Mar 28 (edited) • General discussion
Introduction in our Handbook
What follows is a deeply personal programme of Recovery that I have used to manage my own addiction.
I have now fortunately been in Recovery for 20 + years at the time of writing this book.
I am not a Doctor, I have never been to University, I am not a highly qualified Developmental Psychologist or a Neuroscientist and had a previous career working in Technical Theatre Production and Touring for 26 years from the age of 16 to 42.
I eventually ended up in a residential rehab for 6 months recovering from alcohol and cocaine addiction in 2002.
I was an intravenous drug user from 16 to 28 injecting various Class A drugs.
I stopped injecting heroin and cocaine at age 28 when I first discovered and then converted to Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism whilst living in Barcelona (where I spent some time as street homeless) in Catalunya.
I spent the next 15 years thinking I was “Better” as I no longer injected drugs but continued to drink alcohol and smoke and snort cocaine problematically until my Life became so unmanageable that I gladly accepted the help that Turning Point’s residential rehab in Ealing, London offered me.
I have since retrained as a Drug and Alcohol Worker and have worked in various Substance Misuse Services and Rough Sleeping, Street Outreach Services for the last nearly twenty years in London and Brighton, England.
Whilst living and working in Brighton I became aware that many fellow sufferers of addiction, like myself, found it impossible to work with 12 step methodology because of its insistence in believing in a “Higher Power or God as you know him,” which is an intrinsic principle of that programme and that my own lived experience of using Buddhism as a spiritual path for the foundation of my Recovery, which emphasizes Self-reliance and using one’s own inherent, inner potential and resources to achieve abstinence, could be an alternative to the 12 step fellowships model.
So I started to put my understanding of my “Lived Experience” together as a programme and gave it the name Sun Lotus Recovery and started to deliver it as a regular group in Brighton and London enabling others to begin their journey of Self-discovery and gain the skills needed to manage their own addiction disorder with the help of Buddhist Practice.
First I wrote a Model of Addiction from a viewpoint of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism (An 800 year old Japanese Buddhist Tradition) and then put together a twelve session programme which gradually brings about a deeper understanding for the practitioner into both their own addiction disorder and their practice and understanding of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism.
This allows them to initiate a positive change on the deepest most fundamental level of their Life.
Enabling them to not only maintain a drug and alcohol free Lifestyle but to bring about a deep and profound Self-awareness of who they are and their intimate relationship with others and the Universe.
Enabling the participant to lead a Life full of meaning, positivity and a sense of wellbeing.
This process not only changes themselves for the better but also initiates positive change in their families and ultimately society as a whole, to become more compassionate and humane.
I hope the reader truly finds something useful in this writing and that it is a tool for them to overcome the misery caused by an addiction disorder not only in their Life but in the lives of all those who are connected to them through Human bonds of family and love.
I know this is possible because of my own “Lived Experience” of putting this knowledge and these teachings into practice in my own Life and being able to transform my suffering into a great source of joy and wellbeing and being able to at last live in peace with myself after many years of Self harm and Self destruction.
I am not a special person, I am not a different person, I am in fact a very ordinary person who has been able to sustain my Recovery through this programme which I will now explain and deliver in these writings.
If I am able to succeed in using this Life philosophy, faith and practice to maintain my own Recovery from my addiction disorder and to experience my own personal growth and development into a better, happier more contented Human Being, then I believe that this can also be the experience of anyone else who chooses to follow in my footsteps, whatever their nationality, gender, race or sexual orientation as these teachings and practices are truly Universal and transcend all such distinctions between us Human Beings.
If this endeavor can enable and empower even a single person to transform themselves and enable them to break the chains and shackles of this painful and Life devouring brain disorder then my mission would have been accomplished.
The title of the book derives from the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist tradition of going on a pilgrimage to The Head Temple at Taiseki Ji, nearby Fujinomiya, nestled in the foothills of Mount Fuji, Japan, called “Tozan” which is translated into English as “Climbing the Mountain.”
This is why The Nichiren Shoshu School is also known as The Fuji School.
Link for our handbook https://amzn.eu/d/03Y2nIDZ
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Introduction in our Handbook
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Sun Lotus Recovery blends Western science and Japanese Nichiren Buddhism to transform addiction into awakening, empowering inner strength and purpose.
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