Question: “If Buddha says we should not believe anything even if he has said it, we should find out for ourselves, and people say that drugs which alter your consciousness and do not agree with the precept, does this mean one must experience drugs for themselves? This was contradicting to me and made me confused because if we shouldn’t intake drugs which take away our control, yet we only know they are bad because others have said it, should be try it?”
Drugs aren’t bad because others have said it, it’s bad because we can see the consequences and unfortunate events it can do to people – worse case scenario, death. The five precepts are not rules or regulations. The precepts should are common sense; do not kill, steal, lie, commit sexual misconduct, and intake intoxicants. Why would you need to experience them to determine if they’re good or bad? It’s already obvious (or at least it should be) that they are things we should avoid.
The precepts aren’t even the Buddha’s creation. Since there were no “rules” in the sangha, after several monks got in trouble for having sex, getting drunk, and taking life, the Buddha asked the sangha to come up with some “suggestions” for the monastics to live by, and so the precepts were created.
The Buddha was specifically talking about certain teachings when he said to not believe him and to explore it for ourselves. In most cases it was meditation methods and anything that required our own contemplation and observation.
Smile and be well!