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Our livelihood


 
A friend in Program says:

When we start to work Step 12 as a matter of daily routine, we are forced to consider what it means to "practice these principles in all our affairs." As we're drawn to consider what spiritual and religious thinkers have said about this matter over the centuries, we are bound to be struck by their casual, almost cavalier attitude towards earning a living. Firstly, it doesn't seem very important to them. Jesus, for example, would be considered unemployed today. Paul of Tarsus worked as a tentmaker, but we don't get the impression that he used the missionary journeys to expand his business operations. The Buddha never worked at all. Muhammad was a merchant at least in early life, but again there seems to have been no significance to this in terms of his later activities.

The capitalist or quasi-capitalist environment of western countries makes us want to believe that this rather lackadaisical attitude towards work is completely impractical. Chuck Chamberlain tackled this issue in the AA-related book A New Pair of Glasses, and his comments are interesting because he was in sales -- an area where it is definitely tempting to think that winning is all-important.

For most of us, though, the effect of Step 12 on our work practices is simply to de-emphasize their importance. Whether we make a great deal of money or not starts to seem less pressing a matter. Ambition starts to fade a little. In addition, we become more open, more honest, more fair, and more well-balanced in our dealings with others. For some of us this is easy. For those of us who have measured ourselves in terms of "success" at work, it can be more difficult. For all of us, though, it's another part of the new road we tread when we start to practice these principles in all our affairs.

"The spiritual life is never one of achievement:
it is always one of letting go."

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