From the books ... Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
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to display the full page from the Big Book1.
... living.
12&12 p.36,
Step Three
2.
... living.
12&12 p.71,
Step Seven
We had lacked the perspective to see that character-building and
spiritual values had to
come first, and that material satisfactions were not the purpose of living.
3.
... living.
12&12 p.72,
Step Seven
We never thought of making honesty, tolerance, and true love of man and God the daily basis of living.
4.
... living.
12&12 p.95,
Step Ten
Learning daily to spot, admit, and correct these flaws is the essence of character-building and good living.
5.
... living.
12&12 p.114,
Step Twelve
6.
... living.
BB p.124,
The Family Afterward
7.
... living alone
with our conflicts, and in ...
12&12 p.108,
Step Twelve
We knew we would have to quit
the deadly business of
living alone with our conflicts, and in honesty
confide these to God and another human being.
8.
... living and
thinking.
BB p.50,
We Agnostics
They flatly declare that
since they have come to believe in a Power greater than themselves,
to take a certain attitude toward that Power, and to do certain simple things, there has been
a revolutionary change in their way of living and thinking.
9.
... living and
thinking.
BB p.134,
The Family Afterward
This may hang on for months,
long after their mother has accepted dad's new way
of living and thinking.
10.
... living, and
we keenly realized that we ...
12&12 p.108,
Step Twelve
By this time, at Step Ten, we had begun to get a basis for daily living, and we keenly realized that we
would need to continue taking personal inventory, and that when we were in the wrong we ought to admit it promptly.
11.
... living as
eagerly as we do the ...
12&12 p.111,
Step Twelve
Can we love the whole pattern of living as eagerly as we do the small segment of it we discover
when we try to help other alcoholics achieve sobriety?
12.
... living as
we cleaned up the past.
BB p.84,
Into Action
13.
... living by
faith and little else.
BB p.54,
We Agnostics
14.
... living by
ourselves with those tormenting ghosts ...
12&12 p.55,
Step Five
If we have swept the searchlight of Step Four back and forth over our careers, and it has revealed in stark relief those experiences we'd rather
not remember, if we have come to know how wrong thinking and action have hurt us and others, then the need to quit living by ourselves with those tormenting ghosts of yesterday gets more urgent than ever.
15.
... Living Church,
observes editorially: "The basis of ...
BB p.572(574),
Appendix V, The Religious View on A.A.
The Episcopal magazine, The Living Church, observes editorially: "The basis
of the technique of Alcoholics Anonymous
is the truly Christian
principle that a man
cannot help himself except by helping others.
16.
... living Creator
with whom we may form ...
BB p.28,
There Is A Solution
If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form
a relationship upon simple and understandable terms
as soon as we are willing
and honest enough to try.
17.
... living death.
BB p.150,
To Employers
18.
... living example
of my friend there remained ...
BB p.12,
Bill's Story
19.
... living for
many, alcoholic or not.
12&12 p.16,
Foreword
20.
... living for
which no amount of pomp ...
12&12 p.124,
Step Twelve
Service, gladly rendered, obligations
squarely met, troubles well accepted or solved with God's help, the knowledge that at home or in
the world outside we are
partners in a common effort, the well-understood fact that in God's sight all human beings are important, the proof that
love freely given surely brings a full return, the certainty that
we are no longer isolated and alone in self-constructed prisons, the surety that we
need no longer be square pegs in round holes but can fit and belong in God's scheme of things -- these are
the permanent and legitimate satisfactions of right
living for which no amount of pomp and circumstance, no heap of material possessions, could possibly be substitutes.
21.
... living has
its advantages for all.
BB xiii,
Foreword to First Edition
22.
... living, he
should proceed to put those ...
BB p.98,
Working With Others
When your prospect has made such reparation as he can to his family, and has thoroughly explained
to them the new principles by which he is living, he should proceed to put those principles into action at
home.
23.
... living human
with whom I had ever ...
BB p.180,
Doctor Bob's Nightmare
Of far more importance was the fact
that he was the first living
human with whom I had ever talked, who knew what he was talking about in regard to
alcoholism from actual
experience.
24.
... living in
a large community.
BB p.163,
A Vision For You
25.
... living in
our accustomed style.
BB p.4,
Bill's Story
26.
... living in
that strange world of alcoholism ...
BB p.108,
To Wives
Perhaps your husband has
been living in that strange
world of alcoholism
where everything is distorted and exaggerated.
27.
... living in
trying to do something about ...
12&12 p.112,
Step Twelve
28.
... living infinitely
more satisfying and, I hope, ...
BB p.43,
More About Alcoholism
I have since been brought into a way of living infinitely more satisfying and, I hope, more useful than the life I lived before.
29.
... living is
a most powerful health restorative.
BB p.133,
The Family Afterward
30.
... living is
not a one-way street.
BB p.81,
Into Action
31.
... living is
still out of reach.
12&12 p.43,
Step Four
Without a searching
and fearless moral inventory, most of us have found that the faith which really works in daily living is still out of reach.
32.
... living is
the theme of A.A.'s Twelfth ...
12&12 p.106,
Step Twelve
33.
... living is
the theme of A.A.'s Twelfth ...
12&12 p.125,
Step Twelve
Understanding is the key to right principles and attitudes, and right action is the key to good living; therefore the joy of good living is the theme of A.A.'s Twelfth Step.
34.
... living is
"Yes, all of these things ...
12&12 p.112,
Step Twelve
35.
... living it.
BB p.25,
There Is A Solution
But we saw that it really worked in others, and we had
come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had
been living it.
36.
Living modestly,
my wife and I saved ...
BB p.2,
Bill's Story
37.
... living, one
might say, to drink.
BB xxxi(xxix),
The Doctor's Opinion
38.
... living, rather
than something unusual or set ...
12&12 p.90,
Step Ten
And at length our inventories become a regular part of everyday living, rather than something unusual or set apart.
39.
... living than
he has.
12&12 p.118,
Step Twelve
40.
... living" that
really works.
BB p.28,
There Is A Solution
41.
... living that
works in rough going.
BB p.15,
Bill's Story
42.
... living, then
the result had been equally ...
12&12 p.115,
Step Twelve
When we had taken the opposite tack and had insisted, like infants ourselves, that
people protect and take care of us or that the world owed us a living, then the result had been
equally unfortunate.
43.
... living; therefore
the joy of good living ...
12&12 p.125,
Step Twelve
Understanding is the key to right principles and attitudes, and right action is the key to good living; therefore the joy of good living is the theme of A.A.'s Twelfth Step.
44.
... living, thus
relieving much worry and suffering.
BB p.159,
A Vision For You
They experienced a few
distressing failures, but in those cases they made an effort to bring the man's family into a spiritual way of living, thus relieving much worry and suffering.
45.
... living to
practical use, day by day, ...
12&12 p.88,
Step Ten
But when we approach Step
Ten we commence to put our A.A. way of living to practical use, day by day, in fair weather or foul.
46.
... living together
has come, it will be ...
BB p.99,
Working With Others
47.
... living too
much alone, for drinking many ...
BB p.119,
To Wives
It is probably true that
you and your husband have been living too much alone, for drinking many times isolates the wife of an alcoholic.
48.
... living until
he first backtracks and really ...
12&12 p.77,
Step Eight
Every A.A. has found that he can make little headway in this new adventure of living until he first backtracks and really makes an accurate and unsparing
survey of the human wreckage he has left in his
wake.
49.
Living upon
a basis of unsatisfied demands, ...
12&12 p.76,
Step Seven
Living upon a basis of unsatisfied demands, we were in a state
of continual disturbance and frustration.
50.
... living was
so unsatisfactory.
BB p.51,
We Agnostics
51.
... living, we
had a feeling of uselessness, ...
BB p.52,
We Agnostics
We were having trouble with personal relationships, we couldn't control our emotional natures, we were a prey to misery and depression, we
couldn't make a living, we had
a feeling of uselessness, we were full
of fear, we were unhappy,
we couldn't seem to be of real
help to other people -- was not a basic solution of these bedevilments more important than whether we
should see newsreels of lunar flight?
52.
... living we
really have, even under pressure ...
BB p.15,
Bill's Story
53.
... living were
learned, new resources of courage ...
12&12 p.105,
Step Eleven
He will also report that out of every season of grief or suffering, when
the hand of God seemed heavy or even unjust, new lessons for living were learned, new resources of courage were uncovered,
and that finally, inescapably, the conviction came that God does "move in a mysterious way His wonders to perform."
54.
... living which
answered all my problems.
BB p.13,
Bill's Story
My friend promised when
these things were done I
would enter upon a new relationship with my
Creator; that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems.
55.
... living which
demands rigorous honesty.
BB p.58,
How It Works
They are naturally incapable of grasping
and developing a manner of living which demands rigorous honesty.
56.
... living with
an alcoholic is almost sure ...
BB p.122,
The Family Afterward
A doctor said to us, "Years of living with an alcoholic is almost sure to make any wife or child neurotic.
57.
... living with
us as practicing alcoholics difficult ...
12&12 p.81,
Step Eight
Such a roster of harms done others -- the kind that make daily living with us as practicing
alcoholics difficult and often unbearable -- could be extended almost indefinitely.
Passages from the Big Book Alcoholics Anonymous
and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
are reprinted with permission of A.A. World Services, Inc.
The A.A. Preamble, copyright ©
The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., is reprinted with permission.
Permission to reprint does not in any way imply affiliation with or
endorsement by either Alcoholics Anonymous or The A.A. Grapevine, Inc.
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