 Integrating Steps 3,4,5
 Step 3
 Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over the care of our higher power as we
understood our higher power
 Capacity for Step 3
 Vary depending on particular histories
 Trauma from childhood - ego strength / Reality
 Damage to ego apparatus
 Be flexible
 Part of 12-step group / individual spiritual journey
 Be teachable “beginner’s mind”
 THinking higher than our low self esteem
 Breaking Down Step 3
 Willingness to surrender our Addict’s will


Our power of choice
our roles / identities
 FROM AN OUTER GOD IN AN INNER AWARENESS
 Not yet Ready
 Integrating Step 3:
A buddhist Perspective
 You are a buddha

not yet fully awake

Take refuge in the teaching
 Accept Now
 Aspects of Self: The Mind Seeks Refuge
 May I speak to the controller? How are you Doing? May i speak to the mInd that Seeks
Refuge?






Who are you?
What are you Seeking?
How long have you been a seeker?
What would happen to the self if it weren’t for you?
Will you ever find what you’re looking for?
What happens if you do?
 Sit for awhile as the minds seeks refuge
 Step 4
 We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves
 Get The PrincipalS

Writing down resentments / Guilt
 Acts as a Confessional
 Shadow work (getting in touch with our feelings)
 taking responsibility (Getting Honest)

owning our shit

 I want what they got
The fourth step isn’t just done once

Its a Continual Fidelity to awareness & Growth

No more con’s
 “If our behavior continues to harm others,
 we are quite sure to drink”
 Buddhist integration
 A Zen Story
 Two Zen monks, Tanzan and Ekido, traveling on pilgrimage, came to a muddy river
crossing. There they saw a lovely young woman dressed in her kimono and finery,
obviously not knowing how to cross the river without ruining her clothes. Without further
ado, Tanzan graciously picked her up, held her close to him, and carried her across the
muddy river, placing her onto the dry ground. Then he and Ekido continued on their way.
Hours later they found themselves at a lodging temple. And here Ekido could no longer
restrain himself and gushed forth his complaints: “Surely, it is against the rules, what you
did back there…. Touching a woman is simply not allowed…. How could you have done
that? … And to have such close contact with her! … This is a violation of all monastic
protocol…” Thus he went on with his verbiage. Tanzan listened patiently to the
accusations. Finally, during a pause, he said, “Look, I set that girl down back at the
crossing. Are you still carrying her?”
 The Pain Body
 The Thief inside
 Lama Yeshe said, “You must recognize that your real enemy, the thief who steals your
happiness, is the inner thief, the one inside your mind - the one you have cherished since
the beginningless time.
 meditate on THis...
 “Your Greatest Enemy is your Greatest benefactor”
 To develop “the mind that recognizes wisdom” we practice awareness with our partner,
boss, commuters”
 We change our thinking to “this person is my supreme teacher”





We admitted to our Higher
Power, ourselves, and
another human being the
exact nature of our
wrongs
 Making the 5th stick
 According to littlejohn we need to do this step with another addict
 The listener should be one who knows what it feels like to be an addict and has done his
or her recovery work
 They should also have an understanding of recovery beyond your own
 Thus guiding you to higher level or keeping you deadly honest
 Making the 5th stick
 According to littlejohn we need to do this step with another addict
 The listener should be one who knows what it feels like to be an addict and has done his
or her recovery work
 They should also have an understanding of recovery beyond your own
 Thus guiding you to higher level or keeping you deadly honest
 Self-Esteem
 Don’t get lost in the..
 “Its all about the self esteem Trap”
 Instead,It’s revealing to ourselves the disease of the self
 Principal of Step 5
 Get honest with your self  Meditate on this... NonSelf
 The true enemy is inside. The make of trouble, the source of all our suffering, the
destroyer of our joy, and the destroyer of our virtue is inside. It is EGO. I call it, “I”, the
most precious one.”
 “I, the most precious one” does not serve any purpose. It only makes tremendous,
unreasonable, impossible demands. Ego wants to the best and has no consideration for
anyone else. Things work as long as “i, the most precious one’s” wishes are being
fulfilled. But when they’re not, and Ego turns on the self, it becomes self-hatred. That
self-hatred will eventually burn the house down.

Gehlek Rinpoche