• Sample Recovery Dharma Format

• Sample Online Format

• Chapter: Awakening Buddha

• Start: Page 1, 1st Paragraph: "Most of us enter..."

• End: Page 2, 1st Paragraph, "...foundation of our recovery."

• Length: 4 Paragraphs,

Discuss

• Our goal was to stop suffering

• We had enough wisdom to start seeing the end of suffering

• Hearts that are tender and worn raw from suffering

• Chapter: Awakening Buddha

• Start: Page 2, Second Paragraph: "If you're at the beginning...."

• End: Page 2, First paragraph, "...so can we."

• Length: 2 paragraphs | 283 Words | ~ 2 minutes

Discuss

• We started to recover when we let ourselves believe in the part of us that's still there beneath all those layers

• It is possible to access that part of ourselves

• The path is a lifetime of individual steps

• Chapter: Awakening Buddha

• Start: Page 3, Second Paragraph: "The Story of the Original Buddha"

• End: Page 5, First Paragraph: "...our way to awakening."

• Length: 7 paragraphs,

Discuss

• What does the Buddha have to do with recovery?

• Each of us has within ourselves the potential to awaken

• Taking refuge in the Buddha

• Chapter: Awakening Buddha

• Start: Page 5, 2nd paragraph: "The Story of.."

• End: Page 2, 2nd Paragraph: "...there is another way."

• Length: 2 paragraphs, 346 words, ~ 2 minutes

Discuss

• A model for our own lives

• The truth of impermanence

• Duddha: the refusal to accept what is

• "All of the above"

• There is another way

• Chapter: Awakening Buddha

• Start: Page 6, 2nd paragraph: "We, too, can.."

• End: 4th Paragraph: "...from this suffering."

• Length: 4 paragraphs, 224 words, ~ 2 minutes

Discuss

• This is a path of practice

• We trust in the potential in all of us to find freedom

• We too can follow this path

Learning the Concepts

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

• Pause to think about or write about the title of the reading or the discussion topics listed above

Renunciation Inquiry

• List five of your most important qualities or strengths.

• Write briefly about each one.

Personal Meditation

Pause briefly every day, for a minute or two.

Practice either of the following meditations.

• Mindfulness of The Mind: Notice thoughts as they arise and pass with kind curiosity

• Concentration on Equanimity: Repeat to yourself: "May I find Peace exactly where I am."

Sangha

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

Wise Friends and Mentors

• Survey Says! Continue with daily calls. Keep them short (10 minutes or so?) to help make them sustainable as a daily pratice.