Spiritual Competition

We Attempt to momentarily suspend all mental and physical activities. We try to relax our entire bodies, then close our minds to the worries and anxieties about us.

    What do we think about? Just relaxation. Then we let go of our cares and turn to God with this simple prayer: Thy will be done.

    How long do we continue this? We can be our own judges. It can be a matter of minutes if necessary. We know, however, from experience, thirty seconds of complete relaxation of mind and body will do the trick. It is simple. Try it.

The Little Red Book:

Hazelden Publications,

pp. 106-107

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     Being competitive, and always striving to do better than others, is engrained in my mind. Healthy competition would be a good thing if I didn’t have this one physical, spiritual, and mental illness: I am an alcoholic. Naturally, I carry my disease into every activity if I don’t address it. In meditation I find that, even here, I try to sit longer, reach perfection of mind, and come up with insights more profound than others when we share our experience afterwards. No matter how deeply I bury, deny or hide from it, this very notion blocks me from progressing… truly relaxing and allowing the Heart of Compassion to do the heavy lifting. "Thy will be done" is the heavy lifting and, in this case, relieves me of the pressure of taking credit for the serenity and clarity of mind practicing meditation develops. I am no longer in competition and I can let go of the idea that I am better, or worse, at my practice than others. I can accept and claim my own humanity as an asset rather than a handicap.

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