Step Two Hundred and One

Step 201. My Mind Was Made To Serve Knowledge.

Understanding this, you will realize the value of your mind, and you will not deprecate it. Realizing this, you will understand the value of your body, and you will not deprecate it. For your mind and your body are but vehicles to express Knowledge. In this, you become the recipient of Knowledge. In this, you remember your great Heritage. In this, you are comforted by the assurance of your great destiny.

There is no illusion here. There is no self-deception here. Here all things find their right order. Here you understand the true proportion of all things. Here you understand the value of your mind, and you will not want to give it tasks of which it is not capable. Thus, your mind becomes constructively applied and will be unburdened with attempting the impossible. Realizing this, you will see that your body is made to serve your mind, and you will understand the value of your body and its great application as a tool for communication. In this, you will accept its limitations, for limited it must be. You will also appreciate its mechanism. You will appreciate all of the encounters that you have with other individuals in this world. You will be glad, then, that you have a mind and a body so that you may communicate the power and the essence of Knowledge.

Repeat your idea for today upon the hour and consider it. In your two deeper meditation practices, allow your mind to become still so that it may learn to serve. You must relearn that which is natural to you, for you have learned the unnatural, which must now be unlearned. In its place the natural will be stimulated, for when the natural is stimulated, it becomes expressed. Then the mind re-engages with its true function, and all things find their true value.

Practice 201: 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.

October 10, 2013 Round One: I am finding that if I just keep moving on, not analyzing too much, not allowing myself to get stuck in a rut of negative thinking, but just doing the next right (I hope) thing, life continues to flow and I skip lightly over its surface. I appreciate my mind and body today, glad that they are vehicles for communicating the power and the essence of Knowledge, and certain that all things find their true value. I hold this to be true.

February 19, 2015 Round Two: The mind is mysterious in and of itself and I really do not have the foggiest about how it is made to serve Knowledge. I will trust this though and do my best to make my body and mind vehicles for expressing Knowledge. Since I am here on the physical plane and in a body that comes with a mind, I guess I have no other choice. I cannot say I have a clear understanding of it all though. I am just willing to approach everything with a certain level of trust.

January 24, 2019 Round Three: I have a better understanding today about how the mind is made to serve Knowledge. This Step talks again about the hierarchy of body, mind and spirit. The body serves the mind and the mind serves spirit (Knowledge). My body and mind are vehicles for expressing Knowledge in the world. And although they are limited, they are useful tools for communication while I am in the world. I am to relearn what is natural and re-engage my mind with its true function, thus all things will find their true value. I will not spend time trying to figure it out, I expand my mind and Knowledge works its magic.

A thought occurred to me today - why are we doing this anyway? Why are we putting all this time and money into building a house? The thing is that we do not know the final outcome. We don’t know what will happen to Volodya, the landlord, or what plans his family have for the house, so we cannot be guaranteed life-long residence in this house. If we could, we might do things differently. Or would we? I had this thought that perhaps the boys don’t need a place here and instead we could be using our money to help them buy their own apartments. Perhaps this is all just to pander to my own whims and it is all a waste of money? But surely something would have warned me before now? I really have no idea how it all works and what is imagination and what is real Knowledge. We cannot be sure of how things will turn out, so we make our own plans and build our own dreams. Still in my heart of hearts I think this was the first stepping stone (living in Volodya’s house) and I still need to make my way home. There is no guarantee we can stay in Volodya’s house for the long haul, so we have no other choice but to make our own.

I asked for a sign about this. Just as we finished an early lunch and were about to go out for a walk, Volodya showed up. No warning, no prior phone call, all in line with his disregard for us. Just showing up and expecting us to like it. But we don’t, which is why we are building our own house. I received confirmation that I am on the right track. Volodya is not going to leave us alone while we are still living in his house. I talked to Sasha about this on our walk, although I wasn’t going to tell him about my thoughts this morning. I am glad I did though, it cleared the air and set my thinking straight again.

P.S. A year later, in January 2020, we found out that the landlord has decided to sell his house - to us, of course. "You can sell your plot and buy this house," says he. Right? Wrong! That is very presumptious of him. Plus he still intends to occupy the guest house even after we buy the property. Say what?! So the only choice we have now, if we want to reclaim our own lives, is to move on down the road.