Wake up and smell the Nirvana?

The idea of being “awake” in philosophy is surprisingly ambiguous, and it is necessary to define being awake to avoid confusing different uses for the term, particularly because it varies between individuals. For some people “to be awake” is a simple concept, as it is the state of consciousness preceding and following sleep. Alternatively for some, if someone is free from ignorance and misunderstanding then they are also “awake”. By this definition, even if they are technically conscious, when someone is blind to some things like materialism and hypocrisy they are still considered “asleep”. Because of this, I will be referring to being awake in the non-literal sense, where being awake is akin to enlightenment and freedom from duplicity and material ills.

In class we discussed achieving Nirvana, and whether or not you could achieve it when using drugs. Nirvana is the Buddhist idea of achieving true freedom from samsara, which are burdensome earthly ties. According to Marga, or the Noble Eightfold Path, you must relentlessly work towards relieving yourself from physical and mental weakness in order to be truly awake. Some key aspects of this are aiming for truth, compassion, intense self-control and discipline. According to Buddhist philosophy you must abstain from drugs and alcohol in order to allow the clarity of the mind needed to reach your goal of purity, and this makes it clear that with the true Buddhist definition of what nirvana is, you cannot reach it with drugs. 

Despite this, some new-age people claim that you can reach true clarity and enlightenment while on drugs. However, it is not true Nirvana, simply because according to the religion it takes years of focus and discipline trying to rid yourself of all egocentrism, deceit, lust, and ill-will of any kind, and it is impossible for someone who relied upon an outside and earthly source to try to experience the enlightenment found through self-awareness and discipline. Someone who feels the need to influence their natural mind’s function is not achieving Nirvana in its actual Buddhist definition, and is not capable of being truly “awake”.

Reaching Nirvana has somehow become some sort of drug culture uber-achievement to swap stories about, but according to the definition of Nirvana and using the Buddhist ideals, it just isn't that quick and simple.