How It Works and the Oneness of the Universe – Jessie P.

About This Speaker Tape

Twenty-six years of sobriety culminated in the merge of Jessie P.'s recovery and a non-theistic worldview, ending a long-standing clash. Raised in a home of anger and daily drinking Jessie describes a youth marked by drug use at 12 and a suicide attempt at 16. The narrative shifts from the early struggle to fit into the theistic language of AA—feeling humiliated by the Lord's Prayer and fighting the 'intellectual pride' label—to a profound crisis of faith triggered by her daughter Sarah's diagnosis of Turner Syndrome.

This wreckage forces a transition from a 'truce' with a Higher Power to a Buddhist practice of awareness and reality. Jessie dismantles the theistic overlays of the Big Book and 'How It Works,' translating them into a Buddhist framework of oneness and interdependence ultimately finding peace in the relief from the bondage of self.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Jessie P. introduces the topic of non-theism and the 12 Steps.
• 2:15 Discussion of childhood trauma and being an adult child of alcoholics.
• 5:40 The 'spiritual experience' involving a friend choking on vomit in a dorm room that led to her first prayer.
• 8:10 First AA meeting in a church basement and the experience of the Lord's Prayer.
• 12:30 The interaction with Mary and the 'bowling ball' realization that Higher Power is reality.
• 16:45 The crisis of faith following her daughter Sarah's diagnosis of Turner Syndrome.
• 21:10 Exploration of Buddhist teachings and the transition to a Zen Buddhist sangha.
• 26:30 Critique of the Third Tradition and the story of Ed the atheist in the 12 and 12.
• 30:15 Analysis of Dr. Bob's views on intellectual pride and atheism.
• timecode Translation of 'How It Works' into non-theistic, Buddhist terms.
• 34:00 Discussion on the Lord's Prayer and the strategy for closing meetings with the Serenity Prayer.
• 38:20 Closing thoughts on karma, community karma, and the bondage of self.