yea i had an interesting (and pretty high) talk with my mom about mixing traditions and religious philosphy (such as... following BOTH christ and buddha, which is usually a big no-no among xtians) and about following a dogma in general. she is an xtian herself and i find her views about certain things to be narrow minded. but then again, most people who i talk to about religion are narrow minded. and by these conversations i am reminded that cannabis has helped me shed my own narrow-mindedness in many ways. it's helped a lot in forming my ideas and opinions on religious and spiritual matters. well, maybe not formed my ideas, but maybe it helped to push me in the right direction so that i could eventually open my eyes on my own. i think that the cannabis originally helped me step outside of myself and my own little bubble and see things from a non-xtian perspective if that makes sense. it allowed me to lose my xtian bias and see the world from a different angle. what im trying to say is, cannabis has definately helped me find new perspectives to look from. cannabis use made me feel guilty when i was xtian, because i followed that dogma, but i soon realized that there's more than one river that leads to the ocean... if that makes any sense to you. so, i am not your typical christian anymore. and cannabis was one of the major catalysts that led to my desire to search for new philosophies and take them into account and to look outside of what i have been taught by tradition. now i've gone from a straight-down-the-line catholic xtian to believing in a mix of all sorts of crazy shit. so i guess my question is: has cannabis led you to question the way you've always thought about things? even if it's not religious or anything like that. has it changed your views of the world? ok imma have a few more bowls. tell me what you think or if im just way out there with this.
Well i have to say that i have taken a similar spiritual journey as you. I, too, was raised in a VERY catholic household- my mom and dad are very spiritual and they really push that faith a lot. Recently, however i decided to explore other faiths and i found myself sort of lost. Cannabis HAS certainly helped me in my journey, serving as a compass- as i really and truly believe that it is both a gift from and a link to "god". One of the times i decided to meditate after lighting up some bowls I could actually feel energy in specific areas and regions of my body which led me to research the Chakra system (which can fit into any religion- it's not a religion in and of itself, just something you can use to augment spirituality). Since then, i've researched chakras and have become very aware of their power and presence in our bodies as seperate entities as well as our body as a whole- the earth. Also another time i was meditating after toking i realized that The Earth IS a body, and our bodies are planets and vice versa etc. I realized that the earth is comprised of trees, humans, plants, animals and these things basically act to sustain the earth. I noticed how birds and bees and plants all do their job to the earth- but in reality humans certainly do not. We have to understand that we are basically organs of the earth- we are crucial to help keep order, and we have morphed into pseudo-cancer cells by creating waste and confusion to the earth. We have to understand that the cells that make us up are working in harmony together > We as humans should be working in harmony with one another as well as animals (don't eat 'em) and plants (don't spray 'em) in order to achieve a nice balance > The earth needs to work with other planets to maintain proper order in "space" (who'se to say that planets don't communicate???) And space needs to maintain order in the overall scheme of time and what not. I've also found ways to combine Catholicism and Buddhism, Taoism etc. But i'm not gonna ramble any more. Overall i think cannabis is by far the most beneficial herb i've ever used in that it relaxes me physically and mentally on the plane of society and everything that's known and understood to us. But more importantly it allows me to explore those bounds which my mind has maybe tested the waters of- encouraging me to dive in and swim around.
I've had a similar experience, except it was two fat cones. i practice zazen meditation sometimes and this particular time, i had the most intense physical experience. coundn't explain it to you really, just very intense. i haven't really done any research on chakra but sometimes i can feel like my forehead is opening up when meditating and i've been told it's my 'third eye' but i haven't looked much further than that. have you ever read David Hume's 'Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion'? you might be interested: So, you're still catholic? mostly i follow judeo-christianity and buddhist ideas, with a bit of hindu and tao and other ideas thrown in. i see them all as equally valid.
To answer the last question: No i'm not technically still catholic. I don't go to church or anything, although i still appreciate the good parts (hard to find seeing as the faith has been hijacked by a bunch of morons) of the religion. As of i don't really follow any religion- i just practice meditation and try to regulate my actions on my own terms. In the future i may look further into buddhism, but i'm just not sure if i really need to. I think i'm comfortable standing on the outside of all these religions and looking in, i take what i like and apply it to my own life. I found that when i used to be a catholic i would constantly focus on what i was doing "wrong" (even though now i realize that some of those things are/were just plainly not wrong at all) but now i find myself focusing on the good i'm doing- i think that's a healthier outlook on life. Also- that book seems very interesting, good find.
A very interesting topic I can understand why it is called the teacher herb. many many times after smoking i continualy question my place and in fact everythings place in this cosmic epic we call the universe. After discovering taoism 2 years ago i was instantly encaptured and found that i was definatley going to be a taoist the rest of my life. all the revelations ive had have been while sober, the most interesting was when i suddenly and completly understood that demons dragons and ghosts etc exist. I feel canabis hasnt taught me anything new but it has pushed my ideas about nature, and philosophy further. often while high i come back to re-ocuring themes such as ying and yang and i see philosophical ideas diferently than when sober, often i can put my feeling and emotions on a series of visual waves and try to see how they are affecting me. Its hard to explain. But basicaly i thing marijuana gets more in to detail, extending ideas and feelings rather than creating new ones.
i consider my religious beliefs to fit in with some buddhist beliefs, and some hindu beliefs but in no means are my beliefs 'confined' to those two religions cannabis has definitely enticed me to explore spirituality, i used to be the biggest head up his ass, what i say is right, wigger that you'd ever meet and then i started to explore my beliefs and overall it's made me much more open minded and accepting it's amazing that drugs can have this effect on people, but then at the same time you see that drugs have put some people on the street begging for loose change, quite bizarre
yes, can't forget the Tao. i see the Tao Te Ching as a discipline of thought that can be put over basically any other religious frame that you want or it can be taken by itself. there are a lot of ideas presented in the Tao that i can really grasp, especially when high, especially when meditating, and especially when i'm surrounded by quiet, like out deep in the woods. there are other things that i can't quite agree with in the Tao. i guess it's like all other texts of this nature, they get a bit presumptuous with their own teachings sometimes and i have to totally reject them on that basis. i think i can understand what you are saying. i like to meditate (concentrate, reflect, contemplate) on various teachings while sober and go over it again while high. it gives a completely different understanding, sometimes better and sometimes worse. i might read some of the teachings of christ or buddha or mohammed or native american or whatever it is i want to read that day and comtemplate the true meaning for a while, then go have a few bowls and come back to the same teaching to see if i see the same thing. of course, that doesn't apply to just religious text, i love to read henry david thoreau or thomas paine while high.
it's all in how you approach the drug. it must be done with respect if you expect to learn anything. i've never done any psychadelics, but that's what i hear about those too...and im sure there's a lot to learn from those. i may even try some one day when i feel that it will be safe to approach. and it's the same for cannabis. if you want to learn from it, you will... if you want to get fukt up, you will.
i completely agree there is alot to be learned from psychedelics, if you choose to learn from them, if you take them for just a good time and to see some cool shit then that's all you're going to take away from the trip. set and setting has to do with alot more drugs than just psychedelics like it's associated. i've noticed that if you take a drug, no matter which, the environment that you're in has alot to do with what kind of high you're going to achieve. amazing really
