OVERVIEW OF THE REFUGE RECOVERY PROGRAM
Refuge Recovery: is a mindfulness-based addiction treatment program that utilizes Buddhist philosophy as the cornerstone of the curriculum. Drawing inspiration from the core teachings of the Four Noble Truths, emphasis is placed on both knowledge and empathy as a means for overcoming addiction and its causes. Those struggling with substance abuse greatly benefit when they can understand the suffering that addiction has created while developing compassion for the pain they have experienced.
Refuge Recovery is an oriented path to freedom from addiction. It has been proven to be successful with those who suffer from all forms of addiction and who have committed to the Buddhist path of meditation, generosity, kindness and renunciation. This is an approach to recovery that understands; “All individuals have the power and potential to free themselves from the suffering that is caused by addiction”. We feel confident in the power of the Dharma, if applied, to relieve suffering of all kinds, including the suffering of addiction. This is a process that cultivates a path of awakening, the path of recovering from the addictions and delusions that have created so much suffering in our lives and in this world.
Refuge Recovery is a systematic approach to training our hearts and minds to see clearly and respond to our lives with understanding and non-harming. You are entering a way of life that may be familiar to some and foreign to others. In the beginning, some of it may seem confusing or counter-instinctual, and some of it is. But you will find that with time, familiarity and experience, it will all make perfect sense and will gradually become a more and more natural way of being. There are four major components that will need to be developed, sustained and maintained.
What is Buddhism?
Buddhism is a practical and applicable humanist psychology that teaches us that we all have the power to relieve suffering through our own efforts. The core teachings of the Buddha acknowledge that by living an ethical life and training the mind in concentration and mindfulness one could see more clearly the impermanent nature of all experience. Thus, we learn to let go of the habitual reactive patterns of craving and clinging that are the root causes of addiction. This process allows us to learn to meet the unavoidable pains in our life with compassion. Refuge Recovery does not require or encourage individuals to adopt Buddhism, but to cultivate practices to so that they can verify the efficacy for themselves.
There are 4 core components that need to be developed and maintained:
1. Process: The four truths of Refuge Recovery
1. Addiction creates suffering
2. The cause of addiction is repetitive craving.
3. Recovery is possible.
4. The path to recovery.
2. Practice: The Four Foundations of Mindfulness
1. Mindfulness of body/breath
2. Mindfulness of feeling tone
3. Mindfulness of mind states
4. Mindfulness of mind objects
Practice: Heart Practice Meditation: We develop four specific heart qualities in our meditation practice:
1. Kindness: Towards all experience
2. Compassion/forgiveness: Towards the suffering we experience, and have caused.
3. Appreciation: Towards pleasure
4. Equanimity: Understanding skillful response to present time conditions
3. Principle:
The reality of cause and effect (karma). All our actions have consequences. We know that, but we rarely consider this reality when we engage with life. We often simply ignore or pretend that we can get away with all types of habits and actions that we know cause harm to ourselves and to others. When we enter this recovery process we need to be aware of this reality, and start to take responsibility for our experience. Meditation practice allows us to look at the internal habits and thoughts of our own mind. Developing mindfulness is the most effective way to see this process. We can begin to get a sense of our relationship to pleasant and unpleasant experience, how this affects our habits of craving and in turn leads to grasping, clinging and attachment: This process is the basis of addiction.
4. Power:
No one can recover for you. You must do the work yourself. Addiction is not your fault. Addicts are not immoral, broken or diseased people; we have just developed a strategy for living that no longer works. We have become caught up in a habitual cycle that leaves us in a state of suffering and confusion.
The Eight-Fold Path to Recovery:
This is an abstinence based path and philosophy. We believe that the recovery process begins when abstinence begins. The Eight factors of the path are to be developed, experienced and sustained. This is not a linear path, it does not have to be taken in order, rather all the factors will need to be developed and applied simultaneously. This is a guide to having a life that is free from addiction. The eight-fold path of recovery must be maintained throughout one’s lifetime.
1. Understanding: We understand that recovery begins when we renounce and abstain from all substances or addictive behaviors regardless of specific substances we have become addicted to. Forgiveness, non-harming actions, service and generosity are a necessary part of the recovery process. We can’t do it alone; community support and wise guidance are an integral part of the path to recovery. We begin to open to and acknowledge the reality of our situation and come to terms with the reality that life is an ongoing process of change, on-going difficulties and we begin to see this process as something that is not happening to “us”; we move from being in a state of reacting to developing an awareness that can respond to the ups and downs of our lives. We begin to take responsibility for the relationship that we must our own life experience.
2. Intention: We begin to move towards a lifestyle that is rooted in non-harming by establishing clear intentions and work to change our relationship towards the minds unwholesome tendencies and habits. We intend to meet all pain with compassion and all pleasure with non-attached appreciation. The practices of non-harming both internally and externally become a foundational part of daily life.
3. Communication/Community: We take refuge in the community as a place to practice wise and skillful communication and to support others on their path. We practice being honest, wise and careful with our communications, asking for help from the community, allowing others to guide us through the process. Practicing openness, honesty and humility about the difficulties and successes we experience.
4. Action: 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 begin to look at our relationship to money. We try to be of service to others whenever possible, being generous with our time, energy, attention and resources to help create positive change. We try to secure a source of income/livelihood that causes no harm.
6. Effort: We commit to the daily disciplined practices of meditation, yoga, exercise, wise actions, kindness, forgiveness, generosity, compassion, appreciation and moment-to- moment mindfulness of feelings, emotions, thoughts and sensations. To develop these skills requires time and patience. It is important to begin to understand how to apply the appropriate action or meditation practice in any given situation or circumstance. We will need to develop the willingness and discipline that is required to stay with it, and to keep going when we make mistakes.
7. Mindfulness/Meditations: We develop wisdom and understanding through practicing formal mindfulness meditation. This leads to seeing clearly and healing the root causes and conditions that lead to the suffering of addiction. We practice present-time awareness in all aspects of our life. We move towards taking refuge in the present moment; to engage whole-heartedly in our lives as it unfolds in the here and now. We begin to develop a daily sitting practice of mindfulness and heart practices. We make a commitment to sitting at home and with others.
8. Concentration/Meditations: We develop the capacity to focus the mind on a single object, such as the breath or a phrase, training the mind through the practices of loving- kindness, compassion and forgiveness to focus on the positive qualities we seek to uncover and we utilize concentration at times of temptation or craving to abstain from acting unwisely.