If the Big Book is Windows XP, Dalai-Lama-type-people are like Bill Gates

Meaning AA is a 'Lamborghini' when used WELL using skills often acquired or refined OUTSIDE AA.
As a 'vehicle' to attain spiritual growth, AA is the equivalent of a top racehorse. A Lamborghini if you like. But it is very UNDER utilized in AA. In my opinion. Its ROCKET FUEL. Very very powerful stuff!!
Newcomers and learning how to give it away to keep it are the top end of the AA scale. Its 'piece de resistance'. This will grant you more spiritual leverage than seriously expensive therapy. In my opinion.
Basically, helping newcomers is an education in kindness. And everything else really. Its a very powerful life lesson.
But my 'pillars of strength' exist outside AA. They are people like the Dalai Lama and that sort of person.
That doesn't mean I discount the fellowship in AA. I don't. The fellowship is very real to me and is a continuing source of support and nice feeling for me. But my main teachers are Dalai Lama type people. Perhaps teachers is the wrong word. They are my guides and my inspiration, and they show me how far I have to go. They are my view of the VERY (and often unattainable) distant horizon. Which I really NEED. And they fill in the blanks left by my AA teaching. They refine and make sense of the things AA have taught me.
Its like if AA was like windows 2000. The dalai lama is the encyclopedic knowledge of the programming that makes windows 2000 software run.
My fellow AA's are my 'grass roots' spirituality. The day to day practical stuff of submitting to the wisdom of others and keeping me humble. Learning to be taught by EVERYONE. Meaning everyone is my teacher, because they all reflect things back to me and show me the limits of my patience and good will.

Ok starting again. AA works as well as windows does. But people in AA don't really know how it works, just like 99.9999999% of windows users have NO IDEA at all what Bill Gates knows about how to put the software together.
Well people like the dalai lama are the Bill Gates of the spiritual world. They understand very complex and refined truths about why things work.
There is a tendency for some people to think AA is like a 'low rent' version of top dollar therapy, for instance. But in my opinion it isn't. AA IS top dollar. And if you could see as much as the dalai lama could see, you would see it for the powerful vehicle it is. Limited yes. But very powerful when used skillfully. NOT the answer to everything, but a very good vehicle for obtaining spiritual growth. Which basically means just learning to be a happy, AWARE human being.