Buddhism: The Dogmatic Distinction

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The Dogmatic Distinction Jul 26th 2011, 01:10 I want to add a footnote to the last post on drugs and enlightenment. I found an old online discussion on this subject. The initial comment was written by someone who knew psychoactive drug users who had achieved a "blissful stance on life," which he equates with enlightenment. But when he brings up the subject with practicing Buddhists, they brush him off.� He says Buddhists have mocked and insulted him for his views. He notes that many people have explained to him that taking drugs is against the Precepts. He concludes, "My questions are 1) How is the strict adherence to the percepts not making them dogmatic? 2) Considering how immaterial enlightenment is, why do I often see Buddhists attacking the idea of psychedelics drugs?" I'd say that if the only reason one avoids drugs or alcohol is that it violates the Precepts, then that is dogmatic.� However, as explained elsewhere, renunciation in Buddhism is not about giving up something you want just because there is a rule that says you can't have it. Rather, renunciation is perceiving how the things we cling to are binding us to ignorance and suffering. Once we clearly see this, then we let go. The Buddha said, "If, by forsaking a limited ease, he would see an abundance of ease, the enlightened man would forsake the limited ease for the sake of the abundant." (Dhammapada, verse 290, Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation) The pursuit of sensory pleasure is, shall we say, counterproductive. However, sensory pleasure itself is neither bad nor good; it's how we relate to it that binds us, or not. It takes most of us some time before we perceive the difference between clinging and enjoying. As to the second question -- why Buddhists attack the idea of psychedelic drugs -- I'd say often what is being "attacked" is not the drugs but a misunderstanding of what "enlightenment" is. If you have a glimmer of understanding of what Buddhism means by "enlightenment" -- and many Zen teachers I know of avoid using that word, to avoid objectifying it -- then the idea that it's a state that can be achieved by taking psychoactive drugs is absurd. It is not "a state to be achieved," never mind with drugs. Unfortunately, for most of us it takes considerable practice before that begins to "sink in."

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