“As Bill Sees It” is a curated collection of writings, letters, and articles by Bill Wilson (Bill W.), co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). It serves as a daily meditation guide, offering insights on addiction recovery, spiritual growth, and emotional sobriety, providing 332 short reflections designed for individual contemplation or group discussion.
1
As
Bill
Sees
It
1
Personality Change
"It has often been said of A.A. that we are interested only on
alcoholism. That is not true. We have to get over drinking in order
to stay alive. But anyone who knows the alcoholic personality by
firsthand contact knows that no true alky ever stops drinking
permanently without undergoing a profound personality change."
<< << << >> >> >>
We thought "conditions" drove us to drink, and when we tried to
correct these conditions and found that we couldn't do so to our
entire satisfaction, our drinking went out of hand and we became
alcoholics. It never ocurred to us that we needed to change ourselves
to meet conditions, whatever they were.
1. LETTER, 1940
2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, P. 47
2
In God's Hands
When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when
we put ourselves in God's hands were better than anything we could
have planned.
<< << << >> >> >>
My depression deepened unbearable, and finally it seemed to me as
though I were at the very bottom of the pit. For the moment, the last
vestige of my proud obstinacy was crushed. All at once I found myself
crying out, "If there is a God, let Him show Himself! I am ready to
do anything, anything!"
Suddenly the room lit up with a great white light. It seemed to me,
in the mind's eye, that I was on a mountain and that a wind not of
air but of spirit was blowing. And then it burst upon me that I was a
free man. Slowly the ecstasy subsided. I lay on the bed, but now for
a time I was in another world,a new world of consciouness. All about
me and through me there was a wonderful feeling of Presence, and I
thought to myself, "So this is the God of the preachers!"
1. ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, P. 100
2. A.A. COMES OF AGE, P. 63
3
Pain and Progress
"Years ago I used to commiserate with all people who suffered. Now I
commiserate only with those who suffer in ignorance, who do not
understand the purpose and ultimate utility of pain."
<< << << >> >> >>
Someone once remarked that pain is the touchstone of spiritual
progress. How heartily we A.A.'s can agree with him, for we know that
the pains of alcoholism had to come before sobriety, and emotional
turmoil before serenity.
<< << << >> >> >>
"Believe more deeply. Hold your face up to the Light, even though for
the moment you do not see."
1. LETTER, 1950
2. TWELVE AND TWELVE, PP. 93-94
3. LETTER, 1950
4
Can We Choose?
We must never be blinded by the futile philosophy that we are just
the hapless victims of our inheritance, of our life experience, and
of our surroundings -- that these are the sole forces that make our
decisions for us. This is not the road to freedom. We have to believe
that we can really choose.
<< << << >> >> >>
"As active alcoholics, we lost our ability to choose whetherwe would
drink. We were the victims of a compulsion which seemed to decree
that we must go on with our own destruction.
"Yet we finally did make choices that brought about recovery. We came
to believe that alone we were powerless over alcohol. This was surely
a choice, and a most difficult one. We came to believe that a Higher
Power could restore us to sanity when we became willing to practice
A.A.'s Twelve Steps.
"In short, we chose to `become willing', and no better choice did we
ever make."
1. GRAPEVINE, NOVEMBER 1960
2. LETTER, 1966
5
Maintenance and Growth
