A Prayer to the Cosmos[1]

“On awakening let us think about the twenty-four hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Before we begin, we ask The great spirits of the cosmos for the Serenity to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all the cosmos gave us brains to use. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.

In thinking about our day we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask the cosmos for inspiration, an intuitive thought or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don’t struggle. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while. What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind.

Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with the Cosmos, it is not probable that we are going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it.

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. We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends. Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn’t work.

You can easily see why.

If circumstances warrant, we ask our wives or friends to join us in morning meditation. 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, rabbi, or Spiritual teacher. Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer.

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 do not run the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day, “Thy will be done.’’

We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions. We become much more efficient. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves.

It works—it really does.

We alcoholics are undisciplined. So we let The cosmos discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined. But this is not all. There is action and more action.

“ Faith without works is dead.””

- I pray to you great spirits of the Cosmos -

Great spirits of the cosmos, I humbly ask for your guidance. As your spirits flow through all that is tangible to the mind and body, I ask that our stardust connect us.

Great spirits, grant me Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the courage to change the things I can. I humbly ask for my pride to be set aside so I may gain the knowledge and wisdom to know the difference.

  Please show me a path to forgive myself, and those whose struggles are foreign to me. A path where judgement of others yields to honesty and vulnerability. May I always remember to ask how my motives, and faults are impacting others.

Please let those suffering in my life find their burdens eased as we journey together, and journey apart. Please help me accept our different paths in life, however they may look. Help me ask myself on a daily basis if I have given anyone reason to believe that I didn’t care about them. May I try to live my life with generosity, gratitude, and grace.

Let the truths of the universe, known and unknown, become clearer so that I may strive to understand those around me in an authentic way. Please help me tend to the roots of Yggdrasil as they grow within.

These things I humbly ask of you, great spirits of the cosmos.

[1] Adapted by a friend of Bill W. – from the big book.