aa Spoken Here Community Group
Fellowship Where you can share your thoughts, feelings, stories and get support to gain and continue sobriety.
I know there are a few people at step 4 at the moment. I was reading this in a book and thought of how useful it might be in considering the process of step 4 and also in dealing with everyday life. It is from the teachings of the Buddha but I think contains universal principles for everyone whatever their spiritual path.
â??The Buddha taught many techniques to help us calm our body and our mind and look deeply at them. They can be summarized in five stages:
(1) Recognition â?? If we are angry, we say, â??I know that anger is in meâ??.
(2) Acceptance â?? When angry we, we do not deny it. We accept what is present.
(3) Embracing â?? We hold our anger in our two arms like a mother holding her crying baby. Our mindfulness embraces our emotion, and this alone can calm our anger and ourselves.
(4) Looking deeply â?? When we are calm enough, we can look deeply to understand what has brought this anger to be.
(5) Insight â?? The fruit of looking deeply is understanding the many causes and conditions, primary and secondary, that have brought about our anger. Maybe our anger was triggered when our friend spoke to us meanly, and suddenly we remember that he was not at his best today because his father is dying. We reflect like this until we have some insights into what has caused our suffering. With insight, we know what to do and what not to do to change the situation.â??
Nicky
â??The Buddha taught many techniques to help us calm our body and our mind and look deeply at them. They can be summarized in five stages:
(1) Recognition â?? If we are angry, we say, â??I know that anger is in meâ??.
(2) Acceptance â?? When angry we, we do not deny it. We accept what is present.
(3) Embracing â?? We hold our anger in our two arms like a mother holding her crying baby. Our mindfulness embraces our emotion, and this alone can calm our anger and ourselves.
(4) Looking deeply â?? When we are calm enough, we can look deeply to understand what has brought this anger to be.
(5) Insight â?? The fruit of looking deeply is understanding the many causes and conditions, primary and secondary, that have brought about our anger. Maybe our anger was triggered when our friend spoke to us meanly, and suddenly we remember that he was not at his best today because his father is dying. We reflect like this until we have some insights into what has caused our suffering. With insight, we know what to do and what not to do to change the situation.â??
Nicky
Thanks Nicky. I particularly like number four for 'looking deeply' to do my step 4 and number 5 for step 5 and the 'insight' given to me by my sponsor :)