Zig Zag Zen by Allan Badiner & Alex Grey

Zig Zag Zen by Allan Badiner & Alex Grey

Author:Allan Badiner & Alex Grey
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780907791614
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Published: 2015-08-14T16:00:00+00:00


JUNGLE DHARMA: The Interweaving of Buddhism and Ayahuasca

David Coyote

“As long as there are practitioners who go to the forest to practice, the way of the awakened ones will never die.”

–The Buddha

IT CAN BE USEFUL TO THINK ABOUT spiritual and cultural traditions, such as the Buddhadharma, as spontaneously arising, self-organizing, living beings of their own: in other words curiously similar to plants. They have roots in the Earth, they grow and their branches spread, they flower and fruit and drop their seeds, sometimes quite far from the original soil. The seeds sprout, flourish and adapt to new conditions. Seeds of the Buddhadharma have dropped into many contemporary hearts. We are as gardeners doing our best to cultivate them, each in our own way: in Sangha, in lineage, in our daily lives and in our own native cultural soil.

For me, this process has led to over thirty years of intensive study and retreat, which has included ordination in Asia and lay practice in America. I’ve learned several languages, received numerous initiations, practiced yogas and have lived in many communities as well as alone in the woods. Like many others, my spiritual journey began with the intense shock of suffering: in my case, the death of both parents. This gave rise to a deep questioning about the purpose of life and a search for teachings and a path—a deep thirst for healing and liberation and a willingness to try any means that worked well and skillfully—preferably one with roots. I was quickly drawn to Buddhism.

My first teacher was a Korean Zen master. He had arrived in the West in the early 1970s and his first students were young hippies and seekers. He introduced them to koan practice, bowing, sitting and chanting. At one student’s request he even tried LSD. He called it “special medicine” and thought it might have some use for practitioners, maybe used once to break the hard shell of their concepts. But his own tools were “the great question,” hard training and a deep Bodhisattva vow—not medicines, however special they might be.

My second teacher was a Tibetan Vajrayana master. Through him, I was introduced to the intense devotion of the way of the Tibetan yogi and the vast array of skillful means available in the lineage. Rinpoche’s teachings were tantric and at times our practice included the transformation of alcohol into amrita. Having been requested, he too tried LSD. His comment was, “Good for visualization practice.” As with my Zen master, Rinpoche saw these substances as interesting and possibly useful, but nothing he was interested in pursuing.

I met a third teacher many years ago and she is just as strict and demanding as a Zen master or Rinpoche. Sometimes wrathful, sometimes peaceful, she has her own lineage and wisdoms, her own gifts to offer. She is the plant teacher Ayahuasca. Through the guidance of various ayahuasceros and many travels south that have come to total several years’ time spent in the Amazon jungle, her medicine has been part of my Dharma practice ever since.



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