| CHRISTIAN MEDITATION AS AN ELEVENTH STEP PRACTICE |
The World Community for Christian Meditation 11th Step Practice St. Mark's, Myddelton Square London EC1R 1XX England, UK +44 0207 278 2070 Email: info@christianmeditation11step.org www.christianmeditation11step.org |
| “In meditation we are not thinking about the past, neither our own past nor anyone else’s. In meditation we are wholly inserted into the present, and there we live to the fullness of our capability, our consciousness expanding as we entertain the Lord of Life.” Word into Silence - John Main, OSB |
On April 14, 2007, the Ottawa Christian Meditation Group sponsored a workshop
given by a speaker from Woodbridge, Ontario, George Z. Members of various
twelve-step programs and meditators from the Ottawa area attended it. George
shared with us the wisdom, experience and knowledge he has gained by following
two complimentary paths in his life – the path of the twelve-step program of
Alcoholics Anonymous and the path of Christian Meditation. The topic was
“Improving our Conscious Contact”. This is a part of the eleventh step “Sought
through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying
only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out”. In both
this step and in the Christian Meditation tradition, George said that we have to
enter into the experience; we cannot express it by words, or understand it in our
head. He said that by practicing the eleventh step utilizing Christian Meditation
as his means of establishing conscious contact, he was able to do step three, which
states “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as
we understand Him”, and that in order for him to maintain his sobriety, he had to
have this discipline of turning his will and life over daily. He said he also has to
practice the discipline of meditation every day of his life in order to maintain this
conscious contact. He spoke of conscious contact as the state of being awake,
present to himself, and meeting everything in life with full contact. He said that
because of addiction, it was hard to be present to himself, and that his first
conscious contact as a result of practicing step eleven was to discover this
presence. Only then could he be present to others, and then to God. Both paths
embrace the principal of complete surrender, and the beauty of both paths is that
they have a concrete way of accomplishing this surrender.
In the second session, he spoke about meditation being a path of attention. We
stay relaxed, but alert. It teaches us to be attentive, slow down, relax, brings us
back to that important principal of conscious contact. He then showed us the
similarities between the spiritual principals of the twelve steps (honesty, hope,
faith, courage, integrity, willingness, humility, brotherly love, justice,
perseverance, spiritual awareness, and service) and the twelve steps of humility
put forth by Saint Benedict (perseverance, obedience, forbearance, honesty,
poverty off spirit, humility, community, restraint, gravity, wisdom and presence).
In the third session George spoke about truth, (awareness in spiritual progress). He
said that when your perception equals your truth, then you possess mental
sobriety. Emotional sobriety equals harmony, not allowing our emotions to carry
us away, and not depending on anything outside of ourselves for our inner peace.
An important truth is that we are already what we want to be, we just have to
remove those obstacles that prevent us from seeing this. On the path of silence,
stillness and simplicity, using the steps and meditation, we remove these
obstacles.
It was a wonderful day, with a good amount of time for sharing and socializing. It
was a real privilege to hear someone speak with such humility, honesty, wisdom
and experience. I left the workshop filled with gratitude, hope and much
inspiration.
Marilyn Sugden
Ottawa, Ontario
given by a speaker from Woodbridge, Ontario, George Z. Members of various
twelve-step programs and meditators from the Ottawa area attended it. George
shared with us the wisdom, experience and knowledge he has gained by following
two complimentary paths in his life – the path of the twelve-step program of
Alcoholics Anonymous and the path of Christian Meditation. The topic was
“Improving our Conscious Contact”. This is a part of the eleventh step “Sought
through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying
only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out”. In both
this step and in the Christian Meditation tradition, George said that we have to
enter into the experience; we cannot express it by words, or understand it in our
head. He said that by practicing the eleventh step utilizing Christian Meditation
as his means of establishing conscious contact, he was able to do step three, which
states “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as
we understand Him”, and that in order for him to maintain his sobriety, he had to
have this discipline of turning his will and life over daily. He said he also has to
practice the discipline of meditation every day of his life in order to maintain this
conscious contact. He spoke of conscious contact as the state of being awake,
present to himself, and meeting everything in life with full contact. He said that
because of addiction, it was hard to be present to himself, and that his first
conscious contact as a result of practicing step eleven was to discover this
presence. Only then could he be present to others, and then to God. Both paths
embrace the principal of complete surrender, and the beauty of both paths is that
they have a concrete way of accomplishing this surrender.
In the second session, he spoke about meditation being a path of attention. We
stay relaxed, but alert. It teaches us to be attentive, slow down, relax, brings us
back to that important principal of conscious contact. He then showed us the
similarities between the spiritual principals of the twelve steps (honesty, hope,
faith, courage, integrity, willingness, humility, brotherly love, justice,
perseverance, spiritual awareness, and service) and the twelve steps of humility
put forth by Saint Benedict (perseverance, obedience, forbearance, honesty,
poverty off spirit, humility, community, restraint, gravity, wisdom and presence).
In the third session George spoke about truth, (awareness in spiritual progress). He
said that when your perception equals your truth, then you possess mental
sobriety. Emotional sobriety equals harmony, not allowing our emotions to carry
us away, and not depending on anything outside of ourselves for our inner peace.
An important truth is that we are already what we want to be, we just have to
remove those obstacles that prevent us from seeing this. On the path of silence,
stillness and simplicity, using the steps and meditation, we remove these
obstacles.
It was a wonderful day, with a good amount of time for sharing and socializing. It
was a real privilege to hear someone speak with such humility, honesty, wisdom
and experience. I left the workshop filled with gratitude, hope and much
inspiration.
Marilyn Sugden
Ottawa, Ontario
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