Apology and The Future

To the thousands of people who have commented on my blog in the past that I failed to acknowledge I thank you all from the bottom of my heart and promise to be attentive moving forward. Speaking of which, the future I mean, I stopped writing a few years ago for a very simple reason: I sat down to write at my scheduled "creative" time one day and there was nothing there. The well was dry. I was perplexed and thought it was a short-term condition. In meditation it became clear that in fact, at the time I had said all I had to say, so with peace of heart, I let go. 

For those who have read through the previous posts I am sure you have discerned a commonality: Emmet Fox. Dr. Fox has been, and still is, at the heart of my awakening. After nearly 40 years I still study and read him daily and fully embrace his foundational philosophy and principles.

However, in my time away I have been exploring many other paths and teachers in earnest, most of them I was familiar with and had spent a modicum of time studying over the years. So in deeper and more thorough inspection I have come to know a seminal truth: All paths of enlightenment contain threads of truth, but no one path contains all. Whether it be Emmet Fox, Lao Tzu, Anandamayi Ma, Brother Lawrence, Neville Goddard, Joseph Murphy, Moses Maimonides, U.S. Andersen, Hermes Trismegistus, Wayne Dyer, Carl Jung, Nietzsche, Abraham Hicks, Marcus Aurelius, or Ram Dass to name just a few there are threads of truth to be had. The key is to read with the mind but study with our heart for what sings to us, for no two melodies are identical. Here meditation is king.

One of the keys is to let go of meaningless judgements which serve to cloud our vision and to be clear, in my opinion of course, your mileage may vary, looking at the world today there are a lot of folks with at best cloudy vision to downright blindness, but even so, it is ALL PERFECT. The corporeal world is perfect. There is the perfect number of blades of grass, of sparrows and mountains, of fish in the seas and creatures great and small on the land. Of people and their dharma in this current incarnation. Yes, we have lived many lives and we will live many more, the flesh ephemeral, our substance, the I AM, eternal.

So if you stuck around to this point, I guess I have more to say moving forward, the well reinvigorated. Can’t promise daily postings, but who knows, for it is just a day at a time after all.

Copyright Vincent Lee Jones

 

The Insanity of Relapse

 

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Addiction Thinking

 How someone can rationalize repeatedly using intoxicants, aware of the possible deadly consequences or incessantly engage in behavior (sexual, gambling, DUI, etc.) that places everything in their life at risk, to the rational individual, is truly baffling. Those addicted to Heroin will lament how they “hate” kicking (detoxing), never wanting to do it again since the experience is so unbearable and painful (think of the worst case of the flu with severe body aches you have ever had and multiply by 2 or more and you have a rough approximation of the experience) but when asked how many times they have detoxed, the answer, typically, is “I don’t know, too many.” Being fully aware of the consequences, would someone rational purposely subject themselves to an experience they “hate” repeatedly, say like volunteering for a needless root canal or IRS audit? Let alone something potentially deadly? Of course not, that would be irrational.

Yet this is the mindset of individuals who suffer from addiction. Repeating the same action expecting a different result demonstrates a base form of insanity. Yes, it is strong language but how else would you describe someone who after being repeatedly arrested for driving under the influence, incurring large financial and personal consequences, continues to drink and drive? The Opioid addict who was literally just brought back to life by a timely dose of NARCAN ® (Naloxone HCl), their first action to make sure no one used the rest of their drugs or if they came to in a hospital take the first opportunity to leave AMA (Against Medical Advice) to return to using the same drug which put them there in the first place! Or the individual who completes a professional treatment program, frequently costing over 100,000 dollars, after a 90 day (depending on their insurance) stay relapses often within days after “graduating.” From experience, having worked with thousands of individuals over the past 35+ years both as someone in recovery and a recovery professional, the above examples are unfortunately typical.

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Education, though important, has proven not to be the overriding answer, while CBT(Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), DBT(Dialectical Behavior Therapy), EMDR(Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) are effective professional treatment modalities along with Psychotherapy, as currently employed have all largely failed, principally because they are not scalable, i.e. Healthcare Providers do not cover these modalities beyond the end of the professional treatment cycle. Another contributing factor is the gulf existing between the professional treatment community and the outside recovery communities of AA, NA, etc. Due to built-in limitations and restrictions inherent in both, as well as some cooked in institutional prejudice coupled with a culture-based unwillingness to change or adapt, strikingly prevalent in the outside recovery communities, no genuine path exists to bridge between them. While the professional community’s hands are tied due to the constraints of Insurance Providers and HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) guidelines, many in the outside recovery communities remain fixated on a single path, disparaging other paths or modalities often making individuals who come to the Fellowships from professional treatment feel unwelcome, running truly contrary to the dictum all should hold dear: “first, do no harm.” Mix in the brokers and treatment centers on the professional side whose only interests are financial, with little or no regard for suffers or recovery, tainting all in the professional sector, providing fodder for the negative narrative in the outside recovery communities and the reasons for today’s abysmal long-term recovery rate (20% according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, though many believe it closer to 10%) and the high chronic relapse rate comes into focus.

 

#Relapse, #SUD, #Addiction, #Alcoholism, #AA, #Fentanyl, #Heroin, #Recovery, #Drug Addiction, #Vincent Lee Jones, #Treatment

3 Advantages To Living on the Spiritual Basis

 

Living on the Spiritual Basis provides 3 Advantages: 

 

1) Disciple. "We are undisciplined. So, we let God discipline us...". "For we are now on a different basis; the basis of trusting and relying upon God. We trust infinite God rather than our finite selves. We are in the world to play the role He assigns."

 

2) Flow. (The best definition of this is Wu-Wei (Zen)) "Self-seeking will slip away." "We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.""...we have ceased fighting anything or anyone..." The only condition is that we trust in God and clean house. The "cleaning house" is doing the introspective work to truly know who and what we are (causes and conditions). Truly, the road less traveled.

 

3) Connection: EVERYTHING and EVERYONE are connected. There is no fate or coincidence, only synchronicity. No one stands above another, or below, though the World presents all manner of subjective (predominately self-centered) criterion to define us, none of which are valid. The process connects us with the truth if we choose to embrace it.

 

Having embarked on this journey of discovery we employ every tool, learn from all who cross our path for all have something to teach, letting go of all NEGATIVE judgements toward others and OURSELVES, for they, like us, are children of a Loving God, whether they believe it or not, and it is never our job or responsibility to answer unasked questions or give unsolicited advice, even if it is accurate and timely.

So, we are left with the 3 questions of true and ultimate value: Who am I? What am I? and Why am I? No book, teacher or philosophy can answer these questions for us fully, for the truth ultimately lies within. The answers can be found if we trust in God, release negative judgements, and demonstrate love, patience, tolerance, and kindliness toward all, but particularly the unlovely, to the best of our ability, every day. So, chop wood and carry water, study all that appeals to you, learn to listen with your heart, for this is where the truth is waiting. This is the way of being IN the world, but not of IT, the path of the peaceful warrior in Spirit, remembering always, it is another beautiful day in paradise.

AA Step 2 Study: Comparison with Manuscript

 

Legend:

Underlined Red is text from manuscript.

(Published text.) *

(Compiler’s notes)

*Text used is from 2^nd Edition which is in the public domain.

STEP 2

Pg 44:1-50:2

In the preceding chapters, you have learned something of alcoholism. We hope we have made clear the distinction between the alcoholic and the non-alcoholic. If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if, when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic. If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer.

    To one who feels he is an atheist or agnostic such an experience seems impossible, but to continue as he is means disaster, especially if he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety. To be doomed to an alcoholic hell (death) or be "saved" – (to live on a spiritual basis are) not (always) easy alternatives to face.

    But it isn't so difficult. About half our (original) fellowship were of exactly that type. At first some of us tried to avoid the issue, hoping against hope we were not true alcoholics. But after a while we had to face the fact that we must find a spiritual basis of life - or else. Perhaps it is going to be that way with you. But cheer up, something like fifty (half) of us thought we were atheists or agnostics. Our experience shows that you need not disconcerted.

    If a mere code of morals, or a better philosophy of life were sufficient to overcome alcoholism, many of us would have recovered long ago. But we found that such codes and philosophies did not save us, no matter how much we tried. We could wish to be moral, we could wish to be philosophically comforted, in fact, we could will these things with all our might, but the needed power wasn't there. Our human resources, as marshalled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly.

    Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be A Power Greater Than Ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power?

    Well, that's exactly what this book is about. Its main object is to enable you to find a Power greater than yourself, which will solve your problem. That means we have written a book which we believe to be spiritual as well as moral. And it means, of course, that we are going to talk about God. Here difficulty arises with agnostics. Many times we talk to a new man and watch his hope rise as we discuss his alcoholic problems and explain our fellowship. But his face falls when we speak of spiritual matters, especially when we mention God, for we have re-opened a subject which our man thought he had neatly evaded or entirely ignored.

    We know how he feels. We have shared his honest doubt and prejudice. Some of us have been violently anti-religious. To others, the word "God" brought up a particular idea of Him with which someone had tried to impress us (them) during childhood. Perhaps we rejected this particular conception because it seemed inadequate. With that rejection we imagined we had abandoned the God idea entirely. We were bothered with the thought that faith and dependence upon a Power beyond ourselves was somewhat weak, even cowardly. We looked upon this world of warring individuals, warring theological systems, inexplicable calamity, with deep skepticism. We looked askance at many individuals who claimed to be godly. How could a Supreme Being have anything to do with it all? And who could comprehend a Supreme Being anyhow? Yet, in other moments, we found ourselves thinking, when enchanted by the starlit night, "Who, then, made all this?" There was a feeling of awe and wonder, but it was fleeting and soon lost.

    Yes, we of agnostic temperament have had these thoughts and experiences. Let us make haste to reassure you. We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results, even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, which is God.

    Much to our relief, we discovered we did not need to consider another's conception of God. Our own conception, however inadequate, was sufficient to make the approach and to effect a contact with Him. As soon as we admitted the possible existence of a Creative Intelligence, A (a) Spirit of the Universe underlying the totality of things, we began to be possessed of a new sense of power and direction, provided we took other simple steps. We found that God does not make (too) hard terms with those who seek Him. To us, the Realm of Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding (to those who earnestly seek). It is open, we believe, to all men.

    When, therefore, we speak to you of God, we mean your own conception of God. This applies, too, to other spiritual expressions which you find in this book. Do not let any prejudice you may have against spiritual terms deter you from honestly asking yourself what they mean to you. At the start, this is all you will need (we needed) to commence spiritual growth, to effect your (our) first conscious relation with God, as you (we) understand (understood) Him. Afterward, you will find yourself (we found ourselves) accepting many things which now seem (then seemed) entirely out of reach. That is (was) growth, but if you are going to grow, you have (we wished to grow we had) to begin somewhere. So use your (we used our) own conception, however limited it may be (was).

    You (We) need(ed) ask yourself (ourselves) but one short question. "Do I now believe, or am I even willing to believe, that there is a Power greater than myself?" As soon as a man can say that he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way. It has been repeatedly proven among us that upon this simple cornerstone (Note: Keystone found on pg. 62:3 and Foundation Stone on pg. 97:1) a wonderfully effective spiritual structure can be built. (Current edition has * here directing reader to the Spiritual Experience appendix.)

    That was great news to us, for we had assumed we could not make use of spiritual principles unless we accepted many things on faith which seemed difficult to believe. When people presented us with spiritual approaches, how frequently did we all say: "I wish I had what that man has. I'm sure it would work if I could only believe as he believes. But I cannot accept as surely true the many articles of faith which are so plain to him." So it was comforting to learn that we could commence at a simpler level.

    Besides a seeming inability to accept much on faith, we often found ourselves handicapped by obstinacy, sensitiveness, and unreasoning prejudice. Many of us have been so touchy that even casual reference to spiritual things made us bristle with antagonism. This sort of thinking had to be abandoned. Though some of us resisted, we found no great difficulty in casting aside such feelings. Faced with alcoholic destruction, we soon became as open minded on spiritual matters as we had tried to be on other questions. In this respect alcohol was a great persuader. It finally beat us into a state of reasonableness. Sometimes this was a tedious process; we hope no one will be prejudiced as long as some of us were.

    The reader may still ask why he should believe in a Power greater than himself. We think there are good reasons. Let us have a look at some of them.

    The practical individual of today is a stickler for facts and results. Nevertheless, the twentieth century readily accepts theories of all kinds, provided they are firmly grounded in fact. We have numerous theories, for example, about electricity. Everybody believes them without a murmur of doubt. Why this ready acceptance? Simply because it is impossible to explain what we see, feel, direct, and use, without a reasonable assumption as a starting point.

    Everybody nowadays, believes in scores of assumptions for which there is good evidence, but no perfect visual proof. And does not science demonstrate that visual proof is the weakest proof? It is being constantly revealed, as mankind studies the material world, that outward appearances are not inward reality at all. To illustrate:

    The prosaic steel girder is a mass of electrons whirling around each other at incredible speed. These tiny bodies are governed by precise laws, and these laws hold true throughout the material world. Science tells us so. We have no reason to doubt it. When, however, the perfectly logical assumption is suggested that underneath the material world, and life as we see it, there is an All Powerful, Guiding, Creative Intelligence, right there our perverse streak comes to the surface and we laboriously set out to convince ourselves it isn't so. We read wordy books and indulge in windy arguments, thinking we believe this universe needs no God to explain it. Were our contentions true, it would follow that life originated out of nothing, means nothing, and proceeds nowhere.

    Instead of regarding ourselves as intelligent agents, spearheads of God's ever advancing Creation, we agnostics and atheists chose to believe that our human intelligence was the last word, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end of all. Rather vain of us, wasn't it?

    We, who have traveled this dubious path, beg you to lay aside prejudice, even against organized religion. We have learned that whatever the human frailties of various faiths may be, those faiths have given purpose and direction to millions. People of faith have a logical idea of what life is all about. Actually, we used to have no reasonable conception whatever. We used to amuse ourselves as we (by) cynically dissected(ing) spiritual beliefs and practices; (when) we might have observed that many spiritually-minded persons of all races, colors, and creeds were demonstrating a degree of stability, happiness and usefulness which we should have sought ourselves.

    Instead, we looked at the human defects of these people, and sometimes used their shortcomings as a basis of wholesale condemnation. We talked of intolerance, while we were intolerant ourselves. We missed the reality and the beauty of the forest because we were diverted by the ugliness of some of its trees. We never gave the spiritual side of life a fair hearing.

    In (our personal) the stories which follow you will find (a) wide variation in the way each teller approaches and conceives of the Power which is greater than himself. Whether you agree with a particular approach or conception seems to make little difference. Experience has taught (us) that these are matters about which, for our purpose, we need not be worried. They are questions for each individual to settle for himself.