“By mistake, I thought, I walked into AA, and you handed me a cup of coffee, a Big Book, a meeting list, and asked me if I wanted a sponsor.”

“It is difficult for us to step outside of our means-to-an-end thinking Yet, the practice of meditation isn’t just some change taking place privately inside our personal consciousness; it is instead embedded in all of life. We discover that we have stepped into a whole new world, one with no beginning and no end. This practice cannot be justified by what it’s going to get us, or where it’s going to take us. It opens the door to a new dimension, a mysterious journey, like taking a new drug, which continues endlessly deeper into the unknown. It has no other purpose other than to expand our sense of awe, wonder and gratitude.”

“Looking back on our lives, in meditation we ask ourselves, ‘Are we now ready to let God remove from us all the things which we have admitted are objectionable? Can He now take them all—every one? If we still cling to something we will not let go, we ask God to help us be willing.’ Next, we say something like this: ‘My Creator, I am now willing that you should have all of me, good and bad. I pray that you now remove from me every single defect of character which stands in the way of my usefulness to you and my fellows. Grant me strength, as I go out from here, to do your bidding. Amen.’’

“I will come to God in faith and He will give me a new way of life. This new way of life will alter my whole existence, the words I speak, the influence I have. They will spring from the life within me. I see how important this work is from a person who has this new way of life. The words and the example of such a person can have a whole influence for good in the world. I pray that I may learn the principles of the good life. I pray that I may meditate upon them and work at them, because they are eternal.”