#78: Buddhist Teachings to Overcome Addiction with Valerie Vimalasara Mason-John

Just like in an ocean, the waves arise and cease, can we allow our emotions to arise and cease? Just as you get dark clouds and bright clouds which pass by, accept that there are dark thoughts and bright thoughts and will pass by. It’s a practice of really learning to be with all experience so at some point we don’t even label it as negative or positive or bad or good. However, what happens is when we resist it, we begin labeling it. So again, it’s coming home to the breath, coming home to the body.

• I love this because the Buddha uses the metaphor, the image of a rotting carcass.
• We know that many people who let go of alcohol have to then face the depression, which is often about being assailed by this toxic thinking, which is most probably why they went to the alcohol, to silence those thoughts.
• And so, in a way, how can we just ride that wave of energy?

Every time we move away from pain, we multiply the suffering in our lives. We need to learn to sit with the pain calmly. We begin to do this by identifying the things that trigger us, and the high-risk situations that may bring about a relapse.

Eight Step Recovery: Using the Buddha’s Teachings to Overcome Addiction

How do you define addiction from a Buddhist perspective? I think addiction can look different for each individual, but at the end of the day, we’re all addicted to self, aren’t we? If we strip away all the other addictions, we’re really addicted to the self and trying to protect this self.

The second way is that the Buddha advises us to reflect on the results of our thoughts, the impact of our thoughts. To think of the impact of “I hate myself,” once upon a time, I could say “I hate myself,” and I would feel great. I love this because the Buddha uses the metaphor, the image of a rotting carcass. Just imagine this was a rotting carcass around your neck. So that’s where the stinking thinking comes from, just that rotting carcass around your neck. We know that many people who let go of alcohol have to then face the depression, which is often about being assailed by this toxic thinking, which is most probably why they went to the alcohol, to silence those thoughts.

One thing that characterizes addictive behaviors is when we’ve lost the middle way, when we become polarized and we’ve gone to an buddhist teachings to overcome addiction with vimalasara extreme. I think what’s more interesting is my journey to meditation. In the nightclubs, I was a street dancer, when I was 17 or 18, a street dancer in the nightclubs, and that was the place where I first experienced non-self, having a non-self experience, where I could just do these things.

• When I began to experience meditation, I was like, “Wow, I can get high on this, and it doesn’t cost anything, and it isn’t illegal, and it doesn’t take up any space in my luggage!
• This points me back to the story of Prince Siddhartha’s awakening.
• I always say that the Buddha’s teachings are the oldest recovery program that we know of.
• So if you really want to know about that shattering, I do talk about it in my most recent book, First Aid Kit for the Mind.

Other kinds of thoughts like negative thoughts can be like, “I’m a piece of crap,” “Nobody likes me,” “I knew I couldn’t do it,” those thoughts where you really beat yourself up and really put you in self-pity and self-blame. It’s one of the places that we move away from experience. That self-blame and that self-pity can be manifested in this negative thinking of putting yourself down and bringing yourself down and everything’s bad and everything’s dark. The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

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Don’t let the Buddhist teachings get in the way of your recovery. The word Buddha means awake or awakened one. Therefore no matter what your religion or spiritual tradition is, this program can be integrated into your belief system and or life style. As a nonprofit, we depend on readers like you to keep Buddhist teachings and practices widely available.

What Science Really Says About Recovery With Dr. John Kelly

Please note that this episode includes mentions of sexual assault and suicidal ideation. There are many paths to recovery, and there is tremendous hope for changing the narrative, injecting more nuance into these discussions, and making flourishing in recovery possible for all. Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.

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When the prince went into samadhi, he experienced every imaginable mental state arising in his mind, and he did nothing. He just allowed the thoughts and watched them arise and cease. There are people who have been sexually assaulted, and in that experience of sexual assault, they experience some kind of pleasure.

Translation in video:

And what I have to tell people is that actually we have to remember that there are certain ways the body can be touched, and the body will naturally respond. I would say that it was meditation that brought me to Buddhism. When I began to experience meditation, I was like, “Wow, I can get high on this, and it doesn’t cost anything, and it isn’t illegal, and it doesn’t take up any space in my luggage! ” I think what’s more interesting is my journey to meditation.

Discussion about this episode

When I was 17, I was a street dancer in the nightclubs, and that was the place where I first experienced nonself, moments where I just lost the self and was really in the moment, totally here and now. That fourth one is restraining your thoughts, and some people might think, “Oh no, that is such a negative thing to happen,” but sometimes you need to tell the thoughts to shut up. The Buddha uses the whole thing of this huge man clenching his teeth and crushing the thought. For me, that has worked a couple of times when it’s just been “Just stop” and shattering the thought. And I think for me, my equivalent for that is just tell it to stop, and in that moment, in that stop, there has been a shattering, and the particular thought has never taken such a hold on me again.

Sun & Moon Sober Living Podcast

Thoughts can be addicting, just like eating, drinking, shopping, or gambling, a fact the Buddha understood well. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it), people haven’t changed much in 2,000 years. The teachings of the eightfold path are still useful, dependable lessons, available to help the ordinary person step out of the cycle of samsara and addiction. In this month’s online retreat, join Vimalasara (Valerie Mason-John), chair of the Triratna Vancouver Buddhist Centre, as she shows how the Buddhist teachings can relieve you of your own addictions.