Hungry Ghost Retreats
Waking Up to Everyday Life
There is life without alcohol and other drugs
– a life free from shame, free from blame and free from guilt
– a life free from craving, free from aversion and free from confusion.
Everyday Nirvana – every day.
Vince Cullen – at the Buddhist Recovery Summit, Seattle, USA in 2017
Everyone on the Buddhist path is in recovery – or waking up – from greed, hatred and delusion; for some of us that manifest as particular cravings and aversions accompanied by an awful lot of confusion!
The Way to End Suffering
“The search for a spiritual path is born out of suffering. It does not start with lights and ecstasy, but with the hard facts of pain, disappointment, and confusion. However, for suffering to give birth to a genuine spiritual search, it must amount to more than something passively received from without. It has to trigger an inner realisation, a perception which pierces through the facile complacency of our usual encounter with the world to glimpse the insecurity perpetually gaping underfoot. When this insight dawns, even if only momentarily, it can precipitate a profound personal crisis…
…No longer can we continue to drift complacently through life, driven blindly by our hunger for sense pleasures and by the pressure of prevailing social norms. A deeper reality beckons us; we have heard the call of a more stable, more authentic happiness, and until we arrive at our destination we cannot rest content.”
The Noble Eightfold Path – Bhikkhu Bodhi
“Waking up to who you are
requires letting go
of who you imagine yourself to be.”
~ Alan Watts ~