Bill L. from Dunellen, NJ and Mike L. from West Orange, NJ reading Into Action (pages 85 88) at a Big Book step workshop in West Orange, NJ

No, we're going to get started if we can.

Since it's 830

still

I we're on page 85

might cover 10 last week, and I guess I'll cover 11 this week.

I'd like to begin by asking my higher power to put the words in my mouth with love in my heart and help me speak the truth. And I guess I just wanted to touch upon one thing with Tim.

It's interesting how

none of this is original

and I've already given credit three times, so now it's officially my. But

you have the sort of left page of step 10 on page 84 where it talks about basically steps 4 through 9 on a moment by moment basis, as soon as we're disturbed, as soon as our Peace of Mind is disturbed as we go through the day. And then we have the page 85 part of step 10, which is a little bit below the middle of the page. It says every day is a day when I must carry the vision of God's will into all of my activities. How can I best serve thee? Thy will my mind be done.

These are thoughts which must go with me constantly.

Um, for me,

if I'm living that part of step 10, the right page of that little, those couple sentences there, then on the left page when I look for

selfishness, dishonesty, resentment and fear, I'm not going to find any.

So although

this four through nine part of Step 10 is very important, when we fall short,

the step, the right side of step 10 is for me more important because if I'm living those few sentences constantly as I go through all of my activities, then again, when I look for the four through nine part of step 10, I'm not going to find anything. So for me, the right side is more important than the left side. But when we fall short, we have that four through 9 on a quick basis

to get us back on the beam.

So I just wanted to start there because,

you know, like Mike said last week, this right side of Step 10 is one of the most incredible parts of the book to meditate on and to try to carry out in all of our affairs. And again, when we fall short on that ideal, then we got the 4 million to pick up on it. Step 11 starts on the bottom on page 85. A Step 11 suggests prayer medication.

I shouldn't be shy on this matter of prayer. Better men or women than I are using it constantly. It works if one I have the proper attitude and to work at it. So there's a little bit of a formula there. I have to have the proper attitude. I'd like to suggest the proper attitude is instead of being self-centered, we need to be God or love centered

and then work at it so.

There's a little bit of a formula there for it to work. It would be easy to be vague about this matter, yet we believe we can make some definite and valuable suggestions. Now it's going to get into an evening review.

What's interesting about this evening review is that it's part of Step 11.

95% of the whole fellowship says that you do evening review as part of Step 10, but as we saw last week in Step 10, it says we do Step 10 as we go along, which means more by moment through the day.

If we wait until the end of the day to do a review, our day can snowball on us. And

you know, if if I start my day in traffic and people cutting me off and having a bad attitude, then when I get to work and people start giving me work that was due yesterday. Then when I get home I kick the dog and I get back into traffic and my day has snowballed. And if I can, as soon as I see that

my Peace of Mind has been disturbed, if I could stop at that moment and step back and deal again with the four through 9 aspect of step 10, that I can get back on the beam and get on with my day instead of waiting until the end of the day. And now 12 hours have just been ripped away from my Peace of Mind.

And again or not again. But you know, I don't really care if you call the evening review Step 10 or Step 11. The important thing is that you're doing it. But I'd like to point out that in the book it says that as part of Step 11, we constructively review our day, which is the next sentence.

When I retire at night, I constructively review my day.

Also, I think probably the biggest reason why people consider step 10 to be part of, you know, to be only basically an evening review is because in the 12 and 12, it mentions many different inventories. It even mentioned the spot check inventory or the moment by moment inventory like three or four times, but it also includes an evening kind of an inventory. It also includes a, a bi yearly or a a like a six month inventory and includes a year inventory

in the step 10 essay closes with an evening in inventory. So perhaps that's where that comes from. But it also does mention three or four times like a spot check inventory. So if those core, it does correspond with what the big book says that the 10th step really is moment by moment throughout the day.

And this is when we retire at night. This is the the self examination aspect of step 11. When I retire at night, I constructively review my day, not destructively. I don't beat myself up over ways that I've fallen short, but I constructively review my day. So I try to matter of factly

as as unemotionally involved as possible, just kind of review my day and see how I did. And it gives us some specific questions here. Some people refer to him as the 12 questions.

I I guess if you broke it down to its most minute way, it ends up being 12 questions. But what I see is about seven or eight questions, some of which have a few different parts associated with it. It says was I resent most selfish, dishonest or afraid.

Like Mike said last week in in association with Step 10, that sort of the fourth step aspect of the 11th step evening review

says do we own an apology? There are steps 8:00 and 9:00 sort of in different words. Have I kept something to myself that should be discussed with another person at once? And notice that it says that once sometimes I'm doing an evening review. You might have to call somebody just to talk it over with them. Maybe they can see more truth than we will. Maybe they'll catch an aspect of our ego that maybe we didn't notice. And that's the 5th step aspect of this evening. Reviewing Step 11 was like kind and loving toward all

that, sort of alluding to Step 12, practicing the principles and all of our affairs. What could I have done better?

For me, that sentence captures the essence of spiritual growth. What could I have done better? I could have had the most perfect day and did absolutely nothing wrong. I'll be honest with you, in doing evening reviews for 7 1/2 years,

there was one day that I did an evening review and I couldn't find anything that I did wrong. And it was interesting was that it was just an average day. There wasn't anything. There wasn't anything

exemplary about that day, but for some reason I did an evening review and then I kind of said, that's kind of strange, to be honest with you. I didn't see, I didn't run into very many people that day. I kind of spent it by myself and you know,

I even like kind of stopped and said, wait a minute, I just, I just reviewed my day and wait a minute. There's got to be something, you know what I mean? And I kind of tried to, to bring God even more into it because when I do an evening review, I kind of do, you know,

that's in God to, to, you know, help me review the day. I don't just review it from my eyes. I try to review it from, from my higher power's eyes. And nothing came up. And that's only happened once in 7 1/2 years. As far as I'm concerned, it's a flu. But you know, for me, the essence of spiritual growth is right there. I could have had the most perfect, absolutely ultimate day, but that sentence captures spiritual growth. What could I, what could I have done better? There might have been one other person that I could have called or one person that

I saw across the street and kind of didn't respond to, you know, perhaps going over and seeing as they were OK or something, you know, maybe saw somebody from a distance. It didn't go over to him. You know, there's something, you know, maybe,

you know, for a period of time during that day, I wasn't including God. That's something I could have done better.

You know, for me, that's, that's the essence of spiritual growth is what could I have done better. Now, as I go through this, you'll notice in the packet, there's sort of a a way that that this evening review can be done very formally. Some people prefer to do writing a journaling is very transforming

tool and some choose to do this in their head. But something that I suggest, the people that I work with, is that

like Mike pointed out last week, the beginning of the 10th step says that we commence this way of living, which for me is the 10th and 11th step way of living. As we cleaned up the past, so we saw some time frames before and now we're seeing another one in step 10 that we practice this way of life. As we clean up the past, as we start making amends, we also include step 10 and 11 in our daily repertoire. And again, this is a tool that can be used in a formal way to actually, you know, sit down and fill out these questions in a specific way.

I was I thinking of myself most of the time, or was I thinking of what I could do for others, of what I could pack into the stream of life. But I must be careful not to drift into worry or Morse or morbid reflection. And again, at the beginning of that paragraph, it says that we constructively review our day. So now he's repeating himself. So it must be pretty important for in a couple sentences, he repeats himself twice. We don't do this in a way to beat ourselves up. If, if we do something wrong,

we don't

beat ourselves up later on for doing something wrong, because now we're doing a second thing wrong based on that, you know, around that one thing that we don't beat ourselves up. We see where we fall in short, we learn from it and we move on. If, if we use something that disturbed our peace in the past to disturb our peace in the present, the ego is still winning. We're still perhaps falling short on, on maintaining Peace of Mind. So he says it here twice.

We constructively review our day and now we we're careful not to drift into learning or more so more of a reflection. And it's telling us why, because that would diminish by usefulness to others

again, the book again and again and again and again around that sentence, I have 123456789 references that basically say the same thing. We need to be of service to other people, to God, and to other people.

After making my review, I ask God's forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken. And that's another way of saying step 6:00 and 7:00. So right there in that paragraph, as we do our evening review, we again do the process of steps 4 through 9. We didn't intend moment by moment as we go through the day and we're doing it again in as as part of our evening review with a couple of things thrown in as well.

And in the original manuscript, the next sentence as part of that same paragraph that we just read said thus you keep clean as you live each day. So it's kind of interesting that they took that out. And again, of course, you know, after we do our review, we ask God's forgiveness and inquire with corrective measures should be taken. That's a prayer for asking God for forgiveness and inquire what corrective measures should be taken.

Sometimes that question is answered when we say what could we have done better?

But, you know, here we're officially asking God, OK, God, I've fallen short. You know, how can I, how can I, you know, I, I, I try to reach my highest power on how can I make up for what's happened or what perhaps tomorrow can I do better so it doesn't happen again? You know, as far as I'm concerned, you know, Mike, I touched upon it last week that

it doesn't say if we fall short. It says when these crop up, you know, we take corrective action. We're going to fall short. We're human. We're going to fall short,

but we have a way to deal with that. And you know, 4 through 9 more by moment and you know again as we review our day.

And now it's going to tell us about some meditation

on awakening.

It doesn't say after we've showered and eaten and and got dressed and we're on our way to work. It doesn't say at some point in the morning. It says on awakening, something that I do is before I get out of bed, the moment that I realize that I'm awake and I'm not going to fight going back to sleep

because you know, sometimes you wake up and it's before your alarm or whatever and you you're kind of not up yet.

I say the third step prayer immediately the first. My first thoughts try to be of God because I'm immediately first of all

showing my higher power that it's a priority. But more importantly, I'm trying to fill myself with this positive, wonderful prayer called the third step. I then normally get up, I'll pee and I wash my mouth out. I go to my sofa, I sit down and I start to pray and meditate. Literally within 5 minutes. I'm with God and I haven't missed

morning meditation in over a year. And you know, Mike had touched upon it last week that we're both very similar with some of our practices and also some of our previous experiences in that we had experience in the past of only practicing this,

not on a regular basis. We had glimpses of practicing this, but not doing it on a constant basis. And in the last, you know, a year or maybe a little bit more, we've really, pretty much separately really came into to practicing this and making their priority and doing it every day. And I can only speak for myself, but I've seen the growth in him and I've experienced the growth within myself that

this is really incredible when it's done on a priority basis every day, it's just incredible. It's a it's a life changing process.

It says upon awakening, let's think about the 24 hours ahead. You know, that's the essence of one day at a time. That's also the essence of living in the moment. We don't think about the past. We don't think necessarily about yesterday, although we can include

part of our evening review we can perhaps bring into our morning meditation because if we've been shown some corrective measure, we now need to implement that into the next 24 hours.

Another thing that you might notice is that if you turn back to page 84,

it talks about entering the world of the Spirit. The world of the Spirit is only here and now. The world of the Spirit

has no time. It's it's only in the moment. The world of the spirit is not in the past, and the world of the spirit is not in the future. Just like conscious contact with a higher power, it could have happened in the past, but I can't right now

had conscious contact with with a higher power that I had a week ago. And I can't have it in thinking about, you know, the future. I need to be in the moment. And you'll notice after it says that entering the world of the Spirit, it talks about

watching for resentment or selfishness, dishonestly resentment and fear right now, here and now. It says when these crop up, we add once, which is right now, ask God to remove him. We don't ask him to lunch or move them. We had once asked God to remove them. I can't tell God when to do anything. And then it says we discussed them with someone immediately, which is right now

and make amends quickly, which is as soon as probably, you know, right now, as soon as possible. And then we resolutely turn our thoughts right now to someone we can help. So we, so the world is spirit and the spiritual way of life is in the moment right here, right now, experiencing Peace of Mind, doing what the right thing right now needs to be. For me, that was a really important thing that I stole from somebody to, to pass along to other people that again, the world of the Spirit is here and now there's no, you know, I'm going to make amends 3 weeks from now

saying quickly, now, immediately, you know what I mean? It's, it's here. And now if I'm missing an opportunity to do something now that perhaps my, my inner God is prompting me to do, I'm missing that opportunity. I'm moving past the time when it should be perhaps done. Don't get me wrong, sometimes you know that that doesn't mean that if I have to go to work today, I'm supposed to get on a plane, go talk to somebody. You know, we need to be responsible and reasonable, maybe even talk to people about what kind of guidance we're getting. But again, the world of the Spirit is now in the moment, doing what? What's the next right thing now?

I really went off there.

It says we consider our plans for the day this day. Today, before I begin, I ask God to direct my thinking, especially asking that I'd be divorced from self pity, dishonesty, or self seeking motives. That's a prayer. We're asking God to direct our thinking and especially asking Him to better be divorced himself. Pretty dishonest to yourself seeking motives.

I paid you to start a dancing

under these conditions, the conditions of asking God to direct our thinking that to be divorced from self pity, dishonest or self seeking motives. I can employ my mental faculties with assurance for after all, God gave us brains to use my foot life when I'm being divorced from self, but he dishonesty and self seeking motives will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives. Notice in that paragraph all the inner

stuff that it's pointing to, it's talking about considering our plans for the day. That's something that's on the inside. It's part of our thinking and perhaps being gone into it. It's asking God to direct my thinking again and inner thing. It's asking that we be divorced from self pity, dishonesty or self seeking motives. Again, all stuff that's inside of us. It's talking about mental faculties. It's talking about brains. It's talking about our thought life being placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is clear of wrong motives. All inner stuff. You know, I don't think it's a coincidence that the 4th step talks about a talks about a moral inventory

and a ten step talks about a personal inventory. That a moral inventory is just sort of a general relationship conduct kind of an inventory and a personal inventory is just focusing on me. After we did the four step and traded the 5th step, we realized that the people and everything outside of us isn't the problem anymore. I'm the problem either because of something that I'm doing or because of the way I'm thinking towards something that's going on outside of me. That's why I'm going to use the meditation from the 12 and 12, which basically points to that. And that's this line.

It's a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the 'cause there is something wrong with us. And then it continues to say if somebody hurts us and we are sore, we are in the wrong also because people are going to fall short. And like we saw in the force, but perhaps they were spiritually blocked off because that's the only time that anybody, including myself, harm somebody that lay like myself. When I'm harming somebody, I'm spiritually locked off. Just like if you harm me, you're spiritually blocked off. But I can have a better attitude toward that person. Perhaps they've harmed me, but I can see that they're dispiriting.

We still have love toward him anyway. So

is talking here about, or I thought life being placed on a much higher planning when our thinking is clear wrong motives that

it talks about in step four, that when the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically. That for me there is a deeper level than just my thinking. The deeper level for me is my motives. That if I have loving motives, if I have loving an unselfish motives, my thinking is going to be in a certain direction and therefore my actions are going to be in a certain direction. But if my motives are selfish and perhaps fearful, then my thinking is going to be in a different direction, perhaps the exact opposite direction, and my actions are going to be in that same direction.

So for me, there's a deeper level than just our thinking. Our motives direct our thinking and our thinking directs our actions. So that's why the program gets into what's our motives, what's going on deep down within spiritually, and then our thinking is going to be different and then our actions are going to be different. And this points to it again. And thinking about my day, I may face indecision. I may not be able to determine which course to take here. I ask God for inspiration and intuitive thought or decision. Again, all inside stuff.

Facing a decision, I can't determine which course to take.

I'm looking to my higher power for inspiration, intuitive thought or a decision. And then it's followed by something that's very important. I relax and take it easy. I don't struggle. And the original manuscript, the next line said ask God's help. The book continues. We are often continues with some some promises.

Again, it's asking there to ask God for inspiration and intuitive thought of a decision. That's another prayer.

So it's saying the paragraph before this that we consider our day. Now it's saying in considering our day,

as long as I'm cleared for more motives and considering my day and asking God to direct my thinking, I might be, I might still be facing indecision, you know, should I talk to my boss about getting a raise? I sometimes that that answer may not come very clearly. So I asked my higher power, which course should I take? You know, sometimes

something that's kind of interesting is, is that rarely does a lightning bolt come down, hit somebody and say, yes, today is the day.

Sometimes if I feel like my inner voice has prompted me to do something, what I don't necessarily assume that that that's my higher power talking to me. Something that I'll do perhaps is talk it over with somebody else. Because I mean, there have been people all over the world that said that God was telling me to do something. And you know, it was obvious well after the fact or or soon after the fact that, you know, I don't think that God was telling these people to drink kool-aid and kill everybody that's around you. I mean,

I'd like to question that and suggest that that perhaps wasn't maybe I shouldn't question it. I mean, I, I don't know why. I don't know what the plan is. But, you know, if I was to go to you and say God just told me to give kool-aid to everybody and kill him, I'm sure that that you would see that a little bit differently than the way I'm seeing it. I would hope please, if that happens, I'm just gonna only you everybody else go with it. But you

something that I try to do in, in something that I think is guidance

and I've already passed it along to somebody else and they think that maybe it's a good idea is as I'm approaching doing what I'm about to do is I'll say to my higher power, you know, if, if, if this is not what you want me to do, please, you know, give me a sign or, or, or just, you know, just let me know, Let me know strongly that this is not the right thing to do because I think I'm following your will. And if this is your will, you know, I'll go forward with it. But, you know, there have been times where I thought that I needed to say something to somebody. And then that whole entire day, I couldn't get a hold of him.

I called them, I went to their place, they weren't there. It started becoming real obvious as that day went alone. And maybe this wasn't the time to tell him whether it was got whether I knew whether it was a risky kind of a situation or not. I'm trying to get ahold of a person. I'm not able to for me, that sort of a sign now, I shouldn't necessarily, you know, avoid now not seeing. Maybe the next day is the right time. But you know, I, I, I asked my higher power to kind of, you know, give me a sign or make it obvious to me that this is not the right thing to do because I'm going to be doing this. And I think this is what you want me to do. And sometimes I do. It does get obvious that maybe

the right moment

and then it goes on to say, you know, again, for me, it's kind of important that, you know, I asked my higher power to inspire me whether, whether you know, an indecision, which direction should I go in? And then I, I let go. I don't try to, I don't try to force the issue. I don't try to figure it out on my own. I tried to ask my higher power, you know, give me some inspiration, intuitive thought. Sometimes I'm at a meeting and I hear something that's said by somebody and that what was said was a was a direct message to me

because of something that I was struggling with at the time. I can't tell you how many times that's happened. So, you know, in facing a decision, I'm not sure which way to go. Maybe I can talk about it with somebody else because very often people, God talks to people, but I don't necessarily try to figure it out anymore. I just see, you know, how my inspiration goes and see how, you know, it just ends up going. Sometimes me not doing anything is the right thing to do. But it's saying here that, you know, I try to leave it in God's hands and not figure out on my own.

We are often surprised how the writing answers come after we have tried this for a while. So you know what? And it continues. What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind.

Being so inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption and all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking world, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it.

Just that last part that I read

hunch occasional inspiration and it's into that sentence as the mind conscious contact with God

inspired 2 lines later talks about ideas, it talks about thinking, talks about inspiration. Again, all inside stuff. It's amazing how much in 10 and 11 it's talking about our inner life and even just before I talked about our thought life being placed on a higher plane.

And that's kind of the little piece on meditation. Now it's going to talk about prayer. I usually conclude the period of meditation, the period of medication and prayer that I be showing all through the day. What my next step is to be that I be given whatever I need to take care of such problems. I ask especially for freedom from self will again, he said that earlier. I ask especially for freedom from cell phone, are careful to make no request for my cell phone.

I may ask for myself, however,

if others will be helped.

I'm careful never to pray for my own selfish ends. Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn't work. You can easily see why

the Living Stuff talks about

praying only for

suffer, prayer and medication to improve my conscious content with God asking only for his will for us and the power to carry it out. I've seen in other spiritual literature, I know the Bible is one of them, that it says to pray for specific things and they ask God for specific things. I personally have gotten away from that as a result of language like this

and and because of a speaker that's influenced me and Mike, in that I don't know what's best for me.

I don't assume to know what's best for me. Some of the things that I thought were best for me almost killed me. And some of the things that I didn't think were as best for me and that I would even like to suggest was a bad thing that happened to me as I was going through my life ended up being the exact thing that got me to grow spiritually the most. So I don't know what's best to me,

and you know me assuming that I do, this person would refer to as a form of agnosticism. If I'm telling God what I want or what I think is best, am I letting God be God? I don't know what's best for me, so I'd rather just leave that in God's hands.

I'd rather just ask for what is your will in my life, Lord? That's that's what I want to do because I don't know what's best to me. A really cool

story around all that is I got it from Anthony Demello originally, but I've seen in in a couple different places now. So I'm not sure really where it's from. But it seems that some spiritual masters kind of have taken it on as their own. But I'm sure they got it from somewhere else because I've seen it in a few different places and it was something I sent out my e-mail list a few weeks ago. There was

a, there was a spiritual man that lived on a on a mountain. And just below him there was a farmer. And the farmer really didn't like the spiritual guy because he kind of felt that the that the spiritual guy was a slacker

was sit around and meditate and teach. And, you know, the former thought that that, you know, raising crowd or growing crops and raising cattle is a whole lot more important than sitting around doing, not doing much of anything. And one day the the farmers cows broke through the fence and they all disappeared. And he had a whole lot of cows. As a matter of fact, his herd of cow, That's what they're called,

was the main part of his income. And now that was all just now gone and and he was really destroyed. He went up to see the spiritual guy and he said,

you know, teacher,

my cows have broken through the fence and they're all gone. This is a terrible thing. Why would God do this to me? You know, this is a really bad thing. Would you would you agree that this is really bad? And the spiritual guy looks at him and says, you know, good or bad? I really don't know. And, you know, the former kind of curses on his breath and goes back down to his farm. And a couple days later, a very large group of wild horses come through the hole that the cows have broken through. And now they're on his land. And he quickly closes up the defense and

horses are a whole lot better than cows. And, and

there were a whole lot of them and the farmers just totally ecstatic. And he goes up to see the spiritual guy and says, you know, something wonderful has happened. You know, a whole large amount of horses have come onto my farm now where the hole is, where the the cows were, where the cows got out. And this is really wonderful. It's really great. Horses are so much better than cows. Isn't this a good thing? And the spiritual guy looks at him and says, you know, good or bad, I really don't know. And again, he shakes his head and goes back down to his farm. And a couple days later, the farmer's son was riding one of the horses so he could break them. And the horse throws him

back, and he lands on his leg and breaks his leg. And he's going through a lot of pain. And the farmer's all destroyed again. And he goes up to see the spiritual guy. And he says something terrible has happened. My son is in a lot of pain. And, you know, he's broken his leg and this is terrible. You know, this is a bad thing. Can't you agree that this is a bad thing? And the spiritual guy looks at me and says, you know better, bad. I really don't know. And if he goes back down, vowing never to go see the spiritual guy again. And a couple days later, war breaks out and soldiers come through

trying to get young men to join the army so they can go to war. And because his son has a broken leg,

they don't take them to battle. And the farmer is just ecstatic and he goes see the spirits of guys, there's something wonderful is happening. They didn't take my son to battle because his leg was broken. Isn't this a good thing? And the spiritual guy, look, someone says, you know, good or bad, I really don't know. But, you know, there are many things in my life that I thought were what what I thought was best in my life that that really ended up being not so good. And, and there were many things in my life that I thought were terrible, you know, break up of marriages and pain and bewilderment and people screwing me and saying things about me. And,

you know, it ended up being the period in my life

most amount of spiritual growth occurred because it created a situation where I was perhaps alone and I swept my higher power in a much stronger way.

So, you know, for me, go to bed. I, I just really don't know. And, you know, I've gotten away from, I sometimes do it, but I try to get away from, you know, labeling of good or bad. I sometimes have some criticisms over things that have happened. As a matter of fact, today was a good example of it. But you know,

in trying to seek a spiritual perspective on life and leaving it in God's hands, I need to get away from deciding what's good or bad in my life. I really just don't know

and that's why I've gotten away from requesting specific things from a higher power. I just asked for his will and have the power to carry it out when I know what it is to do and then it goes on. If circumstances weren't, we asked our wives or friends to join us in morning medication.

If we belong to a religious denomination, which requires a definite morning devotion, we attend to that also. If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discussing. And you know, we've outlined prayers through this whole thing. You know, third step prayer, seven step prayer, all kinds of prayers. Even even today, there's a list in your packet that lists all the prayers in the Big book, at least all the ones I found.

You know that the Serenity Prayer and the Prayer of Saint Francis is in 12 and 12:00 and 12:00 as well as a whole lot of other short little one line prayers.

So saying to, you know, find prayers to help us as we go along.

Suggestions about these may be obtained from one's priest, minister or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer. The wonderful thing about a A is that

we don't assume that we're an end all in regard to all of this. I know of no religion that says it's OK to seek what other religions said. And I'm not suggesting that A is a religion. It certainly is a spiritual path or a spiritual way of life, let's call it. But I love the fact that it's saying here that see where see where you know powerfully spiritual people are, right? I mean, if something,

so if some author touches your heart and you've seen a couple lines, that's something that that I try to do. And what I send out is that it's a splattering of all kinds of influences and all kinds of people. And people have contacted me and said, you know, this Anthony Zamela really touched my heart. Whenever you send out stuff

his it really, you know, resonates to to where I'd like to be, you know, can you suggest a book by that person or, you know, what influenced you and the stuff that you sent out? Where was it from specifically? So something I've always tried to be is sort of a, a,

a spiritual thief in taking from many different

sources. And, and for me, that's sort of a conscious effort on my part. Because when we get into working with others, which is the next chapter, as well as other chapters that talk about how to work with people, it talks about, find out what you can about them, especially like their religious life and their backgrounds and adopt yourself to them. So if, if somebody that I start working with is Jewish and I know nothing about Jewish spirituality or Jewish religious, I, I can't really help them in that area

that I need that. I try to expose myself to many different sources and many different types of practices. And you know, for me and working with somebody, I think it makes me a little bit more effective because whatever they are, I can adapt myself to that and I can influence them or, or not influence them, but suggest a powerful spiritual stuff which, which corresponds with what they already believe in going forward. So that's something I've always tried to do, is pick and choose from many different sources,

make use of what they offered, ends with their. Now here's an interesting thing

paragraph as I go through the day, I pause when agitated or doubtful on the original manuscript, then said and be still and the book continues. And they ask for the right thought of action. We constantly remind ourselves. I constantly remind myself I am no longer running the show, probably saying to myself many times each day and I will be done

it said that and that's a little bit of a prayer. And it's also a third step reference, you know, humbly saying to myself, I will be done this. That's sort of a third step reference

prayer and the 10 step. It had a longer version of thy will be done. It said that I will not mind be done.

And you know, those two, those two or three lines there are incredibly powerful as a tool as we go through the day moment by moment. You know, 10 kind of talks about moment by moment as we go through the day. 11 a couple times has talked about as we go through the day what to do, but it also includes how to start the day and also includes how to end the day. So for me, in my mind, September 11 are kind of together with a whole lot of stuff in there and what to do by moment throughout the day.

And notice there it says when agitated or doubtful, First of all, agitated is, is that our motion has disturbed our peace of minds and doubtful is that our thinking has disturbed our Peace of Mind. And those are the only two areas that can disturb our Peace of Mind, either our emotions or our thinking. Also notice that agitated as well before pissed off in rageful and doubtful as well before we're in deep crap

or we're in deep trouble. Excuse my language,

it's carpenters.

Deep shit. Now I'll say excuse me. There you go. OK,

that, you know, agitated a doubtful. As soon as we realize that our Peace of Mind has been disturbed, either emotionally or with our thinking, we try to, we try to step back, see what's really going on here and get back on the beam. Well before we're we're we're downstream in the trouble. We're downstream in not having Peace of Mind.

I know it's, again, it's, it's, you know, I, I wrote here underneath that part, I put

that, you know, one of our slogans is keep coming back. And I really believe that that's what God wants, that we keep coming back to God. You know, God keeps saying to us, keep going back, you know, keep tapping into that wisdom within you, keep including God into all our affairs, keep coming back, keep resolutely turning our thoughts to someone we can help, you know, here and now, here and now, loving unselfish, honest here and now. It's a really cool thing. And it's a really cool twist on the slogan, which I also stole from somebody. But I've used it three times, so I don't have to give me credit.