Spirituality and Drugs

[EasternInternalArts]

I have finished 10 days entity removal and healing work for a client from Europe recently. By treating so many entity issues, what I see is that many of them are caused by wrong view and false longings. These can be prevented. I sincerely hope someday this client is brave enough to share his experience of how he brought his serious entities to himself and how much suffering he has gone through. It may alert others and offer a good wake up call to those who are looking for easy success. Ignorance is the worst enemy one wishes to have. From helping people, I also see someone who played with black magic almost lost his life. To live well, proper understanding and right longing are very important. Therefore, I am here humbly sharing some of my views to correspond with questions asked from my Facebook. I hope it can benefit a few good listeners.

Question:

Dear Sifu Jenny,

Can you please share your insight about spiritual growth and the use of drugs?

What are the energetic implications, effect on Qi, Mind and how is this related to entities issues? When you treat a patient who is addicted to drugs, are there certain energetic symptoms you find only in drug users that are not found in non users?

How about people who are not smoking but affected by people smoking around them, is there any energetic effect too?

I see these days that it is becoming very popular and many who are interested in spiritual growth tell me it is great for development, but personally I have become convinced for both short term and long term it is not. Although I am not using any drugs I wish to have better understanding on its implications and mainly the energetic effects as there seems to be a lot of confusion around it these days as this is becoming more and more popular.

Another view that I hear is that many of the ancient masters in the past used these psychedelic plants to evolve spiritually. Is there any view of ancient masters in daoism and buddhism who used it and considered it beneficial?

I hope this may help bring a better clarity on the subject and help others who ask these same questions, perhaps asking themselves if they should stop smoking or not.

Thank you very much for your time to answer.

With Gratitude and Blessings,

Answer:

Thank you for asking such important questions and thank you, Tom, for sharing your direct self-experience and knowledge (Tom's comments are on my Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/EasternInternalArts/). Your answers are thorough and insightful. I don't think I have anything to add from the user's perspective. Spirituality and drugs are a critical and sensitive topic for me to talk about in the West, because they are so popular with many followers. Yet, it is vital to have a proper understanding, especially for spiritual seekers. Therefore, I am going to stress this topic, from the perspective of spirituality (the view of Buddhism and Taoism) and as a healer, my observation of entity hosts related to using drugs.

Spirituality:

Buddhism teaches three things: discipline, concentration and wisdom. Discipline brings mindfulness to our actions and wards off unwholesome actions of body, speech and mind. It is to prevent transgressions. Sufficient discipline leads to good concentration and good concentration leads to wisdom. Wisdom gets rid of delusion, leads to liberation and the truth. Prajñāpāramitā (the Perfection of Wisdom) sutra, the heart sutra: "The Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin) Bodhisattva of compassion, while in profound contemplation of Prajna Paramita, beheld five skandhas (aggregates) as empty in their being and thus transcended all suffering." Profound and transcendent wisdom takes one to the other shore, the shore free from all suffering, which can only be attained through cultivation and practicing of meditation and contemplation. Liberation through wisdom is declared in all Buddhist sutras. There is no mention that drugs can help spiritual growth. In fact, they are refrained from, because they would prevent mindfulness, cause neglectfulness and interrupt the development of an enlightened mind. When inertness, neglectfulness and illusion arise the mode of ignorance predominates.

Taoism includes philosophical and religious traditions, both highlighting living in harmony with the Tao (way). Philosophical Taoism was presented by Laozi. It promotes the formless, mystical, and origin of all things. It is ultimately ineffable, therefore, "the Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao". Philosophical Taoism emphasizes Wu Wei, (the effortless action, or action without intent), or Wei Wu Wei, (action without action). It asserts that one must follow the will of the natural universe in order to achieve harmony with the great Tao. Religious Taoism, on the other hand, sees divine manifestation in all things, sun, moon, stars, mountains, oceans and so forth, and features reverence for Laozi, immortals and ancestors. Their study is involved in almost every field: cosmology, astrology, divination, exorcism rituals, alchemy, Traditional Chinese medicine, feng shui, Qigong etc. and most of all is a quest for longevity or immortality. A Taoist sutra states that those whose body and mind follow the laws of nature, practice only the Tao (way), and serve the Tao (way) as a profession are called Taoist (身心顺理，唯道是从，从道为事，故称道士). This is referring to professionals, for those who follow the Taoist doctrine and practice its approaches are Taoist practitioners. Thus, practicing the way and promoting nature is the core of Taoism.

Alchemy is considered to be a main practice of religious Taoism. It includes Neidan and Waidan, or internal alchemy and external alchemy. Generally speaking, practicing alchemy refers to internal alchemy, focusing on cultivating substances of body known as the three treasures, e.g. Jing (life essence), Qi (vital energy) and Shen (spiritual energy). The four stages of Neidan (internal alchemy) practice are Zhu ji (or establish foundation), convert the Jing to Qi, convert the Qi to Shen, and return the Shen to its origin (or unify the Shen to the great void). It is energetic meditative practice. Waidan (external alchemy) refers to anything produced from outside of the body, such as elixirs which are produced from alchemical operations with external substances (cinnabar, realgar, mercury, sulfur, lead, etc). Many of these substances are actively toxic and far from contributing to longevity. It caused the death of the Jiajing Emperor in the Chinese Ming Dynasty. The Elixir of Life (pill of immortality) becomes the extinction of life (pill of life shortening). The true expression of external alchemy is referring to moving energy that exists outside of body. The Alchemy classics say that to obtain internal alchemy is primary and seeking the external is secondary. Only when internal alchemy is established, then you can absorb and fuse external alchemy (moving energy). Therefore, a true spiritual growth is always from within. Taking drugs for a short cut or easy way out is no more than obtaining an experience of curiosity. It could only satisfy your fantasy or be a temporary escape from this reality, but you are led astray without knowing. Getting deeper into this mind state is called Zou Huo Ru Mo 走火入魔（deviation）in Taoism.

The following illustrations that I encountered related with using drugs can be a good example to respond to your question:

Example 1: A person had an issue with no sensations from his neck down. He claimed he was a practitioner with great realizations and used to travel to different dimensions. He used to do meditation with hallucinatory plants and had used them more than a hundred times and now he could not feel anything except his head. He sought help everywhere, especially from different traditions, but nothing helped.

Example 2: One who thinks that he possibly has an entity in him, because, for over a decade, he has had a lot of the same symptoms that I point out in my article "Entity Issues". He has not been getting any answers from either Western or Eastern medical professionals. He also sought out help from bioenergetics healing. He said nothing really worked until he took Ayahuasca. He believed that Ayahuasca helped his physical issues. But a week later he was committed to a mental institution. Now he sees some physical problems restarting again and mental worries in many aspects and degrees. I don't want to go into all the details. In fact, Ayahuasca created a psychiatric break for him. Yet, he still believes that he had a lot of deep realizations from it. Illusion was dominating his mind.

Example 3: Someone coming to me for entity removal said he was in perfect health until he took Ayahausca. He claimed the journey was guided by a troubled shaman and left him in between worlds. Since then, he has trouble sleeping and wakes with nightmares. There is a lot of blame for others that he believes caused his entity issues. In fact, the entity has been around him for a while but could not enter his body because of his strong personality. When he took the trip for an Ayahausca journey, he was influenced by his entity. As soon as his mind was taken over by Ayahausca, the entity entered his body instantly.

Example 4: A young man went to a well know shaman for entity removal. Healing was applied with some of these hallucinatory plants. Plants did not remove his entity and instead brought him some other physical issues.

All that exists has its purpose in the world. Their structure, function and regulations are different. Some may coexist in the same space without conflict due to each following its own pathway to abide by. To be born as a human being, it may be wise to maximum your human potentiality first, instead of longing for something that you are not and having no idea what you are getting yourself into. Being human is valuable because of the uniqueness of our consciousness. We can make a choice. If we lose our consciousness, we lose the value of ourselves. Spiritual growth is referring to enhancing and enriching our ability toward awakening or moving up to a higher realm. If such plants or drugs or entities create confusion and destroy mindfulness, I do not see any benefit from a spiritual perspective. When your mind is distorted, you lose proper perceptions as a human being. You see sky is not sky, see earth is not earth, see water is not water. You become different beings, a ghost who does not see water as water, but as fire. When your mind cannot function and discern your situation correctly, your sensors perform erroneously.

While helping people with their entity related issues, when I see people's condition getting worse but hear them say that "I feel better" after entity removal is attempted unsuccessfully, I often ask, if you are getting better, why do you come to me for help? Actually, their mind is confused and sensors are disordered and cannot know the difference. Typically, after each failure of entity removal, the body gets tighter, heavier, and harder to breathe. There's a lack of oxygen going to the brain due to the entity cutting the source of their blood supply out of fear of what they did to get rid of them. The body becomes weaker and mind becomes more absent. How can there be any improvement as the result of a failed attempt?

"How about people who are not smoking but affected by people smoking around them, is there any energetic effect too?" Yes, it will have an energetic effect, depending on the level of smoke and the tolerance of the person. I know a friend who got a new job in an environment associated with marijuana in Colorado. Her mind suddenly shutdown and she was unable to function and felt very miserable. Quitting her job became her only solution and that is what she did.

"When you treat a patient who is addicted to drugs, are there certain energetic symptoms you find only in drug users that are not found in non users?" Those addicted to stimulants often show extreme emotionality and energy swings. Fighting their addiction will take more willpower, extra effort and support for them. I've found that those who used hallucinatory plants are more agitated and defensive if you say that what they perceived is illusion. They are convinced that the drugs gave them deep realizations and that they had a journey to a higher realm or a different dimension. Even if the vision horrified them, they deny that it was an illusion. They do not see that their experience was a hallucination and the result of the drug's influence. Moreover, they begin to suffer from health issues as a side effect of the drugs. Their system begins to shut down. In this case, if one does not admit to a false view and wrong doing, it cannot be helped. Blindly believing is unwholesome action. A reality check can be very helpful. To identify whether your connection is with a higher realm or lower realm can be seen from the following:

If your connection is with a higher realm (you do not need drugs for that), your body should feel lighter and brighter. You are full of Yang Qi. Your life is brightened. People around you feel comfortable and healing. You feel energetic, look younger, healthier and have more wisdom. You have a tendency to want to share your wisdom with others. The gift from higher beings is mainly two things: energy and wisdom. They commonly come with a group. Generosity is their nature. You feel safe. That given by them will never be involved with an exchange. As a matter of fact, there is nothing you can offer that will be of interest to them. But your virtue is a precondition for them to care to help you. If you are chosen for a higher purpose, they will protect you. Your life span could only increase not decrease. Your connection with them will not be broken (their support for you will be for your lifetime, which is merely a couple of days of their time), unless you become virtueless and lose your way.

If your connection is from a lower realm, everything is the opposite. Without drugs your journey ends (usually, drugs influence can last a few hours to a few days after each use). Connected with lower beings (entities), your health will gradually decline. Your body feels heavier and Yin Qi dominates. Your mind does not function properly and you have a hard time concentrating. Often, you have negative thoughts and prefer being alone and have social anxiety. You look unhealthy, older than your age, surrounded with dark force. People feel uncomfortable around you. You have a lack of wisdom, are always suspicious of others, feel very insecure and have a tendency to attack others. You will gradually develop depression, unbalanced emotions, and fear for no reason. Between you and your entity, exchange is an absolute request, your energy for their help. Your life span will decrease.

For the above reasons, whether for a short-term or long-term, I do not find psychedelic plants or drugs help spiritual growth, nor heal those patients that I encountered. On the contrary, I found that the hallucinatory drugs distort people's mind and damage their nervous system. For long term use, it is more harmful than what one wishes for. For short term use, it may produce a unique experience to satisfy one's curiosity (still, it depends on individuals, some experiencing more suffering than joy) but it does not produce an awakened mind. Some even pollute one's Qi and blood. I am not saying these plants are not good for anything or anything is wrong with them. It is the users who made a wrong choice for their purpose. You must know what you are doing and what you getting yourself involved in. There are many better options and less harmful than using drugs. We live on our choices and are responsible for our choices.

Proper understanding is crucial for spiritual development. Longing for what and how to get it leads to different paths. If you are longing for something external, the true external energy (outside of self) that can profit you only comes from a higher source or higher realm. According to Buddhism, the higher realm above human is the God realm or beings that are beyond our cyclic realms such as Bodhisattvas or Buddhas. In Taoism, the higher realm is Xianjie仙界or the immortal realm. Taking (internal use) hallucinatory plants for magic will not lead you to a higher realm.

In ancient times, to contact higher realms, some masters used (external use) many fragrant plants or materials to make incense, along with the highest valued elements from this world to conduct offering ceremonies. It is for establishing connections with higher beings for their guidance (wisdom) or help (to defuse worldly disasters), normally led by the Emperor or an accomplished master of religion. For individuals, this is practiced on a small scale for a personal request. The offering is for the purpose of creating a pathway to send a message. Your offering is a presentation of your heart with highest value to you. Hopefully it will be received by some higher individuals and get their response. Be aware, they don't pity you because you are less fortunate. Causality regulates the universe. Your pure heart and virtue are the condition to motivate them to pay attention to you, or if you are an individual who is willing to make an extraordinary effort to change your life for the better, you may have a chance to succeed. They help you if you deserve their help, not to become greedier and more self-centered. When your connection is established, the generosity from above is truly given.

The true spiritual development is the transformation of consciousness into wisdom. Buddhists practice faith, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment (wisdom), known as the five strengths in order to control the five sensory faculties (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body) and put a spotlight on the Enlightenment path.

Learning from others' experiences and taking others' failures as a mirror of our future could prevent many unnecessary mistakes in our life. I hope that Tom's and my little sharing can be of benefit to some who are walking on the right spiritual path.

Be happy, be healthy and be wise!

Sifu Jenny Lamb
http://www.easterninternalarts.com/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/EasternInternalArts/
Na Mo A Mi Tuo Fo 南無阿彌陀佛

[Seeker of Wisdom]

Great article.

 

What motivates some cultivators to take drugs is the idea that a particular state is spiritual advancement, so they should get the state.

 

Actually, we just have to realise what is already there. Any experience is just a temporary configuration of mind and matter, a display of Tao rather than Tao itself.

 

Experiences are signposts along the way, so they have to happen, but not for their own value.

 

Access concentration, for example, is necessary only as it means that excitation and laxity, which obscure direct opening into reality, have been made dormant. If a drug could propel someone into samadhi, taking that drug would be missing the actual point of shamatha practice.

Edited October 17, 2013 by Seeker of Tao