Step Fourteen

Step 14. Review

Once again review all the prior lessons given. In this Review reread the instructions that have been given in each step. Also review all of your practice sessions to determine the depth of your involvement in practice and the results that you have experienced. Throughout your study plan, you will be investigating the content of your own experience. This will build upon itself and eventually will reveal to you the realization of your own Knowledge.

Spend one practice period today of approximately 45 minutes to review all of the instructions and to review the results and quality of your practice. Tomorrow we shall begin the next stage of our preparation together.

Practice 14: One 45-minute practice period.

Here you will find the entire book free for download http://stepstoknowledge.com/

Here you will find pointers for getting started if this is your first encounter with this practice: Taking the Steps to Knowledge.

November 18, 2012 Round One: So many questions....

I am very new to all of this and have just reached this Step (Review) the first time around. I have been reading and rereading the first 14 Steps for around a month now (I presume you can take as much time as you like...) and so much feels so familiar, but still somehow just out of reach. So the big question that has arisen for me at this point is - why is this so? Why can we not access the Knowledge that is ours from birth each time we come into the world? Why do we have to struggle so to regain what God has given us from the very start? Why does it take so much effort to wake up and why do so many people never seem to reach that level of enlightenment? Why is it so hard to delve into the depths of our minds and see the Truth? I am probably asking very naive questions and just showing my ignorance. Yes, I am ignorant, I fully accept that fact, but I so want to remember who I really am, I am seeking answers. I took the first 14 Steps with me this past weekend when I went fishing with my husband to a beautiful reservoir outside Moscow and reread them while watching the float on my fishing line bob on the water, and I seem to have a grasp on what the Steps say. As for inclusion, I have a vague sense of my inclusion, sometimes, however, my response is mainly - I do not know, I know nothing, I am not sure....

July 13, 2014 Round Two: I have spent a few days on this review. Even though there are 365 Steps, which implies a step a day for every day of the year, there are times when a step requires more than one day to digest and integrate. I found this the last time I did steps. It took me 20 months to do Steps the first time around. The point is to keep going, no matter what. If a certain step, particularly the reviews, take a while longer, so be it.

This is what the review revealed to me this time.

I am more deeply involved and becoming more deeply aware of my Knowledge. I am trying to reach a deeper part of my mind where all things can be known. When I am in my mind, I often get swamped by it. I need to stand back and take a more objective view. I need to stand back and look in. I am not to try and see anything specific. I am not to look for a particular clue. I am not to analyze, not to question, not to seek specific answers, but just let be what is, just let come what comes. When I abide in the stillness of my mind, I know that Steps to Knowledge is the way to go.

I am not apart from life, but I have something unique to express. I have a contribution to make that is not my own to be lauded, that I do not expect to be recognized for, rather it is a contribution that is my reason for being here on the planet at this time. It is my contribution to raising the consciousness of the whole, to promoting the evolution of humanity. It is my inherent gift, nothing grandiose, nothing better or worse than any other gift or contribution. It is as small as I am small in the greater picture, but it is something necessary, something that contributes to the greatness along with everyone else. All the people who have come to this awareness are contributing together to enhance and perfect the greater picture.

This is what I understand now.

June 30, 2018 Round Three: As I read back on what I wrote the past two times, I see I had a pretty good grasp at that time, and I do not have any new or deep insights to add this time. This review asks me to review all the instructions and results so far to reveal the depth of my involvement, the content of my experience and the realization of my own Knowledge. I am pleased to say that I feel my involvement is deep, I am alert to what my experience is telling me, and I am aware of my connection with Knowledge. I have done a lot of mapping of my life to this point and my experience shows that Knowledge has been moving me at the major turning points and I have been following its lead.

Step 1 - I have come to a deeper understanding of Knowledge and how it has moved me in my life so far. I know the place where Knowledge resides within me, I can go there in stillness - it is the greater aspect of mind I have brought from my Ancient Home.

Step 2 - I am present to myself and my thoughts and emotions, I know I am in the right place, with the right people, doing the right thing. I feel I am with Knowledge.

Step 3 - I really know only what is intuitively obvious to me at a deeper level.

Step 4 - I don’t want what I think I know - if I think I know something, it’s probably wrong. I often assume things that prove to be wrong. I am always open to the fact I may be wrong. I give my assumptions the benefit of the doubt. I have a lot of assumptions about Volodya, for instance, but I don’t know what his presence in my life means at the moment. I am waiting to see. And this is how it is in general with the things I think I know - I am waiting to see how they stand the test of time.

Step 5 - I do believe what I want to believe and those things have stood the test of time - they have manifested in my life, they have come true. There is one sentence in this Step though that I don’t get - “You will find that even your fearful or negative beliefs are associated with your ambitions.” Do I have any fearful or negative beliefs? I don’t think so.

Step 6. I have not come to this world empty-handed. My true foundation is in My Ancient Home, which I can manifest in the world. My true foundation is in nature, which reminds me of my Ancient Home, so that is why so strive to live in nature, far from the madding crowd.

Step 7. Review. I did this review as best I could.

Step 8. I was still and calm on this day. Volodya did not see me, I remained invisible, we passed like ships in the night.

Step 9. Stillness is where I ask no questions, come to no conclusions, just be in the glory of it all.

Step 10. I love the description and explanation of Knowledge. I understand it deeply. It is bringing me back to my True Self. And I am doing this because it gives me sustenance and makes sense. It is bringing me back in alignment with my spiritual core and, in so doing, my life is a joy, it is in harmony, and all my relationships have meaning and purpose. I get this!

Steps 11-12-13 are all linked. Step 11 makes the statement, states a basic truth - I am not apart from life, Step 12 goes on to elaborate that even though I am not apart, I see myself as an individual in this world, in a body with a personality, and as such I must use this to express life (the meaning of this earthly existence). Thus I am experiencing Separation and have chosen this state because I want to be unique (Step 13), but really this uniqueness is a burden to me and causes me pain, because it’s not working. Separation can never work, because I have never left God and can only hurt myself by trying. Once I understand that I have never separated from God and I am a part of the whole, I can use my individuality to express the unique gifts I have come here to give and my individuality will turn to joy.