Buddhism for drug, alcohol recovery (BLVD)

Seth Auberon and CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; BLVDcenters.com; AgainstTheStream.org

"I'm not an alcoholic. I'm a DRUNK. Alcoholics go to meetings."

New Refuge Recovery book

BLVD Treatment Centers now offers a "Refuge Recovery" Treatment Program at its outpatient centers in Los Angeles, California.

It was designed by Buddhist author Noah Levine (Dharma Punx Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Center), son of Stephen Levine and student of renowned Theravada teacher Jack Kornfield.

 

BLVD will be offering an insurance-reimbursed program in San Francisco and New York next, dedicated to mindfulness and the "Refuge Recovery" path.

Ongoing meetings are open to anyone interested in Recovery and Buddhism. Now termed "Refuge Recovery" (an unfortunate name based on the common mistranslation of sarana, which means guidance, as "refuge"), this approach to recovery from pharmaceuticals, illegal drugs, and alcohol is a community (sangha) of people using Buddhist practices like

• mindfulness (sati, MBSR, MBCT)
• clear comprehension (sampajañña)
• compassion (karuṇā)
• forgiveness (khanti)
• generosity (unselfishness, dāna)

to heal the pain and suffering that addiction has caused in our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

 

Noah Levine, punk, author, Buddhist teacher

The path of practice Against the Stream follows is termed by Noah Levine the "Four Truths of Refuge Recovery."
 
It is a Buddhist-oriented path to recovery from addictions. It has proven successful with addicts (to legal and illegal substances) and alcoholics who have committed to the Buddhist path of meditation, generosity, kindness (metta), and renunciation (inner letting go).

This is an approach to recovery that understands: “All beings have the power and potential to free themselves from suffering.” Practitioners feel confident in the power of the Buddha’s teachings -- if applied in daily life -- to relieve suffering and disappointment of all kinds, including the suffering of addiction.

Meetings are appropriate for anyone in or interested in recovery. No meditation experience is necessary. By voluntary donation only. No preregistration. Just drop in.

• Buddhist addiction recovery center opens
• Noah Levine's dad is a Buddhist teacher

Sexually aggressive, not because HE's drunk

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Maanvi Singh "If he's sexually aggressive in bars, it's not because he's drunk" (NPR.org, 3-3-14); DemocracyNow.org

She's probably not thinking that she wants that guy to grab her (Iurii Davydov/iStockphoto).

Who let the dawg out? - Rrrrr, woof!

Young women are often the targets of aggression when they are out in bars, but the problem isn't that guys are too drunk to know better.

Instead, men are preying on women who have had too much to drink.
 
When researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of Washington observed young people's behaviors in bars, they found that the man's aggressiveness did NOT match his level of intoxication. There was no relationship.
 
Instead, men targeted WOMEN who were intoxicated.
 

We're young and wild, and we love to party (drink) in nightclubs with no panties.

 
The researchers hired and trained 140 young adults to go into bars in the Toronto area and note every incident of aggression that they saw. They found that 25 percent of all incidents involved sexual aggression. And 90 percent of the victims of sexual aggression were women being harassed by men.
 

Violating the fifth precept (iStock/npr.org)

Almost all of the aggression was physical, with about two-thirds of the aggressors physically touching women without consent. About 17 percent threatened contact. And 9 percent verbally harassed their targets.
 
Men may perceive intoxicated women either as more amenable to advances or as easier targets who are less able to rebuff them because they don't have their wits about them, the researchers say.

"There's no reason that women should be touched against their will," says Kate Graham, the study's lead researcher and a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health at the Univ. of Toronto. Women wouldn't accept that kind of behavior at school or on the street, she notes, but it seems to get a pass in bars, she tells Shots [Health News from NPR].
 

No means yes...but yes means maybe.

The study was published online last Monday in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
 
The researchers also wanted to look into whether unwanted sexual advances were intentional, or just a matter of misperception. This study points to the former, Dr. Graham explains.
 
"If you walk through a bar and grab a woman's breasts and then disappear into the crowd, that's probably not a misunderstanding," she says. "You don't actually think that she wants you to do that."
 
And fact that men were more likely to take advantage of intoxicated women shows that most of these incidents aren't well intentioned, Dr. Graham says.
 
And the bar staff rarely stepped in and stopped the sexual aggression. "There should be training for staff on how to intervene," Dr. Graham says. "If [a bar] wants to have female patrons, they ought to make it more female friendly."
 

I want a divorce. She went to a bar and came home drunk.

Efforts have been launched in Washington, DC and around the country to do just that. They provide bar staff with free training on how to respond when they see sexual harassment.
 
The research was observational, so it doesn't let us know what either the aggressors or their victims felt. And since the observations were made in public places in or around bars, the study doesn't tell us much about sexual assault or rape that might occur out of public view or after women leave the bar.
 
But the takeaway, Dr. Graham says, is that "people should stop believing that [Robin Thicke] song. The lines really aren't that blurred." Comments?

• Calif. law to help domestic abuse victims escape violence
• Pediatricians alerted to violence in PG 13 movies
• Japan's WWII sex slave legacy remains open wound
• Science author tackles the mystery of "manhood"

(Democracy Now, March 10, 2014) U.S. military sex crimes from the top down

• U.S. MILITARY: Ft. Hood Sexual Assault Coordinator accused of running PROSTITUTION RING using American female soldiers in debt and in need of money
• Accuser: General forced oral sexual contact then threatened murder
• International Women’s Day marked across the globe
• 2 million objections as Keystone comment period closes
• Obama urges GOP to back minimum wage-hike
• Republican Rep. Ryan admits [lying]: Anti-school lunch story partially false

Buddhism and the 12 Steps (Kevin Griffin)

Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Kevin Griffin, Heather Sundberg, Vajrapani Institute

Laughing Buddha: music steeped in African, Latin, and reggae rhythms, with versatile guitar and lyrics with Buddhist themes recorded by Kevin Griffin, portion of proceeds support American Abhayagiri and British Amaravati Buddhist monasteries (kickstarter.com)

We did drugs, we devolved, and we daily strive to come back --  here's how. Intoxicated, one becomes as much a brute as reality show "cave people" shown here.

 

The Buddha said that craving is the [proximate] cause of suffering. Twelve-Step programs work with the deepest forms of craving, our addictions. How can these two traditions, one secular the other spiritual, work together?

A unique meditation retreat combining Buddhist practices with 12-Step work is in the offing. There is still time to join. It is a four-day intensive with author Kevin Griffin (One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps, 2004, and A Burning Desire: Dharma God and the Path of Recovery, 2010) and (Jack Kornfield's Spirit Rock/Joseph Goldstein's Insight Meditation Society) teacher Heather Sundberg.

A Burning Desire (kevingriffin.net)

Using silent insight meditation, interactive exercises, lecture, and discussion, the weekend will explore the ways that Buddhism and the Steps complement one another. Such topics as powerlessness, higher power, inventory, amends, and spiritual awakening. All recovery programs and paths are welcome.

The emphasis will be on bringing mindfulness to all our activities, whether in formal sitting meditation, walking, speaking, listening, or eating. Participants will practice Noble Silence outside of the interactive exercises and discussion periods.

Kevin Griffin is one of the leaders of the mindful recovery movement and one of the founders of the Buddhist Recovery Network. A longtime Buddhist practitioner and 12-Step participant, he teaches nationally on the synthesis of these two traditions.

(heathersundberg.com)

Heather Sundberg has combined her personal experience with meditation and 12-Step work for 20 years. She completed the four-year Spirit Rock/Insight Meditation Society Teacher Training and is also a graduate of the Community Dharma Leaders program. She has studied with senior teachers in the Insight Meditation (vipassana) and Tibetan (Vajrayana) traditions and has sat 1-3 month of retreat a year for over a decade. She is a teacher for Mountain Stream Meditation Center in the Sierra Foothills and also teaches classes, daylongs, and retreats nationally.

• Vegetarian meals and dorm-style room included in $350 cost
  
• Camping is also available for a slightly lower rate.
• Small number of single rooms and cabins are also available.

Teachers and retreat manager/registrar may be offered donations for their efforts at the end of the retreat. They receive no other financial compensation. For registration and information contact Quilley: quilley@yahoo.com or (510) 682-6873.

Kevin Griffin (Berkeley, August 2013) treats us to a soulful, tasty guitar solo as he wraps up a truly wonderful gathering with friends, which included song, dance, and sweet treats in celebration of the release of his newest CD, "Laughing Buddha."

•  Why was J.D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye) a recluse?