As a teenager, my motto was “question everything”.
The modern mind is addicted to thinking and questioning:
“Don’t take anything on authority.
Think for yourself.”
Questioning is related to questing,
And to the modern mind,
Questing and seeking
Are the essence of spirituality.
Why do people say,
“I am spiritual but not religious”?
Because they are spiritual seekers
Whose motto is “question everything”.
They think,
“Religious people don’t question.
They just believe.
They have blind faith.
They are simple-minded and gullible.”
But what if you find
What you were seeking for?
Do you keep seeking?
What if you cross to the other shore?
Do you carry the raft with you
Wherever you go?
I used to be spiritual.
But now I am religious.
Why?
Partly through my experience
With psychedelics.
Thinking, questioning,
Skepticism and doubt,
Invariably lead to bad outcomes:
Either “nada” or “mal viaje”.
I have observed this in myself
And in others.
What we take to be
The heroic dignity
Of enlightened self-reliance,
Self-assertion
And self-determination,
Is in fact that old devil called Pride.
And pride comes before a fall.
As I have repeatedly said
In various ways,
Gnosis without pistis and kenosis
Is dangerous.
What is kenosis?
Self-emptying – “bodymind dropped”.
What is pistis?
Faith – “the Word made flesh”.
A good religious
Must stop thinking and have faith.
And the same is true of a good psychonaut.
the way of the holy mushroom 