The Way of Cannabis

[ataxian]

What a great thread to stumble into! It’s interesting to hear some the rituals and philosophies that people have.

I find that ritual increases my enjoyment immensely. With the vaporizers I currently own I find that I fall best into that ritual with my vapcap.

When I have an evening (or morning, or afternoon) to enjoy without demands I like to have a small area and have the tools I might need organized into a small area. I find using a mise en place approach keeps everything more relaxing. The term is a French culinary term for “everything in its place”. I’ve found it invaluable in my time as a Nurse and I recognize that I should have a bit more discipline to apply to other areas of life.

Once I have everything set, I find that I can appreciate the experience more, and I find that the process of loading and unloading the vapcap and the heating process with a torch to be quite relaxing.

Alternatively, I find that if I have things to do at home I need to adjust the routine to make sure I am productive. If I sit down and vape, I will get lost in distractions like looking at my phone, and then fall into the trap of “I’ll just have another round and then get serious,” but it just won’t happen.

However, if I start the job and wait till I’m invested before I have my first puff it keeps my momentum rolling and I remain engaged.

One of the more relaxing activities that I do at home is making dough. My mother baked bread often and I have very warm memories of watching the dough rise in a large ceramic bowl in the sunlight, covered with a bit of wax paper, watching her lay the dough onto a floured surface and form into loaves or rolls. The town I grew up in only had about 1000 residents, but I would bet that most of them received a loaf of bread at some point. She was a RN at the clinic in town, and was truly invested in the community. The two things I hear when I visit my old home are affectionate words for my mom followed by people reminiscing about her bread.

When I began to start making my own bread in my mid-twenties I started to realize that the process is very relaxing, even therapeutic. That then turned to pizza, which has become a passion, sometimes an obsession. Whether I am mixing entirely by hand or using a mixer to form the initial dough by hand, it is a very zen process for me. I don’t need to use cannabis to love the process, but I definitely find it an incredible compliment.

@ataxian I’d love to hear your thoughts in this thread, I know you enjoy cannabis and a good book!

@Dan Morrison thank you for creating this thread, it has made for a very enjoyable read!

Reading and CANNABIS go together in my little world.
I grew up in Southern CALIFORNIA (FANTASY LAND)
Your dough story is cool.
Just had a couple of rips of PINEAPPLE ESPRESS ROSIN (WoW) & reading a book by: BERNARD-HENRI LEVY
& MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ (FRENCH)

Nice Decent TREAD!
OUTSTANDING find.

 

[Madri-Gal]

This thread has been on my mind as I have gone about my days. I notice how I set things out, always put things "in their place", use the same favored items. Baking cookies, ingredients are "where they go", I use my favorite Pyrex bowls and measuring cups, and so forth. There is "just the way I do things". This translates into habit, and ritual. Sometimes I get mindfulness in there, but sometimes I'm just baking cookies. Even just baking cookies without mindfulness, I find it relaxing going through the same motions I've repeated hundreds of times. This, than this.
This has translated to vaping . I have my storage areas and cases, my favored items, learning to use new items until I "have it down". Ritual, or mindless repetition? I guess the answer is in the question. Is it mindless, or does the familiar pattern free me to become mindful and aware of what I am focusing on?
Which, quite often, is that my head hurts so bad I can hardly move, and vaping must happen, NOW. So sometimes, the meditative aspects must wait until I have already vaped. Subsequent sessions may, or may not, be more spiritually elevating - or am I just high?
And, honestly, I get what people are saying about baking bread, and some people rave about hanging laundry on the line and how 'spiritual' it all is ( not in this thread, but in life), but, I've cooked, baked, hung and folded laundry, etc so many times, it's just chores no matter how much you try to sexy it up. To have better practices, I'm pretty sure I need a better life, LOL.
What does this have to do with vaping? It might be The Way Of Cannabis is the way I do things, without the peace of ritual, but the habit of how I interact with the world. More habit and repetition than anything.

 

[TiSteamo]

This thread has been on my mind as I have gone about my days. I notice how I set things out, always put things "in their place", use the same favored items. Baking cookies, ingredients are "where they go", I use my favorite Pyrex bowls and measuring cups, and so forth. There is "just the way I do things". This translates into habit, and ritual. Sometimes I get mindfulness in there, but sometimes I'm just baking cookies. Even just baking cookies without mindfulness, I find it relaxing going through the same motions I've repeated hundreds of times. This, than this.
This has translated to vaping . I have my storage areas and cases, my favored items, learning to use new items until I "have it down". Ritual, or mindless repetition? I guess the answer is in the question. Is it mindless, or does the familiar pattern free me to become mindful and aware of what I am focusing on?
Which, quite often, is that my head hurts so bad I can hardly move, and vaping must happen, NOW. So sometimes, the meditative aspects must wait until I have already vaped. Subsequent sessions may, or may not, be more spiritually elevating - or am I just high?
And, honestly, I get what people are saying about baking bread, and some people rave about hanging laundry on the line and how 'spiritual' it all is ( not in this thread, but in life), but, I've cooked, baked, hung and folded laundry, etc so many times, it's just chores no matter how much you try to sexy it up. To have better practices, I'm pretty sure I need a better life, LOL.
What does this have to do with vaping? It might be The Way Of Cannabis is the way I do things, without the peace of ritual, but the habit of how I interact with the world. More habit and repetition than anything.

I think everything depends on how we live things.
Of course, often we are so under pressure that we can not "be in the present moment", indeed, we often have to do 2-3 things at the same time.

We have to take some time ONLY for us.
Small oases of time in the day, when it's possible, which we can use to do what we like.

A moment of regeneration, like taking a walk in the woods and feeling "part of the Whole"...

 

[Madri-Gal]

I think everything depends on how we live things.
Of course, often we are so under pressure that we can not "be in the present moment", indeed, we often have to do 2-3 things at the same time.

We have to take some time ONLY for us.
Small oases of time in the day, which we can use to do what we like.

A moment of regeneration, like taking a walk in the woods and feeling "part of the Whole"...

It does sound nice, but I'm not one to do 2-3 things at once. My time is my own.
I'm a focused person, who likes things done a certain way. That is, the way I want to. My things, my way.
I'm not sure I shouldn't strive to be more chaotic, and random to break out of my patterns.
But it will turn into a set way of doing things, and a ritual would develop out of that, because that's how I do things. A walk in the woods sounds nice, but not doable in my case, but for those who can they have my regard. It's always nice to be in nature.
Is that what you do, @TiSteamo ? Are you handling things as you advise? Are you able to get "me time"? It's always interesting to see how a person finds peace and tranquility in their day. I've got too much time for myself, so less would be more helpful.
I'm just trying to be the person that can lead myself from where I am to where I'm going, and I have no idea anymore. I'm just gradually working it out. Cannabis gives me ideas to try to get my life back, but that's after consumption, not before. Still, I'm not so linear as to demand a certain sequence for relief. If the door opens after, not before, then I go through the door after, not before.
PTSD is turning out to be a much larger beast than I feel equipped for, but that's what came to visit, and it seems much like grief. It has it's own time, and it's own demands. It's also where peace is buried, so it's where the digging is.

 

[ClearBlueLou]

In my own self-treatment, I find that it’s PARAMOUNT that I do the things I do the way I do them; it’s not a ‘my way or the highway’ thing, but part of how I keep myself on an even keel is to do what makes sense to me, in ways that make sense to me. Preference becomes habit, habit becomes custom, custom becomes ritual. It’s a primary way of establishing order in life, making sure the things get done, get done right. A natural process.

Be kind to yourself, and forgiving of your nature: it will all work out.

 

[TiSteamo]

It does sound nice, but I'm not one to do 2-3 things at once. My time is my own.
I'm a focused person, who likes things done a certain way. That is, the way I want to. My things, my way.
I'm not sure I shouldn't strive to be more chaotic, and random to break out of my patterns.
But it will turn into a set way of doing things, and a ritual would develop out of that, because that's how I do things. A walk in the woods sounds nice, but not doable in my case, but for those who can they have my regard. It's always nice to be in nature.
Is that what you do, @TiSteamo ? Are you handling things as you advise? Are you able to get "me time"? It's always interesting to see how a person finds peace and tranquility in their day. I've got too much time for myself, so less would be more helpful.
I'm just trying to be the person that can lead myself from where I am to where I'm going, and I have no idea anymore. I'm just gradually working it out. Cannabis gives me ideas to try to get my life back, but that's after consumption, not before. Still, I'm not so linear as to demand a certain sequence for relief. If the door opens after, not before, then I go through the door after, not before.
PTSD is turning out to be a much larger beast than I feel equipped for, but that's what came to visit, and it seems much like grief. It has it's own time, and it's own demands. It's also where peace is buried, so it's where the digging is.

I was a person who had a lot (maybe too much) free time: ideal condition for a creative.
Then I had a daughter. And my life has been pleasantly but drastically changed.
I would never go back because it is an incredible joy but sometimes it is really very stressful.
Despite this I still manage to have some free time (little) but I use the best, relaxing, trying to recharge and then dive back into everyday life.
I think it's necessary. I do it for her too. A stressed father is certainly not a good thing.

 

[Madri-Gal]

In my own self-treatment, I find that it’s PARAMOUNT that I do the things I do the way I do them; it’s not a ‘my way or the highway’ thing, but part of how I keep myself on an even keel is to do what makes sense to me, in ways that make sense to me. Preference becomes habit, habit becomes custom, custom becomes ritual. It’s a primary way of establishing order in life, making sure the things get done, get done right. A natural process.

Be kind to yourself, and forgiving of your nature: it will all work out.

That's it exactly, @ClearBlueLou. It's not a "my way or the highway", sort of situation, but, as you said, preference, habit, custom, ritual. I try to live a healing, nurturing , peaceful life, and I move best in an orderly environment, surrounded by my routines and what I love. So much has been broken, ruined, destroyed, and it was done with such hateful and malicious intent that I can barely breathe, much less inhale.
@TiSteamo, congratulations on the birth of your daughter, and the busy, joyful, life you have. My children are grown, so my "too busy to think" days are behind me. A good father is a good thing, and I'm so pleased you have cannabis on your journey. You live with such peace, joy and kindness, that you can't help but bring people happiness. Your family is fortunate in you, and I feel fortunate to have met you through FC.
I will say, FC and VA and the many, many, kind people I have had the privilege to interact with on FC and VA, have been an enormous comfort, and I look to so many for instruction, advice and laughter. The kindness and decency in the cannabis community has been overwhelming, in a good way. It isn't just the routine and ritual that goes into consuming cannabis. I carry the words, good intentions and advice I'm given from these forums. I can physically touch and use mods from @DDave, I can hear the advice from posts, shop from links members provide and treasure the advised upon items, I can laugh at jokes, play word games, puzzle over odd and interesting opinions. In the same way seeds and cuttings from friends become the most favored in any garden, ideas and thoughts from the forums are the most dear to me. It all goes into my personal experience of cannabis. I started to list treasured names, but there were so many, and I can only say, we all meet in this place, and we share, and it matters.

 

[TiSteamo]

@TiSteamo, congratulations on the birth of your daughter, and the busy, joyful, life you have. My children are grown, so my "too busy to think" days are behind me. A good father is a good thing, and I'm so pleased you have cannabis on your journey. You live with such peace, joy and kindness, that you can't help but bring people happiness. Your family is fortunate in you, and I feel fortunate to have met you through FC.
I will say, FC and VA and the many, many, kind people I have had the privilege to interact with on FC and VA, have been an enormous comfort, and I look to so many for instruction, advice and laughter. The kindness and decency in the cannabis community has been overwhelming, in a good way. It isn't just the routine and ritual that goes into consuming cannabis. I carry the words, good intentions and advice I'm given from these forums. I can physically touch and use mods from

Thank you for your kind words. It's true, in fact around the cannabis world you can find many extraordinary people. I wonder why…

Before I thought about what you said about the "habit": it does not necessarily have a negative connotation. A habit refined by experience can be considered an exercise in perfection. Everything just depends on the spirit with which you do things.

Another thing: when we are "high" we know perhaps better what it is good to do.
Our faults appear clearer.
And I love the concept of "working on oneself" (and it's a job that never ends)
But I also believe that we should remember it and always take it with us as a precious teaching.

 

[arb]

I often find myself over thinking which causes stress in itself............a empty mind has no stress.

 

[Tranquility]

I often find myself over thinking which causes stress in itself............a empty mind has no stress.

 

[Madri-Gal]

That's it Exactly, @OldNewbie. You nailed it. 10 / 10.

 

[arb]

So train your brain.

 

[Madri-Gal]

So train your brain.

O.K.

 

[TiSteamo]

So train your brain.

In short, we must "make room" to "receive".


A Cup of Tea

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

 

[arb]

In short, we must "make room" to "receive".


A Cup of Tea

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on pouring.
The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”
“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

Was Nan-in not making his own presumptions in this scenario...........that always bothered me about this parable..........and quite a few others regards presumptive thinking.
To be empty is just that no?
I really struggle to turn it off and not jump to negative conclusions but it is getting easier as time goes on.........situation depending lolz.

 

[Nina]

we all meet in this place, and we share, and it matters.

Amen to that @Madri-Gal
amen to that

 

[TiSteamo]

You are the result of the thoughts you have.
The more good thoughts you have the more your good life is.

“Good thoughts good fruits
Bad thoughts bad fruits”

Quality of life is measured by the quality of thoughts.
The environment will shape their thoughts.
Jim Rhon taught: “you are the average of the five people you spend with.”
People you spend time with, the environment you live, the things you read will shape your thoughts.
Feed your mind with good thought by:
+ Choosing good people to spend time with,
+ Choosing the good stuff to read,
+ And taking care of your thoughts with needed correction.

 

[Nina]

Does anyone have a a prayer or a Grace that they say before vaping?
I'm trying to think of one but all I'm getting is 'thank god it's cannabis o clock' which rather lacks reverence I feel

 

[tepictoton]

Hihi...

People might change your thought, the environment might...

Mushrooms, on the other hand, will change everything ...

Hihi sorry, had to say this ... Yes, others and everything around us shape us and mold us, and a lot of times we become who we are because of that. Sometimes making us feel trapped, not free, not self or selves... I cannot express enough the gratitude I feel for these little mushrooms that showed up in my life when I needed them, helping me dissolve the previous 'programming' and rewrite my code...

They also thought me the importance of 'ritual' as a tool to mark 'TIME'.

One example of this for me is the use of incense. When going on a Journey with my little brothers, I will use incense to mark 'TIME'. As soon as the incense fills the room and my scences I know this is a 'special' TIME' and my mind and body can prepare themselves for what is to come.

I would love to see cannabis being used in a more 'ritualistic' form. It should be a celebration of life, a reminder of how Lucky we are to experience this thing we call life, a reminder of the magick of it al. A moment to step back and look at life in a different way.

It will be interesting to see what forms of use will arrize when it will be legal to do so...

It is a very strange thing, our relationship with cannabis. I was lucky enough to grow up in the Netherlands where cannabis is sold in the coffeeshops. These are the only places in the world that I know of, where people from al layers of society, al colours of skin, al te different cultures seem to be able to come together without problems. This has always amazed me, our shared use of this plant cuts trough al these obstacles that are deviding us most of the time, and has the power to let us see the other person, as just that another you....

Maybe she might help us to see trough the divide and conquer game we have been playing for so long.

Sorry for the rambling.

 

[Madri-Gal]

Does anyone have a a prayer or a Grace that they say before vaping?
I'm trying to think of one but all I'm getting is 'thank god it's cannabis o clock' which rather lacks reverence I feel

@Nina,
Mine is along the lines of " Oh thank God ! Finally !"
Actually, " I give thanks for the blessing of this plant, and all of the blessings it confers" works for me, and you can try it out and see if it fits for you , with my blessings.

 

[uncanni]

It is a very strange thing, our relationship with cannabis. I was lucky enough to grow up in the Netherlands where cannabis is sold in the coffeeshops. These are the only places in the world that I know of, where people from al layers of society, al colours of skin, al te different cultures seem to be able to come together without problems. This has always amazed me, our shared use of this plant cuts trough al these obstacles that are deviding us most of the time, and has the power to let us see the other person, as just that another you....

I appreciate everything you wrote. I think that those who use Cannabis in the ways you describe, or at shops in the Netherlands never had a problem with skin color, "class." or those other issues that seem to matter so much to some. I'm not saying there aren't racists who use Cannabis, but I want to believe that those of us who worship her just want people to come together in happiness and peace.

 

[TiSteamo]

It is a very strange thing, our relationship with cannabis. I was lucky enough to grow up in the Netherlands where cannabis is sold in the coffeeshops. These are the only places in the world that I know of, where people from al layers of society, al colours of skin, al te different cultures seem to be able to come together without problems. This has always amazed me, our shared use of this plant cuts trough al these obstacles that are deviding us most of the time, and has the power to let us see the other person, as just that another you....

Maybe she might help us to see trough the divide and conquer game we have been playing for so long.

Yes, it is true, and all this is beautiful, and maybe one day it will lead to such an awareness that will lead us to break down social, political, economic differences in the name of a sense of justice, of love.
Here, if there is one thing I learned is this: The only important thing is Love. Whatever that means.
The sense of abandonment is what makes us wander in the dark. We are never alone. We are always (literally) connected to each other. We are connected to the earth, to the sky, to the air, to the seas, to the plants, to the trees, to the animals, to other planets, to everything.
If we are the fruit of evolution, we have within us even the First Moment of everything.
Our "unconscious" can do everything, knows everything. But we forget it. We have always lived in pollution: environmental, moral. Chemical, material or the most subtle one, that of thought.
Let us ask ourselves what we can do to avoid being part of this pollution.

If you're not the solution, you're part of the problem.

We must go back to recognizing what is true from what is not. What is worth living with joy. Because life is ours, life is us.

Good Ramble...

 

[Nina]

" I give thanks for the blessing of this plant, and all of the blessings it confers"

thank you @Madri-Gal, it is now cannabis O' clock for me and I will use your blessing

 

[ClearBlueLou]

Does anyone have a a prayer or a Grace that they say before vaping?
I'm trying to think of one but all I'm getting is 'thank god it's cannabis o clock' which rather lacks reverence I feel

I have a friend who has one, but I can only paraphrase (don’t know if she says the same thing every time or not, honestly): “Blessed be the pot fairies, and the herb they provide; bless all who grow it and tend it, bless those who bring it to us. Bless the herb and all who share it with us”

I appreciate everything you wrote. I think that those who use Cannabis in the ways you describe, or at shops in the Netherlands never had a problem with skin color, "class." or those other issues that seem to matter so much to some. I'm not saying there aren't racists who use Cannabis, but I want to believe that those of us who worship her just want people to come together in happiness and peace.

As daft as it seems to me, there are a surprising number of highly uncool people who smoke the herb; to my eyes, it seems to make their interactions with others exceedingly unpleasant. Knowing that cannabis is a healing thing, and from my history of herb use as being an active expression of acceptance and welcome and camaraderie, I can only marvel at the journey they must be on...and I can only hope that healing is their destination.

 

[TiSteamo]