Late Night Sex Talk: "Loveline" (video)

LovelineShow.com; Wisdom Quarterly

(LoveLineShow.com)

Loveline is on the radio weeknights (Sunday-Thursday, 10:00-11:59 PM PST) live from Los Angeles (KROQ.com). It is co-hosted by Dr. Drew Pinsky, DJ Mike Catherwood, and sex therapist Simone Bienne.

It's a call-in question-and-answer show featuring any interesting person who can get through. (Start dialing before the show comes begins). What's the point? The primary goal is helping youth and young adults with relationship, sexuality, and drug addiction issues. 

Dr. Drew has gone from radio to TV fame

As a practicing internist and addiction specialist with training in psychology, Dr. Drew answers with medical authority. Comedian Psycho Mike adds humor and insight as a result of his own past dealings with drug abuse and ongoing recovery. Simone provides a woman's point of view and relationship and sex counseling expertise. Where else were we supposed to turn to find out everything we ever wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask our friends about?

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The Zen of Rapping (2 Chainz)

Boo and Tee, recorded and edited by CC Liu and Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Mysterious sign in Macau that may read "No photos" or "This way to WC" (Evs_in_Nz)

   

Dragon incense bowl (Evs_in_Nz)

"Everything hot, skip lukewarm. Tell Shorty, Bust it open, Uncle Luke on. Got a present for the present and a gift rappin'. I don't feel good, but my trigger happy. Like the stripper happy. Like they wish they had me. And I wish a [brutha] would like a kitchen cabinet. And me and you are cut from a different fabric. I ain't feeling so good, it's a bad habit. [Sista], sit down! You got a bad atti'. Gave her the wrong number and a bad addy. You ain't going nowhere, like a bad navi'. [Back] so big, I told her look back at it, look back at it, look back at it. Then I put a fat rabbit on her Craftmatic..."

• The "wacky" pot law that faltered in Oregon (ABC)
• Colorado, Washington await Fed response to new pot laws
• VIDEO: 2Chainz "Birthday" and "I'm Different" live
• VIDEO: "The History of the Internet" (The Onion)
• VIDEO: Kid Cudi's "Pursuit of Happiness" (on drugs)

Zen: The way to meditate is not to meditate

Zen (absorption) meditation (Jennifer Clark)

Amber: What in the samsara is going on here? Why are you two quoting Zen Master 2 Chainz like he's dispensing koans?

Boo and Tee: It's our meditation! "Im Diffrent."

Amber: How in the world is that meditation?

Boo and Tee: You and Seven say, "The way to meditate is not to mediate." What better way not to meditate than to listen to rap?

Amber: That's not what that means! Zen teaches... [listen to an expert explanation by Alan Watts: PLAY]. Seven, let's explain this to them.
 

Amber and Seven: Zen Buddhism teaches people to BE HERE NOW. Where else can you be, if you really think about it?

Boo: I have to be here, don't I?

A&S: Do you?

Tee:  No, no, I can go somewhere else!

A&S: Then where would you be?

Boo and Tee: Uhhh...

A&S: Here would be there, and you'd be here. 

Boo: Why?

A&S: Because wherever you are, there you are!

Tee: WTF?

A&S: Where are you, Tee?

Tee: Right here.

Amber: And if we go over there and I ask you, "Where are you, Tee," then where are you?

Tee: Over there? No, right here! It depends where you ask me.

Amber: Does it?

Tee: Doesn't it? 

Seven: No, you always are where you are. And that's always here. Not here-here, but wherever "here" happens to be at the time.

Boo: I get it. [Explains it to Tee.]

Amber: *Laughing*
 

Seven: Of course, most of us aren't here even while we're here, in spite of the fact that we have nowhere else to be. That's the point.
A&S: That's why in yoga we constantly remind yogis, BE HERE NOW.

Tee: Where else would you be? Where else could you be?

A&S: We're wading back to the past or swimming toward the future like misguided salmon. [It's a space-time thing; we're here in space but not in time.] Sometimes we're trying to rush downstream, down the falls instead of holding still or struggling up. Down is easy. Just do nothing and the stream will take you down.

In the same way, meditation is easy because it is just not doing, not struggling, not striving and, most importantly, not getting in the way or flagging. But in a way it is something: preparing the soil, cultivating it, so that something can grow. And what grows is calm-collected-concentration to zen (jhana), that is, to absorption. This happens by paying constant attention to a single object.

In other words, "The way to meditate is not to meditate." Is not to "try," not to force, not to struggle, not to doze off, not to think, not to drop attention from the object, but just place it there and leave it there and STAY right there. Stay with it instead of going away to something "more interesting." BE HERE NOW. What could be more interesting than right here right now?

Tee: Anything else at any other time. Naw, I feel ya.

Boo: *Giggling*

Boo and Tee: Can? Wait. Can..? Wait. That makes sense.

A&S: It does? Then we should follow our own advice.

Boo and Tee: Don't you?

A&S: I for one think too much. Me, too. But you guys can just drop things, just not think, just "concentrate" -- sequester the mind/heart/attention -- on a single thing so there's nothing else. It's not nothing. It's one thing and one thing only, like the subtle breath at the nostril when the mind is quiet or watching. Or a dot on the wall or a mantra or a candle flame... So the mind can rest and blossom and do what we can't do with it. We can't concentrate, but the mind/heart can, and a concentrated mind can do anything. Like in that scene from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when they're out of control on that all black spaceship. They get it under control by stopping trying to control it. They've just come from the Restaurant at the End of the Universe and realize that it has a far better idea of where they are going, as they time travel (like we are doing right now), than they do. Let go and let Brahman. Trust in the Universe. Karma is not mocked. It's like so many Judeo-Christian terms tweaked slightly to return them to a meaning they once conveyed.
 

What has rap come to? French Montana (with surprise guest P Diddy) live

at the Key Club, CA, Dec. 1, 2012. The crackling sound is our ear drums.

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Smoking weed in front of Buddhist monks

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Yogi Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Sanskrit, ganja (medicinal Cannabis sativa)

BODHGAYA, India - "Smoking weed in front of Tibetan monks"? It's not as bad as it sounds. The headline might more correctly read, "Intoxicated Hindu mendicant dancing, ganja in hand, in front of Tibetan lamas at Buddhism's enlightenment grove."

  

The precincts of the Bodhi tree are sacred ground visited by hundreds of thousands of Buddhist pilgrims every year. (It is the most Buddhist town in the world, with authentic temples from every Buddhist land, from stately Japanese zendos (dojos) to a mysterious and fascinating Bhutanese dzong).

  

Sadhus: India's Mystic Holy Men (DH)

But the grove is controlled by Hindu holy men and Indian government officials, not Buddhists. The Maha Bodhi Society has a presence, but the sannyasis and sadhus (Hindu spiritual wanderers) run rampant.

  

Devotional exiled Tibetans travel down from Himalayan Dharamsala, Himalchal Pradesh in the north of the country. Some do 108,000 (yes, one-hundred and eight thousand) prostrations around the Maha Bodhi temple next to the tree, a genetic ancestor of the original enlightenment tree Siddhartha sat under.

Why would a wanderer behave like a madman (pagal) in front of pilgrim monks? Why would a spiritual wanderer go about smoking marijuana or hash? It is the custom of some Hindu ascetic holymen. The lamas could not be too put off since Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism has a long and storied history of spiritual madmen epitomized in the saintly-sinner figure Milarepa.

• Colorado, Washington await federal response to new pot laws
• Prostitution legal in parts of Nevada
• Bon Jovi's daughter arrested after possible heroin OD
• Crime regular feature of life in every American city

The Dharma in the West

Hookah pipe Buddha ashtray (Raezyx/flickr)

Sure these things happen in the chaotic East. But would anyone dream of firing up a peace pipe in front of Vajrayana lamas? We can't imagine. However, stranger things have happened. Many Tibetan monks (great rinpoches, lamas, even alleged tulkus) are falling. It's not self-immolation of the attention-grabbing sort that's bringing them down. They often explain that they want to "taste" the allure of the West. What was it about America in the 1960s that was so intriguing to the most powerful generation in the world? In "My Dinner With Andre" Andre explained the little Tibetan monk who went off kilter gorging himself on Western excesses. There is the real life story of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who may have been the source of Andre's account. There are American lamas like Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Surya Das around which swirl rumors and controversies of sexual impropriety.

• Controversial "Buddhist" teachers and groups

So what's a little ganja to those violating other precepts? Monastics are not using or abusing drugs. We are. And we think they would be okay with that. "Let's get Buddha'ed," we say as if that meant let's get high. Medical cannabis abuse is no mild vice -- and it is no way to any kind of enlightenment or transcendent wisdom. It's a circuitous route to here, so some call it an insidious trap. So which is it? It's not Buddhist. Smoke and you, too, can dance in front of Tibetan monks like an addict sadhu in the video above. But instead of owning up to it, one can use euphemisms and claim it's a spiritual endeavor, a Milarepa-like-madman "quest."
  

"Oh, Buddha, to be like you! (Moondoxy)

Were alcohol or intoxicants part of the path, the Buddha would have pointed to them as aids rather than obstacles. Or he would have remained silent on the matter. That he thought them such a serious obstacle that he listed alcohol as a path of doom in the Five Precepts is serious.

Could there be a difference between drugs? Do some serve only to blot out and obtund consciousness rather than to expand it? It is certainly our position at Wisdom Quarterly that some natural substances (DMT, alkaloids, iboga, Amazonian vines that make ayahuasca and natema, etc.) may have some benefits to the awakening of the pineal gland/third eye. But booze and high-THC (low-CBD) weed stocks and caustic synthetic chemicals? Wake up. Reality is better than this or we would advocate making the best of this illusion.

(LINK) The wyrd world far beyond dulled consciousness

• Flouride (Prozac, toothpaste, tap water, etc.) calcifies Pineal Gland

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RAP Fest "Cali X-mas" to rock L.A. (video)

Power106.com; Seth Auberon, Boo and Tee, Wisdom Quarterly

(CNN's Kyunh Lah reports on Buddhist monk "Mr. Happiness" (Ven. Koncho Tagai)

   

Boo can't wait to bounce!

LOS ANGELES, California - KWPR (105.9 FM) announced the lineup for "Cali Christmas" today -- an enormous night of hip hop and gangster rap music.

 

Pre-sale tickets will be offered (ensuring an instant sell-out when tickets are released to the public) on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012. But buyers have to sign up and log in to get a secret password first!

It's easy: Sign in or register for the pre-sale password before they go on sale Friday, Nov. 2. Li'l Wayne may be dying in planes to avoid court. But many of the artists featured in Can RAP Music Fans be Buddhists?, Buddhist Rap Music Fan? Yes!, and What Do Hip Hop and Islam have in common? will be performing.
 

Cali Christmas hits the Gibson Amphitheatre on Friday, Dec. 14, 2012 featuring live performances by: Ca$h Out, 2 Chainz, Clyde Carson, The Weeknd, Rick Ross, Meek Mill, Big Sean, and Kendrick Lamar. Wisdom Quarterly is contacting morning zoo "Big Boy's Neighborhood" to try to get the Rapping bar MONKS of Japan (as seen on TV and WQ) or comedian Arj Barker a hip hop slot on the show. (Buddhism's Beastie Boys were not available).
  

Don't just listen, be heard! (GetLit.org)

Join PowerPoints Club without Facebook

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Can RAP Music Fans be Buddhists? (video)

Boo and Tee tag team interview (edited by Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Seven), Wisdom Quarterly

Artistic inked rendition of Boo and Tee (tattoo art by Erika Doyon/StudioArtease)

    

The Godfather of Soul James Brown

"Yeah we #1/Boo the color of mayonnaise/Tee the color of Akon/Trippin like a purpa haze/Got our tie we on/[Rap] her under the table/But babe she won."

  

The question arises around the campus offices of Wisdom Quarterly: Can someone be a Buddhist AND a hip hop gangsta-rap music fan?
 

What would Sid do? (weeklyvolcano.com)

"Of course," one might answer, "anyone who listens to the Beastie Boys might be both!" But "Brass Monkey" or even "So What Cha Want" is not what most people mean by "rap" nowadays. That's vintage hip hop. And it is now the gangsta rap genre that appears to be dominating the limelight and sucking all the air out of the room. Can those fans be Buddhists? We have already seen Buddhists in metal and punk genres.
 
WARNING: May trigger epileptic seizures. Explicit language! Earworm content.

  

There are far more US White and Brown rap fans than Blacks (not as a proportion but in total numbers). Boo and Tee are White-Latino, which makes sense in our increasingly blended Amerika, which manages to remain racist. They point out that rap superstars Cypress Hill happily combined the efforts of a Mexican (B'Real), Afro-American (Sen Dog), and Scandinavian (DJ Muggs), and whose final member (Bobo) had previously recorded and performed with the Beastie Boys.

"Latin Thugs" ft. Tego Calderon combines horns, beats, gang-violence

This popular sub-genre seems to glorify alcohol abuse, drug consumption and/or sales, "partying," casual sex, violence, sexism, gang banging, hyper-masculinity, false bravado, grotesque/comical conspicuous consumption ("bling") celebrating capitalism, and other realities of American society -- particularly the leisurely life of suburban denizens attempting to imitate their imaginary version of day-to-day urban survival.

On one extreme Tyga may be all about Rack City b-tches, but J. Cole likes the easygoing island version on "Can't Get Enough." Both appear to be obsessing.
 

Kanye West is much to blame in this regard with No. 1 hits alongside 2 Chainz, Katy Perry, JZ, and a whole stable of up-and-coming rappers -- and making Tadolf Swiftler cry by stealing her limelight that time.

QUESTION: Tee, are there any songs that you feel demonstrate this penchant of modern rap music to excess and heedlessness with regard to the Five Basic Precepts?

The original pompadour, hips, and showmanship

TEE: F@#% yeah, like, Kendrick Lamar, "Swimming Pools (Drank)." Y'know, White Man stole the Black Man's music. Called it rock 'n roll. Same thing happening here. They invent it; The Man reinvents it and cashes in. Elvis vs. James Brown, Eminem vs DMX. So who got more RAP IQ points than we do?

WARNING: Alcoholic themes, profanity.

QUESTION: Same question, Boo?

BOO: Sure 'nuff, totally, like "Bottoms Up" by Trey Songz featuring Nicki Minaj [ignores the precepts].
 
QUESTION: And you two are "Buddhists"?

BOO: Yeah. I guess.
TEE: Yes, I am.

Cartoon simulation of Tee rapping ("Family Guy")

QUESTION: How do you reconcile the two endeavors?

BOO: What do you mean?
TEE: I feel you, but it can be done. It's easy with Zen Buddhism. I don't drink anymore, but some Zen monks drink. What's up with that? Sake and sh-t...
BOO: Oh, they go. I'm in recovery. I mean, I still clean the screen. That's medicine. But I quit everything else. The Dharma keeps me in check, meditating. Keeps my head straight.
TEE: Think of it like this. Hey-Zeus [the Judeo-Christian Godman Issa] was preaching to who? The pimps and hoes, not the temple folk, right?
BOO: It's the new "rock 'n roll," grand concerts, big stadium arena shows, same as seeing Lennon or Zeppelin.
  
WARNING: Explicit content, vulgarity, celebration of alcohol abuse, sexual situations!
  

The N-Word

King Kanye and Kim (perezhilton.com)

QUESTION: Ah, then there's the gratuitous "n-word." Exceeded in frequency only by the s- and b- and f-words.  It gets to be a bit much, no?

BOO: Yeah. But it's free speech.
TEE: Yeah. Who needs political speech when we could be cussing? I'm sure that's what Founding Fathers like John Footpenis had in mind.
BOO: *Laughing*

QUESTION: Then there's the whole Kim Kardashian connection, who seems to be a hybrid, more alien than human. Not only her but the Canadian cousins Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne, Ryan Gosling, and Celine Dion, not to mention unrelated unnatural (supernatural) artists like Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj. [See below and "Sex and Justin Bieber."]

TEE: Blame Seacrest for that.
BOO: She's a st-pid h-. Kanye can't be blamed for that. He just capitalizing on her fame.
TEE: Yeah, and he's not even a baller [sports figure] except in the sense that he's a player [street guy who made it]!
BOO: He think he da new Sean "Puff Daddy Baby Jesus" Combs dating J-Lo. P!nk is embarrassing.

QUESTION: Is there a rap song that's not embarrassing?

TEE:  Totally! What about "Cashing Out" by Ca$h Out? It's like [the movie] "The Secret." Fake it till you make it. Anything by Minaj may be silly, but it's hella popular among White moms and their [pre-adolescent] daughters [and ABCNews' GMA].
BOO: Yeah, yeah, and that's not all. Plenty a artists drop great joints [release excellent songs]. Karmin? Kidding!
 
All ages. Child safe. Karmin does her best Nicki Minaj on "Suiper Bass."
 
QUESTION: Bottom line, Can a person be a hip hop (gangsta) rap fan and a Buddhist?

  

The Buddha comforts Kisa G

BOO: To be completely mindful is to be able to distinguish between what you like and what they want you to like. 

  

It's the same with being a punk and a Buddhist -- a movement based on chaos and anarchy and destruction going hand in hand with the centered, mindful, and ultimately serene approach of Buddhists?

To listen to rap and know -- despite all the violence and drugs involved in the culture and the explicit content of the lyrics -- is to distinguish and enjoy the music. What they [the rappers] say has no destructive impact on you. That's one Buddhist's bumbling rap. I don't know.

TEE: Damn, girl, straight up. Testify! Swerve! I just like the beat mostly. And 2 Chainz's preposterous imagination:


WARNING: Explicit content, vulgarity, sexual situations, and gratuitous violence!

WARNING: Light profanity, violent situations, drug use! Gangsta rap has something for everyone. This one's for suburban dads: "Boyz in the Hood" (Dynamite Hack).
   
WISDOM QUARTERLY: Thank you for the discourse and your exquisite decorum!

BOO: WTF?
TEE: Heh?

QUESTION: Boo, would you like to do a closing "rap" like Tee's opener?

BOO: You can hear me live at Get Lit's Open Mic (Wed., Oct. 17, 2012 @ Actor's Gang Theatre, 9070 Venice Bl., LA).

QUESTION: Would you mind coming back for a Part II?

TEE: Love to!
BOO: Love to!

We Are One

"Earthmen are easy!" (Travis Charest)

The only race is the human race -- but it extends into space. Hybrid devic beings like Kim Kardashian and other sex-crazed "stars" are the main attraction/distraction. Asuras, nagas, yakkhas, and devas (titans, reptilians, ogres, and dubious "angels" or fairies) make their contribution as Kanye contributes genes on behalf of the terrestrial humans. All hail the "king"!

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The Summer of Naked Bath Salt "Zombies"

Examiner.com; Wisdom Quarterly

Going to extremes: results from tanning spray vs. bath salt abuse (examiner.com)

 

The summer of naked bath salts-induced attacks continues apace. The latest abuser of the powerful hallucinogen was a brand-new mother in Altoona, Pennsylvania, who couldn’t wait until she had left the maternity ward to smoke a dose, strip naked, and embark on a violent rampage. The Altoona Mirror reports that on June 17th, two days after giving birth, 31-year-old Carla Murphy (shown above at right) was found by a nurse rolling around on a shower floor naked and confused. When roused, Murphy sprung into frenetic action, taking off down the hall, screaming profanities, and kicking and punching whoever crossed her path. Hospital medical personnel were able to restrain her long enough to administer the anti-psychotic drug Haldol. More

Z.E.R.O. "ZOMBIE PREPAREDNESS KITS" FOR SALE (ONLY $24,000)

• Latest naked "zombie" on bath salts threatens to eat arresting police officers
• NYS mom high on "bath salts" Tasered to death after attacking 3-year-old son
• First photos of face-eating victim; another naked man on "bath salts"
• Self-professed cannibal porn star nabbed by German police
• Did the CDC really need to reassure Americans there is no zombie apolcalypse?
• Another story of cannibalism surfaces, suspect under arrest
• Victim of face-eating attack in Miami graduated from Stuyvesant HS in NYC
• Naked man who chewed off face of another was high on LSD
• Miami police shoot and kill naked man chewing on another’s face
• Brazilian trio arrested for making turnovers out of two murder victims
• Homeless AZ man skins and eats cat, wears intestines as necklace
• Man arrested for hacking CT resident to death, eating eye and brain
• Zombie alert: Man tries to chew woman’s face off; a murderer strips
• Police Tase naked 80-year-old woman swinging cane at them

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A Buddhist Path to Recovery (Part 2)

The Eightfold Path of Recovery
Buddhist Recovery at Dharma Punk, Against the Stream; Wisdom Quarterly (Part 2 of 3)

1. Understanding

We understand that recovery begins when we renounce and abstain from all substances and addictive behaviors regardless of specific substances we have become addicted to. Forgiveness, non-harming actions, service, and generosity (unselfishness) are a necessary part of the recovery process. We cannot do it alone. Community support and wise guidance are an integral part of the path to recovery.

2. Intention

We intend to meet all pain with compassion and all pleasure with non-attached appreciation, to forgive and ask for forgiveness toward all people we have harmed or been harmed by, including ourselves, to be generous and kind to all living beings, to be honest, humble, to live with integrity and to practice non-harming.

3. Communication/Community

Natalie Anonymous (nametranslation.co.uk)

We take refuge in (go for guidance to) the community as a place to practice wise communication and to support others on their path. We practice being honest, wise, and careful with our communication, asking for help from the community, allowing others to guide us through the process. Practicing openness, honesty, and humility about the successes and difficulties we experience.

4. Action/Engagement

We abstain from all substances and behaviors that could lead to suffering. We practice forgiveness toward all people we have harmed or been harmed by, including ourselves, through both meditative training and direct amends. Compassion, non-attached appreciation, generosity, kindness, honesty, integrity, and service are our guiding principles.

5. Livelihood/Service

We try to be of service to others whenever possible, using our time, energy, and resources to help create positive change. We try to secure a source of income/livelihood that is harmless (in line with the fifth factor of the Noble Eightfold Path, right livelihood).

  

6. Effort/Energy

We commit to the daily disciplined practices of meditation, yoga, exercise, wise actions, kindness, forgiveness, generosity, compassion, appreciation, and moment-to-moment mindfulness of sensations, thoughts, and emotions. We cultivate the skillful means of knowing how to apply the appropriate action or meditation for any given circumstance.

7. Mindfulness Meditation

We develop wisdom through practicing formal mindfulness meditation (vipassana). This leads to clear seeing and healing the root causes and conditions that lead us to the suffering of addiction. We practice present-time awareness in all aspects of our lives. We take refuge in the present moment.

Drugs are rampant in Asia, such as Thailand (TIME Magazine)

  
8. Concentration Meditation

We develop the capacity to focus the mind on a single object, such as the natural breath or a phrase, training the mind through constantly bringing it back to this moment -- which is aided by such practices as loving-kindness, compassion, and forbearance -- to focus on the positive qualities we seek to uncover. We utilize concentration at times of temptation and craving to abstain from acting unwisely. We also offer and reach out to one another for support.

• PART 1: A Buddhist Path to Recovery
• A Gentle Path Through the Twelve Steps
• Does electronic dance music inspire drug abuse? 
• USC president urges students not to attend raves
• Family of girl, 15, who overdosed at rave to get payment

This is the path to awakening, the path of recovery from the addictions and delusions that have created an unbelievable amount of suffering in our lives and in the world. All living beings have the ability to live life along these lines.

There is no one who lacks the ability, only those who lack the willingness to take on such a radical task of transformation. Addicts who do not recover right away are not broken or lost. It is just that they have not yet found the willingness to take the path of Wisdom and Compassion.
  
We believe in the human capacity for change. We understand it from direct experience. If we can, you can.

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A Buddhist Path to Recovery? (video)

Buddhist Recovery at Against the Stream, Los Angeles; Wisdom Quarterly (Part 1 of 3)

(SoberLiving.com, SLtscrc) This drug rehab program has succeeded for over 25 years in Newport Beach, California, specializing in separate treatment programs for women or men, including an eating disorder facility. After 30-90 days of sobriety, the Beachside Extended Care Program allows structured treatment in a monitored residence to reintegrate into society. Or get back into the classroom through T.E.A.C.H., which provides transportation and highly supportive academic counseling. Info: (866) 323-5609.
 

The Four Truths of Recovery

These four truths come from a Buddhist perspective that says:
  
“All beings have the power and potential to free themselves from suffering.”
  
We [at Dharma Punx/Against the Stream] feel confident in the Buddha’s teachings to relieve suffering of all kinds, including the suffering of addiction.

1. Addiction creates suffering.

We come to understand, acknowledge, admit, and accept all of the ways our addictions and addictive behaviors 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. Addiction is not all your fault.

We come to 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 addict is not at fault for the root causes and conditions that lead to addiction, only for the habitual reactive patterns that perpetuate it.

• ACTION: Investigate, analyze, and share this inventory with your mentor or teacher and come to understand the nature of your addiction/suffering.

3. Recovery is possible.

Freedom from the suffering caused by addiction is attainable -- if we are ready and willing to take responsibility for our actions and follow the Eightfold Path.

• ACTION: Take refuge in the community, practice, and potential of your own recovery. Study and apply the principles of the path, and eventually you will become confident with a verified faith in the path of recovery/enlightenment through the actions you take on the path.

4. The Eightfold Path to recovery

After the ecstasy, the laundry: Recovery is work.

This is an abstinence-based path and philosophy. We believe that the recovery process begins when abstinence (from all substances and related behaviors) begins. The eight factors or folds of the path are meant to be developed, penetrated, and experienced for oneself. This is not a linear path; it is not taken in order. Rather, all of the factors are developed and applied simultaneously. This is a guide to having a life freed of addiction. The eight folds of recovery are maintained and brought to perfection throughout life.

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