January koan and Step 1

Dear Friends,


Hard to believe that January 2020 is just around the corner... and two weeks away, with our local
(Sonoma County) 12&Zen meeting on January 10th.

What better way than to begin the New Year with Step One. Time to get to work.


Bill 

- - - -


Step 1:  We admitted we were powerless over something -- that our lives had become unmanageable.



Koan: “It may be that when we no longer know what to do,

                we have come to our real work”

From The Impeded Stream by Wendell Berry

Step 12 -- Woven and Interwoven

Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and practice these principles in all our affairs.

Koan: “We and everything we perceive are woven and interwoven

And this interweaving continues on and on,

While each thing stands in its own place.”

    ~ Shitou Xiquan



We and every one of the Steps are woven and interwoven. What happens when our actions show that we’ve embraced the 12 Steps into our lives? This interweaving continues on and on.

Each Step stands in its own place, ready for engagement and our full attention, open with no barriers.
  
 
“We and everything we perceive are woven and interwoven” – Seeing this is the result of our “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps…”

“And this interweaving continues on and on” as we “tried to carry this message to alcoholics.” In the larger picture, we’re carrying the spirit of AA into all we meet. This weaving continues no matter what.

“While each thing stands in its own place” – ready for our attention, we “practice these principles in all our affairs”

• One day at a time
• One hour at a time
• One minute at a time
• One second at a time
• Just now

And yet each thing is in relationship with each other thing:

 The individual,

         The family,

                  The community,

                           The district,

                                    The region

                                             The state,

                                                      The country,

                                                               The continent,

                                                                        The world,

                                                                                 The solar system,

                                                                                          The galaxy

                                                                                                   The Universe

Early on I thought of the Steps as being linear – 1,2,3,4,5, etc. Now I know they’re not only interwoven, they build upon each other. Step 12 is the consummation of all the Steps, where all possibilities exist, ever expanding in all directions.

From "This Floating World", Lion's Roar, August 1, 2018

Since the Steps are so much a part of my day-to-day consciousness, I’d be amiss not to include the communal dreaming that Joan writes about.  This is part of the ever expanding. The Steps bring about awakening, what about when we’re asleep?

Part of his daily morning prayer

Near the end of the evening we talked about dreams. I know I dream, but seldom remember them.  Dale said he’s been a lucid dreamer all his life. We know dreams are important; so it seems natural that the Steps are also part of our dreamscape.




Bill K.