The Four Truths of Recovery

(thesun.co.uk)

Amy Winehouse was a Jewish-Buddhist. But it was a first when she pulled out of a festival [Rock En Seine Festival in Paris] because she was in a state of Buddhist relaxation. The singer has been trying to find peace in her chaotic life by chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

For those who have alcohol, illegals drugs, or engage in addictive routines to unwind, Amy found a better option: Nicherin Buddhism, perhaps the most questionable form of devotional "value creation."

The Sun quotes a source as saying: "One of her musicians introduced Amy to Buddhist chanting. She chants for ten minutes in the mornings and just before she sleeps.

"Amy has also been watching the interview clip of Tina Turner chanting on YouTube [on Larry King Live] and she reckons it's already affecting her in a positive way.

"She has a string of Buddhist beads that she chants with, which she keeps in a red silk scarf.

"She says chanting is filling her life with positivity while she is trying to sort herself out." More

Buddhist 12 Steps

AgainstTheStream.org

1. Addiction is Suffering.

• Understand, acknowledge, admit, and accept all of the ways drugs, alcohol, and so on have caused suffering in our lives. Action: Write an in-depth and detailed inventory of the suffering you have experienced in association with your addictions.

2. The Cause of Addiction is Craving.

• Understand that all forms of addiction have their roots in the natural human tendency to crave for life to be more pleasurable and less painful than it actually is. The substances we have craved and become addicted to must be abandoned and renounced. Action: Investigate, analyze, and share the inventory with your mentor or teacher and come to understand the cause of your addiction/suffering.

3. Recovery is Possible.

• Freedom from the suffering caused by addiction is attainable, IF we are ready and willing to follow the eightfold path. Action: Study and apply the Buddhist teachings on enlightenment (awakening) and eventually you will come to a verified-faith in the path of recovery/enlightenment through the actions you take on the path.

4. The 8-Fold Path to Recovery.

• The eight factors or folds of the path are to be developed, experienced and penetrated. This is a path of action not blind faith, recovery will only come from taking the right actions. This is not a linear path, it does not have to be taken in order, rather all of the factors will need to be developed and applied simultaneously. This is a guide to having a life that is free from addiction, not a process that we go through once or twice, the eight folds of recovery will have to be maintained through out one's life.

Amy Winehouse: Drugs vs. "Rehab" (video)

In 2006, Amy Winehouse (1984-2011) became a star, the voice of a new generation, by insisting she would not be going to "Rehab." She would be dead within five years.

• TIMELINE: Life of Amy Winehouse (E Online)
• VIDEO: Amy Winehouse's Life and Death (ABC News)
• Norway: White man's terror attack done to blame Muslims

Already a star in the U.K., Winehouse makes her debut on U.S. TV with "Rehab."

Singer Found Dead in Apartment

LONDON, England - Troubled British singer Amy Winehouse [with her violent partner in prison] was found dead at her flat in north London, police said. She was 27 years old. The Grammy award-winning [neo-]soul singer struggled with well-documented drink and drug addictions. Her death is being treated as unexplained. "Police were called by London Ambulance Service to an address in Camden Square shortly before 4:05 pm (local time) today, Saturday 23 July, following reports of a woman found deceased," a police statement said. "On arrival officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead..." More

Drunk and/or stoned, Amy Winehouse is booed during comeback tour, live in Belgrade on June 18, 2011. She then launches into "Back To Black."

Rehab without a "Higher Power"

Recovery from addictions of all kinds is possible in a Buddhist context. Buddhism is nontheistic (not dependent on a God for "salvation"/enlightenment). Many Buddhists are theists, but many others are atheistic, agnostic, or undecided.

Not recognizing a supreme being as a higher power makes traditional 12-Step programs unpalatable. (Of course, the nature of the "higher power" one chooses need not be a god, but that is definitely how most participants treat it as part of their recovery.

Thanks to mavericks like Kevin Griffin, who wrote One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps it is quite possible to successfully overcome addiction and unrelenting craving in a nontheistic context.

A Buddhist Version of the 12 Steps

Step 1 - We admitted we were powerless over our addiction -- that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step 2 - Came to believe that spiritual practice could restore us to sanity.

Step 3 - Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the power of the Dharma.

Step 4 - Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Step 5 - Admitted to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our suffering.

Step 6 - Were entirely ready to let go of all these defects of character.

Step 7 - Humbly asked for our shortcomings to be removed through prayer and meditation.

Step 8 - Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

Step 9 - Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Step 10 - Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Step 11 - Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with reality and to live a life with more wisdom and compassion.

Step 12 - Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Workshop: Healthy (Non)-Attachment

• Against the Stream, Melrose
• Day-long Workshop with George Haas*
• Saturday, June 25
• 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

“My job is a travel agent, taking you effortlessly between heaven and hell.”

- Joshu Sasaki Roshi

Somewhere along this Buddhist path, one may have heard that “attachment” is the cause of suffering (dukkha, disappointment), and that “non-attachment” is the way out of suffering.

If this is interpreted to mean that the best way to live life is to never become attached to anything no matter what -- that is wrong view.

People, places, things... the failure to remain attachment-free is what is making life miserable? No.

This workshop will focus on how to use the wisdom aspects of the Noble Eightfold Path (right view and right intention) and the ways we get them wrong. It is not about why we cling, but how we actually do it -- the mechanics of clinging -- and how it leads to suffering.

The workshop will use John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory as the reference point for healthy attachment in the everyday sense for practical applications to day-to-day life.

The meditation techniques offered in this workshop will be specific, simple, and easy-to-do. So whether an established practice already exists or is just beginning, all can benefit.

This class is a taste of what George Haas will be teaching in his 8-week series, "The Meaningful Life," which begins July 7, 2011.

• Daylong cost $50 plus dana for the teacher.
• Some scholarships and work study available.
• No one turned away for lack of funds.
• Call or write for more info.
• Please pack a brown bag.

CLICK TO REGISTER

SPECIAL OFFER: Register, pay in full, and attend daylong for dana only.

*George Haas began down his path with a period of lightweight spiritual seeking (and heavy duty drug and alcohol use). In 1978, he began a serious exploration of the 11th step of the 12-Step tradition, working primarily with concentration to reduce the anxiety of living a sober life. In an effort to make sense out of, and live with, the mounting AIDS deaths of the 1980s, Mr. Haas began walking the Red Road and reading Buddhist texts. Moving to Los Angeles from Manhattan in 1992, he began sitting Vipassana at Ordinary Dharma and reading extensively. In 1998, he began studying with his current teacher, Shinzen Young at Vipassana Support International (VSI). Haas is a Senior Facilitator at VSI and teaches in an irreverent style. He has been teaching meditation in Los Angeles since 2000.