Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that caused the problem in the first place.
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
A.A. is the only group I know that is willing and honest enough to just tell people up front, “You are damn selfish!” Or, “Until you get beyond your massive narcissism you are never going to grow up.”
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
To be present is to know what you need to know in the moment.
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
He proudly and most often called himself a “son of man,”
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
“Breathing Under Water” I built my house by the sea. Not on the sands, mind you; not on the shifting sand. And I built it of rock. A strong house by a strong sea. And we got well acquainted, the sea and I. Good neighbors. Not that we spoke much. We met in silences. Respectful, keeping our distance, but looking our thoughts across the fence of sand.
... See moreRichard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
The immediate embrace is from God’s side, the ineffectiveness is whatever time it takes for us to “come to believe,” which is the slow and gradual healing and reconnecting of head, heart, and body so they can operate as one. Both movements are crucial: the healing of ourselves and the healing of our always limited and even toxic image of God.
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
the big five human issues (love, death, suffering, God, and infinity)
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
most people do not see things as they are, they see things as they are!
Richard Rohr • Breathing Under Water : Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
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.