The Zen of Recovery

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 own experience as an abused child, alcoholic, Zen student, and dharma teacher, Ash presents a practical synthesis of AA’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 life. It also includes practical instructions on how to meditate and put this book into action. Its message will help readers live more profoundly “one day at a time.”

Mel Ash is a writer, artist, and teacher/performer with a lifelong interest in transformative experience, cultural change, and consciousness. A former authorized Zen teacher in an Asian tradition, he has taught workshops nationally on Zen, Beat spirituality, and alternative psychology.

Present during many cultural shifts, he attended Woodstock as a young teenager, worked at a punk rock paper in the eighties, and is currently active in contemporary alt. culture, exploring the cultural dimensions of spiritual action.

In addition to Shaving the Inside of Your Skull, he is also the author and illustrator of The Zen of Recovery (1993) and Beat Spirit (both published by Tarcher/Putnam). He is currently researching and working on his new book.

He is active in Providence's First Unitarian Church, lives with Sarah Owens-Ash, a Boston radio personality, his two sons, many cats, one newt (no, NOT THAT ONE!), and occasional wayfarers in Providence's "International Neighborhood."