A second set of links, linking cannabis with ritual, sadhana and tantra.
http://www.changetheclimate.org/news/sex.php Advanced Tantra marijuana rituals were intense, complex and difficult. Researchers have uncovered sacred texts describing cannabis rituals, but doubt that modern Tantra practitioners still engage in such activities. *** VAJ, do you know what this is referring to? Tantra cannabis rituals date back at least to 700 AD, and involved groups of "purified" male and female worshippers who engaged in fasting, chanting, prayer, ceremonial purifications, Kundalini yoga, and sexual union, subjecting body and spirit to excruciating and ecstatic ordeals. Concentration, consecration and transformation were the goals of such rituals, which were conducted in temples festooned with thousands of flowers, clouds of incense smoke, and flickering temple lamps. http://www.entheogen.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=3978.html In Plants of the Gods (2nd edition), it is stated that in "Tantric Buddism of the HImalayas of Tibet, Cannabis plays a very significant role in teh meditative ritual used to facilitate deep meditation and heighten awareness," (97-8). http://www.changetheclimate.org/news/sex.php After fasting and purging for at least 24 hours, Tantric celebrants ingested bhang, accompanied by deep abdominal breathing and visual imaging exercises. These exercises free blocked energy, tonify muscles and blood flow, and facilitate the power and onset of cannabis intoxication, which usually occurs within an hour of swallowing the spicy, potent libation. An anthropologist notes that cannabis religions recognize the metaphysical potential of the female cannabis plant. "Cultures with sacred cannabis use tend to be cultures which recognize the 'goddess'. That could mean mother earth, yin, or female beauty and virtues. People who bring marijuana inside themselves are engaging in a type of sexual union with the plant. It is a very sexual act to have a molecule of THC implant itself into your brain. "Since cannabis is associated with female dieties like Kali, we could say that when you use marijuana sexually, you are bringing a very special 'woman' into your bed. Make sure you're ready for that relationship." Similarly, in Marijuana Medicine by Ratsch, we find that "in Tantric Buddhism, psychoactive hemp drinks ocntinue to be used when medetating on the cosmic union of Buddha and his shakti as well as for the actual physical union between temple servants and priests (cf. Grieder 1990:152ff.). Here, the aphrodisiac hemp is regarded as the "food of Kundalini," the female subtle creative erngy that transforms sexual energy into a spiritual experience. THe drink is consumed 1.5 hours prior to meditation for the yab/yum ritual so that hte culmination of its effects occurs at the beginning of the spiritual or physical activity. When used in this manner, hemp increases meditative concentration, improves attentiveness to the ceremony, and stimulates sexuality (Aldrich 1977; Touw 1981)," (45-6). http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:vxGfLrKXiFkJ:www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/history/first12000/1ref.htm+bhang+OR+charas+OR+cannabis+%2Btantra&hl=en&client=firefox-a In his Dictionary of Assyrian Botany (p. 220), Campbell identified the Sumerian term a-zal-la and the Akkadian term azulla as cannabis on the basis of their similarities to the Syrian azal, meaning "to spin". Campbell also took the Assyrian word gurgurangu as another reference to cannabis because of its similarity to garganinj, the Persian word for cannabis. Building on these similarities, Campbell then identified the Sumerian drug gan-zi-gun-na as hashish [literally, a robber (gan) who spins away (gun-nu) the soul (zi)]. Campbell also felt that the similarity between gan-zi and the Hindu word qanjha also supports his arguments. However, in a later discussion of this issue (p. 229), he acknowledges the possibility that the Sumerian and Akkadian words he tentatively identified as hashish could just as likely be words denoting narcotics in general and opium specifically. A letter written around 680 B.C. by an unknown woman to the mother of the Assyrian king, Esarhaddon, mentions a substance called qu-nu-bu which also may have been cannabis, but again there is no certainty for this identification. Cf. L. Waterman, Royal Correspondence of the Assyrian Empire (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1930), letter 368. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
