About this Event
Join recovery practitioners, Buddhist teachers, clinicians, researchers, peer-support leaders, and community members from around the world for three days of learning, practice, healing, and connection.
Hosted by the Buddhist Recovery Network, the Buddhist Recovery Summit is a unique gathering dedicated to exploring how Buddhist teachings and practices can support recovery from addictive behaviors and help alleviate suffering in our lives and communities.
This Year's Theme:
Radical Kindness in the Face of Addiction
Addiction often thrives in environments of shame, isolation, and disconnection. Recovery invites something different: compassion, courage, community, and belonging.
This year's Summit explores what becomes possible when we meet addiction—not only with determination and discipline—but with radical kindness. Through Buddhist wisdom, recovery experience, neuroscience, and lived practice, we will explore how kindness can become a powerful force for transformation in our lives, relationships, and communities.
Need local accommodations? See our event page for discounts at local hotels: https://buddhistrecoverysummit.org/
Join recovery practitioners, Buddhist teachers, clinicians, researchers, peer-support leaders, and community members from around the world for three days of learning, practice, healing, and connection.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Well-known dharma and mindfulness practitioners with long-term recovery will come together, including confirmed KEYNOTE Vimalasara in conversation with Larry Yang . Other KEYNOTE speakers include: Mary Stancanvage , Dr. Jud Brewer, Don Lattin. Speakers will also include the leading voices in Buddhist recovery, Kevin Griffin , Gary Sanders and Cynthia Kear.
Panel Discussions:
What the Buddha Taught about Recovery- Dharma Teacher Panel
Recovery through a Diverse Lens
The Future of Buddhist Recovery
Workshops:
- Self-Compassion: Dealing with Difficult Feelings with Kindness
- Suttas in Recovery
- Bodhichitta, Aspiration & Self-Compassion as Tools for Recovery
- Creative Recovery Postcard Workshop
- The Balla Cloiche: New Insights to Building and Maintaining Healthy Boundaries
- Healing in Recovery: Kindness as the Antidote to Shame & Isolation
- Rewiring Calm: Trauma Built Nervous Systems and Buddhist Recovery
- Writing as Recovery Practice: Mindful Journaling, Inventory, and Reflection,
- Neurodivergence in Recovery
- Radically Loving Your Inner Critic
No prior Buddhist experience is required.
Scholarships & Accessibility
We believe financial circumstances should never prevent someone from accessing recovery community and support. We encourage anyone with financial need to pay what you can.
We want this event to be accessible regardless of financial circumstances. When deciding what to pay, please consider your ability to meet basic needs—including food, housing, healthcare, and transportation—as well as your access to savings, level of debt, and expendable income. If your needs are comfortably met and you have greater financial flexibility, we invite you to contribute more; if finances require careful planning, choose an amount that feels sustainable; and if meeting basic needs is often stressful or you have little or no expendable income, please choose a lower amount. Contributions at the higher end help make lower-cost participation possible for others. No explanation or proof is required.
Together we embody Radical Kindness in the Face of Addiction. Let's come together for the weekend of October 2nd through the 4th at the East Bay Meditation Center's new location: 2406 Webster St Oakland, CA
The Full Schedule
Friday, October 2, 2026
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM – Soft Opening
Registration check-in
Welcome and socializing
Author book tables
4:00 PM - 4:50 - Online Welcome Event
5:00 PM – 6:00 PM – Various Taster Recovery Meetings In Oakland
Online meetings
6:00 PM – 6:15 PM – Bio Break & Transition to Main Hall
6:15 PM – 6:30 PM – Opening Remarks -- Speaker: Walt Opie
6:30 PM – 6:45 PM – Refuges and Precepts Call and Response -- Speaker: Vimalasara Mason-John
6:45 PM – 7:00 PM – Guided Meditation -- Speaker: Dalila Bothwell
7:00 PM – 8:30 PM – Larry Yang in Conversation with Vimalasara
8:30 PM – 9:00 PM – Transference of Merit & Sitting Meditation -- Speaker: Kevin Griffin
Saturday, October 3, 2026
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM – Breakfast Taster Recovery Meetings
Online Meeting 1 meeting only SPEAKER MEETING ONLINE
9:30 AM – 10:00 AM – Bio Break -- Light refreshments available
10:00 AM – 10:45 AM – Keynote - Activism on the Path - Engaging with Kindness -- Mary Stancavage
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM – Workshops
12:15 PM - 1:00 Panel– Panel :-- “What the Buddha Taught about Recovery” Dharma Teacher Panel
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM – Lunch with Vegan Mob
2:00 pm - 2:45 pm Jud Brewer - Mind Shift Recovery (Online/On Screen)
2:45 - 3:00 PM – Afternoon Break
3:00 PM – 4:15 PM – Workshops
4:15 PM – 4:20 PM – Transition
4:30 PM – 5:15 PM – Panel –Recovery through a Diverse Lens - Carol Cano Thomas Tran , T , Sinclair, Dalila Bothwell
5:30 PM - 6:15 - Keynote: Psychedelics in Recovery: A Cautionary Tale - Don Lattin
Evening Program in Oakland Only
6:15 PM – 8 PM – Dinner Break (can bring back to hang out in space)
8:00 PM – 9:00 PM – No Talent Show Hosts: George Johns and Queenie
9:00 PM – Late – Barefoot Boogie DJ Sinclair (DJ booked for 3 hours)
Saturday, October 3, 2026
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM – Networking
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM – Speaker Meeting - Gary Sanders / Sharon Shelton?
10:45 AM – 11:35 AM – Keynote Interview Panel Kevin / Cynthia Kear /Vimalasara
BREAK 10 minutes
11:45 AM – 12:45 PM – The Future of Buddhist Recovery : Kevin/ Walt?
BREAK 10 minutes
1:30 PM –Departure
12:45 PM – 1:30 PM – Closing Ritual Ceremony
We look forward to welcoming you for a weekend of learning, reflection, and community!
Event venue & nearby stays
East Bay Meditation Center, 2406 Webster St, Oakland, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.