Marijuana and spiritual practices

[hiosoy]

Hey, I'm wondering if any of you use marijuana for meditation/chakra energizing. I've read both that it's good for meditation and yoga exercices, as well as it being bad and blocking the chakras. What's your experience with this?

[Walkaway]

---
> Hey, I'm wondering if any of you use
> marijuana for meditation/chakra
> energizing.
---
I do. I also happen to have a doctor's recommendation for the use of cannabis in treating some very real medical conditions, so if cannabis is illegal for you to be smoking or otherwise ingesting, please do take that into consideration.
---
> I've read both that it's good for
> meditation and yoga exercices, as
> well as it being bad and blocking
> the chakras. What's your experience
> with this?
---
"A little goes a long way." It's a question of balance. Too much and I'll be too out of it to get any useful work done. However, a few puffs dedicated to the glory of Lord Shiva (Boom Shankar!) can do wondrous things for a meditation session.
---
Namaste,
Cliff

[forteanajones]

I'm curious, are we talking about the time between onset and coming down (~190 minutes according to Erowid (http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_effects.shtml)), or does this also include a period of time afterward? I'm also interested in knowing more about the meditation/chakra energizing and blocking.

[Charlie]

Walkaway makes a very good point: Dosage is tantamount, especially when the plants have a high concentration of THC.

I found that marijuana tea loosens up all my muscles and is a good precursor for yoga, without getting me high. I also like this option as a non-smoker. However, much more is needed for an effective tea than if smoked.

Where I live most people grow their own; people share seeds and give away buds to friends who cannot grow, for one reason or another. As a result, people are more knowledgable and respectful of Maria as a plant, and it eliminates the aspect of an illegal, organized street trade.

[moon child]

I work with the 3 Dan tian enrgy centers within the tai chi system. When I smoke marijuana I can not sleep. So I lie in bed and work with my enrgy centers. I find I can get alot further than I can when im straight. Things seem to happen more nautraly.

[jtreg]

I definitely get deeper when I have had a puff or 2 but this leads to mental sinking which is not good for any spiritual progress but its quite pleasant -- only danger is, to get off on the experience, then it becomes just yet another diversion.... i.e. no spiritual realisations etc

Yogis give advice to steer clear of drugs but Chogyam Trugnpha used to write very positive things about alcohol and its ability to be 'grounded'

Whatever...

[Proteus]

i remember hiosoy asking about this before & i couldn't respond then because i'd always kept cannabis use and meditation practice separate. But it got to thinking, "why am i dividing my life up like this?" and began a conscious experiment with smoking and "chi breathing."

Here's a bit of the background: a year ago, i'd all but given the sweet leaf up. It was becoming a habit--my after-work "cocktail"--a way of dulling my senses enough so i wouldn't throw up while watching television (didn't always work, though). i've been practicing Zen meditation consistently for 5.5 years now & recently discovered a way to add "Chi" awareness to the feature of meditation that we call "being with one's breath." Basically, you just learn to notice--feel and watch--the flow of Chi (life force energy) as it flows through you. To be tediously specific, i learned a Chi routine through which i "will" the life-force through a series of routines: e.g. from the base of the spine, up the back, to the crown or from the tan-den (about an inch-and-a-half below and behind the navel) up to the heart chakra and back down, etc.

My experiment was to see how smoking would affect my work with Chi. The discovery was that it's flat-out amazing. Not only is it easier to control where and how Chi flows, i've become reasonably adept at concentrating it on particularly sore or tense spots in my body--always to positive effect. Indeed, i've again become a regular smoker at night just so i can lie in bed before drifting off and go through my Chi-awareness/movement routine from crown to toes. This nightly routine seems to facilitate my sober morning sitting as well. A particularly deep and productive evening experience under the influence seems to sharpen my awareness of Chi during my waking hours. (Though i notice that Yoga--even just a little of it--does this too.)

The downside of cannabis is that it makes one tired &, especially in bed at night, it's easy for one's mind to drift off in hazy comfort. But, in my experience, the mind drifts when seated on a cushion after a stiff cup of coffee first thing in the morning as well. Indeed, drift is the very resistance point that we need in order to strengthen concentration and learn how to enter into wide-awake clarity wherever we are.

Anyhow, i've used cannabis less often while sitting--primarily because i sit early in the morning and NEVER smoke during the day as it hinders efficiency at work and queers my sensitivity to nuance during conversation.

i think i understand why various spiritual traditions recommend against cannabis and alchohol: like stronger entheogens, cannaibis is an ambivalent tool. It can enable--or simply cloud and confuse spiritual practice, particularly for the novice. But, for those who are grounded, it can (if used judiciously) open the senses and deepen their awareness of their Oneness with "THIS."