The Slow Burn - Is smoking cigarettes un-Buddhist?
April 28, 2015
Bernie Flynn, a longtime student of Chögyam Trungpa, recently told me about the time he and the Rinpoche tried to quit smoking cigarettes. A few days in, he was driving the Rinpoche to a meeting. Antsy and in withdrawal, Bernie couldn’t help but notice his teacher sitting calmly in the passenger seat. Finally, his nerves on edge, Bernie turned to Trungpa and asked how the whole quitting thing was going. “It’s easy,” said Trungpa. “Either you smoke, or you don’t smoke.”
Ah, so simple.
Later that evening, Bernie entered a room to find the Rinpoche gleefully chain smoking.
Oh, not so simple.
The psychoactive effects of drugs, alcohol included, don’t exactly jibe with the goals of Buddhist practice. Sure, some people stumble into the dharma after stumbling through an acid trip, but the fact that LSD can be a gateway to practice doesn’t mean it’s allowed beyond the gate of any respectable dharma institution. And though many Buddhists drink, it’s generally understood that this should occur in moderation and off the zafu. Hence, refraining from intoxicants is one of the five basic Buddhist precepts.
Cigarettes, however, seem to exist in a hazy gray area, both literally and figuratively. Caffeine, a substance that might otherwise find itself in similar ambiguous territory, has a sexy origin story: the Ch’an patriarch Bodhidharma, angry at himself for dozing off during zazen, rips off his eyelids and flings them to the ground, from which sprout the first tea leaves. Thus caffeine has long been accepted by Buddhists the world over as a mild performance enhancing drug, endorsed by legend. Tobacco, lacking such an auspicious beginning, has long been tolerated in Buddhist communities anyway, though the Buddhist stance on smoking is vague at best.
Thus, the question remains. Either you smoke, or you don’t smoke, yes, but should you smoke? I found the answer, like a good koan, to be both elusive and entirely dependent upon who is answering.
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Smoking is not technically prohibited in Buddhism, but then again, neither is juggling chainsaws or playing Russian roulette. It would be tedious if all prohibited actions had to be spelled out (which doesn’t mean people haven't tried. See: the Vinaya). I pointed this out to Dr. Joel Smith, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Skidmore College. “Of course [smoking is not prohibited],” said Smith, “but if you look at the eightfold path and you have any kind of subtle interpretation about right action and right effort, it doesn’t take much to argue that [right action and right effort] should be applied in that kind of way.”
Smith traveled in Japan with John Daido Loori Roshi, longtime abbot of the Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate New York, when Daido was receiving his confirmation rituals at Eihei-ji many years ago. He remembered Daido stepping outside the Eihei-ji buildings to smoke in between ceremonies.
“I asked him about it once,” Smith said, “and he responded, ‘Zen is not a health trip.’”
While this may be true, it glosses over the fact that smoking is, at its most basic, a harmful action. Dr. Smith has been teaching Buddhism and Eastern philosophy for decades, and over the years he has brought many students to dharma institutions to hear teachings. A number of them, he said, are turned off by the fact that they see monks smoking. “This is really where the rubber hits the road,” said Smith. “You can talk generally about compassion, but if you can’t apply it to something so basic in one’s personal life, then what the heck is going on?”
Aside from the issue of alienating the dharma-curious, the fact that Buddhists smoke raises a deeper issue for Smith. “If you love life and affirm it and want to do good in the world and be compassionate to other people, then you want to make your body and your mind as much of a vehicle for that as possible for as long as possible.” Smoking cigarettes would seem to undercut that possibility, limiting the amount of time one has to be a vehicle for the dharma. So why do Buddhist teachers continue to allow their addiction to impinge on their responsibilities? Shouldn’t overcoming their addiction be of the utmost importance, both as exemplars of the teachings and as vehicles for them?
I put this question to Dr. Judson Brewer, the director of research at the Center for Mindfulness. Brewer and his team at Yale University have developed the Craving to Quit app, which uses mindfulness to help people kick their addiction. “It’s a great question and I would want to talk to these folks and get their story,” said Brewer. “Is it just a habit that’s so much in the background that you’re not paying attention or is the level of suffering that it causes so minimal that there’s no drive to change the behavior?”
I asked Brewer if Buddhist teachers have a moral imperative not to smoke.
“If I had a gun and I killed myself, that wouldn’t be that helpful if I were a good teacher. And smoking has obviously been linked to increased mortality and morbidity, as well as a number of illnesses, including cancer.”
Indeed, John Daido Loori Roshi died of lung cancer in 2009 (though he did give up smoking later in life). Like shooting yourself with a gun, smoking will ultimately aid in your demise. “It’s not exactly suicide,” said Brewer. “It’s just a slower burn.”
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In 2005 I was one of 33 college students who lived in a Burmese monastery in Bodhgaya, India, where we studied Buddhism and lived according to the five basic precepts. Though it may have gone against our youthful inclinations, we refrained from taking intoxicants, sex, stealing, lying, and killing.
Cigarettes, however, were not prohibited, and like many of my fellow students, I took up smoking. We spent countless afternoons on the roof of our dorm, watching our cigarette smoke drift away while ruminating over deep questions like, is killing a malaria-ridden mosquito bad karma or good karma? Since we were suddenly living a life of previously unimaginable austerity, smoking didn’t seem like such a big deal. It gave us something to do, and though we were learning about the emptiness of self, smoking seemed like the last way we could fill ourselves up, albeit with smoke. It gave us something to cling to, the last iceberg in a sea of melting vices.
Maybe the fact that Buddhists smoke is as simple as that. Maybe Buddhists the world over puff because it is one of the few remaining ways they can puff themselves up. For a spiritual tradition so devoted to compassion and helping others, cigarettes may be the final frontier of autonomy. In a spiritual tradition so devoted to the eradication of self, cigarettes might be the last shred of selfishness. Fumo ergo sum.
I smoke, therefore I am.
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Google Buddhism and smoking and the resulting hits are not what I would describe as particularly helpful (unless you want lurid details about the monks recently arrested for smoking Crystal Meth in Phnom Penh, Cambodia). However, I did come across an amusing anecdote from the blog of the Scottish-born Buddhist teacher Bodhipaksa:
A young monk strolled into the office of the head monk.
“Say, man. Would it like be okay if I smoke when I meditate?”
The head monk turned pale and began quivering. When he recovered, he gave the young man a stern lecture about the sanctity of meditation. The novice listened thoughtfully and went away.
A few weeks later, he returned with another question.
“I’m concerned about my spiritual development. I notice that I spend a lot of time smoking. I was wondering, do you think it would be okay if when I am smoking, I practice my meditation?”
The older man was overjoyed and of course said yes.
I’m not so sure about the credentials of this pale, quivering head monk (or, for that matter, the novice), but I found the anecdote surprisingly informative. Perhaps the point isn’t what we do, but how we do it. Perhaps, in taking a “thou shalt not” approach, we miss the moment for the creed.
When I emailed the Bodhgaya alumni to ask for help researching this topic, one person responded, “Wouldn’t a Buddhist smoking cigarettes be kind of hypocritical, irresponsible, and ironic?” It is attitudes like this that reveal the gap between what people believe about Buddhists and how Buddhists actually behave. And maybe this is the crux of this issue. Maybe this isn’t about smoking at all but about the ideals we place on our teachers.
In his book Sex, Sin, and Zen, author and Zen teacher Brad Warner writes, “When we project our expectations about what a divine being ought to be onto real people, what else can we hope for besides disappointment?” After all, addiction does not discriminate between enlightened and unenlightened, and perhaps, in smoking, teachers unwillingly demonstrate that addiction is not a roadblock to realization. This notion—that an enlightened person can be an addicted person—might shatter our preconceptions about realization, but to practice Buddhism and believe one’s preconceptions will remain neatly intact seems about as naïve as believing a teacher is a divine being.
Warner’s own teacher, Gudo Nishijima, was himself a heavy smoker. But, said Warner, it wasn’t a problem. “He told me once that he just happened to notice one day that smoking was a bad habit, so he stopped doing it.”
“I tend to think Buddhist teachers are like artisans who take on apprentices,” said Warner. “If we take that viewpoint, it’s not such a big deal whether the teacher smokes or not. But a teacher who smokes should know that their behavior is going to be imitated. If the teacher cares about that, then maybe they should not smoke.”
So should Buddhists be required to refrain from smoking?
“I don’t think Buddhism should be in the business of requiring people to do or not do things. That seems to go against everything Buddhism is about. If you demand people follow the Buddhist rules, that demanding itself is counter to the Buddhist philosophical approach. The precepts are not requirements.”
Randall Ryotan Eiger, sensei at the Village Zendo in Manhattan, who studied with Daido for eight years, was himself a smoker for 20 years, and as a freelance speechwriter in the 80s and 90s worked for a major tobacco company. His Buddhist smoking credentials run deep, so I asked him the same question. Should Buddhists refrain from smoking?
“To be a Buddhist means to take refuge in the three treasures of Buddha, dharma, and sangha,” said Ryotan. “I don’t believe one needs to be a non-smoker, or any particular kind of person, in order to take refuge.”
Indeed, such stringent requirements would create a culture of exclusion, leaving out those with addictions who might otherwise benefit immensely from the dharma. As Dr. Brewer pointed out, his app has exposed many people to the dharma “through their own doorway of suffering, which is smoking.”
As for Buddhist teachers, Ryotan disagreed with the idea that they have a “moral imperative” not to smoke.
“One sign of the moral confusion in our market-driven society is that people have the tendency to elevate consumer and lifestyle choices into matters of high moral drama, leading to overblown talk of ‘moral imperatives.’ Tortuous analysis of one’s thoughts and actions produces a facsimile of moral seriousness that is pleasing to the ego, but it is no substitute for the wisdom and compassion that arise from the awakened heart.”
He continued, “Is smoking inherently unhealthy, unwise, and maybe a little selfish? The answer is ‘yes.’ Are smokers inherently unable to realize their buddhanature and save all beings? The answer is ‘obviously not.’”
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Zen is not a health trip. Depending on your view of smoking, this response is either frustratingly reductive or refreshingly concise. For some, like Dr. Smith, smoking remains one of the largest thorns in Buddhism’s side. “Smoking involves in a personal, immediate way the core Buddhist issues of suffering, craving, death, compassion, and awakening,” said Smith. “What matters is how well one deals with those issues concretely, in smoking and other concrete immediate situations. Smoking isn’t the only place where we can engage these issues—they come up elsewhere, obviously—but it’s one of the ways, and we must engage them there.”
For others, the fact that some Buddhists smoke is as mundane as the fact that some Buddhists eat meat. But even Brad Warner understands the reservations one might have about teachers who smoke. “As a learner, I would steer clear of teachers who have such obvious bad habits on the grounds that if they can’t even get it together to stop smoking, how can I believe they can guide me to get past my own bad habits?” And yet, Warner’s own teacher smoked, and perhaps that is why he and other teachers are unwilling to take a stance against cigarettes.
Nirvana means “extinguishing the flame.” When faced with the issue of human suffering, the burning ember of a lit cigarette might not seem like the highest priority. There is a more pressing conflagration at hand. Either you smoke, or you don’t smoke, yes, but in the end, we are all part of the slow burn anyhow. And maybe in the end, to borrow a phrase from the smoker Charles Bukowski, what matters most is not whether or not you smoke, but how well you walk through the fire.
To simply dismiss on the basis of smoking is simply deny yourself the access to the teacher's other aspects and experiences that comprises his/her teachings.
Obviously, the teacher has not mastered his own cravings(or has he?), but have your cultivation been so advanced that you are unable to acquire further new insights from this teacher?
Finding the right teacher, especially a root guru,is a matter of affinity, it is doubtful that you accept a teacher's wisdom if you view him unfavorably.
Human life is precious and rare. Every minute is important time to practice the dharma so that one can be liberated and liberate others. Why waste and destroy it on smoking?
I have friends who are smokers. They know what they're doing is going to reduce their lifespan by 10-15 years and increase risk of lung cancer and heart disease drastically, but they still do it. Smokers usually justify their habit saying, life is short anyway, why not just enjoy it why it last? Basically the "YOLO" attitude.
But Buddhism does not believe that "you only live once". You have lived for countless past lives (conventionally) and will continue to do so until you are liberated. This is a once out of billion chance to be liberated, why waste it on non-dharmic activities which destroy your precious chance which is likened to a tortoise coming out of an ocean through a hole in a hundred years?
Needless to say this is not an argument that other non-Buddhists can easily accept, so I generally do not try to stop and condition my friends into my way of thinking. But I think this lack of a higher purpose in life is going to stop them from pursuing anything other than immediate hedonistic pleasures.
Please be patient, as I wish to share my personal experience on smoking, so please spare some indulgence for the following reply:-
I started smoking when a packet of 20s of marlboro costs s$1.80. It was under peer pressure that I started smoking, hanging out at recessed corners of shopping centers to steal a smoke or two while in school uniform. It started innocuously enough,there is no mental tug of war on whether it was right or wrong, it was only just don't get caught. Simply part of being within a group.
A few cigarettes later, when it was no longer a group ritual, where you bought cigarettes to share with your peers, you start buying for own personal consumption, stealing a smoke in the toilet, sucking cough drops to mask the cigarette of odor,splashing water in the toilet to reduce smoke of our, naively thinking the adults do not know. Still, you never considered it a habit, an addiction. You could even appreciate a fresh pack over one that was kept overnight. Smoking has become personal ritual, but still not considered an addiction as you only smoke when no one is around.
So, when do you consider smoking an addiction? When you are considered a young adult, with unfettered access to purchase and right to smoke in public. Cigarettes are still cheap, $2.10(or was it $2.80? I forget),by then. Back then, they(cigarette companies) distribute cigarettes as part of advertising. Peter Stuyvesant,if I remembered correctly, nasty cigarettes! But when you are broke, it provide relieve even if the smoke have a nasty bite on the throat!
So by now you have admit that you are addicted. But still,not serious problem as it is still easy to assauge the addiction. Even though you know you need one before work (stress), after work (stress), when you got to bog and the one after a meal. Especially after a meal, Ooh....what a way to complete a meal, heavenly!
You know you have an addiction, when you resolve to quit when you smoking 50 sticks (2&1/2packs) a day, and despite a hackers cough, you could not stop. You could literally smoke stick after stick to while time away.
You know you have an addiction when you resolve to quit smoking umpteen times, only to return smoking after a period of 24, no, 36 hours of quitting. It didn't work.
You switched tactics, you pace your smoking to how many cigarettes you can smoke per day, slowly cutting back. That didn't work either, the craving and relief comes back stronger after abstinence, that you doubled your rations!
So, did I finally stop smoking, yes actually, twice. Quit smoking for around four years, and surprisingly didn't smoke during NS as most picked up smoking during that period.
Still, the stress alleviating and heavenly pleasure of an after meal smoke lingered in my mind. And after all, I have successfully not smoked for four years. Quitting should not be a big problem, bad mistake!
Second time quitting is even harder, going through the same cycles of quitting, with an addition, mentholated, or "women"(an impression)cigarettes. Mentholated cigarettes are " supposed" to be milder and kinder to the throat, but hackers cough come and go anyway, with or without the "cool" and "mild". Smoke enough, you will get the cough.
So how do you quit? With strong resolve knowing what smoking has done to you, and not allowing yourself to crave the heavenly sensation it offers. Go cold turkey, no if and buts, complete abstinence, with vigorous exercise and some other non habit forming distractions, sucking strong tasting candies in this instance. It is strongly possible you have shifted your craving to food, gaining weight. Until you no longer crave the pleasurable sensations in your mind, you will still fall back into addiction.
Side steps into non direct inhaled smokes like cigars or pipe smoking will not work either, it will still lead you back to cigarette smoking. I do not know about the the current smokeless electronic gadgets. I am not keen to experiment.
There are actually two forms of addiction, one physical, the other mental. The physical one creates current craving. The other, creates lingering craving, a residual craving if you wish. It resides in within our recollection, memory.
Today,I would not touch cigarettes with a twenty foot pole, because of how difficult it is for your resolve to overcome smoking. You will know how seriously your resolve becomes weaker the second time round, you might not win the third time.
I am lucky to say I am smoke free for around twenty years. For those who have already quit, stay away. For those intending to smoke, please,please stay away.
For those wishing or trying to quit, I say keep trying and good luck, you will succeed if you keep trying!
Saying that craving and addiction is mind over matter, as mind triumphs in this instance, whether you are smoking or not, as we are also trapped within our minds by our mind!
I'm glad you're able to kick the habit! From what I know kicking this addiction is very tough. Cigarettes are actually as addictive as other hard drugs like heroin.
Thank you for your kind words of approval!
Mark Twain:"Quitting smoking is easy: I've done it a hundred times"
Smoking offers instant gratification, one must know when social smoking ends and when addictive craving begins, and when you know you cannot stop smoking at will.
As to whether what smoking is in Buddhist context is whether smoking is considered an wholesome or unwholesome activity and whether cigarette smoke is an intoxicant?
Venerable Dhammanando wrote:
"In the Theravadin understanding the fifth precept enjoins complete
abstinence, not moderation. It is broken when one knowingly consumes
even the smallest amount of alcohol. It is not broken if the alcohol is
consumed unwittingly or is an ingredient in an essential medicine.
To
what substances other than alcohol the precept might be applicable is a
matter of contention, but the question to ask is whether the substance
will lead to loss of appamÄ�da, meaning non-negligence, heedfulness, diligence. AppamÄ�da consists in the arising of the mental factors of mindfulness (sati), clear comprehension (sampajañña), and wholesome energy (kusala viriya).
So, taking amphetamine, for example, will tend to increase one's energy
but at the same time impede mindfulness and clear comprehension. In the
absence of these two, the energy is sure to be akusala, and so
amphetamine is an intoxicant. Cannabis is likely to impede all three
mental factors, and so this too is an intoxicant.
Best wishes,
Dhammanando Bhikkhu"
As for whether nicotine is an intoxicant, I've only tried smoking on a few social occasions out of curiosity so I do not have a definite clear answer to this. Certainly the intoxicating effects if any are not as obvious as alcohol. My own opinion is that one have to be very honest and observe over a long time whether it impedes mindfulness, clear comprehension and wholesome energy.
Even if you feel it does not impede mindfulness or cause harm mentally, nevertheless nicotine is harmful to oneself physically and harmful to others (second hand smoke). That would be unwholesome, since it is harmful -- whether mentally or physically or both.
Plus: anything that causes craving and addiction is certainly not wholesome! How can addictive craving and clinging for pleasure be wholesome?
"The wholesome (kusala) entails abstention (veramaṇī) from the aforementioned unwholesome physical and verbal acts as well as non-covetness (anabhijjhÄ�), non-ill will (abyÄ�pÄ�do) and right view (sammÄ�diá¹á¹hi). The wholesome's root (kusalamÅ«la) is nongreed (alobho), nonhatred (adoso) and nondelusion (amoho)."
If something increases greed and delusion, such as gambling, or smoking, it would certainly be considered as unwholesome irregardless of whether it is 'intoxicating'.
( Retrieved http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/desilva/bl123.html)
( Retrieved http://singaporelegaladvice.com/smoking-prohibition-in-singapore-2/)
Smoke, and second-hand smoking, indisputably brings a lack of health, and leads to a lacking lifespan.
In spite of smoke, or smoking-related goods, bearing the devastating effects, attractive advertisements litter the mass media depicting smoking as integral to the lifestyle of the nouveau riche, or social smoking, to imitate the dream of the common man.
While smoke is less lethal than liquor and drugs, most of the diseases in modern society, as well as serious cancer forms, have smoking as the root cause.
Whether smoking is an intoxicant or relative to an intoxicant, people have to be educated and convinced not only of the ill effects of intoxicants, but also of the value of will power and strength of character to resist the societal snares.
It is only one who is weak in character who will get trapped in that society throws in their way.
The individual should also be taught to cultivate a sympathetic attitude toward his own body and mind. They are his instruments of action and it is his own responsibility, and in his own interest, to keep them healthy and effective. In the meditation on loving-kindness in Buddhism the individual is first taught how to develop a benevolent attitude toward himself.
"May I be well and happy" is quietly and mindfully repeated several times each day at the beginning of the meditation to impress upon the mind a compassionate attitude toward himself.
When the benevolent attitude becomes deeply ingrained in the mind, the meditator will gradually refrain from habits which are injurious to his own body and mind.
It is the paramount duty of all concerned people who realize that society today is in a precarious state, to muster all resources at their command to bring about a change in man's attitude to rescue him from the perils of his own making.
In Singapore, the Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Act, enforced by the National Environment Agency, renders it an offence to smoke in a prohibited place listed under the Act.
For a comprehensive list of the prohibited places, do consult the First and Second Schedule of the Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Notification.
Generally smoking is banned in public transportations. It is also prohibited in most indoor areas, such as cinemas, shopping malls, and foodshops.
The list of prohibited areas was updated recently, adding the following to the new smoke free areas of Singapore:
Linkways from bus stops to residential blocks
Void decks
Corridors
Staircases
Stairwells
Multi-purpose halls
Covered walkways and linkways
All pedestrian bridges
5 metres from the edge of bus stops
Hospital outdoor compounds
Smoking is permitted in certain designated areas of food and entertainment establishments, subject to the approval of the NEA. NEA provides a list of areas where smoking is generally allowed.
The onus is on the manager of the premises to enforce the rules. If you should see a person smoking in a prohibited area, you should contact the management to report the act. However, if the smoking takes place in a prohibited public area with no specific management agent, do contact the NEA, at 1800-CALL-NEA (1800-2255 632) to file a report.
Persons caught smoking in a prohibited place are liable on conviction to fines of $200. If convicted in court, the offender may be liable to a fine of up to $1,000.