Soma siddhas and alchemical enlightenment: Psychedelic mushrooms in Buddhist tradition

Very interesting article I found today courtesy of a link from American Buddhist Net.

I don't know about others, but this is not at all surprising. The indigenous Tibetan religion before Buddhism arrived was deeply shamanic, and it had close ethnographic ties to Siberian shamanic traditions where the use of amanita muscaria was common (and still is).

Soma siddhas and alchemical enlightenment: psychedelic mushrooms in Buddhist tradition

Scott Hajicek-Dobberstein
3322 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114, USA

Received 6 November 1993; revision received 7 February 1994; accepted 16 February 1995

Citation

Soma siddhas and alchemical enlightenment: psychedelic mushrooms in Buddhist tradition. Hajicek-Dobberstein S. J Ethnopharmacol, 1995; 48(2):99-118.

Abstract

In the legendary biographies of some Buddhist adepts from the 2nd- and 9th-eenturies there are some clues which can be interpreted to reveal that the adepts were consuming psychedelic Amanita muscaria, 'fly agaric', mushrooms to achieve enlightenment. This secret ingredient in the alchemical elixir they used to attain 'realization' was, of course, unnamed, in keeping with their vows to maintain the secrecy of their practices. Its identity was concealed behind a set of symbols, some of which appeared in the Soma symbol system of the Rg Veda, some other symbols possibly passed down from a time of earlier shamanic use of the mushroom in the forests of Northern Eurasia, and some symbols that may be unique to these Buddhist legends. The congruity of these sets of symbols from Northern and Southern Asian traditions will be shown to be reflected in the Germanic tradition in some characteristics of the Oldest God, Odin.

Keywords: Amanita muscaria; Soma; Buddhism; Psychedelic drugs; Odin

Here is a passage on the source materials:

2. Materials
2.1. The hagiographies of Buddhist siddhas

Yet, such references to practitioners of religious rituals actually using the psychedelic mushroom do exist. I have found them in The Stories of the Eighty-Four Siddhas (Skt. Caturasitisiddhapravrtti, Tib. Grub thob brgyad cu rtsa bzhi'i 10 rgyw) which was translated into Tibetan and written down in the late l l th- or early 12th-century C.E. by the monk Smon-grub-shes-rab, as narrated to him in Sanskrit by Abhayadatta. The attribution of author, translator and origin of the text given in its colophon does not mention an original Sanskrit text as a source. This conspicuous omission may suggest derivation from oral tradition. A discussion of the identities of the purported author and translator can be found in Dowman (1985, pp. 384-88).

The most likely sources of the eighty-four thumb-nail biographies that make up this work were the legends of each of the siddhas which were passed down as oral hagiography by his or her disciples and later compiled, possibly by Abhayadatta who did not include a record of his sources.

There are two English translations of this work, Robinson (1979) and Dowman (1985). Both translators worked under the guidance of Tibetan lama advisors. Robinson's translation is very close to the Tibetan text, but Dowman presents a self-described adaption 'from the stilted mnemonic style of the Tibetan manuscript to give a fluent idiomatic rendering into English while maintaining fidelity to the original meaning' (Dowman, 1985,p. xii). At least in the story of the siddha Karnaripa, Dowman and his lama advisors completely missed the 'original meaning'. This story, which reveals the identity of the secret ingredient of the alchemical elixir which brings enlightenment, is interpreted by Dowman simply as a parable of the siddha's humility and modesty! Robinson also fails to reveal the real meaning of the story of Karnaripa, which is not explicitly expressed in the story, but he does not obscure the real meaning with imperceptive, misinformed impressions. I present my own translation of the story of the siddha Karnaripa below. I have tried to keep my translation as close as possible to the literal content of the Tibetan text, so that those who do not read Tibetan can interpret for themselves the imagery and symbolic elements of the story.

Go read the whole article - I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Tags: Buddhism, shamanism, entheogens, Enlightenment, Soma siddhas and alchemical enlightenment: psychedelic mushrooms, Buddhist tradition, Scott Hajicek-Dobberstein, Amanita muscaria, fly agaric, Journal of Ethnopharmacology