Underground 420 Festival 2024 (LA)

Underground 420 Festival 2024 Tickets, Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 5:35 PM | Eventbrite

Did the lord smoke? No, he did not.

Drug abuse, whatever the drug (illegal or legal) is not likely to be in keeping with the Buddha's advice and the Five Precepts, the following of which means abstaining from intoxicants that occasion heedlessness.

What is heedlessness? Most simply put, it is violating the other four precepts. One would not kill, not steal, not engage in sexual misconduct, or bear false witness (speak harshly, lie, or idly chit chat), but one would when intoxicated.

Did the dinos? Yes, probably.

Therefore, intoxication can be seen to be harmful, perhaps the most harmful, of these precepts to violate.

If one sees in oneself that one behaves in virtuous ways and conducts oneself with restraint -- except when intoxicated on alcohol or any other substance, then one would be wise to avoid it.

This is true no matter if society is encouraging it, peers are pressuring for the use of it, or the culture is permissive of its use. It's our karma, not theirs. They are doing wrong promoting harmful things, but we will be the one to pay for it if we partake, think lightly of doing so, or fail to abstain from it.

• Underground 420 Festival, Los Angeles

What does "getting wasted" mean?

Moreover, there are two kinds of high, two kinds of substances, but our language choice treats it all as one thing. We say we're "high" when we mean two opposite things.

Dude, I'm straight. I just grow it for hemp seed.

Whether we obtund our consciousness, smash it, obliterate it, cause illusions, distorted views, or misperceptions or intend to expand consciousness, reach for reality, for Truth, for right view, disillusionment, psychic visions, or seeing the world as it really is (with DMT the Spirit Molecule, bufo, iboga, kambo, ketamine, microdosing with magic mushrooms, ayahuasca, peyote, LSD, MDMA, or sacred plants, barks, and vines), we refer to both as "getting wasted." It's misleading, putting rotten sugar (alcohol) abuse on par with a sacred shamanic journey to healing or insight.

Are we feeding our dopamine jones or building up serotonin, chasing a thrill or getting real chill?

Do what you do, for that is your karma. Be careful what you intend, for that colors your karma (deed, action) and determines how the results (vipaka and phala) will arrive, unwished for and costly or welcome and profitable.

• DETAILS: Underground 420 Festival 4/20/24, 5:35 PM

Remember when Homer smoked, flew, saw rainbows, cut himself shaving?

• Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly