Talks with 6 teenagers about drugs, etc.

- We met in the park.

by Reza Ganjavi

After several days of rain it's taking a break before starting again tomorrow. I don't understand why some people dislike the rain. It is so lovely, so peaceful. John Lennon: "Can you hear me, that when it rains and shine, it's just a state of mind, can you hear me?" Today, took the guitar to practice in the park where there are magnificent huge trees. A young boy and a girl were going around. They came to me: "Do you have hemp?"

- Hemp? What for?

- "To smoke, to get high"

- I met a girl in the park yesterday who smoked hemp. Afterwards I asked her if she felt high or low, she said low! Why do you want to get high?

- "Because the world is so bad, you have to get away from it".

- But you are the world, you make the world...

- "No, the old stupid people are the world"

- You can get high naturally by eating right, getting enough rest, exercise, etc., it is your birth right to be happy, to be high, naturally.

They accepted one's offer to sit down. (names disguised). Jill 17, and Tom, 16.

- Yes the world is a mess because the old people and also people before them were irresponsible, etc., take one of the political leaders for example who did nuclear testing despite every scientist saying it is bad for the world, for the environment. But you will soon grow up and be one of the "old people" too. What makes you think you'll be any different?

- "We have to live how we want."

- But your parents did that too. They thought they lived how they wanted. Didn't they? You smoke pot, they did other things.

- "Yes, they had alcohol and LSD, etc… A few big people make the world bad" (the leaders, etc.)

- So what's the solution?

- "Kill them all."

- So you suggest having more guns.

- "Give more guns to the right people, not to the young aggressive ones (who recently killed school kids)". (later she said this wouldn't be a good solution).

- The world is a reflection of what we are inwardly... so the only way to change it is to change ourselves. History has proved that political and economic revolutions do not fundamentally change the world. The real revolution has to come from inside each one of us.

- "You're right, but everybody has to change, but nobody will change".

- When I change and you change and he changes, this affects the world, however small. Do you smoke cigarettes? "Yes." And do most of your friends smoke? "Yes", so, when you stop, and they offer you one and you say, “No”, that brings a change to them too. You might think you're too small and the effect you will have is small, but if you change, you never know what will happen. (She saw the truth of that). If you merely get high on drugs this doesn't change anything: you're escaping from the world not facing it. For any change to come about we have to face what the world is and what we are.

- "We get high to get away from the world, to see it with different eyes".

- In my teenage days they used to say "reality sucks".

- "Exactly."

- We see the world through glasses of, for example prejudice. We have to clean those glasses by learning about ourselves... And also to take care of the body... and the brain is physical so its quality of experience is related to body's health. And when the senses are cleansed, they become very sharp. Those colors of green glow. Do you like every cig you smoke? (they admitted they don't). So, that is in contradiction to your idea of really doing what you want - because you are doing something you don't want (smoking), and that creates disharmony - like this guitar if I (I took the G string off tune) - see how bad it sounds....(discussion on cigs continued...)

- "We are unhappy because we cannot make a choice. School is too heavy. We go from 7:30 to 17:30 every day. We know what we want but the teachers and parents and others tell us make this, do this. We want to live like they did 100 years ago, don't go to school, don't work, have no car, get some money by maybe making some things, have your own garden and grow apples, bananas, potatoes, etc."

- If you really love what you do you get good at it and money will come... but this lack of choice is not permanent. In higher levels of education you have a choice to study what you like.

We talked about food, and other subjects as well. It was refreshing to see them understand everything we said. At the same time a group of 4 young boys walked by. I had seen them before - at night near the bus stop when they looked like gangsters, with a young chubby one, as their leader - they all smoked. I felt sorry for them that night for being victims of the ruthless cigarette companies. Today also all 4 held cigarettes. It was good to see them again and get to know them. Asked the chubby one who had a friendly innocent smile why he smoked.

-"Because he smokes" - pointing to his friend.

-Why do you smoke?

-He pointed at the chubby one, "Because he does". We had a good laugh at that. Asked the 3rd one why he smoked?

- "Because these two smoke" :-)

- Turned to the 4th one who also had a lit cig in his hand: “And why do you smoke?”

- "I don't smoke". It was very funny. They have internet access so I suggested they read the article on smoking on my website. Jill and Tom left. They had to go back to their friends who had sent them on a mission on finding Hemp. Instead maybe they found something else! The whole time I was practicing guitar with occasional breaks to jot a note down. The boys sat down and our conversation continued....

- Part of intelligence is to end your suffering.

- "When you suffer and you finish it then you're intelligent."

- Yes, if you finish it... Now you're young and your bodies are strong so you don't feel it, but later cigs makes your lives unnecessarily complicated. Only 5 in 100 smokers succeed in quitting, and they all think they're stronger than cigs. The addiction makes them find excuses not to quit.

- "Sometimes I go home at night and I say, this is shit, no more smoking, but I still do it".

- Or throw away cigs, just to buy more tomorrow. "Yes".

One of them started lighting one up.

- Wait! Look at how you feel now.

- "I'm nervous, feeling good".

- The cig helps you celebrate. You should feel good. The air is beautiful... why do you need the cig? It's a false friend. And when you don't feel good, the false friend says, "I'll help you". Let's see how you feel afterwards. After he finished it, he was not feeling all that good. So the cig took something away.

We continued our discussion about their school, their plans, etc… "What about hemp?", they asked. I said, read the article. What goes up must come down. Be naturally high... They were really good boys with various ethnic backgrounds. It was nice to meet these 6 teenagers and have deep talks with them.

Joined other friends on the grass and continued with music on a lovely day... Markus was silly, going around the circle rattling the "egg shaker" at each one's ear as a tune played. Now it's time for a walk in the hills before the sun goes down.

------------

Nice walk, and nice to sit quietly up there. The brain becomes naturally quiet when it sees the limitation of its own activity and when there's order. And something tingles on the forehead.

------------

17-May "Tom" wrote: "Thanks for your email, I was very happy. Yesterday evening we spoke long with our friends over the talk with you. They founded that very interesting. But we didn't found any marijuana in the park, but we smoked some later!!!