There are many helpful books also.
Big Book – Into Action, p.87
Here are links to a number of written resources I have found to be useful whilst practicing a spiritual program of action. Whilst some of these resources directly reference the 12 Steps, others simply ’emphasize the principles we have been discussing’. Many of the concepts discussed (if fully absorbed and implemented in one’s daily life) are life-changing. One must always remember, however:
The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it.
This section is organised as follows: resource title/author, a quote from the text, hyperlink to PDF.
Reducing the Ego – Jos Slabbert
The ego tends to make you tremendously dependent on what other people think of you. In fact, you get people who are so immersed in serving their own egos that other people’s opinions have become more important to them than their relationships with their own family.
At the Feet of the Master – Jiddu Krishnamurti
You must be true in speech too – accurate and without exaggeration. Never attribute motives to another; only his Master knows his thoughts, and he may be acting from reasons which have never entered your mind. If you hear a story against any one, do not repeat it; it may not be true, and even if it is, it is kinder to say nothing. Think well before speaking, lest you should fall into inaccuracy.
Awareness – Anthony de Mello
Loneliness is not cured by human company. Loneliness is cured by contact with reality.
As a Man Thinketh – James Allen
A strong man cannot help a weaker unless the weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition.
Sermon on the Mount – Emmet Fox
Jesus concerned himself exclusively with the teaching of general principles, and these general principles always had to do with mental states, for he knew that if one’s mental states are right, everything else must be right too, whereas, if these are wrong, nothing else can be right. Unlike the other great religious teachers, he gives us no detailed instructions about what we are to do or are not to do; he does not tell us either to eat or to drink, or to refrain from eating or drinking certain things; or to carry out various ritual observances at certain times and seasons. Indeed, the whole current of his teaching is anti-ritualistic anti-formalist.
Sermon on the Mount – The Key to Success in Life
The Bill W – Carl Jung Letters
His craving for alcohol was the equivalent, on a low level, of the spiritual thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: the union with God.
You see, “alcohol” in Latin is spiritus, and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: spiritus contra spiritum.
Various Fourth Step Guide and Examples
While writing about your self esteem: If you truly had low self-esteem when the person in Column One did Column Two you would not have been resentful at them, you would have believed you got what you deserved. You will experience your difficulties easier in this area writing from a point of high self-esteem. It will take writing and seeing the fears bracketed along side a few of these to understand this. Using Bill’s references in Step Three as to how I’m like an actor trying to run the show. Consider here in the Third Column how I believed the situation should have gone and how I’m in the world assigning roles:
• Self-esteem is my stage character. The role that I’ve assigned myself.
• Pride is how the rest of the players are supposed to see to me.
• Ambition is what I want out of this scene.
• Security is what I need out of this scene to be okay.
• Personal Relations is my deep seated idea of what this type of relationship should look like.
• Sex Relations is my deep seated ideas of how a real man and/or real woman would be in this situation.
• Pocket Book relates to my finances.
Fourth Step Guide and Examples
The Varieties of Religious Experience – William James
He believes in No-God, and he worships him,” said a colleague of mine of a student who was manifesting a fine atheistic ardor; and the more fervent opponents of Christian doctrine have often enough shown a temper which, psychologically considered, is indistinguishable from religious zeal.
The Varieties of Religious Experience – A Study in Human Nature
The Jack Alexander Article
Three men sat around the bed of an alcoholic patient in the psychopathic ward of Philadelphia General Hospital one afternoon a few weeks ago. The man in the bed, who was a complete stranger to them, had the drawn and slightly stupid look that inebriates get while being defogged after a bender. The only thing that was noteworthy about the callers, except for the obvious contrast between their well-groomed appearances and that of the patient, was the fact that each had been through the defogging process many times himself. They were members of Alcoholics Anonymous, a band of ex-problem drinkers who make an avocation of helping other alcoholics to beat the liquor habit.
Dr Bob and the Good Oldtimers
First Things First: Dr. Bob pointed out many times that this slogan came from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:33 (“But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”).
One Day at a Time: Again, Dr. Bob pointed to the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:34 (“Take therefore no thought [be not anxious] for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof).
Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers – A Biography, With Recollections of Early A.A. in the Midwest
AA Newcomers Pack – 15 Points
Don’t allow yourself to either think about or talk about any real or imagined pleasure you once had from drinking. Cultivate a helpful association of ideas:
a. Associate a drink as being the single cause of all the misery, shame and fear you have ever known.
b. Associate a drink as being the only thing that can destroy your newfound happiness, and take from you your self respect and peace of mind.
12 Step Guide from Came to Believe Retreat
Here’s where you’re going to hire a New Manager, since you haven’t done a very good job managing yourself.
[…] Joe & Charlie talk. I was also advised to read Pass it On: The Story of Bill W and Doctor Bob & The Good Old Timers to gain a deeper understanding of the history of Alcoholics […]
LikeLike