Psychoactive Plants in Tantric Buddhism.pdf

Psychoactive Plants

Cannabis and Datura Use in Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism

by R. C. Parker and Lux

This article represents a fairly

comprehensive survey of references to

datura and cannabis in Indo-Tibetan tantric

Buddhist texts that have been translated

into English. The online version includes

more Tibetan and Sanskrit transliterations,

links to referenced articles, and additional

related material. See Erowid.org/extracts/

n14/tantra. The authors wish to thank

Professor David B. Gray and Professor

Geoffrey Samuel for their encouragement

and many helpful suggestions.

Since the beginning of modern

discourse about psychedelics in American

intellectual culture, seminal authors have

noted parallels between psychedelic

experiences and contemplative practices of

Asia. In his 1954 essay The Doors

of Perception , Aldous Huxley

likened his experience of

mescaline to the insights

precipitated by yoga

and meditation. Author

R. Gordon Wasson went

further, arguing that some

spiritual disciplines of India

may be intended to evoke an

experience that was originally

entheogenic in nature. 1

By the late 1960s,

counterculture rhetoric

strongly associated

psychedelics

and Eastern

mysticism. Alan

Watts tackled

the topic in his

1962 book The

Joyous Cosmology ; Timothy Leary, Ram

Dass, and Ralph Metzner later wrote a

guide to psychedelic experiences based

on the fourteenth-century tantric manual

Bardo Thödol , the so-called Tibetan Book

of the Dead . 2

Psychedelic experience

and Eastern meditation

have become so intertwined

in Western culture that

their roots are difficult to

disentangle. Fortunately, in

recent years several thoughtful

book chapters and articles

have appeared examining the complex

relationship between the explosion of

psychedelic counterculture and the con-

temporaneous popularization of Buddhism

in the United States in the 1950s and

1960s. 3

Unfortunately, the history

of psychoactive plant use by

Buddhists inAsia has not been

addressed with comparable

rigor. Although interesting

speculative work has been

written on the subject, 4,5 a

focused analysis of explicit

textual evidence has not

been published. Over

the last few decades,

university religious

studies departments

have produced

translations

of Buddhist

tantric texts of

unprecedented

quality, providing ample material for an

examination of psychoactive plant use by

Buddhists in Asia. This article considers

some of the evidence with respect to tantric

Buddhism in India and Tibet, focusing on

the use of cannabis and datura.

Psychedelic experience and

Eastern meditation have become

so intertwined […] that their roots

are difficult to disentagle.

Tantric Buddhism

The term “tantra” refers to a great

many religious practices and beliefs.

It is so difficult to define, that some

religious historians argue the word has

little meaning other than to mark extreme

or taboo practices. 6 The Sanskrit word

and its Tibetan equivalent ( rgyud ) refer to

the texts that form the scriptural basis for

the religious movement, and also mean

“continuum” or “lineage”.

Despite the difficulty in pinning

down the term, different tantric lineages

generally share some characteristics.

Practices and scriptures are often secret,

with instructions given in private by

teachers to students with whom they

have consecrated a formal guru/disciple

relationship. Many tantric practices

must be authorized by empowerment

ceremonies, which sometimes last for

days or weeks and may carry lifelong

practice commitments as a condition of

receiving them.

Cakrasamvara , Tibet House Museum

Erowid Extracts — Number 14 / June 2008

in Tantric Buddhism

Most tantric scriptures are practice-

oriented texts associated with specific

deities. Tantric meditation and ritual

often involve complex visualizations of

these deities—so much so that the Tibetan

polymath Tsong Khapa (1357–1419)

proposed “deity yoga” as the defining

characteristic of tantra. 7 Many tantric

yogas are intended to elicit extraordinary

states of consciousness, including sexual

yoga with real or visualized partners and

energy yogas that manipulate body heat,

respiration, or dreaming.

The concept of tantra as a sex-positive

religion devoted to embracing the material

world is a modern construction that bears

little resemblance to the historical tantric

practices and beliefs of Asia. 8

Tantra began to take shape as a major

religious movement in India between the

sixth and ninth centuries CE. 9,10 Many

of the extant tantric texts were written in

these years and the movement reached a

peak that lasted several centuries. Most

tantras were composed in Sanskrit in

India and Central Asia, and many were

eventually exported to China and Tibet.

During 950–1200 CE, Tibet underwent

a period of upheaval followed by a

“renaissance”, in which the old Tibetan

empire collapsed and reorganized into

a society ruled by a complex network

of powerful clans and religious institu-

tions. 11 During this renaissance, enormous

resources and labor were devoted to

painstakingly translating Buddhist

scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan.

The Tibetan written language had been

developed during the seventh century by a

committee of religious scholars speciically

for the purpose of translating scriptures

from Sanskrit. 12 Many Buddhist tantras

that are lost in their original Sanskrit forms

still exist in the Tibetan scriptural canon.

contrast, tantric Buddhism can

allow for, and even applaud,

shocking transgressions as a sign

that the yogi has transcended

ordinary patterns of valuation

and behavior.

While non-tantric Buddhist

practice was overwhelmingly

the purview of ordained monks

and nuns in medieval India, the

täntrika , or practitioner of tantra,

was often a layperson.

A mainstay of tantric

literature is the siddha , a

sorcerer-like yogi who achieves

extraordinary powers such as

light or psychic abilities through

religious practice. Unlike the

introverted monk quietly seeking

liberation behind monastery

walls, the siddha expresses

spiritual attainment in the world.

In their biographies, tantric

siddha s often commit outrageous

acts of apparently reckless violence,

consumption of intoxicants, or sexual

conduct. 13 In one famous legend, the

guru Häòipä of the Näth siddha lineage

is said to have broken a ive-year fast

by consuming enormous quantities of

hemp, Strychnos nux-vomica ( Kucila , the

“strychnine tree”), and datura. 14

In addition to accommodating the use

of psychoactives, tantric texts sometimes

include encyclopedic instructions for

the use of medicinal plants. Ayurvedic

medicine and yoga are two important

antecedents to tantra, 9 and those disciplines

provide a template for simultaneously

developing both body and mind in the

service of liberation. 15 This

holistic approach to spiritual

practice is preserved in several

important Buddhist tantras

in which physical, mental,

and spiritual ailments form

a single complex of related

concerns that must be treated

in tandem. This approach is an easy

rhetorical it with pre-tantric Buddhist

scriptures, which sometimes describe

Buddha as a doctor and suffering as an

illness. 16 Consequently, some Buddhist

tantras include compendious information

about medicinal plants, including cannabis

and datura.

D. stramonium, Photo by Acidmon

Datura in Buddhist Tantra

Both Datura stramonium and Datura

metel are well-documented in India and

Tibet. In Sanskrit datura is known as

dhattüra , while in Tibetan the plant is da

dhu ra . Datura’s effects were described

in several ayurvedic materia medica .

It is mentioned in the Kämasütra (ca.

4th–6th century CE), which says: “If

food be mixed with the fruit of the thorn

apple (dathura) it causes intoxication”. 17

It also advises a man to anoint his penis

with honey infused with datura and long

peppers ( pippali = Piper lungum ) before

sexual intercourse to make his partner

“subject to his will”. 17

[…] tantric siddhas often commit

outrageous acts of apparently

reckless violence, consumption of

intoxicants, or sexual conduct.

Why Look to Tantra?

There are several reasons to look to

tantra for psychoactive substance use in

pre-modern Buddhist Asia. The irst and

most important is that non-tantric monastic

Buddhism is far less tolerant of violations of

scriptural precepts than tantric Buddhism.

Buddha’s injunction against consuming

intoxicants precludes the open use of

psychoactive substances by members of

the Buddhist monastic establishment. In

Datura is associated with several

Hindu and Buddhist deities. Vämana

Puräëa , a pre-modern devotional text

dedicated to Vishnu (date unknown), tells

that datura sprouted from the chest of the

god Çiva. 18 Its lowers are sometimes used

as ceremonial offerings—a practice that

continues to this day in Nepal. 18 Wrathful

Erowid Extracts — Number 14 / June 2008

deities in tantric Buddhism are said to be

fond of datura, 19 which is sometimes used

as a ritual offering to placate these deities. 19

References to datura in the pre-eleventh

century Vajramahabhairava Tantra have

been used to argue on behalf of an Old

World origin of Datura metel . 20

to cause enemies to go insane, to destroy

their wealth, or to drive them away.

The Guhyasamäja Tantra (ca. 8th

century CE) is generally considered one

of the earliest extant Buddhist tantras. 6

This key scripture describes the basic

architecture of tantric practice and is

venerated by several schools

of Tibetan Buddhism—

particularly the Gelukpas, who

take it as the central tantra. 23

In the Guhyasamäja Tantra ,

Buddha Vajradhara gives

instructions for undertaking

the destruction of evil-doers:

( Azadirachta indica ) and Datura juice

using a pen made from a raven feather or

from human bone.” 20

This tantra also provides instructions

for using the ash of datura wood to

magically break a relationship between a

man and woman, or to drive people away. 20

Datura fruit may be used in magical rituals

to drive an enemy insane:

This compound “becomes an

ointment for the eyes. After

applying it one revolves around

and around like a bee.”

[…The practitioner] takes Datura

fruit and, mixing it with human

flesh and worm-eaten sawdust,

offers it in food or drink. He recites

the mantra and that person will

instantly go insane and then die

within seven days. 20

The psychoactive effects of datura

have long been recognized in Tibet. The

religious author Sachen Kunga Nyingpo

(1092–1158) used the effects of datura to

illustrate how our senses can be distorted,

writing: “When datura […] is eaten,

appearances manifest as yellow.” 21 The

third Dodrup Chen Rinpoche (1865–1926),

a Tibetan scholar-yogi, compares a cryptic

“nectar rendering liberation” to the power

of datura. He writes, “[I]f one takes

the nectar by itself the [subtle body]

will receive blessings spontaneously

and excellent accomplishments will be

achieved, like being intoxicated by alcohol

[…] and being deluded with visions by

Datura or thorn apple[…]”. 22

Datura intoxication may have been

widespread in siddha culture. In Indian

Esoteric Buddhism , Ronald M. Davidson

observes:

[M]aking an image of the enemy

with the excrement and urine of

those who follow the great Dharma,

wrathfully burn it in a fire of

thorn-wood, and even the Buddha

will certainly perish. […] So he

said black mustard-seeds, salt, oil,

poison, and thorn-apple [datura],

these are taught as the supreme

destroyers of all the Buddhas. 24

and to destroy wealth:

Then if, wanting to turn wealth into

poverty, [he] performs a hundred

and eight burnt offerings at night in

a ire of cotton using Datura fruit,

(that wealth) will indeed become

triling. 20

Datura was sometimes included

in ritual fire offerings that may have

produced psychoactive smoke. A

key eleventh century commentary on

the Kälachakra Tantra by Puëòaréka

describes: “When the oblation

is offered in the octagonal pot, [on

a fire made with arka faggots, with

thorn-apples [datura] and kusumadyas

offered into the fire, it accomplishes

stupefactions [of the enemy] […]”. 26

Arka has been identiied as milkweed and

kusumadyas as Assyrian

plum.

Similarly, the Cakrasamvara Tantra

(ca. late 8th century CE) is highly

venerated in Tibet to this day. It states:

“Should the well-equipoised one immolate

mustard oil with crows’ wings and [the

victim’s name] in a datura ire, he will

immediately be expelled or killed.” 25

The Cakrasamvara Tantra also tells

that a täntrika can drive an enemy insane

using magical implements, including a

charnel ground cloth bound around the “ive

intoxicants”. The Tibetan commentator

Budön Rinchen Drup explains that “ive

intoxicants” refers to the root, stem, leaves,

lower, and fruit of the datura plant 25 —all of

which contain psychoactive alkaloids. 18 In

another reference to datura, the tantra claims

that immolating “one hundred and eight

golden fruits” ( kanakaphala , explicated as

“datura fruit” by the commentator

Jayabhadra) will allow one to

become insubstantial. 25

The Vajramahabhairava

Tantra (ca. 10th century CE) contains

instructions for killing an enemy saying

that the practitioner should perform a rite:

“naked, with disheveled hair and facing

south, draw the sixteen-section wheel of

Vajramahabhairava […] on a shroud in

venom, blood, salt, black mustard, nimba

[M]any of the siddha scriptures

discuss ointments and drugs,

especially those applied to the

eyes or feet. The use of the various

species of datura (especially

[ Datura metel ]) is particularly

evident. Sometimes termed the

“crazy datura” ( unmattadhattura )

or “ Çiva ’s datura,” it was generally

employed as a narcotic paste or as

wood in a ire ceremony and could

be easily absorbed through the skin

or the lungs. 10

The use of datura in various rites is

prescribed by a number of seminal tantras

that exerted a profound inluence on Indian

and Tibetan religious culture. Most of

the known datura references pertain to

magico-religious rites of attack intended

Cannabis Leaf, Image by Tganja

Erowid Extracts — Number 14 / June 2008

The Mahäkäla Tantra (ca. 8th–12th

century CE) contains extensive materia

medica and magical instructions. In

chapter twelve, “On Ointments”, it

instructs practitioners to harvest datura

and two other plants, and mix them with

the bile of a black cat and honey. This

compound “becomes an ointment for

the eyes. After applying it one revolves

around and around like a bee.” 16

In a similar vein, tantra historian

Ronald Davidson notes that the use

of datura in tantric rituals “may have

something to do with the siddha fascination

with lying or perhaps inform[s] their

iconography, for a common report from

the use of datura is the sensation of aerial

transport or the feeling of being half-man

and half-animal.” 10

The Mahäkäla Tantra also offers

instructions to find lost treasure by

creating a magical pill that includes

datura:

Cannabis Drawing, from Marijuana Medicine by Rätsch

Perhaps the earliest-known literary

reference to cannabis appears in the Hindu

scripture Satapatha Brahmana (ca. 800

BCE). 28 Cannabis also appears in an early

medicinal work, the Sushruta Samhita

(written sometime between 400 BCE and

600 CE) as an antiphlegmatic. 27 In early

works of Ayurveda, cannabis is said to

“increase gastric ire”, i.e., digestion and

appetite. 27 Vaìgasena’s Compendium

of the Essence of Medicine , an eleventh-

century Bengali medicinal text, describes

cannabis ( bhanga ) as “a drug like opium”

and prescribes it as a medicine to enhance

longevity. 29

Like datura, cannabis has been

prominently associated with the Hindu

god Çiva since ancient times. Cannabis

plays an important role in some Hindu

tantra lineages, where it may have been

used during tantric rites

to help adepts overcome

their aversions to

taboo-breaking religious

practices. 29,30 In the

Mahäyäna tradition,

Buddha is said to have

subsisted for six years of ascetic practice

on nothing but hemp seeds. 31

Tantra scholar David Gordon White

notes that cannabis use was a widespread

part of the influential Näth siddha

lineage. 9 Additionally, he notes that in

the Buddhist Tärä Tantra , cannabis is

“essential to ecstasy”. 9 In that tantra,

Buddha says that drinking wine without

having consumed cannabis “cannot

produce real ecstasy”. 32 In this context

“ecstasy” is a technical term describing the

experience of bliss caused by particular

yogic achievements, and an important

step in becoming enlightened.

Cannabis serves a magico-medic-

inal function in several major tantras.

Including its datura references described

above, much of the Mahäkäla Tantra

concerns the search for the “perfect

medicine”, a psycho-spiritual elixir that

will transform the body and mind in the

service of liberation. 17 This lineage extols

the use of medicinal herbs ( ausadhi ) to

achieve “attainments” or “powers”.

Forty-two of the Mahäkäla Tantra ’s

ifty chapters include formulas for using

medicinal plants, and many of these

After having ground the following

medicines one should make pills:

the seed grain of khoòiyä , the seed

of sesbania, the juice of the leaf of

the waved-leaf ig tree, the juice of

Villarsia cristata , the powder of

the regurgitation of cow, the juice

of Çiva ’s intoxicant [= datura], the

juice of the root of the wormseed

and onion leaf together with the

bile of a snake and honey which

has been kept under the ground.

When two days [have] gone by, at

a cool time (of the day) one should

anoint (the eyes) and one will see

a hole in the ground. 16

The fourth chapter of Kåñëa-yämari

(ca. 10th century) gives instructions for

a wrathful ritual visualization in which

the yogi makes “the index inger red with

the resins from the thorn-apple leaves and

also the seeds of [datura]”. 26

Like datura, cannabis has been

prominently associated with the Hindu

god Shiva since ancient times.

Cannabis in Buddhist Tantra

Like datura, cannabis has a long

history in Asia. Scholars have argued that

cannabis may have been irst cultivated in

China in Neolithic times 27 and the plant

has been well-known throughout India,

Nepal, and Tibet for millennia. Cannabis

is referred to in the Vedas as “source of

happiness” and “liberator”. 27

plants are psychoactive. A partial list

includes plants that have been identiied as

Acorus calamus , Areca catechu , Artemisia

spp., Cannabis sativa , Cinnamomum

camphora , Datura metel , Myristica

fragrans , Nelumbo nucifera , Peganum

harmala , and Valeriana wallichii . The

plants are employed to attain health,

Erowid Extracts — Number 14 / June 2008

Cannabis & Sexual Tantra

Discussion

While ample textual evidence

exists to establish that cannabis

and datura have appeared in some

Buddhist tantras, the relative

importance placed on psychoactive

plants in Buddhism remains an

open question. In his discussion

of psychoactive plants in the

Mahäkäla Tantra , William George

Stablein argues that the use of

psychoactive plants in Buddhism

may constitute an entheogenic

tradition, writing:

noting that Gustav Schenk described

experiencing profound psychoactive

effects after inhaling smoke from an

unknown number of henbane seeds, which

contain some of the same psychoactive

alkaloids as datura, although in lesser

concentrations. 33 Schenk also describes

datura smoke as psychoactive . 33

There is textual evidence that datura’s

psychoactive effects may have played a

part in some tantric rituals. The Mahäkäla

Tantra says the yogi who applies a datura

ointment will “revolve like a bee”. Parts

of the datura plant are referred to in

the Cakrasamvara Tantra as “the five

intoxicants”. The Vajramahabhairava

Tantra may be saying that if you put datura

in someone’s food, they will go insane.

Were psychoactive plants regarded

as helpful for achieving liberation? The

Tärä Tantra seems to say so; the scripture

quotes Buddha as saying that wine without

cannabis will not produce “ecstasy”,

a key attainment in the technique of

subtle energy yoga that it describes . 9,32

However, the Tärä Tantra is a relatively

minor scripture and did not exert a strong

inluence on Buddhist religious culture.

The value placed on psychoactive

plants is less clear in the more important

tantras. The datura references found in the

Guhyasamäja and Cakrasamvara Tantras

pertain to magico-religious rites that may

be useful, but would probably not be

considered essential to the attainment of

liberation by most Buddhists.

Geoffrey Samuel, author of several

books and essays on Buddhist religious

culture, suggests that the use of psychoactive

plants in the Indian siddha cultural milieu

may have been similar to current use

observed among modern itinerant ascetics

( sadhus ) in Asia . 34 Such use has been

documented throughout the Himalayas,

where the plants are consumed by sadhus

for a variety of goals, including healing,

recreation, and yoga. 35 Given its large

number of applications, it may indeed be

that cannabis was regarded by sadhus and

siddhas of medieval India as a useful tool.

The Stablein thesis that a strong

parallel exists between psychoactive

plant use in Tibet and in New World

entheo-shamanism, however, appears to

go beyond the available evidence. While

psychoactive plants appear in Tibetan

Anthropologist Christian Rätsch has

argued that cannabis is used in tantric

sexual yoga, pointing out centuries of

belief about its sexual effects in Asia. 27,28

However, because Rätsch focuses on

the Hindu/Buddhist syncretic tantric

culture of Nepal, relying on Hindu

sources for textual support, 36 the

relevance of his indings to historical

Buddhist tantra is unclear.

To the extent that the

[ Mahäkäla Tantra ] speaks

for itself it is clear that what we

are calling Tantric medicine

includes pharmacologically

induced experiences that could

indeed be called religious.

This may indicate a unique

transmission of Buddhist

Tantra that is not unlike the

psychedelic phenomenon in

the New World shamanism

and the Vedic rite. 16

wealth, wisdom, and supernatural powers

such as seeing underground and lying.

These formulas include cannabis in

several different forms, including leaves,

resin, and other plant material. 17 Given

that these cannabis products are included

in the “perfect medicine” formulas of the

Mahäkäla Tantra , cannabis may perhaps

be considered a signiicant part of this

tantric lineage.

The Cakrasamvara Tantra (described

While it is natural to assume that any

ritual involving datura or cannabis would

capitalize on the plants’ psychoactivity,

both plants were associated with important

deities for many centuries before any

tantras were written. They may have

been valued for their symbolic importance

rather than for their effects.

In the case of datura, many of the

references do not clearly

direct the yogi to ingest the

plant material. For example,

the Guhyasamäja Tantra ,

the Cakrasamvara Tantra ,

and the Vimalaprabhä of

Puëòaréka tell that datura

is to be burned. While it is possible

that the smoke from such a ire would

be psychoactive if inhaled, it may not

have been part of the ritual to inhale the

smoke.

Ronald Davidson claims that the

smoke of datura ire offerings was indeed

psychoactive, saying datura “was generally

employed as a narcotic paste or as wood

in a ire ceremony and could be easily

absorbed through the skin or the lungs.” 10

In support of this position, it is worth

[…] Buddha says that drinking wine

without having consumed cannabis

“cannot produce real ecstasy”.

in the datura section above) also

emphasizes the magico-medical role

of cannabis, stating that a mixture of

compounds including cannabis will help

one “become a yogin who does what he

pleases and stays anywhere whatsoever.” 25

The translator notes that all the plants in

this recipe are edible, and this formula

may therefore refer to the preparation of

material for oral consumption, possibly

as “ siddhi -pills”.

Erowid Extracts — Number 14 / June 2008

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