Tantra-Induced Delusional Syndrome ("TIDS")

[American Dream]

I am the woman who was born alone/I am the woman who felt alone/I am the woman who waits/I am the woman who seeks/I am the woman who looks inward/I am the woman who looks under the water/I am the sacred swimmer/Because I can swim in greatness.

I am the moon woman/I am the woman who flies/I am the meteor woman/I am the woman of the sandal constellation/I am the woman of the cane constellation/I am the star woman/God/Because I’ve gone to these places since the beginning.

I am the woman of breeze/I am the woman of fresh dew/I am the woman of dawn/I am the woman of twilight.

I am the woman who blossoms/I am the woman who was uprooted/I am the woman who cries/I am the woman who whistles/I am the woman who makes noise/I am the woman who plays the drum/I am the woman who plays the trumpet/I am the woman who plays the violin/I am the woman who cheers/Because I am the holy clown.

I am the sunstone woman/I am the daylight woman/I am the woman who makes things revolve/I am the woman of heaven/I am the woman of good/I am the pure woman/I am the woman of spirit/Because I can enter and I can leave the kingdom of death.

I am the woman who draws out/I am the woman who cleanses/I am the woman who cures/I am the woman who sets right/I am the woman of herbs/I am the woman wise in language/Because I am the woman wise in medicine.

- Maria Sabina

[undead]

^^^^^^^^

Now there is something that this thread needs. I don't know where you would copy and paste that from so I can only assume that you have the book and typed it out yourself, which is commendable. Somebody should type out and circulate online the entire oral autobiography contained within that book, because it is an invaluable insight into a subject of discussion that is unfortunately dominated by white people, and the logical starting point for any discussion of entheogens in the modern context. I have a copy but I left it in Amerikkka, maybe someone can send it in the post some time while the post still exists. Anybody who wants to know about mushrooms should buy that book and read it. You used to be able to listen to the recordings of the sessions (courtesy of the CIA) on the internet archive buy they have been taken down now for some reason. Maybe they still exist somewhere. Eat some shrooms and listen to that - a good example of moving beyond recreational use.

Maria Sabina: Selections (review)
1965- Benjamin Feinberg

From: The Americas
Volume 62, Number 3, January 2006
pp. 455-456 | 10.1353/tam.2006.0017
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

The Americas 62.3 (2006) 455-456
María Sabina: Selections, Poets for the Millennium, 2. Edited by Jerome Rothenberg. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. Pp. 225. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. $50.00 cloth; $16.95 paper.

In 1981 Ross-Erikson published an English translation of Alvaro Estrada's La Vida de María Sabina, written by Estrada (a member of María Sabina's community) but in the first person voice of the famous Mazatec "wise woman" from the mountains of Oaxaca, whose healing practices involved the use of psychedelic mushrooms. The publisher shortly went out of business, and the book went out of print, unread except in drug culture and drug studies circles for which the book was primarily meaningful as an exploration of shamanism and cross-cultural psychedelia.

That is a shame, for the book's significance went far beyond that narrow reading. María Sabina's life story embodies themes that should be of interest to anthropologists, historians, and literary critics—from the Mexican revolution to the relationships between indigenous communities, tourists, and the state. In the stark, beautiful translation of Henry Munn (Estrada's brother-in-law), María Sabina's powerful voice resounds as she describes a series of husbands, a life of poverty, the bewildering arrival of powerful foreigners drawn by her reputation, and, most importantly, her own experiences with the "child saints." "The Life of María Sabina" is now the heart and soul of a new anthology published by the University of California Press that brings her story to a new generation that should read it in a new way, as one of the best examples of Latin American testimonial literature.

The book also includes translations of her mushroom-enhanced chants, displaying the poetic skill and audacity of this little woman, who dared to speak as an equal with all the incarnations of power, from the Virgin of Guadalupe to Benito Juárez. These chants are made more intelligible by an essay by Munn, who demonstrates how María Sabina deploys tropes and images meaningful to her Mazatec audience, even as she clearly manifested a special, rare mastery of her genre. The other essays accompanying the biography and chants are less useful—personal essays by writers and poets about their experiences meeting the great shaman, and poetry inspired by her. These essays show how, twenty years after her death, María Sabina survives as a powerful, multivocal symbol, inspiring people locally, nationally, and around the world with her complex, remarkable story.

Ben Feinberg
Warren Wilson College
Asheville, North Carolina

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=s ... nberg.html

[American Dream]

There is no such thing as mental illness. It is merely a convenient label for grouping and isolating cases where identification has not occurred properly. Those whom Power can neither govern nor kill, it taxes with madness. The category includes extremists and megalomaniacs of the role, as well as those who deride roles or refuse them. It is only the isolation of such individuals which condemns them, however. Let a General identify with France, with the support of millions of voters, and an opposition immediately springs up which seriously seeks to rival him in his lunacy. Horbiger's attempt to invent a Nazi physics met with a similar kind of success. General Walker was taken seriously when he drew a distinction between superior, white, divine and capitalist man on the one hand, and black, demoniacal, communist man on the other. Franco would meditate devoutly and beg God for guidance in oppressing Spain. Everywhere in the world are leaders whose cold frenzy lends substance to the thesis that man is a machine for ruling. True madness is a function not of isolation but of identification.

The role is the self-caricature which we carry about with us everywhere, and which brings us everywhere face to face with an absence. An absence, though, which is structured, dressed up, prettified. The roles of paranoiac, schizophrenic or psychopath do not carry the seal of social usefulness; in other words, they are not distributed under the label of power, as are the roles of cop, boss, or military officer. But they do have a utility in specified places in asylums and prisons. Such places are museums of a sort, serving the double purpose, from Power's point of view, of confining dangerous rivals while at the same time supplying the spectacle with needed negative stereotypes. For bad examples and their exemplary punishment add spice to the spectacle and protect it. If identification were maximized through increased isolation, the ultimate falseness of the distinction between mental and social alienation would soon become clear.

--"The Revolution of Everyday Life" by Raoul Vaneigem (1967)

[American Dream]

Art of the Himalayas

[American Dream]

The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive. Smile, breathe and go slowly.

—Thich Nhat Hanh

[American Dream]

Plant Seeds of Compassion

The mind is like a fertile field. If we contaminate it with the poisons of ignorance, desire, anger, jealousy, and pride, we will inevitably produce poisonous crops. Acting carelessly or harmfully toward others, or working for our own benefit at the expense of others, will only create limitation and suffering. Medicinal seeds—wholesome, virtuous acts of kindness, love, and compassion—will produce the fruits of peace and benefit. Actions that are both positive and negative will produce a mixture of happiness and sadness. This is the principle of karma. Karma originates in the mind. Our thoughts give rise to words and actions, and these have consequences. We cannot plant poisonous seeds and expect edible or medicinal fruit. When we begin to see the negative results of our self-centeredness, we understand why we must carefully choose which seeds to plant. Our future is in our own hands.

–Lama Shenpen Drolma, from Change of Heart: The Bodhisattva Peace Training of Chagdud Tulku (Padma)

—Tricycle » Daily Dharma, May 26, 2009

[American Dream]

[Alfred Joe's Boy]

The Thunder, Perfect Mind

Translated by George W. MacRae

I was sent forth from the power,
and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
and I have been found among those who seek after me.
Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,
and you hearers, hear me.
You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.
And do not banish me from your sight.
And do not make your voice hate me, nor your hearing.
Do not be ignorant of me anywhere or any time. Be on your guard!
Do not be ignorant of me.

For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am <the mother> and the daughter.
I am the members of my mother.
I am the barren one
and many are her sons.
I am she whose wedding is great,
and I have not taken a husband.
I am the midwife and she who does not bear.
I am the solace of my labor pains.
I am the bride and the bridegroom,
and it is my husband who begot me.
I am the mother of my father
and the sister of my husband
and he is my offspring.
I am the slave of him who prepared me.
I am the ruler of my offspring.
But he is the one who begot me before the time on a birthday.
And he is my offspring in (due) time,
and my power is from him.
I am the staff of his power in his youth,
and he is the rod of my old age.
And whatever he wills happens to me.
I am the silence that is incomprehensible
and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.
I am the voice whose sound is manifold
and the word whose appearance is multiple.
I am the utterance of my name.

Why, you who hate me, do you love me,
and hate those who love me?
You who deny me, confess me,
and you who confess me, deny me.
You who tell the truth about me, lie about me,
and you who have lied about me, tell the truth about me.
You who know me, be ignorant of me,
and those who have not known me, let them know me.

For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness.
I am shameless; I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace.
Give heed to me.

I am the one who is disgraced and the great one.
Give heed to my poverty and my wealth.
Do not be arrogant to me when I am cast out upon the earth,
and you will find me in those that are to come.
And do not look upon me on the dung-heap
nor go and leave me cast out,
and you will find me in the kingdoms.
And do not look upon me when I am cast out among those who
are disgraced and in the least places,
nor laugh at me.
And do not cast me out among those who are slain in violence.

But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel.
Be on your guard!

Do not hate my obedience
and do not love my self-control.
In my weakness, do not forsake me,
and do not be afraid of my power.

For why do you despise my fear
and curse my pride?
But I am she who exists in all fears
and strength in trembling.
I am she who is weak,
and I am well in a pleasant place.
I am senseless and I am wise.

Why have you hated me in your counsels?
For I shall be silent among those who are silent,
and I shall appear and speak,

Why then have you hated me, you Greeks?
Because I am a barbarian among the barbarians?
For I am the wisdom of the Greeks
and the knowledge of the barbarians.
I am the judgement of the Greeks and of the barbarians.
I am the one whose image is great in Egypt
and the one who has no image among the barbarians.
I am the one who has been hated everywhere
and who has been loved everywhere.
I am the one whom they call Life,
and you have called Death.
I am the one whom they call Law,
and you have called Lawlessness.
I am the one whom you have pursued,
and I am the one whom you have seized.
I am the one whom you have scattered,
and you have gathered me together.
I am the one before whom you have been ashamed,
and you have been shameless to me.
I am she who does not keep festival,
and I am she whose festivals are many.

I, I am godless,
and I am the one whose God is great.
I am the one whom you have reflected upon,
and you have scorned me.
I am unlearned,
and they learn from me.
I am the one that you have despised,
and you reflect upon me.
I am the one whom you have hidden from,
and you appear to me.
But whenever you hide yourselves,
I myself will appear.
For whenever you appear,
I myself will hide from you.

Those who have [...] to it [...] senselessly [...].
Take me [... understanding] from grief.
and take me to yourselves from understanding and grief.
And take me to yourselves from places that are ugly and in ruin,
and rob from those which are good even though in ugliness.
Out of shame, take me to yourselves shamelessly;
and out of shamelessness and shame,
upbraid my members in yourselves.
And come forward to me, you who know me
and you who know my members,
and establish the great ones among the small first creatures.
Come forward to childhood,
and do not despise it because it is small and it is little.
And do not turn away greatnesses in some parts from the smallnesses,
for the smallnesses are known from the greatnesses.

Why do you curse me and honor me?
You have wounded and you have had mercy.
Do not separate me from the first ones whom you have known.
And do not cast anyone out nor turn anyone away
[...] turn you away and [... know] him not.
[...].
What is mine [...].
I know the first ones and those after them know me.
But I am the mind of [...] and the rest of [...].
I am the knowledge of my inquiry,
and the finding of those who seek after me,
and the command of those who ask of me,
and the power of the powers in my knowledge
of the angels, who have been sent at my word,
and of gods in their seasons by my counsel,
and of spirits of every man who exists with me,
and of women who dwell within me.
I am the one who is honored, and who is praised,
and who is despised scornfully.
I am peace,
and war has come because of me.
And I am an alien and a citizen.

I am the substance and the one who has no substance.
Those who are without association with me are ignorant of me,
and those who are in my substance are the ones who know me.
Those who are close to me have been ignorant of me,
and those who are far away from me are the ones who have known me.
On the day when I am close to you, you are far away from me,
and on the day when I am far away from you, I am close to you.

[I am ...] within.
[I am ...] of the natures.
I am [...] of the creation of the spirits.
[...] request of the souls.
I am control and the uncontrollable.
I am the union and the dissolution.
I am the abiding and I am the dissolution.
I am the one below,
and they come up to me.
I am the judgment and the acquittal.
I, I am sinless,
and the root of sin derives from me.
I am lust in (outward) appearance,
and interior self-control exists within me.
I am the hearing which is attainable to everyone
and the speech which cannot be grasped.
I am a mute who does not speak,
and great is my multitude of words.
Hear me in gentleness, and learn of me in roughness.
I am she who cries out,
and I am cast forth upon the face of the earth.
I prepare the bread and my mind within.
I am the knowledge of my name.
I am the one who cries out,
and I listen.
I appear and [...] walk in [...] seal of my [...].
I am [...] the defense [...].
I am the one who is called Truth
and iniquity [...].

You honor me [...] and you whisper against me.
You who are vanquished, judge them (who vanquish you)
before they give judgment against you,
because the judge and partiality exist in you.
If you are condemned by this one, who will acquit you?
Or, if you are acquitted by him, who will be able to detain you?
For what is inside of you is what is outside of you,
and the one who fashions you on the outside
is the one who shaped the inside of you.
And what you see outside of you, you see inside of you;
it is visible and it is your garment.
Hear me, you hearers
and learn of my words, you who know me.
I am the hearing that is attainable to everything;
I am the speech that cannot be grasped.
I am the name of the sound
and the sound of the name.
I am the sign of the letter
and the designation of the division.
And I [...].
(3 lines missing)
[...] light [...].
[...] hearers [...] to you
[...] the great power.
And [...] will not move the name.
[...] to the one who created me.
And I will speak his name.

Look then at his words
and all the writings which have been completed.
Give heed then, you hearers
and you also, the angels and those who have been sent,
and you spirits who have arisen from the dead.
For I am the one who alone exists,
and I have no one who will judge me.
For many are the pleasant forms which exist in numerous sins,
and incontinencies,
and disgraceful passions,
and fleeting pleasures,
which (men) embrace until they become sober
and go up to their resting place.
And they will find me there,
and they will live,
and they will not die again.

http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/thunder.html

[American Dream]

How Buddhist Is Modern Buddhism? | Tricycle

Contemporary Buddhism is one of the sites where, obviously, Asian and Western cultures meet and, less obviously, a premodern cultural tradition meets the currents of modernity. The Buddhism that most of us know has been emerging from this complex web of influences, yet how well do we understand that we ourselves are suspended within that web?

This issue has been a subject of study in academia since the 1970s, when the Buddhist scholar Richard Gombrich and the anthropologist Gananath Obeyesekere coined the term “Protestant Buddhism” to describe new forms of Asian Buddhism that have been developing in response to colonialism and modernization. Although these revival movements were often reacting against Christian missionary activities, they were nonetheless influenced by post- Enlightenment developments within Christianity. They tended to de-emphasize supernatural events, ritual, and hierarchy and to promote more individualistic religious experience and doctrines that are compatible with science.

Today the preferred term is “Buddhist modernism,” and recently this phenomenon has become a topic of discussion within practice communities as well. Much of the discussion has focused on a provocative study by David McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism. McMahan argues that “elements of Buddhism that many now consider central to the tradition—meditation, internal experience, individual authority—are so constructed because of the gravitational pull of modernity.” The novel types of Buddhism that have developed since the mid-19th century, both in Asia and in the West, do not simply revive and reiterate the dharma but embody just as much Western ways of thinking. In short, modern Buddhism means not only Buddhism in the modern world but new, hybrid traditions that are as much modernist as Buddhist.

…

Perhaps no single person did as much to articulate a Buddhist modernist perspective as D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966), who, not coincidentally, also did more than anyone else to introduce Buddhism to the West. Suzuki, observes McMahan, was so successful because he decontextualized Zen from its Sino-Japanese origins and incorporated it into a Western worldview that emphasized spontaneity, creativity, and appreciation of the natural world, unmediated by the dualizing intellect. “Suzuki’s insistence that the enlightened person transcends social conventions and prescribed morality, realizing intuitive action as the vehicle of nature, reconfigures and radicalizes Rousseau’s primitivism.”

McMahan’s analysis is too rich and nuanced to summarize adequately in this short review, but the main target of his critique deserves special attention because it demonstrates the general problem he sees with Buddhist modernism: its emphasis on meditation, often isolated from its Asian religious context and presented as a psychological or scientific technique. His examples include the American Vipassana movement, which is largely independent of the Theravada tradition from which it originates; and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, which promotes a mindfulness practice divested of its traditional cultural and religious framework, an approach that according to founder Jon Kabat-Zinn “has nothing to do with Buddhism per se or with becoming a Buddhist, but it has everything to do with waking up and living in harmony with the world.”

McMahan sees this modern detachment of meditation from the rest of the Buddhist tradition as continuing the Western emphasis on individualism, which minimizes the value of social relationships and community. Meditation, then, becomes a tool to be used as part of one’s personal spiritual path or to improve one’s everyday life, but without the need to commit to any collective enterprise, structure of traditional authority, or ritual activities. By no coincidence, this type of mindfulness practice also fits into modernity’s world-affirming attitude, as a way of valorizing everyday life rather than trying to escape it. “This privatization, deinstitutionalization, and detraditionalization of meditation is a significant development in the history of Buddhism.”

…Good critical studies undermine the assumption that culture is merely a kind of baggage that can be discarded at will. The problem for Buddhist modernists (including myself) is that we tend to view our own beliefs as culture-free. Extracting the essence of Buddhism from the societies in which it has been embedded is easier said than done, because those of us who try to do the extracting are embedded in culture too. Critiques such as McMahan’s help us see ourselves afresh, in ways we couldn’t otherwise do.

[Six Hits of Sunshine]

[American Dream]

A "TIDS" perp- and victim also...

[Six Hits of Sunshine]

A "TIDS" perp- and victim also...

Yeah, I've had a fascination with him for many years. I was very good friends with a devotee of his and ever since then he's captured a certain part of my mind.

[American Dream]

A "TIDS" perp- and victim also...

Yeah, I've had a fascination with him for many years. I was very good friends with a devotee of his and ever since then he's captured a certain part of my mind.

Where do you think he went wrong?

[Six Hits of Sunshine]

A "TIDS" perp- and victim also...

Yeah, I've had a fascination with him for many years. I was very good friends with a devotee of his and ever since then he's captured a certain part of my mind.

Where do you think he went wrong?

You know, I have no idea really, I can only speculate. I recently picked up a copy of the first edition of The Method of the Siddhas and I was blown away by its concise nature, simplicity and profundity. The content and pages grew with each new edition until today its virtually unrecognizable.

I guess the very simple answer is that he became intoxicated with the adoration of his devotees and the power he held over them. His demands for more and more were always met, no matter how extreme or perverse, which of course he'd be the first to tell you only makes desire for more that much stronger. But then, paradoxically I think he was tapped into serious realization of some kind on top of being hyper-intelligent. So I don't know, that's just a guess for now.

What do you think?

[American Dream]

A "TIDS" perp- and victim also...

Yeah, I've had a fascination with him for many years. I was very good friends with a devotee of his and ever since then he's captured a certain part of my mind.

Where do you think he went wrong?

You know, I have no idea really, I can only speculate. I recently picked up a copy of the first edition of The Method of the Siddhas and I was blown away by its concise nature, simplicity and profundity. The content and pages grew with each new edition until today its virtually unrecognizable.

I guess the very simple answer is that he became intoxicated with the adoration of his devotees and the power he held over them. His demands for more and more were always met, no matter how extreme or perverse, which of course he'd be the first to tell you only makes desire for more that much stronger. But then, paradoxically I think he was tapped into serious realization of some kind on top of being hyper-intelligent. So I don't know, that's just a guess for now.

What do you think?

Your explanation makes complete sense to me...