Why You Need a Daily Practice More than You Need a Recovery Program Like AA

I do not necessarily have anything against the AA program. My problem with such programs is that they become the solution for people rather than the thing that points to the solution. There is a great story about a Zen teacher and his student. The teacher points up at the moon one night and says “What is that?” The student answers “the moon.” The teacher corrects him and says “no, that is a finger pointing at the moon.” Seem silly? Maybe a little. But there is an important lesson there as well. Do not mistake the pointer for the thing itself. Do not mistake the finger pointing at the moon for the moon itself. In a similar way, do not mistake a program of recovery (such as AA) as being the solution itself. Do not mistake AA as being recovery. It may point to recovery, but it is not recovery. There are some things in recovery that are more important than “knowing the path.” That would be: Walking the path. We want to walk the path rather than to just read about it and learn about it. We want to experience recovery and all of the good things that it ...