I was thinking about The Triumvirate of AA, How we have three parts in AA, One is The Program of AA which is contained in the Book Alcoholics Anonymous, in which our Organization is named after, in multiple printings, and four editions, the first 164 pages have remained unchanged by an overwhelming vote of AA "members" themselves
That is "The Program of AA"
Secondly we have meetings, where newcomers come to get support and find out how to stop drinking, where we, the members of AA show them what worked with us, which is, the program outlined in that book.
The Traditions state that each group has as it's primary purpose to carry "it's message" to the still suffering alcoholic. What is "It's message"?
According to The inside flap of The Third Edition The Program of Action outlined in the first 164 pages of The Book we are named after
Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group provided that as a group they have no other affiliation." This meant, of course, that we had been given the courage to declare each A.A. group an individual entity, strictly rely on its own conscience as a guide to action. In charting this enormous expanse of freedom, we found it necessary to post only two storm signals: A group ought not do anything which would greatly injure A.A. as a whole, nor ought it affiliate itself with anything or anybody else. There would be real danger should we commence to call some groups "wet," others "dry," still others "Republican" or "Communist," and yet others "Catholic" or "Protestant." The A.A. group would have to stick to its course or be hopelessly lost. Sobriety had to be its sole objective So meetings are there for people suffering from Alcoholism can find our solution, and if a still suffering alcoholic goes to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, because we have become the elephant in the recovery World, it is important the newcomer finds that. A meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous that shares the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Third we have "The Fellowship" taken from The Big Book in A Vision for You when describing the program of action necessary to recover. As individuals we have absolute freedom to what we will, but we learned:
The unity of Alcoholics Anonymous it the most cherished quality our Society has. Our live, the lives of all to come, depend squarely upon it. We stay whole, or A.A. dies. Without unity, the heart of A.A. would cease to beat; our world arteries would no longer carry the life-giving grace of God; His gift to us would be spent aimlessly. Back again in their caves, alcoholics would reproach us and say, "What a great thing A.A. might have been!" "Does this mean," some will anxiously ask, "that in A.A. the individual doesn't count for much? Is he to be dominated by his group and swallowed up in it?" We may certainly answer this question with a loud "No!" We believe there isn't a fellowship on earth which lavishes more devoted care upon its individual members; surely there is none which more jealously guards the individual's right to think, talk, and act as he wishes. No A.A. can compel another to do anything; nobody can be punished or expelled. Our Twelve Steps to recovery are suggestions; the Twelve Traditions which guarantee A.A.'s unity contain not a single "Don't." They repeatedly say "We ought..." but never "You must!"
To many minds all this liberty for the individual spells sheer anarchy. Every newcomer, every friend who looks at A.A. for the first time is greatly puzzled. They see liberty verging on license, yet they recognize at once that A.A. has an irresistible strength of purpose and action. "How," they ask, "can such a crowd of anarchists function at all? How can they possible place their common welfare first? What in Heaven's name holds them together?" Those who look closely soon have the key to this strange paradox. The A.A. member has to conform to the principles of recovery. His life actually depends upon obedience to spiritual principles. If he deviates too far, the penalty is sure and swift; he sickens and dies. At first he goes along because he must, but later he discovers a way of life he really wants to live. Moreover, he finds he cannot keep this priceless gift unless he gives it away. Neither he nor anybody else can survive unless he carries the A.A. message. The moment this Twelfth Step work forms a group, another discovery is made - that most individuals cannot recover unless there is a group. Realization dawns that he is but a small part of a great whole; that no personal sacrifice is too great for preservation of the Fellowship So we have The Program:
Contained in the first 164 pages of The Book Alcoholics Anonymous
Meetings
Where The still suffering Alcoholic can come to find support and be shown The Program
and The Fellowship
We have shown how we got out from under. You say, "Yes, I'm willing. But am I to be consigned to a life where I shall be stupid, boring and glum, like some righteous people I see? I know I must get along without liquor, but how can I? Have you a sufficient substitute?"
Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that. It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. There you will find release from care, boredom and worry. Your imagination will be fired. Life will mean something at last. The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead. Thus we find the fellowship, and so will you.
They Form a three legged stool to combat Alcoholism, a malady of mind, body and spirit, which is defined By Alcoholics Anonymous as:
The Big Book states "we are told that alcoholism 'is an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer.
The steps lead us to The Spiritual Experience, The Meetings allow us first to learn, then to pass on The Program of Alcoholics Anonymous, and The Fellowship is what grows up around us, in my case the Fellowship was the reward, The People I helped save then turned and saved me, when we are unable to carry ourselves, we carry each other because:
We can't all be crazy on the same day
Anyhow, on to Barefoot Bill
Intro to "Working the Steps" From "Barefoot" Bill L.
I usually like to start a study of the Big Book way of life with something on the Circle and Triangle. Since alcoholism effects us physically, mentally and spiritually (more on that in "Working Step 1"), it's important to realize that AA's solution to alcoholism (as outlined in the Big Book) would also need to have three parts. When I first heard this, after being in AA for three and a half years, it was news to me. I really thought at that time that AA's solution to alcoholism was "don't drink and go to meetings" because that was what I heard constantly. After my experience showed me that there's a big difference between not drinking, and not drinking and being happy about it, I started to integrate all three parts of AA's solution. This focus and consistency has brought about continued serenity, growth and freedom for me and everyone I've every known who did the same.
I also think that it's important to note that there is a BIG difference between "the fellowship" and "the Program." Both are important. The fellowship (meetings and interaction with other AA's) is "a group of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other", and the Program (the Steps) is "a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole." Understanding this then, it is very incorrect to be at a meeting and say "I've been in the program for six months but it doesn't seem to be working for me." If you haven't gotten into working all of the Steps (no matter how long you've been dry), you are ONLY in the FELLOWSHIP, not the PROGRAM. I know that we hear the expression "in the program" all the time but I must say that it is often misused.
Let's start the introduction by turning to Roman numeral page 13 (xiii). At the top of the page xiii, in the Foreword to the First Edition, we find:
"We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics PRECISELY HOW WE HAVE RECOVERED is the MAIN purpose of this book. For them, we hope these pages will prove so convincing that no further authentication will be necessary. We think this account of our experiences will help everyone to better understand the alcoholic. Many do not comprehend that the alcoholic is a very sick person. And besides, we are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all."
With all the many different Fellowships in the world today that use the 12-Step format, that last line certainly has come true. Also in the paragraph we just read, the "Big Book" authors immediately tell us that the purpose of this book is to show us how to recover from alcoholism. This is a revolutionary statement, because until this book was written, there was no hope for alcoholics. Now, anyone who is willing to follow the directions they have provided, CAN RECOVER.
We know that the words "recover" or "recovered" are not necessarily popular words in A.A. today. However, these words ARE used throughout our literature. For a new person in A.A. (and perhaps for those who do not know), what does the word "recovered" mean? Well, the Big Book gives what can be considered as our definition for the word "recovered" beginning at the bottom of page 84. What I am about to read are the results of working the first ten Steps, otherwise known as the Tenth Step Promises. The bottom of page 84 gives a description of "recovered" as:
"And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone - even alcohol. For by this time sanity (which means seeing the truth about alcohol) 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 we will find that this has happened automatically. We will 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. (Now here's a warning.) That is how we react so long as (or IF) we keep in FIT spiritual condition."
Please now turn back to the beginning of the book, Roman numeral page 20 or xx. This is from the Foreword to the Second Edition and was written in 1955, 16 years AFTER the Big Book was published. Five lines down from the top of page xx it says:
"Of alcoholics who came to A.A. and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way, 25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with A.A. showed improvement."
Remember that this was written 20 years after AA began. This is saying that all those who came to AA and went through this process, 75% eventually got sober. And let us remember that this is long before there were a lot of meetings so it was IMPOSSIBLE for people to get sober on the fellowship, they needed to get sober on the Program. They applied these Steps to their life, they had a spiritual awakening or a spiritual experience, and they didn't find it necessary to drink from that point on. Maybe after these next five weeks, we can apply these principles to OUR life, get the same results, and carry this simple little message into our fellowship, and then maybe AA as a WHOLE will again have a 75% rate of recovery like they did back then.
"When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically." - Big Book page 64 (When it says "physically", please keep in mind that this includes the physical world around us.)
For me, the circle and triangle represents the Alcoholics Anonymous solution to alcoholism. It is a perfect overview of our three-part answer (unity, recovery, and service) to our three-part disease (physical, mental and spiritual).
The foundation of this triangle (which the rest of the solution is built upon) is recovery. The set of 12 spiritual principles associated with recovery are contained in the 12 Steps (which are located in the Big Book, pages i - 164; and then talked about in the 12 and 12, pages 15 - 125). The part of the disease that it treats is the mental.
The left side of this triangle is unity, which can be found in fellowship with other AA's. The set of 12 spiritual principles associated with unity are contained in the 12 Traditions (which are located in the 12 and 12, pages 129 - 192). The part of the disease that it treats is the physical.
And the right side of this triangle is service, which can be found in carrying the message and, with unselfishness and love, contributing inside and outside of AA. The set of 12 spiritual principles associated with service are contained in the 12 Concepts (which are located in the booklet "Twelve Concepts for World Service"). The part of the disease that it treats is the spiritual (remember that the Big Book says on pages 14 - 15 that "we perfect and enlarge our spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others", and on pages 14, 76, 88 and 93 it says, "Faith without works is dead."
Also, notice that the sides of the triangle are all equal in size, which means that not only do I need to be living in all three areas but that I need to incorporate all three proportionately. I have seen many people go back out who were using LESS THAN all three parts, but I have NEVER seen ANYONE return to drinking who was living in ALL THREE. I've heard people refer to it as a three-legged stool. If all three legs are there then the structure is solid, but if one or two legs are missing then what is supporting me is shaky and I am sure to fall.
If actions in these three areas are taken, I can be whole in body, mind and spirit; together as one.
There are times when these principles spill into each other because the lines between them are blurred (like, it could be said that all of the Steps lead to our awakening to the awareness of spirit, or service sounds a lot like our Step 12, or there are aspects of the Traditions that can be used in all of our affairs). But if we want to stay on the "Road of Happy Destiny" we need to be familiar with the whole package that leads to freedom, recovery, peace of mind, joy, usefulness and "a way of life that is incredibly more wonderful as time passes."
It doesn't matter how long it's been since our last drink. What matters MORE is how close we are to our next one. How can we tell if we are closer to the next drink then we would like to be? We can get a good indication every few months (as part of taking personal inventory) by asking ourselves, "Am I participating equally in all three branches of the AA solution?" If our answer is, "YES!", we will know as best we can if we are still on the beam in AA's design for living.
At the 20th Anniversary Convention of AA in St. Louis, MO. on July 1 - 3, 1955; Bill Wilson said the following: "Above us we see a banner and that banner shows a circle which is AA circumscribing the world. Within it is a triangle. The base of the triangle is the foundation of recovery on which we stand. The left of the triangle symbolizes our unity, and the right of the triangle our arm of service. Such is the symbol of AA. I first saw it in Norway in 1950, but this symbol is not new with us. We have attributed a particular significance to it but in actuality its significance is very old. Students of ancient days tell that centuries ago it was regarded by priests and witch doctors alike as the symbol by which evil spirits could be kept away, and may that symbol ever stand guard over the society of Alcoholics Anonymous."
This symbol is also an ancient spiritual symbol for wholeness of body, mind and spirit; or "Oneness."
On May 21, 1993, AA World Service released an unsigned document titled: "Follow-up Statement Regarding Use of the Circle/ Triangle Symbol." In it, AAWS stated that "Alcoholics Anonymous will phase out the 'official' use of the circle and triangle symbol in and on its literature, letterheads and other material." That action has generated a considerable amount of discussion because it was taken without a conference action or a "group conscience."
I hope you can see the significance of the Circle and Triangle and please let others know (especially people you work with) about its representation of the 36 spiritual principles in AA's solution to alcoholism that leads to integrity on the personal, group, and service level.
Barefoot Bill wlash@avaya.com
-- Edited by AGO on Wednesday 28th of April 2010 07:13:35 PM
__________________
Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a night, light a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life
He makes you think about AA. We need to think about AA. So many people give advice telling newcomers don't think but forget any guidance about what they mean.
Larry, ----------------- If in the last few years you haven't discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead. ~Gelett Burgess
