A God (Higher Power) Of Our OwnUnderstanding

When I first heard of this term it was in AA, you may have heard it in another 12-step group, but it's all the same, recovery, healing, sober, clean...An option for the first time in my life to choose a God (Higher Power) of our own understanding. Wow!!! at this point of recovery, I didn't understand anything, teach me please...

Coming from a Catholic upbringing, if ya want to call it that? It seemed sacrilegious to propose such a thing even though I didn't believe anything to be sacrilegious, that term was still planted in my brain.

I just got finish listening to a talk by Alan Watts, if you never heard of him, please with a open-mind give him a listen. It was titled, The Esoteric Teachings of Jesus Christ, and basically Alan Watts dissects all beliefs and of course gives what is his interpretations but in the most intellectual manner, which he is a highly intellectual being, and makes you think in many ways one might not.

I loved the talk, I am an Inter-Faith believer, I believe in the love portion of all belief systems, not the dogmas or the forced traditions some have. I'm open to them all, what i found in my yrs. of seeking when I was given the option of choosing a power greater than myself for my recovery, I went on a long and fun adventure thru all beliefs systems. Not that one has to even choose that path of seeking but i did.

Today I honor them all, I have a tiny figurine of Christ, Jesus, Buddha, Ram Krishna, Ganesh, a pray beads from a Sufi, Mother Mary, and a variety of other trinkets. They are there as my makeshift altar, something to focus on in prayer and meditation, but by no means hold any significance, they are what they are, points of reference to lean on as it may be.

When I first entered AA I felt the need to choose something so I chose Mother Nature, a tangible product I could see smell touch and walk in, like the woods, the beach, where I would focus my prayer and meditation in this surrounding and it was very fulfilling and serene.

As my recovery grew, progress not perfection, I gravitated towards calling my Higher Power God, Good Orderly Direction, Gift of Despair, and so on…

As a young Catholic student, it was the old man in the sky with the white beard god, not so anymore. I had the option of choosing!!!

My knowledge of worldly beliefs grew and grew and there was so much out there my head was spinning but in a joyful way with so much anticipation for each one led me to another and another. I went to Kabala centers, Buddhist centers and temples, Hindu Ashrams, Churchs of all flavors and all sorts of yoga centers where they would have speakers of all beliefs speaking, it was a wonderful time while working the steps as a sponsee and then working the steps while sponsoring others…

With all this newfound seeking while still working out of the 2 main books of AA, the Big Book and the 12x12 Steps and Traditions, I found the two studies to be intertwining with one another, both enhancing the other.

Reading, now this was something new, while still active in my addiction I read the funnies and the sports, which I no longer read. But I found myself ingaged in books by authors such as, Ernest Holmes, Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Neil Donald Walsch, Parmahana Yogananda, LIeWellen Vaughn Lee, Thick Nhat Hanh, Dalai Lama, ACIM, Irena Tweedy, Native American writers, Don Migual Ruiz, and so many more. Never being a book reader it was quite an awakening…I was turned onto many books as a member of a book group at The Darshan Center, an Inter-Faith Center which I belonged to for some time until I moved out of South Florida.

After many many yrs. of seeking, it was impossible for me to choose anyone belief when they all had the same truth in them all, Love!!!

For me God is Love, and there’s no reason to choose other than God, Higher Power, Source Energy, Pure Cosmic Awareness, Consciousness, YHWH, Allah, , Krishna Ram, add your own name there all the same name, Love!!!

Why write this, after listening to that Allen Watts talk it steered up a lot of memories of my days of seeking. I know longer have to do as much seeking, I attend Unity Church once in a while, I don’t live near any Centers for Spiritual Living so I zoom, I YouTube The Global Center for Christ Consciousness, Michael Mirdad, and enjoy keeping my spiritual tools sharpened for in this crazy world I need them often, and use them often, there useless if you don’t put them to use…

Namaste’, Blessings to All