Step 10 – Sandy B. – Steps 10 & 11 State Line Retreat – 2006

About This Speaker Tape

Sandy B. delivers a narrative on the spiritual mechanics of the 10th and 11th Steps, framing recovery not as a process of learning, but of 'unlearning' old ideas. He uses the metaphor of a play within a play, where the ego creates a secondary, lonely drama—casting the speaker as a tragic janitor—while the real work is returning to the simple act of sweeping the floor.

Sandy explores the 'world of the Spirit' as a place where intuitive knowledge replaces baffle, and where the only real danger is the 'ego prayer'—a subtle form of self-sufficiency that masks itself as gratitude. He describes the 10th Step as a tool for staying 'undisturbed' in the present moment, comparing spiritual course-correction to flying a radio beam, where the only way to know you're on course is to feel the friction of being off it.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction: Sandy's knees and the nature of 'truth' in recovery.
• 4:15 Discussion of Bill Wilson's spiritual awakening and the drive to carry the message.
• 8:30 The 'Play within a Play' metaphor: The ego as the actor who hates being the janitor.
• 13:10 The 'Illusionist' analogy: Creating resentments out of whole cloth.
• 16:40 Step 10: Entering the 'World of the Spirit' and the disappearance of economic insecurity.
• 21:10 The 'Ego Prayer' and the trap of self-sufficiency.
• 26:30 The 10th Step as a tool for staying 'undisturbed' and the 'radio beam' metaphor.
• 32:10 Step 11: Prayer, meditation, and the 'hologram' of the self.
• 36:40 The 'Block of Marble' analogy for chipping away character defects.
• 41:00 Discussion of the Prayer of St. Francis and the nature of love and harmony.