As a Buddhist, am I cleared for this career?

Q & A
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Hello Ajahn @Brahmali

I’m studying lucid dreaming, and I’m potentially interested in being a consultant for people in the realm of stress, trauma.

However, I would like to utilize rootworking for enhanced ability to carry the lucid dream experience for my clients. I have no intentions of harming anyone with rootworking. I want to do it for clients, and even for myself.

What does the Pali Canon say about lay people doing rootworking as a career(minus the harm)?

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I had to look up “rootwork”! There shouldn’t be any problem as long as you use it for good. :slightly_smiling_face: The Pali Canon says that any action rooted in good intentions is wholesome.

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I don’t know what exactly is rootworking. I questioned Google and it gave me this answer:

Root work, also known as conjure or hoodoo, is a form of folk magic and traditional medicine that developed within the Southern United States and Caribbean communities, particularly among enslaved and formerly enslaved African Americans. It involves using natural elements like herbs, stones, and other materials to create change, heal, or solve problems, often rooted in a belief in unseen forces and the power of nature

The mentioned practices, if used for curative purposes don’t seem contrary to buddhist practice to me, except for monastics.

Will you use hallucinogenic or psychotropic substances in your rootworking? Some substances with these properties may be considered intoxicants, so they would not be recommendable according to the fifth precept.

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As a reminder, please refrain from AI-generated content in the forum unless it is absolutely necessary per the guidelines. Thank you.

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Psychedelics will not be used. At least not ingesting them.

I just see that African Americans have it hard, and has totally lost themselves. If possible, I’d use it to help them, and then introduce Buddhism to them; revolutionizing their entire way of life that would reflect the Pali Canon.

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I’m not an experienced meditator, so I might be talking nonsense. What precautions would be necessary in this practice? Will you have the assistance of qualified Buddhist masters in such an endeavor? What’s your understanding of lucid dreaming in a Buddhist context?

Sammā Sati is about seeing phenomena as they are: body as body, feelings as feelings, mind as mind, and mental objects as mental objects. The practice of lucid dreaming can produce very vivid experiences for practitioners. Is there a possibility that someone might confuse experiences in dreaming with reality?

It seems to me that the experiences lived in a lucid dream are conditioned not by sensory input, but by volitional effort. It seems possible that someone might forget these details and believe that these experiences are, in an ultimate sense, real.

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