One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps PDF
Preview One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps
“In a wise and honest way, Kevin Griffin has written a book that is truly helpful to Buddhist practitioners and the Twelve Step community alike. I am grateful that he brings together these two traditions so skillfully.” —JACK KORNFIELD, author of A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry “A Buddhist goes through the Twelve Steps to find God within. A book of compassion and grace.” —STEPHEN AND ONDREA LEVINE, authors of A Year to Live and Turning Toward the Mystery “This is the book modern Dharma libraries have been waiting for! A wonderful and thorough presentation of the essence of what the Buddha taught and instructions for meditation practice spoken in the idiom of Twelve Steps and in the voice of a gifted narrator. The shared message of the possibility of freedom rings clearly from every page.” —SYLVIA BOORSTEIN, author of It’s Easier Than You Think and Pay Attention, for Goodness’ Sake “One Breath at a Time is a brilliant merging of Buddhist insights with those of the Twelve Step program. This fine book will be of great benefit to all who are recovering from something, and who isn’t?” —WES NISKER, founder/editor of the Buddhist journal Inquiring Mind and author of The Big Bang, the Buddha, and the Baby Boom “This is a brave book, heartwarming and clear. It is a groundbreaking coming together of the Twelve Step program with the Buddhist teaching in a way that is practical, personal, and liberating.” —SHARON SALZBERG, author of Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness and Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience To RG and GLG. It’s with the two of you that I find my deepest comfort. I send you every bit of my love. CONTENTS FOREWORD PREFACE INTRODUCTION PART ONE SURRENDER STEP ONE “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol; that our lives had become unmanageable.” MEDITATION EXERCISE: VIPASSANA STEP TWO “Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” STEP THREE “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.” PART TWO INVESTIGATION AND RESPONSIBILITY STEP FOUR “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” MEDITATION EXERCISE: NOTING THE HINDRANCES STEP FIVE “Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” STEP SIX “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.” STEP SEVEN “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.” STEP EIGHT “Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.” STEP NINE “Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” PART THREE FULFILLMENT STEP TEN “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.” STEP ELEVEN “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” MEDITATION EXERCISE: CULTIVATING THE WHOLSOME: MUDITA AND KARUNA STEP TWELVE “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to other alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.” BACK TO STEP ONE AFTERWORD GRATITUDE AND APPRECIATION CREDITS FOREWORD by WILLIAM ALEXANDER “Both Buddhism and the Twelve Steps are kept alive, generation to generation by sincere and deeply committed practitioners . . .” —KEVIN GRIFFIN Kevin is just such a sincere and deeply committed practitioner. We can all be grateful to him for his work in this book and his others, and in his workshops around the world. He is an embodiment of the Bodhisattva vow to put an end to suffering. He has done so for himself, and, by freely sharing his hard earned wisdom, he has offered that freedom to us all in this remarkable book. This book is for addicts of all kinds, in the same vein that the 12 steps are useful for overcoming a multitude of painful habits of body, speech, and mind. Mindfulness is not an afterthought, a something else for the recovering person to add to their recovery toolkit. It is a quality that illuminates and clarifies the spiritual nature of the undertaking in a way that is truly practical. In the felicitous phrasing of Thich Nhat Hanh, the two qualities “inter-are.” Humane, witty, tender, and engrossing, this is both a good stand-alone book on mindfulness practice and an excellent look at the 12 steps. This is the first book to meld these two, and seamlessly at that. And it has yet to be surpassed. Like the book Alcoholics Anonymous, known as The Big Book, which first posited the twelve steps and twelve traditions as a way out of suffering, One Breath at a Time changes with every reading. I first read it when I was 22 years sober. Now, many years later, on rereading, I find a new depth and a vivid richness. The book hasn’t changed. But my mind has, due in no small part to mindfulness practice. There is no grandiosity here, no new age assumption of cosmic specialness. In fact, Kevin warns practitioners and recovering people of becoming over- zealous, of becoming too excitable and missing the “mystery, the joy, the gratitude and bright attention”. Here is the voice of the bemused elder and the lighthearted beginner, all in one. Kevin evidences deep knowledge and enviable authority in his work. But he brings to this book and to his workshops two rare qualities that spotlight the
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