To Believe In

Step 2:  Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Koan:  Dogen said, “To believe in Buddhism* is to believe one is inherently within the Way.”

* or God or AA or ...


Came to believe …

Isn’t it interesting how beliefs do not require any fact-finding or solid evidence; they're multi-layered, sometimes fleeting,  from the trivial to the profound. We simply find ourselves believing something (or not believing something). In a way, not believing is a kind of believing.

Has anyone here never changed their mind on a subject?  Never changed from believing this to that?  Believing is fluid, it can happen in a millisecond.  With Step Two, the “came to believe” doesn’t have to happen before going to Step Three. Just saying there is a possibility that I might come to believe is good enough for today.

What we learn about this Higher Power thing from the Big Book, in order for it to work, the HP has to be (1) larger than ourselves and (2) outside of ourselves.

·      To believe in Buddha,

·      To believe in God,   (Big Book page 164: "Abandon yourself to God as you understand God.")                                                                                                                     

·      To believe in any power greater than ourselves,

·      To believe in AA…

…this is what can restore us to sanity or, if you choose, restore us to right thought (from the Eightfold Path). Come to think of it, probably we all could use a daily dose of restoring. It's an ongoing process – to restore us to an acceptable level, a level that is helpful to others.

·      To believe one is inherently within the Way.

I had to laugh about how I first read this statement, thinking about how I was when I was out there; I was inherently in the way of most everything I did. But it reads “…within the Way,” I think, basically means going with the flow, because we are the flow.

We’ve all been born human.  Something much bigger than we was present and working during the birthing process.  The only thing the mother can do is react to the elements of giving birth. We were within the Way then and are still within the Way today.  Every minute of the day, every second of the day, aren’t we being reborn?

Whatever this “Way” is working in my life; this what I’ve come to believe in; it’s the way things are right now. And at the same time realizing there is no separation between me, and the Way.


Bill K.