Dear Friends, Members, and Community,

For 15 wonderful years, the Fifth Precept Sangha has served as a supportive space for individuals seeking recovery from addiction through the lens of Buddhist wisdom and practice. I am immensely grateful for the journey we have shared, the insights gained, and the community we have built together. Thank you all for your presence, practice, and contributions over the years.

Now, together with Dr Cathryn Jacob, and building upon that strong foundation while incorporating the valuable lessons learned, I’m thrilled to announce the next step in our evolution: the launch of the RAFT to Freedom programme!

What is RAFT?

RAFT stands for:

• Recognise (that life includes difficulty & understand our situation)
• Abandon (harmful cravings & compulsions)
• Freedom (to experience and personally verify the absence of craving)
• Train (our body & mind on the path to liberation)

This new framework provides a comprehensive, structured approach grounded in the Buddha’s core teachings – particularly the Four True Realities and the Noble Eightfold Path – while integrating valuable insights from modern neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy.

Why the Change? Evolution for the Better!

The RAFT to Recovery programme represents a natural evolution of the work we began with the Fifth Precept Sangha. It offers:

• A Clearer Structure: Organised around the Four Goals (R.A.F.T.), providing a progressive map for the recovery journey.
• A Richer Toolkit: Explicitly integrates key Buddhist psychological frameworks like the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Four Brahma Viharas (applied to self and others), the Four Intentions, Four Superpowers, Five Defenders, Seven Supports for Recovery, and the Eightfold Path.
• Enhanced Integration: Seamlessly weaves together ancient wisdom with contemporary scientific understanding, making the path even more accessible and relatable.
• Deepened Metaphor: Uses the powerful simile of building and navigating a raft across troubled waters to guide our practice.

Think of it like this: We built a sturdy raft together with the Fifth Precept Sangha. Now, with RAFT to Freedom, we’ve refined the design, added more effective sails, included advanced navigational tools, and created a detailed operating manual – all to make the journey to the safe shore of freedom even more skillful and sustainable.

What Remains:

The heart of our community and practice remains: the commitment to harmlessness, rooted in the Five Precepts as Gifts that we offer to others, the cultivation of mindfulness and compassion, and the supportive spirit of Sangha.

Join Us on the Next Stage of the Voyage!

We believe the RAFT to Freedom programme offers a powerful, practical, and deeply supportive path for anyone seeking freedom from addiction and compulsion. We are excited to embark on this new chapter with you.

To learn more about the RAFT programme, read the introductory chapter from the forthcoming workbook. The new RAFT2Freedom.org website will be fully operational soon.

The first online meeting of our RAFT to Freedom community will be on Tuesday, April 15th at 8 pm UK time. A second weekly meeting will be held on Sunday, April 20th at 6 pm UK time. Subsequent weekly meetings will be held on the same days and times. No registration is required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4537777699?pwd=eFFWQ2JOSXlVNGlzTGJUYWtHR1IxZz09 (or you can connect manually with Zoom meeting ID 453 777 7699 and passcode 5ps)

Thank you again for being part of the Fifth Precept Sangha’s journey. We look forward to continuing to practice and grow together within the RAFT of Freedom!

With much Metta,

Vince Cullen and Cathryn Jacob

Link to Introduction to RAFT to Freedom

Link to The Buddha’s RAFT

#RAFT2Freedom #BuddhistRecovery #MindfulRecovery #AddictionRecovery #NewBeginnings #FifthPrecept #Sangha #Evolution #RecoveryJourney #Mindfulness #Compassion #FreedomFromAddiction

The source of our unease is the unfulfillable longing for a lasting certainty and security, for something solid to hold on to.

Pema Chödrön   [source: Taking the Leap: Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears]

No registration is required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4537777699

You can connect manually with Zoom meeting ID 453 777 7699 and passcode ‘5ps‘.

Vince, who will be our host, chose the topic.

All welcome.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Attributed to Winston Churchill ( 1874 – 1965)   [source: As quoted in “Words to Live By : 365 A Wise thought for every day” by Helen Exley]

No registration is required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4537777699

You can connect manually with Zoom meeting ID 453 777 7699 and passcode ‘5ps‘.

Janet, who will be our host, chose the topic.

All welcome.

There is no satisfying the senses,
not even with a shower of money.
“The senses are of slight pleasure and really suffering.”
When a wise man has realised this, he takes no pleasure, 
as a disciple of the Buddhas, even in the pleasures of heaven.
Instead, he takes pleasure in the elimination of craving.

Buddha   [source: Dhammapada (186-187)]

No registration is required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4537777699

You can connect manually with Zoom meeting ID 453 777 7699 and passcode ‘5ps‘.

Jessica, who will be our host, chose the topic.

All welcome.

…though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing…

Galway Kinnell   [source: Saint Francis and the Sow (poem)]

No registration is required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4537777699

You can connect manually with Zoom meeting ID 453 777 7699 and passcode ‘5ps‘.

Catherine, who will be our host, chose the topic.

All welcome.

Puzzlement and doubt… are the beginnings of mental freedom.

Joost Meerloo   [source: The Rape of the Mind (PDF)]

Wednesday, 29 January 2025
3:30 pm HST (eg Honolulu, Hawaii)
5:30 pm PST (eg San Francisco/Vancouver)
6:30 pm MST (eg Denver)
7:30 pm CST (eg Chicago)
8:30 pm EST (eg New York/Tampa)

Thursday, 30 January 2025
8:30 am ICT (eg Bangkok)
9:30 am AWST (eg Perth)
10:30 am JST (eg Tokyo)
12:30 pm AEDT (eg Sydney)
2:30 pm NZDT (eg Auckland)

No registration is required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6794136360

or manually enter meeting ID 679 413 6360 and passcode ‘brn’.

https://buddhistrecovery.org/recover/brn-online-meetings

Gary, who will be our host, chose the topic.

All are welcome.

Those who deem the worthless as valuable,
And see the valuable as worthless:
They do not attain the valuable;
They roam in the field of wrong thought.

Buddha   [source: Dhammapada 1.11]

No registration is required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4537777699

You can connect manually with Zoom meeting ID 453 777 7699 and passcode ‘5ps‘.

Vince, who will be our host, chose the topic.

All welcome.

Train your mind to see good in everything. Positivity is a choice. The happiness in your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.

Anonymous

No registration is required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4537777699

You can connect manually with Zoom meeting ID 453 777 7699 and passcode ‘5ps‘.

Claudia, who will be our host, chose the topic.

All welcome.

Suffering, then, is the initial movement of the recognition of false boundaries… It points beyond boundaries altogether.

Ken Wilber [source: No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth]

Wednesday, 15 January 2025
3:30 pm HST (eg Honolulu, Hawaii)
5:30 pm PST (eg San Francisco/Vancouver)
6:30 pm MST (eg Denver)
7:30 pm CST (eg Chicago)
8:30 pm EST (eg New York/Tampa)

Thursday, 16 January 2025
8:30 am ICT (eg Bangkok)
9:30 am AWST (eg Perth)
10:30 am JST (eg Tokyo)
12:30 pm AEDT (eg Sydney)
2:30 pm NZDT (eg Auckland)

No registration is required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/6794136360

or manually enter meeting ID 679 413 6360 and passcode ‘brn’.

https://buddhistrecovery.org/recover/brn-online-meetings

Gary, who will be our host, chose the topic.

All are welcome.

You have nothing to prove to anyone, no quota to meet, and no responsibility towards being what others think you should be. However, you do have a responsibility to yourself, to be yourself.

Dr BethAnne Kapansky Wright   [source: Small Pearls Big Wisdom: 365 Reflections on the Heart of Being Human]

No registration is required. The meeting link is –

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4537777699

You can connect manually with Zoom meeting ID 453 777 7699 and passcode ‘5ps‘.

Shaku, who will be our host, chose the topic.

All welcome.