Ask A Monk: Meditating on Drugs

"If a person succumbs to a craving for a drug e.g. cannabis, perhaps because they are only beginning to understand how and why to control all addictions through meditation, is it "right" to continue meditating in that altered mind state?"

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Category:

Education

Tags:

• question
• meditation
• buddhism
• peace
• happiness
• freedom
• drugs
• addiction
• alcohol

[JackHighlander]

zen monks are famous for using large quantities of green tea. from what i've heard, it's just to help them stay awake during long meditation sessions. do you drink it? scientists definitely consider caffeine an addictive, mind-altering drug. do you consider it such? why or why not? how do you think it affects the quality of the meditation? thanks.

[yuttadhammo]

@JackHighlander Yes, I consider it either an addiction to caffeine, or an attempt to circumvent the process of building true effort. I've spent time with two separate meditators who went crazy after taking caffeine as a means to meditate all night. I've also spent time with monks who drink coffee in the evening as a means of staying awake, and all they end up doing is chattering on incessantly about their teachers' enlightenment, and marching rapidly back and forth. Not my idea of meditation.

[Carpface]

Wow! You smiled really big! I was taken aback. :D

[Suwai0303]

Personally, I meditate sober 99% of the time. I've always have positive experience those times when I do smoke and meditate for the effects of cannabis enhances my experience of happiness. So I hope my perspective can further your development. Otherwise, assumptions can keep us ignorant.

[Suwai0303]

Thirdly, approaches to cultivating clarity are different from one person to the next or one tradition of thought to the next. For you, it may be meditating sober. For others, the combination of meditation and pot allows them to see the thoughts that create unclarity from different perspective, which can give rise to clarity.

[Suwai0303]

For recreational, it can be fun. Of course, too much smoking can also have negative effects like paranoia. Secondly, you also must remember that there are many different types of meditations for different purposes - not just for cultivating mental clarity, mindfulness, peace, or happiness. This means that pot can aid certain meditations, like meditation for lucid dreaming, while it can distract other ones.

[Suwai0303]

With all due respect, unless you used to smoke and meditate, your talk is not very accurate. First of all, I have been meditating for nineteen years and smoking for five years. From actual experience, I've learned that the effects of pot result from the intention behind its use. So for spiritual use, it can have a metaphysical experience. For healing, it can have health benefits, which is why cancer patients and severely injured people prescribe to it.

[SanghaOnline]

The way I see it and have learned from other Buddhist teachers is that one must have a clear mind while meditating and if you are using drugs or drunk than you are not actually meditating, you may think that you are but you are not. I think that you might gain some sort of meditative state but you will never benefit from it like you would with a clear mind.

[MrAjh420]

I agree , type sadguru on marijuana .. he explains it also very well

[Rapquake]

however in long term continuous use it harms eventually....so thats y i guess it was traditionally used under strict supervision of master teacher...

[Rapquake]

BUT no matter what some prude propagates cannabis and psychadelics are no doubt spiritual agents, catalysts of great transformations...

[Rapquake]

some ppl are so unhealthy due to wrong diet and wrong lifestyle and poisons pervasive on our environment that it DOES increase ones awareness and mental state....temporarily....someti­mes...it is a neuroprotective agent...reduces the effects of these environmental poisons like aluminum from chemtrails and aluminum utensils, deodorants, etc....

[bcdc2434]

Thanks for the video...I agree, cannabis doesn't bring greater awareness and clarity of mind. I actually feel like it decreases my awareness and doesn't allow me to be fully present, for this reason being peaceful while high like other people is almost impossible for me. Meditation will always be the optimal method of becoming mindful & peaceful and not the drugs.