Parvati Magazine February 2014 - Sobriety1 | Page 11

MEDITATION
There is a Buddhist precept, taken by all serious
practitioners, that goes
like this: “I undertake to
train myself to refrain from
taking intoxicants.” Some
centres add “to the point
of heedlessness” or alter
the vow to refraining from
taking “substances that
cloud the mind.” Psychotropic drugs are usually included in this precept. The
question often comes up,
“Does that mean I cannot have an occasional
glass of wine?” How that
question is answered depends on the centre and
its orientation to the consumption of alcohol but
even when there is acquiescence to participating in a societal ‘norm’,
the idea of drinking to
the point of heedlessness
or drunkenness would be
considered a breaking of
the precept.
So, how does a present
seeker of truth approach
this ecstasy/sobriety dilemma? An initial step, to
my mind, is to contemplate the nature of addiction. A spiritual ‘high’
can be as addictive as

the gloom espoused by
some Buddhists that ‘all is
suffering,’ so nothing can
be done but bear it. If we
are honest with ourselves,
we can determine which
side of this equation we
fall into.
If we are constantly
searching for ways to
be ‘up’, then we may
fall into the first category
and therefore we need
to become more ‘sober’.
That will probably include
becoming more realistic
about the spiritual path.
Or it might mean we
need to check ourselves
to see if we are capable of ‘making a peanut
butter sandwich’ for our
children within moments
of completing our meditation practice. In other
words, is our spirituality
grounded or are we able
to ground ourselves swiftly
after a practice that may
bring about an ecstatic or
mystical state?
If we are continually seeing life as a set of diminishing returns, we may have
become too ‘sober’ and
need to open up to the

beauty and joy that can
be found in religious art or
music.
The balance, for me, is
most easily found by going into nature. A beautiful sunset can move my
heart to ecstasy and an
overly strenuous hike can
sober my outlook, especially as I move into my
seventies.
Whether sober or in ecstasy, we should always
strive to promote careful
mindfulness of whatever is
arising in the mind and in
the body. Through awareness, we can most easily ‘see’ what is going on
and in later development
will be able to detect the
more subtle state of bliss
that accompanies deeper understanding.
“When all is reduced
to the One, to what is
the One reduced?” This
question can only be answered when the balance
between sobriety and ecstasy has been achieved.
copyright © 2013 by Lama Catherine Rathbun

Catherine Rathbun received her traditional teaching name, Lama Jetsun
Yeshe, from Ven. Karma Thinley Rinpoche, a lineage master of the Sakya
and Kagyu