Latest Entry by Kevin Griffin on Huff Post re: Steps 6 & 7

Here is a link to Kevin Griffin's latest entry on the Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-griffin/the-higher-power-of-karma_b_890510.html

And here's an excerpt from the article that struck me:

To me, this process isn't about God in a Western sense, but it is about power -- the power of karma, action. In the Bible it says, "Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you." This sounds a lot like Step Seven to me. Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, a Thai forest monk of the 20th century says this about that passage: "From the Buddhist point of view, this is a matter of karma ... we beseech the Law of Karma through our action and not merely with words." From a Buddhist point of view, the Law of Karma, which says every action has a result, can be seen as a Higher Power. For those of us who have been lost in addiction, when we connect with karma in this way, take the actions that harmonize with the Law of Karma, our life changes in radical ways. There's no magic here, but there is great effort and faith. We have to abandon long-held beliefs, about ourselves, and about the world. We have to fight the self-destructive and pleasure seeking habits that have destroyed our lives, even as we have devoted ourselves to them. We have to take actions, internally and externally that may be uncomfortable and unnatural, and we have to stick with these new behaviors even when they aren't producing the results we want.

Ajahn Sumedho's booklet The Four Noble Truths

Here is a link to the booklet by Ajahn Sumedho on The Four Noble Truths, along with the excerpt I read last night on Letting Go:


LETTING GO
If we contemplate desires and listen to them, we are actually no longer attaching to them; we are just allowing them to be the way they are. Then we come to the realisation that the origin of suffering, desire, can be laid aside and let go of.

How do you let go of things? This means you leave them as they are; it does not mean you annihilate them or throw them away. It is more like setting down and letting them be. Through the practice of letting go we realise that there is the origin of suffering, which is the attachment to desire, and we realise that we should let go of these three kinds of desire. Then we realise that we have let go of these desires; there is no longer any attachment to them.

When you find yourself attached, remember that ‘letting go’ is not ‘getting rid of’ or ‘throwing away’. If I’m holding onto this clock and you say, ‘Let go of it!’, that doesn’t mean ‘throw it out’. I might think that I have to throw it away because I’m attached to it, but that would just be the desire to get rid of it. We tend to think that getting rid of the object is a way of getting rid of attachment. But if I can contemplate attachment, this grasping of the clock, I realise that there is no point in getting rid of it - it’s a good clock; it keeps good time and is not heavy to carry around. The clock is not the problem. The problem is grasping the clock. So what do I do? Let it go, lay it aside - put it down gently without any kind of aversion. Then I can pick it up again, see what time it is and lay it aside when necessary.

You can apply this insight into ‘letting go’ to the desire for sense pleasures. Maybe you want to have a lot of fun. How would you lay aside that desire without any aversion? Simply recognize the desire without judging it. You can contemplate wanting to get rid of it - because you feel guilty about having such a foolish desire - but just lay it aside. Then, when you see it as it is, recognizing that it’s just desire, you are no longer attached to it.

Kevin Griffin Latest Article on Huffington Post

Here's an excert from: 
"A Buddhist Approach to Recovery: Step Four -- Searching and Fearless"
by Kevin Griffin

One of the ways we can get comfortable in this process of self-examination and, indeed, letting go of attachment to self is by going to 12 Step meetings and hearing people share. Pretty quickly it becomes apparent that we aren't significantly worse or better than most of the people there. And when we see how willing they are to expose themselves, to admit their failings and how it not only doesn't seem to be causing them pain, but that, in fact, they seem to be getting some relief from it, then the whole thing can start to come together.

Twelve Step meetings, by and large, are safe places. They are a place where you can start to open up, to talk about yourself in very honest ways without fear of harm or reprisal, without shame or guilt. Mostly what you will get is empathy and compassion -- and probably some advice as well, which you can take or leave. In Step Five I'll talk about the vital social aspects of recovery.

Click here for full article.

Link to the Thich Nhat Hanh Poem

Here's the link to the poem "Call Me by My True Names" by Thich Nhat Hanh:
http://www.quietspaces.com/poemHanh.html

And here is an excerpt:

I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea
pirate,
and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and
loving.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughs at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh 

Heather Sundberg this Tuesday, 5/3

This week, on Tuesday, May 3, we are fortunate to have Heather Sundberg leading the Berkeley Dharma & Recovery sitting group at Northbrae Community Church. Heather recently completed four years of teacher training with Jack Kornfield and others at Spirit Rock/IMS, and she co-leads an annual retreat with Kevin Griffin in the Santa Cruz Mountains for people interested in Buddhism and the 12 Steps:

Wednesday-Sunday, October 12-16, 2011
Buddhism/12 Step meditation retreat,
Vajrapani Institute, Boulder Creek, CA

Please join us this Tuesday, May 3 from 7:30 - 9 pm.

-Walt Opie

Quote from Vinny Ferraro - Freedom is Going Beyond Conditions

This is a nice quote from Vinny Ferraro, one of Noah Levine's closest friends and co-teachers. -walt

Freedom is Going Beyond Conditions

The Buddha taught that freedom is going beyond conditions. For me, the people who have been through the harshest conditions—and survived—have the greatest potential to transform the madness of their lives. See, that madness made them who they are. So if they can take that madness, claim it, and stand on top of its incredible energy, they can transform it into power.
-Vinny Ferraro, "The Heartful Dodger"

http://www.tricycle.com/feature/heartful-dodger

Control Yourself by Kevin Griffin (from another blog)

Last night during Kevin Griffin's class at Spirit Rock, he mentioned a blog posting he had just written. Here's a link to that new posting, with an excerpt from it below about the real purpose of meditation:

http://improveourconsciouscontact.blogspot.com/2011/04/control-yourself.html

Mindfulness meditation is, first of all, about seeing clearly what is happening in the present moment. When our bodies hurt, mindfulness suggests we try to bring our awareness to what that exactly feels like; when our thoughts are washing through our minds, mindfulness says, notice what thoughts you’re having and see what patterns emerge—there’s important information there; when we are falling asleep we have the opportunity to see what fatigue feels like—it’s a trigger for addiction, so it’s wise to see it clearly.
--Kevin Griffin