Kevin Griffin: Dharma and Recovery

Drawing from Ajahn Pasanno’s book “abundant, exalted, immeasurable.” To skip the guided meditation, scroll ahead about 20 minutes.

Exploring Ajahn Pasanno’s comment that we can sense mental activity more easily through mindfulness of the body.

Exploring the non-verbal quality of thoughts, and the intention behind them.

Exploring the uplifting energy of mindful breathing. Note: this episode has no guided meditation.

March 3, 2026 Learning to be with the difficult without reactivity.

Feb 17, 2026 The developmental process from the five hindrances, to the Seven Factors of Awakening, to the Four Noble Truths.

Feb 10, 2026, Reading from Ajahn Amaro on the protection of sila and sobriety.

Feb 3, 2026, Balancing engagement with the world with spiritual practice and recovery.

January 20, 2026 Exploring misconceptions about mindfulness meditation.

Connecting Dharma with death and the deathless.

Drawing from Ajahn Amaro’s teaching on watching the arising of self and the suffering that comes with it.

Reflections on the role of concentration in meditation. Exploring different challenges and subtleties of practice. How we get stuck in striving or judgment when the mind doesn’t get quiet.

Reflections on my early practice. Anecdotes from that time, including hearing John Lennon during a meditation retreats.

The non-verbal reality of experience. Referencing Ajahn Sumedho’s famous phrase.

Meditation focusing on feeling rather than thoughts. Connecting to the nervous system as a source of intelligence.

Beginning with background on the mindfulness and Insight Meditation movement, then moving to “vedana,” the feeling tone of each experience.

Exploring the term “interoception,” the internal sense perception.

Discovering our habitual emotional states by exploring thoughts.

Reflecting on the the feelings that drive addiction and how mindfulness can help.

Reading from Joseph Goldstein’s “Mindfulness” and Bhikkhu Analayo’s “Mindfulness of Breathing” to understand what meditative concentration is and how to approach it.

October 28, 2025 Exploring three qualities the Buddha recommends for our meditation and spiritual practice.

Continuing to explore trauma, addiction, and mindfulness meditation.

Exploring trauma in addiction and meditation. Discriminating between ordinary suffering and severe trauma. This moves on to discussing depression, feeling, and naming uncomfortable states, making them more real.

October 7, 2025 Exploring the underlying desire that triggers addiction.

9/23/2025 Exploring how naming experiences, feelings, and objects reifies them.

9/16/2025 Connecting Buddhist mindfulness practices with understanding not-self.

Tips for mindful meditation to reduce stress and manage emotions.

Discussing styles of meditation, then talking about how to hold past regrets.

Talking about how Ajahn Pasanno responds to questions about high states and enlightenment. Keeping it simple and down to earth.

Reflecting on the stages and lessons of forty years of sobriety.

Reflecting on separating mindfulness from the larger Dharma. The importance of an integrated practice, including morality, wisdom, and mind training. Viewing the practice as a long term training rather than a fix.

April 29, 2025. Reading from my own work in progress, “Let It Go,”, referencing Judson Brewer’s “Craving Mind”, and Christina Grof’s” Thirst for Wholeness.”

Strategies for sustaining focus in meditation.

Right Concentration and the five factors of absorption.

Exploring the challenges of learning meditation.

Two teachings on effort: the Four Great Efforts and the simile of tuning the lute.

The moments that remind us that our memories and view of the world are a construction. At times we discover an alternative version of events.

Exploring the life and journey of the Buddha as a series of choices to let go.

In the midst of a self-retreat, I talk about my practice.

Group Discussion.

Reflecting on finding stillness in the mind without efforting.

Making the connections between the 12 Step idea of Powerlessness and Buddhist teachings on impermanence and agency.

Compassion and Loving Kindness as an antidote to current world affairs. Referencing my book “Living Kindness.”

Drawing from Ajahn Pasanno’s “Nourishing the Roots.”

I tell the story of how I came to write my first book.

Not all karma is personal. The weather, biology, physics and more are impersonal. And we are not responsible for other people’s karma.

Reflecting on Hiri and Ottappa, the inner guides for ethical living. Drawing from Ajahn Pasanno’s “Nourishing the Roots.”

The holidays are a time of high-risk for addicts to relapse. This is an important time to stay close to your recovery community and committed to your recovery program.

“Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” – let the thoughts come and let them go. Don’t get into a conflict with thoughts, don’t analyze, don’t try to figure out. Let them be.

Reading from “Why We Meditate” by Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Daniel Goleman