Spiritual - LSD & Buddhism

[ollywithbeans]

Swim is a Buddhist, he has also taken LSD once and loved every second, not only on a sensory level but in the way it altered his perception outside of the drug's command as well as expanding his mind significantly, so much so that he decided to take up Buddhism.
Swim wonders though, if it is strictly prohibited by the laws of Buddhism. He knows to become intoxicated is strictly prohibited but LSD does not intoxicate in any way swim could fathom. Swim was thinking about the levels of Jhana (different levels of perception and mind state achieved with meditation) and he couldn't help but liken his LSD experience to a higher Jhana state, a oneness with everything around him and a diminshing interest in trivial sensory pleasures like food and drink, however doesn't LSD count as a sensory pleasure in at least some ways? It seems silly to say but swim could count an LSD experience as a way of cheating into a higher level of Jhana, without concentrative meditation, but for swim the way of Buddhism itself would never prohibit such a thing that would allow people to enter Jhana, even if it was a way that required less mental effort. On the flipside though swim worked damned hard in his session, as all swiys know an LSD experience doesn't neccessarily come to you, you make your own session.
Swim thinks Buddhism is very similar to an LSD experience, you make your own way to enlightenment, a search for Nirvana. Much like a swiy would search for answers or the help to find his own answers within the trip.

Either way even if Buddhism did prohibit LSD swim would not accept this into his lifestyle. He went to Buddhism in the first place as it is not, in his eyes, something to control you where a higher power sees your path as wrong, but a way to find your own path to enlightenment and awakening. No path is wrong in swim's eyes if it is right for you. The buddha said not to incorporate things into your life just because they have been told to you from authority, and so regardless of its prohibition or non prohibition swim sees LSD as a valuable asset in his search for awakening that he would be a fool to disregard.

[psyche]

Originally Posted by ollywithbeans

He went to Buddhism in the first place as it is not, in his eyes, something to control you where a higher power sees your path as wrong, but a way to find your own path to enlightenment and awakening. No path is wrong in swim's eyes if it is right for you. The buddha said not to incorporate things into your life just because they have been told to you from authority, and so regardless of its prohibition or non prohibition swim sees LSD as a valuable asset in his search for awakening that he would be a fool to disregard.

That pretty much sums it up. Enjoy being a buddhist and don't go into the christian tendency to emphasize sin, shame and guilt. That being said, LSD is in a way shortcut and the lucid mindstate and oneness can be forgotten easily. But if one leads a spiritual life regardless of LSD and meditates, reflects and seeks for the spiritual states of nirvana and samadhi, then it can be a good ritual to encorporate into ones life.

[ThirdEyeFloond]

This thread made me recall a text by Vanja Palmers I once read, perhaps it can be of value to SWIY. Palmers is a zen priest among other things.

Both meditation and psychedelics are close to my heart. I'm grateful to both of them for having shown me that true essence of the heart, which is the heart of everyone and everything, our ultimate belonging and source of meaning. For starters, psychedelics began disrupting my, up until then, fairly smooth and protected life - enough to be able to ask, for the first time, a deep and urgent question. This kind of questioning goes far beyond words and concepts and leaves nothing untouched. We think we know about ourselves and the world. It is incredibly freeing and quite confusing. Next, meditation harmonized it all again, so that I could live with a measure of integrity and ease. Then, after many years of rigorous formal practice and complete abstinence, psychedelics have once again inspired my Ôbeginner's mind', getting me out of the habits and ruts that seem to be part of the package deal of life and which, though necessary and comforting, stand in the way of our fresh, direct experience. Now, I haven't traveled the psychedelic path much for about two years. It looks like everything has its time, life comes in cycles.

This is how it was for me, and it does not seem to be so unusual. The dramatic rise of interest in Yoga, meditation and eastern religion in the 60s and 70s was closely related to the psychedelic movement. A poll conducted by the Buddhist magazine "Tricycle" shows that 83% of the 1,454 respondents had some firsthand experience with psychedelics.

During the 80s and 90s many of the spiritual, once young ex-hippie communities had become middle-aged meditation centers with relatively few newcomers under the age of 30. The next generation seemed less interested in meditation, alternative lifestyles - and also in psychedelics. On my recent trip through the States, during which I visited a number of meditation centers across the country, I noticed many young faces again. Being accompanied by my twenty-year-old daughter, I had easy and quick access to them and I was not surprised to learn that most of them have had some contact with mind-altering plants and chemicals.

So what is the relationship between psychedelics and meditation? One way to approach such a question is to first look at the meaning of the words independently. "Meditation" has roots in the Latin "meditari", which in turn has roots in the indo-Germanic "med", having something to do with "measuring, walking, staking out". We could define it as the act of exploring, walking in, measuring, staking out the sphere of our consciousness. "Psychedelic" is based on the Greek words "psyche" and "delos", the first meaning "breath, the seat of consciousness", the second "clear, visible". Psychedelics can help us to clear our mind and make visible the nature of consciousness.

So from the etymological point of view, through very different lineages, they are pointing in the same direction, the investigation of our inner being. This process is also known as Ôpractice' and the linguistic relationship of the two words mirrors the actual experience of many people: Very different means to investigate a very similar subject: Ourselves, the meaning of existence, the Ultimate.

Viewed from yet another angle, the difference might not be as big as it seems: neurologists have discovered that physical exhaustion, prolonged fasting and other austerities (such as the Buddha underwent before his Great Enlightenment) as well as wound fever (such as Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order, as well as many other Christian Saints, suffered from at the time of their spiritual awakening) produce changes in the brain that are virtually indistinguishable from the changes produced by the intake of psychedelics. At this point it might be useful to make a distinction between the virtue or goal of practice, the loving, beneficent and constant awareness of this never-ending process of exploration, and the methods that aim at getting us there. The former is universal, true and necessary for everyone. Dogen refers to this when he states that "Zazen has nothing to do with sitting or standing or laying down" - and St. Paul when he admonishes us to "pray at all times". When it comes to the methods, we have a choice, and all of them work sometimes and sometimes they don't. Some work better for some people than for others, and all of them have their relative strengths and weaknesses.

Traditional mainstream Buddhist training does not include the use of mind-altering substances. With very few possible exceptions, they are simply not mentioned in the sutras and other texts. Some think that they are dealt with in the precept that states "a disciple of the Buddha does not intoxicate mind or body of self or others". Others think differently: the same poll mentioned above found that almost 60% of the responding Buddhist practitioners felt that psychedelics and Buddhism do mix and that they would consider taking psychedelics in a sacred context (in the "under 20" category this percentage was 90%). The traditional understanding of intoxicants refers to all mental and physical phenomena that foster confusion through fanning our likes and dislikes. And as the Buddha never fails to point out, ultimately everybody has to decide for themselves what is what.

While it is true that the setting and the techniques used at traditional Buddhist retreats are not geared toward the use of psychedelics, it is quite obvious that skills in meditation, the practice of being at peace within one's body and mind, even in uncomfortable places, can be of great help in the course of a psychedelic session. Not only from this point of view, one could say that the practice of meditation is available to more people than the practice of psychedelics.

Are there any dangers involved with the use of psychedelics? Yes, there are. They are very powerful sacraments, or medicine, and they have to be approached with the utmost respect, preferably under the guidance of an experienced friend. The fears most commonly voiced are damage to body and brain as well as dangerous behavior and addiction. The classic psychedelics, unlike substances such as heroin, cocaine, and alcohol, have virtually no organic toxicity in the quantities in which they are ingested. Their addictive risk is too small to be measured when used in ceremonial settings. Psychedelic traditions from the Vedic dawn to Eleusis to the Native American Church have succeeded in creating ritual contexts in which hazardous acting-out is virtually unknown.

But what of the dramatic changes which psychedelics can have on our psyche and spirit, our heart/mind, our consciousness? Of course this effect is the very reason for taking them in the first place. Is it ultimately helpful or harmful? A moment after his great awakening, a Zen master exclaimed "...my life is completely ruined...". As we get closer to the life force itself - not just our ideas about it - our categories and points of view are put into perspective, and their relative nature becomes obvious. And it is from this perspective that we must judge the value of any given experience.

Buddha recommends to view our life "as a dream, a flash in the darkness, a star in the morning dawn, a bubble in a stream, an illusion of the senses". The aim of practice is to wake up from that dream. One question often asked after a deep experience is: Was it a genuine awakening, or was it just another dream within a dream, another illusion within an illusion? Personally, I don't worry too much about this. A primary religious experience is the seed for a spiritual life, no more and no less. No matter how genuine the encounter with the Ultimate might be, it does not guarantee a genuine spiritual life. The experience may be authentic, but what counts is our daily life - and how authentic it is depends on how we live, its quality, what we do with it. Will we be able to muster up the necessary determination and patience to let the light which we glimpsed for a moment, be it through meditation or psychedelics, gradually penetrate our whole being? Will we allow the experience of oneness and belonging - whether or not it wasn't really real - to inspire and transform our lives? This is our challenge and our hope, individually and as a species.

Vanja Palmers has practiced Zen for thirty years and has received Dharma transmission from his teacher Kobun Chino Roshi. He lives with his family in Switzerland and is the head of a meditation and animal rights center.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Adds an interestiing perspective to the discussion

[ollywithbeans]

Wow that was brilliant, thanks very much for posting it. That actually made swim feel like psychadelics certainly have a place within Buddhism, if not for the meditative state they bring about then certainly for the fact that mind expansion is a definite use, and for swim personally they are a definite way forwards on his path. Buddhism is about questioning yourself after all, and LSD provided many questions and even helped Swim find his path to Buddhism in the first place.

[Songcycle67]

SWIM:

Definitely agree with all the points made so far. For me, Zen is like LSD without the serotonin hangover. I turned to Zen after turning on and it amazed me how much the teachings of Zen align with what is encountered on LSD. I studied Buddhism quite a bit at university, specifically Zen, and it really helped me a lot with dealing with some of the more difficult aspects of the LSD experience that I had encountered.

Growing up in the bible belt isn't the best primer for LSD use, and unfortunately some of the more horrific teachings of the Christian religion are just hardwired into a lot of people in America who were taught Christian ideas about sin and such as children.


Great post. Great thoughts. I try to stay away from the metaphysical discussions but I really enjoyed this one and I just got to recommend some Zen and General Buddhism to anyone looking for a spiritual context for the LSD experience.


Edit: Also, as to the intoxicating effects as they relate to the principles of Buddhism, I believe that it is widely considered "okay" to intoxicate after enlightenment. That's probably not Orthodox, but Buddhism is hardly a strict code. I believe also that the Buddha knew that he was speaking to people who were generally poor and unlearned, and such people would be greatly hindered in their path if they were without their wits.

Secondly, a narcotic is defined in Buddhism as any substance which causes the wits to dim. Narcotics, basically. Even with narcotics, though, and this is from the mouth of my professor, there are many monks who do drink wine and smoke and such, and they do this by circumventing the law by "reading into the text what one wishes to read into the text." Obviously this would be frowned upon in the Orthodox.

Thirdly, and most importantly, we know that the Aryans (Vedic) races used mushrooms (Fly Agarics) and hashish and *did not* consider them "intoxicants" but "spiritual tools" put on earth by the gods. Since this race originated in the area right next to where Buddhism sprouted, 700 or so years earlier than Buddhism, it would be pretty logical to assume that the peoples in this region shared the secret of the mushrooms with the surrounding countries. The Aryans ruled this part of Asia for centuries and influenced its ideas and religious concepts immensely.

And finally, to sum up this all too lengthy edit, it's worth noting that throughout history in Asian cultures the mushroom has been known as "the lotus of the Buddha." Make of that what you will. There are many different views on this, but as someone who has studied history quiet lengthily I can tell you that oral tradition is a fairly sacred thing, especially in the East.

[Nemba]

Originally Posted by Songcycle67

Growing up in the bible belt isn't the best primer for LSD use, and unfortunately some of the more horrific teachings of the Christian religion are just hardwired into a lot of people in America who were taught Christian ideas about sin and such as children.

I find that so depressing. If you look at CHRISTian ideas (don't judge. period. "it is not what goes in to a man's mouth but what come out of it that defile him" etcetera) they're pretty much on parallel the whole way through. I recall a story about a zen master reading a verse of the bible (I don't remember it exactly but it's the one which has in it something like "Whatever you ask for shall be given to you" "though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death do not fear") and saying "wow this guy is pretty much a buddha".

It's sad that such wonderful teachings have been so horribly distorted.

[Joe-(5-HTP)]

Sidney Cohen reports that LSD was given to two Zen Buddhist monks to see how it compared to the spiritual state of enlightenment. He reported that both monks became so uncomfortable that "Termination with chlorpromazine became necessary."

The fundamental tenants of Buddhism are similar to those of other religions: The desires and passions of an instinctual nature are 'base' or 'low' and represent evil within us. To give in to 'temptation' is to commit an evil act and is to step away from 'enlightenment' and towards corruption of the soul. After many years of 'conditioning' these 'evil desires'; chaos, insanity, hatred, sexuality, which incidentally contain just as much potential for spirituality, spiritual living, and ultimately human living as joy, euphoria and peace (Love, of course, is unbiquitous to both categories... assuming they are binary opposites which is unlikely); these, 'evil desires' can be slowly eroded away until all trace of humanity is annihilated. This heinous abomination then solemnly baptizes itself 'enlightened'.

It does not surprise me that these monks became so uncomfortable. The LSD experience is often characterized by the breaking down of personal mental tools by which certain emotions or thoughts are subdued and I suspect that the extrication of pure humanness was what caused their discomfort.

[Venusia]

Swivy has always seen LSD as a sort of "short cut" to the type of mind-expansion that meditation brings. While Swiv doesn't really know if it violates (for lack of a better word) any of the Buddhist precepts, she does personally believe that there is nothing "wrong" with taking LSD as a means to acheive a state as swiy described. If Swiv were to use acid in order to just feel high and not to gain any insight from it, she would say this is a disrespectful and selfish misuse of the drug, not that she'd ever like someone else less or judge someone harshly for doing so. To each their own, she also believes. Swivy thinks that LSD is really the closest many of the human race will come to an enlightened state, even if it is fleeting. She also thinks that it can be a fantastic tool for showing people what their goal of enlightenment feels like, giving them a sort of compass to follow on their road to enlightenment.

While it may not be the "real thing", Swiv does believe it can seriously aid a seeker of enlightenment by placing them onto a path to their ultimate destination. And really, how can anyone not call it real if they got to that place, no matter the instruments used and how temporarily they reached their destination? Did one experience it or not? If yes, then how is it not "real" by some measure?

Anyhow, Swiv has rambled on to long . She was very interested in your post and felt she'd like to share her point of view on the subject.

Namaste.

[Songcycle67]

Originally Posted by Nemba

I find that so depressing. If you look at CHRISTian ideas (don't judge. period. "it is not what goes in to a man's mouth but what come out of it that defile him" etcetera) they're pretty much on parallel the whole way through. I recall a story about a zen master reading a verse of the bible (I don't remember it exactly but it's the one which has in it something like "Whatever you ask for shall be given to you" "though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death do not fear") and saying "wow this guy is pretty much a buddha".

It's sad that such wonderful teachings have been so horribly distorted.

Yeah, I completely agree. The moral teachings of Christ were basically mirror images to those of Buddha, it's only when you get into some of the more misinterpreted (or freely interpreted in most cases) parts of the bible where it gets scary.

There's a really great book that was written by Thomas Jefferson in which he extracted all the hell and heaven talk in the Gospels (which are really just metaphors for suffering and enlightenment, respectively) and only took the life lessons and moral codes. It's very very well done. Jefferson himself was a lifelong scholar of religion and history, and, incidentally, a fervent agnostic.

When you read the moral teachings and the life lessons of Christ without all the supernatural talk (which no one in the 21st century could ever accurately understand) it reads very much like the teachings of Buddhism boiled down into a few short books.

I'm a big fan of the moral teachings of Christ, and I believe he was very much enlightened in the Buddhist sense of the word. Unfortunately the Western mind can't grasp a lot of the concepts that were floating around in the near East in the 1st century (and they don't know their history) and it becomes, yeah...distorted. It is very sad that because of a lot of misinterpretation and hoodoo many people discard Jesus as one of the major philosophers of the ancient period.


Incidentally, the book by Thomas Jefferson is called The Life And Moral Teachings of Jesus Christ for anyone who's interested. It's a great read!

[Expat98]

This may be of interest. Also see the list of references at the end.

----

Psychoactive Plants in Tantric Buddhism

Cannabis and Datura Use in Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism

by R. C. Parker and Lux
v1.0 - June 2008

Originally published in Erowid Extracts

Citation: Parker RC, Lux. "Psychoactive Plants in Tantric Buddhism; Cannabis and Datura Use in Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism". Erowid Extracts. Jun 2008;14:6-11.

The authors wish to thank Professor David B. Gray and Professor Geoffrey Samuel for their encouragement and many helpful suggestions.

Cakrasamvara Since the beginning of modern discourse about psychedelics in American intellectual culture, seminal authors have noted parallels between psychedelic experiences and contemplative practices of Asia. In his 1954 essay The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley likened his experience of mescaline to the insights precipitated by yoga and meditation. Author R. Gordon Wasson went further, arguing that some spiritual disciplines of India may be intended to evoke an experience that was originally entheogenic in nature.1

By the late 1960s, counterculture rhetoric strongly associated psychedelics and Eastern mysticism. Alan Watts tackled the topic in his 1962 book The Joyous Cosmology; Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, and Ralph Metzner later wrote a guide to psychedelic experiences based on the fourteenth-century tantric manual Bardo Thödol, the so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead.2

Psychedelic experience and Eastern meditation have become so intertwined in Western culture that their roots are difficult to disentangle. Fortunately, in recent years several thoughtful book chapters and articles have appeared examining the complex relationship between the explosion of psychedelic counterculture and the con*temporaneous popularization of Buddhism in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.3

Unfortunately, the history of psychoactive plant use by Buddhists in Asia has not been addressed with comparable rigor. Although interesting speculative work has been written on the subject,4,5 a focused analysis of explicit textual evidence has not been published. Over the last few decades, university religious studies departments have produced translations of Buddhist tantric texts of unprecedented quality, providing ample material for an examination of psychoactive plant use by Buddhists in Asia. This article considers some of the evidence with respect to tantric Buddhism in India and Tibet, focusing on the use of cannabis and datura.

Tantric Buddhism

The term "tantra" refers to a great many religious practices and beliefs. It is so difficult to define, that some religious historians argue the word has little meaning other than to mark extreme or taboo practices.6 The Sanskrit word and its Tibetan equivalent (rgyud) refer to the texts that form the scriptural basis for the religious movement, and also mean "continuum" or "lineage".

Despite the difficulty in pinning down the term, different tantric lineages generally share some characteristics. Practices and scriptures are often secret, with instructions given in private by teachers to students with whom they have consecrated a formal guru/disciple relationship. Many tantric practices must be authorized by empowerment ceremonies, which sometimes last for days or weeks and may carry lifelong practice commitments as a condition of receiving them.

Most tantric scriptures are practice-oriented texts associated with specific deities. Tantric meditation and ritual often involve complex visualizations of these deities--so much so that the Tibetan polymath Tsong Khapa (1357-1419) proposed "deity yoga" as the defining characteristic of tantra.7 Many tantric yogas are intended to elicit extraordinary states of consciousness, including sexual yoga with real or visualized partners and energy yogas that manipulate body heat, respiration, or dreaming.

The concept of tantra as a sex-positive religion devoted to embracing the material world is a modern construction that bears little resemblance to the historical tantric practices and beliefs of Asia.8

Tantra began to take shape as a major religious movement in India between the sixth and ninth centuries CE.9,10 Many of the extant tantric texts were written in these years and the movement reached a peak that lasted several centuries. Most tantras were composed in Sanskrit in India and Central Asia, and many were eventually exported to China and Tibet.

During 950-1200 CE, Tibet underwent a period of upheaval followed by a "renaissance", in which the old Tibetan empire collapsed and reorganized into a society ruled by a complex network of powerful clans and religious institutions.11 During this renaissance, enormous resources and labor were devoted to painstakingly translating Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan. The Tibetan written language had been developed during the seventh century by a committee of religious scholars specifically for the purpose of translating scriptures from Sanskrit.12 Many Buddhist tantras that are lost in their original Sanskrit forms still exist in the Tibetan scriptural canon.

Why Look to Tantra?

There are several reasons to look to tantra for psychoactive substance use in pre-modern Buddhist Asia. The first and most important is that non-tantric monastic Buddhism is far less tolerant of violations of scriptural precepts than tantric Buddhism. Buddha's injunction against consuming intoxicants precludes the open use of psychoactive substances by members of the Buddhist monastic establishment. In contrast, tantric Buddhism can allow for, and even applaud, shocking transgressions as a sign that the yogi has transcended ordinary patterns of valuation and behavior.

While non-tantric Buddhist practice was overwhelmingly the purview of ordained monks and nuns in medieval India, practitioner of tantra was often a layperson.

A mainstay of tantric literature is the siddha, a sorcerer-like yogi who achieves extraordinary powers such as flight or psychic abilities through religious practice. Unlike the introverted monk quietly seeking liberation behind monastery walls, the siddha expresses spiritual attainment in the world. In their biographies, tantric siddhas often commit outrageous acts of apparently reckless violence, consumption of intoxicants, or sexual conduct.13 In one famous legend, the guru Hāḑipā of the Nāth siddha lineage is said to have broken a five-year fast by consuming enormous quantities of hemp, Strychnos nux-vomica (Kucila, the "strychnine tree"), and datura.14

In addition to accommodating the use of psychoactives, tantric texts sometimes include encyclopedic instructions for the use of medicinal plants. Ayurvedic medicine and yoga are two important antecedents to tantra,9 and those disciplines provide a template for simultaneously developing both body and mind in the service of liberation.15 This holistic approach to spiritual practice is preserved in several important Buddhist tantras in which physical, mental, and spiritual ailments form a single complex of related concerns that must be treated in tandem. This approach is an easy rhetorical fit with pre-tantric Buddhist scriptures, which sometimes describe Buddha as a doctor and suffering as an illness.16 Consequently, some Buddhist tantras include compendious information about medicinal plants, including cannabis and datura.

Datura in Buddhist Tantra

Both Datura stramonium and Datura metel are well-documented in India and Tibet. In Sanskrit datura is known as dhattūra, while in Tibetan the plant is da dhu ra or thang phrom. Datura's effects were described in several ayurvedic materia medica. It is mentioned in the Kāmasūtra (ca. 4th-6th century CE), which says: "If food be mixed with the fruit of the thorn apple (dathura) it causes intoxication".17 It also advises a man to anoint his penis with honey infused with datura and long peppers (pippali = Piper lungum) before sexual intercourse to make his partner "subject to his will".17

Datura is associated with several Hindu and Buddhist deities. Vāmana Purā.na, a pre-modern devotional text dedicated to Vishnu (date unknown), tells that datura sprouted from the chest of the god Śiva.18 Its flowers are sometimes used as ceremonial offerings--a practice that continues to this day in Nepal.18 Wrathful deities in tantric Buddhism are said to be fond of datura,19 which is sometimes used as a ritual offering to placate these deities.19 References to datura in the pre-eleventh century Vajramahabhairava Tantra have been used to argue on behalf of an Old World origin of Datura metel.20 The psychoactive effects of datura have long been recognized in Tibet. The religious author Sachen Kunga Nyingpo (1092-1158) used the effects of datura to illustrate how our senses can be distorted, writing: "When datura [...] is eaten, appearances manifest as yellow."21 The third Dodrup Chen Rinpoche (1865-1926), a Tibetan scholar-yogi, compares a cryptic "nectar rendering liberation" to the power of datura. He writes, "[I]f one takes the nectar by itself the [subtle body] will receive blessings spontaneously and excellent accomplishments will be achieved, like being intoxicated by alcohol [...] and being deluded with visions by Datura or thorn apple[...]".22

Datura intoxication may have been widespread in siddha culture. In Indian Esoteric Buddhism, Ronald M. Davidson observes:

[M]any of the siddha scriptures discuss ointments and drugs, especially those applied to the eyes or feet. The use of the various species of datura (especially [Datura metel]) is particularly evident. Sometimes termed the "crazy datura" (unmattadhattura) or "Śiva's datura," it was generally employed as a narcotic paste or as wood in a fire ceremony and could be easily absorbed through the skin or the lungs.10

The use of datura in various rites is prescribed by a number of seminal tantras that exerted a profound influence on Indian and Tibetan religious culture. Most of the known datura references pertain to magico-religious rites of attack intended to cause enemies to go insane, to destroy their wealth, or to drive them away.

The Guhyasamāja Tantra (ca. 8th century CE) is generally considered one of the earliest extant Buddhist tantras.6 This key scripture describes the basic architecture of tantric practice and is venerated by several schools of Tibetan Buddhism--particularly the Gelukpas, who take it as the central tantra.23 In the Guhyasamāja Tantra, Buddha Vajradhara gives instructions for undertaking the destruction of evil-doers:

[M]aking an image of the enemy with the excrement and urine of those who follow the great Dharma, wrathfully burn it in a fire of thorn-wood, and even the Buddha will certainly perish. [...] So he said black mustard-seeds, salt, oil, poison, and thorn-apple [datura], these are taught as the supreme destroyers of all the Buddhas.24

Similarly, the Cakrasamvara Tantra (ca. late 8th century CE) is highly venerated in Tibet to this day. It states: "Should the well-equipoised one immolate mustard oil with crows' wings and [the victim's name] in a datura fire, he will immediately be expelled or killed."25

The Cakrasamvara Tantra also tells that a tāntrika can drive an enemy insane using magical implements, including a charnel ground cloth bound around the "five intoxicants". The Tibetan commentator Budön Rinchen Drup explains that "five intoxicants" refers to the root, stem, leaves, flower, and fruit of the datura plant25--all of which contain psychoactive alkaloids.18 In another reference to datura, the tantra claims that immolating "one hundred and eight golden fruits" (kanakaphala, explicated as "datura fruit" by the commentator Jayabhadra) will allow one to become insubstantial.25

The Vajramahabhairava Tantra (ca. 10th century CE) contains instructions for killing an enemy saying that the practitioner should perform a rite: "naked, with disheveled hair and facing south, draw the sixteen-section wheel of Vajramahabhairava [...] on a shroud in venom, blood, salt, black mustard, nimba (Azadirachta indica) and Datura juice using a pen made from a raven feather or from human bone."20

This tantra also provides instructions for using the ash of datura wood to magically break a relationship between a man and woman, or to drive people away.20 Datura fruit may be used in magical rituals to drive an enemy insane:

[...The practitioner] takes Datura fruit and, mixing it with human flesh and worm-eaten sawdust, offers it in food or drink. He recites the mantra and that person will instantly go insane and then die within seven days.20

and to destroy wealth:

Like datura, cannabis has been prominently associated with the Hindu god Śiva since ancient times.

Then if, wanting to turn wealth into poverty, [he] performs a hundred and eight burnt offerings at night in a fire of cotton using Datura fruit, (that wealth) will indeed become trifling.20

Datura was sometimes included in ritual fire offerings that may have produced psychoactive smoke. A key eleventh century commentary on the Kālachakra Tantra by Pu.n.darīka describes: "When the oblation is offered in the octagonal pot, on a fire made with arka faggots, with thorn-apples [datura] and kusumadyas offered into the fire, it accomplishes stupefactions [of the enemy] [...]".26 Arka has been identified as milkweed and kusumadyas as Assyrian plum.

The Mahākāla Tantra (ca. 8th-12th century CE) contains extensive materia medica and magical instructions. In chapter twelve, "On Ointments", it instructs practitioners to harvest datura and two other plants, and mix them with the bile of a black cat and honey. This compound "becomes an ointment for the eyes. After applying it one revolves around and around like a bee."16

In a similar vein, tantra historian Ronald Davidson notes that the use of datura in tantric rituals "may have something to do with the siddha fascination with flying or perhaps inform[s] their iconography, for a common report from the use of datura is the sensation of aerial transport or the feeling of being half-man and half-animal."10

The Mahākāla Tantra also offers instructions to find lost treasure by creating a magical pill that includes datura:

Cannabis Leaf After having ground the following medicines one should make pills: the seed grain of khoḑyā, the seed of sesbania, the juice of the leaf of the waved-leaf fig tree, the juice of Villarsia cristata, the powder of the regurgitation of cow, the juice of Śiva's intoxicant [= datura], the juice of the root of the wormseed and onion leaf together with the bile of a snake and honey which has been kept under the ground. When two days [have] gone by, at a cool time (of the day) one should anoint (the eyes) and one will see a hole in the ground.16

The fourth chapter of K.r.s.na-yāmari (ca. 10th century) gives instructions for a wrathful ritual visualization in which the yogi makes "the index finger red with the resins from the thorn-apple leaves and also the seeds of [datura]".26

Cannabis in Buddhist Tantra

Like datura, cannabis has a long history in Asia. Scholars have argued that cannabis may have been first cultivated in China in Neolithic times27 and the plant has been well-known throughout India, Nepal, and Tibet for millennia. Cannabis is referred to in the Vedas as "source of happiness" and "liberator".27

Perhaps the earliest-known literary reference to cannabis appears in the Hindu scripture Satapatha Brahmana (ca. 800 BCE).28 Cannabis also appears in an early medicinal work, the Sushruta Samhita (written sometime between 400 BCE and 600 CE) as an antiphlegmatic.27 In early works of Ayurveda, cannabis is said to "increase gastric fire", i.e., digestion and appetite.27 Va.ngasena's Compendium of the Essence of Medicine, an eleventh-century Bengali medicinal text, describes cannabis (bhanga) as "a drug like opium" and prescribes it as a medicine to enhance longevity.29

Like datura, cannabis has been prominently associated with the Hindu god Śiva since ancient times. Cannabis plays an important role in some Hindu tantra lineages, where it may have been used during tantric rites to help adepts overcome their aversions to taboo-breaking religious practices.29,30 In the Mahāyāna tradition, Buddha is said to have subsisted for six years of ascetic practice on nothing but hemp seeds.31

Cannabis Drawing Tantra scholar David Gordon White notes that cannabis use was a widespread part of the influential Nāth siddha lineage.9 Additionally, he notes that in the Buddhist Tārā Tantra, cannabis is "essential to ecstasy".9 In that tantra, Buddha says that drinking wine without having consumed cannabis "cannot produce real ecstasy".32 In this context "ecstasy" is a technical term describing the experience of bliss caused by particular yogic achievements, and an important step in becoming enlightened.

Cannabis serves a magico-medic*inal function in several major tantras. Including its datura references described above, much of the Mahākāla Tantra concerns the search for the "perfect medicine", a psycho-spiritual elixir that will transform the body and mind in the service of liberation.16 This lineage extols the use of medicinal herbs to achieve "attainments" or "powers".

Forty-two of the Mahākāla Tantra's fifty chapters include formulas for using medicinal plants, and many of these plants are psychoactive. A partial list includes plants that have been identified as Acorus calamus, Areca catechu, Artemisia spp., Cannabis sativa, Cinnamomum camphora, Datura metel, Myristica fragrans, Nelumbo nucifera, Peganum harmala, and Valeriana wallichii. The plants are employed to attain health, wealth, wisdom, and supernatural powers such as seeing underground and flying.

These formulas include cannabis in several different forms, including leaves, resin, and other plant material.16 Given that these cannabis products are included in the "perfect medicine" formulas of the Mahākāla Tantra, cannabis may perhaps be considered a significant part of this tantric lineage.

The Cakrasamvara Tantra (described in the datura section above) also emphasizes the magico-medical role of cannabis, stating that a mixture of compounds including cannabis will help one "become a yogin who does what he pleases and stays anywhere whatsoever."25 The translator notes that all the plants in this recipe are edible, and this formula may therefore refer to the preparation of material for oral consumption, possibly as "siddhi-pills".

Cannabis & Sexual Tantra

Anthropologist Christian Rätsch has argued that cannabis is used in tantric sexual yoga, pointing out centuries of belief about its sexual effects in Asia.27,28 However, because Rätsch focuses on the Hindu/Buddhist syncretic tantric culture of Nepal, relying on Hindu sources for textual support,36 the relevance of his findings to historical Buddhist tantra is unclear.

Discussion

While ample textual evidence exists to establish that cannabis and datura have appeared in some Buddhist tantras, the relative importance placed on psychoactive plants in Buddhism remains an open question. In his discussion of psychoactive plants in the Mahākāla Tantra, William George Stablein argues that the use of psychoactive plants in Buddhism may constitute an entheogenic tradition, writing:

To the extent that the [Mahākāla Tantra] speaks for itself it is clear that what we are calling Tantric medicine includes pharmacologically induced experiences that could indeed be called religious. This may indicate a unique transmission of Buddhist Tantra that is not unlike the psychedelic phenomenon in the New World shamanism and the Vedic rite.16

While it is natural to assume that any ritual involving datura or cannabis would capitalize on the plants' psychoactivity, both plants were associated with important deities for many centuries before any tantras were written. They may have been valued for their symbolic importance rather than for their effects.

In the case of datura, many of the references do not clearly direct the yogi to ingest the plant material. For example, the Guhyasamāja Tantra, the Cakrasamvara Tantra, and the Vimalaprabhā tell that datura is to be burned. While it is possible that the smoke from such a fire would be psychoactive if inhaled, it may not have been part of the ritual to inhale the smoke.

Ronald Davidson claims that the smoke of datura fire offerings was indeed psychoactive, saying datura "was generally employed as a narcotic paste or as wood in a fire ceremony and could be easily absorbed through the skin or the lungs."10 In support of this position, it is worth noting that Gustav Schenk described experiencing profound psychoactive effects after inhaling smoke from an unknown number of henbane seeds, which contain some of the same psychoactive alkaloids as datura, although in lesser concentrations.33 Schenk also describes datura smoke as psychoactive.33

There is textual evidence that datura's psychoactive effects may have played a part in some tantric rituals. The Mahākāla Tantra says the yogi who applies a datura ointment will "revolve like a bee". Parts of the datura plant are referred to in the Cakrasamvara Tantra as "the five intoxicants". The Vajramahabhairava Tantra may be saying that if you put datura in someone's food, they will go insane.

Were psychoactive plants regarded as helpful for achieving liberation? The Tārā Tantra seems to say so; the scripture quotes Buddha as saying that wine without cannabis will not produce "ecstasy", a key attainment in the technique of subtle energy yoga that it describes.9,32 However, the Tārā Tantra is a relatively minor scripture and did not exert a strong influence on Buddhist religious culture.

The value placed on psychoactive plants is less clear in the more important tantras. The datura references found in the Guhyasamāja and Cakrasamvara Tantras pertain to magico-religious rites that may be useful, but would probably not be considered essential to the attainment of liberation by most Buddhists.

Geoffrey Samuel, author of several books and essays on Buddhist religious culture, suggests that the use of psychoactive plants in the Indian siddha cultural milieu may have been similar to current use observed among modern itinerant ascetics (sadhus) in Asia.34 Such use has been documented throughout the Himalayas, where the plants are consumed by sadhus for a variety of goals, including healing, recreation, and yoga.35 Given its large number of applications, it may indeed be that cannabis was regarded by sadhus and siddhas of medieval India as a useful tool.

The Stablein thesis that a strong parallel exists between psychoactive plant use in Tibet and in New World entheo-shamanism, however, appears to go beyond the available evidence. While psychoactive plants appear in Tibetan recipes for alchemical elixirs and sacred medicines, Samuel proposes that such use was "not aiming at the more dramatic transformations of consciousness with which we are familiar when looking at the use of entheogens in other cultures."34

Even in the paradigmatic entheogen-using traditions of Meso- and South America, it can be difficult to make a clear distinction between "worldly" and "spiritual" use. Ayahuasca in South America and psilocybin-containing mushrooms in Mexico have been used to treat illnesses and perform magical feats such as locating lost objects--does this disqualify the traditions from being considered entheogenic? Surely not. Given the complex motivations and interests that drive use of entheogens the world over, it may indeed be appropriate to call Buddhist use of psychoactive plants entheogenic. However, the ayahuasca vine is venerated by the ayahuasca cults of South America, while it is much less clear that any Buddhist tradition has venerated the use of psychoactive plants to a comparable degree. Entheogens may have been viewed as important in some tantric sects, but the available textual evidence is not sufficient to establish that the use of these plants was regarded as a central part of spiritual practice for most tāntrikas of India and Tibet.

References

1. Wasson RG. Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality. Harcourt. 1972.
2. Leary T, Metzner R, Alpert R. The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Citadel. 1964.
3. Badiner AH, Grey A. Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics. Chronicle Books LLC. 2002.
4. Crowley M. "Secret Drugs of Buddhism". E-published in Earthrites Magazine. Accessed Apr 9, 2008; http://earthrites.org/magazine_artic...ts_crowley.htm.
5. Hajicek-Dobberstein S. "Soma Siddhas and Alchemical Enlightenment: Psychedelic Mushrooms in Buddhist Tradition". J Ethnopharmacol. Oct 1995;48(2):99-118
6. Urban HB. Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion. University of California Press. 2003.
7. Dalai Lama HH (Tenzin Gyatso), Tsong-kha-pa, Hopkins PJ. Tantra in Tibet. Snow Lion Publications. 1987.
8. White DG. Kiss of the Yoginī: "Tantric Sex" in its South Asian Contexts. University of Chicago Press. 2006.
9. White DG. The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions of Medieval India. University of Chicago Press. 1996. p 19,118-9,412.
10. Davidson RM. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. Columbia University Press. 2003. p 201.
11. Davidson RM. Tibetan Renaissance: Tantric Buddhism in the Rebirth of Tibetan Culture. Columbia University Press. 2005.
12. Snellgrove D, Richardson H. A Cultural History of Tibet. Frederick A. Paeger, Inc. 1968.
13. Abhayadatta. Buddha's Lions: Lives of the Eighty-Four Siddhas. trans. by James B. Robinson. Dharma Publishing. 1997.
14. Bhattacharyya B. An Introduction to Buddhist Esoterism. Oxford University Press. 1931. p 73.
15. Fields GP. Religious Therapeutics: Body and Health in Yoga and Ayurvedic Medicine.. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Hawaii. 1994.
16. Stablein WG. The Mahākālatantra: A Theory of Ritual Blessings and Tantric Medicine. Doctoral Dissertation, Columbia University. 1976. p 21-2,80,255-6,36,286,5.
17. Vātsyāyana. The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana. trans. Richard Burton. Modern Library. 2002. p 188,181.
18. Rätsch C. "Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants". Park Street Press. 2005. p 204,204,203.
19. De Nebesky-Wojkowitz R. Oracles and Demons of Tibet: The Cult and Iconography of the Tibetan Protective Deities. Book Faith India. 1996. p 346,489
20. Siklós B. "Datura Rituals in the Vajramahabhairava-tantra". Curare. 1993;16(2):71-76. p 73,74,73,73.
21. Stearns C. Taking the Result as the Path: Core Teachings of the Sakya Lamdré Tradition. Wisdom Publications. 2006. p 432.
22. Thondup Rinpoche T. Hidden Teachings of Tibet. Wisdom Publications. 1997. p 152-3.
23. Cozort D. Highest Yoga Tantra: An Introduction to the Esoteric Buddhism of Tibet. Snow Lion Publications. 1986. p 13.
24. Fremantle F. A Critical Study of the Guhyasamāja Tantra. Doctoral Dissertation, University of London. 1971. p 103.
25. Gray DB. The Cakrasamvara Tantra (The Discourse of Śrī Heruka): A Study and Annotated Translation. The American Institute of Buddhist Studies. 2007. p 371,352,362,373-4.
26. Hartzell, JF. Tantric Yoga: A Study of the Vedic Precursors, Historical Evolution, Literatures, Cultures, Doctrines, and Practices of the 11th Century Kaśmīri Śaivite and Buddhist Unexcelled Tantric Yogas. Doctoral Dissertation, Columbia University. 1997. p 1270,363
27. Touw M. The Religious and Medicinal Uses of Cannabis in China, India and Tibet.. J Psychoactive Drugs. 1981 Jan-Mar;13(1):23-34. p 24,25,28,28,28.
28. Rätsch C. "Plants of Love". Ten Speed Press. 1997. p 82,86,82.
29. Wujastyk D. "Cannabis in Traditional Indian Herbal Medicine". In Ana Salema (ed.),Ayurveda at the Crossroads of Care and Cure. Proceedings of the Indo-European Seminar on Ayurveda held at Arrábida, Portugal, in November 2001. p 45-73
30. Bharati, A. The Tantric Tradition. Rider & Co. 1965.
31. Rätsch C. "Marijuana Medicine". Healing Arts Press. 2001. p 45.
32. Maitra AK (ed.). Tārātantra. Varendra Res. Soc. 1983.
33. Schenk G. The Book of Poisons. trans. by Michael Bullock. Rinehart. 1955. p 44,73.
34. Samuel G. Personal Communication. 2008.
35. Müller-Ebeling C, Rätsch C, Shahi SB. "Shamanism and Tantra in the Himalayas". Inner Traditions. 2002.
36. Aldrich MR. "Tantric Cannabis Use in India". J Psychedelic Drugs. 1977;9(3):227-233.

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http://www.erowid.org/spirit/traditi...article1.shtml

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Just an enormously well-compiled addition to this thread!!
	Thank you for providing such a relevant addition to the discourse here.
	Wow, what a great post and reference guide to phsychedelics and Buddhism. Well done, and thanks for the citations.

[Dickon]

Interesting thread. As someone with a cat who, many years back now, experimented frequently with LSD, and now spends a fair amount of time practising Zen and Yoga, I am torn between two views of the LSD experience.

The first is that it is some glimpse of "enlightenment", whatever that may mean. For me the word means, primarily, being ok with one's own mortality. That is one thing cat found on LSD, and it's a state I yearn for. A state where, in a profound sense, "everything is fine" and there is nothing to achieve, simply being is enough.

However, as time has gone by, I have moved away from that point of view. Essentially, the "highs" are simply one part of the wheel of becoming. Sorry to use a slightly odd phrase, but this is a Buddhism-related thread. We all come down, and have to live through states of being high and being low. It is unrealistic to expect to be permanently high. I was at a sesshin (a Zen meditation retreat) a month or so ago and the Godo (teacher) used the images of waves a lot in his teaching. He said that life was characterised by waves of experience, good and bad, and that whatever they were, one should try and rest in the ocean, which is unmoving, rather than be carried along by the waves themselves. That way the waves would pass and one could remain tranquil.

I'm afraid a lack of eloquence on my part, and the fact this is touching on something I am a complete beginner at, makes my explanations somewhat facile.

I think LSD can help one see that there is nothing external to go in search of, no enlightenment. It's like the Maka Hanya Haramita Shingyo says, there is no suffering, there is no end to end of suffering. As one man of Zen said, and I've quoted this before, "there is nothing to do, but do something". The deep truth of this is lost on most, and is usually lost on me.

I wonder what it would be like if cat took some LSD now. Cat has had over 8 months without so much as a drink or a cigarette, although he does drink a lot of tea, and eats meat. For now I think life is better served by practicing Yoga and Zazen, but cat hasn't ruled out entirely another psychedelic experience. I get the sense that this, should it happen, is a while off (years, maybe decades). There is much "progress" (Told you it was lost on me!) to be made in this journey without a goal.

Ah.....It's all good.

Dickon

Reputation Comments on this post:

no lack of eloquence on your part...

[Expat98]

I just added a new PDF file to the archives:

Are Psychedelics Useful in the Practice of Buddhism?

It's written by Myron Stolaroff, author of the online book, Thanatos to Eros: 35 Years of Psychedelic Exploration. (Highly recommended reading BTW!)

Here's a summary of the paper:

"Some teachers of Buddhist meditation practice regard psychedelic experiences as potentially helpful, while others regard them as harmful. Here, Myron Stolaroff tries to explain these conflicting viewpoints by describing important aspects of employing psychedelics that must be taken into account for effective results. The author has found the informed use of psychedelics to be a valuable tool in accelerating proficiency and deepening meditative practice and offers recommendations for successful use."

Reputation Comments on this post:

An interesting article, although I get the sense the author has a limited experience of meditative practice.

[Secret Agent]

SWIM feels that using LSD in a spiritual manner (Meditation, Buddhism etc) can be useful for some people, but not all. If some use it, SWIM seriously advises to use only rarely, once a year max. Or just to try a couple of times.

SWIM feels himself after 70 odd undescribable, blissful, white-light experiences on LSD that one can become reliant on the drug to achieve the 'state'. While this does clear ones mind and one can learn from it, SWIM feels this happens only up to a point.

In the end the 'beautiful' LSD state becomes a major factor that prevents real meditation - that being, without using drugs.

The biggest attachment for SWIM is the desire to reach a past memory of an LSD experience. To be there again. This is a big obstacle. Then duality comes back when the drug wears off, the desire to be at peace and so a choice between being more unhappy or taking the drug again.

SWIM warns others as, although amazing experiences on LSD can help, if abused it makes real meditation a lot more difficult and daily life a lot more hard to take. It's a very difficult memory to go beyond the 'psychedelic experience' SWIM wishes he stopped LSD after the first white-light state Real meditation is a lot more difficult for SWIM now, often impossible.

[rcparker]

I've been researching the role of psychoactive plants in tantric traditions (especially Vajrayana) for several years. I have also been researching the role of alternate states of consciousness (especially visionary states) in these same traditions. Its clear that at least a certain amount of use of these plants was embraced by the siddha-subculture of India, and that some use has continued up to the present day. It is also quite clear that the traditions engendered by these siddhas and sadhus have embraced the use of a wide assortment of psycho-technologies and have employed of a wide range of states of consciousness. It is my distinct impression that there is a decidedly greater interest in ASCs in tantric traditions than there is in other forms of Buddhism.

I personally feel it is a pretty safe bet that if LSD, smokeable DMT, 5-MeO-DMT, ketamine, mescaline (and other favorites of the etheogenic subcutlure) had been available in the pharmacopoeia of medieval India, that many siddhas (such as Jalandaripa and Kanhapa) would have embraced their use. And we would likely find references to them in the higher Tantras (especially the heteropraxic Yogini-Tantras) in the same way we find references to datura, cannabis and other psychoactive plants. The siddhas were undoubtedly world-class psychonauts and there is a great deal to be learned from what they left to posterity.

The use of entheogenic plants in tantric Buddhism appears (to me at least) to closely mirror their use by the Kapalikas, the Nathas, and other closely related groups. There also appears to be at least some link between the magical practices and “siddhis” employed by these groups, and the shamanic practices of indigenous groups around the world.

In addition to a pdf of the article by Lux and myself (quoted in full above), another article on this topic (with a slightly longer bibliography) can be found on my website. Since I can’t post links yet, you should be able to find it by doing a google search of the title: “The Use of Entheogens in the Vajrayana Tradition: a brief summary of preliminary findings together with a partial bibliography”

In addition to these two articles, you can find a large number of the sources cited on my website as well.

I am extremely eager to communicate with other pyschonauts who have an interest in tantric or Buddhist approaches to alternate states of consciousness.


Warm Regards,
R.C. Parker