"The whole spiritual journey might be summed up as humble hope." Thomas Keating

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Music and The Spiritual Experience

Once upon a time I was a Grateful Dead fan. OK, scratch that… I was, and still am, a huge Deadhead. For most of my life I was following this group around the country, going from place to place, seeing America… if America were limited to a concert arena because that's all I really saw back then.

So the other day I was driving in to work and listening to the Dead and cranking the volume. I was cruising and singing at the top of my lungs, having a fantastic morning. Suddenly it it hit me, as epiphanies are wanton to do, that the way I have felt about the Grateful Dead's music and specifically what it does to me, is a spiritual experience. Moreover I experience their music spiritually and it has been instrumental in helping me overcome drinking…. just like Appendix 2 says it should.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

The 12 Year Itch and the Dark Night of the Soul

Last Monday I gave a friend his 1 Year medallion.  He had been 2 months short of 10 years when he drank for 2 weeks.  In the months leading up to his relapse he did everything he could think of: he attended meetings daily, he spoke with his sponsor and warned of his increasingly dangerous condition, he prayed more and more desperately -- yet he relapsed.

As he described his feelings and behavior in those last few months before his relapse I was intrigued by the fact that what he was saying sounded exactly like classic descriptions of The Dark Night of the Soul, that stage in the spiritual path when one feels alone, abandoned, hopeless, with nothing working as it once did.

Monday, October 25, 2010

11th Step thoughts

Dave's posting on the Third Step and the Noble Eight Fold path has gotten me to thinking about the role of the 11th Step in the spiritual path of AA.  The connection is simple: when I think of Buddhism I think of meditation.
My home group meets at 6 AM and about 5 or 6 months ago we started holding a short meditation session in a separate room 20 minutes before the main meeting.  Now, admittedly 5:40 is a bit early, but it is striking that of the 50 - 70 people we get at the 6 AM meeting only 3 - 5 usually show up for the meditation.  I don't think we've ever had more than 7.  That strikes me as a pretty low figure.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

The Third Step and the Noble Eightfold Path

Tonight I went to church with my family to attend a mass being said for my wife's grandmother. While there I found myself meditating on the Third Step, partially to give my mind a spiritual purpose while in church, and partially because Brian and I have been working on this Step together and it's where I am at right now.

Breaking down this Step, I found myself taking each term and reflecting on what it means to me.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Do the next right thing?

In the last couple of days I've had three conversations with AAers about the slogan "Do the next right thing".  I can take a hint - it looks like I should post something about it.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Some thoughts on religion and spirituality

From my very first days in the program I have been aware that there is a difference between religion and spirituality.  I accepted the slogan that says that "religion is for those who are afraid of going to hell; spirituality is for those who have been there."  I pretty much thought of religion as organized and ritualized spirituality.  I certainly saw it as essentially dogmatic and restrictive.  This was certainly colored by my having been raised Catholic in the time when Catholic kids were supposed to go to Catholic schools and never associate with Protestants, doubtless for fear of some form of contamination.  While I never actually thought of it in these terms, I think I viewed spirituality as dancing about like a kid at Woodstock and religion as that kid in a straight jacket and tied to a chair.  Hey, I never said it was a rational or fair view of things, just that it was mine.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Some thoughts on the concept of a Higher Power

The following are some 'thoughts in progress' on the question of a Higher Power.  They are not fully developed by any means.  In fact, they are not even completely consistent.  But they represent a direction my thoughts are going these days and as such I would love to hear people's reactions.