We'll be meeting in about two weeks. Here is what we'll be sitting with in July:
Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Koan: Let’s wait and see.
Bill K.
If you belong to a 12 Step Group, at one time you will hear someone say, "Upon working the steps, one day you will see where the Steps are working you!" The same can be said when you meditate with Zen koans ... a koan can pop into your life when you least expect it, giving you a new perspective on matters. Here we are practicing with koans to see how they can deepen our understanding of the 12 Steps in new and unexpected ways.
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Saturday, June 30, 2018
Sunday, June 10, 2018
Step 6, Near at hand ...
Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Koan: “Coming and going we are never astray.”
From the Heart Sutra
- In Step 2 we came to believe. This would be like sitting in a new and different car, looking around, then realizing where the gear selector is.
- In Step 3 “we made a decision. In taking this new car out for a spin, we release the brake.
- In Step 6, we’re entirely ready to go and put the car into DRIVE.
Isn’t our readiness for Step 6 totally contingent upon working the first five Steps? Every so often I hear about our AA toolbox at meetings, meaning the 12 Steps are our tools for success. Being at Step 6 now, we have at least some experience with these first five. Our toolbox isn’t fully stocked so we have to use what we have in order to go on. What we have is adequate.
Not only do we have these five new tools, we are realizing that they are available to us no matter where we are or what we’re going through. I still, in all these years, forget this. Mired in what to do, back and forth conversations with myself, angst as a result of my own actions, then it will dawn on me, “I forgot my Higher Power today!” There’s a tool in my toolbox that I forgot was there – it’s Step 6.
Recently I read about the new U.S. computer called Summit, now the speediest computer in the world. It can do mathematical calculations at the rate of 200 hundred quadrillion per second, or 200 petaflops.
.001
________ = RSN (Really Small Number)
200 Petaflops
The point I’m trying to make is … I may have wandered off the path; but I’m never astray from my HP… Step 6 is always near at hand. How near at hand?
Closer than RSN.
Bill K.