Mind Roads Meditation Center

Mindfulness and the Twelve Steps

This weekly practice group explores basic teachings of the Buddhist practice of mindfulness and their reflection in the twelve steps. The group supplements recovery and is designed to reveal to us that consistent mindfulness and meditation practice is vital to spiritual progress.

We begin each session with a period of meditation and follow with a brief presentation and discussion. Anyone who wants to support a 12-step recovery program with a deepened understanding of meditation and Buddhism is welcome.

Preamble

“We meet Monday evenings, one chapter in a nation-wide community of Twelve Steps and Mindfulness meetings. Our addictions are wide-spread: drugs, alcohol, food, gambling, cigarettes, or codependency. Everyone is welcome.

 We introduce ourselves by going around the circle, saying our first name and Twelve Step affiliation. We have a common interest in meditation practices and how they can inform our recovery from addiction. Each month, we discuss one of the Twelve Steps and how Buddhist thought, meditation, and mindfulness practice can inform its application to our life in recovery. We sit in silent meditation together, hear a talk by one of our members, and share our reflections.

 As with many Twelve Step meetings, we are a diverse group of people, yet we are part of the great stream of beings seeking deeper serenity in our lives, grounded in sobriety by the Twelve Step program, inspired to awaken and live in the present by the practices of mindfulness meditation. In our addictions, we were never here in the moment. We wanted to be gone. Now we are learning to wake up to the joy of being alive. Please make yourself at home.”

Adapted from Mindfulness and the 12-Steps by Thérèse Jacobs Stewart
(MN: Hazelden Publications, 2010.)

Download handout on Meditation Room (“Zendo”) Etiquette