Step One Hundred and Seventy-Seven

Patriarchs Pond, Moscow, Russia

Step 177. I Will Learn To Be Honest Today.
There is a greater honesty that is waiting for you to discover. There is a greater honesty that you must utilize on your own behalf. It is not enough merely to know how you feel. It is a greater requirement to feel what you know. This is a greater honesty and an honesty that is in harmony with life itself, an honesty that reflects the true advancement of all beings in the world. This is not merely expressing and demanding that your personal intent be carried out. It is demanding instead that the necessity of life within you may express itself in a way that is genuine to life itself. The form and the manner of this expression will be contained in the messages that you will need to deliver to others when the time comes for that to happen.

Learn, then, to feel what you know. This is a greater honesty. It requires both openness and restraint. It requires self-inspection. It requires objectivity about your life. It requires stillness and peace as well as the ability to engage your mind actively in exploration. Thus, all that you have learned so far is contributed and utilized in today’s practice.

Remind yourself upon the hour of today’s practice and seriously consider it in the moment in which you find yourself. In the longer practices today, again enter stillness and engage your mind in this meaningful activity. The mind must be brought into the proximity of its Ancient Home for it to find comfort and peace. This requires self-discipline at the outset, but once the engagement is made, the process happens in and of itself naturally.

Learn to become more honest today. Learn to discern a greater level of honesty, a genuine level of honesty that affirms your very nature and does not betray your highest purpose.

Practice 177: 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.

July 26, 2013 Round One: I have spent a few days digesting the gist of this Step, for it is very profound. A greater level of honesty is what I strive for, just to be able to see myself as I really am, without embellishment, without my own interpretation, without self-aggrandizing or self-debasement. Just to be and accept.

"It is a greater requirement to feel what you know."

This sentence is what draws my attention every time. Feeling what I know . . . Deep down this is the way it is, but it is very easy to become swept up in the emotions of everyday life and ignore that place of Stillness deep within where I do indeed feel what I know. I can feel what I know when I allow my mind to be still, but I need to be consciously focusing on this, and with all the other demands on my mind, this is not so easy on any given day. It requires practice, practice, practice.


January 24, 2015 Round Two: I get this Step today. I understand what it means by not only knowing how I feel, but a greater honesty being feeling what I know. I can know how I feel at the level of the surface, personal mind, I can be analytical about how I feel, however, I am not being totally honest with myself if I do not feel what I say I know. I am feeling what I know about Russia and about what is happening in the world. This “knowing” goes way back, but today I am feeling it. This represents a greater honesty for me.

I chose a picture of Patriarchs Pond in the center of Moscow for my photo quote today for it is a magical, mystical place and represents for me what I know about Russia. Aside from everything else, it is where Woland first showed up in Moscow in Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, after which all kinds of weird and wonderful things began happening.

Revisiting on June 26, 2017. This Step speaks to me deeply today. In the small hours of the morning, I experienced how the personal mind can take me sideways into areas of worry and concern. But with my deeper mind, I feel the Presence and its ever prevailing Love and Grace. I know it is there and I feel it. So I am feeling what I know. I felt its bright radiance shine into my mind around the time my sons arrived safely home. Even though I allowed myself to worry for a time, I knew they would be safe. And eventually I felt what I knew. This level of honesty is truly empowering.

Revisiting once more on June 26, 2018. This Step speaks to me deeply again today in a new, current situation I am dealing with. I am dealing with the owner of the house I am currently living in invading the quiet space my husband and I have created for ourselves here. I am faced with drawing boundaries, but in a way that delivers my message in an appropriate way.

This is not merely expressing and demanding that your personal intent be carried out. It is demanding instead that the necessity of life within you may express itself in a way that is genuine to life itself. The form and the manner of this expression will be contained in the messages that you will need to deliver to others when the time comes for that to happen.

So this quote from the Step perfectly addresses this dilemma. How can I best express myself in a way that is genuine to life itself? I am asking and waiting for clarity to dawn.

December 25, 2018 Round Three: I am still drawn to the notion of not merely knowing what I feel, but feeling what I know. I feel I know what this means. Honesty demands that the necessity of life within me may express itself in a way that is genuine to life itself. I need to ponder this.

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