The practicality of poo-pooing psychedelics (5 gram shroom trip notes)

[BipolarGrowth]

I haven’t done a trip on a serotonergic psychedelic in around 9 months until last night. I’ve been getting to ridiculous levels of consciousness sober and on THC ever since quitting typical psychedelics. Considering I can now access formless jhanas on my own rather quickly, I’m really interested to see how this goes. I realized the most helpful thing I’ve ever gained from psychedelics was getting deep into boundless space and boundless consciousness (5th & 6th jhana). This was a truly lucky experience which allowed me to have much greater control of deep concentration states in the future. 
 

The way I see psychedelics now kind of surprises me. My meditation teacher, who started his spiritual journey with psychedelics, always said they can lead to the path but are not ultimately the path. I used to disagree quite heavily on this. It just didn’t make sense why what produced so many of my deepest insights back in the day was now just a secondary pursuit on the path to total Liberation. To me, the comparison between someone benching more weight due to using a weightlifting shirt and psychedelics comes to mind. One day you’ll likely find yourself needing practical strength, but you probably don’t carry your weightlifting shirt around 24/7. I think learning mastery which can be accessed nearly 24/7 is so much more helpful, but I will say that psychedelics are probably the single best tool to lead to further development later on. They just simply stop producing lasting growth because the insight produced can be outpaced by other states such as nirodha samapatti (cessation). A big problem comes with the difficulty and rarity of such states. Psychedelics do produce measurable and repeatable results although there is certainly high variation. This is an advantage when it comes to meditators who struggle to access deep concentration states. 
 

Ultimately, the state is NEVER the answer. It is what transcends all states and is present in all which truly matters. This is what I like to call “crystallized insight.” Insight can be present or at least produced from essentially any state. You could do somewhat effective insight practice while watching spongebob. If your goal is “higher consciousness” or some other specific detail or aspect of a peak state, please trust that this type of seeking ultimately meets its end in effectiveness unless you realize that dissolving the dualities inherent in that peak state is where true progress is found. Realizing oneness isn’t really a big insight at a certain point. Dissolving the entire continuum of oneness and multiplicity will take you much further. There are ALWAYS subtler dualities and definitions to be understood and transcended. 

Edited August 17, 2021 by BipolarGrowth