Thread: cannabis meditation???

Mushrooms, acid and the like are more conducive because I think weed lacks that edge they have that motivates you to uncover more layers. Deep introspection on weed can have profound effects but there are several obstacles. For one, this effect is quickly depreciated by attempting to repeat the experience. For two, as short term memory is affected it can often be difficult to remember the realizations one obtained. For three, and this problem also exists equally with all drugs used in this nature, emotional reactions are amplified causing things to feel much more important or meaningful while on the drug then when recalled the next morning. You may write something down for yourself which you believe is the greatest revelation the world has ever known and God lives in the spaces between each letter. Then you read it the next day, and recall the experience, and it will all just seem a little stale. You may even simply wish to leave it behind and move on, what seemed so important and amazing and helpful on the drugs simply may not seem so after they wear off.

The main reason I prefer other psychedelics is because for me, weed makes things sort of fuzzy. Mushrooms brings on its own set of problems regarding fuzziness, but the problems are readily apparent. With weed, you won't even think there's anything wrong. All of these drugs can cause the feeling in you that something is wrong, perhaps terribly so, and steps feel like they must be taken to alleviate this feeling. This often leads to the grand revelation that absolutely everything is just fine. This is the greatest revelation I believe you can have, it clears the mind and allows one to surrender unconditionally to the present moment. Weed doesn't force this upon you, in my opinion. It does a little, I suppose, in various ways. Some people get anxiety and paranoia attacks. For me personally, it lacks a certain edge that enables this sort of spiritual growth. One doesn't find that they must surrender to the moment. They often find, instead, that they can just drift into a dreamworld of their own design and leave the present alone. If used sparingly enough, however, it can trip you out something awful and lead to all sorts of crazy ego deaths and green outs. But these aren't very helpful if one doesn't wish to become dependent on the drug and instead learn how to unconditionally surrender to the present moment. If you wish to gain any practical insight, then weed can be used to get your feet wet but doesn't serve much more good than that.

I would recommend learning to meditate in a safe proper manner. Although many people can get away with it I can recount the experiences of a few of my friends that have suffered terrible physical, mental and spiritual consequences by (1) meditating or overstimulating the chakras too much (2) improperly raising kundalini (3) taking drugs with or without the aforementioned spiritual practices. As Always, to be on the safe side, spiritual progress is best wrought through meditation in moderation and plenty of service. A few words of caution from reverand Howard Ray Carey commenting on the teachings of Djwahl Khul are below which serve to illustrate my point:

'Quite a number of groups and individuals, thinking of the wonder and beauty of the light which can enter when the centers (chakras) are properly opened, are these days concentrating on the base center (chakra), seeking by diligent effort to raise the serpent (kundalini) fire up the spine to the head center. Here is where we need a strong word of caution. For if the opening of the centers is forced, either through drugs or meditation on the centers, much harm can be done. For the kundalini can rush up to the brain before there is readiness for it, and thus cause brain damage; or it can rush into the sex glands and produce the extreme kind of sexual pressure which no amount of sex can satisfy. And drug abuse often produces so many holes or tears in the protective etheric web that the individual falls prey to a great variety of entities on the lower astral planes which may decide to come in and take up residence, sometimes taking over control of the individual's thoughts and actions in ways which produce most distressing consequences. Such damage is extremely hard to repair' - Howard Ray Carey

Let us take note of just a few of the many urgent words of warning which the Tibetan Master Djwahl Khul issues through the Alice Bailey books:

'The whole subject of the centers (chakras) is dangerous if misunderstood; the centers constitute a menace when prematurely awakened or unduly energized.' (The Rays and the Initiations, p. 336)

'I sound here a solemn word of warning. Let a man apply himself to a life of high altruism, to a discipline that will refine and bring his lower vehicles (physical, astral, mental) into subjection, and to a strenuous endeavor to purify and control his sheaths (physical, astral, mental). When he has done this, and has both raised and stabilized his vibration, he will find that the development and functioning of the centers has pursued a parallel course, and that (apart from his active participation) the work has proceeded along the desired lines. Much danger and dire calamity attends the man who arouses these centers by unlawful methods (drugs), and who experiments with the fires (such as the serpent fire or kundalini) of his body without the needed technical knowledge. He may, by his efforts, succeed in arousing the fires and in intensifying the action of the centers, but he will pay the price of ignorance in the destruction of matter, in the burning of bodily or brain tissue, in the development of insanity, and in opening the door to currents and forces, undesirable and destructive...

In these matters concerning the subjective life, it is the part of discretion to move with caution and with care. The aspirant, therefore, has three things to do:

- Purify, discipline and transmute his threefold lower nature.
- Develop knowledge of himself, and equip his mental body; build the causal body by good deeds and thoughts.
- Serve the race in utter self-abnegation.

In doing this he fulfills the law, he puts himself in the right condition for training, fits himself for the ultimate application of the Rod of Initiation, and thus minimizes the danger that attends awakening of the fire.' (A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, p. 162)

I like weed, mostly because I lack access to anything else and I've had probably better-than-average results with it. I keep a notebook and write down everything I think, and yes, what I write does usually feel dull when I sober up, but occasionally there is a nugget of gold in there that carries over brilliantly into the real world. I don't care. I write it all down and will probably never sort it all out, but the process and going through the motions is what I like.

I think weed basically equates to training wheels for meditation. It helps me to be in the moment. I think that essentially is the effect of weed. Everything is more splendid because it is not tarnished by past or present thoughts of them. You can get an idea of what you should be aiming for in meditation, at an introductory level, but the training wheels should come off eventually.

I understand that other psychadelics are very different but I can only talk about what I know about.

A main point of contention in the 'shared dreaming' and 'dream plane' arguments is whether or not people are being objective about their experiences. People read interpretations into their experiences without realizing that they're doing that. Different people make different assumptions, hence the different factions.

It seems to me that objectivity is very important, and requires a very fine touch. If you try to boil everything down too much into concrete facts, your mind becomes a junkyard of half truths. But if you too much avoid making judgments, you drift and don't make definite progress. I think that all people make both mistakes, in different areas. By objectivity I'm not just talking about intellectual objectivity, I'm talking about emotional objectivity also, the nuance of what you do with your love.

I've always perceived drug users as having a difficult time with objectivity because of the way the drugs distort their perceptions. Maybe that's not a fair perception on my part, maybe the same people would have been the same way even without the drugs. But that is how it has seemed to me. With patience a person can have all kinds of exotic experiences without drugs and without abusive meditative practices. But it seems like everyone dives in with the drugs and mental contortions, and 30 years later they've got a collection of valid insights tangled up with an even bigger collection of psychological and physiological problems. Instead of moving the leading edge of spiritual development forward, collectively we wallow around in the same disfunctional mess that people have been in for the past 40 years, and for many years before that. It seems to me that the drugs give the impression of breaking new ground, but actually draw from a common set of experiences and are just recycling the same stuff. Again I'm not saying that's the whole story, but that's how it looks to me.

Just since I don't think this has been addressed yet, in my opinion smoking weed is much better for meditation for the sake of relaxation and various daily-life insights. Eating it is better for hallucinations, which then come down to your own interpretation on whether or not the experience is spiritual. If you ask me I would say it's not, for reasons already somewhat discussed. Weed significantly clouds your mind, and heavily hallucinogenic doses are often little more than dissociative to the point of just being totally random non-lucid dream-like sequences, or, in the worst case scenario, extremely terrifying (if you're prone to anxiety, which applies to most people at massive doses). Hallucinations are possible but less common at lower oral doses, but they still won't really be anything meaningful.

Like I said, I prefer smoking for relaxation meditation, but that's about it. If you're actually trying to progress into a deep and meaningful mindset or make real progress, weed isn't the answer, but can sort of help you get started (as IndieAnthias said). As Original Poster touched on a bit, weed makes it so that you think it's not hindering you as much as it is. Ever noticed how whenever you start smoking weed on a regular basis you barely even notice a difference, but then when you stop and the fog clears your thought patterns go so much deeper? That's a bad sign lol. In addition, being high will make it so that you're perfectly satisfied with the quality of meditation you've achieved, so genuine progress is rare.

Weed is one of those drugs that you want to be the answer to everything because it's already so awesome as it is, but it's really just a great way to relax and change your perception a bit. Spiritually, you're better off looking somewhere else.

Never tried this, although I have made a theory about oxygen while I was stoned, and it made a lot of sense. Too bad I didn't write it down or anything.... :/