Step 11, sought through prayer and meditation
to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him.
Step 11 Meditation Video
Native American set in Yosemite and Big Surr, CA., by Naturalist Photographer Richard Delbridge and Bill Booth, little.wolf.art@gmail.com
Step 11 Art
Step 11, and the 11th step, conscious contact illustration, AA NA
Christa Stever, for The Twelve Steps Quotes 2011
Meditation, INSTANT and no posture
or breathing is required!
12 Step history, step 11, Benedict in year 520 AD
From the ancient mystics to the AA 12 'n 12; Step 11,
it's all the same when talking of reading into the written word!
We learn to select a few words, or verse.
Then we read, and re-read into it slowly, and by doing this three times, slowly we are using an ancient method referred to in the 12 n 12 that works, integrating whatever you are reading into in an all new way!
it's all the same when talking of reading into the written word!
We learn to select a few words, or verse.
Then we read, and re-read into it slowly, and by doing this three times, slowly we are using an ancient method referred to in the 12 n 12 that works, integrating whatever you are reading into in an all new way!
To pray and meditate a first lesson is to...be silent!
Step 11, or the 11th step requires a base of silence, if possible. Art: Parker Lanier Outside Alcoholic Artist, for Grapevine and our series. Google him for some great recovery art!
Art: Parker Lanier alcoholicoutsiderartist.blogspot.com/
contributor to Grapevine and our book series
contributor to Grapevine and our book series
In AA literature as in the tradition of many world faiths; Judea-Christian, Muslim, et cetera, all have a means for slowed down instant meditation. Such focus on a spiritual reading as a meditation or 'step 11' practice is ancient.
Working "step 11":
or the ascetics of recovery
Hard works and discipline for spiritual rewards i.e. "conscious contact" has been termed "ascetics" for well over 1000 years.
This has usually been the work of the monks, mystics and spiritual warriors, of all faiths. Today, in recovery, all are challenged to similar ends. From making coffee to personal prayer, it's all "works" that we do once will and life has been turned over to the God of your understanding.
We can't possibly offer opinion on something so personal as your God. But here's a proven, ancient and modern approach that Bill Wilson used in his writing of the 11th step chapter of his 'Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions' classic, shared by AA, Al Anon and in part also by NA as well.
Turning will and life over is in itself a prayer. Meditation is alsoguidance. Here is some in it's simplest with roots in fellowship literature versus someones preferred method!
This is an easy & instantly mastered meditation practice and it's not only in fellowship lit. but is also the ancient "lectio", used by the common man for well over 1000 years.
Presented here as an aid in your surrender to such a God, in your 3rd step journey as IT'S SIMPLE AND INSTANT!
This is 'lectio", and is used by the same monk(s) who wrote the 12 steps of humility in 520 AD...!
Example 1, The Prayer of Francis (of Assisi)
o Let us start by looking to a worldwide classical prayer, as a meditation.
Circa 1220 AD / Wilson 1953 {Page 99 in the AA 12 ‘n 12}.
“Its author was a man who for several hundred years now has been rated as a saint. We won't be biased or scared off by that fact, because although he was not an alcoholic he did, like us, go through the emotional wringer. And as he came out the other side of that painful experience, this prayer was his expression of what he could then see, feel, and wish to become:
"Lord, make me a channel of your peace--that where there is hatred, I may bring love--that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness--that where there is discord, I may bring harmony--
that where there is error, I may bring truth--that where there is doubt, I may bring faith--that where there is despair, I may bring hope--
that where there are shadows, I may bring light--that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted--to understand, than to be understood--to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen."
“Let us become willing to partake and be strengthened and lifted up by the sheer spiritual power, beauty, and love of which these magnificent words are the carriers. Let us look now upon the sea and ponder what its mystery is; and let us lift our eyes to the far horizon, beyond which we shall seek all those wonders still unseen.” Bill Wilson. AA co-founder
From our book in this series, The Twelve Steps Meditation c, the ancient method for instant meditation for the average person, described in the actual simple phases.
Phase 1, we slowly read the entire prayer, pause and then re-read it allowing ourselves to find a key word or phrase that stands out.
Phase 2, we read our phrase chosen slowly, and re-read it thinking of who said it and why, where they were then and what it means to me.
Phase 3, we slowly read it again asking how God wants me to act with this new knowledge, thus transforming prior knowledge into acted upon wisdom.
Phase 4, We sit quietly in God’s presence.
Example 1, The Prayer of Francis (of Assisi)
o Let us start by looking to a worldwide classical prayer, as a meditation.
Circa 1220 AD / Wilson 1953 {Page 99 in the AA 12 ‘n 12}.
“Its author was a man who for several hundred years now has been rated as a saint. We won't be biased or scared off by that fact, because although he was not an alcoholic he did, like us, go through the emotional wringer. And as he came out the other side of that painful experience, this prayer was his expression of what he could then see, feel, and wish to become:
"Lord, make me a channel of your peace--that where there is hatred, I may bring love--that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness--that where there is discord, I may bring harmony--
that where there is error, I may bring truth--that where there is doubt, I may bring faith--that where there is despair, I may bring hope--
that where there are shadows, I may bring light--that where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted--to understand, than to be understood--to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds. It is by forgiving that one is forgiven. It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen."
“Let us become willing to partake and be strengthened and lifted up by the sheer spiritual power, beauty, and love of which these magnificent words are the carriers. Let us look now upon the sea and ponder what its mystery is; and let us lift our eyes to the far horizon, beyond which we shall seek all those wonders still unseen.” Bill Wilson. AA co-founder
From our book in this series, The Twelve Steps Meditation c, the ancient method for instant meditation for the average person, described in the actual simple phases.
Phase 1, we slowly read the entire prayer, pause and then re-read it allowing ourselves to find a key word or phrase that stands out.
Phase 2, we read our phrase chosen slowly, and re-read it thinking of who said it and why, where they were then and what it means to me.
Phase 3, we slowly read it again asking how God wants me to act with this new knowledge, thus transforming prior knowledge into acted upon wisdom.
Phase 4, We sit quietly in God’s presence.
The ancients; monks living in prayer and meditation as mystics, and often as hermits in the Egyptian desert, used these meditation principles as a guide to "conscious contact."They are still highly relevant to today's 11th Step "seeeker"of any faith! And to the agnostic and yes, the atheist too. They were first written as a guide by a loving father to a young son (monk).
See our book series if you like the ancient mystical heritage...and are "seeking"...!?
AA 3rd step prayer, click image above to get to our Prayers of the 12 steps page.
Our literature offers many references to a 'God, of our understanding...' and our 11th step challenges us to deepen this relationship.
Yoga, Hindu, Buddhists, Native Americans and almost all Indigenous peoples from Alaska to Africa - all meditate.
Be it a tribal chant to personal mantra...
Be it a tribal chant to personal mantra...
By step 11, we are becoming whole conscious contact deepening and a spiritual awakening having been realized or coming shortly!
We become whole. A life beyond our dreams!
In NA or AA, if perplexed by the God issue; read from the Big Book, the chapter "We Agnostics" as it is world class essence in spiritual direction for anyone in or out of recovery. Or try simply using the NA 3rd step prayer as a chant! Both fellowships have spiritual gems to share!
Atheist, agnostic, and the faithful are in these pages in an unbelievable narrative. Remember, it's the one same light that shines through the windows of the rooms of recovery. Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters to whatever!
We're never too late to learn...!
The 11th step can be as simple as a slow reading of fellowship literature.
Step 11 A A or N A
and all the 12 step programs
rely on meditation as a foundation
for continued spiritual
growth, so who am I to argue!?
and all the 12 step programs
rely on meditation as a foundation
for continued spiritual
growth, so who am I to argue!?
"sought" to improve conscious contact
we "sought" in the 11th step to improve conscious contact
implies action ! so why not look to world faiths for both knowledge and wisdom.
A simple introduction to meditation by English speaking Buddhist nun in N Thailand
A Buddhist "walking meditation: from our friend Vince and friends
Prayer and Meditation have many forms
11th Step Gallery-
click to see credits/notes
AA Meditation, read, reread, slowly.
The monastic: Play video 3x, relax into it...or pick a few words from a spiritual writing.
Or get our Twelve Steps Meditations book coming January 2012.
1) who wrote it and when
2) what does it mean
3) how does God want me to react, what is He/She telling me
or the counterpart to AA meditation: Lectio
From our book, the ancient method for instant meditation for the average person, described in the actual simple phases, which parallels Bill Wilson's UN-endorsed yet documented example on how to meditate.
Phase 1, we slowly read the entire prayer, pause and then re-read it allowing ourselves to find a key word or phrase that stands out.
Phase 2, we read our phrase chosen slowly, and re-read it thinking of who said it and why, where they were then and what it means to me.
Phase 3, we slowly read it again asking how God wants me to act with this new knowledge, thus transforming prior knowledge into acted upon wisdom.
Phase 4, We sit quietly in God’s presence.
the sound and mantra "OM", here in a tattoo...see our recovery and serenity prayer tattoos pages