knowledge itself.

OF COURSE YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND YOURSELF or the world, for you only understand your ideas, and they are not eternal. Therefore, they cannot provide a solid foundation upon which you must learn to stand. Thus, they can only fail and deceive you if you rely upon them instead of Knowledge to reveal yourself and the world to you.

UPON THE HOUR REMIND YOURSELF that you do not understand yourself. Free yourself from the burden of justifying your own judgments. Look upon yourself in your deeper meditation practices and remind yourself that you do not understand yourself. Now you are free to enter into stillness, for you are not attempting to use your experience to justify your fantasies about yourself. Here your mind becomes free to be itself, and you become free to appreciate yourself.

PRACTICE 214: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

I may not understand myself, but I am keeping a journal and doing my Steps daily, as the pile on the nightstand shows in this 2009 picture from London.

From the journal:  Step 213 - I do not understand the world.

6:34 a.m. March 20, 2001 – Angry this morning. The NARC – IRC – (Institute of Regional Communities) Report on State of the Regions is just a survey of what Regional Organizations do. It is not a comprehensive review of State Standard regions. Create competition among Governors – my State has better regions than yours – a better network.

I hate this – it irritates me – makes me more mono-maniacal about the need – and hurt more when people don't get it.

The purpose of maps is to visualize relationships that are at a scale which you can't see.

I'm angry and hurt. I can only get over it and move on.

> We map the world to try to understand it.

> Regional landscapes – Bill Dodge and Ed McMahon

> To be a force for Good –

> My plan, my role has yet to emerge with clarity.

→Regional Community Initiative – fund, define and evolve the tools for local - regional communities

– My Region

– My City

      County

      Town

      – – Region?

      State

      Country

      Planet

8:29 p.m. Home – had a good time lecturing to Joe C…'s technology class about GIS. An interesting day… The audit has begun… Where will it lead. The events going in to my shift were due to my inability to apply Knowledge in the given situations.

It was interesting, yet as Step 213 says: "I do not understand the world".

This time, blue ink, the words: “your beliefs and assumptions are meant to be tools to serve your mind” look like the description of: “An operating system”.

It still seems that way today. 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.

x2 Step 213 - I do not understand the world. – Journal – Step 212

Today: Step 213 - I do not understand the world. (MP3)  

I do not understand the world. Step 213

YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE WORLD. You only entertain judgments about it and then attempt to understand your judgments. The world will reveal itself to you as you look without these restraints and limitations. In this, you will find that your beliefs can become useful in allowing you to take each next step in life. They need not limit your perception of the universe. You cannot be in the world without beliefs or assumptions. Yet, your beliefs and assumptions are meant to be tools to serve your mind, to give it a temporary structure and to allow it to engage its natural abilities in a positive manner.

YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE WORLD TODAY. Be happy that this is so, for your condemnation is unfounded. You do not understand the world today. This gives you an opportunity to witness the world.

UPON THE HOUR REPEAT THIS IDEA as you look upon the world. Remind yourself that you do not understand what you see, so you are free to look again. If you are not free to look, it simply means that you are attempting to justify your own judgments. This is not seeing. This is merely entertaining your own fantasies. In your two deeper practice periods today, allow your mind to enter stillness, for without the burden of attempting to justify your fantasies, your mind will naturally seek its true place in service to Knowledge. You do not understand the world today, and so you do not understand yourself.

PRACTICE 213: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

Graffiti – I’ve seen it in every country I’ve visited. Train cars, as pictured, are a common canvas. It is one of many things I don’t understand in the world. As artistic expression, it may have some value, but it seems more anger about the environment young people find themselves within. Steps practice can help one cope with limitation by finding meaning, purpose and direction in their lives.

Step 212 - I gain strength from all who practice with me.

The Steps page has notations from year one and two. At the top I wrote: “Is my mind an ignorant force?” in response to the text: “This counteracts the ignorant forces of the world.”

At the bottom of the page: 3/19/01 – “Knowledge is the relationship”.

From the journal:

March 19, 2001

8:15 p.m. Where am I? Need air – will walk. Now distracted by TV.

11:37 p.m. Why should I care? It is difficult to keep up my enthusiasm for life. I eat, read, watch TV – and neither in the world – nor out of it. I do not have a plan for regional intelligence. It comes in dribs & drabs. I've no energy for the writing part; the organizing – others research – but aren't in the trenches. I'm again in the wilderness?

Why should I be here? It isn't my fault all these other souls picked a lousy life – a harsh life. David and Sarah are on their own. I can't do much more.

Don't know if I can teach anyone. Am I learning myself?

My need is beyond wisdom. I need it with a cattle prod.

Progress is slow; insight and confusion in the same day. 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.