Be Still and Know

Step 11: Sought through Prayer and Meditation





The eleventh step of Alcoholics Anonymous suggest prayer and meditation. We will talk about prayer another time but the topic today is meditation. The step in its entirety reads:



“Sought through Prayer and Meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him ,praying only for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out”





The seeker is advised to practice meditation in the step but there is not a whole lot of direction as to how to meditate. Transcendental meditation? Should we practice OM to ourselves repeatedly? Or perhaps a positive affirmation over and over. Is that meditation? Admitedly there is a lot of confusion on these subjects in both Alcoholics Anonymous and the other Anonymous programs. Narcotics Anonymous says in its basic text,” A basic premise of meditation is that it is difficult but,if not impossible to obtain conscious contact unless the mind is still” However, there is not a lot of specific direction as to how to accomplish this. Alcoholics Anonymous also give very little specific direction. The Big Book says the following, “ There are many helpful books also. Suggestions about these may be obtained from one’s priest, minister, or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious people are right.Make use of what they offer. God bless you if you have a priest, minister,or rabbi who can give you some good direction in this regard. If you don’t, then the purpose of this posting is to offer you some direction you can make use of if you will.



One of the reasons the author has been able to stay off drugs/alcohol for so long is that early on he made use of the practice of meditation and was fortunate enough to have someone to give him some specific direction. The purpose of meditation is to know the Truth, and to let the Spirit of Truth pain you into repentance. The reason why things like Transcendental Meditation are harmful is that the noises just help you do in a more sophisticated way what you have been doing all your life with drugs or alcohol: running from the Truth.



In the early years of Alcoholics Anonyous (when it had a much higher success rate) meditation played a much more important part in the program than it does now. Dick B. of Hawaii has written a fairly extensive well-researched book on the importance of meditation in early AA. The title of his work is: Good Morning, Quiet Time, Morning Watch . Meditation, and Early AA. Here is a quote from AA conference approved literature which makes the point succintly( Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers,P. 15):



The AA members of that time did not consider meetings necessary to maintain sobriety. They were simply “desireable”. Morning devotion and “quiet time” however, were musts.



That is quite a difference from modern AA where one is advised that you have to attend meetings or you will get drunk. Perhaps AA has substituted addiction to meetings and the comfort of friendships in place of the Spiritual Awakening in the steps? Maybe this is also part of the reason (along with deleting all mention of Jesus Christ from the modern literature ) why modern AA has less of a success rate than early AA.



I hasten to add that I am not critical of AA principles or even the steps. I am however critical of what modern AA has become.



Back to meditation. Even Scripture does not give specific instruction on how to meditate. We have evidence however that scripture once contained such instructions:



My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart [shall be] of understanding.

Psalms 49:3

My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the LORD

Psalms 104:34

O how love I thy law! It [is] my meditation all of my day.

Psalms 119:97

I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies [are] my meditation.

And lastly :



BE STILL AND KNOW (Psalm 46:10)





Mystical Judaism has a long history of meditation in the practice of Tefilin.Tefilin are small square black leather boxes, containing quotations from the Bible, which are placed on the forehead and the arm during the weekday morning prayers. Some of the earliest examples of Hebrew writing to survive are fragments from Tefillin. Tefillin were found in the Qumran caves dating from about the 1st cent. BCE. Jesus mentions tefilin in the New Testament. I am not suggesting that Seekers or believing Christians take up the Hebrew practice. I am suggesting that Scripture mentions the practice.

For the sincere seeker I point you towards a small booklet written in the early 18th Century: A Guide to True Peace. It is a little book written to nourish the spiritual life. Evidently it succeeded in its purpose, for it passed though at least twelve editions and reprintings from 1813 to 1877. Compiled anonymously by two Quakers, William Backhouse and James Janson, from the writings of three great mystics of a century earlier, Fénelon, Guyon, and Molinos, it was widely used as a devotional book by members of the Society of Friends.

A Guide to True Peace is available free (thanks to Terry) at :

http://home.comcast.net/~terryoregon/page5.htm

And may God Bless you in your journey