Bill L. from Dunellen, NJ and Mike L. from West Orange, NJ reading Into Action (pages 84 85) at a Big Book step workshop in West Orange, NJ

Hello everyone. My name is Mike and I am an alcoholic.

I welcome back. This I believe is our 14th week together. On the previous 13 weeks, we've covered steps one through 9. We kind of did a little drive by shooting of step nine last week and

Kathy was gracious enough to share her experience with with the nine steps, some some current amends that that she has made

and basically through some of the directions out there. And if you guys have any questions about making amends, you can bring them up during the discussion part of the meeting or or afterwards or

whatever convenient.

I think the way I'd like to start this off is by just a reading of

what unfortunately in the Fellowship we hear sometime is called The 12 Promises. And

once having done the work in this book,

I clearly see that they are the 9th step promises because there are a set of promises associated with virtually every step in the big book.

Some of the strongest promises that

that I've seen and then I've experienced in this book come at the 10th step. And I believe Bill, it was either our first or second week. He he touched on them and we'll definitely touch on them tonight. But I just want to go over the 9th step promises and maybe a little different way than than you're accustomed to hearing them. Usually when I hear the night step promises read in meetings, they kind of

dangle them out there like a carrot,

you know, kind of kind of saying that,

you know, if, if you do what we do, you'll, you'll get these things and you know, and that's all and good. That's, I think that's great encouragement for the newcomer, but I also think it can be a detriment reading these nine step promises and me as a newcomer sitting there thinking, well, I don't get those things until step 9. And

what I mean that that's, that's nine steps away from where the guy or gal is from. And what I like to do is start going over some of the first step promises, some of the promises right in the beginning of the books. You know, the, I think one of the greatest promises comes on the the title page where it says

we're over 100 men and women who have recovered from, from alcohol.

But I think what I'd like to do with with these promises tonight

is as we read through them, ask yourself if this is your current experience. We'll see how that lays out. Bottom of page 83, last paragraph.

If we are painstaking about this phase of our development

and notice the word is painstaking and what I like to do

with that word is just take a line and put it right down the middle, right in between the S and the T.

Because quite often with the 9th step, I have to take great pains to get the, I have to go through great pains to get to complete these amends. The definition of painstaking is expending great care and effort. So by doing my amends, that's exactly what I'm doing. I'm expending great care and effort,

so if I am painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we're halfway through and I can ask myself that question.

When I was halfway through making my amends, was I amazed? We're going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. Have I experienced that? Am I currently experiencing a new freedom and a new happiness? We will not regret the past nor wish to short shut the door on it. Is there anything in my past

that I currently regret? Is there anything in my past that I just currently want to block out, not not shine the spotlight of truth on it? If so, I probably have some more inventory to write.

We will comprehend the word serenity and we'll know peace.

Are you happy with what you have? Are you OK with where you are right now, this moment?

Can you feel the peace that is naturally inside every man, woman and child?

I mean that that is our birthright, right?

You know, we learned in the third step that that it says my troubles are of my own making, you know, And it is because of me, it is because myself will run riot that I block out this natural peace and serenity. But if I can clean up the wreckage of my past, and if I can say stay present and current,

will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.

No matter how far down this 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.

Am I thinking of the other guy first, or am I always thinking about me

when someone's trying to engage in a conversation with me? Am I always looking at my watch

so I can, so I can keep my little plans and designs? You know, these are still things that I that I have to keep a watchful eye on today.

Self seeking will slip away. Notice it doesn't say that self seeking will automatically vanish from your life.

God will come down with a magic wand and remove self seeking from you. No, it says self seeking will slip away.

Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Is that happening for me? Am I currently experiencing that

fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us

now? When I first read this, I thought this meant fear of people. I thought this meant that

that economic insecurity would leave me. I thought this meant that I wouldn't, I wouldn't have money problems or I wouldn't have people problems. But what what this says is that the fear of these things will leave me. You know, I would love to to have a whole heck of a lot more money than I do,

but I don't and I'm OK with that and I'm at peace with that

for the most part. I'm not pulling out my hair or worrying about how the rent's going to get paid or the mortgage. At this point, I'm still fairly new to house ownership, so

it's only been three years by God. But

you know, so again, it's not saying that I'm never going to have any money problems. It's not saying I'm never going to have any people problems. It's saying the fear, just like we found out in inventory. Ask God to remove the fear and direct our attention to to what He would have us be.

We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.

You know, ever have

have the type of experience happen where you know that whether it be in your drinking or in your early sobriety or before going through the steps, you ever have something happen to you and, and you you knew that back then you would just be totally off the wall. Your head would be spinning and you'd be nuts. But yet somehow you made it through this time with peace and dignity. Is that currently happening for us

we will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves goes on to say are these extravagant promises We think not they're being fulfilled among us Dash sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them. And again, I, I think Bill W chose his words very carefully because notice he says that that these promises as the result of completing

all our 9th step amends,

these promises will manifest in our life. And then he goes on to say sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. And I think he knew that because I think that these amends will manifest either quickly or slowly, depending on how quickly or slowly we do our immense.

They will always materialize if we work for them and notice the word if, which is a condition.

Now we get to one of my favorite parts of the 12 steps, one of my favorite parts of the book.

I will tell you that

I was able to do some stuff with 10 and 11 before I complete it one through 9. But

having completed my 9th step amends,

the the difference between the difference between doing 10 and 11 with unfinished amends and

all my immense complete is total night and day. It's indescribably wonderful.

I don't know that I can really put words to it. I don't know that I can really describe it. So sometimes it it makes it difficult to to talk about this stuff. One one man I heard one time says that

you know, anymore just pure silence makes so much more sense. And I tend to totally identify with that statement.

But this thought, this thought of completing my amends

brings me to step 10, which suggests that I continue to take personal inventory.

Now pay attention to how many times he mentions the word continue in this paragraph alone. Step 10 says I, I continue to take personal inventory and I continue to set right any new mistakes as I go along. One thing I will say is that

I do not have to wait to begin practicing steps 10:00 and 11:00 until all my amends are made. If I wait, if I waited to do 10 and 11, if I waited until all my events were were made, I I don't know that I would have got through my immense.

It says that we,

the next line says we vigorously commence this way of living as we cleaned up the past,

not after we cleaned up the past. We're cleaning up the past in four through 9. And it says we begin this daily living of 10 and 11 as we cleaned up the past.

We have entered the world as a spirit. And you know, I could probably speak an hour on that one line alone. We have entered the world of the spirit. Bill talks about on pages 8 and 25 how we get rocketed and catapulted into the 4th dimension of existence. And my entire life before coming to Alcoholics Anonymous and getting involved in this beautiful process. And in our beautiful book, I was only aware of three dimensions of life,

and that was my physical dimension, my mental dimension, and my emotional dimension.

And now they tell me I get to enter a fourth dimension of existence, which in the 10th step they refer to as the world of the spirit.

The the physical dimension deals with my body and other physical things, material things, things that I can touch, things that I can get a grasp on, things I see, you know, my, my, my, my senses,

see, smell, hear, on and on and on.

The mental that I was going to say the mental obsession, the mental dimension is simple. That's my thoughts. That's my thought life, you know,

I used to be trapped in my thoughts. I used to be trapped in my head. I thought just because I thought it so. It was so you know,

that's not the case today.

The third dimension is our emotions.

You ever have somebody tell you, well just don't feel that way? If you feel angry, you just don't feel that way.

But my problem was I never knew how to not feel that way again. I was trapped in those three dimensions, physical, mental and emotional.

What a great promise. We have entered the world of the Spirit

and that's the 4th dimension, the spiritual, the world of the Spirit. The place where I get to see truth, the place where I get to sit alone in meditation and have glimpses. And it isn't like this all the time, but I get to have glimpses of no mind.

I get to have separation from my thought, from my thought life, from my thoughts. It's a beautiful thing. That's how peace and serenity manifests. We'll talk more. We'll talk more about the thought life as as we move through the 10th step. It says here that our next function is to grow an understanding and effectiveness. God, haven't I done enough growing in the first nine steps? They want me to do more growing. That's my

function to grow and understanding and effectiveness for me. For myself, no,

for this power God and from my fellow man.

Well, here's a warning. It says this is not an overnight manner. And that's good news because we're the type of people that, you know, just because we haven't had a drink for 30 days and, and you know, maybe life's going halfway decent, decent and we're making five to seven meetings a week. We're the type of people that want to be able to to sit in meditation and, and

just be able to discover the ultimate reality.

And then we wonder why that doesn't happen.

Says this is not an overnight matter. Takes a lot of practice.

I've been,

I've been consistently working with the tools and the practices of the 10th and 11th step. I would say

probably a good four years now consistently every day.

You know, my, my first year, my, my first few years in sobriety, I, I was flaky. I would do it sometimes and not do it sometimes and, and wonder why, you know, wonder why my inventories were so big all the time.

But again, this is this is not an overnight matter, and it takes a lot, a lot of practice.

After having practiced this stuff consistently for for four years, I'm just beginning to get a grasp on some of these things.

So it says it this function of growing and understanding and effectiveness should continue. Again, that word continue. That's the third time you mention it. This should continue for our lifetime,

no?

Here he goes again with the word continue. And here are if you look at the handouts for for this week.

And I guess at this time, let's just briefly cover

the first page is entitled Directions for steps 10:00 and 11:00. And all it is is just bullets from the book.

It's just bullets taken from the book in a way that I can understand the directions more. None of the words are changed. They're just bulleted items. And sometimes I do better with a with a checklist. I just seem to operate better in that manner.

So we have that

on the back of that page. Our Prayers in the Big Book,

each prayer gives a page number and a paragraph number in which it's from and to the right of each prayer is

the the name of the prayer or where the prayer can be in what section of the book the prayer can be found. This next sheet, front and back, is a nice little tool to use for your 10th and 11th step.

A friend of Bill and I's matter of fact, I, I think, I think Bill's currently working with this guy. He he put together this sheet and

I might say you did a really outstanding job with this.

So if you're looking for for a tool to use for your

for your morning meditation and and your evening review, you might want to take a look at this Good Stuff

page. After that is another sheet on prayers in the Big Book.

And this is something that Bill put together and he actually he actually has some of the prayers here that weren't on that first prayer list. So this is good stuff also. And

the last

hand out in this week's packet is entitled How to Listen to God. And if I didn't include this in the handout, Bill would probably shoot me.

This is this is definitely an excellent tool for for the 11th step.

Bill personally swears by this. I've used it in in the past and and I think it's very beneficial as well. This is.

This pamphlet how to listen to God was written by a gentleman who was in the Oxford group and this is actually the way that the Oxford group members and the early a a practice morning quiet time. So again, if you're, if you're stuck or you don't have any or much experience with with meditation

and and prayer, take a look at that and I think it'll be real beneficial.

OK, the directions for the 10th step

and note that these are only the directions

for a long time. I, I, I thought the 10th step was no more than the way it was written on the shade or the way it was the way it's written on page 59 And it says continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong promptly admitted it. And, and I, I thought that was, I thought that was the 10th step. And that's just part of it. As we read through these pages

84 and 85, there is so much more in the tent step. There are so many principles and practices that we can do in the 10 step alone. We, we could spend a lifetime doing them. But here's the basic directions. Continue. There's that word again. Continue to watch. And I'll be talking about that word in a minute. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear.

Where did we first spot these defects, if you will, of selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear? Which step did we initially find them in

for right

when these crop up? Notice it says when they crop up, not if.

When these crop up, we ask another spiritual tool. We ask God at once to remove them.

The third part to this is we discuss. Discuss is another spiritual tool or practice if you will. We discussed them with someone immediately, not next month, not next year immediately, which means as soon as possible. And the 4th part to this is make amends quickly. If we have harmed anyone,

then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help.

Love and tolerance of others is our code.

And you know, I've often had people ask me, Mike, how do I know when my 10th step is complete? You know, how do I know when I've after I've seen my current selfishness, dishonesty or resentment or fear, and after I've asked God to remove it and I've discussed it with someone else and I've made amends if I've harmed anyone,

how do I know if I'm really square with that situation? I don't need to go back and and and re examine again.

And what I simply ask them is the next line in a book. I'll say, well after you've done that, are you able to get out of yourself and resolutely turn your thoughts over to someone you can help?

That's usually a good guide guidepost for me.

And it's also a direction.

You know, this can be taken as a, as a direction and a promise. Love and tolerance of other is our code. What a what a beautiful way of life. Love and tolerance. Are you kidding me? Love, intolerance,

anything but my code before. Before I went through this work, it was more like hatred and dishonesty.

5 words I want to touch on

Watch,

ask, discuss, amends

in turn

12345677 lines up from

From the bottom of that paragraph you'll find the word watch where it says continue to watch.

Skip a line and you'll you'll see we ask

next line discuss.

Right below the word discuss you'll find amends,

and then below that, slightly to the right, you'll find the word turn.

What I like to do is take a piece of paper and write these words

vertically. I couldn't remember if it was horizontal up and down for a slow folk.

So I like to write the words vertically, watch, ask, discuss, amends and turn. And then I take the first letters of those words, which are

WADAT, and we have the word, which is no word I've ever seen, but I like to make up words

right? Watch, ask, discuss, turn. And we have a word that's simple for a guy like me to remember, which is

why that whatever that what

steps what.

But the reason I did that is because it made it easy for me to understand the directions that I'm supposed to do in the 10 step WADAT. Oh, I'm all jammed up. I don't know what to do. I, I just

I had a conflict with this guy at work. What am I? What am I supposed to do? Well, W OK, I'm supposed to watch what caused me to get into a conflict with this person at work? I'm supposed to watch where I'm supposed to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, or fear? Which of those defects

propelled me into being in conflict?

What am I supposed to do next? I'm supposed to ask. Once I've discovered which defect it is, I'm supposed to ask God to remove it from me. Dear God, please remove my selfishness and direct my attention to what You would have me be.

Then if I need to, I can discuss this thing with another person, my sponsor or another person in the fellowship. Now, if I'm at work and, and I made a mistake and I'm able to make amends to the person and it's done and over with, I mean, I'm not going to get on the phone and, and, and waste precious company time to call my sponsor selfishly about something that that's just been resolved,

that the power of God has been given unto me to take care of through this tense step. You know, So

sometimes I need to discuss these things. Other times I don't.

Usually I need to discuss them when when they pop back up in my evening review and we'll talk about that when we get into the 11th step.

The next thing is immense. You know,

I've spotted that it was my selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, or fear that caused the problem. I asked for it to be removed. I've discussed it with with someone else so I can see the truth about it. And then I make amends if I've harmed the person. And then the next immediate thing I do is turn T turn my thoughts over to someone I can help,

you know,

not necessarily an alcoholic, not necessarily a person in the fellowship. If I'm at work. And what do I get paid to do at work? I get paid to do my job, right? So if I'm at work and I've gone through this little 10 step process, I can turn my thoughts over to, to a way I can be useful at work. Maybe I can help my boss. Maybe I can help my coworker.

Maybe the reason I was selfish to begin with

was because I didn't want to help a co-worker who needed help and I was busy doing my own little plans and and designs so I can make amends for that and I can turn my my thoughts over to that person.

I give you that example because unfortunately I've lived it.

And then, having done this, watch, ask, discuss, amends, and turn. Then love and tolerance of others can be my code.

One of the gentlemen who have helped me particularly with the 10th and 11th step, more than more than anyone else in Alcoholics Anonymous,

taught me how to take words in in this 10th and 11th step and turn them into spiritual practices. And again, I use these same 5 words and a whole bunch of other words for that matter, to just use the spiritual practice.

I took the word watch and spent six months just working with the word watch. Watch for what? Watch for these things that that crop up within me. Watch my thought life

and how I did that was I got a bunch of three by five cards.

I wrote down the word. I shoved one of my pocket, put one in my car, put one in the bedroom, put one in the where I do my prayer meditation. Put one one in the one in the kitchen, one in the in all over the house. You know, it's really cool to put this stuff on on your on your bathroom mirrors. That way when non Alcoholics come into your home, they're like what is this? You know,

I knew a guy once that that literally made his Fonsee right on his mirror with with lipsticks.

What I want does not matter.

Definitely a blow to the ego, that's for sure.

But if I need to do that, I do that. So anyway, with this word watch,

I'm going throughout my day, you know, I'm supposed to be, I'm supposed to be practicing this tent step. I will not mind be done. You know, again, another spiritual practice. You could put thy will not mind be done down on a three by five card and work with it for six months. But I got this word watch down on a three by five card. I'm in the cafeteria pulling out my money along along comes the card. Oh, I'm supposed to be watching, you know, and it's a good reminder. For some reason we Alcoholics need a lot of reminders.

Built in. Forgetter I think they call it.

So that's how I work with her with words. You can work with the word turn for for six months. Dear God, please show me how to turn my thoughts over over to others. God, please show me how how love and tolerance of others can be my code. You know,

I particularly like to to use one in the next sentence where it says

and we have cease fighting anyone or anything, even alcohol. And we'll get into that paragraph in just a minute. But put that down on a three by five card. Ceasefighting, ceasefighting position neutrality, no resistance, no attachment to anything, just ceasefire. What a way to go through your day. It's unbelievable.

I'm currently once again working with the word watch. And I have been ever since the beginning of the year, kind of in a new light, so to speak, for, for a lack of better way to describe it, kind of from a new consciousness.

And I'll read you something

that really, really brought this practice, really brought this word watch to life for me.

I, I typed it in, in an e-mail and, and I sent it out to, to a few people. You guys don't have it. I can send it to you an e-mail if you want.

I'm currently doing some work with with a guy from India

by the name of Osho

is his name. Before that was Bhagwan Sri Rajanish and I'm currently doing some some practices that that he talks about.

But this is how this is how he describes watching. And

this was from a meditation book of his that I have and the title of the meditation for it's a daily meditation book. Like we were talking about the reflection,

The daily reflection book before this particular meditation was entitled Anxiety.

So I prefaced this whole thing by writing in this discourse. Osho uses the word personality to mean persona or mask. Others like to use the term states of being, characters, the committee, you know, the committee in our head or simply ego. So this is what Osho goes on to say.

Create a distance between you and your personality. All your problems are concerned with your personality, not with, you know, again, personality can mean ego.

You don't you don't have any problems. Nobody really has any problems. All problems belong to personality. You know, all all he's saying is exactly what our big book says is that all our problems are of our own making. I create my own difficulties. He says this is going to be the work that whenever you feel anxiety, just remember that it belongs to the personality.

You feel a strain, just remember that it belongs to the personality.

You are a watcher, the witness. Create distance. Nothing else is to be to be done.

Separate yourself from your ego. Don't fight the ego, but just know that you are not the ego. Create a distance between you and your thought life. Begin to watch your thoughts just like they're up on on a movie screen. Don't get involved in in the in the one man play. You know, again, third step says that I want to be the actor

and the director. You know, instead I let God or life be the director and I'm the actor and just stand back and watch today,

he says. Once the distance is there, you will suddenly see anxiety disappearing. When the distance is lost, when you have become closed again,

again anxiety will arise. Anxiety is getting identified with the problems of the personality. Relaxation is not getting involved, but remaining unidentified with the problems of the personality. So for one month, watch

whatever happens, remain far away. Continue to keep that distance from you and your ego or your persona.

For example, you have a headache like I did last week. Just try to be far away and watch the headache. It is happening somewhere in the body mechanism. You are standing aloof, a watcher on the hills far away

and and it's happening miles away, just created distance. Create a space between you and the headache and go on making the space bigger and bigger. A point will come. Will you suddenly see that the headache is disappearing into the distance?

So that's just one of the ways that we can begin the work with with this thing of watch

another man by the name of Eckhart Tolle. For anyone who's really interested in getting more into this 10th and the 11th step work, I highly recommend his book The Power of Now.

Did some work with that book last year. Literally changed my life.

He takes this whole this whole business of watching and just embellishes it in about 200 ages. And he explains it

so like a guy like me can understand that.

TOLLE. Some people pronounce it totally, others pronounce it Toll. He's a German fellow. First name is Eckerd, Eckerd, Eck, Hart, Hart, Eckhart Tolle.

Incredible book.

When anxiety arises, just watch it.

Totally goes on to say don't fight it, don't resist it, just watch it.

If I spot a defective character

arise within my thinking, the way I deal with that today, today, if I'm awake and if I'm present to this moment and if I'm conscious because I'm, I'm not always. But if I am, I'm able to say

some anxiety is arising for some dishonesty or some selfishness. And what I like to say is, is it not interesting? And I don't judge it because the worst thing we can do is damn it, I'm being dishonest again. I'm being selfish again. This program doesn't work. I'm just a piece of crap anyway. No,

it's not what the 10th step is about. The 10th step is about non attachment, non judgment, being that watcher on the hill,

creating the distance.

It's a beautiful thing. Again, when I'm awake, I'm just able to say, isn't that interesting? And then I turn my thoughts over to someone I can help.

The 10th and the 11th step is not about beating oneself up. It's about growing and understanding and effectiveness.

And we're not always going to get it perfect.

Some people hear me speak in meanings or from the podium and, and, and they'll say things like, Mike, you're talking about perfection. And if someone says that to me, then either they're not listening to what I'm saying or I didn't tell them the entire truth. See, I went through a period of sobriety where I told you about all the all the good things, Again, for a lack of better word, all the positive things.

I told you about all the tools and the practices that I was working with in recovery, but I failed to tell you about my mistakes.

And what I like to do today is also tell you about my mistakes, because sometimes my mistakes will help a person more than my assets, so to speak.

So that's probably the longest I've ever talked about on that paragraph.

Bottom of 84.

And these are the 10th step promises. And I think it's a crime that we don't talk more about these in meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, particularly the newcomers, and we'll see why in a minute.

And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone, even alcohol,

for by this time sanity will have returned. You mean to tell me that in the second set? The second step tells me that God could restore me to sanity. And now I get to the 10th step and it tells me I am restored to sanity. What a beautiful promise.

We will seldom be interested in liquor, and again, I can use this as a little checklist for myself. Is that my current experience

If tempted, we we recoil from it as from a hot flame. I love that analogy because it's so true. It's so true for me today when I on the occasion where I put my hand on a hot stove and it it particularly works better. If you envision these were they Corning top stoves, Corning Ware. You can't always tell that they're on because they don't have a burner.

If you if you put your hand on on that type of stove,

what do you do? Your repellent. Oh, that's hot. I mean, I don't have to think about that. It's not like I put my hand on a stove like, hmm, this is hot. This is starting to burn me. My skin is melting. Should I, should I take it off the stove? No, we don't have to question that. We intuitively know. We instinctively know. Nobody had to teach us this. Ouch. It's hot. I'm moving the hand away

and this is how this is how we begin the react around alcohol.

It doesn't say that we're never ever going to think about drinking again. What it does promises what it does promise me that as long as I stay in a fit spiritual condition, I won't have the mental obsession. I won't obsess about alcohol. That that nagging, grinding thing that that I came in here with and and it got it. It nearly dominated me for for six months.

You know, that's not what it's talking about. It's talking about

when the thought of drinking occurs that I'm able to say a prayer and my prayers are usually something like, dear God, you know, I don't want to be thinking like this. It's a it's drinking is me. Drinking is a a absolutely no use to you or my fellow man. Please remove this thought for me before I get carried away and start fantasizing it from me and direct my attention to how I can be helpful.

And I go on and I turn my thoughts to someone that I can be helpful to,

to me, that's recoiling us from a hot flame. Why do we recoil from alcohol as from a hot flame? Because I now know the truth about alcohol.

See the truth, Doctor Silkworth told us, and in his opinion in step one, that Alcoholics can't differentiate the truth from the false. We don't know the difference from the truth or the false. And now by the time we get to the 10th step, we do know the truth from the false

We react sanely and normally

and we will find that this has happened automatically. It's not something we have to, we have to work at. We have to try and trudge to react sanely and normally. No, we followed directions in the first nine steps. We do some simple practices in 10 and 11, and we work with other Alcoholics and help other people the best we can in step 12,

and by those things reacting sanely and normally happens automatically,

we will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes.

That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation.

The booze battle is over.

We feel as though

we feel as though we have been placed in the position of neutrality, safe and protected.

I like to take a look at that statement with other areas of my life. How am I doing with other areas of my life? You know, all these promises in this paragraph we can apply to to other difficulties we're we're having in our life. Cease fighting anyone or anything.

Am I fighting with with anyone or anything? Am I fighting with anyone or or resisting change in any area in my life?

Because if I haven't ceased fighting anything or anyone, I'm still fighting alcohol again. They're always hooking us back to the first step.

Or I'm fighting ego and that's useless anyway.

I mean, if you're fighting ego, you're, you're still an ego. What's the sense of it?

We feel as though we have been placed in a position of neutrality. Safe and protected. I love that. Safe and protected,

we have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed.

The problem has been removed. What is the main problem of the alcoholic? The main problem centers in the mind rather than in the body. We found out that our main problem is a spiritual problem, the spiritual malady. And what's at the core of the spiritual malady is selfishness and self centeredness, self ego.

Who I'm not. And sometimes I think I am

that problem has been removed on a daily basis, providing I continue to do these practices on a daily moment by moment basis, situation by situation.

It the problem does not exist for us, we are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience, that is how we react as long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.

Now they're going to give us a couple warnings.

It is easy to let up on the spirit, on the spiritual program of action, and rest on our laurels.

We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. Question I like asking is what are laurels?

My laurels are anything that I've done yesterday

that produced a result by laurels can be the work that I've done in the first nine steps. Am I resting on what I did yesterday

and thinking that I'm reaping the benefits today?

Am I resting on my laurels with the first nine steps? Oh, I've done the first nine steps. I don't have to go any further. Am I doing that kind of stuff?

Because if I am, he says. We're had it for trouble. If if I do, Because alcohol is a subtle foe, and alcohol is also cunning, baffling and powerful. And do I dare say alcoholism

which which we know to suffer from alcoholism or the spiritual malady or untreated alcoholism or unmanageability, We don't necessarily have to have alcohol in our life to be suffering from that stuff. So alcoholism is a subtle foul. Hey, I I might have kicked alcohol. I might have that battle won,

but how am I doing in other areas of my life? How am I doing with cigarettes? How am I doing with with with food

and my health? How am I doing with Internet pornography? How am I doing with all those things? How am I doing with gambling, money, finances, credit card debt, all those kind of things? All those things are just symptoms of alcoholism. And I have to be very careful that, you know, we hear it all the time in meetings. Well, I'm just not, I'm not drinking today. So that makes me a winner.

I don't know about that. I know there's been times in my sobriety where I just haven't drank today and I haven't felt like a winner

exhibit.

And you know, I, I kind of repel from from that statement anyway, because if there's winners in our fellowship, then that tells me there's losers. And I don't want, I don't want to be a part of any fellowship that that has losers.

Again, position of neutrality safe and protected. Here's an important line that even those of us who do this work can sometimes skimp over