Thoughts from Bill W.,  (As Bill Sees it) on the subject of meditation for program people.

A CLEAR LIGHT

“A clear light seems to fall upon us all -when we open our eyes. Since our blindness is caused by our own defects, we must first deeply realize what they are. Constructive meditation is the first requirement for each new step in our spiritual growth.” Page 10.

AN UNSHAKABLE FOUNDATION

There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation and prayer. Taken separately , these practices can bring much relief and benefit. But when they are logically related and interwoven, the result is an unshakable foundation for life.” Page 32.

STEP ELEVEN

Sometimes when friends tell us how well we are doing, we know better inside. We know we aren’t doing well enough. We still can’t handle life, as life is. Thee must nbe a serious flaw somewhere in our spiritual practice and development.

What, then, is it?

The chances are better than  ever that we shall locate our trouble in our misunderstanding or neglect of A.A,’s Step Eleven – prayer meditation , and the guidance of God.

The other Steps can keep most of us sober and somehow functioning. But Step Eleven can keep us growing, if we try hard and work at it continually.  ” Page 264.

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DEPRESSED  ANONYMOUS /PRAYER AND MEDITATION

The following texts are taken verbatim from the Basic Text of Depressed Anonymous, 3rd edition (2011)  Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Ky.

STEP ELEVEN 

” Sought  through prayer and mediation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry it out.”(Pages 95-102)

“We think about the 24 hours ahead when we wake up, and attempt to live the day in honesty and peace.  We ask God to ward off thoughts of self-seeking, dishonesty and false motives. As Alcoholics Anonymous says, when we are faced with the indecision about something we then ask God for inspiration and  we let go of struggling for an answer. Alcoholic Anonymous says that you will be surprised at how the  right answers will come after we have practiced this way of living.  It also comes to pass that our hunches are more right than wrong. We also pause through out the day when we are fearful, puzzled or anxious. We pray to the Higher Power for which direction to take. I like this suggestion the best when Alcoholics Anonymous says: We constantly remind ourselves that we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day ‘Thy will be done.’ We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self pity or foolish decisions. We become more efficient. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves. By coming to the meetings and admitting our addictions, we finally get in touch with those emotions that have all but shut down from early times in our lives, when to feel hurt too much.  We now have the chance to let these feeling get displayed and expressed in the supportive and trusting environment of our newly chosen family of depressed Anonymous group. ‘ Page 101.

” Talk to God about how you can get out of the pit that you’re in–then listen. In time you can hear the solution to your question. This is a trust relationship with your God.” Page 10.

EXPERIMENTERS (Agnostics)

“We agnostics liked A.A. all right, and were quick to say that it had done miracles. But we recoiled from meditation and prayer as obstinately   as the scientist who refused to perform a certain experiment lest it prove his pet theory wrong.

When we finally  did experiment,  and unexpected results followed, we felt different, in fact, we know different, and so we were sold on meditation and prayer. And that, we have found, can happen to anybody who tries. It has been well said that “Almost the only scoffers at prayer are those who never tried it enough. ”  Page 189.

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