2) "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity."
3) "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God [as we understood this]."
Step 12 states:
"Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to [others], and to practice these principles in all our affairs."
The steps in-between three and twelve involve a consistent, sincere effort in working on oneself - alone and with trusted others. The goal is clearing out the distortions and obstructions in our personality. Because the momentum of our addiction (to alcohol, drugs, or the dominance paradigm) is so powerful, we need a "Higher Power" to help release us from its grip. (For some in A.A. who are averse to the concept of divinity - "God" is conceived as "Group of Drunks").
However, our social systems won't budge in a fundamental way until we tackle the belief systems, rules, methods and goals that lead to soul-loss.
Recall Einstein's paraphrased statement that: "We can't change the larger social problems we face with the same level of thought that created them."
**
In other words, we need to begin by honoring our both our personalities and souls in ways that were never modeled for us.
We can begin this personal/societal transformation by embracing a holistic orientation: realizing that we are "processes" - which are related to wider processes - and eventually to the whole of the ever-changing process of reality. Rather than isolated persons, bits, or "things," we begin to experience that we, and the entire universe, are interconnected, interdependent and in process.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
1
1
