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The Zen of Recovery
A practical synthesis of AA’s Twelve Steps and Zen’s Eightfold Path. In this compelling blend of East and West, Mel Ash shows how Zen mind and practice connect to the heart of recovery. Courageously drawing from his lifetime of experience as an abused child, alcoholic, Zen student, and dharma teacher, Ash presents a practical synthesis of Alcoholics Anonymous’s Twelve Steps and Zen’s Eightfold Path. You don’t have to be Buddhist to appreciate the healing power of The Zen of Recovery. The book makes Zen available to all seeking to improve the quality of their spiritual and everyday lives. It also includes practical instructions on how to meditate and put the book into action. Its message will help readers live more profoundly “one day at a time.”
257 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 6, 1993
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250 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
October 29, 2011
There was some good material in the early parts of this book, those that dealt with the Steps and the author gave us his take from what would be his personal Zen Perspective. The sections titled reflections and directions were a bit facile and pretentious in parts. I experienced sections of the book in those parts as "the author" being teacher rather than relating his experience in a very personal way, at those times the material just didn't have any weight for me. It's not that what was being put was false it just didn't connect with me, it seeme strained and forced in parts... seeking to impress?...maybe me rather than Mr Ashe but it would have been a better book if he had kept it condensed around the issue of the relationships between the 12 steps and Zen and left the raves for midnight coffee crawls with the groupies.
January 23, 2015
I should probably just make this an "always-reading" b/c every so often I get all whacked out (w/o the external chemicals) and need to remind myself that this (usually an intimate relationship) too is recovery, growth, change, etc. Since I've dropped all the supernatural stuff, this is about the only 12-Step-related book I can read without wanting to poke my eyes out (except for Living Sober Trade Edition, which is good because it's more practical, not dogmatic), and even with this one I have to remind myself to read and interpret symbolically (though it's not too hard to do with Buddhism).
December 2, 2021
I started listening to this book two days ago actually and just finished it tonight. I was a bit behind in updating books. In any case, I thought the connection to Zen & AA was an interesting perspective on the spiritual aspect of AA, which I think also falls in to another belief of the medicine wheel. One of the four directions being spiritual; easily translate to Nehiyaw-Michif beliefs that I grew up with. Anyway, this is a book for those who are in an NA/AA type of program. There are some techniques for calming and maybe some mixed in rhetoric. I mean, besides the ethics of a lil bit aligning themselves with AA 🤭 or blending Zen with an anonymous organization. But then again, no controversy. 🤐
Breathing techniques, meditation, motivation, metaphors and analogies 💯
This doesn’t mean I hate it. Sometimes I buy a book just to hear what I already know or to refresh my memory; whatever the topic. This one had an unidentifiable, haven’t been able to articulate it yet….sort of icky feeling. I didn’t google the author but I will in a bit.
Breathing techniques, meditation, motivation, metaphors and analogies 💯
This doesn’t mean I hate it. Sometimes I buy a book just to hear what I already know or to refresh my memory; whatever the topic. This one had an unidentifiable, haven’t been able to articulate it yet….sort of icky feeling. I didn’t google the author but I will in a bit.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 24, 2020
Good, not great. I lost interest in the second half of the book because it felt like the author shifted more towards the role of teacher instead of just sharing insights from his personal experience. I love the concept, though. There’s definitely a lot of overlap between Zen and Recovery.
December 9, 2015
"Feeling different is one of the symptoms of your human disease. Only by being one among many do we find true recovery of our human nature." (p.5)
"When asked if he was a god, Buddha replied that he was not. 'Are you a saint, then?' he was asked. He replied that he was not a saint either. 'Then what are you?' 'I am awake,' was his answer." (p.8)
"I simply disappeared for a second in a void of complete surrender, egolessness and nonsuffering." (p.25)
"We sleepwalk through the scripts and sets of our lives, only dimly recalling their vague outlines and meanings. Always living for a better tomorrow or running from a numbing past, we inhabit this present moment like a shabby motel on the way to somewhere else." (p.31)
"'An extreme virtue consists in killing one’s passions. A deeper virtue consists in balancing them.'" (Quoting Albert Camus, p.35)
"'Be lamps unto yourselves. Rely upon yourselves. Seek salvation in the truth alone. Everything is transient and passing. Seek diligently your own liberation.'" (Quoting Buddha, p.41)
"If you decrease the population of dysfunction and pain by only one, meaning yourself, you have already made a giant step in saving the whole world." (p.61)
"First, we must admit the wrongdoing in regard to ourselves, that above all else we were the primary recipients of the worst actions of our disease and that we harmed ourselves nearly irrevocably with the denial of our true, original nature. Our other actions were simply the mindless thrashings of a wounded animal, not malicious or intentional." (p.75)
"We have to empty ourselves of even our darkest secrets in order to become filled with potential. Otherwise we remain tainted vessels, poisoning every new experience with our denial." (p.76)
"Zen stresses our obligation to spread the message and save all beings from suffering. It is not for ourselves alone that we get better." (p.87)
"Even on our deathbeds, most of us refuse to stop our denial and wake up, still holding resentments and suffering as though they were some great treasure and our own invention and unique infliction." (p.88)
"Whenever we believe a person, place or situation to be bad or good, we are cutting ourselves off from half of true experience." (p.105)
"We follow the thoughts and opinions of this mind wherever they take us. But we don’t have to. We can merely be aware that we’re thinking in the same manner that we’re breathing and let it go at that. Thought comes. Thought goes. Just like the beat of our heart. Your heart will probably let you down a lot less than your thinking. You already know this to be true for yourself." (p.108)
"We lived in this dream world full of anger and resentment that the real world just didn't understand and wouldn't let our dreams come true.
In our dreaming, we were beautiful, successful women or handsome, wealthy men or anything other than what we really were: suffering, disease-ridden people in the death-grip of fatal illusions." (p.119)
"This world seems to demand conformity and ‘normalcy’ of us. Even our friends and teachers reinforce the idea that just being ourselves, with no apologies, is somehow dirty. Forget them. Cut them loose." (p.136)
"My inner being became to open and vulnerable that it was hard to tell the difference between a healing and a wound." (p.173)
"If we hold our teachers, sponsors and even counselors to some kind of spiritual yardstick, I fear we’ll all fall short, students and clients included. Most spiritual teachers are teachers because they’ve recognized their own shortcomings and will readily admit them. A true teacher will not claim to be the only store in town selling this product, or badmouth his competitors' wares." (p.194)
"How can we ensure that our personal awakening and healing don’t degenerate into a self-absorbed, narcissistic isolation?" (p.199)
"Whose recovery is this? You have an obligation to share. You have an obligation to get better and recover your true self and become a real human being. This is your real purpose in being alive. You have the obligation to extend your recovery to all beings and all things. Together we get sick, both as addicts and as a species. Together we can get better." (p.201)
"I don’t call my Higher Power anything at all. My collection of bargain basement bodhisattvas and Salvation Army saviors reminds me that if I do so, I’m already dead and defined, unable to flow with the ever-changing and passing world. The God that can be named is not God." (p.215)
"When asked if he was a god, Buddha replied that he was not. 'Are you a saint, then?' he was asked. He replied that he was not a saint either. 'Then what are you?' 'I am awake,' was his answer." (p.8)
"I simply disappeared for a second in a void of complete surrender, egolessness and nonsuffering." (p.25)
"We sleepwalk through the scripts and sets of our lives, only dimly recalling their vague outlines and meanings. Always living for a better tomorrow or running from a numbing past, we inhabit this present moment like a shabby motel on the way to somewhere else." (p.31)
"'An extreme virtue consists in killing one’s passions. A deeper virtue consists in balancing them.'" (Quoting Albert Camus, p.35)
"'Be lamps unto yourselves. Rely upon yourselves. Seek salvation in the truth alone. Everything is transient and passing. Seek diligently your own liberation.'" (Quoting Buddha, p.41)
"If you decrease the population of dysfunction and pain by only one, meaning yourself, you have already made a giant step in saving the whole world." (p.61)
"First, we must admit the wrongdoing in regard to ourselves, that above all else we were the primary recipients of the worst actions of our disease and that we harmed ourselves nearly irrevocably with the denial of our true, original nature. Our other actions were simply the mindless thrashings of a wounded animal, not malicious or intentional." (p.75)
"We have to empty ourselves of even our darkest secrets in order to become filled with potential. Otherwise we remain tainted vessels, poisoning every new experience with our denial." (p.76)
"Zen stresses our obligation to spread the message and save all beings from suffering. It is not for ourselves alone that we get better." (p.87)
"Even on our deathbeds, most of us refuse to stop our denial and wake up, still holding resentments and suffering as though they were some great treasure and our own invention and unique infliction." (p.88)
"Whenever we believe a person, place or situation to be bad or good, we are cutting ourselves off from half of true experience." (p.105)
"We follow the thoughts and opinions of this mind wherever they take us. But we don’t have to. We can merely be aware that we’re thinking in the same manner that we’re breathing and let it go at that. Thought comes. Thought goes. Just like the beat of our heart. Your heart will probably let you down a lot less than your thinking. You already know this to be true for yourself." (p.108)
"We lived in this dream world full of anger and resentment that the real world just didn't understand and wouldn't let our dreams come true.
In our dreaming, we were beautiful, successful women or handsome, wealthy men or anything other than what we really were: suffering, disease-ridden people in the death-grip of fatal illusions." (p.119)
"This world seems to demand conformity and ‘normalcy’ of us. Even our friends and teachers reinforce the idea that just being ourselves, with no apologies, is somehow dirty. Forget them. Cut them loose." (p.136)
"My inner being became to open and vulnerable that it was hard to tell the difference between a healing and a wound." (p.173)
"If we hold our teachers, sponsors and even counselors to some kind of spiritual yardstick, I fear we’ll all fall short, students and clients included. Most spiritual teachers are teachers because they’ve recognized their own shortcomings and will readily admit them. A true teacher will not claim to be the only store in town selling this product, or badmouth his competitors' wares." (p.194)
"How can we ensure that our personal awakening and healing don’t degenerate into a self-absorbed, narcissistic isolation?" (p.199)
"Whose recovery is this? You have an obligation to share. You have an obligation to get better and recover your true self and become a real human being. This is your real purpose in being alive. You have the obligation to extend your recovery to all beings and all things. Together we get sick, both as addicts and as a species. Together we can get better." (p.201)
"I don’t call my Higher Power anything at all. My collection of bargain basement bodhisattvas and Salvation Army saviors reminds me that if I do so, I’m already dead and defined, unable to flow with the ever-changing and passing world. The God that can be named is not God." (p.215)
February 9, 2021
We cannot get through this life without a few dings and scratches. A friend I worked with often stated "we are all in recovery". And in that spirit, The Zen of Recovery is a book that will provide guideposts for those looking to repair the dings and buff out the scratches..
August 31, 2024
Favorite Recovery and Buddhist book ever
The author put himself into every page. I read this at rehab in 2012 along with the Big Book. Thanks goodness I did or I wouldn't have made it in the program. Tolerance and acceptance of myself and others is uber important in life and recovery. He shared the tenets of the AA program and Buddhism from the perspective of an abused childhood, survived with the basics of Buddhism, AA and excellent teachers. Mel Ash can rest in peace knowing he left the gift that keeps on giving to addicts and alcoholics of all sorts. Thank you so much!!!
The author put himself into every page. I read this at rehab in 2012 along with the Big Book. Thanks goodness I did or I wouldn't have made it in the program. Tolerance and acceptance of myself and others is uber important in life and recovery. He shared the tenets of the AA program and Buddhism from the perspective of an abused childhood, survived with the basics of Buddhism, AA and excellent teachers. Mel Ash can rest in peace knowing he left the gift that keeps on giving to addicts and alcoholics of all sorts. Thank you so much!!!
March 2, 2021
Re-reading this after 20+ years and enjoying it a little less than I originally did. Maybe that is because on the first read many of the concepts Ash describes were new to me, and this time they weren't. I found the language Ash uses to be overwrought and at times insufferable, which struck me as kind of the opposite of Zen, though what do I know. At the same time, re-reading this felt like hearing from an old friend, one I hadn't thought of in a long while, and who I hoped was doing well today.
June 24, 2025
For those familiar with Zen, there’s a refreshing informality here. Ash doesn’t drown you in jargon. Instead, he distills core concepts like mindfulness, presence, emptiness, and radical acceptance in a way that is immediately usable for someone facing real emotional or spiritual crises.
If you’ve struggled with addiction, trauma, compulsions — or even just the relentless inner critic — this book is a gift. It reminds you that recovery is not about becoming someone else. It’s about waking up to who you’ve always been — whole, worthy, and enough.
If you’ve struggled with addiction, trauma, compulsions — or even just the relentless inner critic — this book is a gift. It reminds you that recovery is not about becoming someone else. It’s about waking up to who you’ve always been — whole, worthy, and enough.
October 19, 2023
This is a nice addition to other things I have read about recovery. It is always nice to see a new way of doing things or a way to use the 12 steps as a starting point but not the end all point. I matches well with DBT therapy and I will likely combine what it with what I am already doing.
June 15, 2020
As I am not in AA - only zen parts was intresting for me.
November 14, 2020
Sprinkled with pearls of wisdom. The content and can a little dense and esoteric, but I am glad that I finished it.
March 18, 2021
So many good zen principles to come back to, really good advice.
November 8, 2022
I really like this book and I'm glad I read it. It's a little confusing from time to time but I overall loved the insights given. Would recommend to anyone struggling with anything.
November 9, 2022
I didn't find this at all helpful.
April 20, 2021
Useful. Great summary of the 12 steps (AA) and their intersection with Buddhism.
July 23, 2014
I enjoyed listening to the audiobook version of the Zen of Recovery. Ash has a compelling life story and does a very good job in making important connections between the twelve steps and a non-theistic approach to recovery and to Zen in general. As a nice side benefit, I also really enjoyed learning some things about the Korean school of Zen.
If I were to be in the position to give the author some feedback, I'd probably tell him (after heartily thanking him for making an important contribution to the literature of recovery)that his earnest, altogether sincere but excessively exhortational prose style wore thin after a while. To paraphrase the counsel of an old time Zen master, "While you were busy preaching, you already received thirty blows."
If I were to be in the position to give the author some feedback, I'd probably tell him (after heartily thanking him for making an important contribution to the literature of recovery)that his earnest, altogether sincere but excessively exhortational prose style wore thin after a while. To paraphrase the counsel of an old time Zen master, "While you were busy preaching, you already received thirty blows."
August 29, 2018
I have had this book since about 1993. I skimmed through the author's take on the 12 steps back then, then put it on the shelf. Now I am reading it, very slowly, letting it sink in. About half way through. I am slowly gaining some understanding of the basic ideas he is putting forth. I have a hard time imagining what my life would be like if I did not attach values to everything that happens. Good and bad, positive and negative are my go-to judgements. To detach from emotionally judging and qualifying everything seems hard to do. But he keeps repeating that the way to this is to meditate and be aware. So that is what I am doing.
Finished it, some ideas have been permeating my daily life. Lots of food for thought,
Finished it, some ideas have been permeating my daily life. Lots of food for thought,
February 21, 2008
I don't really agree with a lot of his views on Buddhism and on recovery, but all in all I'm glad someone attempted this, and this is a hell of a lot more interesting than most related books appear to be.
April 30, 2008
Some people say Bill W. studied Buddhism. Nah, there are universal truths common to AA & Buddhism.
January 23, 2009
Good book. Twelve Steps Mantra....One Day at a Time.....Zen....Being ok and aware of this moment. Very interesting corellations and enjoyable short read.
October 25, 2011
I read this book as a part of a meditation meeting.
September 24, 2012
Good stuff
December 1, 2014
Just what I needed!
Anyone in or out of recovery could benefit from this awesome book!! I can't wait to read it again!! Awesome.
Anyone in or out of recovery could benefit from this awesome book!! I can't wait to read it again!! Awesome.
March 27, 2016
Didn't like as found author too self-serving. Couldn't even finish as way too far into the book I could not figure out what the message was.
September 10, 2022
It was OK. Some decent stuff but pretty dated.
Read
August 11, 2016helpful. second time for this book; I will probably buy a copy for myself.
March 30, 2016
Beautiful blend of the spiritual principles of Zen Buddhism and 12-step revocery programs.
April 14, 2017
I got a lot out of this, including statements such as (and I am paraphrasing here) be cautious of people trying to save you, the only difference between a halo and a noose is twelve inches. I do wish there was a little more detail about meditation, but there is an excellent bibilography at the end, so I know where to look.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews