Cannabis and Buddhism

[NOKUY]

Is the use of cannabis accepted in Buddhism?

me and a cpl. friends were talking about this today, and none of us know any buddhists.

I'm sure like any religion there are peeps that do whatever they want, but I was really wondering if it's "common" for buddhists to openly use cannabis, and not be shunned from the monestary?

Ive read a cpl books on buddhism, but of course they didn't answer that question.

I'm looking for a "real world" answer on this.

thanks guys

BTW...do we have any buddhists here?

 

[RED145]

Hey Yukon I think we have a lot of Buddhist's here,isnt that what the chanting growers are?Any way,
"Tobacco, whether smoked or chewed, is now widely considered an addictive and dangerous drug. However as its impact on consciousness is slight most Buddhists do not consider smoking to be breaking the fifth Precept. In Burma and Japan smoking by monks is common as it is in Thailand amongst monks of the Mahanikaya sect. In Sri Lanka and amongst Tibetans and Chinese smoking by monks is looked down upon and they usually refrain from it. So from the Buddhist perspective smoking may well be unwise but is does not have a moral dimension."

 

[diggity]

I'm sure there are practicing Buddhists here.

And cannabis grows wild in Nepal and Bhutan--I know they (Buddhists) don't shun the herb.

ps. YUKON, what do you do for work in Alaska? .....dont think I can PM yet..

 

[RED145]

Duh!!You meant smokin cannabis,a quick search tells me it was used in there religon commonly,maybe someone with more experience will chime in.

 

[NOKUY]

that does make sense "RED145"....I've not seen the chanting growers thread...I'll have to have a look.


"diggity" when im in alaska i commercial fish.

I'm in Colorado now, so Im not commercial fishing.....tho I wish I was.

I'll be back in Alaska before long tho.

once upon a time I had considered buddhism as a direction for my life, I'm just so hardcore non-religious (not athiest) ....I worship myself.

Buddhism makes sense to me tho...I just know VERY little about it, outside of a bit of book knowledge.

 

[fr33th3w33d]

some schools of buddhism teach that one must not be attached to anything in this world. nothing to cling to.. even memories and photographs in some cases are thought of as baggage. if your really strict about it as a buddhist you probably won't smoke weed. but i doubt it holds many people back for reasons that im sure many of us are familiar with..

buddhism is as a Tom watts put it.. the religion of no religion.. it considers praying and worshipping and the such as superstition, it is a highly philosophical religion. not just stories and rules.

 

[Sheriff Bart]

real world answer is its your choice how you treat cannabis in your meditation

the eightfold path states that there should be no intoxication without intent/purpose

this leaves some wiggle room.

i recall reading something where the buddha or another talked about how such drugs mimic the effect of meditation and are therefore counterproductive because meditation is essentially only your being, and adding things to it makes it not what it originally is.
basically though no one can say its good, or its bad, its neither but your choice to use. but yes, detachment, is difficult....

oh and the monks were some of the first to create bhang and used in in tantric sex rituals, i think, or maybe im confused there. but yea, its all over nepal and thailand, and as buddhist one cannot claim it bad nor good, it simply is, and it simply may be a distraction, or it may help, its how you treat it.

and i am not a monk but i practice meditation and read buddhist scripture

 

[G Brazil]

any dogma, any religion does not make sense..... how can you put god in a box???
lets be free....... love is my religion..... god does not care about religions.... only cares about peoples evolution... I dont want to disrespect anybody's religion.... but lets forget the laws of men... lets live by nature's law!!!

 

[Sheriff Bart]

no where in anywhere in a buddhist text is there mention of worshipping "higher beings"
buddhism is very mistakenly deemed a religion, when truly the only similarities are people do it together and a lot. there is no god in buddhism. everyone is equal (can attain the same place) but those who have meditated for longer are shown more respect, as it is their due. they may have statues, "idols" but they are simply used to remind the practicers of what they are attempting, where they are trying to go. buddhism is a path to enlightenment, not salvation. we will all die, but we may find peace along the way.

 

[Magi101]

There are many paths to enlightenment Ikkyu sought enlightenment through sex lol

This poem exemplifies his "way" i believe
Fame, wealth, eating and
drinking, sleep and sensual delight --
Once you’ve leaned the Five Desires
They become
Your guide in life

Notions of what one should do
Never existed from the start
Fighting about what’s right, what’s wrong
That’s the doing of the "I"

When your study
Of Buddhism is through
You find
You haven’t anything new

 

[Berry_Coughin']

DhammaPada

 

[NOKUY]

DhammaPada

whats that mean?

 

[Sheriff Bart]

the original text by the buddha himself*
http://www.ishwar.com/buddhism/holy_dhammapada/


i belive it was after he presented his 4 noble truths and then the 8-fold path he went on to compile the dhamapada. it truly is something amazing to read.

*forgot to note that the buddha didnt actually write anything down himself, but it was years after that it was finally all written down

 

[NOKUY]

the original text written by the buddha himself
http://www.ishwar.com/buddhism/holy_dhammapada/


i belive it was after he presented his 4 noble truths and then the 8-fold path he went on to compile the dhamapada. it truly is something amazing to read.

thanks guys...im gonna look at it now

 

[Guest]

I consider myself a Buddhist, but i do not practice it per say. I think the heart of Buddhism is seeking truth and bringing good where ever you can and harming the world as little as possible. To sit in a temple all day and be bound by rules and other peoples ideas of what is right and truth to me is not Buddhism it is religion. I like to think it's a set of ideas.

I don't think you can be a super rich movie star and call yourself a Buddhist, but thats just me.

 

[ngakpa]

Is the use of cannabis accepted in Buddhism?

I'm sure like any religion there are peeps that do whatever they want, but I was really wondering if it's "common" for buddhists to openly use cannabis, and not be shunned from the monestary?

Hiya - good question... the short answer is "no" - for lay Buddhists or ordained monks, using cannabis is not an accepted part of Buddhist tradition...

genuinely - it is certainly not accepted for Buddhist monks in any part of the world to use cannabis, and in all Buddhist traditions it would likely be treated by the abbot of the monastery as a serious breach of monastic precepts/vows... that applies for the vinaya (monastic discipline) traditions of all types of Buddhism - be the monks Tibetan, Thai, Japanese etc.

However - and this is crucial - Buddhism is a tolerant and diverse tradition, and cannabis use can certainly be tolerated, and is tolerated, among lay Buddhists (not monks)... but lets be clear, using cannabis is seen as a minor vice, not as something particularly spiritual... n.b. a serious Buddhist layperson would keep the five precepts, one of which is to "refrain from states of intoxication" (often just translated as to "refrain from using intoxicants")

I'm afraid any attempt by Westerners to make cannabis seem as if it is part of the Buddhist tradition of teaching and practise is just that - an attempt, without foundation in scripture, or traditon, or real world practise...

A good example of Westerners "seeing what they want to see" in Asia is the habit of calling good Thai ganja - "Thai Buddha"... lol ... 'fraid not people, in Thailand ganja use has nothing to do with the Theravadin idea of the Buddha...

One thing to bear in mind: Buddhism has been around for about 2500 years now, and during that time has spread from its home in Northern India over much of the Asian landmass... nowadays you will find Buddhist traditions from Southern Russia, to Sri Lanka; from Ladakh to Japan...

Buddhism is pretty diverse, and it is also pretty tolerant - as it spread, it tended to incorporate local beliefs, rather than erase them... and the practise of using cannabis was no doubt widespread in North India when Buddhism originated, but nevertheless there is no record whatsoever of using cannabis as a religious sacrament ever having found its way into Buddhist practice... if it had happened it would certainly have provoked controversy, and hence would have shown up in records from the time... you can scour the Tipitakka all you like and you will find no mention


There are three broad catageories into which Buddhism today falls:

Theravada Buddhism:
found in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Lao, Cambodia and parts of Vietnam, India and Southern China
this can generally be seen as the tradition which is closest to the original teachings given by Gautama Buddha in the Ganges Plain area circa. 500 - 400 BC
literally "the School of the Elders" (tay-raa-vaa-da)

East Asian Mahayana:
Mahaayaana - lit. "the Great Vehicle"
a very general category for Buddhism as it is now found in China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan... Mahayana traditions orignated first in India circa. 1st century BC to 1st century AD, and were once even found in parts of Indonesia, Cambodia, and even Sri Lanka
the most well-known traditions within Mahayana are Zen ('Chan' in Chinese, 'Son' in Korean) also "Pure Land" schools focused on Amitabha Buddha (Om I To Fo/Amida Butsu)... likewise via Soka Gakkai the Nichiren school has become unusually popular
it is more accurate to think of Mahayana as a "culture of awakening" - it is not a single tradition

Tantric Buddhism:
often thought of as Tibetan Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism originated in India circa. 7th century - it is the Buddhism found in Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Darjeeling, Ladakh, Mongolia, parts of southern China and southern Russia...
Tantra itself, as a tradition, is much larger than just Buddhism... likewise, the Mahayana Buddhism culture and Tantric Buddhism overlap on all levels
Tantric Buddhism is certainly the most "heterodox" of all Budhdist traditions - there is plenty of sex - literal, not just metaphoric - used in secret esoteric tantric practises; magic and visualisations are a common part of practise; non-ordained meditation practitioners (cf. my user name) esp. in the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions will often wear dreadlocks; and likewise will drink chang and arak (roughly beer and whiskey)
in Tibetan the name for cannabis is "somaradza" - i.e. somaraja, or soma king... still sadly no evidence of cannabis finding its way into Tantric Buddhist tradition that I know of
the herb found wild in southern Tibet will I reckon be more to do with the ganja traditions found in nearby Uttaranchal and Nepal, and would I guess seldom be used by anyone but the non-Tibetans and non-Buddhists - i.e. the various other ethnic groups of a more Indic kind


basically the cannabis traditions par excellence are all associated with Indian religious traditions with Shiva right at their centre... Saivite (adj. of Shiva/Siva cf. orthographic issues) traditions have their roots in very old Tantric traditions which go back likely even further than the origins of Buddhism... plenty of references to what are likely early Tantra-esque Saivite--esque traditions can be found in early Buddhist literature - cf. "matted hair" renunciants etc. etc.

actually the use of cannabis by sadhus in India had a ressurgence circa. 17th thanks to a particular guru whose name I forget..
anyway - it is the Saivite babas and the Naga babas who you will find blasting on chillums .... but not the sadhus following Vishnu or his avatars (of whom the Buddha is seen by Hindus to be one)


yeh, so I would love to tell you that cannabis has a place in Buddhist tradition, and is venerated or used by them, but much as I wish it was, it just ain't so

cheers,

Ngakpa

 

[NOKUY]

great info "ngakpa"!

thanks for taking the time to post all that and educate me and others.

 

[FallenBuddha]

three words, Nepalese Temple ball!

peace -fb

 

[ngakpa]

so-called Nepalese Temple Balls are style of presentation and marketing, and for export above all - they emerged when commerical production took off in Nepal. Authentic Nepalese charas comes as sticks, which reflect the hand-rubbing technique used to produce them

More to the point, the charas culture in Nepal has nothing at all to do with the Tantric Buddhist culture there, and much more to do with the Indic folk culture, and 'Hinduism'

Have you been to Nepal, and if so have you ever seen a Buddhist practitioner - monastic or non-monastic - smoking a chillum? You will see plenty of sadhus smoking charas, but they are not Buddhists I can assure you...

 

[Babbabud]

The Precepts

The Precepts

Observing the Precepts

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buddhism is often perceived as a religion governed by strict rules of self-discipline, and the ideal practitioner seen as someone who endures great austerities. Certainly, in the early Buddhist order, elaborate rules of daily behavior were developed for the monks and nuns who had taken vows and committed themselves to a monastic life. There were 250 rules for men and, reflecting the social prejudice of the times, 500 for women. These rules regulated such things as diet, hours of waking and sleeping and encouraged a healthful, well-regulated daily life. In many Buddhist traditions, these rules, vinaya in Sanskrit, retain great importance.

In their original sense, however, precepts--the Sanskrit shila--indicate the basic norms of human behavior to which all people naturally aspire. The most fundamental of these were formulated as the five precepts: (1) not to kill; (2) not to steal; (3) not to engage in sexual misconduct; (4) not to lie; and (5) not to drink intoxicants. Even though they have been set out as rules, rather than simply preventing certain acts, the goal of these guides of behavior has always been to encourage a richer, more self-reflective inner life, to set the conditions for religious practice in the pursuit of enlightenment.

Shila and vinaya were translated into Chinese characters pronounced kai and ritsu in Japanese. In the process of translation, the two-character combination kairitsu came to be regarded as a single concept and the original distinction was lost.

The Mahayana tradition has always stressed a flexible approach to precepts. Strict observation of the precepts, in the sense of restrictions on behavior, has been supplanted by the ideal of compassionate bodhisattva practice--the self-motivated actions of lay believers fully integrated into the social life of their community who ease the suffering and contribute to the well-being of the members of that community. Thus, the specific application of the precepts is to be guided by the times and locality. When, for example, SGI President Ikeda first traveled outside of Japan, he shocked some of the accompanying Japanese Soka Gakkai members by saying that it was right and natural for Hawaiian members to attend meetings in casual clothes and to pray sitting on chairs rather than kneeling on the floor as was the Japanese practice. This approach expresses respect for the diversity of human cultures.

The many particular precepts came to be replaced by what was known as the precept of the diamond chalice. This is a precept which, like a diamond chalice, is impossible to break. For different schools of Buddhism, this would often mean wholehearted commitment to a particular sutra or teaching. The commitment of Nichiren Buddhists to the Lotus Sutra can be interpreted in contemporary terms as the determination to maintain faith in the ultimately positive possibilities in both ourselves and others, and to make consistent efforts toward their realization. From the perspective of Nichiren Buddhism, our highest possibilities--the limitless capacity for wisdom, compassion and courage expressed as Buddhahood--are as indestructible as a diamond chalice. They may be obscured by our own ignorance of them and the self-destructive behavior that grows from that ignorance and consequent despair--but they never disappear. This is the core message of the Lotus Sutra.

Awakened from within to a firm sense of the inviolable dignity of life which is reinforced through daily Buddhist practice, our behavior naturally comes to reflect this belief, as we distance ourselves from acts that would degrade our own or others' humanity. The experience of many SGI members worldwide stands as proof of this formula. People previously mired in cycles of behavior involving, for example, substance abuse, irresponsible sexual conduct or violence (or less dramatic but ultimately no less destructive behavior based on a lack of self-respect) have reconnected to a genuine sense of inner worth. As this awareness takes root, it naturally grows into an awareness of the equal dignity inherent in the lives of other people. Without a conscious effort to follow particular rules of conduct, the determination to put this respect for the sanctity of life into action leads to a way of life in conformity with the ideals expressed by the precepts.

[ Courtesy July 2004 SGI Quarterly ]
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