Eight Step Recovery: Using the Buddha's Teachings to Overcome Addiction - Paperback

by Valerie Mason-John (Author), Paramabandhu Groves (Author), Gabor Maté (Foreword by)

This new, expanded edition includes a Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a guide to running an Eight Step Recovery meeting, and how to teach a Mindfulness Based Addiction Recovery (MBAR) programme, including teacher's notes and handouts.

"These teachings and the container of the MBAR program are offered as both a refuge and a practical curriculum for this hardest of all journeys back to the well-being that is our birthright as human beings. The basic message from the authors is that reclaiming your life and what is deepest and best in yourself is not only possible but actually workable if you are willing to engage in a certain kind of interior work on yourself, and to give yourself over to this intrinsically kind and trustworthy invitation to heal your own life and heart and relationships." - Jon Kabat-Zinn, from the Foreword

"This wonderful book shows how we are all addicted to aspects of life and can all benefit from training our minds and hearts to be free of the tyranny of compulsion. The Mindfulness-Based Addiction Recovery (MBAR) programme draws on a wide range of the Buddha's practical, yet deeply profound, teachings. Over the eight steps you are given a priceless gift - the possibility to gain mastery over your mind and heart and find freedom." - Vidyamala Burch (OBE), founder and co-director of Breathworks, author of Mindfulness for Health

"Through Buddhist teachings, personal experiences, and case examples, this book provides a wise illustration of the fundamental processes underlying a broad range of addictive behaviors. Mason-John and Groves offer here a practical and compassionate step-by-step guide to freedom from the deep trappings and suffering of addiction." - Sarah Bowen, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Washington, author of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Addictive Behaviors

Front Jacket

New material includes Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn, how to run Eight Step Recovery Meetings, teacher's notes and handouts for the Mindfulness Based Addiction Recovery Program (MBAR), and how to mentor people through the eight steps.

Human nature has an inbuilt tendency towards addiction. All of us can struggle with this tendency, but for some it can lead to the destruction of their lives, through obsessive and compulsive behaviour. We could say therefore that in some sense we are all in recovery.

It is no surprise that addiction is so widespread. We live in a world where many of us self-medicate in response to hardships, turning to food, drugs, alcohol, sex, relationships, work and so much more in an attempt to promote happiness.

Fortunately, recovery is widespread too. What can the Buddha's teachings offer us in our recovery from addiction? They offer an understanding of how the mind works, tools for helping a mind that is vulnerable to addiction, and ways to overcome addictive and obsessive behaviour, cultivating a calm and clear mind without anger and resentments. The Buddha's teachings offer us a path of recovery.

Whether you are struggling to stay off heroin or with an obsessive pattern of thinking that prevents you from leading a more fulfilling life, the same principles - the Eight Steps of this book - apply. These steps take you away from the trouble caused by addictive tendencies, helping you untangle these drives, to discover a richer and more fulfilling way of living.

Author Biography

Dr Valerie Mason-John (Vimalasara) is a playwright and the author of seven books, including Detox Your Heart (2005, Windhorse Publications), and her award winning novel Borrowed Body, republished as the Banana Kid. Her most recent publication, The Great Black North - Contemporary African Canadian poetry 2013, is the first national anthology to document the voices of African Canadian Poets. She has just completed her second novel, The War Done Done. She works as a consultant in Conflict Transformation, Restorative Justice, Leadership and anti Bullying in both the domestic field of education, social services, youth, addiction and the police, as well as in the corporate world. She was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2005. She is currently based at the Vancouver Buddhist centre.

Dr Paramabandhu Groves is a consultant psychiatrist working in the National Health Service in the UK, and has specialized in the field of addiction for 20 years. He is the clinical director of Breathing Space, which is the health and well-being wing of the London Buddhist Centre, teaching mindfulness-based approaches to help with depression, addiction, and stress. He developed the Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention course for addiction, which has successfully run in both the UK and Canada. He is the author of Practical Buddhism: Mindfulness and Skillful Living in the Modern Era, and has published academic papers and contributed to several books in the field of addiction. He is ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order.