• Sample Recovery Dharma Format

• Sample Online Format

Read

• Wise Understanding

• Start: Page 21, 1st paragraph: "The Eightfold Path"

• End: Page 22, 1st Paragraph: "...no action without intention."

• Length: 3 paragraphs

Discuss

• When we pay attention to our actions and the results, we begin to change where our choices lead us

• Skillful or wise actions strengthen our sense of balance, kindness, and compassion

Read

• Wise Understanding

• Start: Page 22, 3rd paragraph: "This understanding of truth..."

• End: Page 23 , 1st Paragraph: "...as somebody who didn't."

• Length: 2 paragraphs, 196 words ~ 2 min

Discuss

• We are responsible for our own happiness and misery

• Regardless of what the outside world throws at us, we're responsible for how we respond

Read

• Wise Understanding

• Go to Page 24, 2nd paragraph.

• Read 2 paragraphs

Discuss

• Being responsible for our own happiness and suffering does not mean that we are responsible for hurts or traumas that have been done to us by others

• We don't have to add an extra layer of suffering to this pain

• Every person has difficult and unpleasant events. It is how we respond to pain that determines our experience.

Learning the Concepts

• Choose just one of the readings or the whole chapter to read, underline and study.

• Think about or write about the title of the reading or the discussion topics listed above

Sangha

• Meetings: Notice how your insights from this practice relate to the meetings you attend this week.

Brief Personal Meditation

Pause - at least once a day, for a minute or two - to practice any of the following meditations.

• Mindfulness of Sound: Listen to the sounds around you with kind curiosity. Practice receiving the sounds instead of reaching out to hear them or label them.

• Concentration on Loving Kindness: Repeat to yourself: "May I be filled with Loving Kindness.

Renunciation Inquiry

• List five of your most important values in a friend. Write briefly about each one.

Sangha

• Meetings: Notice how your insights from this practice relate to the meetings you attend this week.

Wise Friends and Mentors

• Survey: Every day, practice reaching out to 1-3 Wise Friends you have met at the meeting.

• Ask each one about their experience with this week's meditation practice or topic.

• If you don't reach someone, leave a message with your question, and try with 1-3 other Wise Friends tomorrow.