Dismantling Our False Self – Our Personal “reality” “Pay Forward” # 113

 I greet The Indwelling Keys To The Kingdom.

Today’s “Pay Forward” gift is - Dismantling Our False Self – Our Personal “reality.”  Saint Anthony of Egypt, the fourth-century father of Christian monasticism, provides a paradigm for dismantling the false self by means of both active confrontation and passive purification [prayer and meditation]. “…exemplifies the positive way of dismantling the false self by practicing unconditional love: selfishness cannot survive in the climate of continuous self-giving.”  Confronting our personal “reality” – our false self most likely feels like interior warfare, and in fact, it is.  Our defects center within not outside, where we can blame and explain our problems.  Faith, action [practicing A.A. spiritual principles - prayer and meditation in all my affairs the best I can], works for me.  If I didn’t know better I would think Saint Anthony plagiarized A.A.’s spiritual principles; for sure Steps Eleven and Twelve.  “The joy of living is the theme of A.A.’s Twelfth Step, and action is the key word.  Here we turn outward toward our fellow alcoholics who are still in distress.  Here we experience the kind of giving that asks no rewards.  Here we begin to practice all Twelve Steps of the program in our daily lives so that we and those about us may find emotional sobriety.  When the Twelfth Step is seen in its full implication, it is really talking about the kind of love that has no price tag on it” Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.  Thy Love, Thy Will be done.

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