True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is. Moderate feelings of guilt are beneficial because they encourage the individual to do the right thing

<p>The Scottish psychologist R.D. Laing once said: True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is. Moderate feelings of guilt are beneficial because they encourage the individual to do the right thing. If nobody felt guilty about anything it would likely lead to a fearful world and it could even threaten the survival of the human species. There is also a more negative form of guilt which is excessive and harmful. This refers to a situation where the individual carries a sense of guilt around with them most of the time. The reasons for why the individual may become a victim of excessive guilt include: They have a poor self image. It can be a sign of mental health difficulties. Some people fall into negative thinking and this tends to include guilt. The individual has been a victim of physical or sexual abuse. Unhealthy relationships can leave people with feelings of guilt. Excessive stress. Alcohol or drug abuse.</p>

True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be or assume that one is. Moderate feelings of guilt are beneficial because they encourage the individual to do the right thing

The Scottish psychologist R.D. Laing once said: True guilt is guilt at the obligation one owes to oneself to be oneself. False guilt is guilt felt at not being what other people feel one ought to be …

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A million Britons live with the hell of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

<p>Nadine Stewart was convinced she was going to die. Just ten minutes after setting off for a pop concert with her sister, she felt a tingling sensation in her arms and pain in her chest.</p><p>‘I knew I was having a heart attack,’ says Nadine, 41, a customer services adviser from Morecambe, Lancashire. ‘I begged my sister to take me to A&E: I ran in and screamed that I was having a heart attack.</p><p>‘They put me on a monitor and my heart was fine — what I had suffered was a panic attack. I have no idea to this day what caused it, but it terrified the life out of me.’ </p><div><img alt="Nadine Stewart has to do everything nine times or fears her husband will die" height="565" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/25/article-2178978-13FDCCA8000005DC-228_634x565.jpg" width="634" /><p>Nadine Stewart has to do everything nine times or fears her husband will die</p></div><p>But worse was to come. ‘Afterwards, I developed a fear that if I didn’t do something nine times, something terrible would happen to me, my husband Paul or a member of my family.’ says Nadine. </p><p>‘If I made a drink I had to stir it nine times. If I locked the door I had to check it nine times and if I used a cloth to wipe a surface I’d have to wipe it nine times. I don’t know why it was nine. I realised I was being utterly irrational. But every time I tried to curb it — such as only stirring my drink three times — I’d begin to panic.'</p><div> ‘If I didn’t do these things nine times, I’d imagine Paul and me veering off the motorway in our car and see his injured face in the aftermath.’</div><p>Nadine had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), recognised by the World Health Organisation as one of the top ten most disabling disorders in terms of its effect on quality of life. </p><p>Last month both the British actress Emily Blunt and the MP Charles Walker revealed they suffered from it, with Walker admitting he had to do everything in multiples of four — and felt the need to wash his hands hundreds of times a day. </p><div> Who knew?<br />Surveys estimate that fewer than<br />10 per cent of those suffering OCD are currently receiving treatment.</div><p>They are not alone. Around a million people in the UK are thought to be undergoing treatment for OCD, the majority of them women. Women are twice as likely as men to develop anxiety disorders such as OCD — and high-achieving perfectionists are particularly at risk. </p><p>‘There are two parts to OCD, the obsession and the compulsion,’ explains Joel Rose, of charity OCD Action. ‘The obsession is a thought that pops into your head, about harm coming to someone you love or you causing harm to someone.'</p><p>‘Everyone has these thoughts but most of us ignore them and get on with our lives. Someone with OCD will develop a compulsive ritual as a reaction to them. It can be continually washing their hands or something invisible like repeating the same phrase over and over in their heads.'</p><p>‘The time spent on these compulsions lengthens with time. A severe OCD sufferer might spend six or seven hours a day washing their hands in the hope nothing terrible happens to their children.’</p><p>The cause of the condition is not known, though a stressful event in someone’s life may trigger an underlying problem. </p><p>Nadine has never pinpointed the root of her troubles — though they began in the year she started a new job, moved house and got engaged. ‘I had no reason to feel anxious,’ she said, ‘though I suppose there was a lot of change.</p><p>‘I became scared of choking to death so I stopped eating and lost three stone in less than three months. I couldn’t leave the house without Paul, and even then it would take me three hours to pluck up the courage.’</p><p>Someone who can empathise with Nadine is Jeni Scott, 31, who’s had OCD for three years. <br />It began when her father had a heart attack and her mother was diagnosed with cancer, soon after Jeni left university. </p><p>‘I became obsessed with doing things in order,’ says Jeni, a tutor from Newport, Wales. ‘I started making lists but it had everything on it such as “get up, have shower, make a cup of tea” and if I didn’t stick to it I would punish myself by denying myself a treat.</p><div><img alt="Actress Emily Blunt, star of Five Year Engagement, has revealed she suffers from OCD" height="1060" src="http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/07/25/article-2178978-139B6B4A000005DC-908_306x1060.jpg" width="306" /><p>Actress Emily Blunt, star of Five Year Engagement, has revealed she suffers from OCD</p></div><p>‘I developed a phobia of being in the rain in the wrong clothes and had to take a backpack with spare bra, pants, coat, shoes and umbrella everywhere with me. I’d carry antibacterial gel in my bag and use it every ten minutes. I’ve still no idea why I did it, I just found it helped me.’ </p><p>Aisha Faisal, from Reading, Berkshire, also suffers from OCD — and it’s getting worse. ‘I developed it in my teens when my mother fell ill and I had to clean the house,’ the 26-year-old says. ‘Now I’m obsessed with everything being super-clean. I wash my hands 14 or 15 times a day, I shower for an hour at a time and wash the shower head and bath thoroughly before I step in. </p><p>‘If someone touches me, I cringe. My neighbour touched my scarf to tell me it was pretty and I had to have a shower and put all my clothes in the wash.’ Aisha, who has three children under four, admits her obsession extended to giving birth. </p><p>‘Each time I had Caesarean sections — the thought of having a natural birth makes me feel physically sick.’ She made the surgeons assure her everything had been scrubbed thoroughly before each operation. Understandably, her OCD worries the rest of her family. ‘My husband Ali finds it very hard to see me like this. I won’t let him touch me when he comes in from work: he has to shower and put on clean clothes before he can hug me.'</p><p>‘With three young children, being clean is impossible and I bathe them twice a day in the winter and sometimes four times a day in the summer if they’re hot and sticky.’</p><p>As a result of her obsession her own hands are red raw and she suffers from eczema. ‘I have been to the GP but it’s very difficult to treat. I know I must do something soon, because my eldest daughter, who is four, is picking up on my behaviour and I feel very guilty about that.'</p><p>‘The other day she came in from the garden and said she was dirty so needed to get out of her clothes and I washed her and cleaned her thoroughly. My husband can’t believe our electricity bill because the washing machine is on constantly.’</p><p>While Aisha is still in the grip of OCD, Jeni and Nadine have overcome the condition. According to the NHS, the two recognised forms of treatment are Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), which helped Jeni, and anti-depressants. </p><p>But Nadine used another therapy called The Linden Method — a two-day workshop costs £995 — when she reached her lowest point early last year.</p><p>‘I was unable to work, leave the house or answer the phone,’ she says. ‘My vision became blurry, my hands would spasm and I’d get pains like rheumatism. I began to think: “What’s the point in living?” yet I was too scared to kill myself.’</p><p>The Linden Method — which has also helped OCD sufferers Jemma and Jodie Kidd — works by convincing the sufferer’s sub-conscious that they are safe. </p><p>‘I’m a different person,’ says Nadine. ‘I can leave the house, I’m applying for jobs, taking up hobbies and it’s transformed my relationship with Paul. </p><p>‘He says it’s like having a wife in a wheelchair who can walk again. Except I feel I can not only walk, I can fly.’</p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; text-align: left;"><br /><br /><br /></span></p>

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A million Britons live with the hell of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Nadine Stewart was convinced she was going to die. Just ten minutes after setting off for a pop concert with her sister, she felt a tingling sensation in her arms and pain in her chest.‘I knew I was h…

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White Light

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="266" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SRAOG-BpNOw?feature=player_embedded" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="320"></iframe><strong style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">George Michael is set to make his big comeback with new single 'White Light', however it seems that the star is not only coming back with a new song, but he's a changed man as well, vowing 'never to smoke cannabis again.'</strong></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;">The 'Faith' star has reportedly told his pals that he's 'determined to stay on the straight and narrow' from now on and 'never wants to touch the stuff again', according to the <em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sunday Mirror </em>after his brush with death last year.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;">"George hasn’t touched pot since his illness,”' a friend told the newspaper.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;">"Those days for him are definitely over and he’s clear-headed, working hard and says he’s never felt better for it.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;">"He never wants to be that ill again and knows just how close he was to losing his life. He’s treating every day as a gift and he isn’t going to slip back into his old ways."</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;">"He’s a whole new George,' the friend added. 'He’s putting the finishing touches to an album which will be all dance...there’s no doom and gloom in his life now."</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;">Meanwhile, George Michael has revealed that he wrote a song for his upcoming album, intending it <span class="GRcorrect" grphrase="afbe5c00237c45bdce93a84e4c9acc3895e36784" grtype="null" id="GRmark_afbe5c00237c45bdce93a84e4c9acc3895e36784_be:0">be</span> a duet with late soul singer Amy Winehouse before she passed away.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;">George told <em style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Magic 105.4</em>: "There is one I wrote, I was hoping to sing with Amy Winehouse," he said of a ballad on the album.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white;">"I was so in awe of her talent, bless her heart I never got to offer it as a duet."</span></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.4em; line-height: 1.2em; text-align: left;">The star also added that his upcoming album is "the most direct record that I have made since [1987 solo debut] Faith."</span>DISCLAIMER<span class="GRcorrect" grphrase="adfe5c157e0e94c7f33428fa520041723be91570" grtype="null" id="GRmark_adfe5c157e0e94c7f33428fa520041723be91570_::0">:</span>Text may be subject to copyright<span class="GRcorrect" grphrase="adfe5c157e0e94c7f33428fa520041723be91570" grtype="null" id="GRmark_adfe5c157e0e94c7f33428fa520041723be91570_.:1">.</span>This blog does not claim copyright to any such text. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder. <span class="GingerNoCheckEnd"></span>

White Light

George Michael is set to make his big comeback with new single 'White Light', however it seems that the star is not only coming back with a new song, but he's a changed man as well, vowing 'never to s…

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DEA Bans Bath Salts

<p>Bath Salts – a Not-So-Legal High Bath salts are a new form of synthetic drugs that have been sold legally via the Internet and head shops throughout the USA and other parts of the world. Bath salts are typically a pure mix of mephedrone or a combination of mephedrone, MDVP and other substances. These types of drugs are known as research chemicals, because they are made by researching chemicals that will cause similar effects to known psychoactive substances. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) announced a ban on the manufacture, possession, use and sale of these potentially harmful and illegal substances in October 2011. The DEA had increasing concerns about the use of these drugs, which recently surged in popularity. Users reported to have effects that included impaired perception, reduction of motor control, paranoia, disorientation, hallucinations and euphoria. The DEA raised concerns about the safety of these drugs and the unknown long-term effects that the drugs may have on a person. Additionally, these drugs were being sold through shops and vendors under the guise of plant food or bath salts and did not have FDA approval for human consumption.</p>

DEA Bans Bath Salts

Bath Salts – a Not-So-Legal High Bath salts are a new form of synthetic drugs that have been sold legally via the Internet and head shops throughout the USA and other parts of the world. Bath salts ar…

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Trust God, Clean House, Help Others

<h3></h3><div></div><div id="post-body-7892868208198798717"><div dir="ltr"><div><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqdH2S0oEAP-Uhpqbjkxpp3lpp_wdva6ZsfgPPWQeJsWaBzCyjYh7YBmLcyefeYuOtDqwlYcnVqh41aydPXY3uhJClwCEYxK8l8QJXIFIIdRD5pfpZgpahiNnia9VWmM6qdjX2g0pjnvc/s200/doubleminded.png" width="200" /></div><blockquote>"A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." (James 1:8)<br /><br />"Draw near to God and God will draw near to you. Wash clean your hands, ye sinners. Purify your hearts ye double-minded." (James 4:8)</blockquote><br />Dr. Bob, in the "Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous" pamphlet, notes that in the earliest days of A.A. he and Bill found the Book of James (together with the Beatitudes and 1 Corinthians: 13) to be "absolutely essential." "Absolutely essential," no doubt, as all these passages speak to the spiritual malady that is at the root of the alcoholic addict's suffering. This is particularly so of the Book of James, where one finds such maxims as "Faith without works is dead."<br /><br />Keeping in mind the description of  "the actor" on pages 60-62 of the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the ultimate conclusion that "the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run wild," the above -quoted passages from the Book of James seem to me to be particularly relevant. They recognize that the vast, vast majority of us - alcoholic and non-alcoholic alike - are "double minded." And, I would put it to you, that such double-mindedness consist of the small ego-self and one's authentic Being. Such an observation accounts for Bill's observation that "our actor is self-centered - ego-centric, as people like to call it nowadays." The self-reliant "actor" erratically tries to manage everything, not realizing that no one person can manage life; not realizing, indeed, that life isinherently unmanageable.<br /><br /><div><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdS4k4iHaO-g77rrDrYhIERKJjoRdNGfCPINNYO1myt1mm2QJpH_0IAC4UyqHpIaP-ovh_RftdghQzMCM5tnXwPbF0w9fOy3-intd-qulpK-JmrXK6P2DThliCBtywIu-CzmKd6XFE7rI/s200/DrBob.png" width="125" /></div>And what was Dr. Bob's famed summary of the A.A. program and way of life? "Trust God. Clean house. Help others." Notice how closely this mirrors the above passage from James 4:8. ("Draw near to God and God will draw near to you. Wash clean your hands, ye sinners. Purify your hearts ye double minded.")<br /><br />This is not to suggest that Alcoholics Anonymous (or any of its sister organizations) is anything but a spiritual program, or that it is exclusively Christian-based  - a fact recognized in our Traditions and experience from the beginning of A.A. - but, rather, it is a recognition of how A.A.'s spiritual principles accord with spiritual principles recognized elsewhere. (Personally, I do not care whether "truth" comes from the Buddha, the Bible or Bambi's mother in the Walt Disney film - the truth is the truth, is the truth.)<br /><br />The truths reflected in the above-passages form the Book of James reflect what we learn in A.A. That there is within each of us an at-first predominant ego (or small "self") and a higher, God-consciousness which is the essence of all spiritual experience. The point of the Twelve Steps is not so much to arrest one's drinking (which is more of a prerequisite), but to enable one to effect an ever clearer and more consistent conscious contact with this highest portion of one's being. <br /><br />To the extent that one wavers between self-consciousness and God-consciousness, one's thoughts, words, and actions are bound to fluctuate, waver, and to become "unstable in every way." To the extent that one draws near to God, clears away the wreckage of one's past, and purifies one's heart in order that he or she may help others, however, one becomes increasingly single-minded, and fixed ever more steadily in a conscious contact with one's Higher Power.<br /><br />The goal of A.A. is thus "ego deflation at depth" so that altruistic and compassionate action based on God-consciousness may increasingly predominate in our lives.</div></div>

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Trust God, Clean House, Help Others

"A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." (James 1:8)"Draw near to God and God will draw near to you. Wash clean your hands, ye sinners. Purify your hearts ye double-minded." (James 4:8)Dr. B…

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The Spiritual Life Is NOT a Theory!

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="zemanta-img separator" style="clear: left;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Steps-Traditions-AA-Services/dp/0916856291%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Ddreawarreco-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0916856291" style="clear: left; display: block; float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Cover of "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditi..." height="300" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51pi-l7TsHL._SL300_.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="186" /></a><span class="zemanta-img-attribution" style="clear: both; float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; width: 186px;">Cover of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Steps-Traditions-AA-Services/dp/0916856291%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Ddreawarreco-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0916856291" target="_blank">Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions</a></span></span><h3><br /> </h3><div></div><div id="post-body-5115620389101523351"><div dir="ltr"><div></div><span class="GingerNoCheckStart"></span>"The spiritual life is not a theory," we read in the 'Big Book'. "We have to live it." Why this exhortation? At one level it is a recognition that we must have a spiritual awakening and live a spiritually awakened life if we are to remain clean and sober. At a deeper level, it is an affirmation that - whether we like it or not, and irrespective of whether we believe it or not - we are living a spiritual life, that life itself is inherently spiritual. The  question then becomes: are we living this spiritual life consciously?<br /> <br /> Living a spiritually conscious life is no mean feat. It must be lived consciously, and our self-consciousness is a pernicious and relentless adversary. Can our self-centered consciousness truly be overcome. In the St. Francis prayer (the Step 11 prayer at page 99 ofThe <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Steps-Traditions-AA-Services/dp/0916856291%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Ddreawarreco-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0916856291" rel="amazon" target="_blank" title="Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions">Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions</a>) we are assured this is possible. "It is by self-forgetting that we find," we read. "It is by dying (to self, or the ego) that we awaken to eternal life." If we awaken to eternal life, is this eternity not inclusive of our whole lives? Are we not living in an eternal life, irrespective of whether we know or accept that fact. "The spiritual life is not a theory." We are living it - right now!<br /> <br /> <div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIFvmiQw9Lt7LNAt6wCue78pZ6NEcN2h9AN0CCgpRF0KUE3V0OQ75o6_-zzvfDshy6f501phBxzE3prAzD6qqQ8fVj3HjwWvjQlgS42oT2_c8KqsTwm3bVQ6ksd0CUaxs0vpHtZX5tjsk/s1600/meditation2.png"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIFvmiQw9Lt7LNAt6wCue78pZ6NEcN2h9AN0CCgpRF0KUE3V0OQ75o6_-zzvfDshy6f501phBxzE3prAzD6qqQ8fVj3HjwWvjQlgS42oT2_c8KqsTwm3bVQ6ksd0CUaxs0vpHtZX5tjsk/s200/meditation2.png" width="191" /></a></div>How then do we attune ourselves to this hidden reality? In theTwelve and Twelve (at page 98), the author suggests a richly interwoven process of self-examination, meditation and prayer - a process and practice that is reflective of the entire 12 Step program.<br /> <blockquote>"There is a direct linkage among self-examination, meditation and prayer," we read. "Taken separately, these practices can bring much relief and benefit. But when they are logically related and interwoven, the result is an unshakeable foundation for life. Now and then we may be granted a glimpse of that ultimate reality that is God's kingdom. And we will be comforted and assured that our own destiny in that realm will be secure for so long as we try, however falteringly, to find and do the will or our own Creator."</blockquote>"Selfishness - self-centeredness! That we think is the root of our problem. Driven by a hundred different forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and they retaliate." (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 62.)<br /> <br /> <div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimRnV7emA7b-qThDYGyw2nJ-XrcyZRFFDGiRnXIZsG-7NWsGvmZHi3GQyMxrB2r3GOFSonQPD4xaz9Nf_xY4eIcOlVLkcbOJbGRGHJrKm5YPzazj-5uERw6iF39QMqHulC4JS_2L4idVk/s1600/spiritualPath.png"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimRnV7emA7b-qThDYGyw2nJ-XrcyZRFFDGiRnXIZsG-7NWsGvmZHi3GQyMxrB2r3GOFSonQPD4xaz9Nf_xY4eIcOlVLkcbOJbGRGHJrKm5YPzazj-5uERw6iF39QMqHulC4JS_2L4idVk/s200/spiritualPath.png" width="133" /></a></div>A life of conscious spirituality requires constant vigilance, or self examination. When we find ourselves thinking once more without awareness, we can be assured that this our ordinary self-consciousness trying to reassert itself. Just a snippet of the Step 3 prayer - "Relieve me of the bondage of self!" - may be enough to re-center ourselves in the God-consciousness of pure being. At other times, when in the throes of a full-blown ego attack characterized by emotional intensity and acute indecisiveness, the Serenity Prayer helps. In either instance the goal is to re-establish ourselves in the security of our newfound sense of consciousness and being, assured that it is there for the seeking.<br /> <br /> Self-examination, in turn, requires that we set aside time for prayer and meditation. Just a few minutes of silent recurrence to the realm of pure Spirit each day is enough for us to begin the path of living this spiritual life consciously. This is not a theory. It is the practical lesson learned by millions of alcoholic addicts in recovery. It works if we work it.</div></div><span class="GingerNoCheckEnd"></span> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"><a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/?px" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_h.png?x-id=696ec997-6644-4905-9328-2c1cc48a880c" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div></div>

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The Spiritual Life Is NOT a Theory!

Cover of Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions "The spiritual life is not a theory," we read in the 'Big Book'. "We have to live it." Why this exhortation? At one level it is a recognition that we must h…

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Eckhart Tolle: On Resentments

<h3><a href="http://recoverytable.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/eckhart-tolle-on-resentments.html"><br /></a></h3><div></div><div id="post-body-1282980663123256824"><div dir="ltr"><blockquote><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVJ30nmg-j4aLnybLU-L1rmZr08zmW5e_jakwRPxw_HonC7nEcWKvoPuUK1bb5zRDVD6yorwh1__3WLMthP_vKnl3HdEz_AyBhh79Q2BpkZCKjXYc1beFwKy8KIJHx7oUkizdUSpbkTo8/s1600/baggage.png"><img alt="" border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVJ30nmg-j4aLnybLU-L1rmZr08zmW5e_jakwRPxw_HonC7nEcWKvoPuUK1bb5zRDVD6yorwh1__3WLMthP_vKnl3HdEz_AyBhh79Q2BpkZCKjXYc1beFwKy8KIJHx7oUkizdUSpbkTo8/s200/baggage.png" width="200" /></a></div>"The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that. And what is a grievance? The baggage of old thought and emotion."</blockquote><div><blockquote>-- Eckhart Tolle -- <br />("A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose")</blockquote></div><br />The Twelve Steps are designed to bring about "<a href="http://recoverytable.blogspot.com/2011/08/ego-humility-and-grace.html">ego deflation at depth</a>" and, thereby, a spiritual awakening which will solve the alcoholic addict's problem - "self" - in all its manifestations, selfishness, self-centeredness, egocentrism etc. One of the first concrete steps we take in this process of ego deflation is to list all of our lingering resentments, the lingering anger that we hold against people, ideas and even circumstances.<br /><br />Why the importance in reconciling our <a href="http://recoverytable.blogspot.com/2011/09/on-resentment-and-forgiveness.html">resentments</a>? The answer is that unless we do so they fester as an underlying anger that blocks us off from the spiritual resources that are buried within us. It is impossible for us to be honest, patient, understanding and loving while we harbour the lingering coals of the grievances we have towards others.<br /><br />"Resentment is the emotion that goes with complaining and the mental labeling of people and adds even more energy to the ego," notes <a href="http://recoverytable.blogspot.com/2011/05/self-esteem-and-realizing-objectivity.html">Eckhart Tolle</a>, a renowned spiritual teacher. "Resentment," he observes, "means to feel bitter, indignant, aggrieved or offended. You resent other people's greed, their dishonesty, their lack of integrity, what they are doing, what they did in the past, what they said, what they failed to do, what they should or shouldn't have done."<br /><br />"The ego loves it," he points out. "Instead of overlooking unconsciousness in others, you make it into their identity. Who," he asks rhetorically, "is doing that?" <br /><br />"The unconscious in you," he answers, "the ego."<br /><br />"Sometimes the "fault" that you perceive in another isn't even there," he notes. "It is a total misinterpretation, a projection by a mind conditioned to see enemies and to make itself right or superior. At ohter time, the fault may be there, but by focusing on it, sometines to the exclusion of everything else, you amplify it, and what you react to in another, he cautions, you strengthen in yourself."<br /><div>[Tolle, "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452289963/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=trazendenthep-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399377&creativeASIN=0452289963">A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose</a>," p. 62.]<br /><br /><br /><div><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JOuOUV7h2-o" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></div></div></div>

Eckhart Tolle: On Resentments

"The past has no power to stop you from being present now. Only your grievance about the past can do that. And what is a grievance? The baggage of old thought and emotion."-- Eckhart Tolle -- ("A New …

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Discerning God's Will For Us

<p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" style="margin: 0px; position: relative; font-weight: normal; font-size: 26px; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; color: #d52a33; background-color: #ffffff;"></h3><div class="post-header" style="line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1em; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: #ffffff;"></div><div id="post-body-9144700933189079024"><div dir="ltr">Having made the decision to turn one's will and one's life over to the care of the God of one's understanding, how then does one make decisions and act in accordance with such a seemingly inscrutable will? How does one distinguish, in short, one's own will from God's will? And just how does one become able to bring his or actions into conformity with what God would have for us?<br /><br />As a starting point, consider the probability that it is only in establishing a "conscious contact" - that is, in establishing a connection with a deeper part of one's consciousness, i.e., the higher consciousness of God, or simply, God-consciousness - that one will be able to act in accordance with God's will. In doing so, one embodies the sage advice to "hesitate and meditate" before acting, remembering that we remain alcoholic, that our lives are unmanageable, but that God can and will relieve us from our alcoholism if He is sought.<br /><br />("The disciplining of the will must have as its accompaniment a no less thorough disciplining of the consciousness," observed Aldous Huxley, a non-alcoholic friend of Bill Wilson's. "There has to be a conversion, sudden or otherwise, not merely of the heart, but also of the senses and of the perceiving mind." -- "The Perennial Philosophy," p. 72)<br /><br />Thus, above all, one needs to quiet the raucous consciousness of the ego-self in order that one may attain to the state of God-consciousness described by many of the initial old-timers. In the Spiritual Experience appendix, we read that such "God-consciousness" was seen as "the essence of spiritual experience." It is, thus, only in the quietude of our higher consciousness that we may experience the grace of God and the silence of our own humility. It is there that we can come to the silent acceptance of life as it has unfolded, and it is there where we can intuit what, if anything, God would have us do in any particular instance.<br /><br />There is, however, a considerable danger, rooted in the persistence of self and in the subtlety of the ego, that we may be all too readily fooled by what we think we should do under the circumstances and that our thinking is a product of God-consciousness rather than the mundane self-consciousness of our ordinary waking life. <br /><br />Recognizing this danger, Dr. Bob, Bill W., and many of "the good old-timers" relied heavily on the Four Absolutes that were developed and utlized by the Oxford Group; a set of useful metaphysical tools that were never formally adopted by A.A. as their then-notoriety would have publicly identified the then-fledgling A.A. movement with the Oxford Group.<br /><br />To apply the Four Absoutes - honesty, purity, unselfishness and love - it is necessary only to gain the quietude of our own innate God-consciousness, and then to contemplate the four following questions about our proposed response to circumstances:<br /><ol><li>Absolute Honesty - Is it true or false?</li><li>Absolute Purity - Is it good or bad?</li><li>Absolute Unselfishness - Disregarding ourselves entirely, how will this affect others?</li><li>Absolute Love - Is it beautiful or ugly?</li></ol>In the "Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous" pamphlet, Dr. Bob notes: "Almost always, if I measure my decision carefully by the yardsticks of absolute honesty, absolute unselfishness, absolute purity, and absolute love, and it checks up pretty well with those four, then my answer can't be very far out of the way. If, however, I do that and I'm still not satisfied with the answer, I usually consult with some friend whose judgment, in this particular case, would be very much better than mine. But," he notes, "usually the absolutes can help you to reach your own personal decision without bothering your friends."<br /><br />Thus, persistence in meditation and prayer, quietude, and clarity of mind - together with the absolutes of honesty, purity, unselfishness and love - can allow us to discern God's will for us and to align our actions with both the totality of life and the will of our Higher Power, if He is sought.</div></div></p>

Discerning God's Will For Us

Having made the decision to turn one's will and one's life over to the care of the God of one's understanding, how then does one make decisions and act in accordance with such a seemingly inscrutable …

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Higher Consciousness, the Perennial Philosophy, and the Divine Ground of Being

<h3>It was the writer and pioneering New Age philosopher, Aldous Huxley, who called Bill W. "the greatest social architect of the twentieth century," in recognition of the unique A.A. service structure that Bill worked so tirelessly to forge: ("Pass It On," pp. 368-369). Yet, Bill's affinity for, and friendship with, Huxley was based on their mutual dedication to exploring matters of spirituality, metaphysics, mysticism and higher consciousness. One wonders, in light of this, whether Huxley was not as much (or even moreso) impressed by the wholesale awakenings to a greater consciousness beyond the ego which were occurring among the early membership of Alcoholics Anonymous.</h3><div id="post-body-7944401173557344799"><div dir="ltr"><br />Like Gerald Heard, the polymath philosopher who brought Huxley and Bill together, Huxley viewed humankind's awakening to higher consciousness as an evolutionary imperative. In the same time frame in which he met Bill, Huxley wrote extensively on what he called the "perennial philosophy" underlying the world's sundry religions and wisdom traditions. In his introduction to a translation of the Bhagavad Gita by Christopher Isherwood and Swami Prabhavananda (titled "Song of God"), Huxley wrote:<br /><blockquote>"At the core of the Perennial Philosophy we find four fundamental doctrines."<br /><br />"First: the phenomenal world of matter and of individualized consciousness - the world of things and animals and men and even gods - is the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being, and apart from which they would be non-existent."<br /><br />"Second: human beings are capable not merely of knowing about the Divine Ground by inference; they can also realize its existence by a direct intuition superior to discursive reasoning. This immediate knowledge unites the knower and the known."<br /><br />"Third: man possesses a double nature, a phenomenal ego and an eternal Self, which is the inner man, the spirit, the spark of divinity within the soul. It is possible for a man, if he so desires, to identify himself with the spirit and therefore with the Divine Ground, which is of the same or like nature with the spirit."<br /><br />"Fourth: man's life on earth has only one end and purpose: to identify himself with his eternal Self and so come to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground."</blockquote> Reading over these points, it is easy to see why there was such an affinity between Huxley and Wilson. By dint of his remarkable spiritual awakening at Townes Hospital - an awakening that left him initially questioning his very sanity - Bill had attained (albeit for a limited time) what Huxley would call "unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground" that lies within and yet surrounds each of us: that Divine Ground in which "we live, and move, and have our being."<br /><br />Bill was obviously acutely aware of the very specific and non-dualistic "unitive knowledge" at the heart of true religious/mystic/spiritual experience, an awareness confirmed both by his personal experience and from his reading of William James' Varieties of Religious Experience, which is repeatedly cited in the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous. "When we became alcoholics," he wrote, "crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that either God is everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn't. What," he asked, "was our choice to be?" ('Big Book,' page 53.)<br /><br />In retrospect, it seems eminently clear that Bill indeed experienced God as "everything" in his flash of spiritual insight, and it was this experience alone that arrested his slide into drunken oblivion and insanity. "The thing Bill had was a perfectly clear case of satori or somate," noted his friend Tom P. "You know by the fruits. The guy goes out and starts to act like an enlightened man. No one ever went further to prove it than that man did - he led a life of total service." ("Pass It On," page 302.)<br /><br />The effectiveness of such a non-dualistic unitive experience in overcoming chronic alcoholism was confirmed by Carl Jung in his later correspondence with Bill. "(The) craving for alcohol," Jung observed, "(is) on a low level the thirst of our being for wholeness, expressed in medieval language: union with God."<br /><br />"The only right and legitimate way to such an experience," Jung pointed out, "is that it happen to you in reality and it can only happen to you when you walk on a path which leads you to higher understanding. You may be led to that goal," he observed, "by an act of grace, or through a personal and honest contact with friends, or through a higher education of the mind beyond mere rationalism."<br /><br />It was Bill's good fortune (and ours) - although Jung might call it a series of synchronicities - that he was introduced to the Oxford Group's methodology and was shown by Ebby (who was remarkably sober at that time) its effectiveness in overcoming acute alcoholism. The Oxford Group's "program" (from which Bill would derive A.A.'s Twelve Steps) was clearly "a path that leads . . . to higher understanding" beyond the confines of the limited and self-conscious duality of the human ego, a path that led Bill, Dr. Bob, and now millions of other sufferers, to a "unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground." <br /><br />That a path to "a higher understanding of the mind beyond mere rationality" had been established, a path that had already brought about wholesale spiritual awakenings for tens of thousands of individuals, was undoubtedly a matter of the greatest interest to non-alcoholic spiritual seekers such as Huxley and Heard. In the 1940's and 1950's, these men (and their associates) were busy exploring the various means by which individuals could move from shallow, self-conscious, ego-centricity to higher consciousness, an exploration that would lay the foundations for widespread explorations of higher consciousness that would occur in the 1960's. It was this spiritual  "discovery" more so than the development of A.A.'s traditional service structure, one suspects, that led Huxley to call Bill "the greatest social architect of the twentieth century."</div></div>

Higher Consciousness, the Perennial Philosophy, and the Divine Ground of Being

It was the writer and pioneering New Age philosopher, Aldous Huxley, who called Bill W. "the greatest social architect of the twentieth century," in recognition of the unique A.A. service structure th…

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On Acceptance of Spiritual Teachings

<h3></h3><div></div><div id="post-body-1643828409459978884"><div><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTVvYwLjOg-yvETD0oV2yk1n49laD-O3GkXNomVsANgHpV_fAii99gFDLeC0GjxNVvqmWnxVhGIBv4vvzqXb4Js1MNgK_cYJhaOudlYvuPuTjJiKl5yg0rYM5dvtGUDVpd_p7OXgu46sA/s200/alcoholicsAnonymous1.png" width="132" /></div>Are the first 164 pages of the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous really, as I've heard so often lately, all we need to practice A.A.'s program of daily living? What about the the "Spiritual Experience" appendix and "our personal stories before and after" which are contained in the back of the 'Big Book' but are clearly referenced in the first 163 pages? What about William James' "The Varieties of Religious Experience," which is also directly referenced on page 24 of the 'Big Book', let alone The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions and the six other books that A.A. in its collective group conscience has seen fit to publish? What about the Serenity Prayer and the 11th Step Prayer, which are both contained in the '12 & 12'?<br /><br />All these, are vital material for the alcoholic addict seeking to attain and perfect his or her conscious contact with a Power greater than him or herself. Perhaps the most potent example of what is left out when we discourage others to look beyond the first 163 pages (which, indisputably, are of the uttermost importance for taking the newcomer through the Steps) is the passage on 'Acceptance' from the story, "Acceptance Was the Answer" contained in the 'Big Book's' Stories section.<br /><blockquote>"And, we read (at page 417), "acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation - some fact of my life - unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing, or situation - some fact of my life - unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I could accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God's world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I couldn't stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life's terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and my attitudes."</blockquote><div><img alt="" border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKKjLYrPj3cTpuSHY51B5_Z1Lp8gpbQyCcD85kCi2y01TBxAJBhJklF_jjs_uv9nrBbpFkNiVSkurXYsxdAgWH0D5IkeYXYvecJ-glk1izSqxfi4bhIP2KtZBItyXW4ULlG24EihKNhYo/s200/riverValley.png" width="200" /></div>"Between the banks of pain and pleasure," Sri Nisargadatta observed, "the river of life flows. It is only when the mind refuses to flow with life, and gets stuck at the banks that it becomes a problem. By flowing with life I mean acceptance - letting come what comes and go what goes. Desire not, fear not, observe the actual as and when it happens, for you are not what happens, you are to whom it happens. Ultimately, even the observer you are not. You are the ultimate potentiality of which the all-embracing consciousness is the manifestation and expression."<br /><br />Read the first 164 pages of the 'Big Book'. Diagnose your condition in the way it is set out, find the solution within, and take the newcomer or serial relapser through this process. But do not restrict your, or others, spiritual growth by dogmatically clinging to the idea that the first 163 pages is the sum of all, and nothing more, that is needed to attain sobriety and grow in Spirit.<br /><blockquote><blockquote>"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation."<br /><div>- Herbert Spencer</div></blockquote></blockquote><div>[Alcoholics Anonymous, page 568.]</div></div>

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On Acceptance of Spiritual Teachings

Are the first 164 pages of the 'Big Book' of Alcoholics Anonymous really, as I've heard so often lately, all we need to practice A.A.'s program of daily living? What about the the "Spiritual Experienc…

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