Special Medicine and Big Business

I was just reading my friend Brad Warner's Blog post on Mountain of Drugs and it reminded me of a story from Dropping Ashes on the Buddha. Zen Master Seung Sahn was often asked about the helpfulness of taking drugs and once a few of the students in Provide normally nce convinced him to drop acid (take LSD) with them. They said he seemed to act through the whole experience while they were swinging wildly through the cacauphany of their own experiences. The next day, when asked what he thought about the experience, he merely said, "Yes, this is very interesting, however taking more than one time is not necessary as you already know the experience."

From Dropping Ashes on the Buddha by Seung Sahn Grove Press 841 Broadway NY NY 10003 LC: 75-37236 ISBN: 0-8021-3052-6

One spring afternoon, three students were having tea in Seung Sahn Soen-sa's room at the Providence Zen Center. One student said to Soen-sa, "Many people have come to Zen as a result of their experience with psychedelics, or 'special medicine,' as you call it. Is taking psychedelics good or bad?"

Soen-sa said, "The question of good or bad is not important. It is neither good nor bad. What is important is why they take this medicine. Do you understand?"

Another student said, "What do you mean by good and bad?"

Soen-sa said, "Taking the medicine in order to understand is good. Taking the medicine because of the good feelings it gives you is not so good."

"Then it's possible to come to an understanding through special medicine?"

"It is possible. Many people are attached to name and form. They take this medicine and for five or ten hours it is the same as death. They have no hindrance from their body and their body's desires. It is like a dream. There is only the free action of their consciousness, the free play of the Karma I. So they understand that all life is empty. Life is death; death is life. They understand very clearly that fighting and differences among people are unnecessary, are just the result of wrong thinking. They no longer desire to be rich or successful. Rich or poor, success or failure--it is all the same. It comes to the same thing when you are dead."

The first student said, "You've just convinced me to take special medicine twice a day!"

Soen-sa said, "Taking it once or twice can be very helpful. But taking it more often is dangerous. It is very easy to become attached to special medicine. You are already a Zen student. So you already understand that life is empty; you understand what the true way is. When your body is sick, it is sometimes necessary to take a strong drug. But when you are healthy, you don't take drugs. So this special medicine cures some sickness, but it creates other sicknesses. After you take it, you have many attachments. You don't feel like working. You don't want money. You only want to relax or work in the garden or listen to music or enjoy art."

"Not make money? Heaven forbid!"

"This is an attachment to natural-style or hippie-style living. It is no good for a Zen