Steps to Knowledge: My Practice

Step 130. Relationships Will Come To Me When I Am Prepared. Why strive for relationships in the world when genuine relationships will come to you as you are prepared? To understand this, you must have great faith in the power of Knowledge within yourself and within others. As this awareness grows, the basis for your striving and desperate pursuits will fall away, making true peace and accomplishment possible for you. Individuals will come to you through mysterious means because you are cultivating Knowledge. As you have relationships with one another on a personal level, you also have relationships on the level of Knowledge. It is this level that you will begin to experience, in small increments at first. Eventually, if you pursue your preparations appropriately, this experience will grow and become quite profound for you. You do not need to seek for relationships. You need only give yourself to your preparation and have confidence that people will come to you when you need...

Step 129. My Teachers Are With Me. I Will Be With Them. Your teachers are with you. They are not speaking to you except on very rare occasions, and then only if you are capable of hearing. From time to time they will send their thoughts into your mind, and you will experience this as your own spark of inspiration. You are as yet unaware of how your mind is joined with all other minds, but in time you will begin to experience this in the context of your own world. The demonstration of this will become so obvious that you will wonder how you could ever have doubted it. Your teachers are with you and today in your two longer practice periods, practice being with them. You do not need to create an image of them in order to have this experience. You do not need to hear a voice or see a face, for their presence is enough to give you a complete experience that you are in fact together. If you will be still, breathe deeply and not weave fantasies—neither happy fantasies nor fearful f...

Step 128. My Teachers Are With Me. I Need Not Fear. Your inner teachers are with you, and you need not fear. If you have sufficient confidence in Knowledge, based upon actual experience, and sufficient confidence in the presence of your Teachers, based upon actual experience, this will give you a certainty and a faith in life that will counteract all fear that is unnecessary. This will leave your mind at ease. Only concern that your Knowledge is being violated will emanate from Knowledge, and then only to indicate that you need to reassess your actions and ideas. Knowledge has a self-correcting principle. That is why it is your Inner Guidance. If you are going against your Knowledge, you will be ill at ease with yourself, and this will give rise to anxiety. Much of the fear that you experience moment to moment is simply a matter of your own creation, your own negative imagination. But, then, there is fear that is born of the violation of Knowledge. This is more a discomfort t...

Step 127. Today I Will Not Try To Get Even With God. Do not try to get even with God by being a miserable person, for God only knows you as part of Creation. Do not try to get even with God by making the world destitute, for God created a world of beauty and opportunity. Do not try to get even with God by refusing to love or accept yourself, for God still knows you as you are. Do not try to get even with God today by ruining your relationships for your own selfish purposes, for God understands your relationships as they truly exist and understands their greater promise as well. You cannot get even with God. You can only harm yourself. Therefore, accept that you have lost the battle against God. In your defeat is your greatest victory, for God has never lost you, though you have lost God temporarily in your imagination. Your love for God is so profound that you are as yet afraid of it, for it represents the greatest power within you that you can possibly possess. You must lear...

Step 126. Review Today’s review will concentrate upon the past week of training. It will emphasize once again that you are learning to learn. You are learning to understand how you learn. You are learning to understand your strengths and your weaknesses. You are learning to understand your predispositions—those qualities in yourself that you must cultivate and those qualities which you must arrest and bring under conscious control. You are learning to be observant of yourself. Thus, you are learning at last to be objective with yourself. This objectivity is especially important, for it allows you to utilize that which is there to serve you without your condemnation. In this way, your service to yourself becomes immediate and effective. If you can learn to be objective with yourself, you can learn to be objective with the world. This will allow Knowledge to shine through you, for you will not be attempting to make the world into what you wish it to be, and you will not be atte...

Step 125. I Do Not Need To Be Someone Today. You already are someone, so why try to be someone? It is better to be the person you already are. The person you already are is the power of Knowledge carried in the vehicle of the nature of an individual. This is already established, and it is under development right now. Why try to be something today when you are something already? Why not be what you are? Find out what you are. This takes great courage, for you must risk disappointing your own idealistic view of yourself and the world. This takes encouragement because you must risk giving up your self-hatred, which is a way that you separate yourself from life. Therefore, this day be exactly as you are. Remind yourself upon the hour. And in your two meditation practices today, allow yourself to be still and to receive, for you are not trying to be someone today. Practice 125 : Two 30-minute practice periods. Hourly practice. Here you will find the entire book free for dow...

Step 124. Today I Will Not Pretend I Am Happy. You do not need to pretend that you are happy, for this will only mask a sense of self-pity, compound your confusion and deepen your dilemma. Today be yourself, but be self-observant, keeping in mind that Knowledge is with you as you vacillate to and from, towards and away from Knowledge itself. Because Knowledge does not vacillate, it is a source of certainty, consistency and stability for you. Because it is unafraid of the world, it is a source of fearlessness for you. You are not pitiful, so you need not pretend. Do not pretend to be happy today, for he or she who is truly satisfied may cast any expression upon the world, but within their expression will be the power of Knowledge. This is what is most important. Knowledge is not a form of behavior. It is an intense experience of life. Therefore, do not attempt to persuade yourself or others with a demonstration of behavior, for this is unnecessary. Repeat this statement upon...

Step 123. I Will Not Pity Myself Today. How can you pity yourself when Knowledge is with you? Pity must only reassert an old idea of yourself, which is bereft of truth, bereft of hope and bereft of any meaningful foundation. Do not pity yourself today, for you are not pitiful. If this day is sad or confused, it is only because you have lost contact with Knowledge, which you may practice today to regain. As you practice today, be aware of the many subtle forms of self-pity that you entertain. Be aware of the many subtle forms of manipulation of others as you attempt to make them like or accept you according to a view of yourself that you are attempting to claim. When you are with Knowledge, you do not need to proclaim yourself; you do not need to show yourself; you do not need to control others to like or accept you, for Knowledge is with you. Therefore, do not pity yourself, for you are not pitiful. Today be a beginning student of Knowledge, for that is anything but pitiful...

Step 122. I Give Without Loss Today. What you are being asked to give can only increase as you give it. It is not a physical thing that you give, though physical things can be given for good. It is not something that you can quantify, for you have no idea of its extent. You are giving strength and encouragement. Today in your two practice periods, continue your giving to others. This is an active form of prayer. Think not that the power of it is not received by those whom you have concentrated upon. Remember today not to try to determine the outcome of their dilemma or their need, but only encourage and empower them to carry forth with their own abilities. You wish to stimulate Knowledge within them as Knowledge is now being stimulated within you. This giving, then, will not have an expectation of a return, for you are giving that which enables others to be strong in their lives. You are not in a position to judge the outcome, for the outcome of your giving will not be reveal...

Step 121. Today I Am Free To Give. You are free to give today because your life is becoming simple and your needs are being met. This frees you to give, for once you have received, you will only want to give. You will have a special practice two times today where you are to think of someone in need and then give them a quality that you wish to receive yourself. Send that individual that quality. Send them love or strength or faith or encouragement or determination or surrender or acceptance or self-discipline—whatever they need to bring about resolution in their lives. You are free to give this today, for your own needs are being met. Therefore, in each of your two practices, with your eyes closed, bring to mind individuals and give to them what you know they need. Do not try to solve their problems for them. Do not try to strengthen a preferred outcome, for you cannot usually know the right outcome for any other person. But you can always give strength of character and str...

Step 120. I Will Remember My Knowledge Today. Remember your Knowledge today. Remember that it abides with you regardless of where you go or what you are doing. Remember that it is given to you to serve you, to nurture you and to elevate you as well. Remember that you need not be aggravated with the world because you can accept the world as it is. Remember that you accept the world as it is so that you will be able to give to it, for the world is developing as you are. Remember that Knowledge is with you, and you need only be with Knowledge to realize its full impact. Remind yourself upon the hour today that Knowledge is with you and give this a moment of thought. Do not let raging emotions or deep depression cast a shadow upon your practice, for your practice is greater than your emotional states, which change like the winds and the clouds but cannot mask the universe above them. Therefore, realize the littleness of your emotional states and the greatness of Knowledge. In t...