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

The Fifth Precept: to abstain from drugs (sutra)

Amber Larson, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly translation based on "The Five Precepts" (pañca-sila), AccessToInsight.org (AN 8.39)

The Buddhist Wheel of the Liberating Dharma (kadampa.org)

  

Buddha mudra, Thailand (Ponz666/flickr)

There are five basic training rules observed by all practicing lay Buddhists.

 

The precepts are often recollected after going for guidance to the Three Jewels: Buddha (the Enlightened), Dharma (Teachings that lead to enlightenment), and (noble community called the) Sangha (those who have successfully followed the Buddha and Dharma to the ultimate goal of enlightenment).  

Five Precepts

1. I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures.

2. I undertake the precept to refrain from taking what is not given.

3. I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct.

4. I undertake the precept to refrain from false speech.

5. I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicants which lead to carelessness.

 

Five Faultless Gifts

I will enjoy peace of mind and freedom.

"There are five great gifts -- original, ancient, traditional, long standing, unadulterated from the beginning -- that are not to be faulted now, that are never to be faulted, that are upheld by wise spiritual recluses and Brahmin priests. What are they?
 
"A disciple of the noble ones, abandoning the taking of life, abstains from taking life. In doing so, one gives to limitless numbers of beings freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression. In giving freedom to limitless numbers of beings, one gains a share of limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression. This is the first gift...
 
"Furthermore, abandoning taking what is not given (stealing), a disciple of the noble ones abstains from taking what is not given....
 
"Furthermore, abandoning sexual misconduct, a disciple of the noble ones abstains from sexual misconduct....
 
"Furthermore, abandoning false speech, a disciple of the noble ones abstains from false speech....
 

Careless in Colarado (Brennan Linsley/AP)

"Furthermore, abandoning the use of intoxicants, a disciple of the noble ones abstains from taking intoxicants. In doing so, one gives to limitless numbers of beings freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression. In giving freedom one gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression. This is the fifth great gift -- original, ancient, traditional, long standing, unadulterated from the beginning -- that is not to be faulted now, that is never to be faulted, that is upheld by wise spiritual recluses and Brahmin priests."

Radical Therapy:

Buddhist Precepts in the Modern World

Prof. Lily de Silva (Buddhist Publication Society)

The Buddha rises above all obstalces (Buddhisam)

The Five Precepts are the basic Buddhist code of virtue, undertaken daily by lay Buddhists along with Going for Guidance to the Three Gems. Virtue is regarded as the indispensable foundation of a life in line with the Dharma.
 
The Five Precepts consist of five training rules of abstinence: (1) from killing, (2) from stealing, (3) from sexual misconduct, (4) from false speech, and (5) from intoxicants.
 
The Five Precepts are designed to [give freedom from remorse as they] discipline and purify the three avenues of human action -- body, speech, and mind.

The Buddha rediscovered the Path then taught it.

Abstaining from killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct disciplines bodily action. Abstaining from false speech disciplines verbal action. ("False" speech is not a nice way of saying not lying; it refers to abstaining from perjury, slander, harsh/abusive speech, and frivolous talk).
 
The dual discipline of body and speech has a healthy effect on the purity of mind, although complete mental purity can only be brought about by "bringing it into being" (bhavana, mental culture, cultivation, self-development, or meditation).
 
The fifth precept -- abstaining from using intoxicants -- attempts to safeguard the mental faculty from degenerating through toxicity or a bad habit. A person under the influence has little control over oneself. So one is easily tempted to carelessly transgress the four other precepts as well. More

The ancient Five Precepts, Lumbini, Nepal (tripadvisor.com)

New Year: Buddhist Island of Celebration

A.G.S. Kariyawasam, "Buddhist Ceremonies and Rituals of Sri Lanka" (ATI), Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon, Dev, Xochitl, Wisdom Quarterly

A new day dawns atop the world (Raimond Klavins/artmif/flickr.com)

Sri Lanka is the teardrop-island off India

Sri Lanka is regarded as a home of Theravada, a less diluted form of Buddhism based on the ancient Pali canon. This school of Buddhism emphasizes the Four Noble Truths as the framework of the Buddha's Dharma or Teaching and the Noble Eightfold Path as the direct route to nirvana, the final goal of the Teaching. 

Buddha, Dambulla, Sri Lanka (NH53/flickr)

However, side by side with this austere and intellectually sophisticated Buddhism of the texts, there is in Sri Lanka a warm current of devotional Buddhism practiced by the general Buddhist population, who may have only a hazy idea of Buddhist doctrine.

In practical life, the gap between the "great tradition" of canonical Buddhism and the average person's world of everyday experience is bridged by a complex round of ceremonies, rituals, and devotional practices that are hardly visible within the canonical texts themselves.

• Faith (saddha) in Buddhism
• Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines
• Going for "refuge" to Buddha, Dharma, Sangha?

The specific forms of ritual and ceremony in the popular mind doubtlessly evolved over the centuries. Likely this devotional approach to the Dharma had its roots in lay Buddhist practice during the time of the Buddha in neighboring India.

Pilgrimage (yatra): Hiking into the clouds of Sri Lanka Gunner's Point (NH53/flickr)

  

For Buddhism, devotion does not mean submitting oneself to the will of a God or a Buddha or taking "refuge" in an external savior. Rather, it is an ardent feeling of love and affection (pema) directed towards the teacher who shows the way to freedom and liberation from all suffering.

Such an attitude inspires the devotee to follow a meditation master's teaching faithfully and earnestly through all the hurdles that lie along the way to nirvana.

 

Aukana Buddha, Sri Lanka (visitserendib.com)

The Buddha often stressed the importance of saddha, confidence or faith in a buddha as the best of teachers, the Dharma or Teaching as the direct vehicle to liberation from the cycle of rebirth-and-suffering, and the Nobles (Ariya-Sangha), those taught the path all the way to success, to direct verification in this very life, to enlightenment.

Unshakeable confidence (aveccappasada) in the Triple Jewels -- Buddha, Dharma, and Noble Sangha -- is one mark of enlightenment. 

The Buddha once stated that those who have sufficient confidence in him (saddha-matta), sufficient affection for him (pema-matta) are bound for rebirth in heavenly worlds as a result of that (mental/heart based) karma. But the heavens are not the goal of Buddhists, who instead aim for final peace, the end of all rebirth and death. (Heavenly rebirths mean eventual falling away when the karma that led one there is exhausted). 

Buddha in Theravada Sri Lanka (WQ)

Many verses of the Theragatha and Therigatha, verses of the ancient elder-monks (theras) and -nuns (theris), convey feelings of deep devotion and a high level of emotional elation.

Although the canonical texts do not indicate that this devotional sensibility had yet come to expression in fully formed rituals, it seems plausible that simple ritualistic observances with feelings of devotion had already begun to take shape even during the Buddha's lifetime. 

Certainly they would have done so shortly after the Buddha's final reclining into nirvana, as is amply demonstrated by the cremation rites themselves, according to the testimony of the discourse on the Great Final-Nirvana (Maha-Pari-nibbana Sutta).

Relics in housed in white stupa, Ruwanwelimahaseya, Ramagama, Sri Lanka (wiki)

  

The Buddha in a sense encouraged a devotional attitude when recommending pilgrimage locations, namely, the four places that can inspire a confident devotee: where he was born, attained enlightenment, delivered the first sermon, and attained final nirvana (DN.ii,140).

 

The Buddha did discourage the wrong kind of emotional attachment to him or anything, as evidenced in the case of Ven. Vakkali Thera, who was reprimanded for his obsession with the beauty of the Buddha's physical appearance: This is a case of misplaced devotion (S.iii,119).

Ritualistic observances also pose a danger that they might be misapprehended as ends in themselves -- instead of being used as they should be when employed as means for channeling devotional emotions into the right path to the ultimate goal. 

It is when they are wrongly practiced that they become impediments rather than aids to the spiritual life. 

It is to warn against this that the Buddha has categorized them, under the term "devotion to mere rules and rituals" (silabbata-paramasa), one of the Ten Fetters (samyojana) binding one to samsara, the Wheel of Rebirth and Suffering, and one of the four types of clinging (upadana). 

Where Buddhism arrived from ancient India, Mahintale, Sri Lanka (NH53/flickr)

  

Correctly observed, as means rather than ends, ritualistic practices can serve to generate wholesome states of mind/heart, while certain other rituals collectively performed can serve as a means of strengthening the social cohesion among those who share the same spiritual ideals.

 

Ceremonies and rituals, as external acts which complement inward contemplative exercises, cannot be called alien to or incompatible with canonical Buddhism. To the contrary, they are an integral part of the living tradition of all schools of Buddhism, including the Theravada.

 

A ritual may be defined here as an outward act performed regularly and consistently in a context that confers upon it a religious significance not immediately evident in the act itself. A composite unity consisting of a number of subordinate ritualistic acts may be called a ceremony. More

Happy New Year from Wisdom Quarterly

"An Island to Oneself" (sutra)

Maurice O'Connell Walshe, Attadipa Sutta (SN 22.43); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

An island on a river at sunset with sudden bursts of lightning (Gary Story/plus.google.com)

 

Sitting is intensive but not the only way

"Meditators, be islands unto yourselves [Note 1], be your own [guide], having no other; let the Dharma be an island and a [guide] for you, having no other. Those who are islands unto themselves... should investigate to the very heart of things [2]:

"'What is the source of sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair? How do they arise?' [What is their origin?]

 

Buddha on island of Sri Lanka (NH53)

"Here, meditators, the uninstructed worldling [continued as in SN 22.7]. Change occurs in this person's body, and it becomes different. On account of this change and difference, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair arise. [Similarly with feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness].
 
"But seeing [3] the body's impermanence, its change-ability, its waning [4], its ceasing, he says 'formerly as now, all bodies were impermanent and unsatisfactory, and subject to change.' Thus, seeing this as it really is, with liberating insight, one abandons all sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair. One is not worried at their abandonment but, without worry, lives at ease. And thus living at ease one is said to be 'assured of deliverance [5].'" [Similarly with feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness].

NOTES: 1. Atta-dipa. Dipa means both "island" (Sanskrit dvipa) and "lamp" (Sanskrit dipa), but the meaning "island" is well-established here. The "self" referred to is of course the unmetaphysical pronoun "oneself" (cf. SN 3.8, n. 1).

2. It is necessary to withdraw, to be "an island to unto oneself," at least for a time (as any meditator knows), not for any "selfish" reasons but precisely in order to make this profound introspective investigation. Otherwise, in another sense, Buddhists would of course agree with John Donne that "No man is an island."

3. As Woodward remarks in [Book of the Kindred Sayings, a  translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, Vol. III, PTS, 1924], one would expect to find here the words which he inserts in the text: "The well-taught [noble] disciple," as in many passages. If one, in fact, sees these things and reflects as said in the text, one will cease to be [an ordinary] "worldling." 

4. Waning (viraga) is elsewhere also translated as "dispassion" (SN 12.16, n. 2).

5. Tadanganibbuto means rather more than Woodward's "one who is rid of all that."

• See island admonition in the Buddha's final sutra: DN 16.

Guidance on "good" and "bad" (sutra)

Ven. Soma (accesstoinsight); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly (AN 3.65)

Light bursts through, enlightenment, into a dark cave (Chatchai Laka-mankong/flickr)

Kalamas ask the Buddha for Guidance

...3. The Kalamas, inhabitants of Kesaputta, sitting to one side said to the [Buddha]: "There are some wandering ascetics and Brahmin priests, venerable sir, who visit Kesaputta. They expound and explain only their own doctrines. The doctrines (dharrmas) of others they despise, revile, and pull to pieces. Some other ascetics and Brahmins too, venerable sir, come to Kesaputta. They also expound and explain only their own doctrines. The doctrines of others they despise, revile, and pull to pieces.

"Venerable sir, there is doubt, there is uncertainty in us concerning them. Which of these revered ascetics and Brahmins spoke the truth and which falsehood?"

Criterion for rejection

4. "It is proper for you, Kalamas, to doubt, to be uncertain. Uncertainty has arisen in you about what is doubtful. Come, Kalamas. Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing, nor upon tradition, nor upon rumor, nor upon what is in a scripture, nor upon surmise, nor axiomatic, nor upon (hammering out by mere) reasoning, nor upon preference toward an idea that has been pondered over, nor upon another's seeming ability, nor upon the consideration, 'The ascetic is our teacher.' 

"But, Kalamas, when you yourselves know: 'These things are bad; these things are blameworthy; these things are censured by the wise; when undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill,' abandon them. 

 

Greed, hate, and delusion

5. "What do you think, Kalamas? Does greed appear in a person for benefit or harm?" — "For one's harm, venerable sir." — "Kalamas, being given to greed, and being overwhelmed and vanquished mentally by greed, this person takes life, steals, commits sexual misconduct, and tells lies. One also prompts another to do likewise. Will that be long for harm and ill?" — "Yes, venerable sir."

 

6. "What do you think, Kalamas? Does hate appear in a person for benefit or harm?" — "For one's harm, venerable sir." — "Kalamas, being given to hate, and being overwhelmed and vanquished mentally by hate, this person takes life, steals, commits sexual misconduct, and tells lies. One also prompts another to do likewise. Will that be long for harm and ill?" — "Yes, venerable sir."

 

7. "What do you think, Kalamas? Does delusion appear in a person for benefit or harm?" — "For one's harm, venerable sir." — "Kalamas, being given to delusion, and being overwhelmed and vanquished mentally by delusion, this person takes life, steals, commits sexual misconduct, and tells lies; one also prompts another to do likewise. Will that be long for harm and ill?" — "Yes, venerable sir."

 

8. "What do you think, Kalamas? Are these things good or bad [profitable or unprofitable, skillful or unskillful, wholesome or unwholesome]?" — "Bad, venerable sir" — "Blameworthy or not blameworthy?" — "Blameworthy, venerable sir." — "Censured or praised by the wise?" — "Censured, venerable sir." — "Undertaken and observed, do these things lead to harm and ill or not? Or how does it strike you?" — "Undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill. Thus it strikes us here."

 

9. "Therefore, did we say, Kalamas, what was said thus, 'Come Kalamas. Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing, nor upon tradition...nor upon the consideration, "The ascetic is our teacher." But, Kalamas, when you yourselves know: "These things are bad; these things are blameworthy; these things are censured by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill," abandon them.'

Criterion for acceptance

10. "Come, Kalamas. Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing, nor upon tradition... nor upon the consideration, 'The ascetic is our teacher.' But, Kalamas, when you yourselves know: 'These things are good; these things are blameless; these things are praised by the wise; when undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness,' enter on and abide in them.

Absence of greed, hate, delusion

11. "What do you think, Kalamas? Does absence of greed appear in a person for benefit or harm?" — "For one's benefit, venerable sir." — "Kalamas, being not given to greed, and being not overwhelmed and not vanquished mentally by greed, this person does not take life, does not steal, does not commit sexual misconduct, and does not tell lies, neither does one prompts another to do likewise. Will that be long for one's benefit and happiness?" — "Yes, venerable sir." More

The Buddhist Layperson (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; The Buddhist Lay[person], essays by R. Bogoda, Susan Elbaum Jootla, Maurice O'C. Walshe (BPS.lk/AccesstoInsight.org)

Temporary novice touches Indonesian image of the Buddha (Massulan/flickr)

The Lotus-like Lay-follower

Wisdom Quarterly (AN 5.175) 

Novice and layperson (deepblue66/flickr)

The Buddha said: A lay-follower (upasaka) with five qualities is a jewel of a lay-follower, is a lily, is a lotus.
 
What are the five qualities?

1. One has confidence (faith).

2. One is virtuous.

3. One is levelheaded (rather than superstitious).

4. One believes in the efficacy of action(karma) rather than luck or omen.

5. One looks to and attends first to the spiritual-community (Sangha) for those worthy of support.

Meditation hall as Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche gives teaching on seven-point mind-training at Danakosha Dharma Center (Mitjoruohoniemi/flickr)

 

Ten Qualities of the Lay-follower

Wisdom Quarterly (Questions of King Milinda (Milindapañha, Chp. IV)

King Milinda (Menander I) coin

These ten, great king, are the qualities of the [Buddhist] lay-follower: 

1. One shares the joys and sorrows of the spiritual-community (the lay, monks', and nuns' Sangha collectively).

2. One places the Dharma (truth) first [that is, before self and worldly considerations, referring to the three dominant influences (adhipateyya), Dharma being the third, after atta (self) and loka (plane of existence); see AN 3.40].

3. One enjoys giving according to one's ability.

4. If one sees a decline in the Dispensation of the Teaching of the Buddha, one strives for its strong growth.

Meditation is not mandatory but joyful, helpful.

5. One cultivates right views, disregarding belief in superstitions and omens, and will not accept a replacement teacher to supplant the Buddha/Dharma, not even for the sake of life. (That is not to say that one has no other teachers. Even at the time of the Buddha, Buddhists had additional teachers like the Buddha's four chief disciples, Sariputra, Khema, Maha Moggallana, and Uppalavanna. They also had preceptors and noble helpers (kalyana mittas) given that "noble friendship" is the whole of path to enlightenment (SN 45.2).
 
It is characteristic of a stream enterer and other noble disciples, once having seen for oneself that the Buddha was correct and the only one pointing to nirvana, it is not possible to doubt. There is no need for any teaching to gain enlightenment other than one in line with the Dharma he taught and that other noble ones in the Sangha espouse).

Come on, I want to hear the Dharma in this beautiful gompa! (Daniel O'Donnell/flickr.com)

 

6. One guards one's deeds and words.

 

7. One loves and cherishes peace and concord.

8. One is not envious or jealous.

9. One does not live a Buddhist life by way of deception or hypocrisy.

10. One has gone for guidance (sarana) to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
 
Four Essays for Lay Buddhists

1. Principles of Lay Buddhism (R. Bogoda)
2. Right Livelihood: The Noble Eightfold Path in the Working Life (Susan Elbaum Jootla)
3. Having Taken the First Step (Maurice O'Connell Walshe)
4. Detachment (M.O'C. Walshe)
   

Study when practicing (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

American monk Bhikkhu Bodhi (bodhimonastery.org), making "The Case for Study" (Buddhist Publication Society) edited for Wisdom Quarterly (Access to Insight) by Dhr. Seven

The Buddha, Gandhara, ancient Indo-Greco Afghanistan (Boonlieng Wongchaowart/flickr)

 

Wisdom: leaf from the Bodhi tree

The recent upsurge of interest in Buddhism, both East and West, has been marked by a vigorous practical orientation. There is a drive to discover the peace and freedom to which the practice of Dharma (Pali, Dhamma) leads.

 

This zeal for practice, however, has often been accompanied by another trait -- the tendency to neglect or even belittle the methodical study of the historical Buddha's teachings. This is not likely to be fruitful.

Arguments are offered in defense of this anti-study attitude; they have already become familiar currency among us, for example:

• Study is concerned with "words and concepts," not with realities.
• It leads only to learning, not to wisdom.
• It can change our ideas but fails to touch us at deeper levels. 

To clinch the case, the testimony of the Buddha himself is sometimes enlisted. The Kalama Sutra is misunderstood and misquoted. His famous remarks that to learn much without practicing much is like counting the cows of others or like carrying a raft on one's head instead of using it to cross over to the further shore (nirvana).

 
This contention, to be sure, has its aspect of truth. But it also suffers from a one-sided emphasis that may actually thwart rather than aid our progress on the Buddhist path.

It is certainly true that learning without practice is fruitless. But the other side of the issue should also be considered. Should a person gather cows if s/he knows nothing about how to take care of them? Should one try to cross a rough and dangerous body of water without knowing how to operate a raft?
 

Past buddhas revealed by the Budda, Theravada art, ancient Thailand (Trianons/flickr.com)

 
The Buddha insisted that followers learn and transmit the Dharma -- both in the letter and the spirit.
 
Rather than appealing to traditional formulations and facile quotes, let us inquire ourselves into the value and function of Dharma-study.
 
The point at issue, it must be stressed, is not study as an academic discipline or the accumulation of a wealth of learning. It is, instead, about the acquisition of a sound and solid working knowledge of basic Buddhist doctrines.
 
To see why this is essential, we must recall that the entire practice of the proper Buddhist path develops out of the act through which we enter the path -- the going for [guidance] to the Triple Gem [Budddha, Dharma, and Sangha].

If we have taken this step honestly, with correct motivation, it implies that we have acknowledged our need for spiritual guidance and have entrusted ourselves to the Buddha as our guide and to this teaching as our vehicle of guidance [and to those who have successfully completed the path, the Noble Sangha or "Community of Enlightened" individuals, both lay and monastic].

By taking [guidance from] the Dharma, we accept not merely a technique of meditation that we can use at liberty for our own self-appointed purposes, but a profound and comprehensive teaching on the true nature of the human condition. This is a teaching designed to awaken in us a direct perception of  Truth as the means for reaching the full and final end of suffering (nirvana).
 

In the Buddha's Words

The liberation offered by the Dharma comes, not from simply practicing meditation in the context of our own preconceptions and desires, but from practicing upon the groundwork of the right understanding and optimal intentions communicated to us by the Buddha.
 
This cognitive character of the Buddhist path elevates doctrinal study and intellectual inquiry to a position of great importance.
 
Though the knowledge that frees the mind/heart from bondage emerges only from intuitive insight and not from a collection of doctrinal facts, genuine insight always develops on the basis of a preliminary conceptual grasp of the basic principles essential to right understanding. In the absence of it, growth will inevitably be obstructed.

The study (suta) and systematic reflection (anussati) through which we arrive at this preliminary and preparatory right view necessarily involve concepts and ideas.
 
Before we hasten to dismiss Dharma-study as being, therefore, only a worthless tangle of words, let us consider that concepts and ideas are our indispensable tools of understanding and communication.
 
Concepts can be valid or invalid tools of understanding; ideas can be fruitful or useless, capable of bringing immense benefit or of entailing enormous harm. (Few things are worse than grasping Buddhism correctly, which is likened to taking hold of a snake by the tail rather than the neck. Grabbing it by the tail is easy, but then it reaches back to bite and destroy one; taking it by the neck is difficult but safe. Then something useful, like the basis of an antidote to snakebites, can be extracted).

The object of studying the Dharma as part of our spiritual quest is to learn to comprehend our experience correctly, so that we become able to distinguish:

• the valid from the invalid,
• the true from the misleading,
• the wholesome from the unwholesome.

It is only by making a thorough and careful investigation that we will be in a position to reject what is detrimental to our growth and to apply ourselves with confidence (verifiable-faith) to cultivating what is beneficial.

Without this preliminary conceptual clarification, without having succeeded in rectifying our views, there can indeed be an earnest attempt to practice Buddhist meditation techniques. But there will not be the practice of meditation pertaining to the integral Noble Eightfold Path (which begins and ends with "right view," the first being preliminary and conceptual, the second being ultimate and the result of direct experience).

And while such free-based meditation may bring its practitioners mundane benefits like greater calm, heightened awareness, and pleasant equanimity, lacking the guidance of right view and the driving power of right motivation, it is questionable whether practice can ever lead to the penetrative realization of the Dharma, to its final goal, the end of ignorance about the Four Noble Truths and therefore the complete cessation of suffering (nirvana).
 

Bhikkhu Bodhi (dannyfischer.org)

It is difficult to give a single word of counsel on the subject of study applicable to ALL followers of the Dharma. Needs and interests vary so greatly from one person to another that each will have to strike a personal balance between study and practice that suits one's own disposition.
 
But without hesitation it can be said that ALL who earnestly endeavor to live by the Buddha's teaching will find their practice strengthened by methodically studying the Dharma!

Such an undertaking, of course, will not be easy. However, it is just through facing and surmounting the challenges we meet in life that our understanding will ripen and mature in liberating wisdom.