BRN Academy

The pain of regret can bind us.  We will discuss the ways we can unbind through the Dharma. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwqoakGVhpA

Every day is a new year, and it’s an opportunity to do something different because the past has gone . However so many of us hold onto the past or cling onto a future that hasn’t even arrived. Today we will explore letting go and discovering a freedom in the present moment. Let’s leave behind...

Since this is my first time speaking at the BRN Academy, I thought I would share some stories about my personal journey with you. I've been in recovery from drugs and alcohol since 1987, and there have been plenty of ups and downs along the way. Finding the practice of insight meditation and the Buddha's...

Laura will be sharing from her recently released book The Zen Way of Recovery: An Illuminated Path Out of the Darkness of Addiction,  a collection of dharma talks on teachings that are congruent with recovery. The twin paths of Zen practice and recovery have evolved and sustained her since she got sober in 1985. Here is...

The Buddha's First Truth or Realisation was "Life is painful and then you die." If this is true, then how do we respond to the disappointments of life and the certainty of death? This session will explore how we are conditioned to protect, promote and satisfy a 'self' which can never be satisfied. As the...

For this session, in honor of LGBTQ+ Pride, Lev will read a poem from the book Transcending: Trans Buddhist Voices and talk about why it's important to honor who we all are, or identify, while also understanding the emptiness of us.

Do you struggle with renouncing your compulsive behavior? Thomas has readapted a vital tool for process addictions into Buddhist framework, which they call “The Karma Garden: Watering Seeds of Self-Care.”This tool helps you: Define the behaviors you’re renouncing (the insatiable cravings and damage of hungry ghosts) Keep alert of risky conditions (-Bad Karma seeds / Suffering) Fill...

Recovery and dharma practice go through many ups and downs. How do we sustain our spiritual lives through the seasons of life?

So many of us come into sobriety with a really poor relationship with ourselves and so heavily burdened with resentments towards ourselves and others. By practicing forgiveness, not in a theistic Christian outside ourselves way, but as self empowering and self healing way to start to let go, to change our relationship with, and to...