HARM DOES NOT HAPPEN IN A VACUUM – ” … Step Eight isn’t simply a restatement of our inventory. We are now looking for the people, places, and institutions we harmed, not just the types of harm we inflicted. [We] didn’t just lie; we lied to someone. [We] didn’t just steal; we stole from various people.” (It Works, How & Why, p. 56 to cause harm)
CAN WE CAUSE HARM IN LITTLE WAYS – “We might next ask ourselves what we mean when we say that we have “harmed” other people. What kinds of “harm” do people do to one another, anyway? To define the word “harm” in a practical way, we might call it the result of instincts in collision, which cause physical, mental, emotional or spiritual damage to people.” (12 & 12, p. 80)
“He who has loved and who betrays love does harm not only to the image of the past, but to the past itself.”- Theodor Adorno (1903 – 1969) German philosopher
Be it, “people, places or things”, in what ways have your own actions caused harm?
Angry Snake :
A carpenter went home after shutting down his workshop. When he was gone, a poisonous snake entered his workshop. The snake was hungry and hoped to find its supper lurking somewhere within. It slithered from one end to another. Finally, it bumped into an ax and got very slightly injured. In angry and revenge, the snake bit the snake with full force. What could a snake’s bite do to the metallic ax?
Instead, the snake’s mouth started bleeding.
Out of fury and arrogance, the snake tried its best to strangle and kill the metallic ax – The object that was causing it the pain by wrapping itself around the ax. The next day the carpenter opened the workshop. He found the dead snake wrapped around the blades of the ax. Here the snake did not die because of someone’s fault. But it faced these consequences merely because of its own anger and wrath. Sometimes when angry, we try to cause harm to others. But as time passes by, we realize that we caused more harm to ourselves. It is not necessary that we react to everything. Step back and ask ourselves if the matter is really worth responding to. (http://www.english-for-students.com/angry-snake.html)
Ignorance is bliss. Knowing hurts. It takes a better man to choose knowledge over enjoyment. The truth hurts.
This Johnny Cash song feels so authentic to me. He looks one hundred years old but sounds pitch perfect. I really feel his pain. The pain of disappointing those we love.
I think that love is a dimension and that the 8th step, all the steps, put us in it.
above comment by Brita.