Soto Zen teacher Brad Warner writes about his recent encounters with people advocating use of mind-altering drugs to reach enlightenment. (See "The Psychedelic Experience" and "Mountain of Drugs.")
Full disclosure -- I have no personal experience with hallucinogenic drugs. In the 1960s, I was the World's Squarest Flower Child. What I know of LSD trips I learned from watching special effects in movies.
However, I have met a lot of people who claim to have had some mind-blowing chemically induced experiences, and none struck me as being any more (or less) enlightened than anyone else. You can't always tell, of course. But if LSD or muscaria mushrooms could produce Buddhas, I think we would be bumping into some of them by now.
I think the claims for the enlightening qualities of drugs comes from confusion about what enlightenment is. I am told one is not really lifted up into the cotton-candy heavens on a giant pink lotus (although I saw that in a movie, too). Nor is enlightenment an escape from the mundane world. As the old Zen saying goes, "Before enlightenment -- chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment -- chop wood, carry water."
I think I've mentioned this before, but even in my first few Zen retreats, I found it remarkably easy to give myself hallucinations. Sometimes even now, a few hours into a retreat, the floor will roll in waves like an ocean and pictures will seem to be swimming on the walls. This is nothing I take seriously, however. Hallucinations are not insight. This I know from experience.
Drug enthusiasts argue that the use of drugs is like taking a helicopter to the top of the mountain instead of bothering to climb it. The view at the top is the same, they say. I can't say whether the view at the top is the same, or not. But the person who climbs is going to have a very different experience of the mountain than the person who takes a helicopter.
The person who climbs will become very intimate with that mountain, from top to bottom, and will "know" the mountain in a way the helicopter passenger will not. He or she also will gain in strength, skill and discipline, and meeting the challenge of the climb might change how he perceives himself. So, the climb has its own value apart of the view. Someone into mountain climbing as a sport might argue that the climb is what it's really about, not the view.
Even assuming -- and I am skeptical -- that a drug could give one exactly the same experience as kensho, or even satori, would the experience leave one with insight? When the brain's ordinary chemistry is restored, will he perceive himself and other material phenomena in the same way he did before? Will the eyes of wisdom and compassion be opened, just as if he had spent ten years in meditation?
Again, I am skeptical. To go back to the mountain analogy -- at this point in my practice, I feel the mountain is me. That's not necessarily a good thing, as I seem to be a steep and challenging mountain. I'd like to be climbing an easier one, but there it is. But becoming intimate with this mountain feels like a critical part of the process. I don't think it's a step that can be skipped. A lot of learning goes on in the journey.
So, if I do reach some peak and find a helicopter passenger there, I don't think we'll be taking in the view with the same eyes.
That said, I realize there are ancient shamanic and mystical traditions that incorporate psychoactive substances as part of their practices. These traditions usually also incorporate many rituals and initiations and are guided by an experienced elder, so merely experiencing drug-induced states is not the whole program. There is some discipline, some structure of tradition, that guides the practitioner. Whether the effects are anywhere close to realization in the Buddhist sense I do not know.
I can say from experience that drug trips are no comparison to true, deep meditation and loving concern for others. Rainbow waves coming out of the speakers while Led Zeppelin jams may seem fun, but it is nothing when the suffering beings in the world need devoted, wise and loving bodhisattvas with clear minds. My experience is that drugs tend to promote selfishness, craving and blind spots when it comes to self-knowledge. And yes I have used lsd, and found it to be a confused imitation of a deva realm at best. And sometimes it’s just the worst. Getting insight from lsd is like trying to get nutrition from cotton candy at the carnival.
RE: “Even assuming — and I am skeptical — that a drug could give one exactly the same experience as kensho, or even satori, would the experience leave one with insight? … Will the eyes of wisdom and compassion be opened, just as if he had spent ten years in meditation?”
Totally agree that this is the most important question to ask …
RE: “Sometimes even now, a few hours into a retreat, the floor will roll in waves like an ocean and pictures will seem to be swimming on the walls. This is nothing I take seriously, however. Hallucinations are not insight. “
What if our habitual way of perceiving the “external world” — viz. as composed of relatively static and solid “things” — were actually the hallucination, and your perception of flowing movement more in alignment with the reality pointed to by Buddhist emptiness teachings?
As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus — a contemporary of Buddha — declared: “Hanta pei” (everything flows).
Dogen said the same thing, often.
Having been an avid psychonaut in college, I can say that I’ve had a few peak experiences where I just *was*, no more and no less. But even the great experiences on psychedelics end, and you have no way to persist in it.
Years later, I read Richard Alpert’s (aka Baba Ram Dass) Be Here Now, where he describes how he went from Harvard psychologist doing acid with Timothy Leary, to spiritual seeker in India, and one thing that stuck with me was how, despite doing heroic amounts of acid, he could not hold on to his peak experiences either. Instead, it left him with a craving for some more fundamental transformation.
While I also doubt that true enlightenment can occur on psychedelics, I think they have the lovely virtue of sometimes derailing people from their expected path in life, and showing them that there are other possibilities. Had I not tried acid earlier, I don’t know if I would have searched for enlightenment later.
For those who are curious, there’s an excellent book on the intersection of buddhism and psychedelics called Zig Zag Zen.
Tools are tools (casts are casts); I am not arrogant enough to judge one tool over another.
Trying to “get enlightenment” by drugs is just another misguided version of trying to “get enlightenment” through zazen, or through koans or through any other action or “external” means. The more you try to grab for it, the more elusive it becomes. It just becomes another “thing” to cling to, just dukkha in disguise. People who advocate drugs as a method for attaining enlightenment seem to have missed this important point that zennies have repeated time and again: Enlightenment is not something that you “get.”
Also, regarding mindblowing hallucinatory experiences– this is the sort of thing that Buddhists have warned about (Sheng Yen tells some important stories regarding this, people eager to be confirmed as being enlightened when they were really on an emotional high).
And also mystics in other religious traditions have warned about for centuries, like John of the Cross. If you start seeing Bog and All His Holy Angels, then set it aside, move past it– enlightenment or theosis, in either case, is beyond all that pizazz…
I had a psychiatrist once explain this to me. He said that my parents went on vacations for the same reason. They changed their outer environment to seek peace and pleasure. I was trying through changing my inner environment. LSD, for instance, leaves side effects and I think everyone who takes hallucinogens brings something back with them from every trip, sometimes things we wish didn’t follow us home. Enlightenment at least partially, means realization, to me. I think we can agree that experiencing and understanding are two separate phenomena. Psychedelics are said by some psychologists to dissolve the fabric in the mind that acts like a barrier between the subconscious and when we hallucinate, we are seeing part of our subconscious as the barrier heals. Sometimes it doesn’t heal. For me, understanding and experience are separate entities. I can experience sex without knowing what actually happened physically or emotionally to me. Can I say I understand it just because I felt something that was knew? I don’t think so. For me to learn something I need to apply myself to a process of fact finding and information gathering and I can’t do it high. Anyone who has tried to do something as simple as count change while really peaking on some good acid can tell you that your faculties aren’t really with you, it is more like watching a movie that unfolds inside your brain instead of something you seek to know or can even understand, so people walk away with some pretty strange concepts as it is over. Just like some people think they see God while on LSD, some people can see the virgin in a tortilla while sober, it depends on what is in your brain. It wasn’t a new idea, just a new experience. I did learn that my mind can trick me as reality is about perception for each individual, but that doesn’t mean that I learned how to perceive anything properly while experiencing a break with reality in my own perception.
I think it does “depend on what is in your brain.” It’s hard to communicate the psychedelic experience and when someone who has no experience with them tries to do that, they often fall into stereotyping or generalizing the perceived effects of the experience as mediated through society or others, falling into that trap. I find that even those who have had what-they-perceive-to-be meaningful experiences on psychedelic substances also fall into this categorization trap. All I can say is that I have taken things out of my own experiences and sifted through them, “grinding up consciousness” like Sekkei Harada writes, to liberate certain views and habits, or reference points I had previously been clinging to. Experiencing the psychedlic process, for me, was something akin to Aizen Myo and Fudo Myo, two sides of the same coin, which begins with a worldy experience (take some psychedlics) that puts one, on a tight schedule, through a difficult process of ‘reverse-engineering’ the built-up perceptions of self and environment. This worldly experience is transformed into something else. Going ‘crazy’ is a construct just like when we bestow a title on someone or something, it can be de-constructed and made more useful.
gassho
Likewise, it is hard to communicate the realization experience with someone who has not experienced it. Again, every argument I have ever heard in favor of a chemically induced road to enlightenment is coming from someone who clearly doesn’t know enlightenment from shoe polish. And I’m afraid I have to put you in that category. As long as it’s all about you and how you relate to reality and what you are experiencing, that ain’t it.
Now, as Machig says, he gained some insight through drugs that experience is conditioned, which is an important step. I can understand how that might happen. But by itself that is not awakening.
I studied under a Tibetan Buddhist lama in China and elsewhere, very intensively for years. I recall him mentioning heroin, but don’t recall him saying “Take it.” He did say the following, “Smoke marijuana OK.” Personally I would think, until told otherwise, that drugs like heroin or opium might be used. Why? Well in Tibet and elsewhere monks felt that fearfulness was a great hindrance to practice. They even tied themselves to tombstones at night to overcome fear. My point is that if one’s mind becomes absolutely overcome by fear, say from thinking about the hells or perceiving a bad afterlife, that taking calming drugs in order to gain temporary mental/fear control would be in order. I know that there is an argument for hallucinogens, but I don’t wish to get into that here.
Lastly I want to say that the sadhus in India are also frequently heavy drug users to control their minds.
Drug induced “enlightenment”? those who say this is quite funny. When we learn Dhamma, through thoughts, by clear understanding of self, the ploy of our own mind by “mindfullness”. How can a drug do this? Where are we going to get rationality through drugs, How can we get alertness?
Anybody says the experience he had through drug is “Enlightenment”. I may have to say, there is a fools’s “enlightenment” also.
From some experience on drugs, I can vouch. No drug can give a lasting change in belief, practice, habit(or breaking habit) and staying in calm and peace state of mind. Sorry, hallucination or vegetative states are a state by itself…for them “enlightenment” is far off.
Great article, Barbara. As always, I enjoy reading and learning from you. I’d like to share a few thoughts on what using drugs for meditative purposes may have meant for me. I experimented in the 70’s with hallucinogens, not solely, but definitely as one way to find the road toward enlightenment. What I learned, without question, was the experience of mimicking schizophrenia (using acid) was in itself a clear lesson that my thoughts do not always reflect truth or anything of substance. I learned how to stand aside from my thinking process, by observing the hallucinations and expanded thought patterns. I would evaluate how the drug’s power to control my behavior and emotions became a tug-of-war with my own power. It was an experience of attaching and letting go, up until the drug wore off. I did not exactly find enjoyment in that, but some sort of satisfaction inside myself. I used hallucinogens about 10 times, and have never had a desire to try them again. Would I recommend their use? Maybe for a few people, but I say that with extreme caution, because using hallucinogens can be a very frightening and unforgettable experience for many people. Its unpredictability and lack of guidance is what would make me say “no”.
In dream yoga one gains lucidity, and is able to maintain centeredness and even control what goes on in the dream. This is better, and safer, for someone who wants to observe and benefit their mind in the midst of bizarre appearances.
Saddhus, as Haga says, smoke Bang or Ganja.
Buddha must have sat in Bhopal, laid down in Uttar Pradesh, got the Munchies walking though Bihar along before he reached that state under that tree.
In a few words, Gotama knew how to ‘chill’ long before Englihtenment. Just how he learned to meditate long before he rapped the dharma, he was primed long before for the states that count on the way to Enlightenment.
Once the dharma left India, good weed was replaced by plain & dry things like rice wine, noodles, and tofu The Buddha who ate dal, dipped his roti and chappati in aloe gobi, smoked a joint before the sun set, was lost to memory and history.
Drugs as a means to enlightment started with Timothy Leary (LSD). People worked backwards from there and found drugs being uses by ancient cultures. I guess it all depends what you mean by enlightment. If it means some sort of pleasureable or ecstatic feeling then drugs may be a means of affecting the brain. If it means something spiritual or non-material then it seems unlikely that drugs would produce such an effect.
I have tried some drugs, and they can definitely show you a different, enlightened mindstate… but what you will lack is the knowledge of how to get there again without just taking the drug again. It can show you a glimpse of a different mindstate, but you can’t stay there unless you learn how to get there without the drugs.
The mind is deep and powerful, and there are effective means to liberate one’s awareness without hallucinating or dullness. Clarity is remarkably satisfying. I personally practice ethics and love, mantra and visualisation, and study. I recommend these types of methods.
Also want to mention to look up advanced Tantric yogas, such as the Six Yogas of Naropa in books translated by Glenn Mullen. There is much to be done with the mind, but in a safe and controlled way, where one directs the mind instead of being pushed around by some drug.
“Whether the effects (of drugs) are anywhere close to realization in the Buddhist sense I do not know”
For myself, I know from personal experience that drug(s) provide experiences that allow the possibility of satori. For someone who has no notion (me, at 19) of enlightenment, they open a window.
That’s why in shamanism drugs are sometimes labelled as “teachers”
And in shamanism, it is also sometimes said that the use of drugs takes us down the animal path…enlightenment might be achieved momentarily, but cannot be held.
Getting there is but one thing, “staying” another.
Ahh yes — drugs – the easy way – Having consumed vast quantities of hallucinogenic substances it is my considered opinion that while it might give you the same state of mind, and I am not saying it does, it is gone when the drugs are gone. Drugs create false or artificial states. You have to climb the mountain to truly see the view.
I have achieved what I believe is chemically-aided enlightenment, and I know my heart and mind see things as they are and I feel blissful that life is so very simple.
The more often I take a high dose of a psychedelic, the more easily I can recall this Buddha nature. It is a quick path to get there but it doesn’t produce instant, lasting results. It let’s me spend a good amount of time in that state and I nurture it and study it.
I tripped twice in the past week and each time was a fantastic trip. I’ve felt very aware recently, and I have more motivation to meditate.
Taking the helicopter is a good way to see the view, but you still have to work at it. Psychedelics can be a very useful tool for spiritual development, but meditative practice is key to learn to access this state more often. I think they’re useful, but certainly not necessary for spiritual growth.
I also didn’t fully experience chemically-aided enlightenment until I had taken care of the major issues and fears in my life. Once I had already realized all the little pieces of my spirituality, a nice trip started to allow me to connect it all and really feel it.
Now I’m working on feeling these things more and more
Good luck travelers
I think that ‘enlightenment’ can mean a variety of things and that there are different levels of enlightenment. It could be that those drug-induced inspirations, understandings, and feelings are going to be far different than those that are achieved by hard work and dedication.
Either way, it does not happen spontaneously. There must be some sort of catalyst, and I feel the chemically-induced one is a good alternative for those who are uncertain as to which other paths are available.
I did a combination of LSD and MDMA and it wasnt until i also inhaled some Nitrous did i feel complete “ego-death” and dissoativeness – the feeling of time slipping away, etc. Afterwords, the world seem beautiful, and I wanted to sing songs of love, and my understanding of Love and God was much deeper than before.
I also feel that I’ve reached ‘enlightenment’ on several different occasions – different kinds of enlightenment – but on three occasions have I felt like I’ve been enlightened. When I was younger and I was coming to realizations, when I started believing in God, and just this previous weekend when I experienced what it takes most people years and dedication to experience.
It does not have to do with visuals or hallucinations but rather the feelings of your body and in your mind. I feel like taking the helicopter ride to the top is a good alternative for those who haven’t come to know of a better way to get there. I feel like taking the helicopter ride can still give you insight and understanding. I also feel like by climbing the mountain you will get the ability to tap into those inner sources on will instead of through chemically induced states.
Essentially, what you feel by climbing the mountain is the same in your mind, chemically, as what others feel through drugs. Drugs can simulate what happens in the mind od those who are meditating or in spiritual trances.
I felt like my third eye was opened. That’s all I can say.
For one thing, it is so hard to explain what LSD is like that one should try it before forming a conclusive opinion on its uses. It’s never quite what you expect, whether it’s your first trip or your fortieth.
But the thing is, acid is not a magical push-button for enlightenment. While it does often open you up to be more meditative, thoughtful, and creative, if you want enlightenment it still takes work. Usually, you’d have to undergo the same processes that you’d take to reach enlightenment through other means. You’re not going to stick a chemical in your mouth and become Buddha, but it can help you along. Therefore, I don’t view it as cheating in any way.