What I like about the AA programme is that any (alcoholic) can do it.
It doesn't need special skills, education, or learning.
AA members are not in a hierarchy with each other. Some of us have been at it longer. That's it.
There are no special techniques.
Prayer and meditation are a good example. 100% of what I need to know about prayer and meditation, for the purposes of the AA programme, is contained on pages 84 to 88 of the Big Book. Just doing that takes me all the way there. Other resources bolster, reinforce, and enrich that, but they do not plug a gap, because there is no gap. Other books have helped me with philosophy, morality, and religion, but the bread and butter of the relationship with God is easy-peasy. God: Please direct my thinking! Let's consider our plans for the day ...
These pages are freely available. They're easy to read. They're quick to read. They can be implemented straight away. You don't need to download a starter's pack. You don't need to join a special group or club. You don't need to pay a fee or take out a subscription or attend a workshop or watch a video or make a donation with a donate button. The book doesn't even ask you for a donation. You can read it on the AA website for free. You can pick up a copy at the AA meeting. If you don't have any money, they'll lend or give you a copy, most likely. Or a pal will lend or give you one. Or you can look over a friend's shoulder. Or you can sit at the meeting and copy it out into a notebook. It'll take about 15 minutes. Or you can screenshot it with your phone. That'll take 15 seconds.
You don't need a special mentor. An AA sponsor can maybe help you out for half an hour. I have only about half an hour's material to give to sponsees on applying these pages, because they're so simple and plain, although most people don't even need that. That half hour chiefly boils down to, 'Do what's on the page. Don't add anything. Don't take anything away. Take it at its literal word.' There's nothing much to explain, only things to do. We can talk about our experiences at length, and that's interesting and entertaining, but the instructions themselves are sparse and clear.
You don't need to progress through stages with belts like martial arts.
There are no levels, like beginner's, intermediate, and advanced. This isn't Japanese.
You don't need to do it for days, weeks, months, years, or decades to reach a level where you start to get real benefits. You can get the benefit today, if you like.
God is not dancing the dance of the seven veils. He's not a code to crack. He's not playing hard to get. If you show up sincerely, He'll show up. He never left. You did. Come back. He's here, right now. Talk to Him about your day. Ask Him what to do and in what order.
There's no branding. There's no jargon. There are no buzzwords. There are no appeals to authority. There is no flattery of the user who has found a crafty hack, who is part of a select in-crowd, who has fast-tracked themselves, who has found a life-changing cheat-sheet. The hidden message at the bottom of such packages is this: the programme, as it is written, is insufficient, and you're going to miss out unless you jump on the smart people's bandwagon; you're selling yourself short by not buying our marketing deal, and you may even fail altogether ...
Don't fall for the manipulation.
On the daily inventory side, the questions on the top of page 86 reveal everything I need to know about myself for that day. Where is my selfishness? What am I after? Again, no special instruments like in brain surgery. Patience and self-honesty will eventually reveal everything that needs to be revealed. Fads come and go. Let's not name them. The book remains.
Practice helps, but that's it. The more we do it, the more reliable the results become, but the practice can be owned from day one. We don't have to wait or seek out special people with special knowledge on special websites or in special books or in special places. We can start, right here, today. Pages 84 to 88. There you have it. Have at it.