The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual expe- rience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. To the precise extent that we permit these, do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. “In short, we chose to `become willing’, and no better choice did we ever make.” GRAPEVINE, NOVEMBER1960 LETTER,1966ĥ Maintenance and Growth It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. We came to believe that a Higher Power could restore us to sanity when we became willing to practice A.A.’s Twelve Steps. This was surely a choice, and a most diffi- cult one. We came to believe that alone we were powerless over alcohol. “Yet we finally did make choices that brought about re- covery. We were the victims of a compulsion which seemed to decree that we must go on with our own destruction. > “As active alcoholics, we lost our ability to choose wheth- er we would drink. We have to believe that we can really choose. Hold your face up to the Light, even though for the moment you do not see.” LETTER,1950 TWELVE AND TWELVE, PP.93-94 LETTER,1950Ĥ Can We Choose? We must never be blinded by the futile philosophy that we are just the hapless victims of our inheritance, of our life experience, and of our surroundings - that these are the sole forces that make our decisions for us. How heartily we A.A.’s can agree with him, for we know that the pains of alcoholism had to come before sobriety, and emotional turmoil before serenity. Now I commiserate only with those who suffer in ignorance, who do not understand the purpose and ultimate utility of pain.” > Someone once remarked that pain is the touchstone of spiritual progress. COMES OF AGE, P.63ģ Pain and Progress “Years ago I used to commiserate with all people who suffered. All about me and through me there was a wonderful feeling of Presence, and I thought to myself, “So this is the God of the preachers!” ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, P.100 A.A. I lay on the bed, but now for a time I was in another world,a new world of consciousness.
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And then it burst upon me that I was a free man. It seemed to me, in the mind’s eye, that I was on a mountain and that a wind not of air but of spirit was blowing. All at once I found myself crying out, “If there is a God, let Him show Himself! I am ready to do anything, anything!” Suddenly the room lit up with a great white light. For the moment, the last vestige of my proud obstinacy was crushed. > My depression deepened unbearable, and finally it seemed to me as though I were at the very bottom of the pit. LETTER,1940 TWELVE AND TWELVE, P.47Ģ In God’s Hands When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God’s hands were better than anything we could have planned. It never occurred to us that we needed to change ourselves to meet condi- tions, whatever they were. But anyone who knows the alcoholic personality by firsthand contact knows that no true alky ever stops drinking permanently without under- going a profound personality change.” > We thought “conditions” drove us to drink, and when we tried to correct these conditions and found that we couldn’t do so to our entire satisfaction, our drinking went out of hand and we became alcoholics. We have to get over drinking in order to stay alive. that we are interested only on alcoholism. World Services, Inc.As Bill Sees It The A.A.Way of Life (Selected writings of A.A.’s co-founder)ġ Personality Change “It has often been said of A.A.
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Reprinted from the book Alcoholics Anonymous (The Big Book) with permission of A.A.
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Since the third edition was published in 1976, worldwide membership of A.A. This fourth edition of “Alcoholics Anonymous” came off press in November 2001, at the start of a new millennium.