The Alchemical Brothers
Matt & Luke Farren
Matt started a daily meditation in 1992 through a need to find a spiritual practice to support his recovery from alcohol and other drugs. Matt found Zen a path which aligned well with him and continued a daily practice for 16 years. After a move to Portugal his practice slipped and he had a gap for a year.
“This was a dark time. I didn’t drink or use but regressed dramatically. I was depressed and angry. Coming back to the UK and kickstarting my practice, going to meetings, held no traction. I felt alienated, hollow and bereft of ideas. 22 years of recovery without a True north as a guide, wore me out. Meditation has many benefit but on it’s own as a away to deal with addiction is like trying to stop a rhino with a fly whisk.
There is the assumption that recovery is a linear thing - that if you do X practice for so long, you will, by some sort of osmosis be an idealised wise monk, where life is somehow, all equanimity, compassion, unicorns and rainbows. It isn’t. By grace, I was fortunate to be steered to an Enlightenment Intensive by my dear brother Luke and having absolutely no knowledge of the format, stumbled through the door full of ego and knowing that this wouldn’t work. Within two days I ‘got it’. Direct experience of being, blew my bloody doors off. Being reconnected and ‘part of’, my polarity of being shifted. Fear and anger disappeared. I said to my Daizan (the master holding the retreat who became my Teacher) right then and there, “I have to share this with addicts!”
This can can save an awful lot of time, wasted effort, going down blind alleys and ultimately, save lives. ‘
To share this awakening Matt has since qualified to teach insight development, mindfulness, yoga, and has ongoing training to be a Zen Teacher in a Rinzai tradition under Julian Daizan Skinner Rōshi, he’s studied and qualified as an Enlightenment Master in this specific method with Lawrence Noyes in the US (the torch bearer of Charles Berner’s work) and as a Senior Monitor with Jake and Eva Chapman in the UK.
The method worked for me, when, after 22 years of sobriety, clean time, daily meditation and mindfulness practice I’d become depressed and angry. I realise now that many meditation practices offered, can become just another way of deflection. By going to a place of comfort which can offer some semblance of spiritual experience, a place where many folk, just like me, would rather hang out than be willing to tread the path of what is known throughout history, as the hero’s journey. These pleasant distractions or even euphoric states, whilst offering some benefits, aren’t the genuine awakening that Carl Jung or Bill W spoke of.
22 years of recovery without a True north as a guide, wore me out. What makes it worse is the assumption that recovery is a linear thing - that if you do X practice for so long, you will, by some sort of osmosis be an idealised wise monk, where life is somehow, all equanimity, compassion, unicorns and rainbows. Compounded by the ego thinking it needs to look and ‘sound well’, sharing at meetings becomes a living nightmare. In reality, dealing with addiction without this touchstone, is akin to trying to stop a stampeding rhino with a fly whisk. I was fortunate enough to stumble across this method which has proved effective for thousands of others to see their Truth of being, to undeniably know union of being. I know that, as it worked for me, it can absolutely work for you too.
Images provided by ARO HĀ Wellness Retreat.
S T A F F
Matt Farren, Founder, master
Luke Farren, Founder, master