The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast

We can apply our development of refuge and bodhicitta on the path of recovery. We use rituals that include motions, breathwork, sounds and visualizations. We can offer flowers and scents and all of our attachments to the Refuge Field. From this refuge field we practice with body, speech and mind to apply the rest of our practice session. All sessions include components. Join us as we discuss all o...

Who is our Sangha? Choose wisely. In this aspect of the path, we study and try to understand our effect on other beings and our energy. The Buddha has shown itself in the sufferings of infinite karmas, filling bottomless oceans of beings who suffer but have not met the Dharma. To protect our commitments, to develop and strengthen our commitment to the path, we would be more helpful to ourselves if...

What is this Dharma that we are offered to take refuge in? Can it be defined? Continuing our discussion of what, and what not to take refuge in. Now that we have some sense of the Buddha, the Four Noble Truths and basic principles, we'll add the Refuge Field, and all Dharmas in our next Object of Refuge: The Dharma. As always, we'll use the instructions as tools to unlock our realizations and insi...

This week we continue deepening our understanding of precisely what it means to us to take refuge, in the Buddha, in recovery. Last episode, we discussed the Four Kayas of a Buddha. This episode continues the discussion of Objects of Refuge, Refuge in the Buddha, The Five Wisdom aspects. Don't worry, we'll break it down simply, and do some practice to gain direct knowledge of refuge in the Buddha....

Work with refuge in our meditations with "objects" to take refuge in. We started the topic on a simple way. Now, we get into the weeds on refuge in this ongoing series. Drawing from a rare translation on Refuge and Bodhicitta by Patrul Rinpoche and having received many teachings on esoteric texts by this amazing master, I comment in terms of the application of refuge in recovery. The 12-Step Buddh...

Two weeks of dental suffering brought my practice, and my sobriety, to the test. This week we take a deeper look at refuge and it's application to our lives as Buddhists in recovery.  More personal sharing this week as I talk about managing pain, with an without an opiate at hand. This is how I dealt with it, in the context of refuge and bodhicitta - compassion, but Supreme, not only relative. htt...

To understand what is meant by refuge in recovery, we must first understand and integrate some basic Buddhist principles. Intellectual understanding is not sufficient, but we gotta start somewhere. We discuss the meaning of refuge in Buddhism. It There are many lineages and views to consider! It depends on what the Tibetans call Thowa , or the view that the teaching begins with and is based upon....

If you've ever been to a 12-step meeting, you've probably seen the famous sign, "Easy Does It". Some who've clawed our way out of hell to scratch a morsel of serenity have done so out of sheer force, which can beg the question of how to go easy, when everything has always been hard? Others w/ACEs in recovery may react w/passivity, thus reinforcing a negative action toward ourselves not by what we...

Direct from Peru, Charo Verastegui (María del Rosario Verástegui Schmitt), a fellow practitioner of the Chod, as well as indigenous spiritual practices. See past and future books and episodes for more on Chod as the best tool available to cut the root of attachment, which is the root of addiction. Continuing with Practices of a Bodhisattva, #36. This is the path of bodhisattvas, yogis and Buddhist...

Addicts are seekers. What do we seek? Transcendence. The mystical . The sacred. Why do we seek the type of experiences that are outside what we call ordinary consciousness? Rather than look for answers out of pure scientific curiosity, we're more likely seeking a way out of suffering, albeit in addictive ways. Yet, when we turn to twelve step programs for refuge, we're often told that suffering is...

As addicts in any form of Buddhist Recovery, Dharma Recovery , Refuge Recovery, we try to focus on mindful, compassionate presence in the four moments that Buddha described. Yet, when we have ACEs and are in working with Trauma and Recovery, our resistance seems to persists despite our best efforts. Or is it because of them? Learn how to apply the Backwards Law, and the Law of Inverse Proportion t...

We can pretend that we're not angry, but it will make us feel less in control. How does anger affect us in our recovery? We're told in 12-Step meetings that anger is a dubious luxury for "normal" people. Yet it continues to arise and cause problems no matter how long we're sober. How can we deal with the root our anger as Buddhists in recovery to find compassion, peace and ease? The 12-Step Buddhi...

What is the best thing that we can gift each other? Our mindful, compassionate presence. We discuss the mahayana *(greater) path of dharma, as it applies to recovery from addictions, at any stage. To overcome the root of our addiction, we utilize brain science, trauma psychology and Buddhist practice. In this episode, we will learn and do a practice that considers how to offer something extraordin...

Being present with loss and grief. while loss is universal, the experience of grief is individual. it cannot be compared to previous experiences, or those of other people. once we own our own process, grief and loss become part of the path. easier said than done, but this is the path of bodhisattvas, yogis and Buddhists in recovery. Continuing w the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, #31. The 12-Step...

celebrating 25 years of sobriety 12-4-97 how the past influences our perception and therefore experience of this infamous now. the holy now. the nowness of now. but is what we think is the now really the present moment, or a pervasive, consistent layer of trauma from the past? Continuing w the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, #30 The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast - Episode 073 Readings from Internal Fami...

So called insight meditation practices are perhaps the most widely diffused in the west, in terms of what people think of as buddhism. today we'll expand our view and understand something of value when it comes to the nature and meaning of the next level of dharma teaching as it pertains to concentration, insight into our recovery and ourselves as compassion seeking addicts in recovery.  The 12-St...

Emotional Surrender: How to Be Non-Toxic. Addicts are very sensitive, empathic, highly emotional creatures. The inability to be comfortable in our own skin creates suffering that contributes to our addiction and other dysfunction. How does Dharma deal with toxic emotions and people? Continuing w the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, #28. Readings from Entering the Way of the Bodhisattva: A New Transl...

Teachings ask us to practice the perfection or paramita of patience. But as any good addict knows, it's never fast enough for us. We operate on our own time, often expecting the world to warp its perceptions to match ours. Yet, our impatience causes stress, can trigger us out of our Window of Tolerance into Allostatic Overload, leaving us in a state of alarm if not distress. The energy of our impa...

How does a Buddhist deal with the sex drive, sex roles, morays, expectations, taboos in the dharma, and the dharma of recovery? What role does trauma, particularly sexual trauma, play in our choices, drives as Buddhists in recovery? Why do we repeat the same roles and characters, leaving train wreck after catastrophe in our wake? Continuing w the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, #26. Readings from T...

How does a Buddha make amends? In 12-Step, we learn the necessity not of insincere apology, but absolute willingness to right the wrongs we've done. Given that we've accumulated infinite negative karmas in our Realm of Desire, just how long do you think your Buddhist amends list would be... Continuing w the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, #25. Readings from Longchenpa . The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast...

If being is one thing and space is another, we suffer. In being space, we create a split between samsara and nirvana. From the beginning of beginningless time, when we separate subject and object, we create infinite causes for suffering. To see space seeing its nothingness, with no reference point or subject that percieves an object...this is the view we try to take. Continuing w the 37 Practices...

Join me for a special guest meditation. On this episode, we practice together with an excellent instructor in the Dzogchen space.  The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast - Episode 066 Igor Berkhin is a long-term meditation practitioner, a Buddhist translator, and a teacher authorized by a prominent Dzogchen master Chogyal Namkhai Norbu. One of his projects is about how to apply contemplative practices for r...

Do you want to be free of suffering? Training on the path of compassion will ultimately free us from all attachments, if we commit and take a long-term view. Continuing w the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, #23. Readings from Longchenpa . The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast - Episode 065 Want to opine? Leave a message on The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast hotline. Opine on the hotline. (505) 219-1509‬ Compassio...

In Twelve step programs, we're taught that we must free ourselves from the "bondage of self." What does this mean for us as Buddhists in recovery? How can we apply the teachings to free ourselves? It's up to us. Liberation is in the palm of our hands.  The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast - Episode 064 Want to opine? Leave a message on The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast hotline. Opine on the hotline. (505) 219-...

Is Mindfulness being co-opted more by corporations, or our egos? McMindfulness in the context of meaningful recovery that includes training in self-compassion and compassion for others. The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast - Episode 063 Want to opine? Leave a message on The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast hotline. Opine on the hotline. (505) 219-1509‬ Continuing w the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, #21. Readings...