Step Two Hundred and Thirty-Six

Step 236. With Knowledge I Will Know What To Do.

With Knowledge you will know what to do, and your certainty will be so strong that it will be difficult for you to doubt it or to argue against it. Here you must be prepared to act and act boldly. If your predominant concern is protecting your ideas and your physical body, then you will be afraid of Knowledge, fearing that it will lead you to do something that will be dangerous or harmful for you. Knowledge can only be demonstrated. Its beneficence must be experienced. It can only be experienced by accepting its presence and carrying out its direction.

With Knowledge you will know what to do, and your certainty will far exceed all of the pretenses you have made about certainty thus far. Self-doubt may continue in the face of Knowledge, but Knowledge is so much greater because your whole being will be engaged in the activity. Only the littleness of your self-doubt, born of your own false beliefs, can argue against it. Yet, its arguments are pathetic and pitiful and lack depth and conviction.

Knowledge will move within you at certain times, for in stillness it observes all things until it is ready to act, and when it acts, it acts! Thus it is that you will learn with Knowledge to be at peace in the world, and yet when you act, you will act with true efficacy and with great result. In this way, you may be a person of action and contemplation all at once, for your contemplation will be deep and meaningful, and your action will be deep and meaningful as well.

With Knowledge you will know what to do. Do not think that you know what to do unless you are with Knowledge and Knowledge is indicating for you to do something with great power. Do not make small attempts at resolving your problems, for without Knowledge your attempts will be meaningless and will compound your frustration.

Upon the hour repeat today’s idea and consider it. In the depth of your longer practices, utilize the skills that you have cultivated thus far to engage yourself with stillness. If Knowledge is still, you may be still as well. Thus, when Knowledge stimulates action, you will be able to act, and in so doing, the resolution that you bring will be greater than anything you could conceive of.

Practice 236: 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.

December 28, 2013 Round One: “With Knowledge you will know what to do, and your certainty will far exceed all of the pretenses you have made about certainty thus far.”

I can affirm this, since it has been and continues to be my experience. Yes, self-doubt continues, but I see how it is "born of my own false beliefs," how "its arguments are pathetic and pitiful and lack depth and conviction." Yes, I am seeing this more and more.

For me, this Step surely is a call to action. I wish to act with "true efficacy and great result," I wish to be a person of action and contemplation all at once—allowing my contemplation to bring forth ideas and thoughts I can then act upon, know to act upon. I am becoming more and more aware of the times when Knowledge is still, not motivating me to do anything, followed by times when Knowledge stimulates action. I wish to always be with the power and presence of Knowledge so that I can act with great result when Knowledge calls this forth.

March 30, 2015 Round Two: March 29, 2015 - I am in Krasnaya Ushna today, in Vladimirskaya oblast, about 300 km (190 miles) from Moscow, at the house I mentioned in my last post. It is wonderful! We are going to take advantage of the offer and spend as much of the spring and summer here as we can. As I did my practice, the following sentence spoke to me:

“You will learn with Knowledge to be at peace in the world.”

I am experiencing this today. I am ready for all that living in the country entails. I am ready to act! 

March 1, 2019 Round Three: And almost four years later we are still in Krasnaya Ushna and beginning to build our own house. Wonders will never cease. We acted back then and it has brought about a resolution that was greater than anything I could conceive of. This Step also puts into greater perspective my move to Russia. I was spurred on by Knowledge to act and I acted! And that too brought about a resolution that was greater than anything I could have conceived of. Doubts crept in, but they did not dissuade me from following what I knew I had to do.

Scheleiki is another example of being sure I was doing the right thing (I have been reading my diary for 2012 - the  time before we left for the third time after we had already made all the arrangements to try and rent that plot of land, all the preparations, and then the time we spent there). But it was a struggle, I felt down a lot, things didn’t flow, there was resistance and a lot of frustration. And it didn’t work out. Interesting to see the contrast. 

I am seeing how Knowledge works in my life and now, in hindsight, seeing the resolution that came about. Quite amazing!