Key takeaway
Recovery Dharma is a free, peer-led program that applies Buddhist practices — meditation, wise thinking, and inquiry — to addiction recovery. It has no steps, no cost, and no requirement to believe in a higher power. Its handbook poses a set of inquiry questions about your relationship to suffering, and meetings are held online and in person worldwide.
Last updated: Sun Oct 18 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
If you have tried a meeting where the whole structure felt like a checklist you didn't choose, and you have also tried sitting quietly on your own and found that it helped more than you expected, Recovery Dharma is the program that takes that instinct seriously. It is peer-led, free, and it does not ask you to join a religion.
Recovery Dharma is a free, peer-led program that uses Buddhist practices — meditation, mindful awareness, and structured self-inquiry — to support recovery from addiction. It has no steps, no higher-power requirement, and no cost. Its handbook is a free download, its meetings (called sanghas) run online and in person worldwide, and every meeting is led by volunteers rather than professionals. It is Buddhist-inspired, not Buddhist-only, and this page covers Recovery Dharma specifically, not Refuge Recovery.
What It Is and Who Leads It
Recovery Dharma is a nonprofit organization run by its members. There is no central clergy, no paid facilitators, and no franchise. Each sangha — the word it uses for a practice community — is a peer group that organizes itself. That has two practical consequences worth knowing. First, meetings vary: some are heavily meditation-focused, others are mostly discussion. Second, if the meeting in your town doesn't suit you, you can start one; Recovery Dharma's structure exists to make that straightforward, because that is how the network grew.
The program is built on Buddhist ideas that have been applied to suffering for a long time — that craving is a source of pain, that awareness can be trained, and that change happens in the present rather than by re-litigating the past. None of that requires you to identify as Buddhist. Recovery Dharma's own framing is that it uses these practices because they work, and members come from every background and belief.
The Handbook and the Practice
The Recovery Dharma handbook is free and is the program's core text. It lays out:
- Meditation — a daily sitting practice, with guidance for beginners.
- Wise thinking and action — applying mindfulness to the choices that follow you through a day.
- Inquiry — a set of structured questions about your own suffering: what it taught you, what you are avoiding, what you have already done that helped, and what you are willing to do next.
- Community and mentors — the sangha itself, plus the option to work with a peer mentor one-on-one.
- Service — giving back to the sangha as part of your own recovery.
Notice what isn't in that list. No steps. No sponsorship hierarchy. No confession of wrongs to a group. If the 12-step model's emphasis on personal inventory and amends never sat right with you, this is a genuinely different shape of program, not a lightly edited version of it.
The inquiry practice deserves a separate mention because it's what makes Recovery Dharma distinct from a generic meditation group. The questions are not designed to make you feel worse or to generate a list of failures. They ask you to look directly at your own relationship to pain and craving and to identify what you already know about getting free. The handbook frames this as something you do for yourself, with the sangha as a witness and support rather than an auditor.
Finding a Meeting
Recovery Dharma maintains a meeting directory at recoverydharma.org/find-a-meeting/, with both in-person sanghas and online meetings. Online meetings run on video platforms, which means time zones and geography matter less than they used to — there is very likely a meeting happening somewhere in the world at whatever hour you need one.
Meetings are free. There is no registration, no intake form, and no attendance ledger. If you want to try one, pick any meeting from the directory, show up, and say nothing if that's what you want to do. The handbook can be downloaded first if you'd rather read than sit through an unfamiliar format blind.
How It Differs From the Other Buddhist-Inspired Options
Recovery Dharma and Refuge Recovery are frequently confused, and the distinction matters if you're choosing a room. Both are Buddhist-inspired, peer-led, and free. They are separate organizations with separate histories, separate texts, and separate leadership — Refuge Recovery was founded by Noah Levine, and Recovery Dharma formed independently with its own handbook. Neither is a branch of the other. A person can attend both, but they are not interchangeable, and this page describes only Recovery Dharma.
It also differs from SMART Recovery, which is cognitive-behavioral and tool-based rather than practice- and meditation-based, and from 12-step programs, which use steps and a higher-power framework. If you want the shortest possible sorting rule: Recovery Dharma is where the program itself is built from meditation and self-inquiry, and nowhere else.
What a Peer Meeting Cannot Do
Recovery Dharma is not treatment. It is not detox, not therapy, not medication management, and not a substitute for a doctor. If you drink heavily or use benzodiazepines daily, stopping abruptly can be dangerous — alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal can be life-threatening, and medical supervision is the safe route through it. A clinician can assess that risk before you stop. If you are in crisis right now, call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline; call 911 in a medical emergency; or call SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for free, confidential, 24/7 treatment referral in English and Spanish.
(800) 653-9376
Additional Resources
Sources cited on this page:
- Recovery Dharma: Home (peer-led, Buddhist-inspired, handbook download)
- Recovery Dharma: The Handbook (inquiry questions, practices, sanghas)
- Recovery Dharma: Find a Meeting (sangha and online meeting directory)
- SAMHSA National Helpline (1-800-662-4357)
Common Questions
Is Recovery Dharma the same as Refuge Recovery?
No. They are different organizations with different names, different texts, and different leadership. Refuge Recovery is a separate Buddhist-inspired program founded by Noah Levine. Recovery Dharma is a peer-led, nonprofit group that formed independently and has its own handbook, its own sanghas (practice communities), and its own inquiry method. Both are Buddhist-inspired and peer-led, and a person can attend either or both — but they are not the same program, and this page describes Recovery Dharma.
Do I have to be a Buddhist to attend a Recovery Dharma meeting?
No. Recovery Dharma describes itself as using Buddhist practices — mindfulness, meditation, wise thinking — as tools for recovery, not as a religion you must adopt. You do not need to identify as Buddhist, take refuge vows, or hold any belief. If you are simply curious about whether meditation and self-inquiry help with cravings, that is enough to sit down in a meeting.
What does 'inquiry' mean in Recovery Dharma?
Recovery Dharma's handbook includes a set of inquiry questions that members ask themselves — about what suffering in their lives has taught them, what they are avoiding, what they have already done that has worked, and what they are willing to do next. The idea is not confession or steps; it is structured self-reflection, done alone or with the support of a mentor, to understand your own relationship to craving and pain.
How do I find a Recovery Dharma meeting?
The official meeting directory is on recoverydharma.org, with both in-person sanghas and online meetings on video platforms. Meetings are free and peer-led — there is no paid facilitator and no admission requirement. If no meeting fits your schedule or your time zone, the handbook is free to download and can be worked with on your own or with a Recovery Dharma mentor.
What is the Recovery Dharma handbook and is it free?
Yes, it is free. Recovery Dharma's handbook describes the program, the practices, and the inquiry questions, and the organization makes it available as a free download on its website. It also sells printed copies for those who prefer paper, but the digital version costs nothing.
If I'm in crisis, where do I go?
A Recovery Dharma meeting is peer support, not medical care or detox. If you are in a mental health crisis, call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. In a medical emergency — including severe alcohol or benzodiazepine withdrawal, which can be life-threatening — call 911. SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 offers free 24/7 treatment referral.