Here’s the morning element (from pages 86 to 88 of the Big Book):
Content / subject matter:
- “On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day.”
[In other words, meditation, in the programme, is thinking and considering. It is not posture, breathing, focusing on the body, or detachment from thought. The meditation is punctuated by prayers. Religious devotion and spiritual reading also fall under the heading of meditation.]
Topping, tailing, and trouble-shooting:
- “Before we begin, we ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives.”
- “… we may face indecision … Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don’t struggle.”
- “We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be given whatever we need to take care of such problems.”
- “We ask especially for freedom from self-will, and are careful to make no request for ourselves only. We may ask for ourselves, however, if others will be helped.”
Bolt-on activities:
- “… we ask our wives or friends to join us in morning meditation.”
- “If we belong to a religious denomination which requires a definite morning devotion, we attend to that also.”
- “If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discussing.”
- “There are many helpful books also. Suggestions about these may be obtained from one’s priest, minister, or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer.”
During the day:
- “As we go through the day we pause, when agitated or doubtful, and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day ‘Thy will be done.’”
From elsewhere in the book:
- “In meditation, we ask God what we should do about each specific matter.” (Page 69)
- “So we clean house with the family, asking each morning in meditation that our Creator show us the way of patience, tolerance, kindliness and love.” (Page 83)
- “Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick.” (Page 164)