Step Two Hundred and Eighty-Seven



Step 287. With Knowledge I Cannot Be At War.
With Knowledge you cannot be at war. You cannot be at war within yourself or with others, for with Knowledge there is only Knowledge and there is confusion in the world. Confusion does not require attack. Therefore, with Knowledge you are not at war, for you have one mind, one purpose, one responsibility, one direction and one meaning. The more your mind becomes uniform, the more your external life will become uniform as well. How can you be at war within yourself when you are following Knowledge? War is born of ambivalence where opposing value systems conflict with each other to gain your recognition. Competing ideas, competing emotions and competing values all wage war on one another, and you are caught in the middle of their great battles.

With Knowledge all of this is escaped. With Knowledge you cannot be at war within yourself. In time, all of your self-doubt, uncertainty, fear and anxiety will wear away. As they do so, you will increasingly feel that you are not at war and will enjoy the full benefit of being at peace. This will enable you to turn your eyes upon the world with the full force of your involvement, for all of your mental and physical energy will now be available for you to contribute to the world. What you will contribute will be greater than your actions or your words, for you will carry stillness and peace into the world.

Here you will not be in opposition to anyone, though others may choose to be in opposition to you. Here you will not be at war with anyone, even if others choose to be at war with you. This will be your greatest contribution, and this is what your life will teach through demonstration. Here Knowledge will bestow itself upon the world and teach the great lessons that you are now learning to receive for yourself. This teaching will occur naturally. You need not force it upon the world, and you need not attempt to change anyone else, for Knowledge will accomplish its true task through you.

Upon the hour realize the meaning of today’s idea and realize the power of Knowledge to end all of your suffering and eventually the suffering of the world. In your deeper practice periods, return to your great sanctuary and once again become a recipient of Knowledge in openness and humility. Then, you will be able to carry your abiding relationship with Knowledge into the world with greater and greater certainty. Then, what needs to be contributed will radiate from you effortlessly.

Practice
 287: 
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.

March 24, 2014 Round One: Again this Step is right on the button for today. And although I understand it to be speaking about being at war with oneself, it is also in perfect correspondence with how I feel about the “warring” going on in the world today. It brings into sharp relief the idea that if everyone were with Knowledge (particularly the people who run countries), there would be no war, no conflict, no sanctions, no misunderstanding and harsh words, everyone would “see” and understand and smile at each other and work together for the common good in a single planetary family.

“Here you will not be in opposition to anyone, though others may choose to be in opposition to you. Here you will not be at war with anyone, even if others choose to be at war with you. This will be your greatest contribution, and this is what your life will teach through demonstration.”

I would like to think that no one is in opposition to me or at war with me, but it is empowering to think that even if they are, I am not. I am in a place with a greater vision, with a deeper understanding, with Knowledge.

May 24, 2015 Round Two: I am not always with Knowledge, and those times are becoming blatantly clear for me, since then I am at war—at war with myself, at war with the people around me who irk me (my husband), at war with the world. At war, meaning “out of sorts.”

I read somewhere recently that as I continue on with Steps to Knowledge, the difference between “being with Knowledge” and “being without Knowledge” will become all the clearer to me. This is happening. I am experiencing a perceptible difference. To be with Knowledge and experience Knowledge in my life, my body, my mind and my spirit, I need to be in harmony, in balance. This does not always happen. Sometimes my body is hungry, sometimes my mind is tired, so they inadequately serve my spirit. When my spirit is inadequately served, it cannot experience Knowledge. Those are the times I can say I am at war. 

But then there is always a rainbow.

And there is Matt Licata's blog "A Healing Space" where I read today:

"It can be incredibly (and painfully) revealing to step back and see how much of your sacred life energy is put into complaining about others and about your life situation. Much of this activity is occurring at very subtle (or even unconscious) levels, however if you have the intention and take the time to see, you can discover for yourself just how prevalent it really is.

When you complain in this way, you place yourself in a childlike, victim position, which is one of the most aggressive stances you can take toward yourself." 

Read more of this post here: An embodied temple of presence in which you can rest

P.S. I came across again what I was referring to above when I said I read somewhere recently that as I continue on with Steps to Knowledge, the difference between “being with Knowledge” and “being without Knowledge” will become all the clearer to me. It was something Marshall said at the last Campfire Chat: 

"The more your life is moving with Knowledge, the less you will experience it as a unique and different experience.  In time, it will just be the river of intention that is flowing through you."  

April 22, 2019 Round Three: I don’t feel that I am at war or in opposition to anyone. I understand that with Knowledge I cannot be at war. Knowledge is never aggressive or confrontational. I am willing to relinquish my opinion and back off. I am willing to accept that I do not know enough. I am willing to allow others to do as they will, write as they will. Be as they will. That is not my business. But I cannot gush over something I do not resonate with and pretend. That is hypocritical. Others may oppose me, but that is of no consequence to me, I do not rise to the bait, I just quietly retreat and leave them to go their own way.


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