Continued to take personal inventory and

when we were wrong promptly admitted it

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Twice in the book, Bill has mentioned a Fourth Dimension of Existence:

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once in his story and once in Chapter 2. It is a dimension of living far beyond the normal three. You can’t explain it or describe it. You can only feel it. And that’s what the last three steps do – move us into another dimension of living.

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One of the things that we did as a fellowship was took the steps out of the book and put them on the wall. People come into AA and try to work the steps off the wall without instructions. No wonder they get in trouble. Step 10, off the wall says:

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Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

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It looked like if we just continued to take a little inventory and if we were wrong, promptly it, we would be doing the intended step 10. But, somehow we got the idea that we do that at night. Well, the nighttime portion is over in step 11, not in step 10. We don’t get in trouble at night in bed any more. We need a daytime walking around step. So, let’s look at Step 10 in a different light.

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Big Book, p. 84, par. 2 “This thought brings us to Step Ten, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of Spirit.”

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We’ve had a spiritual awakening.

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Big Book, p. 84, par. 2 cont. “Our next function is to grow”

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To grow, not maintain, not stay where we are, but to grow.

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Big Book, p. 84, par. 2 cont. “in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime. Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear.”

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We used step 4 to look at that in the first place.

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Big Book, p. 84, par. 2 cont. “When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them.”

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Steps 6 and 7 were used there.

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Big Book, p. 84, par. 2 cont. “We discuss them with someone immediately”

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This was step 5.

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Big Book, p. 84, par. 2 cont. “and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone.”

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There, we used steps 8 and 9.

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Big Book, p. 84, par. 2 cont. “Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code.”

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It looks to me like it we follow the directions in the book, then we will be doing Steps 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 on a daily basis for the rest of our lives. I would defy anybody to do 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 on a daily basis and stay the way you are. You absolutely cannot do that. I’ve got that little inventory sheet right up here in my head just as plain as day and you do too. I used to wait until night to pray or meditate about the troubles I had at 9am and throughout the day. But, when I did that, I’ve wasted another day in anger, worry, and depression. I finally trained myself that when I get screwed up about something at 9:00am, I get off in the corner by myself. I say, “OK Tony…

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“Who are you mad at?”

“What did they do to you?”

“What part of self is affected?”

“What did you do, if anything, to set it in motion?”

“Which character defect has come back to the surface?”

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I can’t get upset unless one of those old character defects has come back.

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Selfish, dishonest, self-seeking, frightened,

or inconsiderate

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I can spot it just like that. I say, “Okay God, you know I don’t want to be this way. Please take this away from me.” This selfishness or this dishonesty or whatever it is. I try to discuss it with someone immediately. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can’t; But I try to. Then, I make amends quickly if I hurt anybody in this process. Ten to twenty minutes and it’s all gone. The rest of the day is OK. I have wasted all the time that I want to waste in resentments, fear, anger, worry, and depression. I don’t have to do that anymore. My God, I love to feel good! I don’t want to waste the little time I have left alive. I’ve got a tool here that works every time. And, as you continue to take personal inventory, you’re going to learn more about yourself. As you ask God to take these things away, they become less and less. As you discuss them with another human being, we know more about ourselves. As we make amends quickly, our relationship with the world and everybody in it becomes better and better. You can’t do Step 10 the way the book says and stay the way you are. You just can’t. Your relationship with God, with yourself, and with your fellow man will become better and better. A new Dimension of living that we never dreamed exists.

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Now, be careful. This is just like 6 and 7. This is the other changing step. And if you stay fouled up you can’t blame it on anybody else any longer. Cause if you’re fouled up and you use Step 10, you can get rid of that stuff. But, if you stay fouled up and you stay angry, worried, depressed, selfish and dishonest, it’s got to be because that’s the way you want to be. I can’t blame it on anybody or God or anything else any longer. And, once in a great while I like to be screwed up. There are times I like to be mad because when I’m mad, I can romp and stomp and raise hell with everybody around me all day long. And, that gives me a comfortable feeling of superiority. And once in a while, I just love it. There’s times I like to be afraid because I can use that to rationalize and justify not doing what I should do or just as importantly doing something I shouldn’t do. But when I do that, I don’t enjoy it like I used to. Somewhere about the middle of it, I catch myself. And I say “OK, idiot — You’re doing it to yourself again”. This thing really does work. And you’ll continue to grow.

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Now, after step 10 you’ve got another set of promises. Let’s look at them for just a moment.

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Big Book, p. 84, par. 3. “And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone—even alcohol. For by this time sanity will have returned.”

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Remember it said, “We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves would restore us to sanity”?

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Well, we get our sanity back on page 84 by the way.

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Big Book, p. 84, par. 3 cont. “For by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally, and will find that this has happened automatically. We see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality–safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky, nor are we afraid. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.”

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Remember, way back on page 45, it said that the main object of this book was to enable me to find a power greater than myself which would solve my problem. And somewhere between there and here, we have the first 9 or 10 Steps of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous. And one day into 6, 7, or 8 months of sobriety and working these steps, I looked up one day and asked myself, “What happened to that desire of drink that I used to have?” It’s just gone, seemingly without any effort on my part. I found the Power, and the Power solved the problem. That’s the miracle of it.

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Now, the next to the last paragraph on page 85.

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Big Book, p. 85, par. 2

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Much has already been said about receiving strength, inspiration, and direction from Him who has all knowledge and power. If we have carefully followed directions (not suggestions), we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent we have become God-conscious. We have begun to develop this vital sixth sense. But we must go further and that means more action.

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In other words, what’s happened to us in Steps 3 through 10 is that we’ve removed enough self-will that we are now becoming God-conscious. By now, we are beginning to receive some directions from God. If the book says that God has all power and all direction (which I believe he does as the book says so), then God dwells within each of us. Therefore, it stands to reason that you and I have all the knowledge and power within ourselves that we could ever need to handle any situation which comes up in the future. It’s called a sixth sense of direction.

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I have five senses. Everything I know on a conscience level, I learn from these. I can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. But, what little I’ve learned through my five senses is just a small amount of knowledge. But, if God has all knowledge and all power, I can tap into him and can handle any situation in the future with His help, whatever it may be.

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You develop this sixth sense of direction

through prayer and meditation.

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Want to know more? Please contact us so you can be enlightened.

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