Best entheogen for meditation?

[Soaul Flame]

The Ottawa Entheogenic Meditation Group (//http://entheogenicmeditation.blogspot.com) will soon hold its first planning meeting. One of the main items on the agenda for this meeting will be to choose an entheogen for the group's meditation practice.  
The plant/substance chosen will have to be legal (according to Canadian laws).
Any suggestions?  :?:
Based on your own experience, what plant would make the best entheogen to use within the context of a group meditative practice?

[laughingwillow]

Peyote?

[JRL]

Trichocereus cacti ie. San Pedro, T peruvianus, t "lumberjack' etc.

[laughingwillow]

Tussionex?

lw

[laughingwillow]

Morning glory seeds?

lw

[laughingwillow]

Smoked banana peel?

lw

[laughingwillow]

Dragibus, perhaps?

lw

[laughingwillow]

Jaegermeister?

lw

[JRL]

I heard the jager has a tiny amount of dragibine in it, could be an urban myth.

[laughingwillow]

LOL So THAT'S what is in jager........

lw

[AliceTepes]

I think peyote would be your best bet(kinda pricey though) lol LW you're crazy

[dendro]

I'm a twice daily meditator, and a yoga geek.

I think it depends on what type of meditation your group is doing. For example, if your meditation involves yoga (ie, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi), then an entheogen that enhances pranayama might be best.

If your meditation involves just sitting, as in zen and other forms of Buddhism, or simply watching the breath, as in Vipassana, or practicing trataka, or one-pointed concentration on an objest, or yantra visualizations, then you may value an entheogen that sharpens your attention, awareness and focus.  Green tea, anyone?

The length of your group sessions will have a bearing on this question as well. An entheogen that lasts all day may not be useful to you, and if you meet daily, you will need a plant that is potent on a daily basis with no tolerance effects.

What, if any, is the goal of your meditation?

As a kriya yogi, I practice kriya pranayama, mentally tracing sushumna (central channel of spine) from root to brow and back, raising the cosmic kundalini to the head as preparation to enter the breathless state, which is the beginning of deep meditation for me. This state of breathlessness is also known as sarvikalpa samadhi, and steady practice leads to nirvikalpa samadhi, or cosmic union.

The goal of yoga is to consciously withdraw the life force from the physical body, and to merge with cosmic spirit. The meditator suspends first the motions of the body in a stable asana, then suspends the breath, then the heartbeat itself is restrained and relaxed, as the life force is directed to spiritual chakras. This activity mirrors the experience of death of the physical, while leaving the body immobilized in stasis, but unharmed.

For this type of meditation, if I take an entheogen at all, I prefer an entheogen that heightens the awareness of subtle energies, and relaxes the body while leaving the awareness clear and steady. This allows sitting still, and helps to feel thru the process of restraining and relaxing the breath, etc..

So my choices for meditation-enhancing entheogens are cannabis, and the classic psychedelics, such as cactus, fungi, morning glories and ayahuasca brews.

I especially value ayahuasca, because the caapi alkaloids provide a deep relaxation of the body, while the psychotria alkaloids provide the spiritual fuel to deepen the state. Ayahuasca also has the advantage of being relatively short acting, without the all-day commitment of high-dose cactus. Plus, it is potent on a daily basis, with no tolerance.

A small amount (sub-threshold to threshold dose) of cactus could be a useful enhancement, but timing the ingestion for your group session is problematic, as for some people cactus takes hours at times to take effect. Plus there is "use tolerance". But a small amount of ayahuasca tea comes on fast, is potent every time, and is of short duration. It is a fine enhancement for meditation.

But for daily use, a pure strain of cannabis sativa is most useful to me. A small amount taken as vapor is sufficient to relax and sensitize, and enhances the yoga practice to take you as far as you wish. A larger amount taken as a beverage will provide the fuel for many hours of deep samadhi.

Is cannabis legal in Ottowa?

The longer the samadhi state is maintained, the "higher" the yogi will be. Without any entheogenic enhancement, samadhi works. With enhancement, samadhi works .

The final goal is liberation. Alakh Niranjan!

 :geek:   :geek:  :geek: