| The Twelve
Keys Principles for Enlightened Existence
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 La Danse |
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Introduction First Triad Second Triad Third Triad Fourth Triad Conclusion |
Introduction Honesty The first principle is the only one that we can, and must, do completely on our own. This principle, the exercise of honesty, comes hard. To put oneself in proper perspective to circumstance requires a rigorous personal honesty that few will want to exercise unless forced. Indeed, it is the idea that we are powerless over our circumstances and that they will cause our lives to become unmanageable that is the unique key to this principle. In coming to this level of honesty we can separate our old methods and ideas from our desire to be better than we are in present circumstances. Open mindedness What can we believe in? What things exist in the human experience that are everlasting? Those things made by men will all fail. Those things provided by an even greater power have survived all man's attempts to pervert them. Look for the results of a spiritual intervention in the lives of those around you. Note that spiritually enlightened people are comfortable and capable in situations that would cause fear and panic in the normal person. The spiritually centered person has developed a reliance on a Greater Power while the average person is stuck within their own providence. Ask yourself if your willpower has always worked in every situation to your satisfaction, or have there been times when you could have used what those living a spiritual existence have. How often do we continue to apply the same ideas over-and-over, expecting the results to differ? Watch those with a spiritual foundation for living, don't they seem almost to dance through life, even in times of trouble? Willingness Here is the final step in surrender. The paradoxical idea that one must surrender to win stops many people from letting go of the worldly association. In taking this step we allow that power greater than ourselves and others to influence us. Yes, it means that we must align our ideas by following the direction from an unseen commander. Faith is all that is required to make this beginning. The result of this faith is the developed listening to the still, small voice of divine inspiration. Certainly everyone can find faith in a Power greater that themselves if they have followed the first two principles. The prayer I used during this step may be helpful in establishing the proper idea of surrender:
Truth A moral inventory? Here we rely on the beginning of spiritual experience from the previous step to carry us through. Cataloging our many misdeeds is not the point of this step. Instead what is needed is to get to the heart of our nature. For most of us there is no problem living by principles, its the principles we live by that are the problem. Thus, it is necessary to catalogue the old ideas and put them in perspective. As an aid in this step, it is useful to classify the lack of self-willed success along the following categories:
Confidence Here is a step that is so contrary to our nature that most will balk. How does one gain confidence from divulging our faults to others. Most of us are willing to admit them to ourselves. Fewer will catalogue them to God, often feeling that, since He knows them anyway why should we have to enumerate them. But admissions of our faults to others? All our lives we've been programmed to keep this stuff private. Well, since we are on a new path, one where our shortcomings and failures are also to be useful, it is necessary to take this step as a beginning. We unlock those horrible truths about ourselves and find that others will often admit similar truths, often sharing the means they have found to overcome them and set things right. All of a sudden we find a confidence in both ourselves and in others. Our relation to the world now really begins to change. Versatility Why do I attribute this principle to a willingness to remove our defects? I found that, no matter how hard I tried to follow prescriptive formulae for curbing the defects in my character I'd ultimately fall short. What is needed is to develop a flexibility instead of a rigid discipline. We also discover that there are defects of character that work for us. Thus it requires a certain faith and willingness to have our Higher Power remove them. One key here is that our shortcomings may be useful to Him. We can't make that choice for ourselves without willingness to surrender our ideas to Him first. This separates the men from the boys. We acquire a versatility in using our instincts that comes not from blind habit but from a divine inspiration. Humility We now surrender our self-instincts to God. Finally we put into practice the principle of versatility by yielding to the truth that character building and spiritual values must come before the world's material satisfactions. We accept, humbly, that our definition of character is that of a flawed and capricious human nature. We accept His opinion of us as the real view, how He sees us. In taking this step we turn over not only our shortcomings but all of our abilities, good and bad. We are now letting ourselves be shaped by that Power with an Eternal perspective. A prayer I used to focus myself for this step goes like this:
Forgiveness For many people this is a time of trouble. We see how our out-of-control instincts have affected us and we are now aware that there is a price to pay. So many of us now conceive of the horrors that our defects have wrought on ourselves we begin to note a great deal of self-shame in our relationships with others. Now we're going to catalogue these harmed relationships. The difficulty comes not in the listing itself but in the willingness to make amends. For many it is the first time they will have to submit themselves to the ideas of someone they've harmed. Hence, forgiveness is the principle to be gained. Forgiving ourselves is only a partial application of this idea. Certainly we want to obtain forgiveness. But what of these amends? Are we so sure we'll just skate by, that the other person will not ask more of us than we're willing to give? There will be some who will have already forgiven us, sure. But there are also those who are just as unenlightened and boorish as we once were. Forgiving them, in advance, for that which they feel necessary to extract from us as amends is the true key to this step. Responsibility Now we go to those people on our list and sit with them. Offering to each of them our fault in matters affecting their lives we take responsibility. We ask them what we may do to set things right and we listen, accepting without argument, to their response. We carefully avoid those situations where revealing our interference in their lives would cause further harm to them or others. We clear away the wreckage of our past in this step. We are burying the skeletons in our closet for once and for all. There will be those we've harmed that we cannot approach due to other circumstances such as distance or death. We handle these through offering ourselves to our Higher Power and accepting His directions in the amend of our wrongs. Conscientiousness Now that we've put ourselves squarely on a new footing we begin the maintenance steps. After completing the work in the first nine steps and gaining their principles and practice in our lives we look to the actions necessary to maintain our enlightenment. In this step we work each day on self-examination of our operation. We see where our personae are operating in our lives and where we fall short we admit it as quickly as possible. There is no doubt that we will fail. The greatness of this principle is in that it allows us to fail forward faster. We don't drag the baggage around with us as we once did. Awareness Here we seek to deepen our spiritual relationship with our Creator. We pray carefully for His will and strength to empower our lives. Avoiding the self-centered ideas and opening up ourselves to divine direction in all of our everyday situations is the power of this step. Many will seek His will and strength when a situation gets tough. Here we practice a principle which will lead us so that we avoid being hammered by self-will. Life will hand us situations seemingly beyond our capacity. We find through this step an acceptance and willingness to deal with our difficulties and the glory of handling them much more easily than by our own self-will. I've found the prayer of St. Francis to be extremely helpful in gaining a proper focus in applying this principle.
Service Now the catch on the whole affair. In order to keep what we've gained we have to give it away. We should always remember that selfishness was our blind. By maintaining ourselves in a fashion to give away what we've gained we glorify the process we've been through as well as He who has directed our progress. Practicing the principles we've learned in all our affairs of the world tends to make an attractive life. A life that others will want to have for themselves. We must be ready to testify fully to the process that we've used to gain our freedom. Conclusion As a final thought, I'd like to leave you with twelve promises that have always come true for everyone who is thorough in following these principles:
May God bless you and keep you. |
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