By Donna Quesada
Getting High
Like marijuana, he said, softly.
Oh. I support legalization, I said, matter-of-factly.
No, I mean for spiritual transformation, he said.
Ohh.
He described the blissful feelings and the state of communion he had recently experienced while high on marijuana. He said he had felt a sense of oneness, a loss of self and a heightened sense of awareness, while inebriated.
He is a good student, and I appreciated the trust he had in me. I took my time in responding.
It can give the illusion of a mystical experience, I said. But it's just that; an illusion. And it comes at a high cost, I continued. Because he is an exceptionally intelligent and curious student, I went forth. Part of the illusion is created through temporary suspension of the left-brain dominance we've all been nurtured on - that part of us that is driven by critical reasoning, problem solving and formulas, and by an inexplicable need to prove stuff. So, for a moment, with that overbearing part of us at ease, you feel less like competing, and instead, more in touch with others. You feel more receptive, and more in tune with your feelings and instincts. You feel less driven by that need to figure it out and be right. You're even fine with the unexplainable. It feels blissful.
But a genuine spiritual state is found in presence. It's not found in some magical place. And the irony is that when you're high, you cannot sustain your attention long enough to be present. You cannot be mindful when you're high. Heck, you can't even sit up straight when you're high. Thus, the ironic conclusion is that you end up preventing the very spiritual state you're chasing. Spiritual practice is defeated by getting high.
True spiritual practice is practice at being here. So, inebriated, you rob yourself of the opportunity to develop the kind of discipline that you not only can turn to at any time, but that nurtures within you the ability to maintain this state of mind. You rob yourself of the profound sense of peacefulness and composure that comes from sustained presence. Inebriated, rather than develop a sincere acceptance of what is, you merely feed the desire to run and hide from life. It is a high cost indeed.
By turning to inebriants, you also nurture a dependency. You become addicted to what seemed at first, like a magical feeling. Because the feeling was temporary, you have to continue using, in order to find it again. They call it "chasing the dragon" in the context of harder drugs, but even with the less-scary stuff, you find yourself ensnared in the same trap because you will have deprived yourself of the ability to find contentment through your own efforts. You'll be looking for it on the outside, just like so many others who rummage forever in the garbage bins of the world's many cheap thrills, and only develop addictions along the way - they gamble, they drink, they overeat, they have affairs, and they watch porn and none of it takes them anywhere worthwhile, except to the shrink.
Balancing the brain is a good thing. Dislodging ourselves from the tyranny of the left-brain is a much-needed thing in this society. But how beautiful it would be to nurture that inner harmony through your own true discipline! That's a real high! That's what meditation does: it fixes the brain. Like other forms of yoga and moving forms of meditation, as found in the martial arts, it brings about the harmony that comes from opening up into the softer world of the right-brain, from opening the heart center and releasing that deeply ingrained habit of proving, accumulating and competing, at any cost. But all practical function is thwarted when you're high. Thus mastering these forms of moving meditation would be difficult, at best.
I then reminded my attentive student of the film we saw in class on the life of the yogis in India. Do you remember when they talked about the "fake yogis?" He remembered right away. They were the ones who smoked hashish.
(Editor's Note: Originally published on Donna's blog DQ's Windmill.)
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Donna Quesada’s viewpoint is accurate when a recreational use of cannabis is being considered. The unconscious imbibing of cannabis for recreational use quickly catapults the recipient into inebriation and past a useful dosage suitable for spiritual expansion and growth.
The sacred use of cannabis treats the process and material (cannabis) as a sacrament (a symbol, something regarded as possessing a sacred or mysterious significance and conferring a specific grace upon those who receive it). When used in this way, cannabis is incorporated as a conscious element of spiritual development and expansion.
Cannabis is not a miracle pill that takes the work out of spiritual growth. Cannabis is a facilitator, ally, collaborator with sound spiritual practice. By starting slow and avoiding inebriation with small amounts incrementally raised to find the optimum level for one’s sacred use -cannabis is experienced for its harmonious and supportive abilities to facilitate mental ~ emotional insights and enhance environmental sensory perception by opening multiple channels of consciousness. Right-Left brain activity is balanced and integrated at higher levels which produces greater awareness and sensitivity of “embodiment” -being present with your thoughts and feelings while feeling connected with your body; experiencing expansive awareness.
Presence, the prized spiritual state Donna Quesada writes about, is profoundly experienced in greater depth with cannabis, which facilitates applying spiritual practice and personal growth processes to the awakened realizations resulting from its sacred use.
Cannabis’ gentleness and vibrational resonance of unconditional love and acceptance facilitates opening of shadow aspects and creating opportunities for transformation with less resistance stirred up by the ego-personality.
By bringing consciousness and sacred intention to every step of cannabis sacrament use through ritual, ceremony, meditation, awareness, revelatory practice, and integrative processes -the sacred use of cannabis can greatly expand and enhance the experience of the sincere practitioner.
Love and Light,
Sunyata Satchitananda
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Finally, an explanation I feel.
I’m happy for the discussion. Although I am the rare philosopher who has come to loathe argument, I’m just going to chime in since it seemed to generate a fair amount of discussion and disagreement on facebook and I feel I should respond to certain points made.
Conversations twist and turn, and with those turns, come further subtleties and insights. For that I am glad for the feedback and welcome it. Firstly, with regard to the suggestion that because psychedelics are God given, that makes them somehow right, we must remember that along these same lines, God gave us many things, many of which we would readily agree to shun. Still, as was pointed out, people will abuse anything, many of them natural (when you get down to it, is there anything that isn’t “natural?”). Arsenic and gambling and war are all natural, yet harmful. But God also gave us the will to resist temptations. But, just to be clear, I’m certainly not equating a potentially therapeutic substance like marijuana with arsenic! I only wanted to illustrate the point that, by itself, “natural” or “god-given” doesn’t define value one way or another.
With regard to the fact that tribal cultures have and still practice inebriation, it’s like the point made above; just because something is done, doesn’t mean we’re obligated to accept it. Again, many tribal cultures – and indeed, many “civilized” cultures – do many things that are anything but acceptable. And some of it is done in the name of sacred practice. We are not obligated to accept things like animal or human sacrifice, for example, in the name of spiritual practice. Again, I’m not equating marijuana use with these activities, but merely making the point that just because something IS done, doesn’t necessarily mean that it SHOULD be done.
We change, we evolve, the environment changes, we discover new ways, more appropriate ways, more effective ways, someone shows us new things, and we come to see, and eventually, do things differently.
Sunyata Satchitananda’s comment is intelligent, and adds much to the discussion, and I appreciate his warm tone and true desire to add to the dialogue. His sincerity is felt. And I warmly thank those who have read and who have appreciated my article, even if we respectfully disagree.
And this is not to say I am against marijuana. And it’s certainly not to condemn anyone who uses it. Lord knows, I had my days in the past. As the opening lines in my original essay attest, I openly support marijuana’s legalization and have so for a long time. In many cases, people are suffering from conditions that marijuana can help with and the therapeutic effects greatly outweigh any detrimental effects, which don’t compare to the “harder drugs,” anyway. I simply don’t agree with its use as a spiritual conduit.
With regard to the mention of “fake yogis” in my article, it was a point made in a documentary called Origins of Yoga. Even among yogis, there is much criticism toward those other yogis who get high in the name of spiritual practice. They are seen as impure and lazy.
Yogi Bhajan’s words come to mind: “Why do people take drugs? To get out of facing reality.” As Shakti Parwa Kaur Khalsa explains in what is known as the bible of Kundalini Yoga, “when Yogi Bhajan arrived in Los Angeles in December of 1968, the drug culture was a way of life for almost an entire young population. They had started taking drugs to find God, and for many, it was a sincere spiritual quest.” She goes on to explain the Yogi’s compassion for these people and their unhealthful condition, which impelled him to teach them Kundalini Yoga. He knew it was the fastest way to heal them and help them in their quest for genuine spiritual awakening. He knew that they were turning to drugs because they had never been taught any other way to deal with the spiritual longing they felt. Most importantly, he knew that through the Kriya Yoga that he brought to the west, they would be able to repair their nervous systems and their brains and undo the damage done by drugs.
Warmly, ~Donna
[...] Getting High: Yogis and Drugs? [...]
thanks for the post