Is Trying To Find Enlightenment Through Drugs Bullshit?

[bogey_j]

I'm not under any pretense of 'mind-expansion' or 'finding myself'. I just use drugs to escape this horrible fucking world

is that most people's real reason for doing drugs, or do people still delude themselves into believing they're going to find enlightenment tripping balls like the hippies did in the 60's?

in the end its just about getting fucking high..

 

[Kittycat5]

Drugs are a tool. For some it may help them to a goal, but it is the experience not the drug. Just as I may read a book to help me understand, it is not what I am reading, it is how I incorparate it into my life after reading that is important.

And this is coming from someone who does not use drugs for this purpose. Different strokes.

 

[Mysterie]

i didn't think anyone seriously thinks they will become a realized being through tripping. drug highs are just experiences which come and eventually they wear off, most of the time very little integration happens after the trip, and if a lot is integrated, progression can happen at a rate, too rapid, and psychosis/mania can happen.

the path is a long and slow one, getting attached to the insights and pleasant sensations that come with states of consciousness that are easier accessed through psychedelics can be an obstacle to see the truth of who you are.

of course it can also be the message which shows you what the human mind is capable of and then it gives an opportunity for progression without the use of chemical tools. people that take psychedelics often are ignoring that though i think.

 

[fatstep]

i didn't think anyone seriously thinks they will become a realized being through tripping. drug highs are just experiences which come and eventually they wear off, most of the time very little integration happens after the trip, and if a lot is integrated, progression can happen at a rate, too rapid, and psychosis/mania can happen.

the path is a long and slow one, getting attached to the insights and pleasant sensations that come with states of consciousness that are easier accessed through psychedelics can be an obstacle to see the truth of who you are.

of course it can also be the message which shows you what the human mind is capable of and then it gives an opportunity for progression without the use of chemical tools. people that take psychedelics often are ignoring that though i think.

For some reason this resonates well with me so I am quoting it for truth. Well posted.

 

[herbavore]

Having been one of those drug abusing hippies in the 70's I would have to say that I could answer your question two ways. The first answer would be that I was indeed trying to escape the horrors of the world I saw around me, the horrors of my own mind and all the pain associated with those. Enlightenment is a lofty concept when it is applied to a permanent state of awareness (I just don't believe any human can pull that off) but enlightening moments can have very transformational outcomes and yes, certain drugs did give me an awareness of the beauty tangled with the horror, both inside and out. Those experiences set my self-destructive adolescence onto a very different path and for that I will always be grateful. Those drug experiences also paradoxically taught me that I did not need to be taking drugs at all--a personal lesson that meant I was drug free for many years. (Though I now use weed for sleep and the occasional laugh-fest with friends, drugs are a very minor part of life today.)

You bring yourself, your perceptions and your intentions to everything you experience, and drugs are no exception. If a person takes a substance in order to unlock something inside or to expand their own perceptions this will give a very different experience than may be had by a person setting out to numb pain or escape suffering. I consider myself very lucky that I was trying to do the latter in my early life and yet some part of me must have been seeking the former because overall I would say that these experiences did open the doors of perception that I needed to open. The main one being this one:

The world is as terrible and as perfect as it has ever been and as it will ever be.

I was stuck in a place where the world only revealed greed and suffering (with each of us contributing in our own ways to that reality). Remember when you were a little kid and you already knew that the world could be a scary place but you also got up every day and experienced surprise and engagement with all the wonders around you? That same awareness may not be enlightenment, but it makes for a more peaceful existence. You don't need rose-colored glasses and you don't need suicide. There is a middle way, to see and feel everything without being overwhelmed. Our small minds always want black and white--either the world is terrible or it is lovely, we feel happy or we feel miserable. Better to experience life as a soup. Everyday you stir it and something different rises to the top of your attention. You start experiencing sadness with an appreciation for sadness, joy with melancholy at the edges, finding beauty in almost everything. It's all in the soup!

 

[Phil.McKeer]

...an awareness of the beauty tangled with the horror, both inside and out....Better to experience life as a soup. Everyday you stir it and something different rises to the top of your attention. You start experiencing sadness with an appreciation for sadness, joy with melancholy at the edges, finding beauty in almost everything. It's all in the soup!

Holy mole, the truthiness quotient here gave me goosebumps. Thanks, Herbavore. Your wisdom is appreciated once again.

Edit: #It'sAllintheSoup