Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions - ccaa.org.au

1 Twelve STEPSandTWELVE TRADITIONSTWELVESTEPSandTWELVETRADITIONS x ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS WORLD SERVICES, 459, GRAND CENTRAL STATIONNEW YORK, NY 10163 Copyright 1952, 1953, 1981 by The Grapevine,Inc. and Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing (nowknown as Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.)All rights reservedFirst Printing, April 1953 Sixty-fourth Printing, January 2003 Windows Help version, July 1994*Electronic .PDF version, September 2005+This edition is NOT General Service Conference approved literatureALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS and are registeredtrademarks of World Services, 0-916856-01-1 Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 53-5454 Printed in the United States of America* Transcribed by Mr. D.. Software development by cyb.+ .PDF version based upon the text of the Windows Help versionand published by ARID Media. World Services and itssubsidiaries were not involved within the production of thisspecific Twelve STEPSStep One21 We admitted we were powerless over alcohol thatour lives had become unmanageable.

2 Who cares to admit complete defeat? Admission of pow-erlessness is the first step in liberation. Relation of humili-ty to sobriety. Mental obsession plus physical must every hit bottom? step Two25 Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselvescould restore us to sanity. What can we believe in? does not demand belief; Twelve Steps are only suggestions. Importance of an openmind. Variety of ways to faith. Substitution of asHigher Power. Plight of the disillusioned. Roadblocks ofindifference and prejudice. Lost faith found in Prob-lems of intellectuality and self-sufficiency. Negative andpositive thinking. Self-righteousness. Defiance is an out-standing characteristic of alcoholics. step Two is a rally-ing point to sanity. Right relation to Three34 Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over tothe care of God, as we understood Him. step Three is like opening of a locked door. How shall welet God into our lives? Willingness is the key. Depen-dence as a means to independence.

3 Dangers of self-suffi-56 CONTENTS ciency. Turning our will over to Higher Power. Misuse ofwillpower. Sustained and personal exertion necessary toconform to God's will. step Four42 Made a searching and fearless moral inventory ofourselves. How instincts can exceed their proper function. step Fouris an effort to discover our liabilities. Basic problem ofextremes in instinctive drives. Misguided moral inventorycan result in guilt, grandiosity, or blaming others. Assetscan be noted with liabilities. Self-justification is danger-ous. Willingness to take inventory brings light and newconfidence. step Four is beginning of lifetime symptoms of emotional insecurity are worry,anger, self-pity, and depression. Inventory reviews rela-tionships. Importance of Five55 Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another humanbeing the exact nature of our wrongs. Twelve Steps deflate ego. step Five is difficult but neces-sary to sobriety and peace of mind. Confession is an an-cient discipline.

4 Without fearless admission of defects,few could stay sober. What do we receive from StepFive? Beginning of true kinship with man and God. Losesense of isolation, receive forgiveness and give it; learnhumility; gain honesty and realism about ourselves. Ne-cessity for complete honesty. Danger of to choose the person in whom to confide. Results aretranquility and consciousness of God. Oneness with Godand man prepares us for following Six63 Were entirely ready to have God remove all thesedefects of character. step Six necessary to spiritual growth. The beginning of aCONTENTS7lifetime job. Recognition of difference between strivingfor objective and perfection. Why we must keep trying. Being ready is all-important. Necessity of taking is dangerous. Rebellion may be fatal. Point atwhich we abandon limited objectives and move towardGod's will for Seven70 Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. What is humility? What can it mean to us? The avenue totrue freedom of the human spirit.

5 Necessary aid to sur-vival. Value of ego-puncturing. Failure and misery trans-formed by humility. Strength from weakness. Pain is theadmission price to new life. Self-centered fear chief acti-vator of defects. step Seven is change in attitude whichpermits us to move out of ourselves toward Eight77 Made a list of all persons we had harmed, andbecame willing to make amends to them all. This and the next two Steps are concerned with personalrelations. Learning to live with others is a fascinating ad-venture. Obstacles: reluctance to forgive; nonadmission ofwrongs to others; purposeful forgetting. Necessity of ex-haustive survey of past. Deepening insight results fromthoroughness. Kinds of harm done to others. Avoiding ex-treme judgments. Taking the objective view. step Eight isthe beginning of the end of Nine83 Made direct amends to such people whereverpossible, except when to do so would injure them orothers. A tranquil mood is the first requisite for good timing is important in making amends.

6 What iscourage? Prudence means taking calculated begin when we join Peace of mind cannot8 CONTENTSbe bought at the expense of others. Need for to take consequences of our past and to take re-sponsibility for well-being of others is spirit of step Ten88 Continued to take personal inventory and when wewere wrong promptly admitted it. Can we stay sober and keep emotional balance under allconditions? Self-searching becomes a regular habit. Ad-mit, accept, and patiently correct defects. Emotional hang-over. When past is settled with, present challenges can bemet. Varieties of inventory. Anger, resentments, jealous-ly, envy, self-pity, hurt pride all led to the bottle. Self-restraint first objective. Insurance against big-shot-ism. Let's look at credits as well as debits. Examination of Eleven96 Sought through prayer and meditation to improve ourconscious contact with God as we understood Him,praying only for knowledge of His will for us and thepower to carry that out.

7 Meditation and prayer main channels to Higher between self-examination and meditation andprayer. An unshakable foundation for life. How shall wemeditate? Meditation has no boundaries. An individualadventure. First result is emotional balance. What aboutprayer? Daily petitions for understanding of God's willand grace to carry it out. Actual results of prayer are be-yond question. Rewards of meditation and Twelve106 Having had a spiritual awakening as the result ofthese Steps , we tried to carry this message toalcoholics, and to practice these principles in all ouraffairs. Joy of living is the theme of the Twelfth step . Action itsCONTENTS9keyword. Giving that asks no reward. Love that has noprice tag. What is spiritual awakening? A new state ofconsciousness and being is received as a free gift. Readi-ness to receive free gift lies in practice of Twelve magnificent reality. Rewards of helping other alco-holics. Kinds of Twelfth step work. Problems of TwelfthStep work.

8 What about the practice of these principles inall our affairs? Monotony, pain and calamity turned togood use by practice of Steps . Difficulties of practice. Two-stepping. Switch to Twelve -stepping and demon-strations of faith. Growing spiritually is the answer to ourproblems. Placing spiritual growth first. Domination andoverdependence. Putting our lives on give-and-take upon God necessary to recovery of alco-holics. Practicing these principles in all our affairs : Do-mestic relations in Outlook upon material matterschanges. So do feelings about personal importance. In-stincts restored to true purpose. Understanding is key toright attitudes, right action key to good Twelve TRADITIONST radition One129 Our common welfare should come first; personalrecovery depends upon unity. Without unity, dies. Individual liberty, yet great uni-ty. Key to paradox: each 's life depends on obedienceto spiritual principles. The group must survive or the indi-vidual will not.

9 Common welfare comes first. How best tolive and work together as Two132 For our group purpose there is but one ultimate10 CONTENTS authority a loving God as He may express Himself inour group conscience. Our leaders are but trustedservants; they do not govern. Where does get its direction? Sole authority in loving God as He may express Himself in the groupconscience. Formation of a group. Growing pains. Rotat-ing committees are servants of the group. Leaders do notgovern, they serve. Does have a real leadership? Elder statesmen and bleeding deacons. The groupconscience Three139 The only requirement for membership is a desireto stop drinking. Early intolerance based on fear. To take away any alco-holic's chance an was sometimes to pronounce hisdeath sentence. Membership regulations abandoned. Twoexamples of experience. Any alcoholic is a member when he says Four146 Each group should be autonomous except in mattersaffecting other groups or as a whole.

10 Every group manages its affairs as it pleases, except as a whole is threatened. Is such liberty dangerous?The group, like the individual, must eventually conformto principles that guarantee survival. Two storm signals a group ought not do anything which would injure asa whole, nor affiliate itself with outside interests. An ex-ample: the Center that didn't Five150 Each group has but one primary purpose to carrythe message to the alcoholic who still suffers. Better do one thing well than many badly. The life of ourFellowship depends on this principle. The ability of to identify himself with and bring recovery to theCONTENTS11newcomer is a gift from God .. passing on this gift toothers is our one aim. Sobriety can't be kept unless it isgiven Six155 An group ought never endorse, finance or lendthe name to any related facility or outsideenterprise, lest problems of money, property andprestige divert us from our primary purpose. Experience proved that we could not endorse any relatedenterprise, no matter how good.