All dharma talks and guided meditations are downloadable. You can also subscribe to the RRWS YouTube and podcast channels.
Tonight there’s no set topic—just a chance to sit together in guided meditation and explore what’s present. After a 20-minute sit, we open into a live Q&A on Refuge Recovery, Buddhist practice, and the path of recovery. Whatever questions arise—about meditation, the teachings, or your own experience—are welcome here. Sometimes the most meaningful insight comes not from a planned talk, but from the honesty of what’s shared in the moment.
Read MoreGenerosity—dāna—is the ancient Buddhist practice of giving freely. In Refuge Recovery, we carry this forward by offering the teachings and our meetings without dues or fees, welcoming everyone regardless of financial circumstance. This spirit of generosity is rooted in the Buddha’s original teachings, where the Dharma was shared freely and supported by the goodwill of the community. When we practice generosity, we’re not just giving resources—we’re participating in a tradition of mutual support and compassionate service.
Read MoreService, in essence, addresses the topic of selfishness and self-centeredness—and how we might free ourselves from these patterns. From a Buddhist perspective, self-centeredness and related states like self-cherishing or self-hatred are not personal failings, but aspects of the human condition. None of us chose to have minds preoccupied with themselves; it arises from our survival instincts.
This self-focus often leads to unnecessary stress and suffering. One direct antidote is the act of helping others—being of service. In mutual help or peer-led recovery groups like Refuge Recovery, service is woven into the fabric of the organization, providing a path out of self-centeredness through helping one another.
Read MoreService, in essence, addresses the topic of selfishness and self-centeredness—and how we might free ourselves from these patterns. From a Buddhist perspective, self-centeredness and related states like self-cherishing or self-hatred are not personal failings, but aspects of the human condition. None of us chose to have minds preoccupied with themselves; it arises from our survival instincts.
This self-focus often leads to unnecessary stress and suffering. One direct antidote is the act of helping others—being of service. In mutual help or peer-led recovery groups like Refuge Recovery, service is woven into the fabric of the organization, providing a path out of self-centeredness through helping one another.
Read MoreTonight's open forum began without a predetermined topic for meditation or discussion. Before the meditation started, participants were asked if they had any requests or questions about Buddhism or meditation practices. They were encouraged to suggest topics they wanted to be addressed, and these topics were then covered briefly.
Read MoreThis being the first Thursday of the new year, 2025. I thought I'd reflect a little and ask you to reflect a little on your intentions, your recovery, your plans and aspirations for this year.
Read MoreThis being the first Thursday of the new year, 2025. I thought I'd reflect a little and ask you to reflect a little on your intentions, your recovery, your plans and aspirations for this year.
Read MoreI thought we would, look at this section of the book tonight. Back to the beginning of the book, right after the introduction, there's these pages called The Process page XI. There are three or four pages that in Refuge meetings, we read the first part of this. We read the first page about how we follow the traditional Buddhist system of the Four Noble Truths.
We read this in every meeting, but we only read it down to a sort of abbreviated version of it. So I thought I'd share it and then use this as the discussion starting on XII.
Read More9 Levels of Experience
We're on the eighth factor tonight. Concentration, the importance of gathering our attention, learning to pay attention and the skill of concentration.
Refuge Recovery Talks—First Thursday of the Month at 5PM PST with Noah Levine Register here to join ➤ https://www.refugerecovery.org/monthly-dharma-talk All are welcome.
Read More4th Foundation
Tonight we're on the fourth foundation which is actually the most detailed and complicated aspect of the mindfulness teachings.
Refuge Recovery Talks—First Thursday of the Month at 5PM PST with Noah Levine Register here to join ➤ https://www.refugerecovery.org/monthly-dharma-talk All are welcome.
Read More3rd Foundation
We already did the first foundation of mindfulness and the second foundation. So tonight's topic is the third foundation of mindfulness. In the Refuge Recovery meditations, we break down the 3rd foundation into 2 parts, the process and the content.
Refuge Recovery Talks—First Thursday of the Month at 5PM PST with Noah Levine Register here to join ➤ https://www.refugerecovery.org/monthly-dharma-talk All are welcome.
Read MoreTonight we're on the second foundation of mindfulness. These four foundations all work together. It's a little bit hard to separate them. Tonight we're going to cover the second foundation, which is bringing mindfulness, present time awareness to the feeling tone of our experience.
Refuge Recovery Talks—First Thursday of the Month at 5PM PST with Noah Levine Register here to join ➤ https://www.refugerecovery.org/monthly-dharma-talk All are welcome.
Read MoreI've spent the last six months on this series of the Eightfold Path. Since we've been doing one a month, we're now on the seventh factor, mindfulness. This is core part of the Buddhist teaching and the core practice in Refuge Recovery.
Refuge Recovery Talks—First Thursday of the Month at 5PM PST with Noah Levine Register here to join ➤ https://www.refugerecovery.org/monthly-dharma-talk All are welcome.
Read MoreThis topic and aspect of the Buddha's teaching around how much effort it takes, how much is the appropriate effort, how much energy do we need to put into our path of recovery, to our meditation practice, to our renunciation practice, to our study, to our service. Every aspect of our life, like everything, probably none of our recovery, probably none of our practice is going to be effortless. It's all going to take some effort. We're going to have to apply some of our energy and effort to meditating, to defying the mind's suggestions, to renunciation. Even just not doing what we want to do also take some effort. Just “I have to resist craving and urges” takes some effort.
Refuge Recovery Talks—First Thursday of the Month at 5PM PST with Noah Levine Register here to join ➤ https://www.refugerecovery.org/monthly-dharma-talk All are welcome.
Read MoreWe'll talk about money, work and service. The Buddhist teachings on livelihood and the karma that we're creating at work. We'll also talk some about the importance of generosity, service and breaking our self centeredness through giving away some of our time and energy and resources.
Refuge Recovery Talks—First Thursday of the Month at 5PM PST with Noah Levine Register here to join ➤ https://www.refugerecovery.org/monthly-dharma-talk All are welcome.
Read MoreIn this factor, this fourth factor, the teaching is, the perspective is, the practice is understanding karma. Cause and effect, and understanding that when we behave in ways that are unskillful, we create negative karma for ourselves. When we kill, when we lie, when we steal, when we, are unskillful with sexual misconduct, when we're unskillful in our relationships and we cause harm there, we create negative karma for ourselves, right?
Refuge Recovery Talks—First Thursday of the Month at 5PM PST with Noah Levine Register here to join ➤ https://www.refugerecovery.org/monthly-dharma-talk All are welcome.
Read MoreThe importance of having a community of recovering people to be supported by, to offer service, to be supportive of and friendships. Learning to communicate in a wise way and then engage with community to be part of what we call Sangha. Sangha is a term that we Buddhist use for the community.
Refuge Recovery Talks—First Thursday of the Month at 5PM PST with Noah Levine Register here to join ➤ https://www.refugerecovery.org/monthly-dharma-talk All are welcome.
Read MoreReflecting on the second factor, intention, where the Buddha says, if you want to follow this path and you want to get free, be happy, and end all the unnecessary suffering in your life. You're going to have to, be really mindful of what you are, intentionally thinking.
Refuge Recovery Talks—First Thursday of the Month at 5PM PST with Noah Levine Register here to join ➤ https://www.refugerecovery.org/monthly-dharma-talk All are welcome.
Read MoreThe first factor of our eightfold path and the way that it is connected to this path of recovery.
Refuge Recovery Talks—First Thursday of the Month at 5PM PST with Noah Levine Register here to join ➤ https://www.refugerecovery.org/monthly-dharma-talk All are welcome.
Read MoreFor tonight, reflect on your recovery, your meditation practice, your involvement with this Buddhist path to healing from addiction, to recovering from addiction, and any questions that are up for you in your practice. One of the things for this first Thursday is where you can ask questions about some of the Buddhist teachings that aren't necessarily in the refuge book.
Refuge Recovery Talks—First Thursday of the Month at 5PM PST with Noah Levine Register here to join ➤ https://www.refugerecovery.org/monthly-dharma-talk All are welcome.
Read More