“The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yours
elf in this life. For it is only through meditation that you can undertake the journey to discover your true nature, and so find the stability and confidence you will need to live, and die, well.” - Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
All successful alcohol recovery programs include spiritual development, and spiritual development requires prayer and meditation. People who want to maintain their sobriety and improve the quality of their life will learn to meditate daily. The peace it provides is astounding.
Most people know how to pray — that is, to make requests to a higher power. And every college student has prayed around finals time.
Meditation, on the other hand, is much more mysterious and difficult for the recovering alcoholic and much of the general public as well. Most of the world’s religions include meditation and meditation techniques. Also, there is secular meditation whose only purpose is to relax mentally and physically.
Explore various meditation techniques to include in your recovery program. Many find that group meditation is more effective, especially in the beginning phase. One technique becoming more popular is Buddhist meditation.
According to wikipedia, “Buddhist meditation encompasses a variety of meditation techniques that develop mindfulness, concentration, tranquility and insight.
“Non-Buddhists use these techniques for the pursuit of physical and mental health as well as for non-Buddhist spiritual aims.[1] Buddhist meditation techniques are increasingly being employed by psychologists and psychiatrists to help alleviate a variety of health conditions such as anxiety and depression.[2] As such, mindfulness and other Buddhist meditation techniques are being advocated in the West by innovative psychologists and Buddhist meditation expert teachers such as S.N. Goenka, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Tara Brach, Alan Clements, and Sharon Salzberg, who have been widely attributed with playing a significant role in integrating the healing aspects of Buddhist meditation practices with the concept of psychological awareness and healing.”
For more info: For beginning meditation classes in the San Jose area, try the drop-in classes in Los Gatos, or San Francisco.
Visit www.peacewolf.org for AA Big Book Concordance