Psychedelics aren’t a shortcut for Buddhist practice, because practice involves every moment of life—especially the boring ones.
By Brad Warner SEP 07, 2018 People get mad when I say it’s not right for drugs to be promoted as Buddhism. But that’s OK with me. Sometimes you have to make people mad. When a recent spate of articles espousing drug use as dharma practice appeared in popular Buddhist magazines, like this one, they required a strong rebuke from someone with the proper credentials to say, “No, it isn’t.” I knew no one else was going to step up. So I did. I was mean and ornery. I frothed at the mouth. I called people bad names. I said they were charlatans. It was ugly. But I felt like it had to be done. more...
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For some Buddhists, experiences of selflessness induced by hallucinogens are tools for practice. But others see distraction and even danger.
By Gabriel Lefferts JUL 27, 2018 Nearly ten years ago, in the middle of a monthlong meditation retreat, Spring Washam had a sobering experience.Far from entering one of the blissful states of concentration that often mark the jhanas, the progressive stages of meditative absorption outlined in Theravada Buddhism, she entered a state of trauma. An experienced Buddhist practitioner and teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Washam insists that the Buddhist teachings were not at fault. It was the form of the practice—being silent, being still, being alone—that unraveled unconscious levels of pain to an unbearable degree. “What I realized there,” she recalled, “was that the form of sitting in silence wasn’t alleviating the symptoms; it was making it worse.” more... |