tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8749057940065570973.post2578342685102168215..comments2024-02-08T12:39:48.238-05:00Comments on "RECOVERY TABLE" Spiritual Awakening, Alcoholism and Addiction Recovery: Radical Non-DualityBhuddinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04582636577048530680noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8749057940065570973.post-69279700738352040572012-03-08T11:50:07.873-05:002012-03-08T11:50:07.873-05:00The belief of a God, wether it be one " out t...The belief of a God, wether it be one " out there " or " in here" and a sense of separateness are both firmly held troughout the steps. Especially obvious in the eleventh step wich suggests to seek and improve. As long as there is a sense of some need to improve or seek, there will be a sense of lack or incompleteness, a sense of not being whole. <br /><br />The advaita pointer "either God is everything or else He is nothing" is not something novel to the newcomer in AA, or any one else for that matter. I think most people on this planet has come in contact with it since early childhood, many has even held it as a belief periodically in their lifes. It obviously hasn´t rocketed them into the fourth dimension. The problem has not so much to do with how the pointers are formulated, as with what they actually implies. Using the concept of God, for instance, implies that God is love as much as hate, selfish behaviour as well as practicing spiritual principles, being a sober alcoholic as well as being a checked out drunk.<br /><br />The pain of this truth is too much for some people, perhaps most, me included, but not until this pain is willingly faced, as being God or wholeness, faced alone, without the comfort of having a sponsor or guru, being in a program or spiritual group or having a belief in a higher power of any sort, non-duality pointers will remain mere philosophy and fantasy, not likely to bring about any spiritual awakening ( wholeness ). To the separate being, non-duality pointers is more a matter of death, than life. This is seen, when wholeness reveals itself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8749057940065570973.post-48177374687990057862012-01-07T16:42:41.731-05:002012-01-07T16:42:41.731-05:00Yes, God as the totality now seems to be what Bill...Yes, God as the totality now seems to be what Bill was pointing to in the first four chapters, Could he have had an spiritual experience that pointed to something else beyond this awareness presently being? When seen without the screen of thought the self is not anything beside thought, and all loving, all present god or reality is the only experience that could be, thus temporarily relieving the alcoholic from carrying the guilt and anxiety that are constant companions. The steps then being used to address the apparent return of the self and its imagination (which plays god), and is self will run riot, to discard or see through responsibility as being a guilt trip, and understanding we only play a part as an instrument, then move on to accountability in the 8th & 9th steps. In my experience there was no pointing to some thing outside my own experience to be tapped into, conscious contact was already the case.<br />My sponsor going through the first 4 chapters slowly until I had this understanding to begin from was essential. With out this understanding to build on I would have continued to have beliefs or old ideas about a god out there to get at, like a drug or a drink to make me feel better, and continued to live in imagination, unable to differentiate the true from the false. Bill might have seemed to have lost this insight, (why else drop lsd for years) Thank god he wrote it down.fredwahlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09625218225360340422noreply@blogger.com