Step One Hundred and Seventeen

Step 117. It Is Better To Be Simple Than To Be Poor.

Simplicity allows you to gain access to life and to enjoy its beneficence in every moment. Complexity is a state of self-disassociation which renders you incapable of enjoying life and perceiving your role within it. This is the source of all great poverty, for no worldly accomplishment and no worldly possession can banish the sense of isolation and destitution that accompanies such a disassociation.

Therefore, today practice stillness more deeply than before so that you may experience the power of Knowledge that is with you. Allow yourself to be simple, for in simplicity all things may be given to you. If you are considering yourself to be complex, or your problems to be complex, it is because you are viewing yourself and your problems without Knowledge and are thus lost in your evaluations. Here you are confusing things of greater value with things of lesser value, things of greater priority with things of lesser priority. Truth must always bring simplicity, for simplicity brings resolution and right understanding and establishes peace and confidence in those who can receive it.

Practice deeply today. Repeat today’s idea upon the hour, and in your two deep meditation practices, remind yourself that Knowledge is with you and then enter into stillness. Allow yourself to be simple and trust that Knowledge will guide you in all ways.

Practice 117: Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice.

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 14, 2013 Round One: I am glad I am able to keep my life simple. Simplicity is something I have been practicing for years and it truly does bring resolution and clearer understanding, experience of the power of Knowledge.

November 17, 2014 Round Two: I don’t really think I understood the depth of this Step the first time round. The outward circumstances of my life may be simple, but I still tend to complicate things. I complicate my relationships, I complicate the way I think about myself, I complicate my thoughts. And poor does not have anything to do with material wealth, it means a poor state, a paltry state of being, one in which I deprive myself of the joy of service and contribution. I am poor when I do myself a disservice by allowing my ego to take the reins. I am working my way out of separation, so I need to keep my thoughts about myself and my life simple. I appreciate what it means by losing myself in my evaluations. I am way too self-opinionated and I need to get over myself more and just be in the flow of life.

I continue to contemplate what it means by “poor” in this Step. Since we are studying The Separation in the current session of The Free School and I am trying to get my head around that (impossible, since it is not a “head-getting-around” assignment), I am looking at this Step in that context. Being in a state of separation is an unfortunate state to be in at a certain level, so I can call it “poor.” I can say, “poor old me for being in this state.” However, I chose this state, I sought separation, because I need to be here, for whatever reason. There are myriads of reasons, and learning something is at the root of each of them. This really is a simple idea if I don’t analyze it too much. So I accept my state and say, “it is better to be simple than to be poor.”

October 26, 2018 Round Three: I just need to be simple and not complicate things. I just need to be myself, do what Knowledge prompts me to do and not think things are more complicated than they are. I will follow and listen to the power of Knowledge and not get my knickers in a twist.