Daoist Practice and Medicinal Marijuana

I have tried to find my own way with herb on how to use it for beneficial effects, as well as to analyse drawbacks. Much of what I've subjectively experienced I can tie to basic Daoist methodologies. My opinions on herb starts with some basic marijuana information. Herb has two main species, Indica and Sativa. Regular smokers know the differences and how they can be summed up; indica gets you stoned, sativa gets you high. In other words, indica has more of a physical effect, often inducing a state similar to tiredness or feeling weighed down, colloquially known as "couchlock", while sativa has a mental effect which for many can elevate mood and perceptional awareness. For others, sativa can induce paranoia, which I believe to be the result of overstimulation. The heightened mind under stiva in some individuals takes in more stimuli than it is used to and is unable to process it; unnecessary danger flags may be tied to a number of thoughts as a result and thus inducing panic or paranoia. It should be noted that there are individuals which, for these reasons, prefer one species over another.

There are countless hybrid breedings between sativas and indicas. What should be obvious from the body vs mind effects of the two species is that one can assign Daoist principles of yin-yang to Sativa and Indica as well as Mind and Body. Additionally, the hybrids serve as the third arm; Humanity to Heaven and Earth, Universe to Time and Space, and Events to People and Things. Thus, by utilizing sativas and indicas to variously do body work, mind work, and combinations thereof, one is using herb to improve oneself.

Returning to binary is a good way of describing the mind and body work. There is a passage in the Jingshen that reads,

"Heaven and Earth revolve and penetrate each other. The myriad things are collected and become One. If you are able to understand the One, then there is nothing that is not understood; if you are not able to understand the One, then there is nothing that can be understood."

My understanding of this passage is as follows; Heaven is 1, Earth is 0. The myriad things are every fraction from 0 to 1, in other words .1 to .999, which in the end results in 1. Without understanding this defining nature of the universe, nothing can be accomplished.

The next step is in understanding that 2 is Earth as well. Yin numbers are even, Yang numbers are odd. So, the process of counting, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10, can be broken down into 1 10 11 100 101 110 111 1000 1001 (Thanks google!). Fine, so what is the point?

Excessive indica can cause couchlock; excessive sativa can cause paranoia. In both cases there are polar problems at play; the mind is overloaded on sativa, the mind cannot control the increased perception of body under Indica and acts as if tired or slow. What are the basic sativa and indica exercises?

While using indica, practice physical activities and staying awake. While using sativa, endeavor to keep oneself calm and collected, while being able to orderly carry out activities that require memory; "Oh right, I was going to clean the fridge (go and do it), put the laundry in the dryer (go and do it), annnddd return to that book I was reading... (go and do it)" Advanced level exercises are vigorous physical exercise even while extremely stoned on indica, and appearing normally in public with strangers on sativa. Start out slowly and proceed slowly; successful repetition is key. Mistakes are fine, too; that is how you learn. As you carry out these tasks and movements repeatedly you are imprinting those patterns within you and building upon them. The first time you do a new task, you acknowledge that you are capable of trying it; the first time you succeed at that new task, you prove that you are capable of achieving it. After those two stages are reached, one can begin refinement; either doing the tasks on higher quantities of sativa or indica, or increased complexity/success in carrying out that task at the same level. Fine tuning can be done by being able to carry out the activity competently at any level of altered state; from being heavily stoned or very high, to week-old sober, to one pinner of herb an hour ago.

There is a passage in the Taiyi Sheng Shui that reads as follows:

"Heaven and Earth, the style-name and name, were established together. Therefore, if one transgresses the other's boundaries, each fits with the other without thinking. When Heaven was insufficient in the northwest, that which was below raised itself through strength. When the earth was insufficient in the southeast, that which was above (pictographs missing). If there is insufficiency above, there is excess below; if there is insufficiency below, there is excess above."

What this passage expresses is best depicted with the yin-yang symbol; the meaning is the nature of heaven and earth in balance. Earth has substance while air lacks it; air can fill above or below but earth must be built upon itself. When there is a cavity in the earth, as a valley or canyon, it is filled by air; when there is a mountain what is displaced is sky. Exchanging Earth and Air for Earth and Heaven for Zero and One for Yin and Yang, and you now understand the unified principle of balance; that for all of these things, the rules of Heaven and Earth bind them. This is the case with your Indica/Sativa work as well, in addition to your sober/non-sober time. Understanding this can help you deal with the pitfalls and side effects of Daoist practice on marijuana.

The basic side effects are the result of the unified principle of balance; if you do too much sativa work, you may find your mind too active and out of sync with your body. If you do too much indica work, you may find yourself uninterested in trying new activities or getting out of routines; in other words, stagnant.   There is also a word of warning for those who experience bi-polar symptoms or emotional changes. Particularly with bi-polar individuals, one has a yin state and a yang state to one's emotions; one being negative and one being positive, to simplify things. Utilizing herb in mental or physical exercises can cause shifts in the individual in accordance to the time of exercise, amount/strenuousness of exercise, and type of exercise. Think of it as a parabolic graph, with the peak point at the time of exercise, the height of the peak determined by the amount of exercise, and the peak's point positive or negative depending on the type of exercise and the individual's particular yin or yang state. This last paragraph is my working theory; I'm still in the progress of thinking it out. There are at least two common bi-polar yin-yang states; sadness/normal and angry/normal. Let us accept for the sake of the argument that sadness is yin and anger is yang. Yin is indica while yang is sativa.

In the case of a bi-polar yang individual taking 4 bowls of sativa on a Friday at 8 PM and doing mind exercises, that individual could experience polar shifts during that same time interval in ensuing weeks... like mental echoes. I believe that if the yang individual was doing mental exercises which involved heightening of reaction time and problem-solving, they would be more likely to experience increased feelings of anger or mania at the "echo point" next week. If they did mental exercises involving calming of the mind and concentration, I believe they would more likely experience absence of manic shifts around the echo point, but manic shifts instead on the outlying poles of the echo point. (in this case, two to three days before and after the echo point)

As you can see, this is following the unified principle of balance. With a mountain there is air to both sides; with a valley there is earth to both sides. What is in the middle of one is on the outside of another. Getting used to this type of thinking will allow you to see new ways of doing your exercises, whether mental or physical. Use yang medicine (sativa) with yin (body) exercises; work on increasing your speed while maintaining physical control. Use yin medicine (indica) with yang (mind) exercises; focus on staying awake, doing successive tasks, or doing one complex task. This isn't even going into hybrid strains of herb, in which there are limitless possibilities for variations in practice.

I will end this with a word for my friends who drink but do not smoke, or even use nothing at all (besides sugar and caffeine, the staples of life). All of the above can be adapted for sober life, or while inebriated to various degrees. I will suggest that you use only the amount of alcohol you think will lead to serious practice. Instead of using the indica/sativa dynamic, use the highly inebriated/slightly inebriated dynamic, with sober as the main neutral state. Highly inebriated/sober and slightly inebriated/sober exercises should also be done; I would suggest the former to be much more rare and infrequent than the latter, alcohol is not the same tool as herb. People from cultures that can traditionally stomach large amounts of alcohol, and personally can do so, should find the right balance for themselves; for them a greater quantity may be required. I will speculate more on the use of various psychoactive substances including alcohol in daoist practice in future articles.

Zbogom,
The Dragon of San Marcos