Ah-Man Spiritual Recovery Program

Ah-Man Spiritual Recovery Program The Ah-Man Spiritual Recovery Program guides seekers through the Twelve Steps alongside Eastern and Western spiritual traditions. What are the next steps?

The Little Blue Book of Recovery & Spiritual Foundation helps you build your relationship with God, Self, and others. There's usually a common thread that brings one to seek Spiritual Recovery. That thread is pain: physical, mental or emotional. On rare occasions, it can be a joyous or spectacular life event that brings one to Spiritual Recovery. But in most cases, it will be life's painful events

that bring us into alignment for Spiritual Recovery. Once the process of Spiritual Recovery is ignited, it will be by an event or experience that will have a profound and permanent effect on your life. There are many types of people attracted to this work, including those in Twelve-Step programs, because they have already begun to think and see things differently. Others are those who have a negative, poor, or no relationship with God. Something happened in their life that was painful and led them to stop believing in and communicating with God. They’ve now reached a point where looking for fulfillment outside of themselves is not satisfying, and so they begin to go within. Yet others were raised in a faith that was forced upon them or didn’t make any sense to them. Perhaps they were made to fear God. Many times, something surrounding their religion caused them pain and humiliation. As adults, they now know there’s more to life than what they’re experiencing and they begin searching for a religion or spiritual path that makes sense to them. They want something that encompasses love instead of fear, joy instead of pain, respect rather than disrespect. Whether one is beginning a new relationship with their Inner Self or has had a Spiritual Awakening/Divine Experience, the common thread is how one can deepen or enhance that experience? Whether you are a neophyte or a journeyman on your Spiritual Recovery, Michael Hoare’s vast experience will guide you in learning how to enrich your journey experience. For more information about Spiritual Recovery or Ah-Man, contact Michael via email at [email protected].

Faith Beyond Limited UnderstandingWe often see life through the limits of our own intelligence and understanding. Faith ...
09/05/2026

Faith Beyond Limited Understanding

We often see life through the limits of our own intelligence and understanding. Faith helps us rise above the suffering that can come from those limits. Even when we do not understand “why,” faith reminds us that more may be unfolding than we can see or comprehend in the moment.

Looking BackIn last month’s newsletter, I reflected on the importance of natural, social, and spiritual laws.This Month’...
09/02/2026

Looking Back
In last month’s newsletter, I reflected on the importance of natural, social, and spiritual laws.

This Month’s Focus
This month, I will draw from sacred scripture to explore how limited understanding and social conditioning can distort our view of why things happen—and how that misunderstanding can lead to suffering.

Check September's Ah-Man Spiritual Recovery Newsletter, https://conta.cc/4zM153o

More on how Laws Help Prevent ChaosAlthough the Eastern and Western traditions use different language shaped by differen...
08/29/2026

More on how Laws Help Prevent Chaos

Although the Eastern and Western traditions use different language shaped by different cultures, many of their underlying moral principles are closely related.

Moral principle Ten Commandments Yamas and Niyamas

Nonviolence Do not murder (gratuitously) Ahimsa: non-harming in thought, word, and deed

Truth Do not bear false witness Satya: truthfulness

Respect for property Do not steal Asteya: non-stealing

Purity Honor sacred commitments and practices Saucha: cleanliness of body and mind

Self-control Do not covet Aparigraha: non-greed, and Brahmacharya: moderation

Devotion Honor God and reject false idols Ishvara Pranidhana: surrender to the Divine

Laws Help Prevent ChaosGovernments also establish laws within the world of duality. If people want those laws changed, t...
08/26/2026

Laws Help Prevent Chaos

Governments also establish laws within the world of duality. If people want those laws changed, they can petition their elected officials and work through an established system.

Simply disliking a law does not automatically give someone permission to break it. When everyone acts only according to personal desires, disorder and chaos can follow.

Similarly, the laws expressed through the Yamas Niyamas, and Ten Commandments may sometimes interfere with our pleasures or preferred way of living. Yet their purpose is not simply to restrict us. They are meant to encourage harmony, self-control, and respect among human beings and nature.

Continuing on with Why we have Laws...Guidance From East and WestThe laws of the East—the Yamas and Niyamas—and those of...
08/23/2026

Continuing on with Why we have Laws...

Guidance From East and West
The laws of the East—the Yamas and Niyamas—and those of the West—the Ten Commandments—offer guidelines that help our true Essence shine more fully through the body and mind.

We are Spirit experiencing a world of duality through a human body. We are not merely human bodies having spiritual experiences. However, we tend to experience life according to how we see ourselves—and this is where suffering enters.

Life can certainly be painful. We live, after all, in a world of duality. Yet there is a difference between pain and suffering. Pain may be addressed, accepted, and eventually overcome in different ways. Suffering often continues by repeating the same patterns again and again.

Continuing from Monday post: Why do we have Laws...The Creator’s Laws for a Human ExperienceSimilarly, our Creator has g...
08/22/2026

Continuing from Monday post: Why do we have Laws...

The Creator’s Laws for a Human Experience

Similarly, our Creator has given us laws through sages, prophets, avatars, and other enlightened beings. These laws help us maintain order within ourselves and within our surroundings.

Our true essence is Spirit. It travels in and through the body-mind organism, which belongs to the animal kingdom. Sacred teachings tell us that the human form represents the highest level of that kingdom. The laws passed down to us enable the body and mind to act from the highest consciousness available within our human capacity.

Our Essence—the Spirit—is the Light within the body-mind organism. Yet that Light can become obscured.

Imagine a lantern. The flame within represents our Essence or Spirit. The glass surrounding it protects the flame and allows its light to shine. How brightly it shines, however, depends upon how clean the glass is. If the glass is dirty or covered with smudges, the light cannot fully express its brilliance.

In the same way, The Creator’s Laws and our spiritual practices help clean the “glass” surrounding our inner Light.

Why Do We Have Laws?Let's start off by acknowledging that we live in a world of duality.The sacred scriptures of both Ea...
08/19/2026

Why Do We Have Laws?

Let's start off by acknowledging that we live in a world of duality.

The sacred scriptures of both East and West tell us that the planet we inhabit is neither Heaven nor a heavenly realm. Nor is it the lowest or most hellish realm. Earth is somewhere in the middle—a place where we experience opposites and live within duality.

Like everything in this universe—or any universe within creation—laws help maintain order.

Consider the law of gravity. We take it for granted, yet it keeps much of our world in order. Without it, chaos would follow.
Gravity keeps people, oceans, and the atmosphere bound to Earth. It holds moons in orbit around planets and planets in orbit around stars. It compresses clouds of gas until they form stars and planetary systems.

Without gravity, matter would not gather into stars, planets, and galaxies, nor would the stable environments necessary for life exist. Gravity is one of the universe’s great laws, established by our Creator.

Let Your Light ShineEntire books have been written about each of the subjects The Ten Commandments & Yama Niyama. My pur...
08/16/2026

Let Your Light Shine

Entire books have been written about each of the subjects The Ten Commandments & Yama Niyama. My purpose is simply to encourage a clearer understanding of what ancient sages, prophets, and more recent saints have given us.

These teachings are not merely lists of restrictions. They are guidance for living with greater awareness, harmony, truth, and love.

Keep the glass of your lantern clean.

Be the Light you are meant to be in this world of duality.

Ten Commandments & Yama Niyama-Their Shared PrinciplesNon-HarmThe commandment “Do not murder” relates to Ahimsa, or nonv...
08/15/2026

Ten Commandments & Yama Niyama-Their Shared Principles
Non-Harm
The commandment “Do not murder” relates to Ahimsa, or nonviolence.
Life is affected by nearly everything we do. With every breath and every step—and even when we pull a plant from the ground—some form of life may be disturbed or taken. The teaching asks us not to destroy life unnecessarily or because of greed, hatred, or cruelty.

Truthfulness
“Do not bear false witness” relates to Satya, or truthfulness.
This principle asks us to refrain from lying, committing perjury, omitting essential parts of the truth, or harming others through false testimony.

Respect for Property
“Do not steal” relates to Asteya, or non-stealing.
This includes not taking another person’s property and not allowing ourselves to become consumed by the desire for what belongs to someone else.

Purity and Fidelity
The commandment against adultery protects the sanctity of marriage and fidelity. The call to keep sacred practices holy also shares qualities with Saucha—the cultivation of purity and cleanliness in both body and mind.

Contentment and Devotion
Honoring God, respecting parents and elders relate to Santosha, or contentment, and Ishvara Pranidhana, or devotion and surrender to a higher power.
This means placing God before family, money, prestige, ego, or any other attachment. When these things become more important than the Divine, they can become false idols.

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