Copied from A Study Guide For The Twelve Steps Step One “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives had become unmanageable.” Alcoholism is a disease – a family disease. The alcoholic’s physical allergy and mental obsession to alcohol is his/her disease. Our disease as Al-Anons is an obsession with the alcoholic and/or people, places, and things. We are the “fixers” of the world. We believe we can fix the people in our lives if they would…
STEP ONE QUESTIONS ASK YOURSELF HONESTLY Have you accepted alcoholism as a disease – a family disease and as such you are powerless to cause, cure, or control this disease? My Answer Do you allow what others say or do or don’t say or do to upset you and your serenity? What kinds of things frustrate and anger you? My Answer What is the difference between “submission” and “surrender”? My Answer Have you accepted the fact that you cannot control another person in…
The 12 steps looked like they laid out reasonably against what I know of Buddhism. The first 3 steps of “I can’t, This can, I will let it” were lining up well in my head against the Four Noble Truths. The inventory seemed to line up well against the Noble Eightfold Path characteristics of Right Mind and Right Action and the rest. And it seemed I could tie some Buddhism into my life in this fashion in a better way…
There’s a backstory to me working the 12 steps in a Buddhist light, so I should share that. I’ve been in an Alanon program since 2003, which has worked on me for over a dozen years. During that time, I’ve found a semi-solid Higher Power to rely on, though there remains a distrust of the basics of religion.