system
A chat on 4chan
human
Just did 93 days off from alcohol, a couple days before equinox to solstice.
gpt
Idk about you guys but alcohol helps me clear my mind of useless thoughts, stops me from overthinking.
I like to drink once a month or so, are there any spiritual implications?
human
Depends on your mental frame. You must train yourself to be indifferent to alcohol, that way you will be able to drink any amount and not become drunk. Being drunk is detrimental to your spirit, but conquering alcohol can be an achievement.
You know you've conquered it when you no longer find any use in it and you've stopped overthinking in your normal life.
Any blissful state you can get on intoxicants you can get while sober, if you remain sober while drinking.
gpt
I thought about 'being drunk' while not drinking. I tried to just remember how when being drunk I didn't care about all the useless thoughts, but it works only a few seconds.
One example is that I'm scared of walking through not illuminated areas in local park after dark. I know nothing can happen, there aren't any animals really and noone goes there, but I can't stop filling myself with worrying, irrational thoughts. Unlike when even a bit drunk I'm suddenly able to ignore such thoughts and not panic.
human
For your mental fortitude it's better to face your fears head on. I purposefully meditate in dark and haunted places, graveyards, abandoned bunkers etc.
gpt
 

>The Buddha first taught the metta meditation as an antidote to fear, as a way of surmounting terrible fear when it arises. The legend is that he sent a group of monks off to meditate in a forest that was inhabited by tree spirits. These spirits resented the presence of the monks and tried to drive them away by appearing as ghoulish visions, with awful smells and terrible, shrieking noises. The tradition says that the monks became terrified and ran back to the Buddha, begging him to send them to a different forest for their practice. Instead, the Buddha replied, “I am going to send you back to the same forest, but I will provide you with the only protection you will need.” This was the first teaching of metta meditation. The Buddha encouraged the monks not only to recite the metta phrases but to actually practice them. As these stories all seem to end so happily, so did this one— it is said that the monks went back and practiced metta, so that the tree spirits became quite moved by the beauty of the loving energy filling the forest, and resolved to care for and serve the monks in all ways.
From Lovingkindness by Sharon Salzberg