Marijuana vs Medition

I’ve been off and on with meditation roughly as long as I’ve been off and with Aunt Mary—since high school.

For the last three years,
I’ve held (more or less) a daily commitment to meditation. And you know what that means—everything in my life is having a light shined on it.

That’s the problem with meditation—you are less able to litter your life with lies and half-truths. No more excuses mates. You begin to face the accumulated dragons in the corner. So marijuana is getting has been getting a close look at lately. Questions are being asked, “Why do I use this? What do I get out of toking the sweet herb? Is it a good thing or a bad thing for me? What is good, what is bad? What’s behind our labeling. When do I go right with smoking weed and where do I go wrong?”

Does Marijuana Nullify Some the Meditation High?

My friend Amy once put it this way, “After I smoke it’s like I need meditation to get back to the place meditation takes me. But if I meditate when I wake up and before I go to bed, I feel great. I don’t need weed.”

Cartman once put it this way—in God knows what episode. I paraphrase: “Marijauna won’t make you go crazy. Buying it doesn’t support terrorism. But the problem is that when you smoke it you’re okay with being bored. And it’s when you’re bored that you should be learning a new skill. And if smoke all the time you’ll always be okay with being bored. And if you’re always okay with being bored, you’ll never be bettering yourself.”

In esoteric yoga terminology marijuana is a third eye chakra activator—that’s where all that novel thinking comes from. It activateds the third eye but deactivates anahata, the heart chakra—so where is the love Bob Marley? I feel this. I tend to give less of a shit about others when I smoke. And sometimes I need that. . .

Weed for Creativity

I smoke marijuana for creative purposes. At heart, I have the disposition of an artist. As a writer, my tools are my ideas. And marijuana produces an abundance of ideas that I am excited about. Which if you your yoga concepts makes sense—as it’s activating ajna or third-eye chakra.

I also smoke marijuana when I am low to numb me until the smiles return to Happyland. Sometimes I smoke because everyone else is drinking and I don’t drink. Or to go on hikes because, marijuana—nature—it’s a thing. Other times I smoke times in the morning, because. . . Wake and bake . . . I’m a freelance writer . . . I can do what I want and some days I want to smoke weed!”

So as you can see, sometimes I can go overboard with weed. I’m Irish . . . If I don’t keep an eye on it and consciously keep myself from getting carried away with weed, my use of the chronic shit veers towards chronic. And when I smoke weed all the time, I tend to miss out on enjoying everything else I love about life—which is missing out on a lock. So I need to stay careful, open, and honest with myself.

What has Meditation Shown me about my Marijuana Use?

While smoking weed may eventually fade out as meditative in my life deepens, I’m keeping it around for now as the intoxicant I allow myself. I’m committed to my meditation, but I’m still human and plan to have a blast in this video game called life.

Sometimes the mind’s self-judgement can be worse that what its judging.

I’ve gone within and learned what’s worse than doing anything is the way I can punish myself in my thoughts for having done it. Maybe it’s a raised Catholic thing. Perhaps it’s a human thing.

So what meditation has ultimately taught me about weed is that chronic use of any mind altering herb is something to really look at.

And Amy was right—when I’m holding strong with a day and evening meditation practice with some yoga sprinkles in between, I’m not as jonesy about smoking weed. It is less of something I feel “need”, and more of something great I enjoy in moderation.