The Joy of Living: Don't Miss the Bliss The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast Episode 112 How do we connect with the joy of living, even when it's not so easy? Discussion of Dharma in recovery from addictions on this week's show. OK, we do that every week!

THE FIVE POWERS

Devotion Joyful Effort Mindfulness Concentration Wisdom From Restricted Text:

Two Venerable Khenpos

Alternate title: Keith Dowman

Suffering as Compassion, Humility as Medicine: How to Overcome Arrogance The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast Episode 111

from Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima,

"Dropping the Attitude of Being Entirely Unwilling to Suffer Think about all the depression, anxiety and irritation we put ourselves through by always seeing suffering as unfavourable, something to be avoided at all costs. Now, think about two things: how useless this is, and how much trouble it causes. Go on reflecting on this repeatedly, until you are absolutely convinced. Then say to yourself: “From now on, whatever I have to suffer, I will never become anxious or irritated.” Go over this again and again in your mind, and summon all your courage and determination.

2 Cultivating the Attitude of Being Joyful when Suffering Arises Seeing suffering as an ally to help us on the path, we must learn to develop a sense of joy when it arises. Yet whenever suffering strikes, unless we have some kind of spiritual practice to bring to it, one which matches the capacity of our mind, no matter how many times we might say to ourselves: ‘Well, as long as I’ve got roughly the right method, I’ll be able to use suffering and obtain such and such a benefit’, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll succeed. We’ll be as far from our goal, the saying goes, as the earth is from the sky.

Therefore, use suffering as the basis for the following practices:

c. Using Suffering to Overcome Arrogance As I explained before, [as long as we are in samsara] we are never independent or truly free or in control of our lives. On the contrary, we are always dependent on and at the mercy of suffering. So we must eliminate ‘the enemy that destroys anything that is wholesome and good’, which is arrogance and pride; and we must do away with the evil attitude of belittling others and considering them as inferior.

Transforming Suffering

https://podcast.compassionaterecovery.us/all-podcast-teachings/transformsuffering/

Sapiens

https://amzn.to/3GEBkId

It's well understood in the recovery community that an attitude of gratitude isa potent antidote to much of what ails us addicts in recovery. We all know how to make our gratitude lists. But how do Buddhists in Recovery use the Dharma (teachings) to further explore the medicine of true appreciation? Tune in, we'll get into it with a meditation so simple, you'll be amazed before we are halfway through. Word.

Appreciating the Now: How to Train Our Minds to Feel Better The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast Episode 110

Grab a copy of The 12-Step Buddhist for someone that you love. 

Compassionate Recovery: Mindful Healing for Trauma and Addictions Available in Kindle, Trade Paperback, Hardcover

The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast Episode 109 We're often told that what happens may be out of our control, but how we respond is up to us. That's easy for regulated people to say.  For those who suffer with CPTSD and other problems due to ACEs have more work to do to get to the level where we can "pause when agitated,"  and not send that text or make that post!

The Dharma offers us trainings that help us be fit for maximum service.

Let's talk about it. 

What is the nature of our relationship to psychedelics? As people in recovery, we've probably abused them at one time or another. Some people have taken mass overdoses and lost total control. So why would anyone in recovery consider the use, medicinal or otherwise, of something that seems pretty risky? 

It's OK. You can and it'll be alright. 

Let's talk about it on today's show, Episode 108. 

St. Theresa of Avila "The time has come to love more and think less. Sit in a deep quiet in which love is translating you into God."

Meditation: what we're powerless to attain is attaining us in our inability to attain it inhale breathing in God, into the unresolved questions. Exhale give yourself in love.

from James Finley, "Mystical Sobriety."

The number 108 has a variety of significances across different fields:

1. Mathematics:

   • It's an abundant and a semiperfect number.
   • A tetranacci number.
   • The hyperfactorial of 3, as it is of the form 11⋅22⋅3311⋅22⋅33.
   • Divisible by the value of its φ function, which is 36.
   • Divisible by the total number of its divisors (12), making it a refactorable number.
   • The angle in degrees of the interior angles of a regular pentagon in Euclidean space.
   • Palindromic in several bases and a Harshad number in multiple bases.

2. Religion and the Arts:

   • Sacred in Dharmic Religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
   • In Hindu tradition, there are 108 attendants of Shiva, and in Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Krishna had 108 followers known as gopis.
   • The Sri Vaishnavite Tradition has 108 Divya Desams (temples of Vishnu).
   • The Sudarshana Chakra, a weapon in Hindu mythology, has 108 serrated edges.
   • The total number of Upanishads is 108 as per the Muktikā canon.
   • In Tibetan Buddhism, malas or rosaries are usually 108 beads.
   • Zen priests wear juzu, a ring of prayer beads, consisting of 108 beads.
   • The Lankavatara Sutra has sections where 108 questions are asked and 108 statements of negation are listed.

3. Martial Arts:

   • Many East Asian martial arts, due to their ties to Buddhism, consider 108 an important symbolic number.
   • According to Marma Adi and Ayurveda, there are 108 pressure points in the body.
   • The ultimate Gōjū-ryū kata, Suparinpei, translates to 108.
   • The Yang Taijiquan long form and Wing Chun wooden dummy form taught by Ip Man have 108 moves.

4. Literature:

   • There are 108 outlaws in the Chinese classic "Water Margin/Outlaws of the Marsh."
   • "Astrophil and Stella," the first English sonnet sequence, has 108 love sonnets.
   • Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" has 108 lines.

5. Science:

   • Hassium, a chemical element, has the atomic number 108.
   • The human body's vital organs begin to fail at an internal temperature of 108 degrees Fahrenheit.
   • The distance of Earth from the Sun is about 108 times the diameter of the Sun.

6. Technology:

   • 108 Mbit/s is a non-standard extension of IEEE 802.11g wireless network using channel bonding.

7. Sports:

   • An official Major League Baseball baseball has 108 stitches.
   • The Chicago Cubs won the World Series in 2016 for the first time in 108 years.

8. Card Games:

   • There are 108 cards in a deck of UNO cards.

9. Other Fields:

   • In India, 108 is the toll-free emergency telephone number.

Surrender to the Now: Get Grounded in Recovery The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast Episode 107

The famous now is where we want to be. But wanting gets us nowhere. The root of suffering, said Buddha, is attachment. To free ourselves, we must cut it out at the root. The root lies in our very desire to be somewhere, anywhere, other than right here, right now. As addicts we've tried to be somone else, somewhere else for our own survival. In recovery we need to learn heart opening, mindful skills to be our own best healers. In service to this vital necessity of practice, let's not gloss over the now, objectify the now, reify or even deify the now. Rather, let's follow the advice of the AA Big Book, which says that we had to let go absolutely, or the result was nil. Therein lies the conundrum, and the very core opportunity for practice. 

Let's talk about it. 

Books mentioned:

Wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers: Ancient Advice for the Modern World

Desert Fathers and Mothers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings, Merton

Total Mind Power

Life on Life's Terms: Acceptance in Recovery The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast Episode 106

"And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation – some face of my life – unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and my attitudes." Alcoholics Anonymous, Basic Text, pg 417

"We sought escape with all the desperation of drowning men. What seemed at first a flimsy reed, has proved to be the loving and powerful hand of God. A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, a 'design for living' that really works."

Working with "Life as it is, the only teacher." Rather than fight, our recovery program says that we cease fighting anything, or anyone. This is surrender. From a Dharma perspective, as a Buddhist in recovery, this means we stop resisting our own mental\emotional\physical state. This is the Buddhist corollary to the AA adage, "Let Go and Let God," except in our case, God, the authority, the truth and the reality is righte here, right now. 

How to Be a Flimsy Reed The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast Episode 105

Resistance=suffering, so we try to relax, no matter what the situation. We work with it, rather than fighting against it. In AA terms, we "get out of the way," but here again, it's internal. We get out of the way of our own total experience and let life be, as it is, without attempting to fix it.

Moving with the wind, like a flimsy reed, we are less likely to break. 

Mindfully Manic; How to Keep Your Head as a Buddhist in Recovery The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast Episode 104 Sutra of Golden Light: Chapter 6 on Emptiness conclusion

Update on my journey. Ideas from listeners.

open to your thoughts [email protected]

The condition of 24/7 fire alarm, my instructor mentioning that some moments of confusion, etc are bound to happen at some point when we are on the path, but I asked what if that is the case for us 24/7? He thought about it and said, then you're going to have to be on the job 24/7. Cold hard truth.

What is a Buddhist Higher Power and How Do Buddhists in Recovery Pray? The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast Episode 103 Sutra of Golden Light: Chapter 6 on Emptiness cont.

Let's talk about the obstacles to prayer and hence, spiritual development. That's right, you heard me. We must learn how to pray, with intention, not just because the house is on fire. From a Buddhist perspective however, the house is indeed burning up. The Dharma is the knowledge passed on from the Buddha. It is the knowledge that the house is burning. Dharma is the set of instructions on how to stop our addiction to suffering and really, truely let go of our ego. Join me for this lively discussion with myself, and y'all. See you on the show!

Stabilizing Our Recovery with Dharma Practice  The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast Episode 102 Sutra of Golden Light: Chapter 6 on Emptiness

Dharma has to help, otherwise it's of no value. For it to work, we study, hear words, see things and do practices. Dharma has to be abporped into our lives over time. Our ability to turn confusion into peace without fighting anything comes with time and consistent effort. Never stop trying. Don't give up on the dharma, because the dharma wll never give up on you. This work is for everyone, as it conflicts with nothing. For those taking refuge in recovery, practicing dharma recovery and participating in all manner of yoga recovery and other healing modalities, clarify and deepen your recovery with the King of Glorious Sutras called the Exalted Sublime Golden Light, a Mahayana Sutra. Oral transmission and teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche over many retreats. I don't think we finished it, but we got a lot. Here's a main point in the Chapter on Emptiness.