What drugs were there in Ancient India?

Buddhist ethical conduct including the Five Precepts (Pañcasikkhāpada), and Eightfold Ethical Conduct (Aṭṭhasīla).
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salayatananirodha
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Re: What drugs were there in Ancient India?

Post by salayatananirodha »

_anicca_ (good name), I tried to show that gambling and gaming and such do affect the brain. In a materialist sense, if there were no effect on the brain, there wouldn't be the arising of enjoyment, as there would be no stimulus.
People who are binge eaters, smokers, and gamblers very much have their wits about them compared to smoking pot or drinking alcohol.
Unfortunately, this doesn't have any support inside of your post, but I would like to consider it.

On our examination of the mind here, let's say you force fed an arahant alcohol (but please don't), they would 'get drunk,' in one turn of phrase, but it wouldn't invade their mind, as they have no ability to perform unethical (mental) behavior. In this way, intoxication is mind-made; you don't intentionally reap any sensual reward from the substance, so its effects are insignificant, they just arise and cease. Say the arahant is subject to grievous bodily pain; they don't take it in, they don't rely on feeling for happiness, they have no aversion to feeling. Grasping for a simile here, I say it's like a sponge that is saturated with water, in rainfall, so it doesn't absorb water. I'm trying to say that our designation 'drunkenness' is inappropriate in certain respects.
Mind is the forerunner of all things” (manopubbaṅgamā dhamma); this is all unreal. The world is in bondage to attachments, clingings (sustenances) and biases. I regret not being able to express my ideas more clearly now. But what an incredible opportunity we have to discuss this in a time where the buddha word still flourishes. May all the participants and observers benefit from anything and everything said.
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narhwal90
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Re: What drugs were there in Ancient India?

Post by narhwal90 »

I smoked cigarettes for the better part of a decade from just before 20yrs old, I remember a number of occasions where the pleasure from that first drag manipulated me right into lighting up. Towards the end of the smoking there wasn't much pleasure in it, just a return to "normal" from the craving, which may be reminiscent of what the alcoholic suffers. Having quit smoking some time ago, I am entirely neutral wrt cigarettes, though I dislike the odor that sticks in the clothes after being around smokers. I tend to think intoxicants work fairly similarly, saying a downer is not an intoxicant vs an upper being one is much like the habitual scotch drinker thinking beer doesn't count.

Having experienced the use of heavy narcotics in the hospital after an accident just for pain control its very clear to me how easily such things can turn into addiction. One quickly hones the judgement wrt which drug at which interval is most effective, I was in with broken ribs, scapula and punctured lung so there was a lot of pain to manage. After returning to the regular ward for recovery, concern for pain management was instinctively a top priority, it took an act of will to limit myself to regular tylenol and suck up the pain as a condition of recovery. Even now a month later, recovery proceeding, I have most of the hospital prescribed oxycodone left, and a temptation exists to take that pill at bedtime for the quick painless drop-off into sleep. Thoughts like "I've not been taking them even once a day, I'm hurting today, surely tonight would be fine" arise and thus a nascent habit is made clear.

Though in hospital I was wasn't dosed to unconsiousness except the night I came into ER and for the surgery later, I was continuously drugged with narcotics for 5 days, the consequences of which on awareness are profound. The visions, waking dreams, sweating, somnolence are ever present, along with the occasional bout of euphoria, so I found a semblance of meditation to keep the mind "upright" during all that was essential. There was little peace even in sleep but just being able to note the phenomena and let it go did help with keeping calm and reducing the sweat. When strength and mind permitted, some limited mantras did too. I'm profoundly grateful to have a practice to fall back on.
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