Buddhism And 12 Steps: Right Thought/Right Intention (Episode 13)

In this lesson on right thought and right intention, Chris concludes Buddha's teaching in cultivating wisdom using the first two teachings of the Eightfold Path. We will explore Buddhist scholarship as we learn more about the critical importance of right thought.

Transcript

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Spiritual Sobriety and today's lesson.

I'm your host,

Chris McDuffie.

Today we are going to discuss the second of the Buddha's suggestions found in the Noble Eightfold Path,

Right Thought or as it's often named,

Right Intention.

You may recall that the first two Noble Truths,

Right View and Right Thought,

Help us develop the skill of wisdom.

Buddhism and the Twelve Steps are two spiritual pathways that help us grow out of fear-based ignorance,

What we might call denial,

And into insight or wisdom.

Those of us on the spiritual path want to be very aware of our intentions and our actions.

As I've referenced in an earlier podcast,

The 12-step use of the Serenity Prayer helps in a similar way to that of the Noble Eightfold Path.

As I quote the prayer,

Look for the importance of insight and wisdom.

God,

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

We cannot affect change,

Ending the clinging of attachment or ending the avoidance,

If we do not have the willingness to look,

Examine and explore our current moment or our fixation on the past or future.

So how do we learn to use Buddha's teachings of Right Thought to help us?

And more importantly,

Why should we?

What are the benefits of coming out of the darkness of denial and the subconscious,

And into the clarity of our current thoughts and feelings?

Let's explore these questions through the teachings of Buddhist psychotherapist and a founding teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center,

Sylvia Boorstein.

Her article entitled The First Teachings,

Published in Tricycle Magazine,

Is where she reports quote,

Every moment of mindfulness renounces the reflective,

Self-protecting response of the mind in favor of a clear and balanced understanding.

She then adds,

In the light of the wisdom that comes from balanced understanding,

Attachment to having things be other than what they are falls away.

For me,

This is one of the finest summaries of all of mindfulness and the critical importance of practicing the suggestions of the Eightfold Path.

Let's parse her quote for just a bit to help set the stage for the importance of Right Thought.

First,

Sylvia Boorstein encourages us to celebrate every moment throughout each day that we become aware of or wise to our current thoughts and emotions.

Next,

These powerful moments of insight help loosen the hold that the fear-based ego had on us and frees us just enough to consider,

In that moment of clarity,

If our realized thoughts and projections are rational or irrational.

And here is the best part of this wisdom.

Sylvia helps us celebrate that,

In this moment of insight and clarity,

We are freeing ourselves from the habitual pattern and pull of the actualized,

Heightened anxiety and depression we were just experiencing.

That means that as we practice Right View and Right Thought,

We are practicing non-attachment and decreasing our suffering at the same time.

So then,

We may define Right Thought as seeing in real time if our immediate thoughts or intentions are coming from a place of loving-kindness and equanimity,

Or they are not.

Remember,

In the time-lapsing sequence of the moment that we are experiencing,

As we cultivate wisdom and insight,

We are only seeing our immediate thoughts and feelings and our initial intended response.

That means that at the moment of insight and wisdom,

We have not yet acted nor engaged in a response,

An action,

Or a behavior.

We are literally in what I like to call pre-action.

In the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous,

The suggestion is called Pause Before Clause.

Remember Sylvia Boorstein's quote,

Every moment of mindfulness renounces the reflexive,

Self-protecting response of the mind.

The practice of Right Thought teaches us not only the importance of seeing our intentions and pre-action options by bringing clarity to the moment,

But we are also now more able to weigh the costs and the benefits during what my AA sponsor Jerry likes to call a slow and measured backswing,

Just like in golf.

Consider for a moment the lack of wisdom that the pull of heroin,

Opiates,

Alcohol,

And drugs has on the using individual.

Their dopamine levels are rapidly fluctuating in the states of a very painful allostasis,

And the craving is so strong that no time is allowed for careful consideration of their compulsion to grab their drug of choice and to see and use as quickly as possible.

And the consequences can literally be life-threatening or life-altering.

The marriage may end,

The relationship with loved ones might cease,

The career might be lost,

And the dire financial and physical health consequences aren't weighed for a moment.

The Buddha insisted that monks never ever drink alcohol.

He listed the six consequences of alcohol consumption.

The authors of The Buddha's Diet,

The Ancient Art of Losing Weight Without Losing Your Mind,

Tara Cottrell and Dan Ziegmann teach us,

Quote,

In his rules for monks,

Intoxicating liquors were completely forbidden.

He outlined these six serious dangers,

Diminishing of wealth,

Increased quarreling,

A whole range of illness and ill repute,

Exposing oneself,

And weakening the intellect.

Wow,

That is quite a list written over 500 years before the birth of Christ.

And yes,

Humans have been struggling for even longer than that with the powers of chemical addictions.

So if we are to practice these principles in all our affairs,

If the objective for us as 12-steppers is to prevent the actions that would warrant making amends,

If our aim is not to relapse,

If we are trying to make a conscious decision as we see in step 11,

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him,

Praying only for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out,

Then Buddha's suggestions of cultivating wisdom through the practices of right view and right thought help us to choose to pause,

Stop,

And as the AA slogan states,

Think,

Think,

Think about what we are seeing and how we are choosing to respond to every moment of every day.

Religious monk Sri Rahula's article entitled The Noble Eightfold Path,

Published in Tricycle Magazine reminds us how to wisely approach our practice.

He writes,

It should not be thought that the eight categories or divisions of the path should be followed and practiced one after another in the numerical order.

They are to be developed more or less simultaneously,

As far as possible and according to the capacity of each individual.

He adds,

They are all linked together and each helps the cultivation of the others.

I'd like to close today's lesson on right thought and right intention with more of his teachings from the same article.

He writes,

Right thought denotes the thoughts of selfless renunciation or detachment,

Thoughts of love and thoughts of nonviolence,

Which are all extended to all beings.

That thoughts of selfless detachment,

Love and nonviolence are all grouped on the side of wisdom.

This clearly shows that true wisdom is endowed with these noble qualities and that all thoughts of selfish desire,

Ill will,

Hatred and violence are the result of a lack of wisdom in all spheres of life,

Whether individual,

Social or political.

I hope that you enjoyed today's lesson.

I am so glad that you are part of the Spiritual Sobriety Family.

As always,

I look forward to hearing from you after each lesson.

May you be happy,

Healthy,

Safe and free from harm.

Namaste.

Reviews

Thank you 🙏 So wise and true ✨ Conscious thinking and awareness and knowing what is the right next action sometimes conflicts with my intense emotional longing to feel good, to feel ok. In such moments of conflict I struggle to accept and allow these strong feelings whilst allowing right intentions to guide my next right action. It can feel like an endless struggle 🙏🩵

Thank you 🙏🏽

Thank you. 🙏💝

Thank you. Insightful talk on incorporating sobriety and Buddhism.❤️

Nice integration of Buddhist right thought & 12 step consciuosness

Thank you and Namaste 💕 ☮️. I'm enjoying your talks and wisdom.