Also available online at http://www.wildmind.org/newsletter/200611.html

November 2006

Dear Wildmind Subscriber,

In this month's issue, we bring you our usual monthly round-up of the latest international news on meditation. This month must set a record for the number of stories on meditation, and we hope you'll enjoy this fascinating overview of the breadth of ways that meditation is being applied.

We also bring you a book review that will interest anyone with young children, and our usual quote of the month and commentary. We're also pleased to announce a new translation of the Wildmind site, and an upgrade of our news resource.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere the nights are growing longer, encouraging us to turn inwards, so please take note of our online courses in meditation and Buddhism. The light may be fading outside, but we can seek Enlightenment within!

Enjoy!

In this issue:

• Upgraded news section on Wildmind
• Autumn course schedule
• Meditation in the news
• Support our translation project
• Quote of the month
• Book of the month

Wildmind's News Section

As announced last month, the new version of our online meditation news index is online, with links to well over a thousand stories in the archive going back almost five years.

Did you know you can subscribe to our news feed by RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and have our news headlines delivered direct to your computer?

RSS News Aggregators (also called Readers) will download and display RSS feeds for you. A number of free and commercial News Aggregators are available for download, and modern web browsers like the free Firefox browser (basically anything but Internet Explorer 6) allow you to add RSS feeds as live bookmarks.

New Material on Wildmind

We've expanded our popular mantra meditation section (which is, incidentally, the most visited part of our site).

Updated:
Om shanti

New:
What is a Bodhisattva?
The Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara
The Bodhisattva Manjushri
The Bodhisattva Vajrapani
The Bodhisattva Green Tara

Plus:
There's also an entire new eight-page subsection on the Buddha Shakyamuni, including pages on his biography and iconography.

Autumn Course Schedule

About our courses

All of our courses offer a content-rich and interactive experience, with online readings, multimedia content such as guided meditations in MP3 or RealAudio format that you can download to your computer, a discussion forum, and personal guidance in your online journal. And you have access to all these things 24/7.

Our courses are suitable for anyone from complete beginners to more experienced practitioners. You'll learn powerful techniques for reducing stress and developing patience, relaxation, and calmness in a friendly and supportive environment.

STARTING NOVEMBER 6, 2006:

Meditation Courses

Taught by Sunada:

 The Path of Mindfulness and Love (4 weeks)
 Change Your Mind (4 weeks)
 Awakening the Heart (4 weeks)
 Entering the Path of Insight (4 weeks)

Practice in Daily Life and Buddhism Courses

Taught by Saddhamala:

 Mindfulness in Daily Life (4 weeks)
 Mindfulness @ Work (4 weeks)

Make sure you book your place now.

About our teachers

Sunada

Sunada is an experienced teacher who has been meditating for more than eleven years. Having established her own practice while working full-time in the high tech field and then in arts administration, she understands the challenges of balancing a meditation practice with a busy life.

Saddhamala

As well as teaching regularly at Aryaloka Buddhist Center, Saddhamala is an independent workshop facilitator and consultant, and a faculty member at Granite State College. Her approach to teaching is marked by a gentle and compassionate style.

Meditation in the news

As always, we bring you a round-up of the month's major news stories about meditation.

Halloween marks start of new year for some (The Post-Standard) 30 Oct. Kessler led song and chant; meditation; a ritual blessing of the elements of air, fire, water and earth; and a ceremony of remembrance during a celebration that focused on the sacred origins of Halloween… Read more

Coping: Journaling, meditation, exercise (UPI) 30 Oct. People with life-shattering diagnoses may find comfort, courage and resolve though journaling, meditation and exercise… Read more

Grampy Hugh Jackman (M and C News) 30 Oct. The real key for me is meditation - without a doubt it transformed my life. Twice a day - it gives you energy. I’ve been doing it 10 or 15 years… Read more

Visualization technique to lose weight (INQ7.com) 30 Oct. There is definitely a powerful mental technique to help people lose weight without having to do heavy exercises or following a debilitating diet. But this visualization technique requires discipline and daily practice to obtain good results. It requires the use of one's whole brain, meaning both left and right hemispheres of the neocortex, as well as the limbic system… Read more

India enshrines Buddha’s remains after 2000 years (Yahoo! News) 29 Oct. Thousands of Buddhists gathered in India’s western city of Mumbai on Sunday to lay to rest part of the ashes and bones of Lord Buddha in a ceremony resurrected after almost 2000 years… Read more

Japanese Buddhists offer coffee with meditation (Inside Bay Area) 28 Oct. The young priest will need patience and optimism. More than a millennium after it first arrived from mainland Asia, Buddhism is in crisis. About 94 million Japanese, almost three-quarters of the country’s population, were registered as Buddhist in 2005. But for many, the only time they enter a temple is to attend a funeral -- driving many of the country’s 75,000 temples to the verge of bankruptcy… Read more

Healthy body, spirit, mind focus of session (Chronicle Herald) 27 Oct. Thanks to a $2,500 grant from the Chebucto West community health board, the Sikh society hopes to offer at least five workshops over the coming months… Read more

5 tips for successful meditation (BestSyndication.com) 26 Oct. Meditation is an art that takes a certain degree of consistency, but almost anyone can find time to meditate, no matter how busy your days may be… Read more

Outside View: Chapatti meditation (M and C News) 26 Oct. One day, one of the women, tired and evidently bruised after a rough week at the office, yelled at me about all the 'rubbish' I was talking about meditative awareness ... Read more

Nurse brings unique practice to Frederick (Gazette.net) 26 Oct. Armely Matas believes that people have the capacity to heal themselves if they know how to harness and cultivate mindfulness, the practice of acknowledging one's thoughts through meditation ... Read more

Churches discover mystic paths to spiritual renewal (The York Daily Record) 26 Oct. Ann Leber, a 69-year-old grandmother, is arguably too old for crayons and colored pencils. But Leber, a Methodist, spent a recent Thursday night at church coloring a geometric design called a mandala - a meditation aid used in dharmic religions ... Read more

Program to help young drug abusers (R News) 25 Oct. Unity Chemical Dependency's new program targets adolescents diagnosed with both substance abuse and mental illness. It focuses on holistic treatments like yoga, music therapy and meditation ... Read more

Mindfulness matters (London Free Press) 24 Oct. The Vancouver couple also pledged to do something else in the vows they wrote themselves, and that was to "make a difference in our world by living consciously and deliberately." ... Read more

Yoga is a journey for Folan (Detroit Free Press) 24 Oct. renowned guru who helped introduce yoga to Americans through her PBS show, "Lilias! Yoga and You," which ran 1972-92, Folan often spends her weekends on the road conducting workshops for yoga devotees ... Read more

Performance: Researchers test meditation's impact on alertness (The New York Times) 24 Oct. Meditation is often credited with helping people feel more focused and energetic, but are the benefits measurable? A new study suggests that they are. When researchers tested the alertness of volunteers, they found that the practice proved more effective than naps, exercise or caffeine. The results were presented at a recent conference of the Society for Neuroscience ... Read more

Meditation Club Encourages Relaxation (DoG Street Journal) 23 Oct. As club member Chris Pugliese said, Meditation is an awesome way to get rid of stress. And having a set period to meditate assures that you actually do it. ... Read more

Kaiser's sanctuary gives care for workers' health (Contra Costa Times) 23 Oct. Sangwan ended the class with meditation. Participants sat quietly, eyes closed, as she directed them to relax parts of their body. "If there's an area of your body that you're noticing is tight, I'd like you to breathe into that space," she said. "As you breathe in, breathe in peace and light. As you breathe out, breathe out anything that no longer serves you." ... Read more

Karma Capitalism (Business Week Magazine) 23 Oct. At the Wharton School a few days earlier, Parthasarathy talked about managing stress. During the same trip, he counseled hedge fund managers and venture capitalists in Rye, N.Y., about balancing the compulsion to amass wealth with the desire for inner happiness ... Read more

Professors study the science of happiness (The Daily Princetonian) 23 Oct. Studying religious and meditative practices may help neuroscientists understand the neurological indicators of happiness, panelists argued this weekend in a symposium in McCormick 101 sponsored by the Center for the Study of Religion ... Read more

Monks create and then destroy sand painting (The Arizona Republic) 23 Oct. An intricate piece of art was destroyed Sunday at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts as 250 people looked on not in shock, but in reverence. It was a mandala, a sand painting created over five days, only to be swept to dust 90 minutes after completion. Its demise was a spiritual reminder of the impermanence of all things earthly ... Read more

Meditation tradition finds loyal following (Miami Herald) 22 Oct. In search of happiness and relieving stress, more people are learning the Buddhist's way of meditation ... Read more

Buddhist heritage beckons tourists (Asbury Park Press) 22 Oct. There, under the canopy of an ancient peepul tree, where the rustling of leaves mingled with the quiet, rhythmic chanting of mantras and the clicking of prayer beads, sat a group of saffron-robed Buddhist monks engrossed in prayer. The elaborately carved Mahabodhi Temple, Buddhism's holiest shrine and a popular destination for nirvana seekers, marks the site where the prince/hermit/spiritual leader, Gautama Siddhartha, attained enlightenment some 2,500 years ago after intense meditation ... Read more

Fire in the soul during meditation (Cayman News Net) 21 Oct. Meditating today is associated by many with Eastern mysticism and disciplines like Yoga, but there is a very long-standing tradition of Christian Meditation. A favorite text used over the centuries by godly people to describe the experience of prayerful meditation before the Lord with his Word was:

"My heart was hot within me, and while I was thus musing the fire kindled: and at the last I spake with my tongue, 'LORD let me know mine end ... '" [Psalm 39:3] ... Read more

Mountain Stream Meditation Center welcomes all religions (Auburn Journal) 20 Oct. travis was just 20 years old when his mother died in a car wreck. Now, at 60, the spiritual leader of the Mountain Stream Meditation Center looks back and can say with certainty that his mother's death was the event that catapulted him on his 40-year-long spiritual journey to achieve happiness ... Read more

Local artist shares passion for spirituality, meditation (NewsNet5.com) 20 Oct. The Festivo Gallery is a fixture in Cleveland's Little Italy neighborhood, and it is owned and operated by a man powerfully moved by meditation ... Read more

Making sense of meditation (Houston Chronicle) 20 Oct. The Rev. Laurence Freeman, a Benedictine monk and founder of the London-based World Community for Christian Meditation, will speak in Houston next week on Christian contemplation and meditation ... Read more

California school loses funds over meditation controversy (The Mercury News) 18 Oct. Amid protests that TM was a form of religious practice and therefore inappropriate for a public school, the David Lynch Foundation on Tuesday withdrew the $175,000 it had pledged to Terra Linda High School in San Rafael ... Read more

Meditation course offered at UW-Fond du Lac (The Reporter) 17 Oct. The Five-Minute Meditation course will be offered through the continuing education office at the University of Wisconsin-Fond du Lac just in time for the holiday season ... Read more

How do you meditate? (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) 17 Oct. I've been doing yoga off and on for about 10 years. I've gone to studios, taken classes at gyms and practiced in my own home where I have a room dedicated to serenity. One problem I've always had is not being able to complete my practice with meditation. I just can't turn my brain off ... Read more

A new kind of Nia-lism (Daily Iowan) 17 Oct. Since the Indian technique for uniting mind, body and spirit through physical exercise and meditation migrated West, it has been continually reinvented ... Read more

Yoga and meditation to battle chikungunya (Yahoo! News) 17 Oct. Encouraged by the efficacy of its techniques in treating people with symptoms of chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease that can prove fatal, the group has decided to start special camps all over India to cater to people suffering from the disease ... Read more

On Pace by Jennifer Duffy : Mindful meditation (Arizona Daily Star) 17 Oct. Most of us aren't always aware of the speed of our thoughts or the depth of our emotions until they disturb our routine ... Read more

Tibet Buddhist plans teachings about happiness (Arizona Daily Star) 16 Oct. Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation master, will offer public teachings in Tucson ... Read more

Stop police action in religious institutions: Minister (The Indian Catholic) 16 Oct. Union Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi has asked the Kerala state government to stop the police excesses in religious institutions. Accusing the Left parties-run Kerala government of using the language of threat against religious institutions, Ravi said police action and uncivilized acts against meditation and retreat centers belonging to any faith do not bode well for any modern society ... Read more

Meditation through movement (Southeast Missourian) 15 Oct. More than a dozen people attended a seminar on walking the labyrinth at First Christian Church Disciples of Christ on Saturday. The Cape Girardeau church's labyrinth is 60 feet in diameter, with gray gravel paths laid out in arcs going back and forth, leading to the center. Unlike a maze, no choices have to be made to reach the center of a labyrinth ... Read more

Tim Finn gathering his mental notes (The New Zealand Herald) 15 Oct. I stepped out of time. I was feeling this lovely sense of emptiness, a calm feeling, and it lasted quite a few minutes before I stepped back in again. I always remember those moments, when time almost seems to stop. It's a place I try to find through meditation, but, as always, the trick is not to try too hard ... Read more

Yoga new weapon against drug abuse (Sunday Times) 15 Oct. Anti-drug campaigners have turned to yoga and meditation in a new strategy to fight the Sugars scourge. The Chatsworth Anti-Drug Forum has incorporated the methods of the Art of Living Foundation in its five-day rehabilitation program to help addicts kick the habit ... Read more

Soon, Buddha's relics in Mumbai (Rediff India) 15 Oct. Relics of Gautama Buddha will be placed above a keystone of what is claimed to be the world's largest stone-built dome at Gorai Island in north Mumbai.. Read more

Meditate on this happy sentiment (Minneapolis-St. Paul Star tribune) 14 Oct. Mudita [moo-dee-tah] is a word in the Pali language, which is the language of the early Buddhist scriptures. It means 'taking delight in the happiness of others.' ... Read more

On a spiritual path: Nine denominations share Lockwood Ridge Road North (Bradenton Herald) 14 Oct. Buddhists will soon sit on meditation cushions within blocks of Muslims bowing toward Mecca, Hispanic evangelical Christians singing for a solid 45 minutes and Quakers talking about a world without war ... Read more

At Auschwitz, Buddhist meditation set me free (Jewish News Weekly) 13 Oct. The Buddha ("the awakened one") never stepped foot west of what is now India. What, then, on assignment for National Geographic Magazine supposedly tracing Buddhism's history, was I doing in Oswiecim, in the southwest corner of Poland? ... Read more

The insider's guide to inner peace (CNN.com) 12 Oct. We all crave inner peace but the path -- cruelly -- is never easy. As Homer Simpson so succinctly put it: "This inner peace stuff is tough on the ol' coconut." ... Read more

The speaking tree: Meditation is doorway to superconsciousness (The Times of India) 11 Oct. The essential attitude for correct meditation is one of listening. The mind must be kept receptive, because we can't think our way into deep meditation. Nor, indeed, can you think your way to true guidance and inspiration. You can only receive wisdom: you cannot concoct it ... Read more

Plans for meditation at Terra Linda High don't soothe everyone (Marin Independent Journal) 11 Oct. Terra Linda High School plans to launch a transcendental Meditation program with the help of a $175,000 grant from noted filmmaker David Lynch ... Read more

Buddhist nun here to teach meditation (The Jerusalem Post) 11 Oct. The Upper Galilee's natural tranquility has been enhanced recently by the presence of Venerable Tenzin Palmo, one of the first Western women ordained as a Buddhist nun ... Read more

Guidelines on meditation and meditative movement for toddlers, preschoolers and school age kids (BellaOnline) 11 Oct. What is important is that the practices - poses, breathing and meditation - are adapted to suit the age and abilities of participants. Naturally babies cannot assume a posture or follow directions on how to breathe or put this leg here, and look in that direction there, while breathing in ... Read more

Opinions: Yoga as a science (Web Devil) 10 Oct. While modern deterministic science - after losing its ability to identify direct causal links - appears to grind to a halt in the quantum field of infinite possibility, the mind-body science of meditation and yoga started its journey at this very psychophysical juncture in ancient India and carried them over to a satisfactory, logical conclusion ... Read more

Pembroke Quakers -longtime Friends: Meetinghouse congregation to celebrate 300th anniversary (The Patriot Ledger) 10 Oct. The persecution was long past, and the Quakers, with their plain dress, honest business dealings, adherence to the truth, and stand against war, prospered and became owners of large farms, sawmills, stores, shipyards, iron foundries and box factories. The church was usually filled with men, women and children who, in the tradition of Quakers, sat quietly on the benches until the spirit moved someone to speak. Often, the entire meeting would pass without an utterance ... Read more

Teaching meditation in the land of its birth (INQ7.net) 10 Oct. The percentage of success in the self-healing through visualization exercise was difficult to determine because laboratory analysis was required to find out some illnesses. But those suffering from physical pain like headaches and back pains, were relieved of their problem ... Read more

Friends, partners 'spread a little love' via homemade strings of beads (Herald Sun) 9 Oct. When Gail Seybolt gave two friends, who share her interest in loving-kindness meditation, strands of homemade prayer beads, the effect was deep and strong ... Read more

Meditation under the Campus Bodhi tree (Chicago Flame) 9 Oct. Meditation does not lead to 'spacing out.' Instead, it leads to the opposite: mindfulness. Meditation teaches people how to focus on the present. Many times, we get caught up analyzing the past and preparing for the future, so much so that we don't bother to pay attention to what's happening around us ... Read more

New coach helps team find fresh attitude (Lexington Herald-Leader) 9 Oct. Before each game, the girls from the Bryan Station soccer team sit quietly and meditate. Deep breaths, in and out. Minds focused on the task at hand ... Read more

Sand meditation for compassion (Santa Cruz Sentinel) 7 Oct. Venerable Lobsang Tsultrim, a master sand mandala artist, has been creating a mandala of Universal Compassion throughout the week at the newly reopened Davenport Cash Store. On Friday, it was swept up and spread at sea in a ritual that stresses the impermanence of life, and that distributes the compassion generated by the mandala's creation ... Read more

Art exhibit to explore spirituality (Lexington Herald-Leader) 7 Oct. Connections: We Are All One, an art exhibit sponsored by the Interfaith Alliance of the Bluegrass, will explore the intersection of art and spirituality ... Read more

Christian Science Reading Room offers chance at meditation, peace (Hollister Free Lance) 6 Oct. It no doubt ranks as one of South County's "hidden treasures" - a quiet, welcoming place of refuge where anyone can come to read, study, meditate, or just have a thoughtful conversation about faith and the meaning of life ... Read more

travis spends month in cave (The Union) 6 Oct. Imagine living in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas for a month, meditating in a cave 12,000 feet above sea level with chiseled snow-capped peaks all around. John travis, 60, founder of the Mountain Stream Meditation Center in Nevada City, had this very experience ... Read more

Crusaders Meditate, win (Republican American) 6 Oct. One of the benefits of meditation is the inner calm it brings practitioners, or at least that's what I've heard having never tried to be quiet for more than a minute or two myself. And Holy Cross looked like the more relaxed team Thursday night even though it was in hostile territory against a team that had lost only once this season ... Read more

Martin LeFevre: Mind, Brain, and Meditation (Scoop) 6 Oct. All sound occurs in silence, but we rarely 'hear' the silence because the inner and outer noise of man is so loud. Without doubt, perception (and reception) of the sacred calls for a very still, empty mind ... Read more

Kansas county backs off plan for moratorium aimed at "peace palaces" (International Herald tribune) 5 Oct. He said the repeal came after the commission was told the peace group planned to file a federal lawsuit, claiming violation of its civil rights. Shelton said the group likely would have prevailed ... Read more

Meditation at schools (News 8 Austin) 3 Oct. TM is a mental technique that involves simply narrowing the focus of the mind in a very effortless way that allows the mind to settle down ... Read more

Comfort is most important in choosing meditation style (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) 2 Oct. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine describes meditation as techniques that help people gain "relaxation, mental calmness and psychological balance." The agency focuses on two categories -- mindfulness meditation and transcendental Meditation ... Read more

Meditation for Reflection on Courage in Relationships (BellaOnline) 2 Oct. Remaining relaxed allows us to calmly confront an issue or person with whom we may disagree, or whom we feel may threaten our values. Everyone and everything around us is truly an outside influence, but just an influence ... Read more

Meditation calms mind, helps heal body (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) 2 Oct. Buddhist meditation wasn't on his radar when he started trying to tame some of the chaos in his mind. But in his late 50s, he was diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder ... Read more

Battle against stress means big business (Yahoo! News) 2 Oct. With overworked, overwrought consumers seeking cures ranging from aromatherapy to Zen meditation, the industry is predicted to grow to almost $14 billion in the next two years, experts say ... Read more

India's Buddhist heritage draws seekers (Yahoo! News) 2 Oct. The elaborately carved Mahabodhi Temple, Buddhism's holiest shrine and a popular destination for nirvana seekers, marks the site where the prince-turned-hermit-turned-spiritual-leader, Gautama Siddhartha, attained enlightenment some 2,500 years ago after intense meditation ... Read more

More mind-body techniques for everyday life (INQ7.net) 2 Oct. You don't have to be an expert in meditation and you don't have to be a yoga or tai chi master to benefit from these practices ... Read more

Setting the tone to reflect and pray (Houston Chronicle) 1 Oct. When Yom Kippur begins at sundown today, meditation will be part of Micki Bronston's solemn observance. It's an ancient tradition that some Jews are rediscovering ... Read more

Meditation and Well-being (The Korea Times) 1 Oct. Your thoughts must be clear, your mind must be relaxed, and your body must be healthy. Meditators practice this kind of well-being ... Read more

Tips for Practicing Prayer and Meditation (CancerWise) 1 Oct. When people are diagnosed with a serious illness such as cancer, they often turn to prayer and meditation for comfort and assurance ... Read more

Support our translation project

Our mission is to benefit the world by promoting mindfulness and compassion through the practice of meditation. If you've benefited from our site and would like to give something back, then making a donation can help us enormously. You can give as little as a dollar, but of course feel free to give as much as you want!

All contributions are tax deductible and go to our translation fund, which aims to help us translate Wildmind into other languages. We now have French, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian versions of the site online, and a Polish version has also just been launched.

Quote of the Month

"In the practice of sitting meditation you relate to your daily life all the time. Meditation practice brings our neuroses to the surface rather than hiding them at the bottom of our minds. It enables us to relate to our lives as something workable." -- Chogyam trungpa.

Meditation is not escapism. In fact one could argue that burying ourselves in daily activities with no time set aside for reflection is a classic escapist activity. When we meditate we're thrust into an awareness -- often a very challenging awareness -- of exactly what's going on in our lives. There's no escaping who we are: as we sit, thought after thought, emotion after emotion, wells up inside of us.

When we're busy rushing from one task to the next there simply isn't time to process our thoughts and emotions, to put things into perspective, to think things through. Our hopes and fears end up being, as trungpa puts it, hidden at the bottom of our minds. And so we need time out: time to re-collect ourselves, time to let the hidden parts of ourselves begin to show themselves. These experiences that we have in meditation are aspects of what's been going on in our daily lives: the fears, hopes, annoyances, dreams, and desires to which we've given rise but to which we all too often pay little attention.

Some of those hidden parts do start to reveal themselves very quickly indeed, although others can -- because we've become well-practiced in keeping them hidden -- take much longer to emerge. But as, in their own time, they emerge we begin to give them our attention and respond to them appropriately.

Sometimes all we have to do is acknowledge them as we watch them pass by (perhaps just a stray thought about something we forgot to do). Sometimes we need to meet them head on, as when a major volley of ill-will arrives and we respond with a counter-blast of lovingkindness. Other times we need simply to sit and explore our experiences in a kind and patient way, giving them space to reveal their stories, reminding ourselves that it's alright to experience discomfort.

So in these kinds of ways we deal with our "stuff," working with each thought and emotion as it arrives, and in an appropriate way. And in so doing we start to notice that the quality of our lives has improved: there are fewer conflicts with others, we're kinder, we're quicker to let go of grievances and less prone to take offense, and we're more relaxed.

Often the best way to work with our lives is to take a step back and sort out what's inside of us first. One we've started doing that, life seems to take care of itself.

- Bodhipaksa

Book Review

12 Steps on Buddha's Path: Bill, Buddha, and We
By "Laura S." (Wisdom Publications, 2006, Paperback, $12.95).

12 Steps on Buddha's Path is an gripping account of the connections between the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) 12 Step Program and the Buddhist path. The material is presented in three parts: First, Laura S.'s experience of coming to terms with her alcohol abuse through AA; second, a basic overview of the Buddha's teachings; and lastly a melding of the two paths in the author's life.

Part One reviews AA's program and how the author came to understand the 12 Steps. Of particular interest to me, and presumably to others who practice the 12 Steps in the context of a non-theistic faith, is how the author deals with the idea of "God" or of a higher power and its fundamental importance to the program. The author developed an interesting take on this early on in her recovery by devising her own idiosyncratic form of non-theistic prayer.

The second part of the book is perhaps one of the best explanations I have seen of the core tenets of the Buddha's teachings, such as the Four Noble truths, the Eightfold Path, Dependent Origination, and Karma. The author's illustrations and examples help relate these teachings to daily life, and I would recommend this chapter as a standalone guide to any beginner to Buddhism.

The final section of the book ties the earlier material together and details how the author, having begun her 12 Step recovery program, later integrated it with Buddhist practice, starting with "Alcoholism is Dukkha [suffering]" and building up to teachings on "The Four Sober truths," "The Sober Eightfold Path," and "Taking Sober Refuge."

12 Steps on Buddha's Path is a valuable resource for anyone in addiction recovery who has issues with the notion of a theistic God upon whichthe 12 Step Program is based, but especially for those who wish to integrate the 12 Steps and Buddhism. The book is also a powerful story of hope and success, and shows an uplifting transformation from the depth of the disease of addiction. It is an inspiration for all.

Brian Sullivan is a practicing Buddhist and recovering alcoholic, and is currently serving a prison sentence for an alcohol-related offense.