The Philosophy of Courage - Alcoholics Anonymous. AA, Meeting ...

of the Divine Light. Or we can remind ourselves of all the pagan myths in whichthe sacred and saving presence within the temple is guarded by a hideous monsterstanding in front of the temple. We must fight our way past the monster’s teeth andclaws in order to touch the holy goddess who sits enthroned within. [chapter 2, sectionI]In Quiet Time, I deny the self and turn to theAbsolutes in order to receive guidanceThe Quiet Time is in its essence a meeting between my self and God and theAbsolutes. There are an infinite number of absolutes: the 1949 edition of the A.A.classic called The Little Red Book spoke of Humility, Honesty, Faith, Courage, andAppreciation; the A.A. Tablemate or Table Leaders Guide from the early 1940’s spokeof Faith, Hope, Trust, Humility, Simplicity, Patience, Fearlessness, Generosity, Justice,and a number of other virtues. But Leon says that the Oxford Group’s FourAbsolutes (Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness, and Love) are convenient examples of thekind of absolute moral demands that we will confront when we enter the period ofQuiet Time.The self is “faced with the impossible when it is presented with a demand for apure or absolute act,” because the self can only desire the impure world of its ownmost selfish wishes. The self ’s first automatic reaction is one of resistance. I say tomyself that I am a decent person basically, and that these are absurd demands. Igive alibis and make excuses. But the fact is that my self not only falls infinitely shortof these high ideals, but is totally helpless to achieve them by its own unaided powers.Therefore, until I learn to practice non-defensiveness, I will be unable to getpast the self and enter God’s full presence. [chapter 2, section II]Let us look again at how we practice the Quiet Time: “Immediately on waking,then, I give over my mind and heart to God—that is to say, to absolute love andwisdom—and I pray that I be guided towards absolute love, wisdom, power, truth,etc.” At that point, ideas will pop into my mind, ideas of two different sorts. Someof these ideas will be impure ideas centering on my own selfishness, and entangledin the strife and tension of cause and effect in the material world around me, theworld of space and time. But others will be pure ideas—Absolute, Unlimited, andUnconditioned Ideas from the divine noumenal realm, outside the box of spaceand time. I must ask God to act as my “psychoanalyst” and tell me which are pureand which are impure. That is how I will receive true divine guidance. [chapter 2,section II]16