September 2023 Newsletter

September 2023

Click the link above to read the 2nd Edition of the Recovery Dharma book, including updates to the text and 14 personal stories of recovery from members of the community!

Dear Sangha,

Fall is here! As the weather starts to cool down and the skies turn gray, how can you nurture warmth in your being? One wonderful way to warm the heart is to get together with friends in recovery. Join us TOMORROW (Saturday, September 16th) at the annual Rally for Recovery hosted by Advocates for Recovery Colorado for some heart-warming community fun! Details below.

Sending peace,
Recovery Dharma Denver

Upcoming Events

AFRC Rally for Recovery

Saturday, September 16th: 10am - 3pm

Gather at 10am at 16th & Wynkoop to join the Walk for Recovery (starting at 11am) to Civic Center Park, where there will be booths from various recovery organizations, live music, food, and more!

Recovery Dharma will be setting up a booth to spread the word about our program. If you are able to help out at the booth for any amount of time, please contact Gio at (720) 207-3560 - thank you for your service!

Intersangha Business Meeting

Sunday, October 1st: 6:45pm - 7:45pm

We are trying to plan a BIG business meeting with representatives from sanghas across the Front Range every 3 months! Please join us and invite your sangha friends! This time we will gather at The Phoenix on Champa and decide on where to gather for the next big meeting (Boulder? Lafayette? Longmont? Fort Collins?). There will be pizza and soda!

Join us if you are interested in getting more involved with the sangha! We love to see fresh faces ready to take on a service position. If you can't join in person, join us via Zoom (passcode: 303030).

News

Second Edition of Recovery Dharma

Recovery Dharma Global recently published the Second Edition of the Recovery Dharma text. It has a beautiful new logo as well as updates to the text and 14 personal stories from members of the community at the back of the book.

The Second Edition was born out of a desire to ensure that the text supports people from all walks of life, so the language has been updated to be more inclusive of BIPOC and LGBT communities as well as people struggling with various process addictions.

This new edition also opens with a beautiful dedication to the ancestors who developed the traditions that we use today to heal our own suffering, as well as those who cared for the lands we hold our meetings on, and all people who have suffered from oppression along the path.

The new logo is separated into 8 parts to represent the Eightfold Path. You’ll notice that it’s not a perfect circle — this is because none of our paths to recovery are perfect, either!

Read more about the new logo here. You can purchase the book on Amazon for $10 or read/listen to a free copy on the Recovery Dharma Global website.

Meetings

Join us at one of our weekly meetings. We have in-person meetings nearly every day of the week across the Front Range as well as online meetings you can join from anywhere. We practice meditation together and then read from the Recovery Dharma book or another Buddhist text. The second half of the meeting is dedicated to providing space to talk about the topic or anything you need to share related to recovery.

We have a few new meetings to announce!

2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month 7:30 - 8:30pm MST @ The Phoenix (In-Person) 2233 Champa St. Denver, CO 80205 (in Baby Champa, the door to the left of the gym entrance). A safe space for women/trans/non-binary folks.
Thursday 6:30 pm MT Lakewood (In-Person) @ Shepherd of the Hills Church - 11500 W 20th Ave, Lakewood, CO 80215
Thursday 7:00 pm MT Denver (In-Person) @ FREE Spiritual Community Center - 2122 S. Lafayette St, Denver, CO 80210

For a complete list of meetings in the area, visit our website.

From the Book

Wise Effort (pp 32-34)

Wise Effort is the first of the concentration group. It means concentrating our effort on understanding and recovery and awakening. Wise Effort isn’t based on how much we should meditate, how much service we should do, or how much time we put into healthy activity. Instead, it’s the intention to devote balanced energy to supporting the other parts of the path, particularly wisdom.
The first thing to pay attention to is avoiding situations and states of mind that can lead to unethical, unskillful, or harmful responses. We become more aware of conditions in our lives and investigate our own responses and reactions to those conditions. When we’re operating out of greed, ignorance, confusion, or thinking we can get what we want, we need to be aware of that. We put in the effort and energy to understand what circumstances allowed these conditions to arise and how we can begin to move away from those responses.

Read the full chapter here.

Community Resources

Recovery Dharma supports a holistic path to recovery. There is no one right way to recover! It's always a good idea to add more tools to your toolbox to facilitate your healing.

Here are some other community resources to check out:

Advocates for Recovery - recovery meetings, events, coaching
CHOW (Culinary Hospitality Outreach and Wellness)
CAIR (Colorado Artists in Recovery) - artists workshops and events
Rooted303 - personal development classes, recovery coaching, support groups
The Phoenix - A Sober Active Community offering free exercise classes
Hard Beauty - recovery coaching and workshops
Meditation Resources - Insight Timer App, Sounds True One, Waking Up, Headspace, Plum Village App, Recovery Dharma Meditations.

Share Your Story!

Recovery Dharma Global is working on creating a companion book to the main text that is full of personal stories from sanghas around the world. If you are interested in sharing your story, please email your local Board Member, Natalya, at natalya@recoverydharma.org with your story and, if you would like, your picture. We can also include it in the next RD Denver newsletter!

You never know how sharing your story can support someone else on their path to recovery. Being willing to open your heart and share your truth is an amazing act of service!