Buddhist higher power???

gracelee

I am in a 12-step program, within the program your are required to turn your will and your life over to a higher power of your understanding

i would love to hear peoples opinions on how to approach this from a buddhist perspective?

thanks in advance

Tosh

Whether you believe in a Higher Power or not, I found there is only one practical way to turn your will and your life over, and I'll explain how I did it:

1. I did Steps 4 to 9 (Clearing away the debris of the past and making a commitment to change at Steps 6 and 7). This will provide some peace of mind.

2. I live under the guidance of Steps 10, 11, and 12.

Step 10 is basically mindfulness (taking personal inventory; it's our 'walking about step').
Step 11 is essentially prayer and meditation
Step 12 is practising compassion; i.e. carrying the message to other alkies and practising these principles in all our affairs.

These three steps are a spiritual path in themselves; I mean what consists of a spiritual path?
Prayer, meditation, mindfulness and practising compassion. Is there anything else?

You could also use:

'God within' (sounds a bit like Buddha nature)
G.O.D = Group of Drunks (whatever 12 Step group you go to)
Dharma
Buddha (some may disagree using the Buddha in a deity type way; but it can be a raft).

But as I say, from a practical angle (and the 12 Steps is a practical program of action (not beliefs)), the only way to turn your will and your life over is to do Steps 4 to 9 and live under the guidance of 10, 11, and 12.

I hope that helps.

Tosh

Apologies for the long post, Graceelee; I have my 'pet subjects' and tend to go off on one.

I hope some others chip in with what could be alternative Higher Power concepts in Buddhism and that I've not killed your post.

Invincible_summer

As @Tosh mentioned, the concept of Buddha-Nature could be construed as a 'higher power' ideal, although not in the usual sense.

In Jodo Shinshu, the chanting of the nembutsu to Amida Buddha is supposed to be a cultivation of reliance on tariki - Other Power. That is, one entrusts oneself to the compassionate nature of Amida Buddha while realizing that one cannot Enlighten oneself. Although it may seem like a theistic form of Buddhism, it's really just a method of breaking down the ego-self.

Dakini

Other 12-steppers here have given the Dharma, or the Triple Gem, as their higher power.

genkaku

A little something on booze and Buddhism

Kwantum_Kev

Here is something I wrote awhile back in answer to a very similar question :

"AA and Buddhism can coexist nicely, but it is best to understand and know that AA and the other twelve step programs have a singular purpose - to help the struggling alcoholic or addict to stay sober. Believing in a personal god is not a requirement for sobriety, and as was mentioned - any group of people is a power higher than yourself. So if you want to call the group, the Dharma, your higher self, or whatever you wish your higher power, it is completely in line with AA. That's why it says 'God, as we understand God' - it is our own conception."

Personally, the way I practice Buddhism does not preclude the existence of, or belief in some "higher power". Now that HP is not necessarily the personal god that many Christians have prayed to over the centuries, nor is it Buddha, or any other teacher or "being". And from another post, here is how I view my HP :

"I know this may sound silly, but it is my honest opinion : I tend to look at my Higher Power much as "The Force" is portrayed in the Star Wars movies. It is positive, it is alive and active, it has influence, yet it is never really described in concrete terms, nor are any specific attributes assigned to it. That is rather how I see my HP - as The Force. And that Force is in me, all around me, is me - and is everyone else too."

In the ultimate analysis, what is most important, if you truly are an alcoholic or addict, is that you stay sober. And while working the Program does not necessitate belief in a personal god necessarily, if you find that it helps you to believe in one, by all means do so. For I don't believe it is possible to make any spiritual progress of any kind while one is loaded, or battling every moment with the chains of addiction.

First, do what you need to do to stay sober and break the cycle. Later on down the line, you will find that, without even being conscious of it or any effort on your part, your conception of a higher power will change, as will most all of your beliefs and outlook on life.


Many Blessings,

KwanKev

Bekenze

The universe?

Zero

you are required to turn your will and your life over to a higher power of your understanding

how to approach this from a buddhist perspective?

I read the first sentence a few times as it seemed that your answer was in the sentence itself - think this was inadvertent... you're saying turn your 'will and life' over to a 'higher power of your understanding' - i.e. pick a higher power that you understand or have faith in and give your life over to that...?

How I read the sentence first was turn your will and the consequences of exercising your will (life) to the 'higher power of understanding' - another words, there doesnt need to be an actual higher power, rather the understanding that understanding itself is a higher power than will alone...

If you dont find any other compatible higher power then perhaps 'understanding' itself can be your higher power....

Sabre

Hi,

Some nice suggestions have been done already, but I would like to add one. I think you can also use love (metta) as a sort of higher power. Why can it be a "higher power" in this case? If you really have loving kindness, you give a piece of yourself away, self-attachment becomes less strong.

You can also see 'the dhamma' as the higher power, but it may not always be as easy to surrender to it.

It depends on your experience with things on what will be right for you. So choose something that feels right for you. I hope it will work out well. But maybe you should also keep in mind that this program may not be written with an atheistic view in mind.

With metta,
Sabre

shanyin

I reccommend the book: Dharma punx.

If Noah Levine can do you it (and he did) I believe you can too. (12-steps, buddhism as higher power)

gracelee

thanks everyone for your help. some great ideas x

ZendoLord84

I used to be an addict.

Addiction is ultimate suffering.
Enemy in hart and mind and soul,

It helped to set me free,

shays860

Hope this idea is not havoc wreaking on a mind in recovery but I've always like the Advaitist Hindu interpretation of Brahma as God permeating the universe and thus being within you and everyone and everything else at it's deepest level... not that I understand the details that well yet.

David

In a world view with an infinite individual aspects of the whole, the only "higher" power I can envision is the universe but since we are not really seperate from the universe I'd say our higher power is within.

I don't rightly believe in higher or lower... It's all perspective. I don't know how well that is for AA but then I'm not sure why it's a good thing to give yourself over to a higher power.

ZendoLord84

Hope this idea is not havoc wreaking on a mind in recovery but I've always like the Advaitist Hindu interpretation of Brahma as God permeating the universe and thus being within you and everyone and everything else at it's deepest level... not that I understand the details that well yet.

yes...

Tosh

Hope this idea is not havoc wreaking on a mind in recovery but I've always like the Advaitist Hindu interpretation of Brahma as God permeating the universe and thus being within you and everyone and everything else at it's deepest level... not that I understand the details that well yet.

You will find A.A. members with this type of Higher Power; a famous share given by Chuck Chamberlin in the 1970's (Chuck C was a much respected early AAer who knew all the first guys who started up A.A.) which was turned into a book called "A New Pair of Glasses" (worth a read for anyone in recovery) said "God is people, and people is God, and what was blocking him off from God (people) was his ego". Sounds similar to me!

Another guy called Jim Burwell was known as the 'militant agnostic' though he was really an atheist; it was him who insisted upon the 'God as you understand God' and 'God of your own understanding' lines which really saved A.A.'s survival in the long run. If it wasn't for people like Jim Burwell, Chuck Chamberlin (and others), A.A. may have turned into some sort of niche religious cult.

And if A.A. can teach Buddhists anything, you ought to see how great and loving our sangha is. A.A. has the best sangha - the best support group - in the world. I feel sorry for you non alcoholics/addicts sometimes; seriously.

shays860

Another thought on the drugs and spirituality correlation. The transcendent feeling some drugs can give you is actually what led me to spiritual practice in the first place. But you have to realize how damaging drugs are, that you can never sustain the experience with the drugs and that after a while you stop even reaching that state with the drugs. You just start feeling crappy all the time, wasting all your money, destroying your body an mind and alienating everyone around you. And it just pushes you farther and farther from the possibility of reaching these states naturally. Maynard of Tool said something about drugs introducing people to god and then them spending the next ten years trying to reach that experience without them...

ZendoLord84

know theyself, and thy shalt know God and the Universe,
- Pythagros,

He knew too
Many many before us

David

Isn't he also the fellow that said "If triangles had a God, it would have three sides"?

Edit to add: Opps, nope. It was Charles De Montesquieu. Sorry.

ZendoLord84

look his quotes up,
his logics are .....buddhist....just can't argue wit them,
(in my opinion)

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/p/pythagoras.html

BonsaiDoug

Some nice suggestions have been done already, but I would like to add one. I think you can also use love (metta) as a sort of higher power. Why can it be a "higher power" in this case? If you really have loving kindness, you give a piece of yourself away, self-attachment becomes less strong.

You can also see 'the dhamma' as the higher power, but it may not always be as easy to surrender to it.

Agree. Perhaps my experience was different than others, but when I went through NA, we were told to simply think of "higher power" as something/someone greater than ourselves. That could mean the association itself, your sponsor, your faith/god if that applied, your family/friends, etc. There was no emphasis on "god" in our group. The emphasis was on getting clean. Period. Whatever it took. Whatever worked.

The remaining "steps" were/are the same as in AA.