Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
uses the active verb “became willing to make amends to them all” to help us see that it is always a process and must finally include all. To offer an apology in a way that can actually heal the other takes wisdom and respect for the other.
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
ego (read “false self”
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
In another place he speaks of both ourselves and God, carrying a “united witness” (Romans 8:16) to our divine identity—as “children of God,” “heirs,” and “coheirs with Christ” (8:17).2 When we stopped trusting this inner and united witness, we had no support in believing the central Gospel message itself—that we share in the same identity as Jesus
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Honestly, it takes major surgery and much of one’s life to get head, heart, and body to put down their defenses, their false programs for happiness, and their many forms of resistance to what is right in front of them.
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
Consciousness is the subtle and all-embracing mystery within and between Everything. It is like the air we breathe, take for granted, and do not appreciate. Consciousness is not the seeing but that which sees me seeing. It is not the knower but that which knows that I am knowing. It is not the observer but that which underlies and observes me obser
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Wisely, Step 10 does not emphasize a moral inventory, which becomes too self-absorbed and self-critical, but it speaks of a “personal inventory.” In other words, just watch yourself objectively, calmly, and compassionately.
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
Step 4 is about seeing your own log first, so you can stop blaming, accusing, and denying, and thus displacing the problem. It is about seeing truthfully and fully.
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
sin and failure are, in fact, the setting and opportunity for the transformation and enlightenment of the offender—and then the future will take care of itself.
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
If God is somehow in the suffering, participating as a suffering object too, in full solidarity with the world that He or She created, then I can make some possible and initial sense of God and this creation.