Step One Hundred and Five

Sunset on the River Oka, Moscow Region, Russia

Step 105. Review

In your review, follow the past examples and review the week of instructions and the week of practices. Give special consideration today to the ideas that we have presented. Understand that these ideas must be entertained and experienced through many stages of development. Their meaning is too deep and too great to be entirely obvious to you now, yet they will serve as a reminder that Knowledge is with you and that you have come to give Knowledge in the world.

Our teaching will thus simplify all things, which will resolve the conflicts that you carry now and which will make conflict in the future unnecessary. For to the extent that you are with Knowledge, conflict does not exist. An unconflicted life is the greatest contribution that can be given into the world, for this is a life that will spark the beginning of Knowledge in all, a spark that can carry itself into the future far beyond your individual life. It is this great spark that you are intended to give into the world, for then your giving will have no end and will serve your current generation and the generations to come.

The blessings that you are now experiencing today in your world are the result of these reverberations which are passed from generation to generation as Knowledge is kept alive in the world. The opportunity for you to have Knowledge is born of the giving of those who have lived before, as your giving will provide the opportunity for freedom for those who will follow. This is your greater purpose in life: to keep Knowledge alive in the world. But first you must learn of Knowledge—learn how to recognize it, learn how to accept it, learn how to discern it from the other impulses in your mind and learn the many stages of development that will be required in following Knowledge towards its great fulfillment. That is why you are a beginning student of Knowledge.

In your one long practice, undertake your Review in as much detail as possible. Allow confusion and uncertainty to exist, for this is necessary in this stage of investigation. Be happy, then, for all the things that can be truly recognized and know that Knowledge is with you, so you are free to be uncertain.

Practice 105: One long 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.

April 1, 2013 Round One: Can this Step really be providing the answer to the eternal question – what is my greater purpose in life? If so, the answer is brilliantly simple – my purpose is to keep Knowledge alive in the world! My purpose is to contribute to the Knowledge that has been passed on from generation to generation since time immemorial, to allow its reverberations to spread further like ripples on the surface of the water. And to do this I need to resolve the contradictions within myself and that is what I am learning to do as a beginning student.

This review feels like reaching a new vantage point on the way up the mountain, reaching a ledge with a better view—so many probing and profound issues (for want of a better word) are addressed in the Steps included in this review.

What has particularly come into sharper focus for me is the deeper realization that I am part of the whole, I am not separate, I do not function alone. In other words, the part I have to play must be coordinated and in unison with the whole. I cannot go off on a tangent, take things into my own hands, and act independently—the name of the game is interdependence. Knowledge guides us all and I need to stay aware of its multifaceted elements and realize that my contribution must be coordinated with the whole.

November 4, 2014 Round Two: What I wrote the first time may be true, but in order to do that I first need to “learn how to recognize it, learn how to accept it, learn how to discern it from the other impulses in [my] mind and learn the many stages of development that will be required in following Knowledge towards its great fulfillment.” So it is not as simple as I thought.

I spent the last three days fishing on the Oka River. Winter is descending, the water is icing up, snow is beginning to fall, but the flame of Knowledge burns within. It was in this natural environment that I did this review.

This review emphasizes for me that I do not need to seek answers, I only need to experience what is going on in and around me. The meaning of everything is too deep and great to be obvious, so I do not need to concern myself with figuring things out. There is so much I still do not know, but that is okay and perfectly natural. Trying to figure things out is unproductive and a futile squandering of my time and energy.

"For to the extent that you are with Knowledge, conflict does not exist. An unconflicted life is the greatest contribution that can be given into the world."

Passing on Knowledge is the greatest contribution. I am benefiting now from those who passed it on in the past, and future generations will benefit from what I am able to give and contribute in my lifetime. It works mysteriously, I do not need to construe or plan or force anything. I do not need to do anything deliberately, I just need to be who I am and do what feels right for me. I need to be with my own experience, I need to be able to recognize Knowledge, discern it from all the other thoughts in my mind, know what is coming from Knowledge and what is coming from my imagination or self-imposed thoughts and considerations. I need to relax and let go, then Knowledge will emerge of its own accord.

The Steps of this past week emphasize a loosening of past engrained, hard and brittle thinking. There is much I must unlearn, I let go of blame and judgment, I accept that I am honored by God and that God knows more about me than I do. I am beginning to sense how God is known through relationship. When people engage and recognize aspects of each other, acknowledge and validate each other, this is the experience of God.

If I do not analyze too much, it is easier to experience. Even if it only comes in brief glimpses, it is there, and I recognize it at a deeper level. And the more I recognize it, the more integrated it becomes in my present life. It awakens in me something I have always known.

There are many stages of development to go through, and I am at the beginning. So I am free to be uncertain – this is the best!

"The greater purpose that you share with everyone is to keep Knowledge alive in the world and to bring something from your Ancient Home into the world." 

Greater Community Spirituality Chapter 5: What is Human Purpose? 

October 14, 2018 Round Three: “The blessings that you are now experiencing today in your world are the result of these reverberations which are passed from generation to generation as Knowledge is kept alive in the world. The opportunity for you to have Knowledge is born of the giving of those who have lived before, as your giving will provide the opportunity for freedom for those who will follow. This is your greater purpose in life: to keep Knowledge alive in the world.”

I am focussing on this passage again, particularly the last sentence about my greater purpose being to keep Knowledge alive in the world. And this time I feel I have a better understanding of what Knowledge is and what it feels like when it moves in my life. I recognize it, accept it and am learning to discern it from the other impulses in my life.

The situation with Greg and the array of different emotions I have been going through are a good case in point here. My initial reaction was positive - that came from Knowledge. Then doubt and negativity crept in - that came from Sasha. I was pulled into his mindset and fears. Then I talked to Greg and the positive came flowing back, the feeling of rightness, the feeling of something bigger here. I am discerning and recognizing. I am still not saying I am definitely right, I am not being idealistic about this, but it feels like there is something greater in this for Greg. He reminds me of myself when I moved to Russia, I needed to get away from what I saw as the confines of my past, family, upbringing. I needed to be free to find myself, and I did. I will not bug Greg anymore, ply him with questions, I will let him be and open up to me when he is ready. I know he will in his own sweet time and until then I trust all is well and that he is in the arms of God, of destiny, he is protected and being prepared for the Greater Plan.