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

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Chapter 1UNDENIABLE FACTSUndeniable facts are inescapable facts.God and myself are for me such facts.IGOD: THE ABSOLUTES OR PURITIESSTARTING POINTSIt is the ambition of every philosopher to start his discussion with some factor facts which no one can deny. The facts with which I propose to start here asundeniable are God and myself.A fact to me in the fullest sense of the word is that which acts on me, which Icomprehend by my thought and which in some sense I see and feel. An undeniablefact Is one from which I cannot get away.I cannot get away either from God or from myself. Being unable to get awayfrom them, I consider it the part of wisdom and, therefore, of philosophy, whichoriginally meant the love of wisdom, to start with them as well as to end withthem.God and myself are, like father and child, correlative terms: one cannot beproperly understood apart from the other. What is more important, in the case ofGod and myself my consciousness of either is profitable for my life only in so far asit is also the consciousness of the other and of the relation between the two. Thiswill be demonstrated and illustrated almost at every step in the following pages.DEFINITIONSIt is possible to define or to give the meaning of a term without maintaining thatthe term stands for anything real. Thus, I can say what is meant by “pixies,” whileat the same time declaring that there are no such things as pixies. What immediatelyfollows is given as mere definition of the term “God.” But, because I believe thatphilosophy should all the time deal with experience, I will draw even my definitionfrom experience—the experience, in fact, with which this book will deal all thetime. Nevertheless, the unbelieving reader, to whom the term “God” is like the term“pixie,” may discount all allegation of experience and take it that in the definitionI am merely inviting him to consider certain notions for which the term “God” hasstood or stands and the connections between these notions, just as I might ask him36
to do the same for the term “pixie.” To this consideration I am inviting him becauseonly after it will he be able to decide whether the term “God” stands for anythingreal, and if it does, whether it is necessary for denoting that reality or whether thereality is already adequately covered by some other term.GOD AS POWERFrom the most primitive times men have thought of God as power. In the NewTestament also “the Power,” Dynamis, is a synonym for God,* while the chief proofsof Jesus’ special connection with God are considered there to be his “powers,” ashis miracles are called in the Greek. It is significant that they consist chiefly in thehealing of mental diseases (cases of possession) and of physical ills, and that they aremost striking and disturbing as evidences of the divine precisely to those people whodo not believe in Jesus and have no love for him. In all ages, primitive or late, unlessmen already love God, they must be faced with the notion of Him as power. Forthen the only reason they can accept for concerning themselves with God is, to puta crude fact crudely, that they have got themselves into a mess (mental and physicalills) and that they need some extraordinary power to get them out of it. In ourage there is a particular need to recall men to this idea of God as power, because,while the mess is greater than it has ever been, in proportion as the world of menis a vaster and more complex thing than ever before, at the same time, even whenmen believe in God, they have practically ceased to think of Him as power and,instead, associate with the name only the ideas, of duty, idealism, mild benevolenceor sentimental kindness. So much is this the case that in speaking about God to mostbelievers it is necessary, if we would make an impression, almost to avoid the word“God,” certainly to get away from familiar language about Him and to borrowone’s terms from medicine, or the science of electricity, or anything rather thanreligion. If this produces a shock, the shock is no greater, and no less beneficial, thanthe one we get when we pass from the language of the English Bible, excellent butmade comfortable by the mere force of custom, to the original Hebrew or Greek.When I speak of God as power, I mean positive or constructive power orefficiency and not negative or destructive and obstructive power, I can judgebest of the power of God from that of the men who are inspired by Him: justas inefficiency, impotence, destruction and obstruction are more evident in manymen thrown together but failing to cooperate than they are in one man, so thisconstructive power is best seen in many men together, in the smooth running of lifebetween them or in the perfection of relationships. I will try and give a picture ofwhat happens when two or three or more are gathered together under the controlof that Power. If the reader cannot recognise it as a description of anything that heknows from experience, he can treat it as my idea of what is possible or at any rate* Matt. xxvi, 64; Mark xiv, 62; Luke xxii, 69.37
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 and 24: [chapter 3, section II]If I am succ
Page 25 and 26: NOTES ON CHAPTER 4. CHANGING SOCIET
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: CONTENTSIntroductionTrue Religion31
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
Page 75 and 76: I obey guidance to go and see a man
Page 77 and 78: foreseen or seen as I have represen
Page 79 and 80: AN ILLUSTRATIONBecause the checking
Page 81 and 82: IVTHE QUITE TIME AND THEH WORKING D
Page 83 and 84: NEED FOR AN ADEQUATE PSYCHOLOGY OF
Page 85 and 86: only to poets. But to judge from on
Page 87 and 88:
For the first time passion or the r
Page 89 and 90:
HEAVENWhat I have come to is Heaven
Page 91 and 92:
For Heaven is now no longer a dream
Page 93 and 94:
I am contiguous with other selves i
Page 95 and 96:
expanses of self, seem to be experi
Page 97 and 98:
IITHE STRATEGY OF THE LARGER SELFGO
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FEAR CONCEALS FEARNow the procedure
Page 101 and 102:
exposure of the “universe.” Tru
Page 103 and 104:
IIITHE STRATEGY AGAINST THE LARGER
Page 105 and 106:
his own. The miracle of self-consci
Page 107 and 108:
usiness, for government, for the na
Page 109 and 110:
and then make him follow its course
Page 111 and 112:
importance to the Company. However,
Page 113 and 114:
of smugness, self-satisfaction and
Page 115 and 116:
PREOCCUPATION WITH SYMPTOMSWhen “
Page 117 and 118:
channel through which collective gu
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abyss and the area coincide. It is
Page 121 and 122:
IVTHE ECONOMIC PROBLEMTHE ECONOMIC
Page 123 and 124:
that need or greed, and not the cap
Page 125 and 126:
VPOLITICAL SCIENCEUNCHANGED POLITIC
Page 127 and 128:
it, by blaming other people instead
Page 129 and 130:
VIPHILOSOPHY AND ARTTHE SINS OF THE
Page 131 and 132:
For expression or projection is the
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DENYING THE SEPARATION BETWEEN THE
Page 135 and 136:
which the errors are designed to pr
Page 137 and 138:
A PERSONAL NOTEThe philosophy given
Page 139 and 140:
the formation of sacred stereotypes
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