Cannabis in Spiritual Practice: The Ecstasy of Shiva, the Calm of Buddha
Autor Will Johnsonen Limba Engleză Paperback – 19 sep 2018
An exploration of the use of cannabis as a sacrament in spiritual practice
• Provides instructions for using marijuana for the spiritual practices of spontaneous movement, ecstatic dance, sitting meditation, and gazing meditation, allowing you to open the body’s energies more fully and get closer to the Divine or your higher self
• Includes a new translation of the Five Moral Precepts of Buddhism, adapted to include energetic practices and the judicious use of entheogenic substances as a legitimate support for spiritual growth
With the end of marijuana prohibition on the horizon, people are now openly seeking a spiritual path that embraces the benefits of cannabis. Drawing upon his decades of experience as a teacher of Buddhism, breathing, yoga, and embodied spirituality, Will Johnson examines Eastern spiritual perspectives on marijuana and offers specific guidelines and exercises for integrating cannabis into spiritual practice.
The author explains how the great Hindu god Shiva enjoyed consuming bhang, a marijuana mixture that would cause his body to make spontaneous movements. From these cannabis-inspired movements, Shiva brought the body-focused practices of dance and yoga to the world. Examining the spiritual path of Shiva, including the Sadhu tradition, Johnson provides specific instructions and protocols for using marijuana as a sacrament as Shiva did.
• Provides instructions for using marijuana for the spiritual practices of spontaneous movement, ecstatic dance, sitting meditation, and gazing meditation, allowing you to open the body’s energies more fully and get closer to the Divine or your higher self
• Includes a new translation of the Five Moral Precepts of Buddhism, adapted to include energetic practices and the judicious use of entheogenic substances as a legitimate support for spiritual growth
With the end of marijuana prohibition on the horizon, people are now openly seeking a spiritual path that embraces the benefits of cannabis. Drawing upon his decades of experience as a teacher of Buddhism, breathing, yoga, and embodied spirituality, Will Johnson examines Eastern spiritual perspectives on marijuana and offers specific guidelines and exercises for integrating cannabis into spiritual practice.
The author explains how the great Hindu god Shiva enjoyed consuming bhang, a marijuana mixture that would cause his body to make spontaneous movements. From these cannabis-inspired movements, Shiva brought the body-focused practices of dance and yoga to the world. Examining the spiritual path of Shiva, including the Sadhu tradition, Johnson provides specific instructions and protocols for using marijuana as a sacrament as Shiva did.
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781620556856
ISBN-10: 1620556855
Pagini: 144
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 10 mm
Greutate: 0.25 kg
Editura: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Colecția Inner Traditions
ISBN-10: 1620556855
Pagini: 144
Dimensiuni: 152 x 229 x 10 mm
Greutate: 0.25 kg
Editura: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Colecția Inner Traditions
Notă biografică
Will Johnson is the director of the Institute for Embodiment Training, a teaching school in Costa Rica that views the body as the doorway, not the obstacle, to real spiritual growth and transformation. The author of several books, including Breathing through the Whole Body, The Spiritual Practices of Rumi, and Eyes Wide Open, he teaches a deeply body-oriented approach to sitting meditation at Buddhist centers around the world.
Extras
Embracing Nature: Gazing and the Dance of Touch
The practices of Shiva reconnect you with the felt pulse of the world of nature--the rhythmic flow and throb you feel coursing through the veins, tissues, and energetic pathways of your body. The awakened feeling presence of the body is the conduit through which you can access and enter into the vortex, the deep and all-pervasive ground dimension of life and consciousness that underlies the world of appearances but is invisible to the eye. It’s always there, always present, but is out of reach, out of sight, and literally out of touch, to the somatophobic dimension of consciousness (a consciousness based on linear thought, which is uncomfortable with, even fearful of, the soma, or feeling presence of the body, and the quality of consciousness it supports).
The primary reason you’re unable to see and feel into this deeper dimension is the culturally appropriated embodiment of somatophobia: tensions in the body, restrictions to the breath, the blanketing over of sensations. Release the tensions and restrictions, welcome back the felt presence of sensations, and you can begin to kinesthetically see the ground dimension of consciousness, this alternative place in which everything feels and looks to be more of a single piece.
It’s one thing to open to the awareness of the higher embodied consciousness that Shiva’s practices so potently promote. It’s another then to share the awakening of that awareness with another--a friend or lover. Through that sharing the awakened state of Shiva can be directly communicated and deepened.
Cannabis as a spiritual sacrament works extremely well for practices and meditations that have a deeply body-oriented focus, and the practice of looking into someone’s eyes and holding his or her gaze stimulates the sensations and presence of the body so strongly that it can almost be thought of as touch at a distance. The primary reason that many people find gazing into another’s eyes so challenging and daunting an act is that it rapidly activates and accentuates feeling presence, and such a rapid activation will be experienced as unwelcome and uncomfortable for anyone under the complete spell of somatophobia.
But for those of us who have had the good fortune of starting to come out from under the spell and who have begun to witness and have glimpses of the extraordinary alternate universe and the quality of consciousness that it supports will find the practice of gazing into a friend’s eyes, while she or he is gazing back at yours, almost magical, a healing balm for the soul. As
Rumi says:
in the valley of your friend’s face
there is a well.
Go to that valley
and fall into that well.
*
if you want to know God,
then turn your face to the friend you love
and don’t look away.
The practice couldn’t be simpler:
Merging Back into the One through Gazing at Your Great Friend
Bom, Shiva!
*
Sit down across from your dear friend
and begin to look
into each other’s eyes.
*
Just look,
relax,
and surrender
to the journey of sensation and sight
that starts to unfold.
*
Sensations intensify.
Let them.
Let them be exactly as they are
until they start naturally changing
on their own,
which they almost immediately will.
Surrender to the current
of the changing flow of sensations.
*
Layer by layer different aspects of your being
may emerge and pass away.
A strong warrior,
a frightened child,
an angel,
an idler,
absolutely anything.
Let them all come,
even if,
especially if,
you’ve been holding these parts of yourself
secret,
hidden,
so no one can see.
*
Just let whatever wants to happen
happen.
You may cry,
you may laugh,
you may become ecstatic,
you may not be able to breathe.
*
The visual field may become hallucinatory.
You may see lights or colors
surrounding your friend’s face.
The outlines of his or her face
may start to soften and melt.
Suddenly the face in front of you
may morph into a totally different face,
someone you may know,
someone you may have never seen before.
Your friend’s face may even momentarily disappear.
*
Let the parade of visual appearances
emerge and disappear,
not resisting any appearance
nor holding onto any vision,
just as you allow the current of the life force,
without any resistance or clinging,
to keep building and subsiding,
passing through the conduit of your body,
a stream of sensations.
*
The longer you gaze,
the deeper you go.
The more you relax and let go,
the more the barriers between you and your friend
start melting away.
*
Layers of persona
keep you eternally separate.
Peel away the layers
until there’s nothing left
to separate you.
Gradually,
your shared gaze
will usher you both
into an inner sanctum of union.
No longer you and your friend,
just the awareness
of the great common ground of consciousness
that binds us together as one.
Exploring this practice exposes you to a whole new level of the meaning of friendship. Together, eye in eye, you go on a journey of revelation and unfolding in which layer upon layer of holding and tension—and the aspects of your personality dependent on them for their expression—come to the surface and then evaporate, revealing whatever’s been kept hidden underneath. Some of the emergences may thrill you. Others may frighten you. What transpires doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you be with whatever it is that comes to the surface and surrender to the current that causes it to morph and change into something else.
You do not need to inhale Shiva’s sacrament to explore this practice, but for those of you for whom cannabis has become a part of your life, this practice will take you into birthright depths of consciousness that you may not even know exist. All you need to do is welcome the feeling presence that the practice so strongly stimulates, let go, and trust in the wisdom of the current.
The practices of Shiva reconnect you with the felt pulse of the world of nature--the rhythmic flow and throb you feel coursing through the veins, tissues, and energetic pathways of your body. The awakened feeling presence of the body is the conduit through which you can access and enter into the vortex, the deep and all-pervasive ground dimension of life and consciousness that underlies the world of appearances but is invisible to the eye. It’s always there, always present, but is out of reach, out of sight, and literally out of touch, to the somatophobic dimension of consciousness (a consciousness based on linear thought, which is uncomfortable with, even fearful of, the soma, or feeling presence of the body, and the quality of consciousness it supports).
The primary reason you’re unable to see and feel into this deeper dimension is the culturally appropriated embodiment of somatophobia: tensions in the body, restrictions to the breath, the blanketing over of sensations. Release the tensions and restrictions, welcome back the felt presence of sensations, and you can begin to kinesthetically see the ground dimension of consciousness, this alternative place in which everything feels and looks to be more of a single piece.
It’s one thing to open to the awareness of the higher embodied consciousness that Shiva’s practices so potently promote. It’s another then to share the awakening of that awareness with another--a friend or lover. Through that sharing the awakened state of Shiva can be directly communicated and deepened.
Cannabis as a spiritual sacrament works extremely well for practices and meditations that have a deeply body-oriented focus, and the practice of looking into someone’s eyes and holding his or her gaze stimulates the sensations and presence of the body so strongly that it can almost be thought of as touch at a distance. The primary reason that many people find gazing into another’s eyes so challenging and daunting an act is that it rapidly activates and accentuates feeling presence, and such a rapid activation will be experienced as unwelcome and uncomfortable for anyone under the complete spell of somatophobia.
But for those of us who have had the good fortune of starting to come out from under the spell and who have begun to witness and have glimpses of the extraordinary alternate universe and the quality of consciousness that it supports will find the practice of gazing into a friend’s eyes, while she or he is gazing back at yours, almost magical, a healing balm for the soul. As
Rumi says:
in the valley of your friend’s face
there is a well.
Go to that valley
and fall into that well.
*
if you want to know God,
then turn your face to the friend you love
and don’t look away.
The practice couldn’t be simpler:
Merging Back into the One through Gazing at Your Great Friend
Bom, Shiva!
*
Sit down across from your dear friend
and begin to look
into each other’s eyes.
*
Just look,
relax,
and surrender
to the journey of sensation and sight
that starts to unfold.
*
Sensations intensify.
Let them.
Let them be exactly as they are
until they start naturally changing
on their own,
which they almost immediately will.
Surrender to the current
of the changing flow of sensations.
*
Layer by layer different aspects of your being
may emerge and pass away.
A strong warrior,
a frightened child,
an angel,
an idler,
absolutely anything.
Let them all come,
even if,
especially if,
you’ve been holding these parts of yourself
secret,
hidden,
so no one can see.
*
Just let whatever wants to happen
happen.
You may cry,
you may laugh,
you may become ecstatic,
you may not be able to breathe.
*
The visual field may become hallucinatory.
You may see lights or colors
surrounding your friend’s face.
The outlines of his or her face
may start to soften and melt.
Suddenly the face in front of you
may morph into a totally different face,
someone you may know,
someone you may have never seen before.
Your friend’s face may even momentarily disappear.
*
Let the parade of visual appearances
emerge and disappear,
not resisting any appearance
nor holding onto any vision,
just as you allow the current of the life force,
without any resistance or clinging,
to keep building and subsiding,
passing through the conduit of your body,
a stream of sensations.
*
The longer you gaze,
the deeper you go.
The more you relax and let go,
the more the barriers between you and your friend
start melting away.
*
Layers of persona
keep you eternally separate.
Peel away the layers
until there’s nothing left
to separate you.
Gradually,
your shared gaze
will usher you both
into an inner sanctum of union.
No longer you and your friend,
just the awareness
of the great common ground of consciousness
that binds us together as one.
Exploring this practice exposes you to a whole new level of the meaning of friendship. Together, eye in eye, you go on a journey of revelation and unfolding in which layer upon layer of holding and tension—and the aspects of your personality dependent on them for their expression—come to the surface and then evaporate, revealing whatever’s been kept hidden underneath. Some of the emergences may thrill you. Others may frighten you. What transpires doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you be with whatever it is that comes to the surface and surrender to the current that causes it to morph and change into something else.
You do not need to inhale Shiva’s sacrament to explore this practice, but for those of you for whom cannabis has become a part of your life, this practice will take you into birthright depths of consciousness that you may not even know exist. All you need to do is welcome the feeling presence that the practice so strongly stimulates, let go, and trust in the wisdom of the current.
Cuprins
PART 1
Calm Mind of Buddha
The Focusing of Awareness and the Calming of Mind
Purifying the Mind, Healing the Body
The Sutra of the Sitting Buddha
Passing through the Barrier of the Egoic Fiction
The Safe Haven of the Precepts
PART 2
Ecstatic Body of Shiva
The Celebration of the Life Force
The Dance of Shiva
The Sutra of the Dancing Shiva
Opening to the Organic Currents of the Life Force through Yoga, Meditation, and Breath
The Sitting Dance of Shiva
Balloon Breathing
Internal Cleansing Breathing
Embracing Nature:
Gazing and the Dance of Touch
Merging Back into the One through Gazing at Your Great Friend
The Dance of Sex
Church Is Where the Music Is
Entering into the One Sound
The Five Precepts of Embodied Responsibility
Afterword: Meetings in the Field
Embodied Mindfulness
Cannabis in Spiritual Practice
Audio Tracks, Reading Suggestions, and Acknowledgments
Index
Calm Mind of Buddha
The Focusing of Awareness and the Calming of Mind
Purifying the Mind, Healing the Body
The Sutra of the Sitting Buddha
Passing through the Barrier of the Egoic Fiction
The Safe Haven of the Precepts
PART 2
Ecstatic Body of Shiva
The Celebration of the Life Force
The Dance of Shiva
The Sutra of the Dancing Shiva
Opening to the Organic Currents of the Life Force through Yoga, Meditation, and Breath
The Sitting Dance of Shiva
Balloon Breathing
Internal Cleansing Breathing
Embracing Nature:
Gazing and the Dance of Touch
Merging Back into the One through Gazing at Your Great Friend
The Dance of Sex
Church Is Where the Music Is
Entering into the One Sound
The Five Precepts of Embodied Responsibility
Afterword: Meetings in the Field
Embodied Mindfulness
Cannabis in Spiritual Practice
Audio Tracks, Reading Suggestions, and Acknowledgments
Index
Recenzii
“Cannabis in Spiritual Practice is a wonderful combination of practical advice and fascinating history, offered up without preaching or judgment. If you’ve ever been curious about how cannabis can enhance your devotional life or your yoga or meditation practice, this is an excellent place to start exploring.”
“Will Johnson has a clear understanding of the human ‘mindbody,’ how we limit ourselves, how we can free ourselves from those limitations to awaken to unconditioned reality, and how cannabis can play a valuable role in that awakening journey when used skillfully. His articulation of these central human concerns is as clear as his understanding. Cannabis in Spiritual Practice seamlessly blends principle and practice into accessible, applicable guidance.”
“For those who value the herb for her limitless potential, Cannabis in Spiritual Practice is the next level. Highly recommend.”
“Will Johnson has a clear understanding of the human ‘mindbody,’ how we limit ourselves, how we can free ourselves from those limitations to awaken to unconditioned reality, and how cannabis can play a valuable role in that awakening journey when used skillfully. His articulation of these central human concerns is as clear as his understanding. Cannabis in Spiritual Practice seamlessly blends principle and practice into accessible, applicable guidance.”
“For those who value the herb for her limitless potential, Cannabis in Spiritual Practice is the next level. Highly recommend.”
Descriere
An exploration of the use of cannabis as a sacrament in spiritual practice.