What is "Refuge Recovery" from addiction?

Noah Levine, M.A. (RefugeRecovery.org), Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

Dharma Punx center, Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, for Refuge Recovery

Is it true you're giving away free books tonight?

FREE, tonight only (6-13-14)

Yes, the publisher is making them available at the BLVD Open House and Book Launch Party.

So it's already out?

Yes, there were a lot of pre-orders. It's now shipping. Anyone can pick up a copy at the Melrose Center (AgainsttheStream.org, East Hollywood on Melrose Ave. next to Los Angeles Community College).

Why would anyone want to read this book or practice it?

Noah Levine, M.A., drug recovery counselor

Refuge Recovery is a nonprofit organization. It is our vision and intention to build an extensive and comprehensive network of Refuge Recovery meetings, communities, and treatment options [that don't depend on "God" as one's higher power].

We are actively seeking donations to build treatment centers with both residential and outpatient services.

What would these donations be for?

Our goal is to raise the capital to start treatment centers with tax-deductible donations, so that all the profit that comes from providing these services can go back into the community in the form of reduced rates for residential treatment for those without insurance coverage, as well as to scholarships to meditation retreats, access to outpatient services, and building of the nonprofit's infrastructure.

• A Buddhist Path to Recovery from Addiction
• BLVD for residential and outpatient services

Introduction to the book Refuge Recovery

The book that started it all (ATS)

Refuge Recovery is a practice, a process, a set of tools, a treatment, and a path to healing addiction and the suffering caused by addiction. The main inspiration and guiding philosophy for the Refuge Recovery program are the teachings of Siddhartha (Sid) Gautama, a teacher who taught in India 25 [26 or more actually] centuries ago. 

 

Sid was a radical psychologist and a spiritual revolutionary. Through his own efforts and practices he came to understand why human beings [and devas] cause and experience so much suffering. He referred to the root cause of suffering as “uncontrollable thirst or repetitive craving.”

• [Actually craving is the proximate cause and is focused on because we can do something about it immediately, unlike the other causes and conditions outlined in the formula of Dependent Origination of suffering.]

Dharma Punx tee (dharmapunx.com)

This “thirst” tends to arise in relation to pleasure, but it may also arise as a craving for unpleasant experiences to go away, or as an addiction to people, places, things, or experiences. This is the same thirst of the alcoholic, the same craving as the addict, and the same attachment as the codependent.

 

Eventually, Sid came to understand and experience a way of living that ended all forms of suffering. He did this through a practice and process that includes meditation, wise actions, and compassion. 

 

After freeing himself from the suffering caused by craving [and ignorance and aversion], he spent the rest of his life teaching others how to live a life of well-being and freedom, a life free from suffering.

 

Eva's 66-Day Meditation Challenge (WQ/ATS)

Sid became known as the Buddha, and his teachings became known as Buddhism. The Refuge Recovery program has adapted the core teachings of the Buddha as a treatment of addiction.

 

Buddhism recognizes a nontheistic [one not dependent on any God] approach to spiritual practice. The Refuge Recovery program does not ask anyone to believe anything, only to trust the process and do the hard work of recovery. More

Sounds good. Very modern. Thanks, Noah. See you at the party.

Saving the children of India (video)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Rocky Braat "Blood Brother"

(BBD) Rocky Braat met a group of Indian children diagnosed with HIV while drifting through India. He wanted to save them all, but in reality he couldn't cure even one of them. They teach him, daily, that love is the only thing that makes life worth living. The truth is, he needs them as much if not more than they need him. (BloodBrotherFilm.com/Facebook/twitter) 

Reaction: "Let's get them low cost drugs!"?

[Not covered in the film: Why do they really have this diagnosis? Poverty and poor nutrition from processed foods like white rice and Monsanto's chemcial-laden agricultural products. And why will they die? Capitalism and the commodification of Big Pharma "health care" that wants more and more such diagnoses -- that will show up if anyone taking an "AIDS test" has a flu, malnutrition, is generally sickly or normally fending off an infection AND is interpreted as being in an at-risk group by test result interpreters -- whether in gay and poor neighborhoods in the USA or in the developing world, all to boost sales of their products with the help of government and NGO funds for more misguided R&D.]

Psychedlic medicine heals emotional injuries

Xochitl, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; KPCC Health Care Correspondent Stephanie O'Neill (SCPR.org)  URBAN SHAMANISM

Altar of the Buddha in Indonesia. Theravada style, flooded in green light. The statue looks similar to one in #Borobudur temple holding Dharmachakra mudra (teaching gesture). It differs from complicated and colorful altars of Mahayana and Tantrayana (Vajrayana) Buddhism because the Buddha is not a god but inspiration for our human potential. It consists of a brass periphery for incense and candles, flowers, oil lamps, water bowls, and sacred cremation relics. May 15, 2014 prior azimuth of Moon on Vesak (Dragono Halim/flickr).

.

Psilocyben can treat cancer, anxiety

Research into the therapeutic potential of illegal "psychedelic" drugs to treat an assortment of mainstream mental health conditions is undergoing a modern-day renaissance.

A host of published studies in the field is showing promise for psychedelics, such as psilocybin -- the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms" -- to help treat alcoholism, depression, drug addiction, and severe anxiety caused by serious or terminal illness.

Other studies are finding that MDMA, also known as the party-drug "Ecstasy," may be valuable in treating PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

"These drugs...were researched extensively in the 1950s and the 1960s, through the early '70s," says Dr. George Greer, medical director for the nonprofit Heffter Research Institute, which raises donations for psilocybin studies worldwide. "There were hundreds of studies that were very promising."

Abuses in Medicare drug use

But the psychedelic '60s changed all that.

LSD and other hallucinogens, once confined to the lab, exploded into mainstream culture after the pied-piper of psychedelics, Timothy Leary, urged a generation to try LSD and other hallucinogens as a way to "turn on, tune in, drop out." Many followed his advice, some with bad results. And that triggered a backlash that led the federal government to criminalize psychedelic drugs in 1970.

A year later, U.S. President Nixon launched the "War on Drugs" [made famous by right wing sweethearts Pres. Ronald and First Lady Nancy Reagan].

Those measures helped to create a stigma that brought an end to the early phase of psychedelic research, says Rick Doblin, founder the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

Psilocybin treats alcoholism

"There is this tendency when drugs become criminalized for their non-medical use, their medical use then subsequently also becomes suppressed," says Doblin.

But since early 2000, a new willingness to look again at these drugs has shifted the research landscape. And thanks to the fundraising efforts of MAPS and the Heffter Research Institute, modern-day psychedelics studies are now happening at top academic research facilities, including Johns Hopkins University, New York University, the University of New Mexico, and UCLA.

"These agents have very broad applicability within psychiatry and can be used for mood disorders, eating disorders, personality disorders," says Dr. Stephen Ross, a psychiatrist and psychedelics researcher at NYU School of Medicine. "They can be used for so many things that our treatment have not improved in recent years."

But the drugs are powerful and must be used with caution, especially since it's believed they can exacerbate serious mental conditions, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. However, used in a supervised setting with trained therapists, these drugs have the potential to offer properly-screened patients much-needed new treatment options.

Psychedelic Science: E for PTSD

"We are not at all referencing our work to the recreational drug-use world, which is rife with potential risks," says Dr. Charles Grob, director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and a pioneer in modern-day psychedelics research. "We are talking about developing a new model...to be used within medicine and psychiatry."

Grob says psychedelics offer a rather unusual paradigm in which many patients are reporting relief with as few as one or two supervised applications of the drugs, used in conjunction with limited psychotherapy.

"This is very different than conventional drug treatment, which, more often than not, administers a drug on a daily basis for weeks, months and even years," Grob says.

And research into these drugs is a bit less conventional as well. Because the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) classifies these illegal drugs as "Schedule One" substances -- considered risky with "no currently accepted medical use" -- scientists must adhere to strict protocols when researching them. Those include rules on how the drugs are used, handled, and stored.

But a greater challenge remains financing. So far, the government has yet to fund research into psychedelics. That leaves private donations as the sole source of funding.

Death by HIV "prevention" meds

Scientists in this field say they believe as more evidence into the varied uses for these drugs is collected and published the government will be more likely to grant research funding requests.

And as more time passes, Grob says, the stigma brought on by the excesses of 1960s counterculture will further fade.

"The '60s are long over. As the Moody Blues used to sing, 'Timothy Leary is dead'…and many of those with whom he fought have also exited," Grob says, "It's a new world and there is a greater need than ever for more effective treatment models for individuals for whom our conventional treatment models are often sorely lacking." LISTEN

• This is Part One of a Psychedelic Science series. See Part Two, Part Three, or Part Four
• AUDIO: Why and how reporting on scientific research warps findings The pressure to publish original research can mean scientists are neglecting to verify the work of others. In its current issue, the journal Social Psychology is trying a different approach... reporting on scientific research might actually warp the findings. Scientists face pressure to publish new discoveries, which in turn might influence what they study... There's work being published today that's part of an effort to fix this problem. NPR's Shankar Vendantam joined Steve Inskeep to talk about it.
  
• Conference examines medical uses of hallucinogens
• Study finds NO link between hallucinogens and mental problems
• Flooding in the Balkans kills dozens, more rain falls
• Thai lay meditation movement (DhammakayaPost)

Anti-aging hormone could make us SMARTER

CC Liu, Crystal Quintero, Kat Fabi, Wisdom Quarterly; Jon Hamilton (NPR/SCPR, 5-8-14)

"Free Your Mind" and the seat of your will follow. Meditate for calm and insight.

Anti-aging HORMONE could make us smarter (istockphoto/scpr.org)

 

A hormone associated with longevity also appears to make people's brains work better.
 
The finding in Cell Reports could someday lead to [high priced, synthetic, patented, moderately toxic pharmaceutical] drugs that improve memory and learning, researchers say.
 

Drugs are cool, take more pharmaceuticals!

[Why bother talking about the natural hormone itself, or using it, or getting our own bodies to produce more of it? Why? Nobody's going to make money that way! Oh, capitalism, we take thee for granted and wonder why we must always be pathologized and on drug "treatments." Big Pharma does not sell "cures" for anything; it just wouldn't be profitable.]
 
"We've discovered a way to potentially boost cognition," says Dena Dubal, one of the study's authors who does research on aging and the brain at the University of California, San Francisco.

And that could mean "a very new way to treat diseases," ranging from Alzheimer's to schizophrenia, she says.
 

Three Fates, Clotho on right

The hormone is named Klotho, after the Fate [Buddhist deva] Clotho from Greek mythology who spins the thread of life. Scientists have known for more than a decade that people and animals tend to live longer if they have high levels of Klotho in their bodies.
 
And that led Dubal and researchers at the Gladstone Institutes to wonder whether a hormone that protects the body against aging might also protect the brain. So the team set out to see whether Klotho offered... More

• 

  Please don't vaccinate me, momma!

  Study: Environment [including pharmaceutical vaccines with added toxins, excipients and preservatives such as mercury and thiomersal,] found equal to genetics as cause of autism
• TED Radio Hour curated and edited for radio
• ALEC exposed!
• Autism: young black and Latino kids lose skills more than whites [so why should white medical researchers worry about it?] 
• Is this Save the Children ad too sexy for the cause?
• This American Life Ira Glass and Co. explore what it means to make bland topics come to life with pathos and detail that make sense of life in these United States. 

• 

  Sandra Tsing Loh's year of raging hormones

  Great Los Angeles River cleanup continues one last weekend (Ashley Bailey) Community groups Saturday morning through noon were set to pick up trash along the lower part of the L.A. River. It spanned three consecutive Saturdays.
• VIDEO: Why is flesheating David Wolfe FAT?
• Virgin Vegan author talks with Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn
• Another LAPD cop killed in death by "freak accident" streak



Moliere's Tartuffe and Misanthrope Bike Trip

• We question the Holocaust and think there is NO way more than 200,000 or so Jews could have been killed by fascist Nazis
• School district slammed over Holocaust assignment -- teaching kids 6 million died
• “History is not a counter-factual cocktail party game. Students should not be encouraged to pursue conspiracy theories and call it research”
• "Senior black correspondent' named Colbert's successor Comedy Central announced 'The Minority Report With Larry Wilmore" will replace "The Colbert Report." He is best known as The Daily Show (with Jon Stewart)'s "Senior Black Correspondent."
• Mother's Day app

Traffic in L.A. to get worse for 30 mos

• VIDEO: Pussy Riot in Los Angeles (review)
• Free weekend? 6 fun, almost-free things to do
• "The Madwoman in the Volvo": Sandra [The Lowdown on Science] Loh’s  year of raging hormones
• Temple of the Buddha's Tooth Relic, Singapore
• 6.4 earthquake shakes Mexico, felt in capital
• VIDEO: "The Fifth Beatle" brings the Beatles' manager's story to life in cartoons
• QUIZ: Can you tell fake laughter from real?
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Fun, almost-free things to do in LA

• JPL uses GPS data to track Sierra snowpack
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• For SoCal hospice nurse, wife's death was 1 too many It might have gone on forever, the never-ending string of deathbed confessions, last breaths, and tear-soaked eulogies. Then came his wife's death. 
• Candidate for Waxman seat exits, endorses former opponent
• Maven's Morning Coffee: Getty House renovations cost taxpayers
• LA County Supervisor Gloria Molina endorses Hilda Solis to succeed her

• LA Sheriff’s race: Rogers says insider status an asset
• The "BradCast" with Brad Friedman (KPFK)
• Well into spring, "Frozen" soundtrack still on charts
• War glorifier Zamperini named Rose Parade grand marshal



The "Fifth Beatle" was gay and Jewish

• Dispute, compromise between Marines, off-roaders The Marine Corps and off-road vehicle enthusiasts will share a rugged patch of desert near the military base at Twentynine Palms (near Joshua Tree) under a compromise brokered by Congress.
• PHOTOS: Jodie Foster marries lesbian girlfriend Alexandra Hedison
• The New Black: African Americans, gay rights struggle

• 

  New Republican nomination rules

  If there are other Herman Cains and Michele Bachmanns out there with 2016 presidential hopes, new RNC rules may make it harder for them to go from "Who?" to Republican presidential contenders.
• Immigration: "Documented" opens...
  

One day a UFO will crash in Los Angeles. Until then we have to settle for LAX accidents

One day NPR fans will gain a better sense of humor. Till then, SUP?

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

Buddhist Addiction Recovery Center opening

Seth Auberon, Frank Miles, Wisdom Quarterly; AgainstTheStream.org

Last Tuesday Noah Levine paid us a visit at Dharma Punx to announce that Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society is adding an outpatient drug and alcohol recovery center. Anyone interested in getting off or successfully staying off drugs using a Buddhist oriented path to recovery can contact Levine or the center to sign up.

Why resort to a REHAB center that promotes theism when a better alternative exists? 

Buddhism is non-theistic, but former Western Buddhist monk Stephen Batchelor (who married a former Buddhist nun), author of Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, is a popular speaker at ATS influencing its outlook on resorting to a better "higher power" than the one one endlessly promoted at ordinary 12-Step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous.  

Kevin Griffin, author of A Burning Desire: Dharma, God, and the Path of Recovery, will be hosting a daylong meditation and recovery workshop this month (see below). His approach incorporates Buddhism and the Noble Eightfold Path

Residential Retreats

Memorial Day - Meaningful Life - Earthdance - Refuge Recovery

Classes and Events

A Burning Desire

Drug and Sex Recovery (ongoing)

Meetings are open to all in recovery

Tuesdays 7:30 pm Hollywood (4300 Melrose Ave., LA 90029)

Thursdays 7:30 pm Santa Monica (1001a Colorado Ave., LA, 90401) 

Saturdays 6:00 pm Santa Monica

Sundays 7:00 pm Hollywood, Melrose Ave.

 

Driven by Fear or Inspired by Love

Half-day (4 hours) with Michele Benzamin-Miki - May 10, 2014, Hollywood, Melrose Ave.

The Great Dharma Race

Melrose to Santa Monica, May 17

Intro to Meditation

May 17, Hollywood, Melrose Ave.

Family Program Starts

May 18, Hollywood, Melrose Ave.

Facing Impermanence with an Open Heart

Daylong with Beth Mulligan and Paul D'Alton, May 25, Santa Monica

 

Buddhism and the Twelve Steps

NEW: 12 Step Workbook

Daylong with Kevin Griffin, May 31, Hollywood, Melrose Ave.

Spring Cleaning

Hollywood, Melrose Ave., June 7

Meditation and Art

with Mollie Favour, June 8 and 10

Dharma Goes to the Movies

An evening with Denise Di Novi, June 14, Santa Monica

Daylong with Amma Thanasanti

June 28, Hollywood, Melrose Ave.

4th of July Camping Trip

July 4-6, San Onofre State Beach 

Melrose Meditations
Meditation and Dharma Talk
Every Wednesday @ 7:30 pm
Connect and Sustain
Every Thursday @ 7:00 pm
Deepening Your Practice
Every Friday @ 7:30 pm
Saturday Afternoon Meditation and Talk

Refuge Recovery: A Buddhist Path

Every Saturday @ 5:00 pm
Meditation and Dharma Talk
Every Sunday @ 11:00 am
Community Silent Sit and Meditation
Every Sunday @ 5:00 pm
Recollective Awareness Meditation
Every Monday @ 10:00 am
Silent Morning Sits
Mon through Fri @ 6 am and @ 7 am

Santa Monica Center
Meditation and Dharma Talk
Every Monday @ 7:30 pm
Deepening Your Practice
Every Wednesday @ 7:30 pm
Connect and Sustain
Every Friday @ 7:30 pm
Dharma Den
Every Sunday @ 7:30 pm

Studio City (Valley)
Meditation and Dharma Talk
Every Thursday @ 7:30 pm

• 83 Problems: A Buddhist Sutra/Parable
  

Author, punk, and Against the Stream co-founder Noah Levine has an inner-meditator who comes out  for all to see. It's the punk ethic: going against the way of the world like the Buddha. That means recovery from addictions. Meditate and destroy inner-obstacles (WQ).

Ode to Heroin! - A Buddhist Solution

I. Rony, Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly

Heroin used to be chic (lelaid). Thx, Big Pharma!

Oh, Heroin, you take all my pain away (temporarily).

And no matter what they say ordinarily,

I won't support our invasion of Afghan fields.

So I'm turning to fentanyl and Vicodin...

And any synthetic painkiller

My doctor can prescribe

Because roses are maroon

Orchids rainbow spread,

I know I'm doomed;

I'm so Hoffmanesque.

 

Bulging opium poppy pods? No, it's the "Buddha Belly plant," Jatropha podagrica, which grows from the bottleplant shrub (1guy2be/flickr.com)

A Buddhist solution?

Wisdom Quarterly

Levine's new book on recovery

Is there a "Buddhist" solution? Kevin Griffin, author of One Breath at a Time and A Burning Desire) says yes! Noah Levine and others agree. Siddhartha was born in Afghanistan, according to maverick historian Ranajit Pal, Ph.D. Poppies must have grown there at the time. And what is "addiction" but craving, the curable source of suffering? Where there is craving, there is also likely to be aversion, usually manifesting as fear: fear of pain, aversion to pain. And without exception, whenever craving or aversion are present, each is supported by the true cause and condition of all suffering, disappointment, and woe: ignorance. The solution? Enlightenment.

Chic Phillip Seymour Hoffman (cracked.com)

Easier said than done. How did the drugs and drink help your quest for awakening? Even people who drop LSD, DMT, GHB, E, and/or 'shrooms do NOT suddenly awaken to the liberating-truth. Which is odd, isn't it? One would think Space Cadets would because they're so far out, so "beyond the beyond" (Heart Sutra). The real "ambrosia," the nectar of the divine, is deathlessness, a synonym for nirvana. See, getting "high" is a kind of delusion, alcohol a "liquid ignorance," the urge to get stoned or s-faced a dream. We're already in a dream (maya)! Maybe "mind-expanding" (entheogenic) substances can help. But the best "drugs" of all are endogenous, that is, internally-manufactured by these great bodies. So stop taking artificial, external drugs. And take care of your pineal gland. How? For one thing, avoid pharmaceuticals like Prozac.
  

Death of a Drug Addict

A Martinez and Alex Cohen, Take Two, scpr.org

The death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman of an apparent drug overdose was a shock to almost everyone who heard the news. Hoffman, it has been widely reported, had over two decades of sobriety under his belt before relapsing into addiction last year. Journalist Seth Mnookin, co-director of MIT's Graduate Program in Science Writing and a recovering drug addict, joined "Take Two." He wrote about it in Slate.

AUDIO INVESTIGATION: Heroin's Resurgence

Salvation in a dirty spoon?

Take Two talks to author and LA Times reporter Sam Quinones about the resurgence of heroin in the US. More than 90% of opiate abusers are white and getting it delivered like pizza. 

Authorities are still investigating the official cause of Phillip Seymour Hoffman's death, but the actor struggled with addiction, and investigators have confirmed the presence of heroin in his apartment.

It's a growing problem in this country, and heroin use here has doubled since 2007. According to the DEA, heroin seizures in New York State are up nearly 70 percent over the last four years. LISTEN 

Spock: Cigarettes gave me cancer. Don't smoke.

• BOOK: A Buddhist Path to Recovery from Addiction 
• FULL VIDEO: "DMT: The Spirit Molecule"
• Why do so many celebrities suffer from drug addiction?
• CVS to ban tobacco sales! Why? Pharmacy plans to make more money selling pharmaceutical treatments to fight nicotine addiction "treatments"
• COMEDY: The Hummus (the Muslim "Onion") takes a satirical look at Islamophobia
• Is it all in my thyroid gland? (extended ad)
• Bill Nye "the Science Guy" debates Creation Museum's Ken Ham