Then I was looking for a serious discipline and I studied ray chung [SP] with Trupa [SP] and I studied BKS lyengar in the yogic tradition, Patabi Jois, I got certified to teach in the [ungi] tradition teaching yoga. Then I discovered Eido Roshi. I had read an article he had written, Eido Shimano Roshi, and the article said, "Don't send me anymore more PhDs, I already know everything." So again, this really struck really deep in my heart. It got it, so I went and saw him. Dai Bosatsu Zendo is the most magnificent place.
It's in the Catskill Mountains, two mile private roads, 1,600 acres of hard-rock maples and mixed forest, second highest lake in the Catskills, great old Victorian on the lake. And a 25,000 foot monastery built up on the side of a hill. And so that was a place for me to train. So I trained on and off there for 17 years. I spent six years there as the head monk and then the Vice Abbot before I received lineage recognition in 1992. So the path was one of frustration and confusion and then discipline. I drank, I used drugs. The whole traditional path and way, and then came to deciding that I needed a deeper realization and understanding, and Zen fit me quite well, especially the Rinzai style, Koan style with intense Koan concentration practice leading to the insight. So then I...
Erik: So Jun Po, I'm curious, before we go into the more recent or what has become your life's path of Zen, many people may have some ideas about psychedelics and spirituality. Some people may think they're bad and dangerous, a distraction. Some people may feel that they're necessary and some people may feel that they're just a doorway, and we are featuring a day in the event where we're looking at psychedelics as a medical treatment for PTSD and other things. I'm curious from somebody with now a discipline in the Zen tradition, what is your view on their value and benefit in general?
Jun Po: Spiritually, speaking, a pure psychedelic, and the psychedelic that I'm speaking of is 100% denormal lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD 25, but not an impure product, an absolutely pure product. If you take that in a ritual setting with the correct support, what you can do is disintegrate your ego and have a realization of the pure receptive consciousness or spirit within, dhyana. That can happen. And then you can also have a non-dual realization integration with circumstances. There's one breathing, living, God, you might say, or Universe, you might say, or reality.
It's in the Catskill Mountains, two mile private roads, 1,600 acres of hard-rock maples and mixed forest, second highest lake in the Catskills, great old Victorian on the lake. And a 25,000 foot monastery built up on the side of a hill. And so that was a place for me to train. So I trained on and off there for 17 years. I spent six years there as the head monk and then the Vice Abbot before I received lineage recognition in 1992. So the path was one of frustration and confusion and then discipline. I drank, I used drugs. The whole traditional path and way, and then came to deciding that I needed a deeper realization and understanding, and Zen fit me quite well, especially the Rinzai style, Koan style with intense Koan concentration practice leading to the insight. So then I...
Erik: So Jun Po, I'm curious, before we go into the more recent or what has become your life's path of Zen, many people may have some ideas about psychedelics and spirituality. Some people may think they're bad and dangerous, a distraction. Some people may feel that they're necessary and some people may feel that they're just a doorway, and we are featuring a day in the event where we're looking at psychedelics as a medical treatment for PTSD and other things. I'm curious from somebody with now a discipline in the Zen tradition, what is your view on their value and benefit in general?
Jun Po: Spiritually, speaking, a pure psychedelic, and the psychedelic that I'm speaking of is 100% denormal lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD 25, but not an impure product, an absolutely pure product. If you take that in a ritual setting with the correct support, what you can do is disintegrate your ego and have a realization of the pure receptive consciousness or spirit within, dhyana. That can happen. And then you can also have a non-dual realization integration with circumstances. There's one breathing, living, God, you might say, or Universe, you might say, or reality.
