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A review by kmccubbin
Refuge Recovery: A Buddhist Path to Recovering from Addiction by Noah Levine
4.0
I like Noah Levine and am interested in and appreciative of his work with addiction. This book is very solid first step in giving people with addiction troubles an alternative to the quite archaic, Christian-based (which is different than being exclusive to Christians, which it is not), 12 step programs that we're all so familiar with. It is not anti-AA. (Neither is Levine, who is a member. As am I.) It is a very similar program with a Buddhist framework with the added bonus of incorporating significant amounts of meditation which has been shown to facilitate addiction treatment.
Good and good.
My only quibble is that Levine's program is SO similar to AA that you're left to wonder, by the end if it adds much to the recovery field. The paths are so similar that occasionally where they diverge it almost feels like a struggle to find a difference. You could, fairly easily, interpret AA itself as being a reading of the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path as you searched for a way to arrange your "higher power."
That said, I'd really like to see an expanding of this kind of recovery idea where it's not afraid to take something that seems to work, like the 12 steps, and work it from a different angle that might work better for some people.
Good and good.
My only quibble is that Levine's program is SO similar to AA that you're left to wonder, by the end if it adds much to the recovery field. The paths are so similar that occasionally where they diverge it almost feels like a struggle to find a difference. You could, fairly easily, interpret AA itself as being a reading of the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path as you searched for a way to arrange your "higher power."
That said, I'd really like to see an expanding of this kind of recovery idea where it's not afraid to take something that seems to work, like the 12 steps, and work it from a different angle that might work better for some people.