Buddhist Recovery Network

Starting Over: Recovery and the Courage to Begin Again
2025-10-05 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | BRN Academy
Recovery is not about perfection. It’s about beginning again—again and again. In this month’s BRN Academy talk Silasiri explores the courage and compassion it takes to let go of the past, return to the present, and choose a new way forward. The Buddha’s teachings remind us that each moment is a fresh start. With beginner’s mind and self-compassion, we can create a healing environment that supports growth, resilience, and recovery.

Silasiri engaged with the Buddhist Recovery Network in early 2018 as it launched its maiden year of Academy talks, and greatly enjoyed co-hosting this monthly program through 2021. By way of meditation, Dharma study and a beautiful and supportive Sangha, she moved into recovery from childhood trauma, substance abuse, and self-loathing, and continues to deepen her understanding of compassionate healing as taught by the Buddha and shared by the recovery community. A long-time peace and environmental activist and animal lover, Silasiri was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Movement in May 2021. She’s an accounting manager for nonprofits, and currently serves as the BRN’s Board President and Interim Treasurer. She supports Dharma study, anti-racism work, and Eco-Sattva training within her Sangha and in the community at large, and embraces the dana economy for all the freely given resources that it circulates among us.

Angulimala and the Wreckage of our Past
2025-11-02 10:00 - 11:00 | BRN Academy
Many of us come into recovery, change our lives completely, and then get utterly surprised and disappointed when the closest ones around us still don’t trust or believe us. Some of us have to gruelingly trudge through legal repercussions for many years after committing to recovery. These issues and an infinite of other problems commonly plague our lot, and in the 12 Step world, this is referred to as the “wreckage of our past”.
Thankfully, we have some beautiful and helpful Buddhist teachings to fall back on, including the story of the notorious Angulimala, a serial killer that almost killed The Buddha’s mother!
Let’s gather together and discuss what we, even the WORST of us, can do about this “wreckage of our past”.

Gary Sanders
Gary Sanders is a seasoned meditation teacher and dharma guide based in Los Angeles, CA. As the founder of SCV Mindfulness, Heavy Metta PDX, Boundless Heart, and others, Gary has dedicated himself to sharing the transformative power of Buddhist practices with diverse communities across North America.

Authorized to lead Buddhist meditation and dharma groups at Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, Gary’s teaching journey expanded when he joined the staff at Portland Insight Meditation Community. There, he was honored to be empowered to teach in the lineage of the revered Ruth Denison.
Gary’s approach is deeply rooted in the heart-based practices of the Buddha, which he explores and shares through daylong retreats, workshops, and online sessions. His current practice focuses on Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation, which he has skillfully integrated into a unique blend of mindfulness techniques.
As a frequent contributor to The Tattooed Buddha community, Buddhist Recovery Network, and other communities and platforms, Gary creates meditation videos that make Buddhist teachings accessible and relevant to contemporary practitioners. His compassionate guidance and innovative teaching methods have touched the lives of students across the globe, helping them cultivate mindfulness, wisdom, and inner peace.

Liberate Yourself from Addictive Behaviors
2025-12-07 10:00 - 11:00 | BRN Academy
Meditation and Dharma Talk with time for Q & AJoin the Teaching https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87579202512?pwd=[REDACTED] Meeting ID: 875 7920 2512 and passcode: [REDACTED]
Signup and Support herehttps://givebutter.com/DEC25More About the Teaching

Are you navigating the challenges of recovery, seeking a deeper, more integrated path to healing? Join Vimalasara, co-founder of the groundbreaking 8 Step Recovery and Mindfulness Based Recovery Program, for a transformative session.
On Sunday the 7th, we will explore the 7 Awakening Factors—a core Buddhist teaching that provides a practical and profound roadmap to freedom. This Academy is designed for anyone who wants to:

Find a sustainable way out of addictive and compulsive cycles.
Strengthen their current recovery journey.
Learn how to seamlessly integrate powerful Buddhist principles into a recovery program.

Dr. Vimalasara) Mason-JoY M.A (hon.doc)
has been hailed by Dr. Ken Hardy as “one of the premier social, cultural, and psychological healers of our time.” They are an award-winning author of 11 books : Detox Your Heart, Meditations for Emotional Trauma, and Eight Step Recovery: Using The Buddha’s Teachings to Overcome Addiction. This year their new book a First Aid Kit for the Mind: Breaking the Cycle of Habitual Behaviours was published. They are one of the founding facilitators of Dr Gabor Mate’s Compassionate Inquiry. They live on the unceded territory of Kanata.They are a co-founder of the secular 8-week course Mindfulness-Based Addiction Recovery MBAR and is one of the new leading African Descent Voices in the field of Mindfulness Approaches for Addiction. They are one of the founders for Freedom Together, a mindfulness course by BIPOC for BIPOC. They live in BC. www.valeriemason-john.com

Remembering to Remember. What would be wise for us to remember?
2026-01-04 10:00 - 11:00
As we enter a new (Gregorian) new year (also, a new day, moment, hour) we can take a moment to reflect on this practice of remembering to remember as well as our practice of recovery and how they support one another.
What would be wise for us to remember? In this time together, we will talk about remembering what is wholesome/skillful and wise according to the Buddhist suttas and how that can support us in our recovery.
Links

Connect with Dalila on her website
Dana (Donations)
Find Her: The Power of Connection – January 2026
Listen: Cosmic Clowns Podcast
Read: Nature Needs a New Pronoun

Living in Vow - BRN Academy with Ryuko Laura Burges
2026-02-01 10:00 - 11:00
Living in Vow

Ryuko Laura Burges is a lay entrusted dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, teaching and leading retreats in California. She received monastic training at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. A longtime educator, Laura co-founded the Meditation in Recovery programs at San Francisco Zen Center. She has been featured in Tricycle Magazine and Buddhadharma and her books include Wisdom Stories of Tibet (2025), the first volume in a three-part series that will also feature wisdom stories from India and Japan. Other titles from Shambhala Publications are The Zen Way of Recovery: An Illuminated Path Out of the Darkness of Addiction (2023), Zen for Kids (2023), and Buddhist Stories for Kids (2022).

Photo Credit: Lauren Rudser

Happiness Follows Like a Never-Departing Shadow
2026-03-01 10:00 - 11:00
More About George

George Beecher first encountered the Dharma in 2010 when he read Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Lilian Cheung’s book Savor, about mindful eating and the Buddhist path. Over the next 11 months, George lost 110 pounds and found a passion for the Dharma. This passion for sharing the Dharma led him to found his own local meditation group, Two Hands Sangha, in 2012, and in the Mindful Eating and Living Sangha (M.E.A.L.S.) program in 2014. He has since launched and led various in-person and online Buddhist communities including over 30 Recovery Dharma chapters. He served the Recovery Dharma community at both the local and national level as it formed and grew to over 500 chapters worldwide.
In 2018, he graduated as a Certified Facilitator through the original Against The Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, taught by Vinny Ferraro and JoAnna Hardy, and in June 2022 he completed the Dharmacharya training program with Venerables Pannavati and Pannadipa of Heartwood Refuge and ordained as Reverend George Beecher (Dharmacharya Khantu-Abatti).
In 2020, he started the first ever Recovery Dharma meeting in virtual reality and enjoys teaching the Dharma and leading meditations twice a week with the MindfulnessVR Community.
Read more about Rev. George Beecher and Listen to his Podcast : Teas with Mara Here
https://bio.reverendgeorgebeecher.com/

More About the Academy
The Academy has invited some of the leading teachers in the field of Buddhist recovery. On the first Sunday of every month for an hour each teacher will explore the sharp edges of suffering through the lens of the Buddhist Teachings.
The Academy brings together teachers from different Buddhist lineages and approaches. Themes like addiction, alcoholism, depression, stinking thinking and compulsive behaviors will be explored.
During this event we will meditate, listen to the teaching, then have time for a Q & A at the end.

Transforming the Heart
2026-04-05 10:00 - 11:00
April BRN Academy
SUNDAY April 5, 2026 at 10AM PST
With BRN Board President Walt Opie
Transforming the Heart
Both Buddhist practice and recovery from addiction point to an inner transformation of the heart. As practicing addicts, our hearts may have been pretty shut down, which we may not even realize until it starts to open in recovery, perhaps quite slowly at first. One of the wonderful things about Buddhist practice is that we learn we can train the heart through certain practices like lovingkindness (metta). Then we realize we’re not practicing Buddhist recovery for ourselves alone–we’re also learning how to benefit others. In fact, the Buddha encouraged us to be a refuge for all beings.

The Mind in the Body: Breathing with the Nervous System with Kevin Griffin
2026-05-03 10:00 - 11:15 | https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87579202512?pwd=[REDACTED]

June BRN Academy with Rev. Myokei Caine-Barrett
2026-06-07 10:00 - 11:15 | https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87579202512?pwd=[REDACTED]
More About the Academy
The Academy has invited some of the leading teachers in the field of Buddhist recovery. On the first Sunday of every month for an hour each teacher will explore the sharp edges of suffering through the lens of the Buddhist Teachings.
The Academy brings together teachers from different Buddhist lineages and approaches. Themes like addiction, alcoholism, depression, stinking thinking and compulsive behaviors will be explored.
During this event we will meditate, listen to the teaching, then have time for a Q & A at the end.

The Unshakeable Heart with BRN July Academy with Vince Cullen
2026-07-05 10:00 - 11:15 | https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87579202512?pwd=[REDACTED]
Gotama, the Buddha, taught processes, not virtues. Equanimity is the clear‑eyed balance that stops us taking the world’s friction personally. Resilience is the active staying power to endure that friction without striking out. And forgiveness is their most radical by‑product. In this unsentimental talk, Vince reframes equanimity as grounded awareness, resilience as a practical capacity of a regulated nervous system, and forgiveness as a radical act of intelligence. Drawing on secular dharma and evolutionary psychology, he explores how our basic survival instincts — to protect, promote, and satisfy — map directly onto Buddhism’s three types of craving, trapping us in a state of existential friction that fuels resentment, shame, and defensive living. The talk offers a practical way out: not another set of rules to live up to, but a way to settle the nervous system so the heart no longer has to fight reality.

More About the Academy
The Academy has invited some of the leading teachers in the field of Buddhist recovery. On the first Sunday of every month for an hour each teacher will explore the sharp edges of suffering through the lens of the Buddhist Teachings.
The Academy brings together teachers from different Buddhist lineages and approaches. Themes like addiction, alcoholism, depression, stinking thinking and compulsive behaviors will be explored.
During this event we will meditate, listen to the teaching, then have time for a Q & A at the end.

BRN August Academy with Ven. Dayananda
2026-08-02 10:00 - 11:15 | https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87579202512?pwd=[REDACTED]
To Sign Up and Give Dana and Get Reminders Click Here

The True Nature of Existence: Deconstructing the Sensation of Incompleteness

This talk investigates the true nature of existence through the Buddha’s teaching on the four inversions of perception, mind, and view, found in the Vipallasa Sutta. Rather than viewing our lives through personal narratives, we will examine how these inversions cause us to instinctively mistake the impermanent for permanent, and the non-self for a solid, unchanging “I.”
We will explore how these distortions manifest as a persistent sensation of incompleteness, the precise meaning of dukkha, which arises whenever existence is “not entirely to our way.” By recognizing that existence is a series of conditional arisings rather than a state governed by a fixed “master,” we begin to loosen the unquenchable thirst of the unawakened mind. The talk focuses on how untrapping ourselves from these views allows for a steady, balanced mind, no longer driven by the eight vicissitudes of worldly gain and loss.

More About the Academy
The Academy has invited some of the leading teachers in the field of Buddhist recovery. On the first Sunday of every month for an hour each teacher will explore the sharp edges of suffering through the lens of the Buddhist Teachings.
The Academy brings together teachers from different Buddhist lineages and approaches. Themes like addiction, alcoholism, depression, stinking thinking and compulsive behaviors will be explored.
During this event we will meditate, listen to the teaching, then have time for a Q & A at the end.

BRN September Academy with Vimalasara
2026-09-06 10:00 - 11:15 | https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87579202512?pwd=[REDACTED]
