Step Thirty-Seven

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Step 37. There Is A Way To Knowledge.
How can there not be a way to Knowledge when it is your True Self? How can there not be a way for Knowledge to express itself when it is the most natural form of expression? How can there not be a way for Knowledge to guide you in relationships when Knowledge is the perfect source of all your relationships? There is a way to Knowledge. It requires skill and desire. Both will take time to develop. You must learn to value the true and not to value the false, and it takes time to learn to separate the two and to recognize them. It takes time to learn that the false does not satisfy you and that the true does satisfy you. This must be learned through trial and error and through contrast. As you approach Knowledge, your life becomes more full, more certain and more direct. As you go away from it, you reenter confusion, frustration and anger.

In your two practice periods today, which will not be meditation practices, spend at least 15 minutes thinking of all the ways to gain access to Knowledge. Write down on a piece of paper all the ways to get to Knowledge. Spend both practice periods doing this and exhaust all the possibilities that you can think of. Try to be very specific. Use your imagination, but chart out routes that appear to be quite real and meaningful to you. In this way, you will know what you think about how to find a way to Knowledge, and from this you will realize that God knows the way to Knowledge.

Practice 37: Two 15-minute practice periods.

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 14, 2012 Round One: "There is a way to Knowledge. It requires skill and desire."

For me the key here is desire, I want to find the way to Knowledge, it is the driving force behind my being.

Having said that, however, when I began this Step, I felt my inherent resistance, meaning I thought - "well, I'm not going to do that, I don't need to do that," that is, I did not want to be writing things down (although it is my constant practice, but only of my own free will), I did not want to be told that I needed to write things down, and my mind was a blank anyway. But I kept at it, I kept returning to the Step and rereading it. And this morning I began writing - and I couldn't stop - the words just kept flowing onto the page!

And something clicked....

August 7, 2014 Round Two: "It takes time to learn that the false does not satisfy you and that the true does satisfy you. This must be learned through trial and error and through contrast."

These sentences speak out to me loud and clear. This is my experience.

"As you approach Knowledge, your life becomes more full, more certain and more direct. As you go away from it, you reenter confusion, frustration and anger."

This too is my experience.

The first time I did Steps I wrote a pretty exhaustive list of all the possible ways to gain Knowledge. I did not want to do this at first, I baulked at the prospect, but I made myself do it and was very happy with the results.

This time I did not write anything down. I was sitting in a hot car, in traffic, with the noises of the road around me, dust, heat, and many distractions. I had no pen or paper handy. But as I did the practices for this Step, one thought bore into my mind. The way to Knowledge is through stillness. Only in stillness, in the quiet luminescence of the inner corridors of my mind, can I know what I need to know. And it is a gift from the Universe.

July 24, 2018 Round Three: First 15-min practice - 4.42-4.57. Again I reiterate this time - Knowledge can be reached through stillness. This is the main way to Knowledge. I still my mind in meditation and I listen at the well of Knowledge for what I am ready to hear. I listen without putting my own slant on things, I listen with an open heart, removing all preconceived thoughts and conceptions from my mind. 

I listen for inner prompts and heed them. Knowledge speaks to me deep within, it is expressed as a deep yearning (a call to action) that does not go away. It spurs me on. It is also expressed as a deep contentment, when I know I am doing the right thing, on the right path (living in Krasnaya Ushna). I knew living here would entail living with Volodya even before I met him (and did not know what he was like), so I need to accept this now. I have a strong desire for Knowledge, so I am open to its promptings. I go with the flow, this is the way to Knowledge. Knowledge takes me gently where I need to go, and I go because I am open and flexible and I am ready for what Knowledge prompts me to do. Knowledge is not prompting me to go back to Moscow. Knowledge is saying I need to stick it out here and do what I need to do to build our house. 

The way to Knowledge lies deep within, through the surface mind, bypassing other people’s opinions.

Second practice in the forest, opening my chakras in the sunshine after a refreshing dip in the river. Only through inner knowing is there a way to Knowledge. Nothing out in the world can bring me to Knowledge. I cannot find the way to Knowledge by joining groups, religions, being in the company of wise people out in the world. I can only come to Knowledge on my own, through my own inner journey.

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