The Zen of Recovery [Paperback]

Mel Ash (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0874777062 | ISBN-13: 978-0874777062 | Publication Date: January 6, 1993 | Edition: 1

Zen mind connects to the heart of recovery in this compelling blend of East and West. Courageously drawing from his lifetime of experience as an abused child, alcoholic, Zen student, and dharma teacher, author Mel Ash gives readers a solid grounding in the Twelve Steps and the Eightfold Path and shows their useful similarities for those in recovery.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher; 1 edition (January 6, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874777062
• ISBN-13: 978-0874777062
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #110,712 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #99 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Codependency

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A non-religous way to find a Higher Power and recover, May 21, 1999

By 

Paulette Cullen - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Zen of Recovery (Paperback)

I reread "Zen" every few months. It's the perfect companion book to the Basic Text and It Works How and Why.

Besides breaking down the 12 steps in a way that's more easily understood, Mel Ash relates each one to Zen. Although 12-step recovery is touted as simple, it isn't for a lot of new people. Coming into the program an Athiest, I had tremendous angst over how I would be able to work the steps and remain free from active addiction. I knew honesty was important but I didn't know how I could be. I was told I needed to find a power greater than myself to restore me to sanity which I thought had to be your God. The Zen of Recovery showed me how to find a "God" of my own understanding. I'm truly grateful to have this book as an ongoing resource as my recovery unfolds.

50 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Sober Finger Pointing at The Moon, August 18, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Zen of Recovery (Paperback)

I usually only read a book once. I almost never buy more than one copy of a book. With "The Zen of Recovery" I have broken both rules. I read Mel Ash's take on recovery twice over when I first bought it three years ago. The two times I loaned out the book, I never got them back because the borrowers kept passing it on to other people. I had to repurchase it each time. I bought a copy for my Zen instructor. She liked it so much she passed it on other people at the Zen Center. I bought a fourth copy which I am hanging onto for myself. Every couple of years I re-read it again. "The Zen of Recovery" is that kind of book.

When Mel Ash described how most of us treat our present lives like a cheap motel where we are staying until we move on to something better, I was hooked. He parallels the differences and the many similarities between Zen and 12-step programs. In the chapter "What is Zen", he defines Zen as the "ultimate and original recovery program. It exposes our denial of true self and shows us how we've suffered because of our diseases of attachment, judgment, and division." He identifies Alan Watts as the "unknowing founder" of the Zen of Recovery and Bill W., the founder of AA, as an American bodhisattva.

This book, however, gives more than just a new perspective on some old ideas. Mel Ash takes the recovery concepts of craving, suffering, denial, and ignorance and expands them to consider concepts such as ego-addiction, the challenge of uncovering our true natures and of healing the planet ("the world is need of recovery").

A good read!!!

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True zen!, December 25, 2004

By 

Brian J. Demascio "The devil made me do it!" (Novato, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Zen of Recovery (Paperback)

As a "recovering alcoholic", I have had MUCH trouble within and without the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous when people find out that I am a Buddhist skeptic who does not believe in the idea of a deity called "god". As a practicioner of Zen, I am pleased to see that Mr. Ash has a solid grip of the "Zen of recovery".

Those who criticize the book for being "too Zen" as opposed to other Buddhist traditions should have read the title, "The Zen of Recovery", before they bought it! How much so like the average A.A. member, complaining about things that are relatively silly.

This book spells out Buddhist detachment and the idea of a "power" that can "restore us to sanity", applying it skillfully to the 12 Step Tradition in the process. Most of what is IN the book has already been reviewed here, so let me end by saying that first of all, I don't go to a bunch of A.A. meetings anymore because of the culture of whining, glorification of the alcoholic history, and closed-mindedness towards any idea of "a power greater than ourselves" that isn't an anthropomorphic "god". However, I DO go to three meetings a meet where the envirenment is condusive to a true "spirituality", and I am definately going to be ordering many copies of this book to distribute to my many A.A. "peers" who actively criticize my "agnostic beliefs" and consider Zen to be a path towards relapse.

Get this book if you can relate to anything I have just written, adn especially if you are interested in Asian spirituality as an alternative to the Judeao/Christian approach most often endorsed by the loving members of Alcoholics Anonymous!

Good work, Mr. Ash.