Spiritual Butterflies

Many Have Gone Before Us

It is important, and even crucial, to have a mentor, a teacher, a sponsor, practitioner of trust, or path that we to follow in meditation and mindfulness training (the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of AA works best for most alcoholics but other directions employ the similar principles). At first it is beneficial to shop around but we can easily become spiritual butterflies... skirting the manipulations or demands of our egos and becoming deluded into believing we are, oh-so, spiritual. Spirituality that becomes entertainment diverts us from the path meant to take us inward to that place we connect with a higher reality. But this ought not imply that we become automatons and subservient to a guru or sponsor. However, when I found a path, it is best to stay on it to discover everything that path offers.

I have a sponsor in AA. I have stuck with that sponsor through thick and thin but I have not put him on a pedestal. Like a guide in a foreign land he has led me through places he has been before me in sobriety. He knows what I know as far as taking care of my camp and seeing obstacles but he knows the territory. When I am getting stupid or distracted and am straying, he is honest with me where a casual friend might not be able to. But, just as a guide would, he can sit by the fire and enjoy casual conversation and fellowship on an equal level. New to AA I shopped around, led by the Spirit of Compassion, for such a relationship. I supplement his guidance with teachings of the masters, inspiration from the written word that enhance my practice.