Namaste
A thought or two may temper the pendantic, dry lack of tonality that I
feel characterizes what you regularly advise us about. Here is the
citation in full I urge you to consider as relates to Zen Budhhism and
spirituality, and hopefully your eternal dharma didactic tone will open
wider your doors of perception. Ohmm.. Also, reading Siddhartha by Hesse
may further boost your Zen currency in my, and perhaps others, eyes..
Keep up the good work, I heartily reccomend your Dharma to my fellow Zen
travellers..
"Psychedelic Religious Experience Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and
Psychedelics, Allan
Hunt Badiner and Alex Grey (Eds). Chronicle Books, 2002.
Psychedelics were the most important paradigm shifting catalyst for the
baby
boomer generation. The contribution they have made in opening
revolutionary
vistas in art, music, ecology, religion, community, and politics should
be
honored. The normative consensual status quo has been so threatened by
psychedelics that they have instead been outlawed and demonized. For
over
thirty years, due to drug policy politics, it has not been possible to
explore
the wise use of psychedelics. The Economist reported in 2002 that the
United
States locks up nearly 175 out of every 100,000 Americans for
drug-related
offenses. Drug crimes often get harsher punishments than violent
assaults,
rapes, or murders. The current political culture has made the legal
consequences of psychedelic drug use so draconian that any reasonable
public
experimentation with them either by citizens or scientists is
impossible.
It is in this loaded context that Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and
Psychedelics,
arrives to challenge the widespread misperceptions about drug use, and
to
reassess the contribution that the psychedelic experience can make to
spiritual
inquiry. The book is a cornucopia of art, essays, and interviews that
explore
the influence that psychedelics have had on well-known artists and
meditation
teachers, as well as the ways in which those experiences serve as
gateways to
deeper religious understanding. It uses a newer, more descriptive name
for
psychedelics-entheogens (en=inner, theo=spirit/god, gen=creation)-a term
that
acknowledges the capacity of certain substances to reveal the inner
sacred
spirit that is generated within the mind/body phenomena.
Zig Zag Zen harkens back to the psychedelic experimentation of the 1960s
and
1970s, when many of today's prominent western meditation teachers and
artists
began to explore the expansion of consciousness and investigate other
ways of
knowing and being. According to sociologist James Coleman, there is a
significant correlation between psychedelic use and Buddhist practice.
In his
book The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient
Tradition
(Oxford University Press, 2001), he states that sixty-two percent of
the
Buddhist practitioners he surveyed had used psychedelics. U.S.
government
surveys indicate that about 8 percent of the general population has
used
psychedelics. Psychologist Charles Tart and Coleman both report that in
Tibetan
groups 75 to 80 percent of participants polled had used psychedelics.
Coleman
asserts that individuals who are drawn to psychedelics tend to be drawn
to the
inward gaze, "toward the direct personal experience of the ultimate
rather than
outward to the world of the established social order." Coleman's
research about
the Buddhist community certainly rings true in the other religious
renewal
movements of our time (Jewish, Christian, Sufi, Hindu).
Religious communities worldwide are at the vanguard of wise entheogen
use. In
the United States the Native American population uses plant entheogens
(peyote)
for its ceremonies. In West Africa the psychedelic plant iboga is used
in
rituals. In India, the religious use of a psychedelic called soma was
featured
in the Rig Veda and entheogens have been a part of south Asian
religious
practice for millennia. For two thousand years initiates into the Greek
Eleusinian Mystery school would consume a powerful vision-enhancing drug
called
kykeon. In South America the sacred use of the psychedelic ayahuasca has
moved
from the native populations of the Amazon Basin into the urban centers
where it
is the central sacrament in their religious praxis. These ayahuasca
churches
are making rapid inroads into Europe and the Americas because they
provide a
meaningful community context for the powerful religious insights that
entheogens can provide. In the face of the global war on drugs, those
who have
the interest and capacity can travel to Brazil to experience the sacred
use of
entheogens legally in indigenous communities and urban churches. (For
more
information about participation in ayahuasca ceremonies with Jews in
Brazil,
contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED])
Though the title may suggest that this is a book exclusively about
Buddhist
meditation and psychedelics, it is more fundamentally about the
relationship
between entheogens and the spiritual journey. Psychedelics in fact
profoundly
influenced an entire generation of seekers who have become leaders of
the
growing alternative movements in our country today. Not only were the
Buddhists
and artists described in Zig Zag Zen influenced, but also political
activists,
eco-activists, and many others who participated in the alternative
spiritual
enterprise. The most interesting parts of the book are non-sectarian
conversations about the influence of psyehedelics on awareness and
their
ability to open new places of insight and understanding in the
individual.
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These stories are supported by what co-editor Alex Grey calls the
"vajravision"
of artists, which means art that addresses "the themes of liberation of
the
mind," "altered states," and "depictions of transcendental emptiness."
The
psychedelic tale illuminated through the collected images is as
revealing as
the text. Yet, missing from the book was the vajravision of musicians.
Musicians have traditionally held the ambient envelope for sacred
journey space
whether in a temple or on a psychedelic journey. Entheogens became
widely
accessible in America at the same time as new forms of music were
emerging. The
Zig Zag Zen story is incomplete without acknowledging the musical
contribution
of artists like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, and many of
those
artists popularized by Stephen Hill's radio program "Music from the
Hearts of
Space."
In my own case, the experiences I had more than thirty years ago using
LSD
while listening to music first awakened in me a felt sense of the
sacred. My
investigation of these experiences led me directly to rabbinic school
and a
life-long contemplative practice. Many of my peers shared this kind of
Jewish
awakening through the convergence of entheogen use and their own
spiritual
inquiry.
The Jewish people have a long tradition of altering consciousness for
spiritual
purposes. The ritual use of wine in Judaism is ubiquitous for
organizing
blessings and celebrations. It is a sacrament that has been used for
centuries
as an adjunct to prayer precisely for its consciousness-shifting
qualities.
Fasting is another ancient tradition of the Jewish people that is used
as a
means to alter consciousness in order to access places of deep grief
and
heightened moral introspection.
It is the combination of entheogens and meditation that Zig Zag Zen sets
out to
explore. It is an open secret that the dedicated seeker can achieve the
kind of
rare, mystical, and transcendent religious experience-often thought to
be
impossible in our age of enlightened rationality-through the twin paths
of
disciplined meditation practice and entheogenic exploration. Many voices
within
Zig Zag Zen discuss how psychedelics and meditation allowed them to
cultivate
empirical wisdom based on personal investigation, as well as open up to
profound religious experiences. Many also suggest that the entheogenic
experience helps to cultivate the conscious inner observer so
fundamental to
the spiritual journey.
Lama Surya Das, one of the book's contributors, writes that "Intense
drug
induced openings can help temporarily crack open the ego shell and
break
through a heavily guarded, stiff persona, providing non-conceptual
mystical,
sensual, emotional, visionary, heart-opening, and mind-expanding
experience
otherwise unavailable to ordinary consciousness." Zen master Dokusho
Villalba
Sensei takes this theme deeper when he writes,
By dissolving the firm hold of the logico-rational mind over the
perception of
reality, entheogens propitiate, on the one hand, the appearance and
observation
of contents arising from pre-personal levels (their regressive aspect)
and, on
the other, the appearance and observation of contents arising from
transpersonal levels (their transcendental aspect). Training in
meditation is
an excellent preparation for confronting the expanded states of
consciousness
which entheogens generate, and, conversely, the intensity and
forthrightness of
these expanded states can provide a great impetus to apply the
achievements
attained during meditation in an emphatic way.
Even in the Buddhist community, however, there is a stigma attached to
psychedelic drug use. Erik Davis, a contributor to the book, writes, "I
suspect
that a healthy chunk of self-identified practicing American Buddhists,
keep at
least occasional dates with the writhing world rending void lurking in
the
heart of psychedelic hyper-space. But I also suspect that, if asked to
render
judgment on such activities, most Dharma teachers would deliver a fat
thumbs
down. Indeed, psychedelic spirituality may be the only real heresy in
American
Buddhism." Buddhist teachers in the book speak about entheogen use in
the
distant past. To publicly confess or condone psychedelic use would be
awkward
because they are illegal and most (but not all) Buddhist teachers would
say
that they are prohibited from using them by the Buddhist injunction to
abstain
from intoxicants. The tremendous cultural fear and repression focused
around
drug use inhibits open dialogue about the positive role entheogens can
play in
spiritual awakening. Zig Zag Zen takes an important step in re-opening
the
discussion about the fundamental role psychedelics played in the
creation of
the contemplative institutions of Buddhist practice in the West. A
clear
discourse regarding the skillful use of entheogens is emerging in books
like
Dr. Stanislov Grof's LSD Psychotherapy and in Kelamine: Dreams and
Realities by
Karl Jansen, M.D., Ph.D. The logical sequel to the Zig Zag Zen anthology
would
address the sacred use of entheogens in the post-modern context.
It has been decades since pioneers like Stan Groff and Ralph Metzner,
who had
training in medicine and psychology, conducted their important
pathbreaking
research into the exploration of consciousness with the controlled use
of
entheogens during the short window when it was legal to conduct this
kind of
research with LSD. We can imagine the exciting possibilities of
continuing
these guided investigations about God, death, rebirth, prophecy, heaven,
hell,
good, evil, reincarnation, and attention to the core emotions (fear,
anger,
greed, and suffering) through the agency of entheogens and meditation.
The recent success of medical marijuana initiatives suggests that the
age of
strict drug prohibition, like the era of alcohol prohibition, may be
passing.
There is recognition that some of the demonized drugs may have some
social
merits. There is a growing movement for cognitive liberty, which argues
that
every person has the right to control their own brain. In a world in
which
cognitive liberty is a natural human right, entheogens become a
prescription
tool alongside Prozac and Viagra. We have a global
biochemical-industrial
infrastructure that provides chemical solutions to cancer, aging,
impotence,
depression, and the full spectrum of human problems. We already use
chemicals
and herbs for headaches, depression, hypertension, inflammation, and
infection.
We should be researching chemical pathways into prophecy,
enlightenment,
empathy, compassion, love, and friendliness as well. (For a detailed
conversation on this topic see www.maps.org.)
The new millennium has revealed a global economy that is passionately
pursuing
the dreams of a materialist monoculture. The accumulative self-interest
of
individuals has joined with the interests of the capital markets for
the
pursuit of more consumables and expanding profits. These tendencies are
joining
with a global military-industrial complex whose expenditures are coming
close
to $1 trillion a year. At the same time the United States is engaged in
the
largest expansion in history of a prison complex which is being
maintained to
warehouse, disappear and control those elements of the population that
our
politicians desire to take out of circulation. One out of every four
people in
prison is there for a nonviolent drug offense. Can an expression of
collaboration, sustainability, caring, compassion, ecology, and
celebration
maintain a niche in the face of the tidal wave of global corporate
capitalism
whose sole purpose is profits, a global military industrial complex
whose
function is war, and an expanding domestic policy of incarceration whose
intent
is to remove undesirable elements from society and to place them in
prisons?
What Archimedes lever of dissent is available for those who want to
break open
the extreme individualism and anomie embedded in the operating system of
the
global capitalist village?
Zig Zag Zen is testimony that entheogens have had the capacity to open
many
seekers to the possibility of new ways of envisioning reality. The use
of
meditation and psychedelics influenced the imagination of an entire
generation
of spiritual seekers who have since transformed the landscape of
Western
spiritual expression. Perhaps in the near future the widespread,
controlled,
legal use of entheogens in conjunction with contemplative practice will
provide
members of the global community with an alchemical catalyst to help us
re-
envision our way of life and the institutions that maintain it. The
tacit
message of Zig Zag Zen is that entheogens and meditation might lead us
to
choose a trajectory of love, compassion, insight, caring, conservation,
and
connected inter-dependence. As Jack Kornfield points out, "Psychedelics
awaken
in people not just a thirst, but a sense of the possibilities for
exploring the
mind and body-that they could live in a different way." Today we are in
need of
powerful medicines that can re-awaken in humanity our creative capacity
to seek
new ways to live inside of ourselves, with each other, and with the
planet.
[Sidebar]
We should be researching chemical pathways into prophecy,
enlightenment,
empathy, compassion, love, and friendliness.
[Author Affiliation]
Michael Ziegler is a rabbi who leads Shir Hashirim Minyan in Berkeley,
CA.
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 17:38:54 +0600
> From: "Bhikkhu Samahita" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: How to be a Real True Buddhist ?
>
> Friends:
> How to be a Real True Buddhist through Observance?
> Any Lay Buddhist simply joins the Three Refuges and undertakes
> the Five Precepts like this: Newly bathed, shaved, white-clothed,
> with clean bare feet, one kneels at a shrine with a Buddha-statue,
> and bows first three times, so that feet, hands, elbows, knees and
> head touch the floor. Then, with joined palms in front of the heart,
> one recite these memorized lines in a loud, calm & steady voice:
>
> As long as this life lasts:
> I hereby take refuge in the Buddha.
> I hereby take refuge in the Dhamma.
> I hereby take refuge in the Sangha.
>
> I seek shelter in the Buddha for the 2nd time.
> I seek shelter in the Dhamma for the 2nd time.
> I seek shelter in the Sangha for the 2nd time.
>
> I request protection from the Buddha for the 3rd time.
> I request protection from the Dhamma for the 3rd time.
> I request protection from the Sangha for the 3rd time.
>
> I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Killing.
> I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Stealing.
> I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Sexual Abuse.
> I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Dishonesty.
> I hereby accept the training rule of avoiding all Alcohol & Drugs.
> As long as this life lasts...
>
> Then, one keeps and protects these sacred vows better than one's own
> eyes & children, since they protect you & all other beings much
> better
> than any army! They are the highest offer one can give in & to this
> world!
> This is the very start on the path towards Nibbana -the Deathless
> Element-
> This is the Noble Way to Peace, to Freedom, to Bliss, initiated by
> Morality,
> developed further by Dhamma-Study and fulfilled by training
> Meditation...
>
> Today though is Pooya day, uposatha day, observance day, where lay
> Buddhist
> normally keeps the Eight Precepts from sunrise until next dawn.
> If any wish an official recognition by the Bhikkhu-Sangha, they may
> simply
> forward the lines starting with "I.." signed with name, date, town &
> country
> to me. I will put up a public list of this newly born Saddhamma
> Sangha here!
> May your journey hereby be eased, light, swift and sweet. Never give
> up !!!
>
> Bhikkhu Samahita: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> For Details on Uposatha Observance Days:
> http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/uposatha.html
> ________________________________________________________
> PS: Please include the word Samahita in any comment, since then
> will my automatic mail filters pick it up and I will see it &
> respond!!
>
> Bhikkhu Samahita, Sri Lanka.
>
> Friendship is the Greatest ...
> Let there be Calm Free Bliss !!!
>
> http://www.what-buddha-said.org/
> http://groups.msn.com/DirectDhamma
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Buddha-Direct
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/What_Buddha_Said
> http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Buddha-Dhamma
> Dhamma-Questions sent to my email are quite Welcome.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
>
> Current Book Discussion: Appreciate Your Life by Taizan Maezumi Roshi
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
>
>
> Samahita
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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