What is real? For most of my life that seemed like such a strange question. Well if I’m basically selfish and self-centered, living in a self-centered reality how can that be real? The sages say that the only freedom is a God-centered life. God-conscious rather than self-conscious. Once we realize the truth there is no other way.
Humbled by the ocean. Does the wave think he is a wave or does he realize that he is the ocean? Are we separate from Life or are we life? The allusion that we are separate from this moment must be surrendered, peace comes only in this moment. The idea of me is always in the past, from a story of me or a belief about me, or in the future picture of the imagination of me. The belief in the story of me casts me into a mission to fix me or make a better me. Reading self-help books and going to personal growth groups or spiritual development seminars. These pursuits did help in the end to exhaust any possibility of finding true peace in this realm, the realm of the personal. Only in the now, the moment through surrender did quiet come. Who have we been and who are we now? We have been a person, living in a world of right and wrong, good and bad. A world of judgment and complaint. Always trying to understand and making meaning of life’s events. Never completely satisfied, always looking for more, and afraid of losing what we have. And pretending that we are happy and complete, wearing the mask of I’m ok. That is the world of the mind, of the ego. There is a possibility to live in our full potential, free of fear, free of personal judgment. One of the paths to self-realization to awakening is the 12 steps of AA, NA, CA., and many more. Let’s follow that instruction. and there are more.
We have included a 10-minute Meditation. Also can be called a Guided Meditation Daily Practices.Talking and sharing Spiritual Principals, reading uplifting messages, & Meditation
THE NINTH STEP PROMISES If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through.
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Self-seeking will slip away.
Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises?
We think not. They are being fulfilled among us—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.
They will always materialize if we work for them. – Big Book pages 83 & 84
An excerpt from the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous Page 62
Selfishness–self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate. Sometimes they hurt us, seemingly without provocation, but we invariably find that in some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt. So our troubles we think are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn’t think so. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible.
In this series of videos, we are reading from the 24 hr a day Book And We are talking about being Ambassadors of Love
Wednesday, December 16
Thought for the Day
The way of A.A. is the way of faith. We don’t get the full benefit of the program until we surrender our lives to some Power greater than ourselves and trust that Power to give us the strength we need. There is no better way for us. We can get sober without it. We can stay sober for some time without it. But if we are going to truly live, we must take the way of faith in God. That is the path for us. We must follow it. Have I taken the way of faith?
Meditation for the Day
Life is not a search for happiness. Happiness is a by-product of living the right kind of a life, of doing the right thing. Do not search for happiness; search for right living and happiness will be your reward. Life is sometimes a march of duty during dull, dark days. But happiness will come again, as God’s smile of recognition of your faithfulness. True happiness is always the by-product of a life well-lived.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may not seek happiness but seek to do right. I pray that I may not seek pleasure so much as the things that bring true happiness.