Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics (Hardcover)

by Allan Hunt Badiner (Editor), Alex Grey (Editor), Huston Smith (Preface), Stephen Batchelor (Foreword) "Thus I have heard..." (more)
Key Phrases: psychedelic use, psychedelic culture, using psychedelics, Ram Dass, San Francisco, Tibetan Buddhism (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The use of psychedelic drugs is that dark little secret behind the popular origins of Eastern spirituality in America, but if they really open the mind in the same ways meditative experiences do, why shouldn't they be legitimated and brought out into the open? In Allan Hunt Badiner and Alex Grey's Zig Zag Zen authors, artists, priests, and scientists are brought together to discuss this question. Opinions fall on all sides. Ram Dass, for instance, discusses the benefits as well as the limitations. Rick Strassman outlines his work in the first federally funded psychedelic study in two-and-a-half decades. Rick Fields sets the historical scene. China Galland offers a wrenching personal experience. Robert Jesse introduces the varieties of entheogens, drugs that engender mystical states. Lama Surya Das tells of his early drug years. And a roundtable discussion with Ram Dass, Robert Aitken, Richard Baker, and Joan Halifax caps it all.

Interspersed throughout are stunning full-page, full-color images of spiritual art by the likes of Robert Beer, Bernard Maisner, and, of course, Alex Gray. A fascinating look at a complex topic, Zig Zag Zen is worth appreciating and pondering. --Brian Bruya

Review
"Zig Zag Zen challenges Buddhists to acknowledge their psychedelic legacies, while confronting the duality undermining any chemically dependent spiritual path." -- Douglas Rushkoff, author, Ecstasy Club, Exit Strategy, Playing the Future, and Coercion

"Zig Zag Zen is a must read for anyone who is concerned about the future of Buddhist practice." -- Bob Thurman, Chair of Indo-Tibetan studies at Columbia Univ.

"Zig Zag Zen is a treasure trove... inspiring, frightening, powerful, funny, and eye-opening." -- Mark Epstein, M.D., author of Thoughts without a Thinker

"Zig Zag Zen shines by its fairness: it faces the Zig and the Zag. That's Zen at its best." -- David Steindl-Rast, OSB, author of

"Zig Zag Zen touches all the high points... it is an important book." -- Laura Huxley, Founder of Children Our Ultimate Investment

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (April 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811832864
• ISBN-13: 978-0811832861
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #605,893 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars web of mind, February 21, 2003

By	Author Brian Wallace (Mind Transmission, Inc.) (Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

a beautifully designed and arranged collection of articles that expose the intelligent and creative uses of psychoactive chemicals.

While the "spiritual purists" may balk at the contention that chemicals seriously open up levels of consciousness and awareness, one comes away with deeper appreciation of various traditional methods of enlightenment (with and without chemicals).

This work effectively counteracts the anti-drug propaganda that has shamefully denigrated certainly respectable uses of treasured substances.

Zig Zag Zen does the universe proud.

30 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Slick Glossy Twaddle, March 22, 2004

By A Customer

Interesting anthology, probably worth putting together, very
little to do with 'Buddhism' per se, though it tries hard to make
some associations, they really arent convincing.
The book leaves an empty taste and slight feeling of nausea after
reading of all the dopeheads parading off to Hawaii, the Amazon,
or Green Gulch, in search of a 'real teacher' who would validate
their drug desires. Trungpa's paradoxical positions on intoxication are described from a few viewpoints which make for interesting reading, and comparison with that of Suzuki Roshi's. If you like the vapid slickness of Tricycle's heavy paper and empty pages, you might like this book.
Otherwise, your time might be better spent cleaning the toilet or doing the laundry, while enduring the ongoing decline and fall of human civilisation, the horror, the horror.

4 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars NOT REAL BUDDHISM, February 22, 2008

By	Annabel Lee (PA, USA) - See all my reviews

First off, if I could I would rate this book a ZERO. IT IS NOT WORTH YOUR TIME. This book has absolutely NOTHING to do with Buddhism or religion in general. Drugs and other intoxicants will NOT show you enlightenment. The only thing drugs will show you is what it's like to be on drugs. Real enlightenment comes from within. If you're serious about Zen, get a real book on it. Learn just what it was that Guatama Buddha taught. But if you're just looking for an excuse to do drugs, then by all means buy this book. Just don't make false claims that you're being spiritual. Own up to the fact that you have a drug problem.