Smoking Tobacco

[sonamdhargey]

I found this article regarding smoking tobacco. Dudjom Rinpoche on the history of tobacco. Approximately a hundred years after Buddha Shakyamuni’s parinirvana.

‘Padmasambhava bound the Nine Demonic Brothers under oath, but they were breakers of samaya , and the youngest of them found a way to undermine their commitment to protect beings. He told his kindred: “Brothers, do not despair, listen to me. I shall manifest myself in the country of China as tobacco; the name of this toxin will be ‘the black poison’.

Whomever smokes will be reborn in the lower realms. If one smokes and others inhale the odour, it will be as if one were ripping out the hearts of six million beings.’

Tobacco: ‘the guide that leads the blind
on a false path which ends in a precipice’

Interesting read.

Source:http://khyentsenorbu.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

[Tenzin K]

We would also ask why it is that, in the face of massive medical evidence, people still smoke – and why governments who are happy to legislate against all manner of things, find themselves unable to ban this substance. How can this be, in view of the fact that the very same governments have made it mandatory for tobacco products and tobacco advertising to carry a health warning? Is there any other non-medically prescribed substance on the open market which carries a health warning – let alone such dire warnings as are found with regard to tobacco? How is it that this substance remains legal? How is it that children can be exposed to cigarette fumes without this being regarded as ‘child abuse’ – when it has been shown that ‘secondary smoke’ is as harmful as direct smoking? We live in societies where social agencies have become extremely sensitive to such issues – so why is there not as much concern about injury from smoking with regard to children as there is concern over firearms? Surely death is death – whatever the cause, and a demon is a demon by any other name.

The ‘demonic quality’ of tobacco is evident whether or not one perceives the ‘demon’. The important fact here, for anyone who has respect and devotion for HH Düd’jom Rinpoche, is that smoking destroys one’s practice and one’s samaya. HH Düd’jom Rinpoche is the Lama whom most other Nyingma Lamas alive today venerate as the epitome of all that is inspiring – so those who have not yet been convinced as to the effects of smoking, please take this opportunity to rid yourself of its corrupting influence.

[sonamdhargey]

I would like to ask the readers here who are smokers. After reading this article, how do you feel? What action would you take to get rid of this habit? I'm sure most smokers want to quit the habit but find it rather difficult due to strong attachment to it. Would reading this article motivate you to quit?

No offense intended. I used to be a smoker too.

[RedLantern]

Drinking and smoking are the two sinful habits in the life of any individual in Buddhism.Smoking is not only seen as to be not only affecting the person  itself but the people surrounding us.
If you don't need cigarrettes and it's  harmful then there's no excuse to do it .It"s a form of attachment and attachment leads to Dukkar.For example,you may enjoy the smoke ,but what about when you crave for it?
It also drains the essential minerals from the body with it's 400 plus chemicals in it.
The smoke from cigarretes is harmful to plants and animals.There are numerous scientific theories proving the bad side of smoking.

[diamond girl]

I would like to ask the readers here who are smokers. After reading this article, how do you feel? What action would you take to get rid of this habit? I'm sure most smokers want to quit the habit but find it rather difficult due to strong attachment to it. Would reading this article motivate you to quit?

No offense intended. I used to be a smoker too.

Hmm... This article definitely makes my mind stir. In answer to the question of how smokers feel. There is much conflict I must admit when reading this. One thing I did do was put out the cigarette which I had lit as I started reading this thread... Smoking is definitely an attachment and I will not deny it. And my justification is that it is the least of many evils. Then now I read this and my head spins. Giving up smoking is one thing I have never been able to achieve. My excuse is that it is a stress relief agent. This article does make me think deeper now...

[Aurore]

I would like to ask the readers here who are smokers. After reading this article, how do you feel? What action would you take to get rid of this habit? I'm sure most smokers want to quit the habit but find it rather difficult due to strong attachment to it. Would reading this article motivate you to quit?

No offense intended. I used to be a smoker too.

Yes, you are right. Most smokers do know the consequences of smoking hence many do make conscious attempts to quit. Like any other attachments and cravings of any sort can be difficult to kick off. Different people have different attachments with different consequences. It doesn't make a non-smoker better than a smoker.

I think the reason not to make it is the mind conditioning of not being able to do it. Again, it's the selfish mind we are talking about. Personally, articles like this does not really help me. Knowledge is only as good as it gets if one doesn't apply the knowledge. Cultivating a selfless mind can. To think about how as a smoker can affect the lives of others in so many ways constantly.

How ungrateful we are to our parents who went through difficulties in birth and raising us. How inconsiderate we are to let others inhale second hand smoke. How stupid we are to throw away our precious lives. How selfish we are to not maintain a healthy body to benefit others.

[Q]

Strictly speaking, in Buddhism, smoking is not restricted per say. However, for serious practitioners that already have this habit and addiction, they will attempt to give it up. Because smoking is severely addictive and can be seen as a large attachment or craving, therefore in attempt to eliminate all form of craving in order to pursue a spiritual path, many Buddhists eventually quit smoking. Besides that, second hand smoking has also been noted to be very harmful to the people around them, I think this is also a major reason for people to quit smoking.

[Ensapa]

Not a Buddhist article, but an interesting one nevertheless, especially for people who are still smoking as it gives them a different perspective on smoking. It gives us a very interesting perception on what smoking really is. There are Buddhist elements in play here, see if you can spot it

Cigarette Smoking is Caused by a Delusion
A physician's unique approach to smoking cessation.
Published on September 15, 2009 by Alex Lickerman, M.D. in Happiness in this World
I le

aned back in my chair and breathed a heavy sigh. My patient, Mr. Rodriguez (not his real name), noticed my discomfort. "I know I should quit," he told me with a guilty shrug of his shoulders. "Have you ever tried?" I asked. "Once," he replied, "but it didn't stick." Mr. Rodriguez had been a pack-a-day smoker for the past 20 years, something he'd only begrudgingly confessed in response to a standard inquiry I make of all my first time patients. He didn't see it as a problem himself. Or at least he hadn't mentioned it when I'd asked him at the beginning of the visit why he'd come to see me. "Are you aware of all the ways cigarette smoking is bad for you?" I asked. An alarmingly high proportion of patients know surprisingly little about all the potential consequences of tobacco smoking. Mr. Rodriguez, however, was able to come up with two of the major ones: heart attacks and lung cancer. "Why do you keep smoking when you know it causes heart attacks and lung cancer?" I asked him. He shrugged, obviously embarrassed to be caught in a contradiction. But even as I tried to shame him into wanting to quit by preying on his need to appear consistent, I knew no contradiction actually existed. I knew this not because of my medical training or subsequent years of medical practice, but rather because of my many years of practice as a Buddhist.
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THE KEY INGREDIENT TO HAPPINESS

The kind of Buddhism I practice isn't Zen or Tibetan, the two most popular forms in the United States, but rather Nichiren Buddhism, named after its founder, Nichiren Daishonin. The practice of Nichiren Buddhism doesn't involve meditation as do the other more popular forms but rather something even more foreign and discomforting to those of us raised in the traditions of the West---chanting. Every morning and every night I chant the phrase Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with a focused determination to challenge my negativity in an effort to give birth to wisdom.

Wisdom, Nichiren Buddhism argues, is the key ingredient to achieving happiness. And wisdom, rather than knowledge, is what my patient, Mr. Rodriguez, seemed so desperately lacking. He knew intellectually he shouldn't smoke, but that knowledge hadn't yet penetrated to become wisdom—to become, in essence, action. Despite his embarrassment, Mr. Rodriguez presented no contradiction because action never arises from knowledge alone. It arises from knowledge that is believed. How often do we understand with our intellects how we ought to behave but find ourselves unable to do so? Why, for example, do some people know how to set appropriate boundaries with others, but other people can't bring themselves to say no to anyone? Why do some alcoholics figure out they need to stop drinking and stop, while others state they know they should, but never do? Why do some people hear advice to quit smoking and quit that very day, while others smoke on even after heart attacks and strokes?

The answer lies not just in what we believe but also in the degree to which we believe it. Deeply held belief—Buddhism (and psychology) would argue—introduces a critical ingredient necessary for change: motivation. One of my patients tried and failed to quit smoking for several years until his wife casually mentioned one day how much she hated coming home to a smoke-filled house, and he stopped for good the next day. He'd finally discovered the motivation to quit: a sudden, burgeoning awareness (that is, a deeply felt belief) of the harm his smoking was doing not to himself but to his wife. He was ultimately more capable of believing that his wife's life was at risk than he was his own. Not surprising when you consider most of us tend to deny the possibility of our own death far more vigorously than we deny the possibility of everyone else's.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS A DOCTOR'S ADVICE?

"How many of your patients actually quit because you tell them they should?" Mr. Rodriguez wanted to know after I told him my other patient's story. In fact, one meta-analysis tells us on average only 2 out of every 100 smokers told by their physicians to quit will succeed in establishing long-term abstinence. It's less clear how many alcoholics or drug addicts who recognize they're addicted and need to quit actually do. But the principle remains the same: some people can digest intellectual knowledge and translate it into deep and motivating belief, belief they must change their behavior despite all the obstacles—and some simply can't. Specifically, with regard to smokers, 98 out of every 100 can't.

What, then, is the difference between those two smokers who hear their physicians' warnings about the dangers of smoking and for the first time truly understand it's time for them to quit and the other 98 who agree they should quit, who may even want to quit, but repeatedly fail in their attempts? Why did the possibility of losing his wife motivate one of my patients but not Mr. Rodriguez? Or asked from a Buddhist perspective, why do some find the wisdom and others do not?

One could argue that Mr. Rodriguez did in fact believe in the dangers of nicotine, both to himself and his wife, but that he was simply too addicted to succeed in quitting. I would argue, however, the problem lay less with the strength of his addiction and more with the weakness of his belief. If those dangers, which he only weakly believed applied to himself, could have in some way been brought home to him—as Ebeneezer Scrooge's impending death was brought home to him by the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come showing him his own tombstone—I'm convinced Mr. Rodriguez would have been able to resist the pleasure smoking provided and managed the pain of withdrawal abstention would have produced. Nichiren Buddhism argues that the true reason for the emergence in the human mind of new and powerfully motivating belief is mystic—meaning, simply, unknowable—which is why I teach residents and students to ignore the odds and counsel all of their smoking patients to quit each and every time they see them. Despite our preconceived expectations that most of our patients won't be able to listen, clearly we have no way of predicting which 2 out of every 100 will.

HEALTH AND HAPPINESS

I would argue, therefore, there are two possible approaches to the practice of medicine and that the second of the two is better. The first involves diligently providing appropriate advice about smoking cessation, abstention from alcohol for those who abuse it, or pharmacological management of depression and anxiety (to name only a few of the common ailments that affect my patient population).

The second approach, however, involves becoming interested in the beliefs patients hold that keep them trapped in harmful behavior patterns. It involves embracing a view of the human mind that recognizes all behavior arises out of belief and that if we could only help patients find their way to wisdom, their lives might then become governed by actions that lead to happiness and joy rather than pain and suffering. This, then, is how I view the proper role of a physician: not just as an advocate for patients' health but for their happiness as well. While I certainly don't believe I have all the wisdom my patients would ever need to solve every problem they face, I am equally certain they do themselves.

My ultimate aim, then, and, it turns out, the most enjoyable part of my day, involves encouraging patients to challenge their deeply held beliefs that, in my view, obstruct their ability to change maladaptive behaviors. Though I often fail, I am never able to predict with whom I will succeed, so I approach every patient as a mystery to be solved, always full of hope. And as he left my office that morning no more determined to become a non-smoker than when he'd first entered, I wondered: what do you need to hear, Mr. Rodriguez? What experience will cause some critical piece of wisdom to penetrate into your heart and somehow motivate you to save your own life?

 

[buddhalovely]

In tobacco harm reduction we think that the most important thing is that people who use or might use tobacco should know about the health risks and should be aware (and have available) all the safer nicotine alternatives. Smoking is a choice but it should be within the context of the knowledge that there are safer ways to get nicotine. I guess one way of looking at it is, though for some people smoking is the best nicotine option given their circumstances, for many smokers that is not the case, and with that in mind, a decline in the number of smokers is a positive development.

So we want people to have options, but we would like to see smoking become less common. And not because it is smoking but because of those avoidable diseases and the intimidating tales told of the ones who do smokes.

[pgdharma]

Smoking kills and the effects of second hand smoke are also bad for the health of those around us. Every year hundreds of thousands of people around the world die from diseases caused by smoking cigarettes.

Yet why do people smoke? It is because it has nicotine, a drug that is naturally present in the tobacco plant and is primarily responsible for a person’s addiction to tobacco products, including cigarettes. During smoking, nicotine enters the lungs and is absorbed quickly into the bloodstream and travels to the brain in a matter of seconds. Nicotine causes addiction to cigarettes and other tobacco products that is similar to the addiction produced by using drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Thus it becomes a craving and an attachment even though most smokers know that it is harmful. It will take a lot of determination, effort and discipline to quit smoking.

[hope rainbow]

So, is it chocking to see Chogyam Trungpa with a cigarette?
After all, he was and still is highly regarded as a Buddhist Teacher, and a controversial one.
Smoking was one of the controversial aspect of his, but it is the controversial aspects that gave him a platform to reach many people who otherwise would not have gone anywhere close to Dharma.
Is smoking still bad then?

[Tammy]

Smoking is an attachment ! Much like the other habits that we pick up, such as drinking, gambling, sleeping (haha, just joking!), etc.

I have seen smokers who tried but unable to quit, also many who just stopped, cold turkey style. Those who could throw the civil and just quit were those who had a strong personal reason to quit. One of my friend quit on he saw his 4-year old son holding a pencil in his mouth mimicking his smoking action, he was shocked to the core and realized he had been showing his son a bad example. Hence he quit and till today, he had never taken any puff !

You see, it's all in the mind.

[ilikeshugden]

I am personally a non-smoker but I do not think that a smoker would stop smoking if I just show them this article. The tobacco problem in China during that time, was causing people to stop working etc. I guess that is what the story is referring to. Smoking is an epidemic. Impossible to cure. Once they start smoking, they would not stop. It is so unfortunate.

[dondrup]

Tobacco contains carcinogen – a substance that causes lung cancer.  Hence smoking tobacco is detrimental to health and a factor that causes early death.  Tobacco also contains nicotine – an addictive substance.  The discussion that follows is in the context of a Dharma practitioner who smokes cigarettes. As a Dharma practitioner, we realize the preciousness of human life which is hard to obtain.  Why would a Dharma practitioner continue to smoke a cigarette or tobacco to jeopardize his precious human life?  Why would the Dharma practitioner want to strengthen his attachment to the addictive nicotine in the cigarette?  Isn’t attachment one of the three root causes of samsaric existence? If the Dharma practitioner who smokes really cares about benefiting others, he should not smoke because the secondary smoke from the cigarette is harmful to others (including himself) who may inadvertently absorb the smoke created by the smokers. 

There are so many termas which predicted about the dangers and consequences of smoking.  These are words of the enlightened beings.  Even Buddha Padmasambhava has warned about the evils of smoking.  Shouldn’t the practitioners heed these advices?  Even in the taking of precepts, there is a precept which is not to take intoxicants e.g. smoking.  These teachings explain about the harmful effects of smoking. 

Knowing the dangers of smoking why has the smokers not quit smoking?

[Ensapa]

For those aspiring to quit, I have found a mini guide of sorts on how to quit smoking, based on Buddhist(?) principles. The author claims that it works, but as usual, I do have my doubts, but neverthenless, it is a good read to an extent.

         
         Stop Smoking by Using Buddhist Methods
                  By Dr. Wu Tao-Wei

Even the heroin addicts all agree that it was easier for them to
stop taking heroin than it was to stop smoking tobacco. And yet,
with my simple method, you can quit smoking tobacco if you want
to. The important phrase here is: "if you want to" because you
must actually WANT to quit smoking as the first step. Of course!

There are two elements to my method. The first element is for
curing your body and the second element is for curing your Mind.
After all, tobacco addiction involves both the physical addiction
and the psychological addiction.

For curing the physical addiction, one must make sure that your
diet is adequate. Eating healthy food is necessary for the relief
of ANY disease as well as the maintenance of general good health
at all times. And since you are quitting tobacco, your taste buds
will no longer be scorched off and numbed by the searing tobacco
fumes and nicotine. So you will begin to appreciate the delicious
flavors of the food. This is the time to explore your local
health food store and organic foods market to begin enjoying a
part of Life that is closed to tobacco smokers, namely, the
delicious tastes of food.

In addition, no matter what foods you eat, you must make sure to
take vitamins and mineral supplements. Buy these at health food
stores since such vitamins pills usually are of higher quality
and from natural sources than are the vitamins found in regular
food stores and pharmacies.

You want to take vitamins, especially vitamin B complex, because
nicotine pushes the B vitamins out of your body. Thus, much of
the cravings for a smoke that addicts feel are actually cravings
for vitamin B. But since nicotine quickly replaces vitamin B, the
tobacco addict senses that he/she can eliminate the cravings
merely by having another smoke. And so they get caught in a
crave-and-fulfillment spiral. For my method to work, you must
take vitamins everyday. Use liquid vitamins or the soft gel
capsule vitamins from health food sources. That is the first
element of my quit smoking system, curing the body.

The second element of my system is for curing the Mind. And this
is the tricky part. It is not that you have to "trick" your own
Mind but that your own Mind is so tricky. And so, to calm the
Mind and make it "understand", we shall consider the Buddhist
Four Nobel Truths.

The Four Nobel Truths are: (1) This is suffering, (2) This is the
Path to suffering, (3) This is the Path away from suffering,
(4) This is the Nobel Eight Fold Path. Now, I will not explore
the Nobel Eight Fold Path here since it is not necessary to know
anything about it for my quit-smoking system to work.

Let's first look at what the nicotine in tobacco is. Nicotine is
a deadly poison. It is a colorless vegetable alkaloid that turns
brown when exposed to the air as it absorptions oxygen. It is
used commercially as an insecticide and a hog wormer. But it is
so very poisonous that a tea made from two cigarettes and drunk
down, is the lethal dose for an adult. Pure nicotine paralyses
the nerves and may be quickly fatal. Symptoms are tremors,
headaches and dizziness, with collapse due to paralysis of the
respiratory system. Nicotine is not something that you want to
ingest into your body. But when you smoke it in tobacco, it
induces a feeling of relaxation and mild euphoria and is a mild
pain killer. And of course, tobacco causes cancer, heart disease,
emphysema, foul breath, and other ailments.

So, ask yourself. "Are all of these diseases fun to have?"
Catching even one of these diseases is no fun at all and can most
assuredly be called a form of suffering. And so, you MUST
understand that smoking tobacco leads to pain and suffering. Oh,
you might have a feeling of relaxation, mental tranquility and
euphoria when you smoke, but it is a rosy path that leads to
disability and death, that is, it leads to suffering.

Therefore, when you see an advertisement for tobacco; when you
see someone smoking; when you see cigars or cigarettes in a
store; you should repeat to yourself the First Nobel Truth of
Buddhism and say, "This is suffering."

When you pick up a cigarette, cigar or pipe, repeat to yourself,
"This is the Path that leads to Suffering,"

When you put down or stub out what you are smoking, say, "This is
the Path that leads away from suffering."

These three precepts will begin to shape your thoughts and to
focus your Mind. But there is more. These are not magic pills but
are strategic thinking methods that prepare you for Buddhist
understanding.

The final method to quit smoking actually involves (of all
things!) actually smoking a cigarette! Before lighting that
cigarette or cigar, pause for a moment and ask yourself, "What is
nicer? This lung-full of life-giving, wonderful air?" Now, as you
think this, inhale the air deeply into your lungs and then breath
out to feel what the air does for you.

Next, light the cigarette that you were intending to smoke and as
you light it, ask yourself, "Or this lung-full of hot, poisonous
fumes?" And as you think this, inhale the cigarette smoke into
your lungs.

Soon, you will begin to realize that that breath of health-giving
air is much, much nicer than the poisonous tobacco fumes.
Finally, as you stub out the cigarette or crush it under your
feet, say, "This is the Path away from suffering."

My stop-smoking method works, but it is you, yourself,
who works it.