"12 Step Audio Lectures"
Judith Ragir, Zen Priest and Teacher
Audio files.
School/perspective: Zen, Vipassana, Tibetan Buddhism and AA
Written preface on the website from Judith Ragir:
“These lectures were recorded at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in an effort to bring together 12-Step recovery work, Buddhism and meditation. My mission, as stated often in the lectures or at the beginning of the meeting is: (1) To help people understand how to meditate, encourage daily meditation and give support for sustaining a practice once established; (2) To help make the translation from a mainly Christian-based language in the 12-Steps to the non-theistic language of Buddhism. The main principle of Buddhism are interwoven and mirrored in the Steps. We can discern and explore where specific Buddhist practices fall into the organization of the Steps. For thirty years, I have practiced Buddhism and the 12-Steps, side-by-side, with profound results. Each community could learn from one another. From my point of view, American Buddhists can enrich their understanding of Sangha and the dismantling of destructive patterns from Steps 4 through 9 as practiced in Recovery. The Recovery community can learn much from mindfulness practice and meditation that is such a rich treasure in Buddhism. Combined, they provide an unshakeable transformative process for us all.”
Chapter headings:
Selected excerpts:
“During the course of my recovery I’ve done a lot of co-dependency work, I’ve done a lot of abuse, sexual and emotional abuse work, I kind of have done the gamut of program things. I [met] Katagiri Roshi in 1973, so Zen and Buddhist practice has been part of my life through the whole time that I’ve been working in recovery. So I feel like I really worked very hard to combine the two transformative spiritual paths. Both paths are about transforming your life, and they work really well together. I think if you have the encouragement to work them together, which is what I hope to share, that it’s possible to work them together, and it’s very fruitful to work them together. When I started as a Zen person, you know there’s a lot of different types of Buddhism right, Zen, and Tibetan and Theravadan Vipassana are the main ones that are in America right now, and Zen is a wonderful tradition, it’s my main tradition, but there wasn’t much emotional practices for me in Zen. Zen kind of sits you in the absolute, and you just have to fend for yourself. And the way I fended for myself was by doing the Steps. I got my plug-in about changing my patterns through the Steps, and I deepened my 12 Step life through meditation practice.” (Lecture 1, at around 1:00)
“...Our first thing is to blame others, but actually, when I investigate it, there is a pattern in me that got hooked, and I’m just running the pattern. And in order to be liberated or free, we have to understand our patterning, and we have to not hook them. Learning how not…. And I’m going to talk a lot about this as we go through our time together. Learning to identify patterns, and learning how to strengthen your mind so you don’t pick up the hook when the pattern goes by. You can just let the patterning go by and you can stay in the present moment.” (Lecture 1, at around 24:00)
© 2004 Judith Ragir
The Buddhist Recovery Network does not officially endorse any of the book reviews that appear on this site. They are private viewpoints that may or may not represent the views of the organisation or its members. Readers are free to submit book reviews for publication on this site via the link below.
Reviews posted:
Paul
Byakuren (White Lotus) Judith Ragir helped to found the Clouds in Water Zen Center in St. Paul and is well known in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. One of the interesting things about her is that she draws on a wide repertoire of practices from different Buddhist traditions. I haven’t listened to all these audio files, as there are 62 talks (as at November 2006) averaging around 50 minutes in length (the range is from 20:14 mins to 1:20:51 – though not all of this is formal lecturing, it also includes guided meditations). She generates warmth and humour, and there are some really fun and humorous episodes (listen to the ‘Sex’ download for example!). They are less structured and focused than the Santikaro lectures, but they do have a great deal more personal disclosure. She has been involved in Buddhism since 1973 and started practicing the Twelve Steps in 1977, when she came into the rooms of AA with multiple addictions. One of her key themes is understanding and addressing habitual patterns (see the second transcription above). In short, these audio downloads are more diffuse than Santikaro’s but there is more drawing from her own life and recovery story. (I love her laughter, and there is a lot of laughter.)
To have a review of this book considered for publication, please email it to paul at buddhistrecovery dot org
Copyright ©2008 Buddhist Recovery
