then can LSD be a help.
In the West there are no
practices to purify the
body or to increase
consciousness through
changes in body
chemistry. Acid is taken
without any preparation
in the West. It is not going
to help; rather, on the
contrary, it may destroy
the whole mind.
There are many problems.
Once you have been on an
LSD trip you have a
glimpse of something you
have never known,
something you have never
felt. If you begin to
practice meditation it is a
long process, but LSD is
not a process. You take it
and the process is over;
then the body begins to
work. Meditation is a long
process -- you have to do
it for years, only then will
the results be
forthcoming. And when
you have experienced a
shortcut, it will be difficult
to follow a long process.
The mind will crave to
return to use the drugs. So
it is difficult to meditate
once you have known a
glimpse through
chemistry; to undertake
something that is a long
process will be difficult.
Meditation needs more
stamina, more trust, more
waiting, and it will be
difficult because now you
can compare.
Secondly, any method is
bad if you are not in control
all the time. When you are
meditating you can stop at
any moment. If you want to
stop, you can stop this very
moment; you can come out
of it. You cannot stop an
LSD trip: once you have
taken LSD you have to
complete the circle. Now
you are not the master.
Anything that makes a slave
of you is ultimately not
going to help spiritually,
because spirituality
basically means to be the
master of oneself. So I
wouldn't suggest shortcuts.
I am not against LSD, I may
sometimes be for it, but
then a long preliminary
preparation is necessary.
Then you will be the
master. But then LSD is not
a shortcut. It will take even
longer than meditation.
Hatha yoga takes years to
prepare a body -- twenty
years, twenty five years,
then a body is ready; now
you can use any chemical
help and it will not be
destructive to your being.
But then the process is far
longer.
Then LSD can be used; I am
in favor of it then. If you are
prepared to take twenty
years to prepare the body in
order to take LSD, then it is
not destructive. But the
same thing can be done in
two years with meditation.
Because the body is grosser,
mastery is more difficult. The
mind is more subtle so
mastery is easier. The body is
further away from your
being, so there is a greater
gap; with the mind the gap is
shorter.
In India the primitive method
to prepare the body to be
ready for meditation was
hatha yoga. It took so long a
time to prepare the body
that sometimes hatha yoga
had to invent methods to
prolong life so that hatha
yoga could be continued.
It was such a long process
that sixty years might not be
enough, seventy years might
not be enough. And there is
a problem: if the mastery is
not achieved in this life then
in the next life you have to
begin from abc because you
have a new body. The whole
effort has been lost. You do
not have a new mind in your
next life, the old mind
continues, so whatever is
attained through the mind
remains with you, but
whatever is attained through