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

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they also did in that situation. It gives them a chance to redeem themselves too, ifthey choose to, without name-calling or condemnation or blaming from my side,which is a very precious gift to give to other people.And when the graves are opened, and the rotting, festering deeds of the pastare finally exposed to light and air, it then and only then becomes possible for meto confront the fear and surrender it to God. Then and only then does it becomepossible for me to act in the present without my action being a blind reaction to thepast. I no longer have to attempt to get revenge, to do something to “show them,”to brag and bluster, to close myself off from other people to hide my shame, orwhatever the reactive responses are which I have been compulsively carrying out.[chapter 3, section II]There is a word of warning here too. There are those who would like to practicecensorship, and prettify the history of the Oxford Group and the life of FrankBuchman, or who would like to leave certain things out of the history of the rise ofA.A. and the life of people like Bill Wilson. If we do this, we will destroy the powerof forgiveness and redemption, and will defeat any possibility of transmitting ahigher God-consciousness and spiritual experience to other human beings, becausethe message we preach will no longer have the power to blow the mighty trumpetwhich opens up the graves of the past and brings the resurrection of the dead. Thatis, we will find ourselves no longer having the power to change the past, but will becompelled to repeat our old mistakes over and over forever.24
NOTES ON CHAPTER 4. CHANGING SOCIETYSocial problems are not the fault of “the system”Leon believed that it was a great mistake to think that social problems could becorrected by changing the whole system (the political system or the economic system)in fanatical fashion, or by passing punitive laws. Communists falsely believedthat everyone would be happy if only the capitalist system was destroyed, whileprohibitionists foolishly thought that alcoholism would cease to be a problem if lawswere only passed forbidding the sale of alcohol. But the true causes of class warfare,drunkenness, and so on, lay with individuals, not with society. An individual selfwhich has no real God-consciousness and is dominated by selfishness will pervertany system of government or laws. To change diseased institutions, we first had tochange diseased individuals. That was the route which the Oxford Group had decidedto follow by the end of the 1930’s. [chapter 4, section I]Childhood education and sexBut it was also true that we could alter the way we did certain things in humansociety in a fashion which would help produce changed individuals, starting withchildhood education and the whole matter of sex and marriage.Traditional education, both in the church and in the secular world, focusedon “the inculcation of fear.” Children were given mechanical rules to follow, andthreatened with punishment (even with eternal hellfire) if they broke any of theserules. They were taught to fear their teachers and to regard them as perfect humanbeings who never broke the rules and never made mistakes. As a result, each childwould be turned into a chain of Karma, a chain which arose during early childhood,but whose series of interlinked selfish and fear-based reactions would decidethe course of that child’s whole subsequent life, all the way to adulthood and oldage.In changed education, however, teachers who had themselves undergone thekind of life-changing experiences which the Oxford Group taught, would sharewith the children. They would not only share their God-consciousness, but alsowould admit to their own fallibility. From teachers such as these, children coulddevelop real personalities. [chapter 4, section II]On the issue of sex, Leon spoke against “sex impurity” without really explainingwhat he meant by the term. For the Oxford Group in general, this tended tomean homosexuality, transvestism, and masturbation, all of which they frequentlypreached against vociferously. Leon’s ideal was the kind of marriage which was apartnership between a man and a woman who had both surrendered their lives toGod. [chapter 4, section III]25
Page 1 and 2: The Philosophyof Courageor The Oxfo
Page 3 and 4: fear of being creative and being ou
Page 5 and 6: truly were. There was also a spirit
Page 7 and 8: Comparison with Bill W. and A.A.on
Page 9 and 10: I must embrace my own feeling of so
Page 11 and 12: Alcoholism and addiction asforms of
Page 13 and 14: specifications as to how that is to
Page 15 and 16: perfect serenity. By shutting off a
Page 17 and 18: The act of total surrender allows t
Page 19 and 20: this. But you do not have to be any
Page 21 and 22: NOTES ON CHAPTER 3. SHARING OR SPRE
Page 23: [chapter 3, section II]If I am succ
Page 27 and 28: The Oxford Group and Alcoholics Ano
Page 29 and 30: view Press, 2000) 28. “Sick origi
Page 31 and 32: INTRODUCTIONThe world is going mad,
Page 33 and 34: TRUE RELIGIONWhy are you cowards, p
Page 35 and 36: CONTENTSIntroductionTrue Religion31
Page 37 and 38: to do the same for the term “pixi
Page 39 and 40: the power which is God or from God.
Page 41 and 42: God. The reader who is asked to con
Page 43 and 44: these qualities and on the relation
Page 45 and 46: y the power of God. But it is not n
Page 47 and 48: IIMYSELFI AM NOT GODThe objection l
Page 49 and 50: DISEASE OR FEAR: MANIAWhat is wrong
Page 51 and 52: impurity which is denoted by the si
Page 53 and 54: occasions when he is threatened wit
Page 55 and 56: IIIHEALTH OR PASSIONPURE DESIRESinc
Page 57 and 58: PASSION AND PARTICULAR DESIRESNot b
Page 59 and 60: Chapter 2DEMONSTRATION BY EXPERIMEN
Page 61 and 62: to desire passionately to be health
Page 63 and 64: Conformity with the commandment aga
Page 65 and 66: IITHE CRUCIAL EXPERIMENT ORTHE QUIE
Page 67 and 68: and hypocrisy, that judged by absol
Page 69 and 70: not meant; that the fool was not as
Page 71 and 72: hands I commit my spirit.”With th
Page 73 and 74: that God the Highwayman is really a
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I obey guidance to go and see a man
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foreseen or seen as I have represen
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AN ILLUSTRATIONBecause the checking
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IVTHE QUITE TIME AND THEH WORKING D
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NEED FOR AN ADEQUATE PSYCHOLOGY OF
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only to poets. But to judge from on
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For the first time passion or the r
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HEAVENWhat I have come to is Heaven
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For Heaven is now no longer a dream
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I am contiguous with other selves i
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expanses of self, seem to be experi
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IITHE STRATEGY OF THE LARGER SELFGO
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FEAR CONCEALS FEARNow the procedure
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exposure of the “universe.” Tru
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IIITHE STRATEGY AGAINST THE LARGER
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his own. The miracle of self-consci
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usiness, for government, for the na
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and then make him follow its course
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importance to the Company. However,
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of smugness, self-satisfaction and
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PREOCCUPATION WITH SYMPTOMSWhen “
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channel through which collective gu
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abyss and the area coincide. It is
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IVTHE ECONOMIC PROBLEMTHE ECONOMIC
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that need or greed, and not the cap
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VPOLITICAL SCIENCEUNCHANGED POLITIC
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it, by blaming other people instead
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VIPHILOSOPHY AND ARTTHE SINS OF THE
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For expression or projection is the
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DENYING THE SEPARATION BETWEEN THE
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which the errors are designed to pr
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A PERSONAL NOTEThe philosophy given
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the formation of sacred stereotypes
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