Pot tea

[fa_jing]

Nexus - you may be fooling yourself. Because you presume to know whether or not I am "fully meditating" from a distance. I have been using the herb far longer than I have been actively meditating, so no, even in my apparently distorted mind I don't single out meditation as a justification for herb use. Mostly, this is just an inappropriate themed thread that I tried to make incidentally MA - related with a couple of tongue-in-cheek remarks about meditation and sparring. I apologize for that. But, as GLW pointed out, these remarks form the basis for the only appropriately-themed discussion we can have here.

So back to Nexus' "fully meditating" remark. Would you like to define this? I think not, because meditation is many-faceted, and does not lend itself to such a description. As far as my own practice, successful meditation includes, but is not limited to: using my intention to lead chi (a bubbling or tingly feeling), to and through different parts of my body. Acheiving instances of myofascial release, definitely qualifies too. This is where tracts of muscle, tendon, and connective tissue suddenly release tension. A vibration which I have felt before in my dan tien. Other goals which I consider secondary - a disassociation with my surroundings and external senses, feeling the spirit high in the head, perception of other planes of existence, diminishing sense of "I" (diminishing ego).

I'd say that nowadays, herb use has virtually no impact on whether or not I can achieve the above goals, during meditation. However, when I was first learning to meditate, I found it moderately helpful with certain aspects. So I have to disagree with the notion that it cannot be helpful, that it must hold you back from full meditation.

However, Nexus, there may be certain classes of meditation that are indeed, impeded by use of the herb. I have not come across these practices, and perhaps they form part of your definition of "fully meditating."

Overall, pot use is probably bad for meditation, and I mean general use, not specific use. What I mean is, it's hard to find time to meditate when you have to spend 15 minutes looking for your keys. LOL, but I am serious. Your resistance is generally down versus your friend involving you in 6 hours of Madden Football. You tend to associate with people that don't clean up after themselves.

Unfortunately, I have not been keeping up the meditation of late. The obstacle: finding a room and time with silence and no interruptions. When I was meditating the most, actually I was living in a house with a bunch of young, slovenly hipsters and not working at the time. Overall a forgettable period in my life, except that this is when I took up Kung Fu.

I probably won't be able to really get back into it until I move my family to a house.


You may find the following statements to be controversial: when I was receiving Accupunture treatments, I found that smoking the herb afterwards magnified the effect of the treatment. I felt more "pinging" in my body after treatment. However, the opposite was true if I smoked before receiving accupunture: the treatment became less effective, I was spaced out too much and lost concentration, you need to "want" the pain and concentrate on it in order to increase the effect of the treatment. Herb's analgesic effect did not aid me here. However, receiving the treatment straight, then smoking up, it really helps your awareness of the changes in your body that accupuncture creates.

-FJ

[Nexus]

Sometimes you have to make absurd comments to people with absurd perceptions. Just as you see the perception of me knowing the quality of your meditations from a distance to be absurd.

The comments I made were just there to flicker with the lightbulb.

[fa_jing]

That's okay. I started it with an absurd comment, which I have now retracted.

-FJ