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From the books ... Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
Click the page number or the book cover icon
to view that page in the literature.1.
2.
Finally, we begin to see that all people, including ourselves, are
to some extent emotionally ill as well as frequently wrong, and then we approach true tolerance and see what real love for our fellows actually means.
3.
My old manner of life was by no means a bad one,
but I would not exchange its
best moments for the worst I have now.
4.
Though it is infinitely
better that he have no relapse at all, as has been true
with many of our men, it is by no means a bad
thing in some cases.
5.
6.
7.
As we shall see, he now means a great deal to his community, and the major liabilities of thirty years of hard drinking have been repaired
in four.
8.
9.
Having been granted a perfect release from alcoholism, why then shouldn't
we be able to achieve by the
same means a perfect release from every other difficulty or defect?
10.
If hundreds of experiences have shown him
that one drink means another debacle with all its attendant suffering and
humiliation, why is it he
takes that one drink?
11.
If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our
race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we
may form a relationship
upon simple and understandable terms as
soon as we are willing and honest enough to try.
12.
Yet if A.A.'s experience means anything at all, this is not only unwise, but is actually a perilous resolve.
13.
A continuous look at our
assets and liabilities,
and a real desire to learn and grow by this means, are necessities for us.
14.
Few people really are, for that means blind faith in the strange proposition that
this universe originated in a cipher and
aimlessly rushes nowhere.
15.
16.
If he is already committed to an institution, but can convince you and your doctor
that he means business, give him a chance to try our method, unless the doctor thinks his mental condition too abnormal or
dangerous.
17.
They outline the means by
which A.A. maintains its unity and relates itself to the world about it, the way it lives and grows.
18.
This vital Step was also the means by which we began to get the feeling that we could be forgiven, no matter what we had thought or
done.
19.
As we have seen, self-searching is the means by
which we bring new vision, action, and grace to bear upon the dark and negative side of our natures.
20.
Instead of regarding the
satisfaction of our material desires as the
means by which we could live and
function as human beings, we had taken these satisfactions to be the final end and aim of life.
21.
22.
23.
24.
To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if
he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety.
25.
26.
By no means do we offer it as the last word on this subject, but so far as we are concerned, it has
worked with us.
27.
28.
29.
But this was a man who had experienced many years of frightful drinking, who had had most all the drunkard's experiences
known to man, but who had been
cured by the very means I had been trying to employ, that is to say the spiritual approach.
30.
Not being a man of means, I knew that if I did not stay sober enough to earn money, I would run out of liquor.
31.
While the comment or advice of others may be by no means infallible, it is likely to
be far more specific than any direct guidance we may receive while we are still so inexperienced in
establishing contact
with a Power greater than ourselves.
32.
33.
Were our contentions true, it would follow that life originated out of nothing, means nothing, and proceeds nowhere.
34.
Show any longshoreman a Sunday supplement describing a
proposal to explore the
moon by means of a rocket and he will say, "I bet they do it -- maybe not so long either."
35.
Throughout the world, immense and favorable publicity of every description has been the principal means of bringing alcoholics into
our Fellowship.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
Therefore dependence,
as A.A. practices it, is really a means of gaining true independence of the spirit.
41.
When a job still looked like a mere means of getting money rather than an opportunity
for service, when the acquisition of money for financial independence
looked more important than a right dependence upon God, we were still the victims of unreasonable
fears.
42.
If he opened that old affair, he was afraid it would
destroy the reputation
of his partner, disgrace
his family and take away his means of livelihood.
43.
44.
In the course of his third treatment he acquired certain ideas concerning a possible
means of recovery.
45.
46.
47.
Since recovery from alcoholism is life itself to us, it is imperative that we preserve in full strength our means of survival.
48.
49.
50.
Therefore our problem now becomes just how and by what specific
means shall we be able to let Him in?
51.
But it was by no means sure that such great numbers of yet erratic people could live and work together with harmony and good effect.
52.
53.
If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our
race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we
may form a relationship
upon simple and understandable terms as
soon as we are willing and honest enough to try.
54.
This means that side by side with an earnest prayer there can be a certain
amount of presumption
and conceit in us.
55.
For practicing A.A.'s remaining eleven Steps means the adoption of attitudes and
actions that almost no alcoholic who is still drinking can dream of taking.
56.
If he is, and is still trying
to recover, he will tell you about it even if it means the loss of his job.
57.
58.
Among our rapidly growing membership of thousands of alcoholics
such transformations,
though frequent, are by no means the rule.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
This physician had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma but had failed.
64.
If he means to right his past wrongs, why all this concern for everyone in the world but his
family?
65.
This means trouble, unless the family watches for these tendencies in each other and comes to a friendly agreement about
them.
66.
But in relation to us, it means very simply that every A.A. group can manage its affairs exactly as it pleases, except when A.A. as a whole is threatened.
67.
68.
To clergymen, doctors,
friends, and families,
the alcoholic who means well and tries hard is a heartbreaking riddle.
The 164 and More™ Book, eBook, and Web Site
are all CONCORDANCES which display passages from the Big Book
Alcoholics Anonymous, the
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,
and the A.A. Grapevine (A.A. Preamble only).
Sorting and rendering passages in the proprietary format of the
164 and More concordance does not in any way imply
affiliation with or endorsement by either Alcoholics Anonymous World Services
Inc., or the A.A. Grapevine, Inc. Further A.A.W.S. Inc. and the A.A.
Grapevine Inc. have no objection to the use of this material in the
164 and More concordance.
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