As a person familiar both with meditation and with the therapeutic process, I can say that any viable method of meditation is helpful to those who wish to own up to their weaknesses and take personal responsibility for any wrong actions they have caused. Whenever you are working with areas in yourself where you are stunted because of childhood wounds, this process is tedious and difficult. To support such therapeutic work, meditation slows the feverish pace of thoughts and carries into your depths the message of hope. Whether your work on yourself is in a twelve step program, with a therapist, or in your own program of self-growth, meditation can give you a lifeline to that sweet ambrosia and quickened spirit that we are still searching to make ours.

To give an example, so many of us are obsessed with trying to be only good and push down the not so good. However, consciousness is a very big place; what we believe is good about ourselves fills only an infinitesimal part of it. In fact, in my case, such clinging left me just a collection of fragments unable to liberate myself to experience wholeness of being. But I found these words from The Sixth Patriarch of Zen:

Do not try to push away distractions and hide from your mistakes; for they themselves contain the nature of true reality.

But sometimes it is necessary to become a beast if one is ever to become a spirit. For we need the boundary of our finitude-ever reminding us that we are human and not divine. That is why, meditating on these words from the Sixth Patriarch, it became easier for me to invite all the stuffed-down ugliness, too, into my life, to call up those ogres that were exiled down in the basement right up into my stylish Victorian and invite them to tea.

Such acknowledgment of weaknesses and taking responsibility for actions is difficult business. It takes courage to stand up and accept our whole self. But that is the gateway to greater awareness. The more awareness we have, the more consciousness will be seen to include not just part of ourselves, but all of ourselves, and eventually, see in a sudden flash our interdependence with the whole of life in all its glory.

So if you have an area of weakness, addiction, or dependency, congratulate yourself. Know that, whatever it is, there is help in the practice of meditation, and that you may find your worst weakness--insecurity, fear, inconstancy, co-dependence, alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, internet addiction, or any other-- will be the trail that leads inward into your greatest source of strength deep in consciousness. Whatever difficult area we may be working on with our therapist, twelve step program, or path of personal growth, meditation can help expand awareness into it and bring us great comfort. By linking with the feelings that are being released in our inner work, the right passage will help in our work to

In such difficult personal work, I have found passages to meditate on were just the ally I was looking for. Problems with addiction and personal helplessness are problems precisely because they are in a place in consciousness where our will can't go. In fact, such passages provide the perfect link to that higher power twelve-step programs speak of. Without reference even to a belief in God, meditating on the words of the wisest people ever to walk on earth brings the highest vision of human capacities within reach of anyone who places their full attention on them. By linking with the feelings that are being released in our inner work, the right passage will help in our work to

*process our deep feelings

*get hold of and end addictions

*take responsibility for ourselves

*develop compassion for ourselves

*expand our conscious awareness

*find a new, higher self image

*reduce stress and defeat worry

*develop stronger personal relationships

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