Step 11: “Sought though prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”
Somehow, for me, I find it helpful to think about the meaning of each word in a particular step. This helps me understand the applicable principles and actions.
The word “sought” comes from the word “to seek.” To seek means “to try and find.”
What is it that we are trying to find? We are seeking and trying to find a conscious and meaningful relationship with the God of our understanding.
According to Chuck C. the human ego is “the feeling of conscious separation” which blocks us off from God, other people and ourselves.
So, in Step 11, we are seeking to transcend our ego and our feeling of separateness and connect to that piece of ourselves which is transcendent, and connected to God.
The AA BB states: “deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there. For faith in a Power greater than ourselves, and miraculous demonstrations of that power in human lives, are facts as old as man himself.” (pp. 55)
The ego is really a distraction from the real truth that “…faith in some kind of God was a part of our make-up, just as much as the feeling we have for a friend. Sometimes we had to search fearlessly, but He was there. He was as much a fact as we were. And we are sure you will find the Great Reality deep down within you. In the last analysis it is only there that He may be found.” (pp. 55)
Here, the Big Book is telling us that it is not true that we are separate from God. Really, God is a part of us and we are a part of Him. The distinction between the physical and the spiritual world is a delusion of our ego.
To further illustrate, the first law in thermodynamics states that “matter can neither be created nor destroyed, it merely changes form.” Therefore, ice, steam and water are the same molecules of hydrogen and oxygen, H20, in different forms. So too, we, as human beings are different forms of God’s essence. The truth is, we are not separate from God, but really a part of Him. We are “congealed” or solid spiritual essence.
Our thoughts and actions are very powerful. They set our intentions and directions in life. We are seekers –looking for a connection to God. If we can get our ego out of the way, we can leave room for God to come in!
Emotional Sobriety And Food 
What a profound and beautiful thought! I contemplate my deep and real connection with G-d and feel his loving presence in my life until the ego sets in again and then I remind myself and draw near again and realize we are one.
Thank you for this. It really gets right to the crux of the matter…that Gdliness is there, right inside ourselves, closer, I like to think, than our own breath. Where we really seem to get into trouble, as addicts, is with our egos…our stubborn, persistent idea that’s it’s all about us… our own desires, ideas, beliefs. We really do Edge G-d Out when we set up camp in such a place. The trick comes in the SEEKING. This is something we are so not used to doing. In fact, what we are USED to doing is the E.G.O thing, the literal opposite of seeking. Perhaps one difficulty we get into is that we expect Program to “work” for us 100% when try to banish our egos, but without first (or at least simultaneously) SEEKING our Higher Power. It seems perhaps that more vigorous SEEKING, that is QUESTING, after the Gd of our Understanding first (without the focus of trying to address our stubborn egos) might be a better strategy. If we can properly SEEK, we might well FIND the Infinite which would “automatically,” so to speak banish our finite egos from the scene. Just my two cents…