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Interesting analogy of a dark forest. I'd say the Zen realization is of value here. You can always, at any moment, realize that your sensations and consciousnes

Interesting analogy of a dark forest. I'd say the Zen realization is of value here. You can always, at any moment, realize that your sensations and consciousness is all there is. We don't need anything more than to observe what we sense at any moment. I say this because changing our mind doesn't have to be hard arduous work, Zen Buddhists realized that enlightenment is here now, if we have the will to simply see it and accept it. Regarding machetes, wow. I'd say meditation is more like the calm and the observation of the dark forest, not a machete. A machete is a constant necessity to hack through tough issues. Meditation is the art of doing nothing, of simply noticing what is occurring. In that way, it's more like standing still and observing the jungle, not hacking it. I like Sam Harris's analogy best. Meditation is taking a calm sail boat ride to wisdom, whereas psychedelics are like being strapped to a rocket. Both will get you places, but one is more likely to crash.

goodroot 5y ago
Reading a book at the moment called "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism", which are the words of Tibetan Buddhist monk of renown Chögyam Trungpa. He also likens the development of spiritual presence to a blade. The trick with Sam's stated perspective, from this Buddhist perspective, is that it implies attainment of a desire: I meditate to be calm. Meditation can make people calm, and so can breath work. But if you say "I meditate to be calm and ride to wisdom", there are those who would say you are not meditating at all. They would say it is just "I meditate", and then "meditate", in these sort of Buddhist philosophies like Zen and similar. I do not say this to gatekeep - but experiences have taught me that, absolutely, meditation and the path of spirit is very hard, dangerous and arduous work. Helping others through derealization and psychosis has taught me this lesson time and time again. In my metaphor, meditation in the psychdelic context is a machete because it is the blade to cut through all the psychedelia, all the woo, all the false notions of personal loftiness from spiritual insight, all the ideas of being healed, all of the mind mess. It simply is the mechanism that you use to cut through, and then "become here and now", to allow yourself to heal beyond stories: depressive stories, happy stories, and into a state of mind that is resilient to the suffering of the times.

goodroot 5y ago

Reading a book at the moment called "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism", which are the words of Tibetan Buddhist monk of renown Chögyam Trungpa. He also likens the development of spiritual presence to a blade. The trick with Sam's stated perspective, from this Buddhist perspective, is that it implies attainment of a desire: I meditate to be calm. Meditation can make people calm, and so can breath work. But if you say "I meditate to be calm and ride to wisdom", there are those who would say you are not meditating at all. They would say it is just "I meditate", and then "meditate", in these sort of Buddhist philosophies like Zen and similar. I do not say this to gatekeep - but experiences have taught me that, absolutely, meditation and the path of spirit is very hard, dangerous and arduous work. Helping others through derealization and psychosis has taught me this lesson time and time again. In my metaphor, meditation in the psychdelic context is a machete because it is the blade to cut through all the psychedelia, all the woo, all the false notions of personal loftiness from spiritual insight, all the ideas of being healed, all of the mind mess. It simply is the mechanism that you use to cut through, and then "become here and now", to allow yourself to heal beyond stories: depressive stories, happy stories, and into a state of mind that is resilient to the suffering of the times.