I just opened my NA Basic text this morning and landed on pg 46-47 (Step 11) and as I read I realized that maybe thats why I have felt pretty twisted lately.... I had not stilled my mind and empty out all the yuki thoughts that were processing through it, and it was blocking my ability to feel connected to God.
I took a few moments, let them run their course, and within only a few minutes a calm started to set in... and I was able to feel connected again.
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In quiet moments of meditation, God's will can become evident to us. Quieting the mind through meditation brings an inner peace which brings us into contact with the God within. A basic premise of meditation is that it is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain conscious contact unless our mind is still. The usual, never-ending succession of thoughts has to cease for progress to be made. So our preliminary practice is aimed at stilling the mind, and letting the thoughts that arise die a natural death. We leave our thoughts behind, as the meditation part of the Eleventh Step becomes a reality for us.
Emotional balance is one of the first results of meditation, and our experience bears this out.
Some of us have come into the Program broken, and hung around for awhile, only to find God or salvation in one kind of religious cult or another. It is easy to float back out the door on a cloud of religious zeal and forget we are addicts with an incurable disease.
Yes John.. Thanks for the reminder. In fact the part that says "allow the thoughts that arise to die a natural death" has been a cornerstone in attempts at Meditating....
The benefits are self-evident,,,
a serene mind,
better sense of purpose
energy
-- Edited by Raman on Saturday 18th of June 2011 02:38:27 AM
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Raman an addict clean and serene just for today in NA Worldwide ; live to love and love to live the NA Way !!!
This is a message that many, even those with many years clean need to hear. At meetings one often hears people talk about prayer, but how often do we hear sharing referencing meditation? The 11th step says "prayer AND meditation" they are both needed
Glad you caught yourself John I saw the futility and the crisis you were in and some wording in that request for donations that told me you had lost the connection but thats ok man, no matter how many years clean, we can still forget to use the steps.
But its like plugging in an outlet, the powers there, we just have to keep remembering to pluggin.
