Vide said:go2 said:I began the search for the truth in a Twelve Step Program. They are based on the Oxford Group movement of the early Twentieth Century, which was roughly esoteric Christianity.
This is taking the thread astray, but this comment picqued my interest.
Go2, How do you see actions and/or principals of the Oxford Group relating to esoteric Christianity?
Do/did you see those things in your respective 12 step program too? (Roughly...
I want to start by acknowledging that I am not an expert on these topics, with the exception of my personal experience with the Twelve Steps. You bring up a vast subject, so I will limit my comments to two principles, self-observation and service to others. I will answer your first question starting with the words of Jesus as written by the author of Luke 8:16-18 regarding self observation as the key to reveal the contradictions and lies composing the programs of our human personality. The words may seem strange, for various reasons the truth is hidden in plain sight. I will consider the lighted lamp to be self observation which fulfills the ancient admonition to know thyself. This concept of self examination is thereby traced from its origins in this fragment of history as a principle of esoteric Christianity in the words of Jesus.
Jesus said:Luke 8:16-18(king James Version)
16No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light.
17For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.
18Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.
Next, the principle of service to others, is illustrated again by the words of Jesus as written by the author of Luke.
Jesus said:Luke 10:30-37 (King James Version)
30And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
33But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
34And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
36Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
37And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
I would like to include a comment on these teaching of knowing ones self and service to others, which perhaps come to man from another realm. They are integral to the work method for transforming the innerman. No one group or person can lay claim to these principles as their original idea or property. These ideas are conveyed to mankind by teachers who work first on themselves and then offer escape to those who ask, from the slavery of the personality, if I could use that phrase. The words change with time and the messenger, but the basic truth seems to remain the same. I will follow with two quotes on the subject of origin and transmission of these concepts, which I also find to be fundamental to the work on the Cassiopaea Forum. The first quote from Jesus and the second from Cassiopedia on Gurdjieffs humorous reply to Mourajieff’s question about the origin of the Fourth Way.
Jesus said:John 7:16
“My teaching is not my own, but him who sent me.”
Cassiopedia said:Esoteric Christianity
This term is used by Mouravieff when referring to his version of the 4th Way teachings. Many of the ideas brought to the surface by Gurdjieff are, according to Mouravieff, found in scattered form in the inner tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy. These are documented in Mouravieff's Gnosis series.
Mouravieff is said to have met Gurdjieff in Paris and to have asked him:
'"I find the system at the base of Christian doctrine," . "What do you say to this subject?"
Gurdjieff replied, "It's the ABC. But they didn't understand at all."
"Is the system yours?"
"No. . ."
"Where did you find it?--From where did you take it?"
"Perhaps," said Gurdjieff, "I stole it."
As to the latter point--his stealing the teaching--one must remember how Gurdjieff taught. Mouravieff, as his writings show, was negatively fixated on Gurdjieff. He believed the worst of him. Gurdjieff's answer to Mouravieff was merely mirroring what was in Mouravieff's mind.
About the teaching's origin, what Gurdjieff is saying is that the teaching passed through Christianity but they did not understand it; that is how to properly use it. Not only did the Church Fathers not understand this but they were confused about their own origins. Ouspensky reports that Gurdjieff said that Christianity was "not invented by the fathers of the church. It was all taken in a ready-made form from Egypt, only not from the Egypt that we know but from one which we do not know. This Egypt was in the same place as the other but it existed much earlier. . . prehistoric Egypt was Christian many thousands of years before the birth of Christ."
It is true that many Christian motifs may be traced to Egyptian exemplars, for example the sacrificed and risen savior. Beyond this It also appears that contemporary Egyptology falls short of providing a whole account of Egypt. Beyond this, it is hard to comment on Ouspensky's and Gurdjieff's statements on Egyptian origins of the Work.
The following quotes say that the Oxford Group described itself as a First Century Christian Fellowship. I interpret this to mean the teachings of Jesus as they were understood from the New Testament by the Oxford Group, with perhaps with some Revelation from the founder, Frank Buchman’s experience, but this is my speculation. I haven’t studied all the information available on the origin of the Oxford Group. The principles of the Oxford Group include self examination and service. The Oxford Group quote is from the website: _ttp://www.12step.com/history.html
12step.com said:For many of the steps, AA owes a debt of gratitude to the Oxford Group, a Christian organization in existence around the early part of the 20th century that proved influential to early founders of AA. According to Wilson, the Oxford Group "laid particular emphasis on spiritual principles that we needed. But in fairness," he added, "it should also be said that many of their attitudes and practices" were discarded because they were found to be incompatible.
12step.com said:From "A First Century Christian Fellowship" to "Moral Re-Armament, The Oxford Group had many faces throughout the 20th Century. The Oxford Group began under the leadership of Frank Buchman, a Lutheran Minister and attained world wide fame by the time World War 2 began.
Basic Principles
The Oxford Group had many different teachings, but the most important teachings as espoused by Frank Buchman can be summarized in 4 points:
• 1. Absolute Honesty
• 2. Absolute Purity
• 3. Absolute Unselfishness
• 4. Absolute Love
Bill W. and the Oxford Group
Bill Wilson attended the Oxford Group in New York between 1932 and 1933 and many times directly connected the 12 Steps to his attendance at Oxford Group meetings. In fact, Rev. Sam Shoemaker, Buchman's partner personally assisted Bill Wilson's writing of Alcohol Anonymous' "The Big Book." Despite these clear connections, Bill Wilson drifted away from the Oxford Group's "Buchmanism" by mainstreaming the thoughts and ideologies of A.A. and the 12 Steps.
Bill Wilson said:"The important thing is this: the early A.A. got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Groups."
This traces the concept of self examination to what is known in Alcoholics Anonymous as a personal inventory. This principle is in Step Four and Step Ten of The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The principle of service to others occurs in Step Twelve. I will copy the Twelve Steps next for your examination.
_http://www.aa.org/lang/en/site_map.cfm
Alcoholics Anonymous said:Service Material from the General Service Office
THE TWELVE STEPS OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Copyright _ A.A. World Services, Inc.
The next quote is from comments of Mel B regarding the principles or concepts underlying The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. This might add clarity on how I see the teachings of esoteric Christianity embodied in the Twelve Steps of AA.
_http://www.aabibliography.com/sept2000/melb.html
aabibliography.com said:But what, exactly, are these principles and where did they come from? Over the years a list of principles that correspond to each of the Twelve Steps has been printed in local area AA newsletters and on pocket cards. The origin of this list is unknown, although used by many Twelve step members:
Principles of the 12 Steps:
1. Surrender. (Capitulation to hopelessness.)
2. Hope. (Step 2 is the mirror image or opposite of step 1. In step 1 we admit that alcohol is our higher power, and that our lives are unmanageable. In step 2, we find a different Higher Power who we hope will bring about a return to sanity in management of our lives.)
3. Commitment. (The key word in step 3 is decision.)
4. Honesty. (An inventory of self.)
5. Truth. (Candid confession to God and another human being.)
6. Willingness. (Choosing to abandon defects of character.)
7. Humility. (Standing naked before God, with nothing to hide, and asking that our flaws—in His eyes—be removed.)
8. Reflection. (Who have we harmed? Are we ready to amend?)
9. Amendment. (Making direct amends/restitution/correction, etc..)
10. Vigilance. (Exercising self-discovery, honesty, abandonment, humility, reflection and amendment on a momentary, daily, and periodic basis.)
11. Attunement. (Becoming as one with our Father.)
12. Service. (Awakening into sober usefulness.)
The origins of AA's principles, and of the AA program itself, can be traced back to the Oxford Group, a nondenominational spiritual movement. The cofounders of AA, Bill Wilson
and Dr. Bob Smith, were both associated with the Oxford Group prior to their meeting in 1935. (Bill attended meetings for five months and Dr. Bob for two and a half years.) The Oxford Group's influence on the development of AA was substantial. As Bill Wilson wrote in A1coholics Anonymous Comes of Age, "The important thing is this: the early A.A. got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Groups."
I hope this answers your questions, Vide. I also hope I have not strayed to far from the truth of the history of these teachings and their importance and appearance in the affairs of mankind over millennia. The phrases self observation, self examination, lighting a lamp, debugging the self, and inventory all convey the transforming idea know thyself, which implies that we don't know ourselves and that this failure to recognize our mechanical nature is the very mechanism by which we are enslaved. I have personal experience with these two concepts of self observation and service to others in the inventory and service work of Alcoholics Anonymous and now with deeper understanding from the work of Gurdjieff, Mouravieff, and the Cassiopean Forum. Thank you for this opportunity to make a small contribution..