12 Steps of Sponsorship
Freedom lies just beyond the archway, of which the Cornerstone, (our belief in an all powerful and loving Creator) is the number one element. Without this Cornerstone, without this belief, and our surrender to it, and dependence in it, will will surely fail, and die spiritually. No life, run on self will, can hardly be a success. There’s only two doors to pass through; 1) self-dependency: a life run on self will. or, God-Dependency: a life run on God dependency.
Some say that there are NO MUSTS in AA… actually, if you are working the Program outlined within the AA Text Book; there are 96 Musts. I heard someone say at a meeting that they were falling short on working the “Spiritual Aspect” of the program. It was quickly pointed out to them that there is NO SPIRITUAL ASPECT of this program - and that this IS a Spiritual Program of Recovery. The entire Program is Spiritual in Nature. There is no “Aspect” to it. (aspect means portion, perspective, section) We must do this work or we will die, of course , unless, you are NOT an alcoholic of the hopeless variety.
“The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink.”
The key is that I have to stop what it is I’m thinking of, engulfed in, and consumed by in order to begin to see, not to see, but to begin to see, then there is much work to be done to continue to see, and more to continue to see more.
Living in the solution is the answer to all of your problems. Living in the Soltuion is simply doing the oposite of what you’ve been doing all of your life, living in the problem, suffering, obsessing, agonizing. Your reward for all of that unhealthy living was to have anxiety, anger and depression. Your reward for living in the solution is to have peace of mind, to feel healthy and vibrant, to be spiritually connected and wholly useful.
Buddhism taught similar characteristics and defines these qualities directly in the Four Noble Truths and within the Eightfold Path that it lays out the exact steps to take to “escape delussional thinking” and “corrective measures for attainment of a inner peace”.
Henry David Thoreau was a complex man of many talents who worked hard to shape his craft and his life, seeing little difference between them. Born in 1817, one of his first memories was of staying awake at night “looking through the stars to see if I could see God behind them.” One might say he never stopped looking into nature for ultimate Truth.