To: K-list
Recieved: 2000/08/23 13:04
Subject: [K-list] Drugs, No Sex
From: joe Wood
On 2000/08/23 13:04, joe Wood posted thus to the K-list:
Before I get to drugs, one more thing - I have hung out w/ a few different
hippie cultures, and some free-lovers, and while those I have met often seem
to spread joy with their lovin, at least on the surface, there has been a
lot of fighting, verbal and even physical abuse in the background. Sure,
you can say that that is the fault of the unenlightened participants, or of
them not having their blocks cleared, and that may be true.
On to drugs . . . a little alcohol up to college (a lot during), started
cigs at 15, but never had the urge to move beyond them until the end of my
sophomore year of college. Then - and this will give the free sex and drugs
folks plenty of fodder to bash me with - in one weekend, i got high for the
first time, saw my first dead show, and made love for the first time.
(Released repression? Naaahh!) A year or two after that, I became
basically a daily pot smoker. Have tried shrooms and cid a handful of times
each - never really felt any sort of spiritual or mystic breakthrough with
them, though cannabis has certainly provoked some confrontations and
breakthroughs in me. As another poster noted earlier though, some take pot
and are not functional, hiding from the world and themselves, while some use
it to grow. For me, I have used for both positive and negative reasons -
and THAT is the danger of drugs. Using anything that can be habit-forming,
when we are trying to erase and eradicate old habits, is troublesome. Seung
Sahn Soen Sa, a modern korean zen master, notes that drugs, incl. lsd, can
prompt growth ad awakening. However, he calls them special medicine, and
warns against the risk of becoming addicted to or attached to them.
For me, one of the biggest problems w/ weed (besides the fact that i
sometimes use it to hide and escape and generally not deal at times) is that
I do not know what experiences I have had are genuine to me, or what ar part
of that cannabis consciousness. But, gol-durn it, there are receptors in
the brain, as many of you know, that do NOTHING but respond to cannabis! Of
course, while showing that pot use is a potentially natural (and certainly
historical) thing for humans to use, it also means there is a greater
possibility of becoming addicted to the stimulation of those centers.
I feel that I am a happier person on weed, esp a daily regimen, than not.
What sucks is inconsistent quality of supply, meaning you have no idea what
you are taking. If Colorado's deceased secretary of state hadn't stashed a
few hundred petitions in her desk, weed would be medical legal in CO now,
instead of after this year's election. Not that I could neccessarily find a
shrink to prescribe it for manic depression, but you know damn well i would
try.
I think some of the things i escape from on weed are the nonessential
banalities and consumer-oriented trash this world feeds us, which isn't all
bad. Better if i could come up with a solution for those ills, but i have
already driven myself to the hospital trying to do so. As long as true
personal growth remains a or the main intent, I don't think there's a
problem.
However, I do think that people who so violently (defensively) lash out at
those who think drugs are not part of the spiritual path need to take a
SERIOUS look at the role of drugs in their life. Sounds pretty much like an
addiciton, and hiding from something, and an obstacle to growth if you are
forced to defend your drug habit so vehemently.
Get over your bitterness - yes, it should be legal, yes it can be helpful,
and yes it can be destructive as well. When one gets so defensive about a
drug in particular, it sounds as though one is still trying to convince
ones' self of the truth one is expounding. (you should hear me get going on
natural drugs, pharmaceuticals, bipolar and kundalini - i get defensive one
way one day, one way the next - still trying to sort out who i am, what i
think, and what the ATnospam#$%ATnospam all these words mean.)
geoff
--------------------------------------------------------------------<e|-
/7872/6/_/680797/_/967061062/
--------------------------------------------------------------------|e>-
DISCLAIMER!
Home | Archive Index | Search the archives | Subscribe
K. List FAQ | Kundalini FAQs | Signs and Symptoms | Awakening Experiences | K. list Polls | Member Essays | Meditations | List Topics | Art Gallery | Cybrary | Sitemap | Email the moderators.
symbol.