Transcendental Toking: Here’s How To Combine Meditation And Marijuana

By Daniel Dharma | Published: August 9, 2017

In today’s busy, often-frustrating world, it’s sweet to have a place of refuge where you enjoy peace, quiet, and a sense of safety. For many of us, getting high on marijuana is a way to find that quiet, safe, kind place.

Meditation is another method of finding inner peace and connecting with good feelings. What is meditation? Putting it simply, it’s a practice of clearing and managing your mind.

Meditation, often known as mindfulness meditation, comes from ancient Indian spiritual traditions and has grown considerably in popularity in Western countries since its introduction in the 1800s.

According to a report last year in Fortune magazine, the mindfulness and meditation industry is worth $1 billion.

Long thought to be the sole domain of New Age hippies and Sting, companies hire meditation trainers to help employees learn mindfulness and find inner peace, which helps them be better, happier, more productive workers.

Meditation chaplains go to prisons, and studies show that prisoners who become meditators do far better in prison and are less likely to reoffend once released.

Types And Benefits Of Meditation

There are several different forms of meditation. Some forms rely on silent or verbal repetition of a mantra — a word or sound.

Others rely on focusing your attention on breathing or on an external object (such as a candle and its flame, or a Buddha statue).

Other forms of meditation involve focusing on a concept such as mettā, which is defined as compassion and love for all living beings.

No matter the meditation type, the practice’s primary goal is to decrease and end the relentless flow of word thoughts in the mind.

Most of us are sometimes overwhelmed by that constant stream of ideas, worries, and other mental formations that dominate our conscious mind. An experienced meditator can totally quiet their mind to achieve a mental state called bare awareness.

In bare awareness, your mind is awake and alert. You hear, see, and feel your own existence and the world around you more deeply than usual.

In a meditative bare awareness state of mind, you’re liberated from word thoughts, inner dialogue, worries — the arguing lawyers in your head. Meditators call this a state of no thought.

In Buddhism and other traditions, deep meditation is a portal to altered states of consciousness in which you experience the universe as a unified whole. In meditation’s pure stillness, you find peace, relief, and clarity that transcends normal consciousness.

You may also find insights into pain, worry, stress, confusion, fear, physical injuries, and other issues buried by thought patterns and distractions.

But that’s not all you find — clinical studies show meditation has medical and psychological benefits. These can include:

Lower blood pressure
Pain relief
Better sleep
Improved mood
Improved healing from surgery and injuries
Anti-aging properties
Better coping mechanisms
Improved immune system
Relief from anxiety, depression and other psychological issues
Improved cognitive function

For more information about the clinically proven benefits of meditation, check out this page from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.

Marijuana And Meditation Together

Meditation is an inner place of refuge, quietness, and good feeling in an often harsh world. Many of us use marijuana to find a similar place of quiet, peace and refuge.

In fact, some physiological and psychological mechanisms and medical benefits of meditation overlap with those found via marijuana use.

Brain studies show that marijuana and meditation have similar effects on brain sub-areas responsible for empathy, memory and relaxation.

Most of us notice that our word thoughts slow down when we’re stoned on hybrid, Kush or Indica cannabis.

We may have trouble putting a sentence together. Sometimes it’s difficult to speak in complex, coherent sentences. The stoned mind becomes less noisy and busy. These mind-altering effects are among the main reasons people get high with Indica, Kush and hybrid marijuana genetics.

On the other hand, if your hybrid marijuana has a significant percentage of Sativa genetics, or if you’re using a Sativa-dominant or pure Sativa strain, your cannabis high will likely increase the amount of thoughts in your head.

Many of us have experienced racing thoughts (even paranoia) when using Sativa marijuana.

This brings up the option of using marijuana to enhance or at least facilitate a meditative state.

Before I became a meditator, there were dozens of times when I was super stoned on cannabis (especially medibles), and found myself in a transcendent mental state.

Buddhist meditation teachers tell me that one of the foundational Buddhist precepts is to not use intoxicants of any kind. But this isn’t as clear-cut as it seems. Their definition of intoxicants isn’t the standard drugs and alcohol definition.

Instead, they say that the original Buddhist teachings define intoxicant as anything that takes over the mind so you lose control of your thoughts, will and feelings.

Lust, sexual activity, video games, violent entertainment, extreme sports, mind-altering chemicals (including legal pharmaceuticals), can all be considered “intoxicating.”

On the other hand, cannabis is linked to meditation and yoga in India, where meditation originated.

For centuries, cannabis has been an ingredient of a prepared drink in India called bhang, which contains dairy fat, nutmeg, cardamom, calamus, fruit and cannabis. When ingested, it creates a deep, meditative state that facilitates yoga, prayer and other spiritual endeavors.

Cannabis yogis have long been famous in Indian religious tradition. As you can see in the two cannabis anthropology books featured in this Big Buds article, humans have often used cannabis for spiritual purposes.

I also suggest you read Secret Drugs of Buddhism by Mike Crowley, which explains the links between cannabis, Buddhism and spiritual development.

And this YouTube video shows you how to meditate.

How To Ruminate On Reefer

Here’s how to get the most from combining meditation and cannabis:

Learn how to meditate sober before you start meditating high.
When you’re able to meditate well without cannabis, cautiously introduce it into your meditation practice.
Use heavy Indica and Kush genetics that slow down your mind, get rid of pain and relax your body.
Compare your meditation experience stoned and unstoned.
Avoid relying on cannabis to meditate.
Seek out a qualified meditation teacher.
Have a quiet, secluded, comfortable, undisturbed place for your meditation.
A meditation cushion helps you sit properly with the correct posture.
Meditate as soon as you wake, and just before you sleep, for at least 20 minutes each time. The longer you meditate, the more benefits you’ll receive.