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4.31 AVERAGE
4.31 AVERAGE
I've never been through AA and the Twelve Steps, but this book was so wonderful in explaining the ways that we can progress to healthier and better spirituality. Very well written and easy to grasp. If you ever tried to read any of Richard Rohr's writing and found it a little hard to understand, give this a chance. It is a great entry point.
This book does a phenomenal job of taking the 12 step program and tying it to our quest for a spiritual sense in the world and ourselves. I marked up this book a ton and plan to keep it around and read again (something I rarely do with books). It is short, engaging, and has something for everyone. The 12 steps developed by two guys decades ago is applicable to everyone and all aspects of life.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Delightful Read
Breathing Under Water is a soothing read on the twelve steps and spirituality. Rohr uses the Bible and Jesus to reflect a different slant on the twelve steps.
I thoroughly enjoyed it & especially like the Study Questions.
Breathing Under Water is a soothing read on the twelve steps and spirituality. Rohr uses the Bible and Jesus to reflect a different slant on the twelve steps.
I thoroughly enjoyed it & especially like the Study Questions.
I didn't enjoy this as much as other Rohr books, but, of course, there are gems to be found in anything he writes. As someone who did not know the 12 steps in advance, and following on audio, I was a bit lost at times with some of the thread of what he was discussing. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I already had a foundation of understanding in them.
I now read the book itself and find that much easier to follow than the audioversion, which was a live presentation to a group. This book is not afraid to evaluate how the 12 steps can help all of us, and to critically evaluate religion in our lives and how it can be both helpful and not very helpful. I love his candor and the concept that underlies the whole book, those who struggle with addiction have their struggles very visible to others, but all of us have spiritual struggles that the 12 steps can help us with.
We are all spiritually powerless, however, and it’s not just those physically addicted to a substance, which is why I address this book to everyone. Alcoholics just have their powerlessness visible for all to see. The rest of us disguise it in different ways, and overcompensate for our more hidden and subtle addictions and attachments, especially our addiction to our way of thinking.
We all take our own pattern of thinking as normative, logical, and surely true, even when it does not fully compute. We keep doing the same thing over and over again, even if it is not working for us.
To finally surrender ourselves to healing, we have to have three spaces opened up within us—and all at the same time: our opinionated head, our closed-down heart, and our defensive and defended body. That is the work of spirituality—and it is work.
Religion is lived by people who are afraid of hell. Spirituality is lived by people who have been through hell.
Religion either produces the very best people or the very worst.
To keep the heart space open, we need several things. First, we almost all need some healing in regard to our carried hurts from the past. The church’s somewhat strange word for this was “original sin,” which we were told was not something we were personally guilty of but was something that was done to us and passed from generation to generation. No point in blaming anybody. If it was not one thing, it was another. Then he recommends the Enneagram. Finally, I think the heart space is often opened by ‘right brain’ activities such as music, art, dance, nature, fasting, poetry, games, life-affirming sexuality, and, of course, the art of relationship itself.
Your shadow self is not your evil self. It is just the part of you that you do not want to see, your unacceptable self by reason of nature, nurture and choice. That bit of chosen blindness, or what AA calls denial, is what allows us to do evil and cruel things—without recognizing them as evil or cruel.
I now read the book itself and find that much easier to follow than the audioversion, which was a live presentation to a group. This book is not afraid to evaluate how the 12 steps can help all of us, and to critically evaluate religion in our lives and how it can be both helpful and not very helpful. I love his candor and the concept that underlies the whole book, those who struggle with addiction have their struggles very visible to others, but all of us have spiritual struggles that the 12 steps can help us with.
We are all spiritually powerless, however, and it’s not just those physically addicted to a substance, which is why I address this book to everyone. Alcoholics just have their powerlessness visible for all to see. The rest of us disguise it in different ways, and overcompensate for our more hidden and subtle addictions and attachments, especially our addiction to our way of thinking.
We all take our own pattern of thinking as normative, logical, and surely true, even when it does not fully compute. We keep doing the same thing over and over again, even if it is not working for us.
To finally surrender ourselves to healing, we have to have three spaces opened up within us—and all at the same time: our opinionated head, our closed-down heart, and our defensive and defended body. That is the work of spirituality—and it is work.
Religion is lived by people who are afraid of hell. Spirituality is lived by people who have been through hell.
Religion either produces the very best people or the very worst.
To keep the heart space open, we need several things. First, we almost all need some healing in regard to our carried hurts from the past. The church’s somewhat strange word for this was “original sin,” which we were told was not something we were personally guilty of but was something that was done to us and passed from generation to generation. No point in blaming anybody. If it was not one thing, it was another. Then he recommends the Enneagram. Finally, I think the heart space is often opened by ‘right brain’ activities such as music, art, dance, nature, fasting, poetry, games, life-affirming sexuality, and, of course, the art of relationship itself.
Your shadow self is not your evil self. It is just the part of you that you do not want to see, your unacceptable self by reason of nature, nurture and choice. That bit of chosen blindness, or what AA calls denial, is what allows us to do evil and cruel things—without recognizing them as evil or cruel.
i'm finally getting around to typing up some of my notes from books i read in 2014 and i'm not sure how i wound up giving this book four stars instead of five. as always disclaimer: what follows may not be of interest if you're not in recovery and at least somewhat positively disposed toward mr christ.
this is basically just a guy putting each of the classic twelve steps in a deep, smart, and soulful christian context, but not the fast-food version of christian context -- jesus is magic, we love magic jesus, that's all we know -- but the gnarly complex christian context, the kind that understands we are all sinners. anyway if you find yourself in the same size and shape of rowboat as me, you will dig this book. even if your boat situation is wildly divergent, let me just share rohr's four assumptions about addiction
1) we are all addicts
2) "stinking thinking"/our way way of doing anything-our own defenses-our patterned ways of thinking is the universal addiction
3) all societies are addicted to themselves
4) some form of alternative consciouness (prayer, meditation, therapy, just not behaving exactly the same way forever) is the only freedom from addiction
if that doesn't zing you a little then this book probably doesn't have a lot to offer you
this is basically just a guy putting each of the classic twelve steps in a deep, smart, and soulful christian context, but not the fast-food version of christian context -- jesus is magic, we love magic jesus, that's all we know -- but the gnarly complex christian context, the kind that understands we are all sinners. anyway if you find yourself in the same size and shape of rowboat as me, you will dig this book. even if your boat situation is wildly divergent, let me just share rohr's four assumptions about addiction
1) we are all addicts
2) "stinking thinking"/our way way of doing anything-our own defenses-our patterned ways of thinking is the universal addiction
3) all societies are addicted to themselves
4) some form of alternative consciouness (prayer, meditation, therapy, just not behaving exactly the same way forever) is the only freedom from addiction
if that doesn't zing you a little then this book probably doesn't have a lot to offer you
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced