Quest for the Enlightenment

One path is through mushrooms and other hallucinogenic drugs.  While the meditations found in eastern thought attempt to bring about a slow process of change where the ego dies or fades over a slow period of time, mushrooms are the opposite. The trip is an egoless state where the results are temporary.

The ego is there for a reason. It's a defense against this is a harsh world. Without the ego you're left as vulnerable as a child. A cruel person is anathema to a good trip. The best situation is to be in nature, surrounded by loving people who understand the experience.

The quest for the holy grail is seen by the Gnostics as the quest for enlightenment by the Buddhist, Taoist, Brahman. It follows a set pattern and course. Though there are many paths they all lead to the same awareness.

Yet enlightened is not available to anyone who looks for it. This is the third act of a movie. The hero, having reached an insurmountable obstacle, finds himself back at the exact point he started from no richer and no wiser. All his searching and desire has proved futile and without some outside influence he will remain in this state. The greatest threat at this point is a loss of hope. What normally happens is a new clue turns up or some person visits the hero and reveals his last step. It's only after the hero obtains the goal does he realize how close it was in his despair.

This idea is found in Eastern religion as well, particularly in Buddhist thought, where the person goes through a process of gradual change within a monastery, meditating for years and then reaches a point where nothing seems to work. He has ran into a wall which nothing can penetrate and no amount of effort or work will scale. The person must then walk away from Buddhism and meditation. They become farmers or fishermen. They take husbands or wives and one day, while out casting the nets, or tilling the field, in a blinding moment of complete vision, they achieve their lifetime's long goal. Enlightenment.