Salvia, Nature, and True Nature
by
William Arden Ruth
?'Tis the gift to be simple,
'tis the gift to be free.
'Tis the gift to come down
where we ought to be.
And when we find ourselves
in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley
of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend
we shall not be ashamed.
To turn, turn
will be our delight,
'Till by turning, turning
we come round right.?
?old Shaker hymn ?Simple Gifts?
It?s really hard for me to write about the Salvia experience, even though I?ve written a fair bit about it in various Internet groups and personal journals. Eating some big fresh Salvia leaves after writing this rhapsodic essay, I realized once again how impossible it is to put the Salvia experience adequately into words. Reading--or writing--or thinking about the Salvia experience is no substitute for the actual experience. I can write about that which can be written about, and can only hope that I haven?t misrepresented Salvia?s nondualistic teachings too much by writing this.
What happened this evening was another in a series of Salvia journeys where I took my tired, aching body and angst-laden mind and let Salvia take it over for a little while. Not long after I started chewing the besagement set in, and as I collapsed completely on the bed my core being revealed itself once again, nothing out of the ordinary--an organic entity the same as any other organic entity that?s part of the organic entity covering the planet.
This is humbling. This is purifying. This is innocence regained. This is freedom, freedom of being. At the core we?re free beings, pure beings, innocent beings. Wild and free, the natural state, as down-to-earth as it?s possible to get and still be breathing. It?s great to be this way, home again, free again.
Salvia is a medicine and a messenger of nature, of the biosphere. To experience and then resume our own true nature is a healing, liberating experience sought and celebrated for millennia, and is often called ?enlightenment.?
Everyone wants to be satisfied, everyone wants to be free, and everyone CAN be satisfied, and free, because our true nature ALREADY IS satisfied, and free. Our true nature is sufficient unto itself, complete, whole, perfect, and pure. The only thing that keeps us from realizing and enjoying our own true nature is our thinking. It's worth doing whatever it takes to stop the thoughts that blind us, distract us, and conceal our true nature from us. Salvia can do that. With or without Salvia?s help, with sincere effort we can stabilize in our true nature, and avoid lapsing into uncomfortable?or worse yet, comfortable?self-delusion. The beauty of Salvia is that it consistently strips away self-delusion, even if only briefly. This characteristic of Salvia will keep some people close to her, and keep other people as far away from her as they can get!
I first heard about Salvia divinorum about six years ago while doing a Web search about Terence McKenna and mushrooms, a search prompted by a ?thought-of-the-day? message mentioning his death. While entheogenic mushrooms would no doubt have provided an interesting and worthwhile experience to fill a peculiar gap in my knowledge base, I decided to try Salvia instead, as it was easily available, short-acting, and inexpensive.
In April of 2000 I sat in a bare little upstairs room, with only the four 12-week-old kittens in the house with me. I chewed about 3.5 grams of plain dried leaf as a quid, just as an experiment to see if there were any effects to be had from ska Maria Pastora. I sat on a folding chair, chewing away, and at some point, maybe 20 minutes after chewing, effects began, and increased, and I sat there, helplessly, as my perception shifted in a way I could have never imagined. With eyes open, I perceived an entity with me in the room, of indescribable appearance, swirling with tentacles and tendrils, a wild, powerful being which filled me with dread, yet was compelling, irresistible. As it came closer I felt physically attracted to this strange manifestation looming before me. I had a choice to make: either resist the approaching entity and get away from it, or let it do what it wants to do with me. Either way, I was in a weird, desperate situation.
Having read enough about Salvia prior to partaking of it, I knew it was reputed to be a safe, beneficent plant, so in good faith I let go, unconditionally surrendering to the entity which was now fully upon me. I instantly became the entity, and felt its nature and its intent, fully part of its body now, blissful, complete, filled with a boundless love for all life, for all parts of itself, all life its flesh. My arms and legs were extensions of its tendrils and tentacles.
The kittens came into the room around this time, and they too were extensions of this entity, playfully and affectionately clawing me as they tried to climb onto my lap.
The vision ended, and I was left only with a few kitten scratches and a powerful, challenging message from this astonishing experience.
Over the ensuing years I?ve journeyed with Salvia many times, eating or smoking dried leaves in varying amounts, growing plants and eating their fresh leaves, and trying some excellent homemade tincture provided by a generous kindred spirit.
I?ve journeyed with Salvia with many different intents and mindsets. I?ve felt every possible level of Salvia besagement, from almost imperceptible to somnambulistic amnesia and everything in between.
I?ve journeyed with Salvia while sitting, standing, supine, walking, indoors and outdoors, sometimes totally immobile, other times fluidly moving the whole body. Many positions can be assumed while besaged, and each has advantages.
Sitting: This position has a special meaning for me, as that was the position I used when I had my first Salvia journey. It?s a good position to use to experience the body more acutely, particularly the alignment of the spine and the tenseness of the muscles. It?s great to get reacquainted with one?s own body, to get comfortable in it, to be in touch and in tune with it, with Salvia?s assistance. Not only is it possible to get physically comfortable and fully relaxed while sitting besagedly, but also get to a deep meditative state, a completeness and delight in sheer being, content to sit there as a grinning manifestation of true nature. Sitting is ideal for indoor or outdoor journeying and meditation.
Standing: This position is also good for getting back in sync with the body, to relearn what good posture feels like, how good it feels just to exist, in this body, in this moment. The waves of energy through the body have a chance to undulate freely, and the body starts to move and sway to let the energy flow freely through the spine, through the whole body. Standing is a good position for either indoor or outdoor journeying, as it doesn?t require a chair or a bed, just a solid surface to stand on.
Spontaneous moves and positions: Some other positions possible to use while besaged include hatha yoga type asanas, or tai chi type movements, whether one is trained in any of these disciplines or not. These positions arise spontaneously, the lifeforce moving as it will.
Supine: The big advantage with supine besagement is that it facilitates deep relaxation, a total letting-go. Lying flat on the back, with the eyelids closed, the attention is freed up to experience the universe within, the natural world within. The visions experienced while supine can be very vivid, all-consuming.
Walking: This is rather difficult to do when deeply besaged. When the besagement is strong, the walking is actually sleepwalking, somnambulism, and happens spontaneously. When the besagement is not too strong, walking is a bit awkward, uncoordinated, and becomes more of a slow strolling. Walking while besaged is best done outdoors, ideally in a natural setting such as a forest, field, or meadow. Walking while besaged in a secluded natural outdoor setting is a wonderful way to commune with the natural world, because it gives us the mobility to find, and become intimately acquainted with, the ways life expresses itself, the forms it assumes. Walking outdoors in itself can be a powerful meditation, if only because it gets awareness and vitality away from those things that distract awareness and sap vitality such as television, computer, mass media, the confinement of four walls?and gets us out under the sky, our feet back on sacred ground. The sky of mind expands in the sky of nature, vast, unchanging, and pure, serenely containing all phenomena as they appear and disappear and reappear.
In any position, using Salvia outdoors in solitude takes ?communing with nature? to a whole new level. It doesn?t take much Salvia to become blissfully aware of the wise, pure, powerful, serene shimmering presence of the natural world, to let it cleanse us of perceptual obscurations and take us fully into the pure living radiance of nature. The location should be free of hazards such as cliffs, waterfalls, and so forth, so that if the besagement is deep the ensuing somnambulism will not result in anything more serious than a few scrapes and scratches from lurching through the brush. Words can?t do justice to the wisdom that?s imparted by the natural world to the wide-open awareness of the besaged journeyer. Perception of the beauty, the radiance, the intelligent energy of the natural world is exquisitely enhanced with Salvia.
Using Salvia indoors has many advantages, especially when the weather is too harsh to be comfortable outdoors, or if there?s no secluded natural setting within walking distance. One?s own body is experienced as a wilderness area, and it suffices quite well in the absence of nearby outdoor wilderness. Strong besagement that leads to somnambulism is a potential safety hazard in some indoor settings, so care must be taken to either use a sitter or prepare a ?somnambulist-proof? indoor setting.
Salvia divinorum is a healing plant; it cures the sickness of conditioning, of mistaken identity. Take away thoughts, and our true nature is plain as day. Even though Salvia journeys are optional--as our true nature has the ability to experience its own glory within and without--such an option is a beautiful natural gift.
The beauty of teacher plants such as Salvia is they take the human conceptual judgmental obscurations out of the picture--there is no 'authority' from whom to seek approval or validation, only the very ground beneath the feet, the very sky above the head, the universal selfless self of nature, our true nature, within and without.
I used to think the Salvia experience should be shared with everyone who wanted it, or especially with those who needed it, that it could help so many people find new meaning and purpose to their existence. I?ve since accepted the fact that it?s not realistic, or practical, or possible, to distribute Salvia or any other teacher plant to everyone. Teacher plants are not for everyone. Just because some of us happen to be ready for teacher plants doesn?t mean everyone is ready for them.
How it is that a plant can catalyze deep nondualistic experiences is a mystery, which is as it should be, for this is the realm of mystical experience.
Is there something that can be brought back from deep nondual experiences such as those that Salvia catalyzes that can be applied in everyday life, with all its challenges?
I?ve often abstained from Salvia for long stretches to see what?s possible without Salvia?s assistance, in sympathy with people of the Earth, most of whom have never heard of Salvia, much less ever tried it or any other teacher plant--a minimalist approach which takes what everyone has and works solely with that, namely, basic awareness, awareness of awareness, awareness of being alive, awareness of existing, the sense of I AM. Every awake human being is aware and feels the sense of I AM, no matter how humble, constrained, or difficult the circumstance. The I AM is a universal constant among conscious human beings.
I?ve known the I AM to be either a curse or a blessing. It?s a curse when I believe I AM a separate self, a name, a role, thoughts, fears, memories, desires, body: this creates alienation, isolation, despair. It?s a blessing when I AM that I really am: the eternal universal energy that assumes all forms.
It?s good to find a stable, durable, self-sustained, practical nondual awareness--no special conditions, no teacher, no guru, no teacher plant, no exercises, nothing outside oneself required. The only requirement is the natural self, the vitality and pure natural awareness that just is. Being mindful of where attention is going--to thoughts, phenomena, emotional states, bodily sensations, whatever appears in the field of pure awareness--we can contemplate whose awareness, whose vitality, this is...whose awareness is aware of itself. People commonly have the necessary equipment to run this experiment and realize their own true nature, if they sincerely want to.
Our true nature is so familiar, so simple, so natural, and so obvious, that it?s overlooked: hiding in plain sight.
With deep desire to know the answer to WHO AM I, the answer comes from the same place the question comes from, and in this very moment there is a profound transformation. The old identity, the old conditioned alienated separate self, vanishes, and all that is left is true nature. All the fears and desires, all the varieties of suffering of the conditioned false self, fall away in the presence of the true self. As this requires letting go of the false identity, only those ready to lose the false identity and be the true universal identity can experience this and stabilize within this identity, the universal self, true nature. This is the most extreme requirement imaginable, and not many people are willing to lose their familiar identity, even though it is false and conditioned and the source of suffering.
Walking the nondual walk benefits everyone, and is worth making the extreme sacrifice of losing the false self. Interpersonal relationships become freshly infused with spontaneous respect, trust, unconditional love in the unshakable recognition of our true nature that assumes all forms.
Freedom is a state of mind, a state of being, innate completeness, wholeness, that depends on nothing. Even as the body goes through the changes of birth, growth, illness, injury, aging, dying, our true nature is always free, always everywhere, always alive.
The teacher plants help to bring us back to the eternal present, back to what we really are. Ultimately the individual will have integrated the lessons of the teacher plants so well that further use of the teacher plant becomes optional. Teacher plants are useful as 'training wheels' to assist us in learning how to express and experience our true nature, which we can manage, with practice, to do without such assistance. We are in fact the most powerful entheogen.
What?s worth doing, what?s worthwhile, in this brief life in this form--what's the most important problem to solve, what really deserves our attention and our efforts? For me, it's to become fluent in the universal language of love--that's what this thing we are loves to do. It loves to be what it is, and it loves to love all parts of itself.
That's the essence of the Salvia divinorum experience, at least the experience I've had with this wonderful teacher plant. The very first journey was the best of all, and all subsequent journeys have been reiterations of the same message, the same teaching, the same vision, the same reality: Be this that you are, the perfect pure universal self, the self that is light, love, life, truth--and love all parts of it.
Salvia is unknown and unavailable to most people. There is a need for some kind of panacea, freely available to anyone, in any circumstance, that can provide spiritual freedom, a release from suffering, no matter how wretched or pathetic the circumstances. Fortunately, nature has provided such a panacea?our true nature.
Wherever there's awareness--specifically self-awareness--there's the potential for self-realization, for spiritual freedom. Where there's life there's awareness, and where there's awareness there's the potential for self-awareness, awareness of awareness...and where there's self-awareness there's the potential for self-realization...and where there's self-realization there's spiritual freedom, wholeness, the end of suffering, the self-realized true universal natural self living gamely in an evanescent form.
The presence of nature, our true nature, is real, and is enough; Salvia helps us realize this. Salvia helps show us what we really are: as common as life, as ordinary as the earth and the sky and the eternally-dancing universe of energy.
