That Ain't In The Big Book
~sb
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: MD
Posts: 15,967
Laozi Old Man
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 6,665
I often here AA members say: "That ain't AA".
Yet the phrase itself, never appears anywhere in AA literature even once.
You want to hear what AA does say in Tradition 4:
"every A.A. group can manage its affairs exactly as it pleases".
Yet the phrase itself, never appears anywhere in AA literature even once.
You want to hear what AA does say in Tradition 4:
"every A.A. group can manage its affairs exactly as it pleases".
Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Manchester, UK
Posts: 1,111
Anybody can read the Big Book.
The trick for me is to learn how to share my experience with others - of the problem and the solution - in a way that reflects and demonstrates my own real life experience of this programme of recovery, in a way that tells my truth.
If I limit myself to repeating phrases out of a book...I am less than useful. I'm ignoring the best asset I have.
P
The trick for me is to learn how to share my experience with others - of the problem and the solution - in a way that reflects and demonstrates my own real life experience of this programme of recovery, in a way that tells my truth.
If I limit myself to repeating phrases out of a book...I am less than useful. I'm ignoring the best asset I have.
P
12 Step Recovered Alcoholic
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
Originally Posted by NoelleR 
No matter how many AAer's may shout it out, 'one day at a time' is NOT in the Big Book. What IS in the BB is we quit 'for good and all.'
(o:
NoelleR
(o:
NoelleR
While I'm at it, easy does it is another saying that is used out of context. It appears in relation to the family afterwards. It was never intended for other interpretations.
Laozi Old Man
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 6,665
Originally Posted by NoelleR
No matter how many AAer's may shout it out, 'one day at a time' is NOT in the Big Book. What IS in the BB is we quit 'for good and all.'
ODAAT did get me a few days, weeks, months here and there. However, looking back at it, it was nothing more than barely marginal recovery.
Today, I live in "The Now". Now does not feel like ODAAT at all.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Manchester, UK
Posts: 1,111
Of course, 'One Day at a Time' comes from the long form of the Serenity Prayer...as in Living One Day at a Time:
Serenity Prayer - God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can
P
Serenity Prayer - God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can
P
Member
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Mgm, AL
Posts: 1,000
Okay.
There is a BIGGEST Book from which the text of Alcoholics Anonymous derived much of the spiritual content, at least according to Dr. Robert Smith in one of his last recorded speeches.
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. “I do not receive glory from men. John 5:39-41
The context of Christ's comments as he addresses the leaders and religious scholars who are bent on His persecution after healing a lame man on Sabbath. They can cite the scriptures forward and back that tell of Christ's coming, His freedom of bondage, His (eventual) conquering of death, but they refuse to see His Spirit of love and compassion. The talk about it, but they really haven't applied it.
"The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it. pp 83-- just before The Promises.
The promise of the Third Steps suggest that we will lose interest in our selves and gain interest in our fellows--that we may become examples of God's presence in our lives through His glory in not only making us well and relieved from the bondage of alcoholism and addiction, but that we well get better than that: We will practice a life guided by His spiritual direction and awareness of His presence in all we attempt. And we will give Him credit for it.
Will we fail? duh-huh. But we will reach for God, admit our shortcomings, and trudge on toward a destiny we can be sure of. Anything less is missing the point of spiritual recovery--renewal of mind and body--according to God's Will, not our own.
Is your relationship with God big enough to do that? To put Him first?
THAT is AA in my experience...
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. “I do not receive glory from men. John 5:39-41
The context of Christ's comments as he addresses the leaders and religious scholars who are bent on His persecution after healing a lame man on Sabbath. They can cite the scriptures forward and back that tell of Christ's coming, His freedom of bondage, His (eventual) conquering of death, but they refuse to see His Spirit of love and compassion. The talk about it, but they really haven't applied it.
"The spiritual life is not a theory. We have to live it. pp 83-- just before The Promises.
The promise of the Third Steps suggest that we will lose interest in our selves and gain interest in our fellows--that we may become examples of God's presence in our lives through His glory in not only making us well and relieved from the bondage of alcoholism and addiction, but that we well get better than that: We will practice a life guided by His spiritual direction and awareness of His presence in all we attempt. And we will give Him credit for it.
Will we fail? duh-huh. But we will reach for God, admit our shortcomings, and trudge on toward a destiny we can be sure of. Anything less is missing the point of spiritual recovery--renewal of mind and body--according to God's Will, not our own.
Is your relationship with God big enough to do that? To put Him first?
THAT is AA in my experience...
Member
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Washington, MO
Posts: 2,306
World's largest book - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ahh... but there are even bigger books daniel-sun.
Ahh... but there are even bigger books daniel-sun.
Trudgin
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 6,348
The words Big Book ain't in the Big Book = Alcoholics Anonymous 
The concept of tacit learning comes to mind - learning from others how to do something that cannot simply be read in a book. The how it works to me is indeed reinforced by the idioms of AA.
Those sayings are the powdered sugar on the beignet as we say in NOLA!
The concept of tacit learning comes to mind - learning from others how to do something that cannot simply be read in a book. The how it works to me is indeed reinforced by the idioms of AA.
Those sayings are the powdered sugar on the beignet as we say in NOLA!
Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Bklyn. NY
Posts: 1,859
Originally Posted by paulokes
Anybody can read the Big Book.
The trick for me is to learn how to share my experience with others - of the problem and the solution - in a way that reflects and demonstrates my own real life experience of this programme of recovery, in a way that tells my truth.
If I limit myself to repeating phrases out of a book...I am less than useful. I'm ignoring the best asset I have.
P
The trick for me is to learn how to share my experience with others - of the problem and the solution - in a way that reflects and demonstrates my own real life experience of this programme of recovery, in a way that tells my truth.
If I limit myself to repeating phrases out of a book...I am less than useful. I'm ignoring the best asset I have.
P
I learned the most from the real life, detailed experiences of others. And that's what I always do my best to share. The BB and step book were springboards for me. The hardcore basics. There is however so much more to life, the steps, sobriety, living healthfully, happy... blah, blah, bla....
Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 2,126
Originally Posted by tomsteve
Actually that is in the bb over 40 times.
And I like pancakes.
And I like pancakes.
(o:
NoelleR
P.S. I like pancakes too, but I prefer my French toast; it's to die for.....
It`s ok to stay sober
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Central NC
Posts: 20,902
"Remember your last drunk"
Page 24, Paragraph 2: "We are unable, at times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago.
I am able,at times,to remember my last drunk with the aweful sufferings that went with it.It happened in the last week of July 1988
My second sponsor used to tell me,if you don`t remember your last drunk,chances are you ain`t had it yet.
That got me to focus on the insanity of the first drink,not any "pleasure" it could have brought.It helped me see drinking as it really was
Page 24, Paragraph 2: "We are unable, at times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago.
I am able,at times,to remember my last drunk with the aweful sufferings that went with it.It happened in the last week of July 1988
My second sponsor used to tell me,if you don`t remember your last drunk,chances are you ain`t had it yet.
That got me to focus on the insanity of the first drink,not any "pleasure" it could have brought.It helped me see drinking as it really was
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