Buddhism and psychedelic experimentation share a common concern: the liberation of the mind. Zig Zag Zen launches the first serious inquiry into the moral, ethical, doctrinal, and transcendental considerations created by the intersection of Buddhism and psychedelics. With a foreword by renowned Buddhist scholar Stephen Batchelor and a preface by historian of religion Huston Smith, along with numerous essays and interviews, Zig Zag Zen is a provocative and thoughtful exploration of altered states of consciousness and the potential for transformation. Accompanying each essay is a work of visionary art selected by artist Alex Grey, such as a vividly graphic work by Robert Venosa, a contemporary thangka painting by Robert Beer, and an exercise in emptiness in the form of an enso by a 17th-century Zen abbot. Packed with enlightening entries and art that lie outside the scope of mainstream anthologies, Zig Zag Zen offers eye-opening insights into alternate methods of inner exploration.

In the 1960s, Americans combined psychedelics with Buddhist meditation to achieve direct experience through altered states of consciousness. As some practitioners became more committed to Buddhism, they abandoned the use of psychedelics in favor of stricter mental discipline, but others carried on with the experiment, advancing a fascinating alchemy called psychedelic Buddhism. Many think exploration with psychedelics in Buddhism faded with the revolutionary spirit of the sixties, but the underground practice has evolved into a brand of religiosity as eclectic and challenging as the era that created it. Altered States combines interviews with well-known figures in American Buddhism and psychedelic spirituality—including Lama Surya Das, Erik Davis, Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Sensei, Rick Strassman, and Charles Tart—and personal stories of everyday practitioners to define a distinctly American religious phenomenon. The nuanced perspective that emerges, grounded in a detailed history of psychedelic religious experience, adds critical depth to debates over the controlled use of psychedelics and drug-induced mysticism. The book also opens new paths of inquiry into such issues as re-enchantment, the limits of rationality, the biochemical and psychosocial basis of altered states of consciousness, and the nature of subjectivity.

Secret Drugs of Buddhism explores the historical evidence for the use of entheogenic plants within the Buddhist tradition and calls attention to the central role which psychedelics played in Indian religions.

Mindfulness in the Marketplace suggests a reorientation of consumers from passive purchasers to aware, responsible citizens who see the dynamic connection between their purchases and their values. The Middle Path of Buddhism is not to avoid all consumption, but to consume mindfully in a manner that protects ourselves and all living systems. This anthology outlines a path of compassionate resistance to global corporatization, and offers a view of getting into right relationship with the Earth. Includes the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Stephen Batchelor, and Joanna Macy.

This is the first book to offer Buddhist meditators a comprehensive and sympathetic examination of the differences between Asian and Western cultural and spiritual values. Harvey B. Aronson presents a constructive and practical assessment of common conflicts experienced by Westerners who look to Eastern spiritual traditions for guidance and support—and find themselves confused or disappointed. Issues addressed include: • Our cultural belief that anger should not be suppressed versus the Buddhist teaching to counter anger and hatred • Our psychotherapists' advice that attachment is the basis for healthy personal development and supportive relationships versus the Buddhist condemnation of attachments as the source of suffering • Our culture's emphasis on individuality versus the Asian emphasis on interdependence and fulfillment of duties, and the Buddhist teachings on no-self, or egolessness

Does Buddhism require faith? Can an atheist or agnostic follow the Buddha’s teachings without believing in reincarnation or organized religion? This is one man’s confession. In his classic Buddhism Without Beliefs, Stephen Batchelor offered a profound, secular approach to the teachings of the Buddha that struck an emotional chord with Western readers. Now, with the same brilliance and boldness of thought, he paints a groundbreaking portrait of the historical Buddha—told from the author’s unique perspective as a former Buddhist monk and modern seeker. Drawing from the original Pali Canon, the seminal collection of Buddhist discourses compiled after the Buddha’s death by his followers, Batchelor shows us the Buddha as a flesh-and-blood man who looked at life in a radically new way. Batchelor also reveals the everyday challenges and doubts of his own devotional journey—from meeting the Dalai Lama in India, to training as a Zen monk in Korea, to finding his path as a lay teacher of Buddhism living in France. Both controversial and deeply personal, Stephen Batchelor’s refreshingly doctrine-free, life-informed account is essential reading for anyone interested in Buddhism.

Timothy Leary, the visionary Harvard psychologist who became a guru of the 1960s counterculture, reentered as an icon of new edge cyberpunks. HIGH PRIEST chronicles 16 psychedelic trips taken in the days before LSD was made illegal. The trip guides or "High Priests" include Aldous Huxley, Gordon Wasson, William S. Burroughs, Godsdog, Allen Ginsberg, Ram Dass, Ralph Metzner, Willy (a junkie from New York City), Huston Smith, Frank Barron, and others. The scene was Millbrook, a mansion in Upstate New York, that was the Mecca of Psychedellia during the 1960s, and of the many luminaries of the period who made a pilgrimage there to trip with Leary and his group, The League for Spiritual Discovery. Each chapter includes an I-Ching reading, a chronicle of what happened during the trip, marginalia of comments, quotations, and illustrations. A fascinating window into an era. This edition includes a Foreword by Allen Ginsberg, an introduction by Timothy Leary about the intergenerational counterculture, and illustrations by Howard Hallis.