Overcoming addiction, monastic style

The weekly ‘Bangkok Podcast’ this week interviews Paul Garrigan – who after many years as a hopeless alcoholic overcame his addiction at Thailand’s famous temple Wat Tham Krabok.

This is a ‘last attempt’ place for overcoming addiction of many kinds, and has a long and good track record of effectively giving addicts a framework for change. He has written a book called ‘Dead Drunk’ if you are interested. There is a nice interview with him by Tony Joh and Greg Jorgensen (who wrote an article on our Little Bangkok Sangha for the Toronto Star last year) on the podcast above, from October 2010.

Irishman Garrigan had found himself at Wat Tham Krabok after being an alcoholic since the age of 16, and after 4 years living in Thailand. Famously, part of the ‘treatment’ in the temple involves a shot of fluid that brings on violent vomiting … but it seems to work anyway!

Tony and Greg seem to find a lot of interesting characters for their weekly podcast, including a certain foreign monk in Bangkok (to be posted up in November). Take a look at : http://www.bangkokpodcast.com/

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