WakeUp

What is a Higher Power when your a Buddhist?
To me, the obvious answer is our own buddha-nature, true selves, original selves.
What are some other possibilities?
Taking Refuge? The Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha?
The Eigthfold Path?
Enlightment?
Nirvana?
*****'s Net? (Our interconnectedness with all of the universe?
The Four Noble Truths?
No-self?
The law of karma?
Impermanence?
Empitness (Shunyata)?

Ago

Change God to Good whenever you see it in the BB and it works for Buddhism

*****'s net works

I used this:

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...-three-aa.html

Zencat

Yes as I understand, it is my "higher self" that is the same as a "higher power".

grateful2b

yes...that is exactly my understanding as well...

Ananda

I lean strongly on the law of cause and effect...and the spiritual path of buddhism..which actually includes all the things you listed.

The spiritual path of buddhism supports recovery as "waking up" is soo crucial. The law of cause and effect is something that provides a stable unchanging law that none of us are exempt from....it makes sense for me of the world I live in.

When I question my aitheism...I end up drunk...when I firmly plant myself in the spirituallity I know....I stay sober.

So I am back to basics...

Boleo

I don't know if this has anything to do with Buddhism but Thomas Troward was a Christian who converted to Hinduism. He said it this way:

“When we realize the Unity of the I AM, the identity, that is, of the Self-recognizing Principle in the Universal and in the Individual, we may form three conceptions of it: one according to which the Universal I AM is reduced to a mere unconscious force, which the individual mind can manipulate without any sort of responsibility; another, the converse of this, in which Volition remains entirely on the side of the Universal Mind, and the individual becomes a mere automation; and the third, in which each phase of Mind is the reciprocal of the other, and consequently the inceptive action may commence on either side.”

Ananda

i'm a buddist and an alchoholic. I just called oxford houses, 1/2 way houses for alchoholics. they need me to be 2 weeks sober and the treatment center will let me come back, self pay (minor resentment), for the 2 week requirement.

I'm gonna learn to talk to people about my beliefs that stand in the way of AA....spiritually fit I can believe in AA....but when things go south it isn't supportive of where I am at...

I may have to pitch AA and the 12 steps, but i am hoping that isn't true. An intervining god is something i can't believe in. just as a believer would die before they would deny thier god....i would die before i would deny my belief....those of you who with good intentions basically troll here...consider that before responding....would you stay sober if it meant you had to deny what you believe in your heart to be true...would you be willing to consider that aitheism is the way to sobriety and deny god every day in order to stay sober?

I believe we have to honor our beliefs and live by them...regardless of the concequence to self....

ok..enough...expecting a slam bang...later

Boleo

First of all I would not stand a "snowballs chance in hell" of staying sober if I had to deny EVERYTHING I believed when I started the steps. It turned out that I only needed to throw 2 or 3 lifelong conceptions out the window.

One of them was my "own conception of God". It turned out that what I thought was my own conception was really someone else's conception forced on me.

I only had to make a few minor adjustments to my old conception to find my new own conception which turned out to be much more beneficial.

I do believe I have to honor my beliefs and live by them...regardless of the consequences to self...

Fortunately for me my beliefs are now in perfect alignment with the principles that help keep me sober.

Ago

As an Atheist I suggest the conceptions you have to "throw out" aren't religious ones, they are self will based beliefs, the "beliefs" you are hanging on to are literally killing you if you keep relapsing.

my experience is the same as Boleo's, it wasn't my conception of God that needed retooling, it was everyone else's conception of God that went through my mind when I heard the word "God", mainly the Christian ones, My "God" has f*ck all to do with Christianity, I don't believe in a diety, I don't believe in an otherness, I don't believe we die and are judged, I don't believe in heaven and hell, I don't believe in Angels, in my experience I can be a died in the wool atheist and use the word "God"

It aint Buddhism holding you back either, I personally know of over 100 practicing Buddhists in AA, personally I am Taoist with Buddhist leanings, so I suggest it's not your belief or not belief in God holding you back, it's your thinking, if alcoholism is centered in the mind, which it is, that means your thinking is skewed, that means your mind is what is causing you to drink, so at what point do you stop believing it's ********?

Let Go of your thinking Ananda, it's killing you...or not