Please tell me more. Are you a proponent of Ayu? Do you think that Ayu brings us to higher understandings of ‘life’ and shows us where we have ‘knots’ that need to be unraveled? Have you done Ayu? I am all in, except for the inability to access some and the lack of a bonafide (sp) guide to assist me during the experience.
I was surprised to see this posting…of course could not understand the words of the song…which may have answered many questions.
I do follow all of your posts…even though I may rarely comment. Most of them bring me to a rarified state of ‘mind’ & move me into a no-mind space. I do love reading all of your posts and quite enjoy the variety of your manner of expressing your self and what you have discovered. Keep on keeping on. You are a gem of expressing not only your ideas, but of offering many ways of understanding this odd path. I especially appreciate your thoughts in relating quantum physics to the mystic expression of living.
Dear M. I am very flattered by your kind words, and I am glad that this blog has something to offer to you.
About Ayauasca, I cannot say I am proponent of it because I haven’t tried it but I hear great stories from people who tried it for spiritual purposes and with a guide. In my 20s I tried some milder psychedelics for a couple of times, mm, which had tremendous transformative effects on me, mostly spiritual; but then I lost interest in doing them again since I felt I got what I needed from them. Ayahuasca is a much stronger plant than mushrooms and therefore not recreational at all, and surely it can resolve some knots. But I think it must be done with a proper guide and in the right setting. In fact it is meant for only spiritual realization within the traditional context it is used. I think specially in our modern age that our intelligence is so watered down and biased and incapable of communicating with our spiritual dimension, this plant can be of great help for those who pursue it for spiritual purposes and with caution, I mean the presence of a guide, etc. It can open you to your spiritual intelligence, to the realm of spiritual truths; but these truths if not assimilated later in everyday life they will fade away and lose their transformative power after a while. Some people experience-junkies with these plants, feeling they have to do it often; this makes this sacred plant useless; the plant tries to teach you something and if you don’t assimilate it in real life, then it would shut itself down to you. My point is to say that I personally believe in their spiritual power and function, if done right, but it is an encounter as a means and not an end. It can transform you so much, of course if one is looking for that transformation, that some people don’t even feel they need to try it more than once. With the proper guide and true intention for healing and spiritual realization it is something worth doing once in a life time.
About experience-junkies I must say it is not limited to psychedelic junkies; spiritual path itself, even in monotheistic religions, can make seekers into experience-junkies, always looking to get high and intoxicated, whether through intense fasting, etc. But I think the goal of spiritual path is the direct knowledge of truth, or ultimate reality, or as some say the union with the Godhead; all else, especially intoxicating experiences are transitory and only byproducts. People who get obsessed with divine sweetness and bliss, or the fantastic experience of psychedelics, become often distracted from the main purpose of the path.
Besides these, Ayahuasca is a sacred plant and is meant to help the seekers toward awakening; I know that there are some authentic ceremonies done in Peru and the Amazon jungles and people from US often go there.
Interesting. Please pardon me but I am ignorant on this subject, I used to think substances are used only for recreation, induce ecstasy, as they are all in the realms of psychological and biochemical sciences. That one could serve as a portal towards enhancement of the consciousness completely surprises me. Purely to quench my curiosity and for a theoretical understanding I would like to know about how/ what kind of a sensory/psychological/ spiritual experience or epiphany they bring about (as against meditation, for instance). Is it possible you can tell us more on this or is there a resource I can refer to? Thanks.
RamG my apologies for late reply. About substances you are very right; they belong to the psychological realm, but so do most means of attaining to spiritual realization. The fact is that we start our journey from the human state, so the means of ascent too belong to this state though at the end all these means must be transcended.
There are natural substances such as some plants that have been used in some traditional societies, e.g. native Americans, as a means of purification. These are never used recreationally; it is mostly the modern westerners that comes to these plants with the intention of recreation which can have no spiritual effect at all and has more down side than positive side. Of course when we come to synthetic substances they can have only destructive effects because they put the mind and body into more bondage.
Of natural ones they can help expansion of consciousness but only within those traditional frameworks and under the supervision of a guide or master. It is something never recommended to do on one’s own.
How do they expand consciousness? Consciousness is never really in bondage; it is never contracted. It is out constant captivation with the flow of experience that veils the free consciousness. So it is experience that keeps us from seeing our own true nature. Some of these plants, like psychedelics, create a gap between the self and flow of experience so that it makes us a little detached from this flow. In other words, though the effects are only psychological, but it pushes us more toward the Witness pole of experience rather than the object-pole, i.e. the world. That is the reason these psychedelic experiences are accompanied with a sense of freedom and bliss which is the natural state of consciousness. But that is it. They can at most show us a glimpse, and that only under suitable setting and a guide. But they can never take you there and it is more likely that the person becomes infatuated with the phenomenal aspects of this experience rather than anything else. The ultimate realization cannot be attained through these, nor through mere love and work or prayer. If bondage is a result of ignorance, then only knowledge can remove it. All other means such as prayer, meditation, etc. are stages on the path that take us to the gate of truth.
So at the end I would say the likelihood of going astray with these substances is much more than them guiding us toward truth. So they are not at all necessary.
Of Hashish which I know some sadhus smoke before meditation, it helps them become a little detached from the flow of thought so helps them to go deeper. But that too is unnecessary because it can make the person in bondage of the substance.
Very helpful, thanks. I have read aghoris here smoke weed, but then aghoris do a lot of other stuff that are deemed crazy by the rest of us here :). Once again, thanks for this comprehensive answer, I have absolutely no problem with delay, as I know for sure it is worth the wait every time 🙂
NOEMAYA 
Please tell me more. Are you a proponent of Ayu? Do you think that Ayu brings us to higher understandings of ‘life’ and shows us where we have ‘knots’ that need to be unraveled? Have you done Ayu? I am all in, except for the inability to access some and the lack of a bonafide (sp) guide to assist me during the experience.
I was surprised to see this posting…of course could not understand the words of the song…which may have answered many questions.
I do follow all of your posts…even though I may rarely comment. Most of them bring me to a rarified state of ‘mind’ & move me into a no-mind space. I do love reading all of your posts and quite enjoy the variety of your manner of expressing your self and what you have discovered. Keep on keeping on. You are a gem of expressing not only your ideas, but of offering many ways of understanding this odd path. I especially appreciate your thoughts in relating quantum physics to the mystic expression of living.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Dear M. I am very flattered by your kind words, and I am glad that this blog has something to offer to you.
About Ayauasca, I cannot say I am proponent of it because I haven’t tried it but I hear great stories from people who tried it for spiritual purposes and with a guide. In my 20s I tried some milder psychedelics for a couple of times, mm, which had tremendous transformative effects on me, mostly spiritual; but then I lost interest in doing them again since I felt I got what I needed from them. Ayahuasca is a much stronger plant than mushrooms and therefore not recreational at all, and surely it can resolve some knots. But I think it must be done with a proper guide and in the right setting. In fact it is meant for only spiritual realization within the traditional context it is used. I think specially in our modern age that our intelligence is so watered down and biased and incapable of communicating with our spiritual dimension, this plant can be of great help for those who pursue it for spiritual purposes and with caution, I mean the presence of a guide, etc. It can open you to your spiritual intelligence, to the realm of spiritual truths; but these truths if not assimilated later in everyday life they will fade away and lose their transformative power after a while. Some people experience-junkies with these plants, feeling they have to do it often; this makes this sacred plant useless; the plant tries to teach you something and if you don’t assimilate it in real life, then it would shut itself down to you. My point is to say that I personally believe in their spiritual power and function, if done right, but it is an encounter as a means and not an end. It can transform you so much, of course if one is looking for that transformation, that some people don’t even feel they need to try it more than once. With the proper guide and true intention for healing and spiritual realization it is something worth doing once in a life time.
About experience-junkies I must say it is not limited to psychedelic junkies; spiritual path itself, even in monotheistic religions, can make seekers into experience-junkies, always looking to get high and intoxicated, whether through intense fasting, etc. But I think the goal of spiritual path is the direct knowledge of truth, or ultimate reality, or as some say the union with the Godhead; all else, especially intoxicating experiences are transitory and only byproducts. People who get obsessed with divine sweetness and bliss, or the fantastic experience of psychedelics, become often distracted from the main purpose of the path.
Besides these, Ayahuasca is a sacred plant and is meant to help the seekers toward awakening; I know that there are some authentic ceremonies done in Peru and the Amazon jungles and people from US often go there.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Interesting. Please pardon me but I am ignorant on this subject, I used to think substances are used only for recreation, induce ecstasy, as they are all in the realms of psychological and biochemical sciences. That one could serve as a portal towards enhancement of the consciousness completely surprises me. Purely to quench my curiosity and for a theoretical understanding I would like to know about how/ what kind of a sensory/psychological/ spiritual experience or epiphany they bring about (as against meditation, for instance). Is it possible you can tell us more on this or is there a resource I can refer to? Thanks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
RamG my apologies for late reply. About substances you are very right; they belong to the psychological realm, but so do most means of attaining to spiritual realization. The fact is that we start our journey from the human state, so the means of ascent too belong to this state though at the end all these means must be transcended.
There are natural substances such as some plants that have been used in some traditional societies, e.g. native Americans, as a means of purification. These are never used recreationally; it is mostly the modern westerners that comes to these plants with the intention of recreation which can have no spiritual effect at all and has more down side than positive side. Of course when we come to synthetic substances they can have only destructive effects because they put the mind and body into more bondage.
Of natural ones they can help expansion of consciousness but only within those traditional frameworks and under the supervision of a guide or master. It is something never recommended to do on one’s own.
How do they expand consciousness? Consciousness is never really in bondage; it is never contracted. It is out constant captivation with the flow of experience that veils the free consciousness. So it is experience that keeps us from seeing our own true nature. Some of these plants, like psychedelics, create a gap between the self and flow of experience so that it makes us a little detached from this flow. In other words, though the effects are only psychological, but it pushes us more toward the Witness pole of experience rather than the object-pole, i.e. the world. That is the reason these psychedelic experiences are accompanied with a sense of freedom and bliss which is the natural state of consciousness. But that is it. They can at most show us a glimpse, and that only under suitable setting and a guide. But they can never take you there and it is more likely that the person becomes infatuated with the phenomenal aspects of this experience rather than anything else. The ultimate realization cannot be attained through these, nor through mere love and work or prayer. If bondage is a result of ignorance, then only knowledge can remove it. All other means such as prayer, meditation, etc. are stages on the path that take us to the gate of truth.
So at the end I would say the likelihood of going astray with these substances is much more than them guiding us toward truth. So they are not at all necessary.
Of Hashish which I know some sadhus smoke before meditation, it helps them become a little detached from the flow of thought so helps them to go deeper. But that too is unnecessary because it can make the person in bondage of the substance.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very helpful, thanks. I have read aghoris here smoke weed, but then aghoris do a lot of other stuff that are deemed crazy by the rest of us here :). Once again, thanks for this comprehensive answer, I have absolutely no problem with delay, as I know for sure it is worth the wait every time 🙂
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As an aside, you look quite dapper in your recent picture.
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Thanks M. 🙂
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You may like this documentary if you haven’t seen it already; actually I will also post it on the blog.:
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