Hindus greet each other by clasping their hands together in front of their heart and saying the word,"Namaste." "The spark of God inside of me bows to the spark of God inside of you." This love and respect for others is impossible for me when I'm coming from ego or my false self. It is impossible for me to salute others as equals because in ego I must always be better than or worse then everyone else. Namaste reminds me that regardless of race, creed, color we all have a common spiritual identity. Sometimes when I'm sitting in a meeting room I can actually feel this spiritual connection with the other alcoholics in the room. The challenge for me is taking this feeling of love and respect for others to the street.
In Alcoholics Anonymous we compare spiritual growth to the layers of an onion peeling away. I'm coming to believe that each one of these layers is nothing more than a collection of old, worthless ideas. The ideas by themselves are not the problem. The problem is that I believe them. It's my beliefs that cause all the trouble there is, even my ideas about God. Whenever I react in anger or fear I know that a subconscious belief has been threatened. "Step on my foot and I'll forgive you, but step on one of my beliefs and I will resent you forever."
One of the most important instructions in How It Works for me is to let go of my old ideas absolutely--not my bad ideas my OLD ideas. I let go of my old, worthless beliefs by continuing to practice the Twelve Steps and the rest of the AA program in my daily life. Each time I am able to let go of one my beliefs about what I am and how life is supposed to work, another layer of the onion falls away and I move closer and closer to my spiritual core -- the eternal divine spark that gently pushes me to wholeness, completeness...sanity.