Meditation Is Putting Your Attention on Something Other Than the Committee in Your Head – Barefoot B.

About This Speaker Tape

Barefoot Bill shares a meditation workshop at a Sunday Morning Meditation gathering in July 2013. With 22 years of sobriety, he opens with a quote about a Higher Power that sets the tone: regardless of how high our concept is, it is still just a concept that we eventually have to release. His central teaching is that meditation in the AA sense is not reading a page and thinking about it — it is putting your attention on something other than thought.

Bill identifies three gateways into what he calls instant conscious contact: complete acceptance of what is, being completely in this moment, and dropping into the body. All three have one thing in common — the mind is completely unnecessary. He connects this directly to the alcoholic condition, explaining that alcohol quieted the constant mental commentary down to one voice that simply said, "Drink more." The Steps and spiritual work offered him the same relief without the destruction.

The talk includes a guided meditation where Bill walks the group through sensing the aliveness in their bodies, from the right foot to the top of the head. He describes how one woman came up to him afterward and said she would never look at her right foot the same way again — because sensing the energy in her foot was a direct experience with an aspect of a Higher Power.

Topics

Timestamps

• 00:00 Opening with a quote about releasing our concept of God
• 08:00 Meditation is putting attention on something other than thought
• 16:00 Three gateways into instant conscious contact
• 24:00 Complete acceptance, being in the moment, dropping into the body
• 32:00 How alcohol quieted the mental commentary to one voice
• 40:00 The Steps offering the same relief without the destruction
• 48:00 Guided meditation — sensing aliveness from the right foot upward
• 56:00 The woman who never looked at her right foot the same way again