Acyuta
Greenlighter
Wow, thanks for the link, Psood0. Interesting read.At least some practiced monks endorse biochemical spiritual paths. Here's an interesting excerpt from an article about a sannyasin Hindu monk smoking DMT. All his years of sober meditation didn't get him anywhere near where DMT took him, and the dogma he absorbed as a monk actually seemed to get in the way of accepting the experience.
As a monk, though, I feel I need to say something regarding the above quote...
In the Hindu monks experience he was first 'indoctrined' and soberly meditative.. then tried DMT and PHWOOM! All the ego/dogma centred stuff fell away.
In my case, it was the other way around. I first experienced psychedelics THEN became a monk. My advantage was that in previously experiencing the ego-death and profound insights the psychedelic experience brings, some of the processes and information I study now are easier to understand, and has perhaps helped me avoid dogmatism and mundane sentiment within this tradition... without the psychedelic experience I might never be where I am now.
However, while the psychedelic experience holds many profound wonders, the stability of a sober mind when engaged philosophically and devotedly to spiritual practices heralds realisations and experiences that infuse one in old age with PRACTICAL WISDOM. The psychedelic realm has the interesting quality of full blown visions, patterns, OBE's, extradimensional shifting, that last a short while and only take you as far as realising that normal 3d sensory perception and thinking is not the all-in-all.