CALL IT A “SPIRIT OR AN ENERGY” OR KINDNESS … “Many of us were suspicious and skeptical because of disappointments that we have had with religion.” “Agnostics and atheists sometimes start by just talking to ‘whatever’s there.’ There is a spirit or an energy that can be felt in the meetings. This is sometimes the newcomer’s first concept of a Higher Power.” (The Basic Text. p. 94)
“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.”
– 14th Dalai Lama (1935 – ) Tibetan spiritual leader
Macklemore & Lewis – Thrift Shop (3:53)
Do You Know Swimming? :
Once, a miser priest used to keep teasing people, “Oh! You don’t know how to do this task properly. You know nothing about religion and life’s philosophies. So your life is worthless.”
One day the priest had to cross a river to go to another village. He saw a boat and sat in it. The boatman asked the priest to pay him to row him across. The priest said, “You ask me for money! On the way I will give you the precious treasures of knowledge. Do you know about Tulsi Das and about Ramayana?”
The priest kept boasting but did not want to pay any money. The boatman got fed up of his talks and thought of teaching him a lesson
When the boat was in the middle of the river, the boatman rocked the boat and the priest fell into the river water. He started drowning. The boatmen asked, “Oh! Don’t you know how to swim? You seem to know everything else.”
Then the kind boatman rescued the priest. Then the priest realized that everyone has knowledge of his own job only.
I’m working on an alternative approach to sponsorship called “step partnering”. Its challenging but I think more rewarding.
Allowing my HP to work in my life is something I’m hoping to improve on.
I’m not in recovery in the traditional sense, but I do think that what I have taken away from this experience, thus far, is that I am responsible for who I am, where I am, and what becomes of me. Thus, I can leave behind the negative thinking that sometimes puts me in the victim role. It’s working quite well.
(6 mins)
Learning as I am now, I must accept responsibility for my beliefs. I must make my decision about trusting and loving those who are as human as I; will someone else define my Higher Power for me? Will someone else tell me how I must relate to my Higher Power. I listen in silence. I learn from my Higher Power who speaks to me through others, and most often through the silence – when I listen. No one, and I intend for this to mean no one, can come between me and my Higher Power – we’ve got it like that…namaste.