The 12 Steps as a Spiritual Practice
“In Recovery—The Sacred Art: The Twelve Steps as Spiritual Practice, Rami Shapiro writes: ‘When you see yourself in hurtful behavior, snap the photograph freeze that action, and look at it. Literally stop for a moment and take in what you are doing. The photograph captures the pain, shock, or hurt on the other’s face or in her body language, and you can look at it objectively… and this moment is your opportunity to do something different, beginning with making amends.’” Seamus D, Recovery Ministries of the Episcopal Church,
https://www.episcopalrecovery.org/resources/through-the-red-door-blog.
Thank you, Seamus, for reminding us about Rabbi Shapiro’s book about The 12 steps as a Spiritual Practice. Even if we don’t think we have an addiction, the steps are a way of life for people of all religions and conditions. Rabbi Shapiro begins by reminding us that Bill Wilson states that the heart of the recovery program is we stop playing God! Our lives enter a whole new paradigm that we are not in control of the world and others.
Spiritual leader and Twelve Step practitioner Rami Shapiro describes each of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous as a spiritual practice to guide us to a mindset of no longer seeking control of relationships, events, and actions in our lives. He tells us that control is delusional. It is not reality. He examines each step—surrender, acceptance, confession, forgiveness, restoration—as they relate to specific addictions as well as more general addictions such as greed, anger, and selfishness. He offers simple exercises drawn from a variety of eastern and western religious traditions to help us deepen our understanding of each step as we learn to embrace our powerlessness. Shapiro reminds us that our addictive behavior is a search for something we already have. It is the Zen story of a man looking for his ox, which he is already riding. It is a spiritual search for God which is already inside of us. For Christians, it is the Christ, the Holy Spirit within us.
I especially appreciate this example of photographing in our mind the reaction of others when we our behavior is harmful to others. We need as many ways as possible to refrain from not showing love to our neighbor. One of my helpers is knowing how much I dislike making amends. That is my HALT button when I begin to think about returning hurt to someone else.
Joanna. joannaseibert.com