Cavemen shamans got high all day? (sutra)

When did humans start smoking cannabis?

(Ink Explainer) June 4, 2026: When did early humans start smoking weed (THC/CBD)? The answer goes back way further than most of us would expect. Our relationship with cannabis did not begin in a college dorm or a back alley. — Rather, it started over 12,000 years ago, when some of the first farmers in East Asia looked at a very useful wild plant and thought, "Let's grow this."

This video traces the full history of cannabis — from a 2,700-year-old shaman's tomb in western China to the smoke-filled burial caves of the Pamir Mountains, the golden cups of Scythian warriors, the sacred altars of ancient Judah, the bhang rituals of India, a Chinese physician's lost anesthesia formula, a Congolese tribe that traded war for hemp, and the American political machine that turned a 12,000-year-old plant into one of the most dangerous [Schedule 1] substances on Earth.

By the end, viewers might start seeing this plant a little differently. All factual research sources are linked below.

Cross faded humans/monkeys?

(Mack) When did ancient humans first drink? Drunken monkey hypothesis

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📚 RESEARCH AND SOURCES: ▸ Yanghai Tombs — "Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis from Central Asia" (2008, Journal of Experimental Botany) doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ern260 ▸ Jirzankal Cemetery — "The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs of western China" (2019, Science Advances) doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw1391 ▸ Herodotus — The Histories, Book IV, on Scythian cannabis use (c. 440 BCE) ▸ Sergei Rudenko — Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen (1970, UC Press) ▸ Scythian Gold Cups — "Residue analysis of golden artifacts from Scythian kurgan in the Caucasus" (2015, Antiquity) ▸ Tell Arad Shrine — "Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad" (2020, Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology) doi.org/10.1080/03344355.2020... ▸ Atharva Veda — Ancient Vedic text listing cannabis among five sacred plants ▸ Robert Dudley and Dušan Borić — Research on anandamide and the endocannabinoid system ▸ Harry Anslinger — Federal Bureau of Narcotics records, the Gore Files, and the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 ▸ John Ehrlichman — interview quote on Pres. Dick Nixon's drug policy, published in Harper's Magazine (2016) by Dan Baum: "Legalize It All" harpers.org/archive/2016/04/l... ▸ DEA Judge Francis Young — "In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition" (1988, Docket No. 86-22)

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PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: ▸ Shen Nong — legendary Chinese emperor, traditionally credited as the author of the Pen Ts'ao Ching, one of the world's earliest medical texts, which recommended cannabis for joint pain and malaria. ▸ Herodotus — Ancient Greek historian (c. 484–425 BCE). Traveled through Central Asia and documented Scythian cannabis rituals in vivid detail. His accounts were confirmed by archeological discoveries nearly 2,400 years later. ▸ Sergei Rudenko — Soviet archeologist who in 1947 excavated frozen Scythian tombs in Siberia's Altai Mountains, confirming Herodotus's descriptions of cannabis use with perfectly preserved tent frames, heated stones, and cannabis seeds. ▸ Hua Tuo — Chinese physician (c. 140–208 AD). Mixed cannabis with wine to create an anesthetic and performed surgery during which patients felt nothing — 1,800 years before modern anesthesia, executed by warlord Cao Cao. His formula was lost when he burned his own writings in prison. ▸ Cao Cao — One of the most powerful warlords in Chinese history (155–220 AD). Had Hua Tuo arrested and executed after the physician refused to serve as his personal doctor. ▸ Harry Anslinger — head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962. Criminalized cannabis through racist propaganda, fabricated evidence (the Gore Files), and targeted Black musicians including Billie Holiday. ▸ Billie Holiday — legendary jazz singer targeted by Anslinger, not for drug use but for performing "Strange Fruit," a protest song about American lynchings. ▸ John Ehrlichman — Pres. Nixon's domestic policy advisor, who in a 2016-published interview admitted the War on Drugs was designed to target anti-war protesters and Black communities. ▸ Francis Young — DEA administrative law judge who, after two years of reviewing evidence in 1988, concluded that cannabis should not be classified as a Schedule 1 drug alongside heroin. The DEA rejected and ignored his recommendation.

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🎨 Animation by Ink explainer

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#cannabishistory #weedhistory #history #ancienthistory #cannabis #marijuana #explainer #animation #education #HarryAnslinger #SilkRoad #archeology #humanhistory

Shamans: communication from spirit world

(Eden Foundation) Psychedelics (Entheogens) as Medicine 2025: Voices of Ancestors with Snow Raven

Ancient cavemen and cannabis smoking

(MACK) High all day? When did ancient human (cavemen) start smoking cannabis?

Doctor Feelgood? Cannabis, MD

(Saturday Night Live) The Pot Doctor (Kevin Spacey, Beck, Will Ferrell)

 

"The Cave of the Body" (Guhatthaka Sutta)

Clinging to this cave heavily defiled [1]

one is stuck, bewildered, far from seclusion

from craving for the sensual pleasures [2]

of the world, which are hard to let go.

Those chained to craving

bound by the allure of becoming

find no release

for there is no liberation by others.

Intent, before and behind [3], on thirst

for sensual pleasure here or before —

full of lust for sensual pleasures,

busy, deluded, greedy, entrenched

in the wobbling way [4] they —

impelled into pain — lament:

"What will we be

when we pass away from here?"

So one ought to train here and now.

Whatever one knows as wobbling

in the world, do not, for its sake, behave,

for such life, the enlightened say, is short.

I see them in the world

floundering

men immersed in craving

for new states of becoming.

Base people moan in the mouth of death, their craving

for states of eternal becoming and annihilation [5] unallayed.

See them floundering in their sense of mine like fish in the

puddles of a dried-up stream — and, seeing this,

live with no sense of mine, not forming

attachments to states of becoming.

Subdue craving for both sides [6], 

comprehending [7] sensory contact free of greed.

Doing nothing for which one would oneself

rebuke oneself, for the enlightened person

adheres not to what is seen, to what's heard.

Comprehending perception, one crosses over the flood —

the sage unstuck from possessions.

One, with arrow removed, lives heedful,

longing for neither

this world nor the next.

ENDNOTES

1. Nd.I: Covered with defilements and unskillful mental states, characteristics, qualities.
2. "Sensual craving" and "sensual pleasures" are two possible translations of kama ("sensuality"). According to Nd.I, both meanings are intended here.
3. Nd.I: "Before" ("in front") means experienced in the past; "behind" means to-be-experienced in the future.
4. Nd.I: "Wobbling way" means the karma of the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action. (See AN 10.176).
5. States of not-becoming = "oblivion." These are states of becoming that people can get themselves into through a desire or craving for annihilation, either after death or as a misguided goal of their spiritual striving. (See Iti 49, ucchedavada, annihilationism). As with all states of becoming, these states are impermanent (transient) and disappointing (painful).
6. According to Nd.I, "both sides" has here several possible meanings: sensory contact and the origination of sensory contact; past and future; name-and-form; internal and external sense media; self-identity (view) and the origination of self-identity. It might also mean the states of becoming and not-becoming (eternalism and annihilationism) mentioned in the previous verse and below, in Sn 4.5.
7. Nd.I: Comprehending sensory contact has three aspects: (1) being able to identify and distinguish types of sensory contact; (2) contemplating the true nature of sensory contact (e.g., impermanent/inconstant, disappointing/unable to fulfill, and impersonal/not-self); and (3) abandoning attachment to sensory contact. The same three aspects apply to comprehending perception, as mentioned in the following verse.

• See also: AN 4.184

• Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Guhatthaka Sutta, based on translation and notes by Ven. Thanissaro (accesstoinsight.org, Sn 4.2 PTS: Sn 772-779), Wisdom Quarterly

Why we humans drink alcohol (science)

(Before Civilization) Ancient humans may have been drunk every single day

Ah, man, the Five Precepts say no drinking?

The Five Buddhist Precepts (Etsy)

The fifth of the Five Precepts the Buddha advised humans to adopt is to abstain from intoxicants that occasion heedlessness such as alcohol, drugs, and such substances [12, 13].

The Five Precepts (guidelines for morality, virtue, human ethics, harmlessness, ahimsa) are called pañca-sīla, binding on all Buddhist laypeople. They are to abstain and refrain from:

1. killing any living being
2. stealing (taking what is not given)
3. sexual misconduct
4. false speech (which means speaking falsehoods or lying and malicious speech, harsh speech, and frivolous speech or "animal talk"* mislabeled as gossip)
5. the use of intoxicants (such as beer and spirits or surāmeraya).

• Five Precepts or Training Rules (sikkhāpada)

Avoid doing all harm and be happy.

Early Buddhist texts nearly always condemn alcohol as do Chinese Buddhist later post-canonical texts (of the Mahayana tradition).

Smoking is sometimes also included here. In modern times, traditional Buddhist countries have seen revival movements to promote the Five Precepts, the least good karma if we hope to ever be reborn on the human plane again and avoid the subhuman planes.

What are the Five Precepts?

In the West, the precepts play a major role in Buddhist organizations. They have also been integrated into mindfulness training programs -- though many modern "mindfulness" specialists, having changed the definition of "mindfulness" (which the Buddha called sati) to something that better suits them -- do not support this because of the precepts' spiritual religious import.

Lastly, many conflict prevention programs make use of the precepts. More

What do we do when drinking other than "animal talk"?

Back off, Bich! - Don't call me 'bich,' Birdbrain!

*What is "animal talk"? It is lowly speech, literally "beastly talk," the name the sutras (ancient texts) give for the following: "Talk about:

• rulers and robbers [criminals in and out of office, like kings and robber barons],
• politicians and armies,
• dangers and wars,
• eating and drinking,
• fashion (frivolous clothing) and dwellings,
• garlands and scents (baubles and cosmetics),
• relationships (relatives),
• vehicles (chariots),
• villages and markets (real estate and shopping),
• towns and districts,
• women and heroes,
• street talk,
• gossipy talk by the well,
• talk about the departed from days gone by,
• tittle-tattle,
• talk [speculation] about [the origin of the] world and ocean,
• and talk about gain and loss" (A.X.69, etc.) 

In the Commentaries, four further kinds of low talk are enumerated, bringing the total to 32 varieties, namely:

1. talk about sensual enjoyment,
2. self-mortification (tapas, penances),
3. existing eternally (Eternalism)
4. self-annihilation (Annihilationism).

• Ireland before the discovery of distilled alcohol or whiskey (Family Guy)
• Family Guy (Irish comedy clips); Before Civilization (video); Ven. Nyanatiloka (Dictionary of Buddhist Terms, sikkhāpada and tiracchāna-katha) edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

'Partying is down. That's worrisome' (BBC)

Dead Kennedys: "Happy Hour is now enforced by law" (Cali Uber Alles)

People are partying less. Here’s why that’s worrying. | BBC Global

Dead Kennedys (punk rock with Jello Biafra) "We've Got a Bigger Problem Now" (in studio)

(BBC Global) Oct. 6, 2025: Over the last 20 years, there has been a decline in the amount time Americans spend at parties, especially among young people. Derek Thompson and Katty Kay dive into what the effects of decreased socializing are among young people and what can be done about it.

The BBC is a British public broadcast service. Subscribe to BBC Global. For the latest news, analyses, and features visit: bbc.com #BBC #entertainment #GenZ #Zoomers

Psychedelic elephants: animals get high

The drunkard said, "They're here, they're there, pink elephants [are] everywhere!"

.

Oh no, it's not just humans. Elephants and other animals SEEK out psychedelics. (Think of the magic mushroom-loving reindeer of the Arctic circle, who not only search for Amanita muscaria or Fly agaric hallucinogenic mushrooms in the snow but also lick "yellow" snow in the hopes that the reindeer responsible for the deposit found some, just as shamans filter the strong entheogenic compounds in magic mushrooms for their followers and patients). There are humans and animals in Nepal, Turkey, and the Hindu Kush region who feast on hallucinogenic "mad honey," derived from rhododendron (grayanotoxins) and other plants collected by bees.

Don't get high, Kids. Meditate to see visions.

Mushrooms, contrary to what many might think, are not plants. They are a whole different kingdom, the fungi studied by mycologists. But there are plenty of plants -- like the components of Ayahuasca of the Amazon Jungle/Rainforest, which is comprised of three plant pharmacy ingredients, strangely, not the same three -- that are entheogens. There is Syrian Rue, there are alkaloids galore in rainforests, and animals are looking:

• Even in the Buddha's time, among the Sakas (Shakyas, Indo-Scythians), there was a "magical" entheogenic/psychedelic drug known in Vedic Sanskrit as soma (haoma in the Avestan language of the Indo-Iranians/Aryans west of ancient Jambudvipa). No one knows what exactly was in this concoction, but it seems to have included powerful local cannabis, kumis, and the mysterious psychedelic known as blue lotus. Did wandering ascetics (sramanas, shamans) partake of it for divine visions or did warrior princes imbibe it for guidance and/or to go berserk in battle like Berserkers?

Hallucinogenic plants

Oh no, Dumbo, it's bad trip time! Set and setting!

Deep within the heart of Africa, a captivating spectacle unfolds — one that challenges our understanding of animal behavior and the natural world.

Elephants, the majestic titans of the savanna (grasslands), have been observed engaging in a curious ritual: seeking out and consuming plants known for their psychoactive properties.

So that's why they stink so much: detoxing

[This is in addition to elephants' penchant to visit fallen fruit that has fermented and the ground (by the natural activity of yeasts and bacteria) and gorge themselves on it until they are as drunk as skunks, if skunks could get drunk, which they can if enough fruit falls on the ground to pique their interest or if Uncle Kelly leaves his glass of the "water of life" (Gaelic fuisce, whisky) out overnight after passing out and they come searching for Seamus the Dog's food bowl for freebies.]

This behavior, both fascinating and enigmatic, raises intriguing questions about the motivations and experiences of these gentle giants.

As we delve into this phenomenon, we uncover a tapestry of ecological interactions, evolutionary adaptations, and mysterious quests for altered states of consciousness. [Wow, suddenly AI started writing this intro for MSN?] Let's read on: The Psychedelic Elephants of Africa: How Some Animals Seek Out Hallucinogenic Plants

Does Wisdom Quarterly advocate (entheogenic) drug use?

Experimentation beyond science?

Certainly not. Drugs are bad and go against the fourth of the Five Precepts incumbents on Buddhists. If any thing (drug, food, behavior) occasions heedlessness (the violating of precepts or engaging in any of the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Conduct), it should and must be avoided and abstained from. Who in their right mind would take something that destroyed all one's virtue. One often hears of people who say, "I would never [fill in the blank with any bad thing]...unless I were drunk or high." Therefore, one should not get drunk or high because to do so is to engage in harmful karma that will come back to one, and it won't matter that one was high, as when drunk drivers get imprisoned just for driving drunk even though they didn't hit anyone yet. And when they do hit someone, it will not have been "on purpose" (with intention), so how can they be held liable? They can. They are. If one murders or steals while high, it does not matter to judges, juries, or the general public that the perpetrator excuses the behavior by saying, "Yeah, but I was high." Stay sober. Praise sobriety. Study plants:

• Study magic mushrooms, ecstasy, drugs at CIIS

Oh, much better, trippin' on reality

Get high on life or the ecstatic meditations (jhanas), with samadhi in mind, opening the third eye (dibba cakkhu), stimulating the pineal gland in natural and nonharmful ways. Try pranayama to alter consciousness in a way that does not destroy one. There's a fine line between character-building and soul-destroying (even though "soul" is not really the best word to use as it has misleading connotations) experiences. Drugs are a kind of Russian roulette. Find a shaman, a guide, a discipline before f'ing around and finding out. Will kids find out? Don't they always? It is an explorer's function to go on a quest. So let it be a spiritual quest of mind-expanding "soul" searching that brings about the end of suffering by heightening compassion and wisdom. That's what Wisdom Quarterly is saying. Read Dr. Ammon Hillman's The Chemical Muse to see just how long this has been going on in Western culture. Then read John Allegro's banned magic mushroom text about the real meaning of Christianity. Antihero Homer Simpson is the perfect example of what not to do, besotted on the couch being programmed by TV's hypnotic influence, accomplishing nothing.

• DiscoverWildScience via MSN.com, April 8, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Chemical Muse: Western civilization's roots

If you suffer from poor "vision," you might be stoned with dry eyes and dilated pupils.

The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization

Author Dr. D.C. Ammon Hillman, Ph.D. has 4.6 out of 5 stars with 71 ratings.

The Chemical Muse uncovers decades of [scholarly] misdirection and obfuscation to reveal the history of widespread drug use in ancient Rome and Greece.

In the city-states that gave birth to Western civilization, drugs were an everyday element of a free society.

Often, they were not just available but vitally necessary for use in medicine, religious ceremonies, and war campaigns.

Their proponents and users existed in all classes, from the common soldier to the emperor himself.

.

Christian she-male gods

Citing examples in myths, medicine, and literature, Dr. Hillman shows how drugs have influenced and inspired artists, philosophers, and even politicians whose ideas formed the basis for civilization as we know it.

Many of these ancient texts may seem well-known, but Dr. Hillman shows how timid and prudish translations have left scholars and readers in the dark about the reality of drug use in the Classical world.

Dr. Hillman's argument is not simply "pro-drug." Instead, he appeals for an intellectual honesty that acknowledges the use of drugs in ancient societies despite today's conflicting social mores.

In the modern world, where academia and university life are often politically charged, The Chemical Muse offers a unique and long overdue perspective on the contentious topic of drug use and the freedom of thought.

• "The last wild frontier of classical studies" - The Times (UK)

Read sample: The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization (Politics & Social Sciences)

Hawk Tuah Girl, AOC, Bernie Sanders (JDS)

Bartender Hailey Welch is the "Hawk Tuah Girl," not Elaine Robinson (of The Graduate fame, a girl from LA who studied at UC Berkeley before returning and marrying the graduate). And this is the most significant story of the day in the US, where a boring election as two guilty parties vie for the right to continue their corruption and graft, using the name of the person to enrich family members behind the scenes. Hunter needs more bribes and pardons, and Ivanka might not always have Jared, but at least the men of the US have a chance to maybe one day meet, date, and be spit on by Hailey. That's the shock news people in this nation really care about. Party on and see how much fun the new promiscuity can be.

One is reminded of Chappell Roan singing "Good Luck Babe" during her sexy tour celebrating drag culture. "You can kiss a hundred boys in bars...good luck, babe..." Meanwhile, what is Bernie Sanders up to? Saving us from corruption and another disaster in the White House? What about The Squad's loudest star AOC? She must be fighting for all that's right and fair. Did Genocide Joe really commit the war crime of sending banned weapons to a country that is using those weapons to commit war crimes? Cluster bombs, which are illegal by international convention, are raining down on Russians because Ukraine knows it has diplomatic cover from the US if its leaders should be brought before the Int'l Court of Justice (ICJ in the Hague) just as genocidal Israel?

How to keep cool without alcohol: Ü Relax

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I want to feel less inhibited without all my hangups, at least on the weekends, and I need help.

Alcohol is liquid ignorance.

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Anti-vax comedy tee-shirt

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What's in it?

Sit back and unwind with Ü Relax. Take a moment, anytime, anywhere. Ü Relax delivers a great-tasting medley of the potent and powerful properties of these three plants [nootropics] for a happier, worry-free experience:

• Kava
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Ingredients to feel good about

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All Ü Relax tonics are made with ingredients found in nature and backed by science. Each stress-reducing property comes together for a super-functional formula that tastes amazing and mellows one out quickly.

We all get stressed... The knots in the stomach, the tight pain in the chest, the thoughts racing through the mind—that’s stress.

It happens to all of us, but instead of letting it bring us down, we’re kindly kicking stress and anxiousness out the door. We believe we deserve to feel good and smile, no matter what life throws at us. More

Why can Paddy McGee drink and drink like his dad?

But why not drink alcohol? What's the big deal? Everyone's doing it! (Everyone isn't)

Those sound like Yoda's words stating the Buddha's sentiments. Maybe they both said it?

.

The Buddha spoke of human virtue in terms of Five Precepts. It is the kind of karma that leads to (re)birth on the human plane. There are many more human worlds not of this familiar one. Just to be human, in the past and in the future, it is because one kept this minimum of conduct, behavior, action. The Five Precepts are restraints, refraining from:

1. killing
2. stealing
3. sexual misconduct
4. false speech (bearing false witness)
5. intoxicants (that occasion heedlessness).

Whoever goes to a shrink ought
to have his head examined.

What are the worst of these? The answer would seem to be the first, killing. Actually, that is not the worst. The Buddha spoke of No. 4 as being worse than that -- insofar as it was observed that someone who lies, deceives, misleads might do any of the others since such a person has no shame about lying about it (as to evade consequences).

We maintain, while those two things may be true, there is one worse, and that is No. 5, using dope (getting wasted, sauced, trashed, inebriated, intoxicated). Why? Of all the things we would not do, what wouldn't we do when stoned -- when out of our mind, out of our reason, out of sorts, out of our heads? They all become possible.

So the (otherwise) good person suddenly, when drunk, lies, cheats (sleeps with another person's partner), steals, and even kills in a fit of anger or, more likely, in a reckless disregard for consequences, such as driving under the influence, or operating a gun or heavy machinery or a horse and carriage or a laser or blacking out and becoming possessed and doing who knows what?

In fact, in the Sigalovada Sutra, the Buddha spells out the misery that accompanies one who gets drunk. Of course, this would apply to any intoxicant (meth, weed, pharmaceuticals, fairy dust, venom, soma, yerba deliria or delirium-inducing-herb like Jimson weed, whatever). But it's usually alcohol, whether beer or spirits. What heedlessness, shamelessness, recklessness, negligence, carelessness might it occasion?

Whatever one would scrupulously not do (sober) becomes a wide-open possibility when s-faced, stoned, wasted, out of one's gourd. One is straight but drunk or stoned suddenly one is open to anything. One is a preserver of life and would risk one's own life to save another, but drunk or stoned does such stupid things that someone gets killed. Do the courts hold one responsible for killing-while-drunk? Yes. Judges look down on it and sentence one to many years in prison.

We may not feel responsible because what we did, we did when we were not in our right mind. But think about it -- as you're telling the other prisoners that you don't belong in prison with them -- what were we when we got drunk or stoned? We did that sober.

And in doing that, we take all the responsibility of what we end up doing inebriated. Fair/not fair? What does it really matter what the court says, what the judge says, what the jury says, what the society says, or what we say? What matter is what karma says. We will hold ourselves to account for all we do under the influence of

• greed (passion, liking)
• hatred (aversion, disliking)
• delusion (foolishness, ignorance, stupidity, wrong views)

We're sticking to toxic soft drinks full of sugar,
aspartame, carbonation, saltpeter, and caffeine.

That being the case, why would we make it worse? Why would we drink, fall into the habit of drinking (by repeatedly choosing to or allowing someone else to choose that we drink), think nothing of drinking (until something very bad happens)?

Maybe we'll say it's because we needed to relax. Well, if that were true, if that were the case, why not use Ü Relax or some similar mood-enhancing but not intoxicating-to-the-point-of-heedlessness substance?

Above all, the Buddha said, let us be lamps/islands (dipa) unto ourselves and work out our salvations/liberations with diligence (mindfulness). There is no time to waste. We might say, above all, to pull a cultural reference from the 1980s (rap song), "Check yourself before you wreck yourself." Or maybe it would be better to say, "Know thyself" and, as Howard Stern's father always used to say to him, "Don't be stupid, you dummy" (which means, "Don't be a wiseass, Dumbass.")

• CalmingCo.com; Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Moon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Public Service Campaign and COMMENTARY

Fact Check: Did the Buddha use cannabis?

Alejandro (TheHighestCritic, 11/20/20); Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

This cartoonish Fat Happy Buddha is NOT the Buddha of history. He is a bodhisattva named Putai, Budai, or Hotei. He was a kind, jolly, overweight monk who gave candy to children from a bag.

.

Buzznik Alejandro over at TheHighestCritic.com has a question, which he has already answered quite sure that he's right.

Q: Did the Buddha Gautama use cannabis?

Let's examine this Q from the view of a pot leaf

According, to, like, some mystical sutra, Bro, you know, um, Siddhartha, who later became Buddha, used cannabis. He was all Buddhafied! But, check this out, NOT how you would think, not in the traditional sense.

I didn't use weed either. I was a good monk

It's said that prior to his Great Awakening [his Maha Bodhi, which means prior to when he was the Buddha, which means the "Awakened One"], Buddha Siddhartha lived on nothing but a single cannabis seed per day for SIX YEARS! 🤯

• It's a beautiful legend, and we hope it's true because raw hemp seeds are a superfood, a miracle, a health-wonder full of Omega 3, 6, and 9 essential fatty acids in balance, which is extraordinarily rare in nature. Everyone should eat raw hemp seeds every day. Put them in a blender with pure water, and it's an instant healthy white nut-milk with no other ingredients necessary.

What’s interesting about this, is that cannabis only receives slight reference in Buddhist legends even though it is rather significant to the religion.

• This is because it is not significant to the religion or the PRACTICE of the Ennobling (Enlightening) Eightfold Path the religion teaches. In fact, the only thing we can think of relating cannabis bud, flower, dab (hash exudations), or the plant as an entheogenic drug, has to do with Buddhism is that the Buddha was a Scythian (Shakyan) from neighboring Gandhara (now Afghanistan, nearby but not in magical Nepal, which is high in the Himalayas) from the foothills of the Hindu Kush, which is part of the Himalayan range, far to the west of Nepal. The Scythians were originally nomadic wandering in Central Asia before settling and adopting an agrarian way of life. They did not drink ordinary alcohol. They drank a special kind made of fermented mare's milk. A mare is a female horse, and the low-grade alcohol made from natural yeast falling on lactose and souring it makes a kind of less addictive alcohol than toxic grain-based alcohol. The Scythians had a drink called soma (haoma) into which they put cannabis to make a kind of mundane ambrosia (amrita). Some may have been a general name because the real stuff seems to have been the entheogen blue lotus, a DMT-type substance also popular in ancient Egypt. It's hard to imagine that Siddhartha, a prince of a Scythian group called the Sakas raised watching dancing girls and musicians, would never have tried it. Cannabis grows wild throughout the foothills, where it originated as a plant.

Prince Sidhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha Gautama, lived in Lumbini in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal, a region that’s rich in cultivated and naturally occurring Cannabis indica known as Nepali Indica.

• Prince Sid, who became "The Buddha" by virtue of his spiritual awakening at the age of 35 after six or seven years of intensive endeavor on his quest to discover why we suffer and what can be done about it, was born in Lumbini Garden but he never lived there. He was raised in Kapilavastu (which Dr. Ranajit Pal has demonstrated must have been in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, and its environs, which we feel safe to speculate were Mes Aynak and Kabul (Kabil, Kapil, Kapilavastu) because he lived in three different places, three seasonal capitals that relocated by season, hot, cold, and rainy. He awoke to the Truth. There is no record of him smoking or consuming cannabis to get high or anything else. If the seed was eaten as a food, he might have eaten it but only if it were provided to him as he was a wandering ascetic living on alms, having gone East to proto-India, just south of Nepal, in his pursuit of enlightenment.

As the story goes, Siddhartha the wandering ascetic (doing tapas or extreme austerities and self-mortifications as misguided penance to compensate for this anti-spiritual body, a common practice among yogis) became so weak because of excessive fasting, that he resumed eating because a woman named Sujata and her maid offered him food.

He recovered his strength and realized the body is not a hindrance to spirituality. In fact, it can be a vehicle to it. His strength and health regained, he began his legendary meditation under the Bodhi tree. 

• It is called the Bodhi tree because bodhi means "enlightenment" or "awakening." Prior to his great awakening, it was not called that. The tree (Ficus religiosa, a giant pipal tree, which is like a banyan) drops tons of fruit, small figs that are not eaten (and who knows why because they are delicious and nutritious) except as a resource during famine. Religious studies teachers in the US note that the chemical composition of these figs is one molecule different from acid, LSD. The implication being, Wouldn't he have eaten these under that tree and otherwise fasting because he was not getting up to go on alms. And though no one was offering this food, the Tree was. He called on the Earth, in the earth-witnessing mudra, to vouch for him. We know trees have dryads. That's why he was fed by Sujata. She and her maid were making offerings to the tree spirit near their house as she wanted to get pregnant. She became pregnant, and this was the big offering in gratitude. Seeing him with his long hair, possibly in dreads from not washing it, they mistook him for spirit of the tree.

🧘‍♂️🌲 . . #Buddhism #enlightenment #nobleeightfoldpath #weedhistory #cannabislegends #buddha #buddhism #buddhabless #hemp #hempflower #hemplife #weed #cannabisheals #meditate #cannabiscommunity #weedstagram

Precept motivation: Don't touch alcohol (video)

Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Seth Auberon, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Stop drinking alcohol now: one of the most eye-opening motivational videos ever

(MotivationHub) Summer 2023: No More Alcohol Motivation Playlist Countless people -- including Dr. Jordan Peterson, Theo Von, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Mike Thurston, Tom Bilyeu, Andrew Kim, and Chris Williamson -- explain why we need to not touch alcohol.

Do no harm. Stay away from drinking.

Never mind that the historical Buddha pointed out that, karmically, it is a fundamental basis of being reborn on the human plane. Buddhist practitioners, to be virtuous, keep the fifth of the Five Precepts. It circles back to all of them. What a person normally wouldn't do -- kill, steal, cheat, deceive -- one does on account of intoxication. Therefore, the Buddha realized the harm in drinking (or any intoxicant). An intoxicant that "occasions heedlessness" (not heeding the precepts) is a harmful act (deed) from which to abstain. One wouldn't kill, but driving drunk one might. One wouldn't steal, but being stoned one might. One wouldn't cheat on a partner, but being tipsy... One wouldn't deceive others, but if one could just tie one on afterward, one sure might. One wouldn't keep getting high, but being high, one sure might. In the famous Sigalovada Sutra, the "Advice to Lay People Discourse" or "The Householder's Code of Discipline," the Buddha states it very clearly and gives reasons why. He is not setting forth how he wishes people to behave. He is revealing what karma (deeds) brings what results. Seeing hidden danger and great harm in these five things (and more), the Buddha warns against them. We can pick and choose, rationalize and make excuses -- that won't make any difference. The universe is not "punishing" us with consequences. It is merely following a natural law regarding the causes and conditions that support the fruition (phala) of resultants (vipaka). The deeds are laid down in the mind, and it is the mind that will elicit the appropriate effects in the future when karma ripens. As we have planted many, many seeds in doing a deed, so we will reap many, many results from that one deed. For happiness and benefit for a long, long time, don't touch alcohol.

• The fifth precept says avoid intoxicants (alcohol, drugs, etc.) [12, 13]. Early Buddhist Texts condemn alcohol, as do post-canonical Chinese Buddhist texts. More

IOAD 2023 (overdoseday.com)

"At least one in ten Americans meet the criteria for either alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence, which we now call 'alcohol use disorder'."

• International Overdose Awareness Day: August 31st (overdoseday.com)
• 'Biologically younger' people who defy their real age often have 5 things in common
• The Prose Bowl: A Night of Spoken Word with Get Lit | LAist

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Watch full interview with Dr. Chris Palmer on Tom Bilyeu, Health Theory: • Jack Canfield on How to Break an Addiction...

FACTS: Drinking about 3.5 drinks a day doubles or even triples risk of developing cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus. Drinking about 3.5 drinks a day increases risk of developing colorectal cancer and breast cancer by 1.5 times. Even moderate alcohol consumption has been linked to an approximate 30 to 50 percent increased risk of breast cancer. The less alcohol one drinks, the lower one's cancer risk. 

*Source: bit.ly/Factsonalcohol Know someone who could use this video? Share it with them.

I don't have a problem because I'm not sleeping in an alley. "Alcohol abuse disorder" my ass.

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