Today: CT Step 2 - The gift of Knowledge is given me
today. (MP3)
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| The gift of Knowledge is given me today. CT Step 2 |
The gift of Knowledge is given you today. Abide in
its stillness. Receive its certainty. Share in its total commitment to life.
Rejoice in the reprieve that it gives you from the conflicts and the horrors of
the world.
In your one long practice today, practice
stillness. Simply receive this stillness, this gift, this reprieve, the luxury
of peace where no problems have to be solved and nothing has to be contemplated
or corrected. Do not see this as an effort, but as a gift.
During your time of practice, find a comfortable
place to sit. Uncross your arms and your legs. Give this practice your total
attention, not letting your mind wander to other things. For the gift is given
you today. Upon each hour stop and experience the presence of Knowledge, the
stillness of Knowledge and receive the counsel of Knowledge if it is needed.
During the day as well consider what today's lesson
is really telling you. Let yourself not be caught up in the frantic pursuits of
the world, but carry out your worldly responsibilities with a greater
discernment and sense of presence. It is not up to you to determine whether
things are good or bad, right or wrong but instead to follow The Way of
Knowledge, for in this you will become a force of good in the world, and it
will teach you all that you need to know.
Practice 2: One 30-minute stillness practice.
Contemplation practice.
Hourly practice.
Picture: Feather on the path Dickey Ridge Trail, Shenandoah National Park.
July 24, 2014. I took a picture, but did not take the feather. Most likely from
a protected bird, it is against the law to have such items, regardless of where
they were obtained. Found
Feathers and the Feather Atlas
From the journal: CT
Step 1 - Knowledge is with me, but where am I?
Beginning
Continuation Training, we have a foundation. We are committed beginning
students. There may be more thinking going on, more to put into the journal, if
there is time. I had the spiral bound, 8.5 x 11 inch book, so there was plenty
of room to write on the page. The new, bound book is smaller – but do make
notes in it – that is a part of journaling, provided you date the note. The
comment may be good, but when in the journey was it written?
Each
time I started CT Steps, I recorded the date. This will be the 18th
time. I’m putting the pages in, not for any particular content, but so you will
choose not to limit your self-expression.
The
journal entry was long:
12:02
a.m. Saturday, August 25, 2001 – Stuffed up head. I do not do well when sick
and unable to breathe.
…
3:20
p.m. Starting "Dances
with Wolves"
7:25
p.m. Still ill – moving slow. Dances was good to see again. I don't know if I
understood the relationships the first time I saw it. I was thinking there was
a time reference to the Spaniards – but it was visual – a helmet – an artifact
–
the conquistador's
metal helmet.
7:33
p.m. Today's Step "Knowledge is with me, but where am I?" I did my
Stillness @ 6:30 p.m. I am to find a daily, regular time. It could be 6:30 or 7
a.m. – 6 or 6:30 p.m.
What
is the meaning of this lesson? This morning the idea that K is with me I could
see/feel – as the center point, stillness, but I was not with it – spread out
in many places – unfocused –
In
stillness practice, I was drawn into the center – back to my K, but is also
part of the Big K – so – centering was not just on me, but the K.
From
that center, I could explore the world – it was like Front Royal being the
center of its region, a pole for the planet, centering returning to the source.
The
same time my center point is moving directly to God – my direction – that's
what I felt as the return in my gut the other night – the movement.
While
the earth rotates as it circles around the sun, as our galaxy moves through
space – there is lots of physical movement – but in time I could see a straight
line my soul – regardless of what I was doing, that was heading back to God –
and I was not alone –
The
degree to which I can be still and centered on my Knowledge determines the rate
of progress – being centered, we move faster, uncentered, more slowly.
It
fit with today's Step, which is a repeat of the 2nd step in S2K.
Holy
Spirit/Knowledge is with me. It is my guide, our guide.
Knowledge
can be with us, but we’re not with it – so we suffer from our disability. It is
not the physical suffering – it is the emotional.
It
seems ironic, yet totally synchronistic that I should watch “Dances with Wolves”
today. The lieutenant turned native when he understood the Lakota. They were
more spiritual than the white people who were overrunning the country.
The
Lakota demonstrated wisdom among a tribal group. The Pawnee had a different
ethic. It was a history of manifestation, but not something you can go back to
How
can the values be brought forward into a national society, an international
world?
A
man on TV – in a discussion of teenage pregnancy – said it was a mental health
problem. Contraceptives and sex education did not deal with that. Sex is for
reproduction and partner bonding. I can see that now, that's not how society
dealt with it.
We
are too short distance from our tribal groups? Full of technology – but behind
in sociology.
At
least with this first Step, I’m a more serious student. Being 2001, many
elements of the New Message are yet to be released. It may be an advantage to
do this part with the initial books. As I’ve
often said, I remain a beginning student after many years of study because
every time I return to a part of the message, I see something that I’d not
recognized before.
There
were five days between the end of Step 365 and the arrival of CT Steps. For any
so interested in what happened in that time, I’ve put that at the very end of
this post. 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.
Journal entries August 20 to August 24, 2001
12:12 a.m. Monday, August 20, 2001
Step 1 – Regional Community is my (GC) work.
I am up because I need to deal with the pain of
Sarah's current trauma. She's 8 months pregnant and out of control in a
psychiatric ward. On Tuesday she goes to court. Hopefully they will commit her
until she has her baby and then social services will take the baby, eventually
finding it a home. I pray the new child will not follow Sarah's path. Where
Sarah's anger comes from may not be Knowable, but there are many suspects –
Given what happens here on earth – the lives of
pain that people lead – the trauma unit in the heavens must be enormous.
Reading GCW I –
"Marriage" – helped. Reading GC always helps give perspective – I
need that very much.
8 a.m. Monday – Carrying Sarah’s pain – pain of
being alone, of being different, of being less, of having been attacked and
unwanted. I am now and have been powerless to heal her pain – her mind’s mental
state. To Sarah's soul I offer my love and that of our family. Nasi Novare
Coram
10:39 p.m. I meditated twice today. Just Stillness.
Hourly I have my Step and read my prayer for Sarah and our family. Knowledge is
at work – Mary Ellen called today and said things are going more smoothly than
she could have written the script. The child needs to be born in state custody
so that Sarah will have to prove she can be the mother.
This is wearing me down, making me tired…yet I can
see God at work in the world…so I will not judge.
I looked at the photo albums – 1982 – 1987 – it was
a different life – a hard life the kids so active and little social life for
me.
What else might I have done? What can I do now but
seek Knowledge. Knowledge will give her work – be a mom –
12:52 a.m. Wednesday, August 21, 2001 – Up late –
spent nearly 3 hours writing comments for my "Annual Evaluation.” I don't
trust them and need to be prepared. Need to add the leave issue and letters of
thanks.
Sarah should be in the State Hospital in Wichita
Falls by now. Holy Spirit/Knowledge is working clearly there so I can't Know it
is working for me to as I go through disappointment and seek the open door.
11:06 a.m. Alignment is the element that gives
power. Whether the management polarity is centralization or decentralization of
government, the geographic/policy/ action/coordination alignment is what gives
power. When confusion is removed – alignment can be seen.
Great movements are attributed to alignments of
stars & planets – a physical thing. Doing the same with policy/ cooperation
is way. Cooperation with retention of rights can be beneficial through
alignment. Many boundaries create confusion with regions.
5:38 p.m. If it is the purpose of disappointment to
cause us to seek God, then I've had/am having many episodes of disappointment.
GCW I says someone is always disappointed – no matter what.
11:35 p.m. I have read "Disappointment"
three times and begin again. Tonight I talked to David about disappointment.
He's at wits end. Jamie too is stressed – it doesn't get better – the truck… a
disappointment. Is depression the path to God? It is a disappointment become
trauma.
In the shower – reacting to Cindy's attack when she
came home – criticizing me for putting weeds in the garbage – carrying it
across the kitchen floor.
If attack is a cry for help and ACIM is
right, the most of what goes on in the world is attack – and the earth of
humans is a huge cry for help. Then the earth may have a whole different
purpose than we imagine.
8:02 a.m. August 23 – 2001 – Thursday – People
really can't handle very much. I've been overwhelmed for years… Yet I continued
to contribute. Most people do. My Step today says the next step to God – that
is the direction of my life. If cooperation is the purpose, then what is the
meaning of my life?
8:20 p.m. Talked to David – he's feeling better,
waiting to hear from Sarah. Work…very busy today. The PD illusion moves forward
– as my successor was around.
8:55 p.m. In this meditation I felt the power of my
soul as it moves toward God with the next step, next breath, next heartbeat,
next thought, next…whatever. Everything is moving me towards God and the
alignment with others and within myself is a source of greater power. No little
thing, good or bad, changes that relationship of my soul. If my purpose is
cooperation, and my direction is to God, then what is my meaning? That I am a
son/child/be of God? What does it mean that I am? It means I’m of God. That is
my soul.
8:17 a.m. Friday, August 24, 2001 – Bipolar
disorder – Sarah and David – Might that be why counseling didn’t work? I need
to learn more.
5:08 p.m. Two bipolar kids. What are the odds? What
is the reason? A little surfing found a lot. [11/9/01 – it makes M.E. Feel
better to think this is true.]
The Commission gave me an increase – O.K. – we'll
see what the strings are. Water Authority moving well.
5:52 p.m. My continuation training has arrived. I
will begin it tomorrow. Spirit provided five steps to get from Sunday to today.
They were –
Monday – Regional Community is my work.
Tuesday – I am not alone in this work.
Wednesday – Knowledge provides the next step.
Thursday – The next step is to God.
Friday – And the next, and the next…
They have served me well.
I was able to get through this time with my own
Steps. It was a relief to have the CT Steps arrive.
