Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday

follow the other steps? “What does religion or faith have to do with
anything?”
These are perfectly reasonable questions. And yet they don’t
matter.
Because Step 2 isn’t really about God. It’s about surrender. It’s
about faith.
Remember, the only way to get over the willful will—the force
that Awa Kenzo believed was causing everyone, not just addicts, to
miss the targets we aim for—is to let go, at the deep, soul level.
While addiction is undoubtedly a biological disease, it is also, in a
more practical sense, a process of becoming obsessed with one’s own
self and the primacy of one’s urges and thoughts. Therefore,
admitting that there is something bigger than you out there is an
important breakthrough. It means an addict finally understands that
they are not God, that they are not in control, and really never have
been. By the way, none of us are.
The twelve-step process is not itself transformative. It’s the
decision to stop and to listen and to follow that does all the work.
If you really look at the teachings, Alcoholics Anonymous doesn’t
say you have to believe in Jesus or go to church. Only that you accept
“God as we understand him.” That means that if you want to believe
in Mother Earth, or Providence, or Destiny, or Fate, or Random
Luck, that’s up to you.
To the Stoics, their higher power was the logos—the path of the
universe. They acknowledged fate and fortune and the power these
forces had over them. And in acknowledging these higher powers,
they accessed a kind of stillness and peace (most simply because it
meant less fighting battles for control!) that helped them run
empires, survive slavery or exile, and ultimately even face death with
great poise. In Chinese philosophy, dao—the Way—is the natural
order of the universe, the way of a higher spirit. The Greeks not only
believed in many different gods, but also that individuals were
accompanied by a daemon, a guiding spirit that led them to their
destiny.
The Confucians believed in Tian, 天—a concept of heaven that
guided us while we were here on earth and assigned us a role or
purpose in life. The Hindus believed that Brahman was the highest