Step Fifty-Five

Accepting Your Role in Life

Step 55. I Will Accept The World As It Is.

Idealism is the attempt not to accept the world as it is. It justifies blame and condemnation. It establishes expectations of a life that does not yet exist and thus renders you vulnerable to grave disappointment. Your idealism fortifies your condemnation.

Accept the world today as it is, not as you want it to be. With acceptance comes love, for you cannot love a world that you want to exist. You can only love a world that exists as it is. Accept yourself now as you exist, and true desire for change and advancement will naturally emerge within you. Idealism justifies condemnation. Recognize this great truth, and you will begin to have a more immediate and profound experience of life and of that which is genuine and not based upon hope or expectation but upon true engagement.

Therefore, in your two 30-minute practice periods today, concentrate on accepting things exactly as they are. You are not condoning violence, conflict or ignorance in doing this. You are merely accepting the conditions that exist so that you may work with them constructively. Without this acceptance, you have no starting place for true engagement. Allow the world to be exactly as it is, for it is this world that you have come to serve.

Practice 55: Two 30-minute practice periods.

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.

January 12, 2013 Round One: I have no trouble here. As soon as I came to this Step I realized I am not idealistic, for I do indeed accept the world the way it is. I see and am aware of the violence, conflict, and ignorance in the world, but I accept it as part of what has to be gone through. 

People are all at different stages in their evolution, and violence, conflict and ignorance are an inevitable part of the human condition, without them we would not know peace, beauty, good, and Knowledge. 

And again I return to optimism. I am optimistic that peace and harmony and Knowledge will prevail in the end. So although I accept the conditions that exist, accept the world as it is, I am always looking for the positive, embracing the good, seeking ways to reach a higher level of compassion and unconditional love (while also remaining impartial), seeking ways to make a positive contribution to the whole, to move along with humanity up the evolutionary ladder. 

Perhaps this all sounds a bit lofty and also a tad naïve, but it is where I am at today.

September 2, 2014 Round Two: I feel the same way as I do this Step for the second time.

This time my attention was drawn in particular to this sentence.

"Without this acceptance, you have no starting place for true engagement."

True engagement? As I practiced today I concentrated on this concept of “true engagement.” What does this mean to me? Am I truly engaged?

What I realized is this:

I accept the world as it is because if the world were any different I would not be here to make a contribution. I am here now because the world is the way it is now, therefore it would be defeating the point if I wanted the world to be different. I can only do what I came here to do because the world is as it is. This is my understanding today.

I found confirmation in Secrets of Heaven. I opened it to p. 207 and read:

“You are not needed where everything is wonderful. You are needed where everything is not wonderful. When this life is over, everything can be wonderful. You went to great pains to come into this world, to be where things are not wonderful. In this world, things are not wonderful. Do you understand? Do not lie about this, or you shall reach the epitome of ignorance. You know things are not wonderful.”

August 17, 2018 Round Three: I am to accept things as they are without condemnation or expectations. Idealism justifies condemnation and prevents true engagement. I need to accept things as they are, because without acceptance I have no starting place for true engagement. I am still pondering the misunderstanding/friction with a friend. Is it really me wanting things my way? I don’t think so. I have made the effort to see things from her point of view, help in any way I can, find time to skype with her even though that mode of communication is difficult for me with the time difference. And really I don’t want to. Am I just insensitive? I don’t need friends to support and bolster me. It’s nice to have someone who sees me and is not jealous. This friend is jealous. I don’t really get our relationship. I don’t feel comfortable any more. I can’t be honest without hurting her feelings, although she tells me she wants me to be able to talk to her about anything. I am looking for clarity. She brings me down. So is it all about being brought up? Isn’t that just stroking the ego? It is a puzzle to me. What am I doing wrong?

First practice - sitting in armchair in the front room. Masha purring on my lap. I began at 5.02 and set the timer for 5.32, but Masha jumped up and distracted me. I came out of stillness and looked at the time - 5.22. I left it at that. I accept things the way they are. I have no trouble with this. I have written all I feel above and I still feel this way. As I accepted before, so I accept now.

Second practice - 23.35 - 00.05. I couldn’t sleep, but there was no particular reason for it. I just felt energized. So I entered stillness. I did not fall asleep during the practice. I managed to get to sleep afterwards.