Tag Archives: judgment

I Will Practice Being Still And Knowing Today

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I will practice being still and knowing today.

Some people might think that Step 82, “I will not judge another today” of Steps to Knowledge is merely a recap of Step 76, “Today I will not judge another.” It is more than that. It is more than that because of some things that happened between Step 76 and Step 82.

I will practice being still and knowing today

In Step 79, “I will allow uncertainty to exist today,” I considered the possibility that I wasn’t entirely certain about my judgments. I considered the possibility that my judgments weren’t worthy of my betting my life on them.

In Step 80, “I can only practice,” I was told that judgment was one of a number of unexamined, habitual, detrimental practices that I was going to have to slowly back away from if I wanted to advance.

In Step 81, “I will not deceive myself today,” one particular type of judgment, self-condemnation, was examined in detail. While self-condemnation has certain social rewards, it is yet another unexamined, habitual, detrimental practice from which to slowly back away. I get the idea from this that the other detrimental practices mentioned in Step 80 most likely have certain social rewards as well.

Therefore, if I put Step 82 together with what has happened since Step 76, I get that judgment is a practice of not knowing. Judgment is a practice of not looking. Judgment is a practice of not listening. Judgment is a practice of not being still. Judgment is a practice with certain social rewards. Judgment is a practice I must slowly back away from if I want to attain to what Steps to Knowledge is offering. I must strengthen the practices of knowing, looking, listening and being still.

While Step 82 is “I will not judge another today,” it seemed good to state it positively, saying what I will do instead of what I won’t do. In the light of Step 80, it seemed good to state Step 82 in terms of what I will practice. When I stated Step 76 positively, it came out as “Today I will keep looking and wondering.” The total package of not judging involves looking, listening, being still and knowing. Therefore, the positive wording of Step 82 should be taken together with the positive wording of Step 76.

Today I will keep looking and wondering. I will practice being still and knowing today.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

My Gift Of Gratitude

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my-gift-of-gratitudeI am rummaging through various online logs, reflecting on the year 2013.

My gift of gratitude

At the beginning of the year, I was on Step 202 of Steps to Knowledge.  Today, I am on Step 320.  I had only done 98 steps between October 2012 and October 2013, so I would like to think this is an improvement.

I am grateful to Marshall Vian Summers, his family, and his associates for the many efforts they have made to make Steps to Knowledge and its related materials available to the world.

I am grateful for my fellow students of Steps to Knowledge.  You can meet a few of them here. I have met a number of these people in person.

Someone reading this is thinking “But Douglas, what has this quest accomplished for you?” I believe I’m suffering a lot less over the things in the past that didn’t go as planned.  Why?  Because I’m taking my own medicine about idealism and judgment.  I believe I’m using the phrase “That is a possibility…” more, and using the phrases “That’s wrong…” or “That’s just pure evil…” less.  I’d like to believe I’m a little bit less opinion-possessed, and a little more open to not believing everything I think.

At the beginning of this year, I was blogging on Step 5, “I believe what I want to believe.”  I recently blogged on Step 67, “I do not know what I want for the world.”  Some people have made some nice comments.  It definitely has been helpful for me to write about the Steps.  It has caused me to think things I haven’t thought before.

I have great gratitude for Alisa’s contributions to Ascending Knowledge.  I don’t have the money right now to hire a marching band to perform at half-time at the World Cup Final, and spell out “THANK YOU ALISA!” in big block letters, but maybe you can see the picture in your mind’s eye.

As I offer my gift of gratitude, I recall the words of Dag Hammarskjöld: “For all that has been, Thank you. For all that is to come, Yes!”

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Judge Not The World

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Judge Not The World

Some of the teachings of Steps to Knowledge challenge the habits of a lifetime.  Steps to Knowledge seems to recognize this, and repeats certain teachings from different angles from time to time.  Step 60, “I will not judge the world today” is an instance of this.  The idea of observing without judgment was introduced in Step 29, “I will observe myself today to learn of Knowledge.”  Where does judgment come from?  Reality is weighed against our ideals and found wanting.  Therefore, to escape judgment, I need to become less invested in my ideals.  This is the idea behind Step 55, “I will accept the world as it is.”

Judge not the world

I do not consider this to be a novel teaching.

I consider this teaching to follow from the teaching of Jesus, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” (Matthew 7:1, New International Version)

I consider this teaching to be a confirmation of the words of Mother Teresa (“Blessed Teresa of Kolkata” to you), “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”  In my mind, putting Matthew 7:1 and the words of Mother Teresa together yields “Love, and you too will be loved.”

I consider this teaching to confirm the teaching of Lesson 352 of the Workbook for Students in A Course in Miracles, “Judgment and love are opposites. From one come all the sorrows of the world.  But from the other comes the peace of God Himself.”

When someone tells a lie, they have to go to substantial efforts to keep the rest of their testimony consistent with that lie.  When someone judges someone else, it is a certainty that someone else will have the opposite judgment.  It therefore follows that people go to substantial efforts to justify their own judgments.  I know, for I have made these substantial efforts.  I had to find out the hard way that it wasn’t worth it.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.