Recovery Dharma: A Buddhist path to freedom from the suffering of addiction

The Watercooler
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Dear friends in the Dhamma,

The Buddha taught that suffering (dukkha) arises from craving, attachment, and aversion. Some of us have experienced this truth in the form of addiction—whether to substances, harmful behaviors or relationships, or destructive patterns of thought. We seek escape from our suffering, but in doing so, we create more suffering for ourselves and others.

Recovery Dharma is a peer-led, Buddhist-based program that offers a path of liberation from addiction using the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. It is a community of individuals walking the path together, using meditation, self-inquiry, and ethical living to heal from addiction and rediscover our inherent wisdom and compassion.

Unlike traditional recovery programs, Recovery Dharma does not require adherence to a higher power or a specific belief system. Instead, it empowers individuals to find their own way through mindfulness, renunciation, and wise action.

We invite anyone struggling with addiction—whether it be substances, codependency, technology, food, or any habitual pattern that causes suffering—to explore this path. Meetings are available online and in person, providing a supportive and understanding community. Our core text, Recovery Dharma, is freely available at recoverydharma.org. And a French-speaking community is also available at recoverydharma.fr.

May all beings be free from suffering. :pray:

Disclaimer: This post is shared in the spirit of Dhamma and recovery. In accordance with the forum’s guidelines, please avoid sharing personal medical, psychological, or spiritual issues, as well as offering direct medical, spiritual, or psychological advice to others.

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Briliant initiative.

This thread on Ap/Pamåda might be of some inspiration:

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This great to see. Thanks for sharing.

I have only just skimmed the page quickly, but it makes my heart glad to see people using such an approach. It is lovely to see all the different groups available and the inclusive approach.

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Nice initiative.

A healthy and sober mind, free from any form of craving, feels like a kind of Higher Power to me.

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Sounds like adherence to the higher power of Dhamma, but I don’t see any problems with that.:grinning:

Perhaps this article will be of some interest …

What, now, has the Buddha to offer the drug-addict? In the first place the Buddha requires intelligence of a man, else nothing can be done. In the second place the Buddha tells us that the taking of intoxicants (which of course will include morphia and so on) leads to the decline of intelligence. Putting two and two together, we find that to give up drugs a man must understand that unless he gives them up he will not be able to give them up, or in other words, to give up drugs one must understand the way to give up drugs, which is to give them up. At first glance this does not seem to be very helpful—‘A glimpse of the obvious’ perhaps you will say, ‘of course the addict understands that the way to give up drugs is to give them up: the whole trouble is that he can’t give them up.’ But is this just a glimpse of the obvious?

Let me recall my own experience when I gave up cigarettes. I had been smoking forty or more a day for several years when I decided to give them up. Not being able to do things in half-measures I stopped smoking all at once. I remember walking in the park not long after I had finished my last cigarette, and feeling pleased with myself that I had actually taken the decision. (I also felt rather light-headed, which was no doubt a deprivation symptom—this continued for some days.) But the principal thought that assailed me was this: though I had no doubt that I could stick to my resolution, there was one thing that I really needed to confirm it and to fortify me in my determination not to have another cigarette, and that one thing was… a cigarette. Far from its being obvious to me that in order to give up cigarettes I should give up cigarettes, I had the greatest of trouble to resist the pressing suggestion that in order to give up cigarettes I should take a cigarette.
(…)
Not only is the drug addict in a vicious circle—the more he takes the more he wants, the more he wants the more he takes --, but until he learns to take an outside view of his situation, and is able to see the nature of drug-addiction, he will find that all his attempts to force a way out of the vicious circle simply lead him back in again. (A vicious circle is thus a closed system in stable equilibrium.) It is only when the addict understands addiction, and holds fast to the right view that—in spite of all appearances, in spite of all temptations to think otherwise—his ‘normal’ drugged state is not normal, that he will be able to put up with the temporary discomfort of deprivation and eventually get free from his addiction. (…)

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