Judge Harm

Harm:  That which causes injury, damage, or loss.

One of our Steps: "Made direct amends to such people (those we have harmed is the implication from the Step directly proceeding) wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others."  In the detailed explanation of this Step we find this caution: "It does not lighten our burden when we recklessly make the crosses of others heavier."

I get this.  I'm so eager to feel better myself that I don't care how my behavior might harm someone else.  If there's a Step that requires some counsel from a good sponsor it's this Step.  Please, please don't go rushing into the amends process without talking to someone wiser than you.  These people weren't hard for me to find - I could pretty much tap the first person I saw on the shoulder and get some advice that made more sense than the pablum I was spooning into my own personal hat.

And from the Precepts of Social Discipline:
"Ahimsa: Non-violence.  Not harming other people or other sentient beings.  Not harming oneself.  Tolerance even for that which we dislike (Ed. Note: Ack.  Gack.)  Not speaking that which, even though truthful, would injure others."

Spirituality is spirituality.  It's not a new concept and it's not a particularly clever concept.  I mean, really, do you have to pick up a book or go to a building to listen to someone preach to figure out that it's a good idea to be nice to other people?  One of the reasons our Fellowship has thrived is because we do a very good job trying to follow some very basic advice without wrapping it up with any formal wrapping paper.