Jay B. at the 12 Steps and Buddhism Retreat – 2014

This talk explores some questions we may have about finding and accessing a higher power in recovery from the perspective of Buddhism. Kevin Griffith, in his book A Burning Desire Dharma God and the Path of Recovery addresses these questions. And I see out here funny thing he's going to be here in a few weeks so this might be an intro. Here are some of the questions and reflections Griffin starts his books with. Is God some mysterious entity, or is God something more real, tangible, comprehensible? How can Buddhism inform the way we turn our will and lives over to the care of God, humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings, improve our conscious contact with God? He says, if I was going to make the claim that Buddhism and the 12 steps could work together, then the idea of God that's all over the steps had to be found in the Buddhist dharma, the teachings of Buddhism. Griffin says it's unclear whether we need to believe in God. However, some kind of spiritual path or connection is vital. What does spiritual mean? Four aspects of spirituality. The first aspect of spirituality is the understanding that happiness doesn't come primarily through the external world. The second aspect is the recognition of our interconnectedness with other people, with nature, and ultimately with God. The sense of interconnection to the world and other people leads to another aspect of spiritual life. spirituality, living by a moral or ethical principles. When we recognize that we're in relationship with everything, we realize we have a responsibility to act in ways that don't harm others. Realizing the limits of our control over the external and internal world and experience and accepting those limits. We are oriented towards letting go, towards surrender. Faith is required to live by these principles. The trust that sacrificing immediate gratification for something more substantial is a worthy goal. Living with integrity and kindness is its own reward. letting go and opening are ultimately freeing. This type of faith is called sadha in Sanskrit. It's not blind faith. It's tested faith based on experience and wisdom without a certain amount of trust in the path we can become lost or worse, give up our inner work altogether. Dharma God If you're open to the possibility that all religions are essentially looking for the truth and that the ultimate truth is God then Buddhism has a God. The word for truth in Buddhism is dharma, the truth of the way things are, understanding how your life works or doesn't. Buddhism isn't about a deity we worship or bargain with. It's about seeing the truth. And the truth is God. God being nature and the laws of nature, that which exists and the rules that govern that which exist. fundamentally we work the God steps by seeing these inescapable truths and living harmoniously with them. Dharma refers to the workings of the universe not merely physical laws but what we call spiritual laws. These laws can be called a higher power or even God because like the traditional God concept there are unseen forces at work behind all of existence. They are truths that we are powerless over. They rule our lives whether we're aware of them or not. When we live in harmony with them, we reap the fruits of happiness and freedom. So four aspects of the Dharma God. Nature itself, including truths like impermanence and suffering. The laws of nature which we either work or against, like the law of karma. What is called the duty of humans according to the law of nature. This is the power we can cultivate for ourselves, the power of mindfulness, of loving kindness, and the whole of the Noble Eightfold Path. We accept things trusting in God, but we also take responsibility for our role in things. Higher power isn't all about God having power over us, it's also about us developing power in ourselves, wholesome power, the power for good. Then there are the fruits that human beings receive according to the law of nature. These fruits can be as significant as a full-blown spiritual awakening or the moment of ease that comes from letting go of sorrow, sadness, fear. The Dharma God is considered an impersonal God. No one's watching over you. The Dharma God can also be seen as intensely personal. What's more personal than your karma? Mindfulness is right here with you. Loving kindness Intimacy intimately touches and opens our hearts. Intention lives deep within us. Suffering and impermanence touch us directly. The higher power of karma. Karma doesn't mean fate, it means action. When we talk about karma, we talk about the relationship between actions and their effects. The laws of cause and effect. This is a 12-step higher power. It's a force that permeates our lives. We see it in all actions, large and small. We can't escape karmic power. The key is we can learn to come to live in harmony with it, with the way things are. The Buddha's four noble truths are a teaching on karma, the causes and results of suffering and the causes and results of ending suffering. The Buddha traced cause and effect back to the energy which informs that action, not just the action itself. This challenges us to examine our intentions. the Buddha's basic guidance on karma is reflected in the five precepts our intentions prove whether we believe karma or not when we practice anything we're saying trust karma when we continue an undesirable behavior and think there's no consequence we're seeing we don't believe in karma We're in denial. In Buddhism, this denial is called ignorance. Ignorance means you don't understand or want to avoid the reality of the way things are. The Buddha said this ignorance is the beginning of the karmic chain of suffering. Ignorant is the opposite of right view, the intuitive understanding of the four noble truths. Coming out of ignorance takes a willingness to be honest, to see what is happening. If our true intention is to be happy and grow, at some point, willingness arises. This intention is the root of our karma. It's what moves us towards recovery and spiritual awakening. one of the hardest things to do is to change the flow of your karma. Judith calls it interrupting the karmic flow. We interrupt karmac flow through action, but before we act, we need to see what to do, and this takes wisdom that comes from mindfulness, knowledge of how to be non-harming, and the compassion and connection of an open heart. the higher power of mindfulness. The act of paying attention changes how we perceive what's happening to us. Instead of being driven by impulsory activity habit, mindfulness allows us to choose intentional action. mindfulness shows the world to be simpler than we think instead of a complex of problems, issues, doubts, hungers, resentments that obsess and confuse us mindfulness shows our experience to be simply that of the six senses and what the six sentences can perceive the Buddha called the mind the sixth sense mindfulness asks us to be aware of what's coming in through these six sense doors without judging or trying to figure it out without trying to repeat or repel without being overwhelmed or losing interest simply allowing it to be mindfulness is the power to be the power for us to experience life fully without flinching. Acceptance. The power of mindfulness is the power to see. Intuitively know how to handle situations that used to baffle us. Wisdom. The power to know, to know beauty, love, directly, unfiltered, the power of life. The power to transform your life and the lives of those around you. Mindfulness has two components, the aspect of just being present and knowing clearly what's happening and the aspect of intuitively responding to our experience in a skillful way. When we remain non-reactively open to what's going on, we are doing more than being. we drop the conditioned thoughts and emotions that tend to run our responses. Unobscured, our heart-mind is better able to intuitively bring forth knowledge or wisdom for action. The higher power of wisdom. The Buddha taught that realizing the three characteristics of existence suffering, impermanence not self are at the heart of wisdom Suffering The higher power of suffering is the energy of craving and resistance Its power reveals the way we need to change and inspires our efforts. Insight into suffering evokes the powers of acceptance, compassion, and forgiveness. The Buddhist teachings on the Four Noble Truths begins with the reality of suffering. Changing our life for the better cannot begin until we see our suffering and have some notion that our actions are helping to create that suffering. Suffering is the gateway to transformation. The Buddha taught everyone would experience, at least, old age sickness and death. This is unavoidable. If we accept this, we can know peace. If we fight, then we suffer more. When we see the universal nature of suffering, we have the opportunity to be more compassionate and to connect. That person is suffering. We are suffering. We are the same in our suffering. The higher power of impermanence. When we say, when we see old age sickness and death, we're struck with impermanance. In the same way that we want to avoid suffering, We want to avoid impermanence. We try to hold on to something or flee something. We try the control, feelings, mood, experience. Denying the reality of life's unpredictability and challenges, we try to fight change, not embrace it. We suffer when we try to cling to ephemera. However, if we realize the inevitable failure of clinging, there can be a profound letting go So, this letting go is the transforming moment. Turning our will and our lives over to the care of God is trusting in impermanence. If we're living in harmony with karma, then change is moving our lives in a positive direction. We see that resistance to change creates big problems. And part of resistance to changes is about thinking we need all the answers now. And in part, it's about the survival mechanisms of the brain. We have a mind state such as fear and remember all the other experiences that were like this and construct solidity out of nothing. Another byproduct of this process is the sense of self created by repetitive memories. When we remember the same events or feelings over and over again, it gives us the idea there's something solid about who we are. A reminder of our own death can help us hold our plans and fears and dreams a little more loosely. They're only thoughts. What I have, what is real, is in this moment. This is one of the teachings of impermanence to be fully engaged in this world moment because it's gonna change. Impermanence is not only loss, it is creative change. The higher power of not-self. The teaching on non-self is entwined with the teaching of impermanence. If everything is constantly changing how can I say that there's anything solid called J? Examine this teaching for yourself. Deconstruct the answers to each question. Who am I? Am I my name, my body, job, emotions, thoughts, memories, relationships? They all change. The higher power of not-self is seeing through all these perceptions, seeing that they're just constructions of the mind, of culture, of society. This is seeing through this vision and knowledge, as the Buddha called it, frees us. The mind stream. Instead of having some solid core, we're more like a stream of thoughts, feelings, words, actions. Like a stream, our self or our personality is constantly flowing and changing. Yes, there's individuality. Individuality in each stream is unique, but within the stream there's nothing solid. These elements are the result of our karma. If we had a solid self, we wouldn't be able to change our karmic conditions. The higher power of not-self gives fluidity and flexibility to identity allowing the possibility of transformation. Not-self is directly tied to the teachings of interconnectedness and non-separation, which are invaluable to compassion and service. The higher power of love. Hatred never ceased by hatred, but love alone is healed, says the Buddha. The higher part of love has to do with actions that spring out of a sense of connection, caring, responsibility, and deep affection. These feelings are natural and often we don't act on them fully. With loving-kindness practices, the divine abodes, we can cultivate love into something more reliable than changing emotions. It's rooted in our insight into interconnectedness and supported by our commitment to meditation. The four divine abode are loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Loving kindness, metta, is the open-hearted sense of connection. May all beings be happy and safe. But this is not always so. Compassion, karuna, is the caring that arises when we see suffering in others. I see you are suffering and I remember I see my suffering and remember that you are suffering also. The flip side, sympathetic joy or mutita, is the feeling with somebody else's happiness. I see your joy and I'm happy. Here we also remember to enjoy life's beauty and richness. We formally practice these three abodes in meditation and daily life to develop the higher power of love. What is vital is opening and extending the heart, not what words are chanted silently with a breath. This is an intimate, lifetime heart-opening that can't be prescribed. Equanimity focuses on the limits of interconnectedness. We need to take care of ourselves, of our own mindstream. In equanimity practice, we care for our mindstreams. We notice how every moment of sense experience causes a reaction in us, pleasant, unpleasant, neutral. We notice our tendency to be swept away by these feelings and act on them without feeling. Equanimity opens the door to wise choice. The higher power of the Eightfold Noble Path. The Buddha taught the Eight Fold Noble Path as the way to end suffering. The aspects of this path are often called wise or right. The word in Pali is sama. This could also be translated as attuned or well-tuned. So instead of thinking of our action as right or wrong, think about our action as in harmony with a higher power. Right mindfulness has been touched upon. Right view is the perspective we cultivate through mindfulness, engaging life with openness, curiosity, and the willingness to change. Right view is seeing the reality of the four noble truths. The power of right view guides us and inspires us to take on the work of spiritual development for the long haul. Right intention begins with our desire to stop our suffering. Intention is the fuel of karma. We set the intention to follow the path. We remember our intention and goal are setting a direction. We don't get to decide where we arrive. The power of right intention is to set us firmly on the path headed towards freedom. When we realize we're lost, we wake up to our intention and use it to return to the path. Right speech is the quality of speaking kindly, truthfully, wisely. It includes deep listening to ourselves and others. Mindful speech arouses compassion and stimulates intuition, allowing free-flowing wisdom. Because we're not speaking from a place of asserting our identity, rather from a space of openness and calm, an investigative meditation, we have the power to transform our lives inside and out. To cultivate this power, we explore the ways we habitually interact verbally and how we harm ourselves and others. to change speech we attend to thought impulse, intention right speech is the power to be healed to be known to share our wisdom right action is the shorthand for the five precepts the moral rules the Buddha taught these are non-violence, non-stealing non-harming with sexuality, not speaking falsely, not being deluded, not giving or taking intoxicants. Right speech has been touched upon, and for today I'll be silent on sexuality. Let's look at right action from the teachings of the three poisons of greed, hate, and delusion. Right action transforms our relationships with others by building trust and unity. It transforms our relationship with ourselves by building self-esteem, blamelessness, and clarity. The power of the precepts is greater than social behavioral control. The great power of precept practice is the opportunity to stop our suffering from the three poisons of greed, hate, and delusion. In nonviolence, we let go of hatred. As we explore our impulse to harm others, we see the dark side of our nature. We see how hatred causes pain for ourselves and others. We see hatred arises in everyone and are open to greater compassion for all. The fulfillment of the precept of nonviolence is to care for all beings. non-stealing is the antidote to the poison of greed ironically instead of satisfying our desire greed makes us want more the purpose of this precept is to free us from insatiable grasping this is the practice of letting go when we observe our desires and don't act on them we become, ironically, more satisfied. This is karmic law. That what we don't act upon gets weaker. Non-delusion. The fifth precept suggests we shouldn't use intoxicants. For the person in recovery, this is a reminder that intoxicant is not just about addiction, but a fundamental impediment to spiritual development. We can see there's many ways to intoxicate ourselves. The commonality of these methods is a fleeing or breaking of experience. When we get intoxicated, the continuity of experience is lost. We lose the opportunity to accumulate wise experience. The problem with intoxicants is that they destroy mindfulness. And then all sorts of things can happen. The power of this precept is the inner strength that comes with clarity. In meditation and sobriety, we try to learn to be fully present to our experience. When we're mindful of the present moment, we see our strategies of avoidance. Knowing the dangers of feeding or ignoring the tendency of avoidants and to escape, we let go of craving and impulse. This sustained daily awareness is the foundation of wisdom. Right livelihood. Ultimately, what's most important about right livelihood is intention, not the work itself. When our work is informed with love, attention, wisdom, we raise almost any occupation to the level of right livelihood. However, our work must also be aligned with a sense of purpose. Livelihood at its root is service. Right? Effort. If effort is all about me trying to do something, where's the higher power in that? If we try too hard, we simply wind up being swept away by the violence of our own effort. If we don't try hard enough, we sink under the weight of our ego and craving mind. We connect through higher power, through balance. As conditions change, Effort and practice must change. We call this effortless effort. Right concentration. Griffith suggests that 12-step promises of serenity and peace are rarely achieved through step work alone. The power of concentration, he says, brings peacefulness and relaxation. Concentration needs the special circumstances of intensive meditation practice to come to fruition But concentration itself is not an end For concentration to have spiritual value it must be combined with mindfulness of the present intention to develop wisdom and compassion and morality to keep concentration wholesome This open accepting approach is founded on the idea that concentration is an aspect of God we can't control concentration it's a power greater than us all we can do is work in harmony with concentration taking the necessary steps to arouse it and then get out of the way and allow it to arise if it will in meditation practice we might become frustrated with our inability to stay present classically we investigate the five hindrances to concentration desire, aversion restlessness, sleepiness and doubt there are a variety of ways of working with the five hindrances however they are life's companions both in meditation and daily life recognizing and accepting their presence is key the higher power of faith faith in the Buddhist teachings isn't magical it's the confidence that comes with right view and right action Our understanding of the truth inspires us to live wisely. When we live wisely, our actions are rewarded and our faith is strengthened. In this way, we build a reliable faith. In the Buddhist teachings on the five powers, faith and wisdom balance one another. We need to be careful that our inspirational faith isn't delusional. Magic can feel good, but eventually leads to trouble. the wisdom teachings on impermanence suffering and non-self can arouse fear faith is the antidote to that fear impermanents can appear as huge life transforming events faith gives us the courage to overcome that fear and trust the process it's natural to resist suffering when we understand its nature that insight can give us the confidence to be with it to hold suffering in a new way that helps us see it in the large context of experience and of our lives. When we struggle with fears about identity and trying to protect our ego, if we trust in the insight that there's nothing solid to hold on to, that anxiety can dissolve into a sense of openness and freedom. finish up okay okay so I will quickly finish off yes in conclusion there are several more chunks he considers higher powers and at the end I just like to say that the Buddhist teachings do provide a lens to look at many aspects of our experiences having a power greater than ourselves and practices that we can use to come into greater harmony with these powers. We can see the fruits of practice and insight. And I can really just leave it there, I think. Thanks everybody. You're going to fire up first, that's going to get hotter.