Meditation, Spirituality, and Drugs

Hello Everyone,

I have been struggling with an issue for some time and I want to see what everyone else thinks. First off, let me tell you, I love smoking pot. I only smoke occasionally and only buy pot when it is top quality (which doesn't come around very often). Within the last 6 months, I have become more interested in my spirituality and meditation. I feel that there is nothing wrong with marijuana, however, when I am around my family, they make me feel guilty that I smoke pot. I do not have these feelings whatsoever when I am away from them. I don't ever smoke pot when I am around them. My younger brother was a drug abuser (which I am not) that has turned to spirituality and believes that there is no room in spirituality whatsoever for drugs. I am sure that him speaking with my parents have convinced them the same. I look at marijuana as a safe intoxicant and much prefer it over alcohol. I also feel that marijuana has some qualities (which I am sure you are all aware of) that can really help today's faltering society. I am currently trying to get a chapter of NORML started at my college before I graduate as well as a chapter of the SSDP (student's for sensible drug policy). I also occasionally use psychedelics but after a recent very bad lsd trip, I think I am done experimenting with psychedelics. I want to get more into my spirituality but would like to know if my occasional cannabis use is holding me back. This has been really troubling my mind for the last few weeks and I need some advice. Thanks everyone!

 

Alot of weed clouds the mind but i'm sure that your occasional usage is fine, I do it. try orange bud its great weed with a real clear high. weed can induce a meditative state and can be useful but to much can have a detrimental effect.
PEACE & HAPPINESS

 

I'm addicted to the evil weed. I'm having the same thoughts as you but without any pressure to quit from anyone outside myself. Your family obviously loves you and wants to see that you don't come to any harm. I don't know where you live, but the government uses some pretty scary tactics in a lot of our country to combat our use of the substance. This alone is a good reason for paranoia from our friends and families. I can't say for sure, but it definitely feels like this issue comes up in our minds too much to be ignored. I have experienced some very blissful feelings while stoned and can run healing energy through my body with open chakras while stoned. However, I do get the feeling that it does hold us back. This alone is enough to convince me.

I'm just restarting to put my heart and soul into following my path to higher consciousness, so while I still partake in the evenings every day, it is definitely a goal to quit soon.

Pot use is kind of funny and different than most other drugs. As I was rereading my books on meditation and discovering self, I realized that by using cannabis instead of meditating over the years, I've kind of accomplished some of the same things. I have developed a very unemotional type of life. I easily let go of those things that upset me, enjoy good health 99% of the time, and am not very attached to the material things that I have. I do tend to get a little more excited than I should when I upset my mellow mood. I also have great empathy for the people around me and have developed a habit of going with the flow without always having to have things my way. Yes, I see opportunity for improvement in all aspects of my life, but I also feel that I've made some progress without really putting a lot of effort into it.

When I was your age, my whole life was about getting high while only dabbling occasionally with the highly addictive substances (except alcohol, but I never got addicted to that, thankfully). I started trying to find out who I was at that time and had a pretty good grasp of things by the time I was 24 or 25. Even though I made a pretty good stab at putting in the time and effort by the time I was in my late 20s, I ended up dropping it all until just recently. I attribute that in large part to my mental addiction to weed.
Definitely make up your own mind about it, but continue to explore others' experiences as they will help you along the path.

 

Thank you for your responses! Plebe, I have had the same experience as you. I seem to have gained some of the aspects of meditation and discovering self without the use of meditation and through smoking marijuana. There was a point that I was using it daily and I (thankfully) realized the dangers of using it daily. I think I will continue using it moderately with the goal of smoking only very kind, organic buds when they are available. I definitely need to focus on meditation more than I am so maybe I need to stop smoking for a bit until I get myself a nice routine!

 

If you haven't tried a vaporizer, definitely check it out. Luckily, I have a kind of addictive personality, so I have never had a problem making myself adhere to a routine. One of the nicer things about meditation is that it increases your energy so you can shorten your sleep cycle and not suffer as much as before meditation. I used to have a problem nodding off at my desk during the day if things got too boring. No problem with that any more, even following nights when I don't get a good night's sleep. I'm also doing yoga exercises and walking every night which I haven't done for many years. Also, regularly breathing deeply increases your energy level. Enjoy!

 

I have lots of experience with spirituality and with drugs of all sorts including the herb. I will not be a hypocrite here. But this is certain, to me at least, from personal experience, that pot deprives a person of the ability to really perceive what is. One cannot feel what a nonstoned person feels, one will not have the same unimpeeded flow of awareness, one will have sleepy sentiments that are far from actuality.

One should consider pot a vacation from reality and not in any way connected to reality.

If one is a seeker of reality and truth then pot isn't the road there. On the other hand, if one isn't finding anything but their own misery on this plane, then weed can help one enjoy life.

But it messes up your lungs and other organs. Today's chronic is physically addicting if only to a small degree. Try to give up and you'll run through some of the same detox symptoms as heroin users. And both are narcotics, and both have the same sort of escape to them.

Weed now isn't about getting high any longer, it's about staying high, and that's simply not possible....

 

Wow... it's been a while since I posted this. I am now drug-free. No more pot, no more psychadelics. I feel much better but am not fully clean yet (its been a little over a month). I can tell that my body still wants to smoke pot at times. Concerts have not been as fun for me and I haven't had much of a drive to play my guitar like I used to. It is all my body switching to my pure lifestyle. I am glad I made the choice.

 

Actualy, psychedelics can be used to explore spirituality. If you do a little research, you'll realise that ethimologicaly, psychedelic means "to discover or unveil the mind". Also, psychedelic substances such as Mescaline, Ayahuasca, Salvia Divinorum and Mushrooms have been used for centuries by shamans around the world to expand their consciousness. The problem is that one must have a lot of control over one's impulses to be able to use them correctly, and the line between meditative drug use and simple drug use can become very thin and blurred if you use such substances excessively.
As for weed, I think it's a double edged sword, since it can lead to a broader understanding of life if you use it correctly, but it's also very easy to become psychologicaly adicted to it (I'm having trouble with this right now). Marihuana should, in my opinion, be used at most once a week, as a moment to think back at what you have done and ponder on it fron a different perspective (of course, I'm not saying it's necessary to smoke pot in order to do this) and, as Chodpa stated, as a vacation from reality and it's troubles. Facing everyday life while stoned, on the other hand can lead you to stop evolving as an individual (this happened to me, I recently realized that in one year of smoking pot daily I haven't moved in any direction, I'm exactly where I was at the beginning of my heavy marihuana use habits).

 

I definitely used psychedelics to explore my spirituality. My first psychedelic experience is what led me to start reading about spirituality in the first place. However, after a while, the experience was, in essence, the same and my trips left me feeling like I was stuck in a wheel. It was time for me to quit. Maybe someday I can do them again, but I have a feeling that I won't do them ever again. Did you mean Chopra? As in Deepak Chopra? Can you give me some info or a link as to where he said this? I will smoke DMT if I ever come across it, because I still would like to experience it. Also, I would probably take place in a ayahuasca ritual, but I am done with Shrooms, LSD, Weed, etc.

 

He was talking about Chodpa, the writer of post #6 in this thread.

 

Ekhart Tolle talks about stillness of the mind. Which is a required state for meditation as I understand it. There are two ways of achieving this stillness.

Rising above though is the first way. It's a hightened sense of alertness that allows you to simply transcend beyond your mind and your ego.

Falling below though is the second way. This is what happens when you get too high, drunk, watch too much TV, zone out, get hit on the head really hard etc. Although your mind is no longer active and it may sometimes feel meditate in the case of certain situations you are not particularly aware, and awareness is nessesary to a true meditative state.

So weed isn't holding you back, but it isn't helping either. I meditate a few times a week, but I try to not do it when I'm high.

peace and love
Changes

 

Meditation is supposed to be a state of alertness, but it's all too easy to slip into a semi-soporific state my teacher calls "holy dozing" where it feels good, really, really good but you're not really meditating because you are not being present or keeping that single point of focus. It's actually really easy to get hung up in this state and think you're meditating, when all you're doing is getting caught in a trap

An ex of mine used to smoke a lot of weed and what I found was that most meditation sessions ended up as a holy doze after some weed, which was fund but really wasn't the point of it all.

So I echo what Changes said in the earlier post, it ain't gonna hurt but it ain't gonna help either.

----
I Sit for my soul!

 

The idea of a spiritual path is to leave things behind you that you once thought important. This includes belief.

There will come a day where you will be indifferent to drugs or meditation. If you have walked the path correctly.

You are aware of them, but they have no assigned value.


x

 

Well, it depends on spiritual practice. The most truely transparent and transcendental paths could or rather should be walked concurrently with a material existance since the path is transcendending to all relative values. NOTHING is an impediment to self knowledge. If one maintains transparence.

 

everybodys minds and bodies work differently , sometimes weed can help me explore different places in my mind, and sometimes it makes my mind get cloudy

it really depends man, sometimes it aids in meditation, sometimes not

 

Cannabis doesn't aid my meditiation practice, infact it depletes it.

 

loud electronic music and kitty licking helps me meditate

 

meditiation is hard when you have a mind that is against you in every way

 

I have a friend who is part of a Nath Kula, he sometimes uses MJ as a part of the Sadhana. It is not considered essential, one is free to choose or not. When I have sat with them I have not. He said that it helped him when he was learning to access the astral worlds and also helps to keep the group together focused on the present when a number of people are doing a ritual together. This particular substance has a long history amongst Shiva's friends. People have already mentioned many other traditions that use sacred plant medicines. There is no distinction between spirituality and drugs if the drugs are honestly used spiritually. It just depends on the individual, the teacher and the path. Even in Patajali's Yoga Sutra is says the use of herbs is one way to achieve Yoga. However, I have heard it stated and believe, this is one of the hardest paths to walk, for which you need a very experienced teacher... somebody who themselves studied with a high level teacher for many, many years, and a line of them going back through history.

 

I think we have an answer!!!!!

Uhh personal opinion I guess is if your thinking about it then you aren't doing it. When I want to shut off and become spiritual I do just that shut my eyes and sit in silent darkness being blessed.