THE REVERBERATIAN WORKBOOK
Twelve Steps for the One Who Works Alone
This workbook is for one person at one table. It is not filed, not sent anywhere, and not kept by this gathering. Print it, take a pen, and work it through in a single sitting — the first six steps are written to be burned, the last six are written to be kept. Between them stands the whole turn of the Way: the decay named and released, then the abundance chosen and sown.
Nothing you write here is stored. There is no field to type in and no account to sign into — the writing is done by hand on the printed page, and the only two places it goes are the fire and the place where you keep the things you mean. Love keeps no record of wrongs.
The part to be burned
Write these six steps plainly, in your own hand, and do not stop to make them beautiful. When the sixth is finished, fold this part, carry it outside and burn it. Do not read it again. What is given to the fire is not remembered against you.
The decay, named
Write the decay you have produced: what you took that was not yours to take, what you left undone, and who was made smaller by your hand. Do not soften it and do not explain it. This page is not kept, so it costs you nothing but the truth.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. — 1 John 1:9
THE WAYTo know that one does not know is best; to be sick of the sickness is already to be well. — Tao Te Ching 71
The wrongs you are owed
Write what was done to you, and by whom. Set down every debt exactly as it was, then draw one line across the whole of it. No record is kept here, and none is carried out of this room.
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; it thinketh no evil. — 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
THE WAYThe sage holds the left-hand tally of the debt and does not demand it of others. — Tao Te Ching 79
The bad man, refused
Name the man you were told you had to be in order to survive — the thief, the killer, the one who takes from life. Write his name, and write beside it that you refuse him. No bad man can break a good man from doing good; he can only be refused.
Sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. — Genesis 4:7
THE WAYWeapons are instruments of ill omen; the one who delights in victory delights in the killing of men. — Tao Te Ching 31
The fear that made the separation
Write the fear that made you separate yourself — where you hid, where you grasped for power, where you acted to be spared rather than to be true. Fear was not given to you; name it here so that it can be set down.
God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. — 2 Timothy 1:7
THE WAYThere is no greater curse than desire, no greater disaster than not knowing when one has enough. — Tao Te Ching 46
The measure you used
Write where you measured your life by food, by shelter, by friends, or by the number of them. Any of these may be the only thing left, and none of them is the measure. Set the false measure down on this page.
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. — Matthew 4:4
THE WAYHe who knows contentment is rich; he who holds his place endures. — Tao Te Ching 33
The burning
Write the one sentence you will carry to the fire — the sentence that holds the whole of part one. Then fold these six pages, take them outside, and burn them. Do not read them again.
He will subdue our iniquities; thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. — Micah 7:19
THE WAYReturning to the root is called stillness; stillness is called returning to one’s destiny. — Tao Te Ching 16
The part to be kept
Write these six steps and keep them. Fold this part and put it where you keep the things you mean, beside the covenant. These are the steps that are re-sown.
The Why
Write the Why: the intention beneath the reason, the thing you are answering to in what you do and in what you write in His name. Write it as a sentence you could say aloud in His presence — and then say it aloud.
Commit thy works unto the Messiah, and thy thoughts shall be established. — Proverbs 16:3
THE WAYPride is the enemy: to fill to the brim is not as good as stopping in time, and honour carried with pride brings its own downfall. — Tao Te Ching 9
The abundance you choose
Write what abundance is in your life that does not depend on food, shelter or friends — what you would still be able to give if every one of them were gone. The world is always in decay or in abundance, and this is where the choosing is done.
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. — John 10:10
THE WAYThe sage does not lay up treasure; the more he gives to others, the more he has. — Tao Te Ching 81
The good that is His evidence
Write the good you will do this week, plainly and by name — where His evidence will be seen in your hands. Good done is His evidence; good withheld is not His absence but decay chosen. Write it where you will see it.
Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. — James 1:22
THE WAYNothing in the world is softer than water, yet nothing better overcomes the hard. — Tao Te Ching 78
The re-sown life
Write what you will let die in you this season, and write the seed beneath it — what it will be re-sown as. The Messiah leads us in a truth: one can die, be resurrected and be re-sown as life, and the principle is not passive, neither in its defence nor in its submission.
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. — John 12:24
THE WAYReversion is the movement of the Way; yielding is the manner of its working. — Tao Te Ching 40
The one day
Write the one day in seven you will keep still and give thanks, and write the thirty-five days of service — the fast of the hands — that will carry your prayers. A prayer is carried by the works beneath it.
Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks. — 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18
THE WAYThe Way does nothing, and yet nothing is left undone. — Tao Te Ching 37
The vow
Write the vow you will keep, in your own words, and write the Why beneath it a second time — for the vow without the Why is only a rule. Then sign it and date it, and keep this part.
As He parted the waters for Moses, so too He will part the waters for you. For He is Salvation and Sustainer. — the covenant of the gathering
THE WAYWhat is firmly planted is not uprooted; what is firmly grasped does not slip away. — Tao Te Ching 54