Back to Basics - Steps 10, 11 and 12

Back to Basics - AA'2 12 Steps

New hope through working the 12 steps of AA

Before we begin the Steps 10 - 12, we would again like to acknowledge a book written by Wally P. of Tucson, Arizona. Wally's book is entitled, Back to Basics, and his book is a result of years of research and interviewing of some of AA's members who were around in the early days when success rates in AA were so high. Wally's book provides concrete evidence about the way our founders got their protégés through the steps promptly and used a class-format for years in order to help as many recover as possible.

We will be spending much of this session discussing two-way communication with God. Otherwise, as these sessions end, you will feel alone again. That should not be the case. Since the Big Book tells us that we are beyond human aid, we must connect with God to live soberly and to be happy in sobriety. We must perfect these communication-with-God-skills. We have no choice. Should you think you can choose not to do daily prayer and meditation, you have not really grasped Step One -- that we are truly powerless over alcohol and powerless to make our lives manageable -- and you will need to repeat the Steps promptly. Others now recognize that we cannot stop ourselves from drinking or being miserable or selfish. Only God can do that if we stay in contact with God on a regular basis.

You have chosen to let God direct your lives. Let's see what we need to do to cultivate this new God-consciousness. Basically, we need to live the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Steps on a daily basis. [Remember: Give us this day our daily bread.]

Let's start with Step Ten.

Step 10: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

In Step One, Step Two and Step Three, we made the decisions that put us on the spiritual path. In Steps Four through Nine, we took the actions necessary to remove those things which had been separating us from God. Now, we're ready to grow into the promised Spiritual Awakening.

The key to Step Ten are the words "continued to take personal inventory." We are told: "This...brings us to Step Ten, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. [This tells us to start Step Ten as we start Step Nine.] We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. [Can that mean understanding others better and understanding ourselves better?] This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for a lifetime."

We continue to take personal inventory, continue to make amends, and continue to help others, every day.

The Big Book has just informed us that our lives have already changed as a result of taking Steps One through Nine. It states we have already entered the "world of the spirit."

How could that be? Well, it's very simple. There is no way any real alcoholic can get through these Steps alone. You have not only developed a belief in a God of your understanding, but you have relied on this Power to bring you to where you are now. In essence, the spiritual awakening has already occurred. Maybe you just haven't realized it yet.

The authors tell us precisely how to take a Tenth Step inventory:

"...Continue to watch for selfish, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. [So we will experience those. Don't pressure yourself to be perfect, but turn from them when they come.] We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code."

The authors even provide us with specific instructions on what to if our thoughts turn to self will as manifested in selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. First, we must realize that these thoughts are not from God. Next, we must take the actions necessary to get out of self. [That means we have to stop trying to live by self-will -- to have our own way -- because it did not work. We must live by God's will.] We turn to God and ask God to remove these shortcomings. If necessary, we make restitution; and most importantly, we try to help someone else.

Then the authors tells us that if we will continue this practice on a daily basis, God will remove the obsession to drink. This is another set of the many rewards or promises we find throughout the text. Listing what we call the "Tenth Step Promises," the authors tell us:

"And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone -- even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally and we find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we have been placed in a position of neutrality -- safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition."

How do we keep in fit spiritual condition? By taking daily inventory. What is our reward? A daily reprieve from the affliction of alcolhism and the bondage of self.

The authors describe this daily reprieve:

"It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all our activities. 'How can I best serve Thee -- Thy will (not mine) be done.' "

Another reward is God-Consciousness -- direct contact with the "Spirit of the Universe." The authors tell us:

"Much has already been said about receiving strength, inspiration, and direction from Him who has all knowledge and power. If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent we have become God-conscious. We have begun to develop this vital sixth sense. But we must go further and that means more action."

Once again, the authors declare that our lives have changed -- we've already had the spiritual awakening. They say we are now conscious of His Spirit, and we are receiving strength, inspiration, and direction from this Spirit.

Now, it's time for us to commit to a daily personal inventory.

Page 84 tells us how we take this step: "...we continue to take personal inventory (step 4) and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along."

If you have completed Steps 1-9, here is your Tenth Step question:

"Will you continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as you go along"? If you answer yes to this question have completed Step Ten. Congratulations!

Now, let's move on to the Eleventh Step.

Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.

As we've already seen, the "Big Book" authors have been writing about prayer and meditation throughout the Book. They tell us:

"Step Eleven suggests prayer and meditation. We shouldn't be shy on this matter of prayer. Better men than we are using it constantly. It works, if we have the proper attitude and work at it."

What do the authors mean when they say "it works"? In essence they're telling us that prayer and meditation puts us in contact with God. Hopefully that's what we've been doing this past week -- making conscious contact with the God of our understanding.

The authors make this statement:

"...It would be easy to be vague about this matter. Yet, we believe we can make some definite and valuable suggestions."

One suggestion is this. Although this paragraph is part of the Eleventh Step, it contains clear-cut directions for taking a daily inventory. In addition to morning prayer and meditation, we also receive the following advice:

"When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Were we resentful, selfish, dishonest, or afraid? Do we owe an apology? Have we kept something to ourselves which should be discussed with another person at once? Were we kind and loving toward all? What could we have done better? Were we thinking of ourselves most of the time? Or were we thinking of what we could do for others, of what we could pack into the stream of life?"

The "Big Book" authors ask us to answer these questions every evening. This is yet another form of an assets and liabilities checklist as well as another form of "Quiet Time," "Meditation," and "Guidance."

They continue:

"On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives."

So the authors tells us to meditate first thing in the morning. Let's look at this sentence: "Before we begin, we ask God to direct out thinking...." Please concentrate on these words for a minute. They are very important. "Before we begin" -- begin what? Before we begin listening to God. How do we know that we're supposed to listen to God? Because, right afterward, it says we ask God to direct our thinking. If we ask God to direct our thinking, then doesn't it stand to reason that our next thoughts are going to be from God? Thoughts from God are "guidance."

AA practice in the early days taught that immediately on finishing our morning prayer and meditation, we are to write down every thought that came to. After all, if God is going to guide us, doesn't it make sense that we ought to write it down so we don't forget?

Now, not all our thoughts come from God. Not all of others' thoughts come from God, either. Thus, we are reminded on page 24 that we are "beyond human aid," on page 25 that "there is no return through human aid," and on page 43 that, without doubt, we are "100% hopeless, apart from divine help." We may approach God directly. With time and practice, the authors say we will begin to rely upon our thoughts. The authors write:

"What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind. Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it."

To protect ourselves from the absurd actions and ideas that some people offer us or that we might come up with, the authors warn us that we need some measure against which we can test our thoughts.

Here's how it works. AA uses the Four Standards of Selfishness, Dishonesty, Resentment, and Fear to test our thoughts. If what you have written after meditation is honest, pure, unselfish, and loving, you can be assured that the thoughts came from God. You may act on them. Otherwise, the thoughts have originated with self. You best not take action based on them

The Big Book authors tell us that God will provide us the answers to all of our questions. They even tell us how God is going to answer our requests for help:

"In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don't struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while."

So, God is going to give us a plan for our lives in the form of inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. If God is going to provide us with directions on how to proceed, don't you think it's a good idea to write the directions down so we don't forget them?

The Big Book authors warn us that we will, on occasion, have to get out of self-will:

"We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day 'Thy will be done.' We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions. We become much more efficient. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves. It work -- it really works." Bill referred to the "Reconstruction of the Ego." It will come back. If we had to work steps One to Nine initially to kill the ego, we will repeat those steps again later when it returns.

Now , let's move on to the Twelfth Step.

[Remember: Step One identified our problem; Step Two identified our only solution; Steps Three to Eleven showed us how to get the solution; now Step Twelve shows use how to use the solution in order to avoid the problem's return. We must help others.]

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

Now that we've made conscious contact with God, we have received the greatest gift of this program -- a spiritual awakening. We are awake, aware, conscious, mindful of what we are doing, of what we are saying, of the effects that our thoughts and actions and words have on ourselves and others. We are awakened to the desires of others and try to be helpful and loving to all. We work to the point where we see that, to be happy must love everyone, even if we do not like their behavior.

A spiritual awakening is nothing more than a psychic change that, among other things, eliminates our obsession to drink.

Please consider this: I had a physical awakening this morning based on an experience I had with my alarm clock. The same is true in terms of the spiritual -- I had to have spiritual experiences that lead to the awakening. Now, since Bill and Ebby did all of the steps before Bill "got it," isn't it possible that what happened was a result of working the Steps? That he had certain experiences that led to his awakening? The goal is to get to Step Twelve and have an awakening. We do that by having the experiences that working the other Steps provide. Another point can be made here: I did not reach a state of being physically awake today based on an experience I had with my alarm clock yesterday, the day before or several years ago. So it is with spiritual awakenings: I have to have daily experiences with God in order to stay awake spiritually on a daily basis.

That's all there is to it. If you've made contact with the God of your understanding and you have started listening to His guidance, you have in fact already had the spiritual awakening.

Congratulations. You are now living in the "sunlight of the Spirit."

But the spiritual awakening is just a part of the Twelfth Step. Let's look at what we have to do to sustain this spiritual transformation and thus sustain our sobriety. The authors tell us what we must do:

"Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. This is our Twelfth suggestion: Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. You can secure their confidence when others fail."

When we work with others, our lives change. We are told:

"Life will take on new meaning. To watch people recover, to see them help others, to watch loneliness vanish, to see a fellowship grow up about you, to have a host of friends -- this is an experience you must not miss. We know you will not want to miss it. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot in our lives." [It's the "Power of the 'We' again"!]

[See, you will not cling to a sponsor. You are beyond human aid! You will cling to God. After doing the steps, you are not just in the spirit of the fellowship. You have moved into the Fellowship of the Spirit. Bill W. said in his essay, "The Next Frontier: Emotional Sobriety," that you must practice the "Principle of Absolute Dependence on God." So instead of clinging to a sponsor, you will, instead, immediately become a sponsor. Remember: Ebby T., who carried the message to Bill W., only had 60 days. A sponsoring commitment seldom went beyond 4-5 weeks. Everyone had too much work to do to cling or to be clung to. The group in general helped all who needed help. Additionally, they wanted their members to become independent.]

We were just told that sponsoring is "...an experience you must not miss." You must get to work by helping others through the classes and teaching others how to work the Steps. That is another reason why there were no daily discussion meetings to sit in during the founding days of AA.

We are also told that we should not give up if we are unsuccessful at getting through to the prospect. Basically, they tell us to plant the seed and then move on:

"Do not be discouraged if your prospect does not respond at once. Search out another alcoholic and try again." "To spend too much time on any one situation is to deny some other alcoholic an opportunity to live and to be happy."

[I asked a man who felt he had to drink because his wife left: "Did you drink when she was there?" Another felt he had to drink because he lost his job. I asked: "Did you drink when you had a job?" See, we do not drink because of our circumstances. We drink because we are not spiritually fit. That's it. Bottom line. Not because we quit going to meetings. Not because we did not think through the drink -- we cannot do that. Only because we do not do the daily work to get and stay spiritually fit.

How much simpler can it get? Trust God and Clean House! [But see, we intellectual giants love to look for something more complex -- let's get deep about all this. No, let's not. Just do the daily work and you will stay spiritually fit, and in that condition, you cannot drink.]

We are told:

"...Walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress. If you persist, remarkable things will happen. [By the way, we don't care, again, if you believe that at this point, though we hope you are convinced. If not, it will suffice for you to know that we believe because we have experienced it . On that knowledge, just do it and you will experience it too.] When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God's hands were better than anything we could have planned. Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your present circumstance."

We're told what our job is now:

"Your job now is to be at the place where you may be of maximum helpfulness to others, so never hesitate to go anywhere if you can be helpful. You should never hesitate to visit the most sordid spot on earth on such an errand. Keep on the firing line of life with these motives and God will keep you unharmed."

This completes the Twelfth Step as described in the Book. Being of service to others is critical to our continued growth and the maintenance of our sobriety. Keep in mind that one of the primary services we can perform is to take prospective members through these classes. Each time we do this, we learn more about this life saving program and gain additional insight into the Divine inspiration that is the heart of our new way of life.

Now all that's left is to practice these principles in all our affairs. What principles? The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous! They are the principles we practice daily for the rest of our lives. You will make continual trips through all Twelve Steps. This is just your first trip through, not your last.

We are told:

"God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning prayer and meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something that you haven't got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us." "Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road to Happy Destiny." "May God bless you and keep you -- until then."

Having completed the Twelve Steps and having has a Spiritual Awakening, your life has changed. You now know "there is a solution." Here's what the authors tell us:

"The great fact is just this, and nothing less: that we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows and towards God's universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves."

So we want to welcome each of you who has completed the Twelve Steps into the "fourth dimension of existence." We thank you for providing the opportunity to be your guides for this miraculous journey.

After finishing your first trip through the Steps, we suggest you do the following in order to Maintain Fit Spiritual Condition:

1. Do your morning Quiet Time without fail, along with your Evening Review. Read and reread the Big Book carefully (suggestion -- make the reading a part of your daily quiet time -- read the book from the cover to page 164 continuously throughout the year.)

2. Attend weekly meetings (of the type that our founders held): speaker meetings and newcomer meetings. Your daily meeting now should be in the morning and in the evening -- with God. An hour there is a must.

3. Study the program.

4. Practice the principles of the program daily.

5. Read AA-approved literature, for example Daily Reflections.

6. Hold informal conversations with members about AA or your concerns.

7. Do the Steps over immediately, this time sponsoring someone.

8. Take the classes later as refresher -- remember we were told the classes are for old members as well as newcomers.

9. Volunteer to teach the classes after you have been through them several times. In doing the two suggestions mentioned before this one, you are serving and active -- this is what you do. It is essential that we never forget that recovery is an ongoing process. We do not take the steps once and then rest on our laurels. Remember, alcohol is a subtle foe. We must repeat the process again and again in order to remain in fit spiritual condition. You must work with newcomers in order to maintain your sobriety.

10. Find drunks. Call pastors and ask them to refer to you those suffering. Ask pastors if they would be willing to host AA groups in their churches. You may also know a doctor who can refer patients. There are many treatment centers and halfway houses and jails that will welcome you. The Salvation Army and other such institutions usually welcome volunteers. We do not have to go to meetings and sit there and wait for drunks to find us. We do have to serve drunks if we are to stay sober.

11. Join/form and participate in an "Accountability Group" that meets once a week. [See resource page for a copy of an Accountability Group Format]

We'll close with this: In the Barcelona Olympics in the 80's, you might remember that a runner pulled his hamstring. He tried to get up and make it to the finish line, but fell. The same happened again. Suddenly, the cameras panned to pick up a man jumping the fence and rushing to the runner. It was his father. He knelt and said something to his son. His son looked up and said something back. Then, the father lifted his son, and together, they made it to the finish line. The man who was the last across the line got the loudest applause.

Later they would report their conversation to a television announcer: the father said, "Son, you don't have to go on. You ran a good race. Just stop here." And the son answered: "My country did not send me here to start the race -- they sent me here to finish the race." And the father said: "Then together, we'll make it."

Today, we applaud you for having made it -- you have entered to World of the Spirit. You had fallen. And you could not make it to the finish line alone. But the Father came to help you, through the efforts of those who have gone before. Now, for you to be happy, joyous, free, and sober, you must do the same. You must begin to help lift those who are down and aid them to go on. If you do, all of the promises will continue to manifest in your life. Our Book does not say, "This is something you might consider doing." does not say: "We suggest you do this." The Book says, "This is an experience you MUST not miss." God speed you on your journey!

Back to Basics--AAs 12 Steps HOME PAGE

Accountability Group Format is in the Guide for Steps 10 - 12 Download Files