When we talk about Step 11, “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood [God],” many people assume the meditation has to be silent – some form of Zen, Vipassana, or Transcendental practice. But in 1939, when the Big Book was published, “meditation” had a more general meaning: basically, calm thoughtfulness.
“In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don’t struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while.” [p. 86]
The 12 x 12 doesn’t offer much further explanation. Bill leads us through the St. Francis prayer and comments as he goes, then basically tells us to do whatever works for us. But from the two texts combined, we can glean these goals:
- Spiritual Focus: Meditation was intended to deepen the individual’s spiritual experience and connection with God.
- Listening for Guidance: The practice emphasized quieting the mind enough to be open to receiving insights and direction.
- Integration with Prayer: Prayer was seen as speaking to God, while meditation was about listening.
My approach is broader. In contemplating the state of my heart, I may discover a thorn of pain. Here I ask god to help me see it differently — to guide my perspective toward a higher plane. So my meditation is kind of a combination of sharing with god, letting god shift my perspective, and then embracing the good I perceive in the thorn. This is how I resolve pain and realign myself with what is so I can not only be more useful to my fellows but feel happier in myself.
I hope this session is useful to you. Let me know in the comments if it helped any with your own “thorns” and whether you’d like me to add to the two I’ve recorded.
A Spiritual Evolution 