The Far Off Land An attempt at a philosophical evaluation of the hallucinogenic drug experience. By Dr. Eugene Seaich
Perhaps the most remarkable property of mescaline and LSD is
their ability to compress into an afternoon the result of manyyears’ experience. Our entire development may be retraced in theretrospect of a few hours; indeed, one may witness the dramatizationin a period of minutes of certain processes of racial consciousness,which have extended over millennia.Medieval mystics often spoke of the Dark Night of the Soul,which preceded the entry into the Unio Mystica. This climax to along struggle with the self was a period of utter despair that finallydestroyed the tyrannical ego through its own torment. When thepain of protracted suffering completely disrupted the mechanism ofanxiety, there followed the blessed miracle of simple resignation; forthe first time in years, the cleansed soul gazed upon primal reality,shining again with its own pristine radiance, free once more from thepainful reflection of the exaggerated self.It was only after passing several times through the hallucinogenicallegory of the human purgatorial, and reawakening into the bliss ofa newborn world, that I realized the obvious similarity between thisrelease from bondage and the psychology of Nirvana. As understoodby the West, the “extinguishing of the flame” generally impliesa negativistic escape from earthly things, but as understood byMahayana Buddhism, especially those schools that flourished in theanimistic soil of Japan and China, Nirvana is the ultimate glorificationof the natural and the concrete. We have already referred to certaindifferences between nirvana and sangsaric life, which emphasized the
desirability of freedom from egoistic anxiety; we must now point outthe profound connections between this ancient wisdom of humanexperience and the state presently unfolding in our symbolic dramaof spiritual evolution.The Chinese philosopher, Ch’ing Yuan, once stated that we firstsee mountains as mountains and waters as waters; with increasingsophistication, we decide that mountains are only perceptual images,and waters, only fleeting, sensory illusions. With full enlightenment,however, mountains are once again mountains, and waters, justwaters, for “all manifestations and feelings are identical with theessence of the eternal mind” (Do-ha-mahamudra). In the samemanner, we have gone from simple perception to the complexities ofintellectual sophistry; we have learned the fatality of the rationalizingego and its anxious search for what is essentially unattainable,i.e., the purely mentative values that it seeks to find in elementalexistence. We have fallen deeper and deeper into the sangsaric stateof self-consciousness, until by painful necessity, the veil of intricatecerebration has been rent, and the wisdom of simplicity has againilluminated our despair.This is the original paradise described by Dante, in la DivineCommedia:The first age was fair as gold; it made acorns savory withhunger, and every stream nectar with thirst.(Purgatorio, Canto XXII, 148)The Zen Saikontan says: “When you are hungry, eat rice; whenyou are weary, sleep.” Huang-Po adds: “The foolish man eschewsphenomena, but not mentation; the wise man eschews mentation,but not phenomena.” Is this any different than what Christ tells us inthe Sermon on the Mount?Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life,what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for yourbody, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat,and the body more than raiment? (Matthew 6:25)Life transcends all search for a meaning, since experience alone isthe measure of existence. The highest wisdom, therefore, teaches usnot to despise phenomenality, but to seek the infinite in the finite ofevery moment, for Life is no “problem to be solved, but a reality tobe experienced” (G.F. Main). Having learned the futility of an errantsearch for values beyond life, we have perforce returned to the bosomof earth, but enriched with the darker wine that is total experience,deepened by the intuition that even human sorrow is an expressionof the cosmic drama enfolding our frail existence. Desire and pain areno less realities within the entirety of Being than the perfect harmonythat it reveals to the vantage point of eternity. Hence we eat, wecopulate, and we enact the drama that is Life, again aware of humanindividuality, but transcending its limited meaning, for each separateself represents the unimpeded interdiffusion of Absolute Reality.What that Reality represents, revealed in common, individual life,is the highest sort of emotional fulfillment that earthbound man canattain. For me, this final phase of the hallucinogenic experience willalways be the most significant; were I to require poetic expression todescribe my sentiments at any time during the experiment, it wouldbe here. Yet, I have been able only to gaze about me, beholding thecommon scenes of my daily life with uttermost satisfaction, transfiguredby the glory of a new existence shining brilliantly in the old.The old furniture glowed with a miraculous polish, thecarpets and curtains were as if new again, daylight threetimes more brilliant than natural day came in throughthe windows and the doors and in the air there was afreshness and perfume like the first day of spring . . .(Gerard de Nerval, Aurelia)What was merely observed, during the early phases of theintoxication is now felt, elevating knowledge to genuine mysticalexperience. What this emotion is like exceeds the limitation oflanguage, for inner recognition alone comprehends the meaningof such harmony, which is indeed the “peace that surpasses allunderstanding.” Pleasure is elevated to joy, and beauty, to the sublime;where formerly the world was “divine”, it is now perfect presence.Between those two aspects of a single fact, there lies an immensegulf of mental effort; to comprehend the proximity of the Beyondis exquisite, but to hold it, all in all, is too miraculously simple tobe coldly rationalized. One can only touch what is real; one can feelit, one can live it, but one cannot retain it in an empty vacuum ofwords.The Far-Off Land
their ability to compress into an afternoon the result of manyyears’ experience. Our entire development may be retraced in theretrospect of a few hours; indeed, one may witness the dramatizationin a period of minutes of certain processes of racial consciousness,which have extended over millennia.Medieval mystics often spoke of the Dark Night of the Soul,which preceded the entry into the Unio Mystica. This climax to along struggle with the self was a period of utter despair that finallydestroyed the tyrannical ego through its own torment. When thepain of protracted suffering completely disrupted the mechanism ofanxiety, there followed the blessed miracle of simple resignation; forthe first time in years, the cleansed soul gazed upon primal reality,shining again with its own pristine radiance, free once more from thepainful reflection of the exaggerated self.It was only after passing several times through the hallucinogenicallegory of the human purgatorial, and reawakening into the bliss ofa newborn world, that I realized the obvious similarity between thisrelease from bondage and the psychology of Nirvana. As understoodby the West, the “extinguishing of the flame” generally impliesa negativistic escape from earthly things, but as understood byMahayana Buddhism, especially those schools that flourished in theanimistic soil of Japan and China, Nirvana is the ultimate glorificationof the natural and the concrete. We have already referred to certaindifferences between nirvana and sangsaric life, which emphasized the
desirability of freedom from egoistic anxiety; we must now point outthe profound connections between this ancient wisdom of humanexperience and the state presently unfolding in our symbolic dramaof spiritual evolution.The Chinese philosopher, Ch’ing Yuan, once stated that we firstsee mountains as mountains and waters as waters; with increasingsophistication, we decide that mountains are only perceptual images,and waters, only fleeting, sensory illusions. With full enlightenment,however, mountains are once again mountains, and waters, justwaters, for “all manifestations and feelings are identical with theessence of the eternal mind” (Do-ha-mahamudra). In the samemanner, we have gone from simple perception to the complexities ofintellectual sophistry; we have learned the fatality of the rationalizingego and its anxious search for what is essentially unattainable,i.e., the purely mentative values that it seeks to find in elementalexistence. We have fallen deeper and deeper into the sangsaric stateof self-consciousness, until by painful necessity, the veil of intricatecerebration has been rent, and the wisdom of simplicity has againilluminated our despair.This is the original paradise described by Dante, in la DivineCommedia:The first age was fair as gold; it made acorns savory withhunger, and every stream nectar with thirst.(Purgatorio, Canto XXII, 148)The Zen Saikontan says: “When you are hungry, eat rice; whenyou are weary, sleep.” Huang-Po adds: “The foolish man eschewsphenomena, but not mentation; the wise man eschews mentation,but not phenomena.” Is this any different than what Christ tells us inthe Sermon on the Mount?Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life,what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for yourbody, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat,and the body more than raiment? (Matthew 6:25)Life transcends all search for a meaning, since experience alone isthe measure of existence. The highest wisdom, therefore, teaches usnot to despise phenomenality, but to seek the infinite in the finite ofevery moment, for Life is no “problem to be solved, but a reality tobe experienced” (G.F. Main). Having learned the futility of an errantsearch for values beyond life, we have perforce returned to the bosomof earth, but enriched with the darker wine that is total experience,deepened by the intuition that even human sorrow is an expressionof the cosmic drama enfolding our frail existence. Desire and pain areno less realities within the entirety of Being than the perfect harmonythat it reveals to the vantage point of eternity. Hence we eat, wecopulate, and we enact the drama that is Life, again aware of humanindividuality, but transcending its limited meaning, for each separateself represents the unimpeded interdiffusion of Absolute Reality.What that Reality represents, revealed in common, individual life,is the highest sort of emotional fulfillment that earthbound man canattain. For me, this final phase of the hallucinogenic experience willalways be the most significant; were I to require poetic expression todescribe my sentiments at any time during the experiment, it wouldbe here. Yet, I have been able only to gaze about me, beholding thecommon scenes of my daily life with uttermost satisfaction, transfiguredby the glory of a new existence shining brilliantly in the old.The old furniture glowed with a miraculous polish, thecarpets and curtains were as if new again, daylight threetimes more brilliant than natural day came in throughthe windows and the doors and in the air there was afreshness and perfume like the first day of spring . . .(Gerard de Nerval, Aurelia)What was merely observed, during the early phases of theintoxication is now felt, elevating knowledge to genuine mysticalexperience. What this emotion is like exceeds the limitation oflanguage, for inner recognition alone comprehends the meaningof such harmony, which is indeed the “peace that surpasses allunderstanding.” Pleasure is elevated to joy, and beauty, to the sublime;where formerly the world was “divine”, it is now perfect presence.Between those two aspects of a single fact, there lies an immensegulf of mental effort; to comprehend the proximity of the Beyondis exquisite, but to hold it, all in all, is too miraculously simple tobe coldly rationalized. One can only touch what is real; one can feelit, one can live it, but one cannot retain it in an empty vacuum ofwords.The Far-Off Land
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