Alcohol and Mindfulness

[affe23]

I came across this article on Vajrayana drinking practices today and thought some might find it interesting.

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/150/story_15036_1.html

I recently spent some time with a prolonged monastic practice and found that I had begun identifying so strongly with thoughts like, I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't eat this and that. I went to a friends bachelor party and found it to be an ecstatic experience to drink and smoke. The more I drank that night the more clear my thinking. This is the exact opposite effect I was used too. No hangover either.

It led me to think about ritual ingestion about alcohol. For most of us who are used to habitual drinking I think its a razor line to walk, but it can be pretty profound.

[ August 14, 2004, 04:03 AM: Message edited by: affe23 ]

[daniel]

I can't remember where I read this now... I think it was either in relation to Gurdjieff or Tantrism, a practice where you would drink to excess, even to the point of falling down... but if you had reached a certain level you would be able to get up again.

In his book on The Gospel of John, Rudolf Steiner has interesting things to say about alcohol, that it was used originally to separate the ego and bring the spirit out of the spiritual world entirely, down into the material realm, during a phase of human evolution - this is why Christianity maintains use of alcohol as a sacrament. However, Steiner says that we no longer need to do this - we are now fully separate, no longer identified with our ancestral lineage or clan, too identified with material desires and the material plane, so acohol is now less desirable for us.

Walking around the East Vill on a weekend night compared to Burning Man, I do believe there is an evolutionary struggle btw alcohol vs psychedelics as a hedonic inebriant, and I suspect that psychedelics will inevitably prevail.

[affe23]

Originally posted by daniel:

Walking around the East Vill on a weekend night compared to Burning Man, I do believe there is an evolutionary struggle btw alcohol vs psychedelics as a hedonic inebriant, and I suspect that psychedelics will inevitably prevail.

I don't say this to be contrarian and I haven't been to the playa but at the midwest event synchroni-city there is copious amounts of alcohol consumed and I have heard the same from playa dwellers who engage in the drinking and also use what we might more traditionaly view as entheogens. I have heard it termed from one person that 'nothing can touch me' on the playa and they have reported that lack of hangover and awareness loss.

Any thoughts?

[sire_012]

a practice where you would drink to excess, even to the point of falling down... but if you had reached a certain level you would be able to get up again.

ahh yes, i've practiced this one too many times to count. however, i'd give more props to the human body for this achievement than laying it at the alter of anything transcendant.

I haven't been to the playa but at the midwest event synchroni-city there is copious amounts of alcohol consumed and I have heard the same from playa dwellers who engage in the drinking and also use what we might more traditionaly view as entheogens.

there's booze everywhere, everywhere in this culture. the playa is saturated with it, and just about any other event you could drag yourself towards. but with that said, and without passing any stones on the issue, the sublimnity of the Playa, of Synchro, of any event i've really ever attended seems to eminate itself when you find yourself floating amongst a school of bodies interacting with a psychedelic compound as opposed to a bottle of whiskey. entheogens seem to open you up to vibrations around you, while alcohol seems to enable the ego to loosen the hell up for a bit. and while giving the ego a break can be an incredible experience for most on infrequent occassions there does seem to be a longer lasting healing effect with the former as opposed to the latter.

I have heard it termed from one person that 'nothing can touch me' on the playa and they have reported that lack of hangover and awareness loss.

you may be quoting me here, i am not positive. but if you are you are misquoting me a bit. to claim that hangovers aren't felt playa side and awareness isn't lost is simply ignoring the entire village of 'gigsville' (ok i'm only kind of joking). i've had some of the worst hangovers in my life out there, i've also touched sublimnity with a quieter hand than i ever believed i had. 'nothing can touch me out there' i believe is an inversion of the condition i have experienced playaside and also at the more intimate regional events. in fact, everything touches you out there. it has been my experience that the playa and other ritual environments similar to BM are more a large, howling, karmic vaccuum, kind of like one of those centrifigal force carnival rides. but instead of sticking to the side of a cage your slapped skin first to direct contact with your karmic path. this can be gorgeous, ecstatic beyond any human terms. it can bring you to the highest achievements of human capacity, but it can also drop you into deep throws of loss, devaluation, destruction. and sometimes it can hit both polarities simultaneously.

everything touches you out there from your neighbors eating habits to the weather to the manner in which you've learned to extend and contract your resources. it's a lot like being in the default world, though shorter, harsher, more extreme and more intense. the main difference i see with the playa as opposed to the default world is that in both you can gain your greatest achievements or totally lose your way, but only on the playa, presently, do you have so many opportunities to be healed and to find your way back to the present.

[affe23]

Originally posted by sire_012:
you may be quoting me here, i am not positive. but if you are you are misquoting me a bit. to claim that hangovers aren't felt playa side and awareness isn't lost is simply ignoring the entire village of 'gigsville' (ok i'm only kind of joking).

Nope, wasn't quoting you. I also don't think our mutual acquaintance who did say this meant that nothing could touch his heart, but that he was immune to some of the shit we deal with usually or some of it was able to slide off.

I'm not trying to evangelize alcohol, far from it actually, but I am interested in it's power as a deconditioning agent to prevent one from getting to attached to spiritual practices. I am also more generally interested in the power one's mindset in a given situation can transform the elements involved from toxins to fuel for growth.