Buddhism and marijuana

One of my good good friends has been a practicing buddhist for over 10 years and smokes recreationally.

He's more of a plan-it-out for a friday night smoker. Never really seen him smoke more than twice in one week. Aside from that, he THOROUGHLY enjoys marijuana.

 

Buddhism is a huge and scattered body of philosophical thought. Basically, if you haven't settled on a specific, particular sect, use your own judgment: does pot conflict with what you believe?

I will say that most Buddhist sects adhere to the Five Precepts and that precept number five is not to use drugs recreationally.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_precepts

--A former Buddhist

 

I know i pretty devout buddhist that i know smokes. I've wouldn't consider myself buddhist but i have been studying it a lot lately

 

Smoking pot recreationally is kind of useless.

Smoking with friends isn't always for the sake of recreation. To me recreation is when you are trying to do something. If your trying to smoke pot, your wasting your time, as well as are in for paranoia or possibly other things.

So if you smoke pot, and wonder if God will hold it against you. The answer is no, but you you might hold it against yourself, and there's nothing God will do to stop you from doing what you want to do, but with some things there comes a 'curse' and with others a blessing.

 

there are many ways to look at this in a modern perspective.

is it ok for someone to be a christian, while they:
1) cheat, lie, plunder
2) talk about peace while stirring up war

i'm sure you get the point, the list can be endless.

so now, let's ask, is it ok to smoke weed while being a buddhist? in comparison to the prior question, this one seems so much more insignificant since smoking weed never hurt anybody.

of course, this is all based on loosely-based religious labels. most people proclaim to be something when really they don't even know it to be completely true.

 

5. I undertake the training rule to abstain from drinks and drugs that cause heedlessness.[3


I dunno about you but I tend to heed things pretty well when I'm baked.... Whatever the fuck that means ha...

 

Well, pretty much the only thing I can heed is how fucking awesome things taste.

Anyways, I think it depends on how you use it. Chinese Buddhists have a history of using pot ritually and to help themselves meditate, so I guess they think that as long as you're using it to do Buddhist things it's chill.

 

technically no, all drugs and alcohol cloud your mind, your mind will never be as clear on drugs as it can be sober, and also one principle of buddhism is to not take mind altering substances.

you could still practice buddhist belief's and meditation, but it wont be true buddhism, and also your meditation will suffer from it as well as i learned, for a long time i meditated while doing various drugs but my progress was very slow, but when i sobered up i was able to progress much faster, but again i've reached a standstill since i started doing opiates.

buddhism is about becoming one with yourself to sorta ignore the suffering in the world, and you cant become truly one with yourself with a layer of THC stuck to the fat in your brain

 

I didn't realize that Buddhism revolved around being ignorant...

Any why can't you be one with your self with a THC-Build up on the brain. Evidence cited, please?

 

haha, evidence? for something science knows virtually nothing about, the conscious mind? get outta here.

dude you dont gotta be a smartass cuz you think weed is some kinda miracle drug.. its plain and obvious, being under the influence of ANY mind altering substances makes your mind not 100%, as in since you feel different (intoxicated in some way) you dont feel completely as yourself. meditation involves natural non drug induced concentration. anything you do to change how your brain feels/works by changin what chemicals your brain is putting out in a sober state your brain isnt truly itself, its not in the same working order it is being completely yourself.

sure weed gives you that awe inspiring feeling of being one with the earth and shit, but thats because its making your brain feel that, not you.

i'm not saying that to be one in a buddhism sense is impossible to do if you smoke weed, but it definitely alters the way in which you get there. its just my personal belief that to attain true enlightenment through meditation and not just meditating cuz of its relaxing values and cuz "thats what buddhism says you should do". if your trying to become one then your doing some serious soul searching while meditating and having truly profound revelations, not some psychoactive induced revelation like acid or mushrooms would give.

but i also believe that ritual use of certain hallucinogens are valuable in the journey, but smoking weed everyday isnt sacred to you at all, its an enjoyable habit and you do it for recreation.

thats why shaman and shit for the most part (i'm sure in some countries shaman utilize a drug daily) dont use drugs recreationally, they search for lifes answers and healing ability through true searching and devotion, and as they work there way up and become more advanced, they use ayahuasca or san pedro etc. as like a sacred ritual, and now that they have aquired more new insights, the experience can intertwine the thoughts into a much larger revelation.

people just think drugs are like the cheatcode to unlocking enlightenment, but take timothy leary for example. drugs cant bring a true sense of enlightenment imo, it has to be solely from within you, and theres no secret key that will just unlock it all in a couple of hours tripping.

edit: ignore and ignorant have two totally seperate meanings, their not like alterations of the same word or anything

 

Hey man, I sense some tension. I'm not attacking you, when I asked for evidence, I meant it. I've never heard that explanation before, and I wanted to know where you got it from. No need to get huffy-puffy, that just clouds the mind and diminishes the ability to think clearly.

I fully understand and agree with what you're saying, in the sense that drugs aren't a cheatcode.

But it sounded as though you were discrediting all use of drugs, or at least specifically chronic use of marijuana, as a catalyst to find peace within yourself.

I have been chronically smoking pot for about 3 years now. It's not recreational, it helps me weed out all the bullshit in my mind, and allow me to slow down and analyze what I am really thinking. But it isn't the high that got me on the road to enlightenment, it was the action itself. I was using something that I'd been told my whole life was horrible, and it was really helping a lot of things for me. Then I began questioning why I had been lied to about it, why was it illegal, and then it spiraled on from there.Now I am dabbling in meditation and searching for answers about my inner self. So it was more the experience than the actual 'awe-inspiring high' from smoking.

the definition of Ignore is "refuse to acknowledge". Ignorant is defined as uneducated in general; lacking knowledge or sophistication. Ignoring leads to Ignorance.
So I guess what I was trying to say is that I don't think Buddhism teaches to ignore suffering. I believe (and I could be wrong) Buddhism teaches one to acknowledge these things, because without proper exposure, awareness of, and understanding of suffering, you truly can not know what it means to be peaceful.

again, please don't take my posts as an offensive against you; nothing I say is ever going to harm you, there is no need for defense. I am not attacking you personally.

 

thats all i got from that... who says that certain drugs can't bring enlightenment? who are you to define what a true sense of enlightenment is for everybody?

 

We used to have a guy on here, MelT or something... he said that type of shit too.

 

TC you as a Buddhist have to realise that the ultimate goal is to become a buddha alas smoking trees will keep you from achieving this as will eating meat and drinking 13 year old whiskey. That being said I figure I'll give it a lifetime or two before I quit and fully commit to bhuddism.

 

He is still around here, and he's a smart guy too.

 

I've read a lot about the origins of Buhda, you know, the legit stuff that just talks about him not people's misinterpretations of his teachings. Marijuana's high seems to fit in very well with Buhda's philosophy on living. When I get high, I feel closer to God, to earth. It's a very enlightened state at times.

I had a revelation once when I was outside at night after smoking. It was that we are all simply expressions of energy, nothing more, nothing less. And by "we all" I mean all animals and plants. It felt very right. It felt very good. It was bliss for a minute.

As one poster said, does it go against your beliefs? I believe Buhda would have asked that very question and you'd have to find the true answer within yourself.