11th Step Workshop Web Links

 

Web Links to all the Chris S. 11th Step Workshop Information and Documents.

Go Here To Get All 11th Step Workshop PDF documents

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NWsg0g0LHJZZSZ63zktSrZ97TM8bDrVM?usp=sharing

Review of the AA program up to step 11

https://neweraspiritual.blogspot.com/2020/02/11-step-workshop-outline.html

Eleventh Step Evening Review directiions pg 86 Alcoholics Anonymous

https://neweraspiritual.blogspot.com/2012/02/aas-morning-and-evening-meditation.html

Eleventh Step Morning Mediation Instructions from pages 86,87,88 AA Book

https://neweraspiritual.blogspot.com/2012/03/aas-morning-and-evening-meditation.html

Morning Meditation Quick Guide

https://neweraspiritual.blogspot.com/2016/06/11th-step-morning-meditation-short-guide.html

Eleventh Step Meditation Instructions from the Twelve and Twelve Book

https://neweraspiritual.blogspot.com/2020/02/eleventh-step-meditation-review-from-12.html

Prayer instructions from the 11th step chapter in the Twelve and Twelve Book

https://neweraspiritual.blogspot.com/2020/02/eleventh-step-guide-to-prayer-as.html

Meditation in the AA early days

http://silkworth.net/dickb/meditation.html

Acceptance. Can I accept without Gods help? My experience is no.

This idea of acceptance is good. I found I need Gods help to learn to accept.

The part of the book, that gets talked about a lot in meetings however is not the program, but from one of the stories. So it's been important for me to understand that. Just learning to accept does not make me a recovered alcoholic. I need a spiritual awakening brought about by doing all 12 steps

Acceptance, I found comes as a result of my relationship with God, not ME learning to accept.

If we look at the serenity prayer.. what are we really asking God for?

"Grant me the serenity to accept"

I need Gods serenity to accept things, because I don't have it within me to completely accept life and all that goes on around me and in the world.

I am sober a long time, but I can still catch a resentment or get in fear just like anyone else, but I have God and the program to continue to grow towards God to help me.

So, in prayer and how I live is how God helps me to accept.  there are no shortcuts I have found. There are many tricks I can use to stay sober early on in my sobriety like just not drink one day at a time, don't drink even if my butt falls off and trying to remember to call another alcoholic if I feel like drinking. these are all great ideas. Trying to accept is another one. But ultimately I do not have the POWER to stay sober permanently on my own.. that's why I need the program of AA and that's why I need a Higher Power, because I lack power myself

I am a regular attendee of The Thailand Sobriety Group Online found here. Please visit to attend our daily Zoom meetings:

https://www.aathailand.info

Eleventh Step Guide to Prayer as described in the Book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions

Guide to Prayer from the Twelve and Twelve Book

Chapter Step Eleven
Page 102 p2

Now, what of prayer? Prayer is the raising of the heart and mind to God—and in this sense it includes meditation. How may we go about it? And how does it fit in with meditation? Prayer, as commonly understood, is a petition to God. Having opened our channel as best we can, we try to ask for those right things of which we and others are in the greatest need. And we think that the whole range of our needs is well defined by that part of Step Eleven which says: “...knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” A request for this fits in any part of our day.
 
In the morning we think of the hours to come. Perhaps we think of our day’s work and the chances it may afford us to be useful and helpful, or of some special problem that it may bring. Possibly today will see a continuation of a serious and as yet unresolved problem left over from yesterday. Our immediate temptation will be to ask for specific solutions to specific problems, and for the ability to help other people as we have already thought they should be helped. In that case, we are asking God to do it our way. Therefore, we ought to consider each request carefully to see what its real merit is. Even so, when making specific requests, it will be well to add to each one of them this qualification: “...if it be Thy will.” We ask simply that throughout the day God place in us the best understanding of His will that we can have for that day, and that we be given the grace by which we may carry it out.
 
As the day goes on, we can pause where situations must be met and decisions made, and renew the simple request: “Thy will, not mine, be done.” If at these points our emotional disturbance happens to be great, we will more surely keep our balance, provided we remember, and repeat to ourselves, a particular prayer or phrase that has appealed to us in our reading or meditation. Just saying it over and over will often enable us to clear a channel choked up with anger, fear, frustration, or misunderstanding, and permit us to return to the surest help of all—our search for God’s will, not our own, in the moment of stress. At these critical moments, if we remind ourselves that “it is better to comfort than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood, to love than to be loved,” we will be following the intent of Step Eleven.
 
Of course, it is reasonable and understandable that the question is often asked: “Why can’t we take a specific and troubling dilemma straight to God, and in prayer secure from Him sure and definite answers to our requests?
 
”This can be done, but it has hazards. We have seen A.A.’s ask with much earnestness and faith for God’s explicit guidance on matters ranging all the way from a shattering domestic or financial crisis to correcting a minor personal fault, like tardiness. Quite often, however, the thoughts that seem to come from God are not answers at all. They prove to be well-intentioned unconscious rationalizations. The A.A., or indeed any man, who tries to run his life rig-idly by this kind of prayer, by this self-serving demand of God for replies, is a particularly disconcerting individual. To any questioning or criticism of his actions he instantly proffers his reliance upon prayer for guidance in all matters great or small. He may have forgotten the possibility that his own wishful thinking and the human tendency to rationalize have distorted his so-called guidance. With the best of intentions, he tends to force his own will into all sorts of situations and problems with the comfortable assurance that he is acting under God’s specific direction. Under such an illusion, he can of course create great havoc without in the least intending it.
 
We also fall into another similar temptation. We form ideas as to what we think God’s will is for other people. We say to ourselves, “This one ought to be cured of his fatal malady,” or “That one ought to be relieved of his emotional pain,” and we pray for these specific things. Such prayers, of course, are fundamentally good acts, but often they are based upon a supposition that we know God’s will for the person for whom we pray. This means that side by side with an earnest prayer there can be a certain amount of presumption and conceit in us. It is A.A.’s experience that particularly in these cases we ought to pray that God’s will, whatever it is, be done for others as well as for ourselves.


In A.A. we have found that the actual good results of prayer are beyond question. They are matters of knowledge and experience. All those who have persisted have found strength not ordinarily their own. They have found wisdom beyond their usual capability. And they have increasingly found a peace of mind which can stand firm in the face of difficult circumstances.We discover that we do receive guidance for our lives to just about the extent that we stop making demands upon God to give it to us on order and on our terms. Almost any experienced A.A. will tell how his affairs have taken remarkable and unexpected turns for the better as he tried to improve his conscious contact with God. He will also report that out of every season of grief or suffering, when the hand of God seemed heavy or even unjust, new lessons for living were learned, new resources of courage were uncovered, and that finally, inescapably, the conviction came that God does “move in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.


Excerpts from Twelve and Twelve used under AA fair use policy

Eleventh step meditation guide from the Twelve and Twelve book chapter "Step Eleven"

How to Meditate as taken from the AA book "12 steps and 12 Traditions" chapter Step Eleven

Twelve and Twelve Page 99:
The actual experience of meditation and prayer across the centuries is, of course, immense. The world’s libraries and places of worship are a treasure trove for all seekers. It is to be hoped that every A.A. who has a religious connection which emphasizes meditation will return to the practice of that devotion as never before. 

But what about the rest of us who, less fortunate, don’t even know how to begin? (this was me) 

Well, we might start like this. First let’s look at a really good prayer. We won’t have far to seek; the great men and women of all religions have left us a wonderful supply. Here let us consider one that is a classic. Its author was a man who for several hundred years now has been rated as a saint. We won’t be biased or scared off by that fact, because although he was not an alcoholic he did, like us, go through the emotional wringer. And as he came out the other side of that painful experience, this prayer was his expression of what he could then see, feel, and wish to become:

Eleventh Step Prayer:

“Lord, make me a channel of thy peace—that where there is hatred, I may bring love—that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness—that where there is discord, I may bring harmony—that where there is error, I may bring truth—that where there is doubt, I may bring faith—that where there is despair, I may bring hope—that where there are shadows, I may bring light—that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted—to understand, than to be understood—to love, than to be loved. For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by for-giving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen.”

As beginners in meditation, we might now re-read this prayer several times very slowly, savoring every word and trying to take in the deep meaning of each phrase and idea. 

Here we see how AA suggests to mediate and what their way of mediation is. AA mediation techniques were not taken from the Eastern/Buddhist styles of mediation that became popular in the 1970's. They used biblical mediation practices (refer to the AA mediation history document) The 12 and 12 book was written and published in 1952.  So AA's way of meditation is what is known as CONTEMPLATIVE or CONCENTRATIVE * meditation. This is where one concentrates thoughts on a particular idea or concept. Here we see AA suggesting the same in the 12 and 12. They say they concentrate and deeply "take in" the meaning of the prayer and what it says. They use constructive imagination to apply the ideas of the prayer to their daily lives.

(please see the essay at http://silkworth.net/dickb/meditation.html for excellent information on early AA's meditation techniques)

A great example of this is from the Book "Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers." It explains Dr. Bobs meditation practice.

Dr. Bob’s morning devotion consisted of a short prayer, a 20-minute study of a familiar verse from the Bible, and a quiet period of waiting for directions as to where he, that day, should find use for his talent (Dr. Bob and the Good Old timers, p. 314)

Twelve and Twelve:
It will help if we can drop all resistance to what our friend says. For in meditation, debate has no place. We rest quietly with the thoughts of someone who knows, so that we may experience and learn. As though lying upon a sunlit beach, let us relax and breathe deeply of the spiritual atmosphere with which the grace of this prayer surrounds us. Let us become willing to partake and be strengthened and lifted up by the sheer spiritual power, beauty, and love of which these magnificent words are the carriers. Let us look now upon the sea and ponder what its mystery is; and let us lift our eyes to the far horizon, beyond which we shall seek all those wonders still unseen.

“Shucks!” says somebody. “This is nonsense. It isn’t practical. ”When such thoughts break in, we might recall, a little ruefully, how much store we used to set by imagination as it tried to create reality out of bottles. Yes, we reveled in that sort of thinking, didn’t we? And though sober nowadays, don’t we often try to do much the same thing? Perhaps our trouble was not that we used our imagination. Perhaps the real trouble was our almost total inability to point imagination toward the right objectives. 

So again, here we see AA suggesting using our imagination inspired by the 11th step prayer to think about how we ought to conduct ourselves throughout the day. We think about how we should be in our relationships at home, at work and in our dealings with others. All inspired by the 11th step prayer or other spiritual readings.


Twelve and Twelve:
There’s nothing the matter with constructive imagination; all sound achievement rests upon it. After all, no man can build a house until he first envisions a plan for it. Well, meditation is like that, too; it helps to envision our spiritual objective before we try to move toward it. So let’s get back to that sunlit beach—or to the plains or to the mountains, if you prefer.

When, by such simple devices, we have placed ourselves in a mood in which we can focus undisturbed on constructive imagination, we might proceed like this: Once more we read our prayer, and again try to see what its inner essence is. We’ll think now about the man who first uttered the prayer. First of all, he wanted to become a “channel.” Then he asked for the grace to bring love, forgiveness, harmony, truth, faith, hope, light, and joy to every human being he could.

This idea of bringing love, forgiveness, harmony, truth, faith, hope, light, and joy to every human being he could is at the core of of AA spirituality. It is in how we behave and how we are with others that our spirituality and doing a Higher Power's will is demonstrated. AA spirituality is very much about Faith without works is dead. 

From page 99 of the Big Book:
Now we need more action, without which we find that “Faith without works is dead.” Let’s look at Steps Eight and Nine.

Twelve and Twelve:
Next came the expression of an aspiration and a hope for himself. He hoped, God willing, that he might be able to find some of these treasures, too. This he would try to do by what he called self-forgetting. What did he mean by “self-forgetting,” and how did he propose to accomplish that? He thought it better to give comfort than to receive it; better to understand than to be understood; better to for-give than to be forgiven.

Here we see another example of what AA spirituality is all about. It's again about our behavior with others. How exactly can I attempt to understand than to be understood? Well, personally I find I used to like to talk a lot. I always wanted everyone to listen to ME! But now, as an AA trying to stay recovered the AA way I try to listen more. I make en effort to listen and understand especially if someone is in distress or upset. I'll listen, then perhaps ask questions. A demonstration of selflessness. This is often very useful in working with sponsees which, of course, another important part of the AA program. The 12th step.

Twelve and Twelve
This much could be a fragment of what is called meditation, perhaps our very first attempt at a mood, a flier into the realm of spirit, if you like. It ought to be followed by a good look at where we stand now, and a further look at what might happen in our lives were we able to move closer to the ideal we have been trying to glimpse. Meditation is something which can always be further developed. It has no boundaries, either of width or height. Aided by such instruction and example as we can find, it is essentially an individual adventure, something which each one of us works out in his own way. But its object is always the same: to improve our conscious contact with God, with His grace, wisdom, and love. And let’s always remember that meditation is in reality intensely practical. One of its first fruits is emotional balance. With it we can broaden and deepen the channel between ourselves and God as we understand Him.

* Reference Wikipedia:

In the West, meditation techniques have sometimes been thought of in two broad categories: focused (or concentrative) meditation and open monitoring (or mindfulness) meditation.

Eleventh step workshop AA program review up to step eleven.

  Eleventh step workshop AA program overview.

• Before we get into how to do the 11th step, let's have a quick review of the first ten steps as described in the book Alcoholics Anonymous to find out exactly why the eleventh step is important why it's suggested to be done everyday morning and evening.

First it's important to understand that Alcoholics are powerless to recover from alcoholism by themselves using self discipline. They cannot quit entirely using their own willpower. They've lost control over their drinking. If they did have willpower, by AA's definition they wouldn't be alcoholic. In fact on pages 20-21 this very subject is talked about. The books solution is directed at "real", "true", hopeless and chronic alcoholics. If I had the power to stop drinking on my own I wouldn't need to be here, I wouldn't have needed to do the program. I would not be alcoholic by AA's definition. It would be a matter of just making a decision to moderate or stop altogether and then doing that. The fact is I can't though, and that's what makes me alcoholic.

AA says alcoholism has two parts:
     A) An allergy of the body
     B) An obsession of the mind.

These two things together are the "hopeless state of mind and body" that is referred to in the forward to the first edition of the AA book. Or in other words.. alcoholism.

We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book.

By the way, it's good to note that from this excerpt which is at the very beginning of the book, what the exact purpose of the book is.


The Book Alcoholics Anonymous, states the two part idea of alcoholism over and over and explains alcoholism in about the first 3rd of pages 1 through 164 of the book along with the Doctors opinion.

• The Doctors Opinion chapter explains the allergy of the body and phenomenon of craving part of alcoholism. 
• The first part of the chapter "There is a Solution" and all of "More about Alcoholism" explain the obsession of the mind second part of alcoholism. 

Here are few excerpts, this is from page 44:

"If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic."

Also on pg 30: "We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control.

Except in a few rare occasions alcoholics are powerless over alcohol; they lack the power to quit entirely on their own.

The whole idea behind the AA 12 step program of recovery is to find Power to get relief and recover from alcoholism. Well what kind of power? From where? Many of us who have been around AA know the answer already. A Power Greater then ourselves. The Big Book states.

Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power? Well, that’s exactly what this book is about. Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself which will solve your problem.

So let's quickly go over the steps till we get to eleven.

Roughly speaking the steps are grouped into 3 parts.

• Steps One, Two and Three are preparation steps to start on the path to a spiritual awakening and a connection with a Power Greater than ourselves. 

1. I admit I have alcoholism and am powerless to treat the illness my self.
2. Believe that some kind of Higher Power can relieve my alcoholism.
3. Decide to try a Higher Powers way and in making a decision to do so demonstrating the decision has been made by taking action and doing the rest of the steps. (reference the 12 and 12 3rd step essay)

• Steps Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight and Nine are the initial work, action and effort to "seek" God. Just as the ABC's illustrate in "How it Works" read at most meetings.

4. Make a moral inventory to try to uncover our character defects and how they show up and sometimes run our lives. We look at how they surface in what we do and how we behave and have behaved. In this way we uncover the character defects that are blocking us from God. (top of pg 64 AA book)

5. Admit to God, ourselves and another person what we've discovered in the forth step inventory and with the help of God and that other person, find out more about what may be blocking us (through advice, and another persons, (usually our sponsors) perspective on our inventory)

6. and 7. Now with the list of character defects from steps 4 and 5 and how they have shown up in our lives we make an effort to change. We try to not let the character defects, resentments or fear come out in our lives and actually try to live in the opposite direction. For example, where I was dishonest in the past. Be honest. We make an effort with Gods help to change and be more like God would have us be. My sponsor likes to say steps 6 and 7 are about action into right thinking through Gods help. God sees we are making the effort and changes us to the point where are thinking is more aligned with Gods simple will for us.

8. Make a list of ALL people we have harmed in the past and get willing to make amends to them all. (self explanatory) We list anybody we've hurt, physically, mentally, emotionally, financially etc..

9. Go to those people and make reparations, amends, apologies and try to our best to correct our mistakes unless it might harm someone else in the process.

• Steps 10, 11 and 12 are a continuation and routine of steps one through 9. They are meant as a routine we follow where ever and whenever possible. With steps 10 and 11 meant to be a daily routine.

10. Step 10 is easily summed up. On AA Book page 84:2 Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code. So this is a continuation of steps 4,5,6 and 7.

Now onto step Eleven. Through looking at pages 85,86,87 and 88 of the Book Alcoholics anonymous we discover just what Bill W. and the original AA's did to practice this step.


AA Morning Meditation Explained