From the books ... Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) and Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (12 & 12)
1.
... satisfactions --
all these have to be tempered ...
12&12 p.114,
Step Twelve
Our desires for emotional security and
wealth, for personal prestige and power, for romance, and for family
satisfactions -- all these have to be tempered and redirected.
2.
... satisfactions for
us, too.
12&12 p.67,
Step Six
Gossip barbed with our anger, a polite form of murder by character assassination, has its
satisfactions for us, too.
3.
... satisfactions he
desires.
12&12 p.71,
Step Seven
Poverty will disappear, and there will be
such abundance that everybody can have all the security and personal
satisfactions he desires.
4.
... satisfactions of
dealing with the realities of ...
12&12 p.96,
Step Eleven
We A.A.'s are active folk, enjoying the satisfactions of dealing with the
realities of life, usually for the first time in our lives, and strenuously trying to help the next alcoholic who comes along.
5.
... satisfactions of
right living for which no ...
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.
6.
... satisfactions of
similar worth and durability?
12&12 p.120,
Step Twelve
If they cannot have this kind of happiness, can A.A. offer them satisfactions of similar worth and durability?
7.
... satisfactions or
pleasures than are possible or ...
12&12 p.65,
Step Six
When they drive us blindly, or we willfully
demand that they supply us
with more satisfactions or pleasures than are possible or due us, that is
the point at which we depart from the degree of perfection that God wishes for us here on earth.
8.
... satisfactions to
be the final end and ...
12&12 p.71,
Step Seven
Instead of regarding
the satisfaction of our material desires as the means by which we could live and
function as human beings, we had taken these
satisfactions to be the final
end and aim of life.
9.
... satisfactions were
not the purpose of 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.
10.
... satisfactions when
the brighter, more glittering achievements ...
12&12 p.112,
Step Twelve
Can we steadfastly content ourselves with
the humbler, yet sometimes more durable, satisfactions when
the brighter, more glittering achievements are denied
us?
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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