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Is alcohol really harmful ?
jll
Veteran
Buddha asked us to refrain from alcohol.
Do you drink ?
Do you drink ?
0
Comments
I'm not trying to be funny....but you seem to not participate/answer the
threads you start. Any reason? Is that harmful in any way?
Does Buddha ask us to share? ....
I read the fifth precept as saying you shouldn't do anything that fuzzes your thinking, so hyperventilating, eating a full jar of nutmeg, going without food until you're dizzy, -- they don't involve drugs, but IMHO, they're 5th precept violations.
Factoid: "normal loaf of bread, bought from the bakery contains between 0.04% to 1.9% alcohol" ref: http://andrewbotros.blogspot.com/2010/09/alcohol-content-in-bread.html
The alcohol is bad not because it is magic, it is bad because it fuzzes your mind and leads to addictive behaviors.
At the moment, I don't drink, when I do, I drink local wine. I looked up how much wine you can drink per day without ill effects -- it works out to 1/2 cup, so I drink 1/4 cup (these are US measures, not an arbitrary glass). The mental effects also depend on how much you drank yesterday, so ramping up to a habit and tapering off is a good idea to minimize the effects of a consumption habit on your mental states.
Lodro Rinzler has interesting pro-alchohol things to say: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lodro-rinzler/buddhism-and-alcohol-what_b_695369.html I agree with him except for mindfully getting smashed-- the only thing that I ever got from the one time I over drank was I realized that it is really hard to think clearly when your smashed, a rather unenlightening realization.
The rest of the dialog on alcohol in Buddhism essentially says it is magically bad and you will get supernatural punishments for breaking the rule. And some people who say it's bad because it fuzzes your mind, so drink nothing, ever.
If you have a specific question for me, I will be glad to reply.
Try paying attention to how you normally think and the day after drinking and decide for yourself. It might be socially accepted but IMO it's one of the nastier poisons to have in your body.
I mean good god how often do you hear about people getting drunk and then into car accidents? or going home and beating their wife and kids? or dying from liver failure? That's the kind of terror alcohol can bring about if you do not know how to moderate your drinking. But I believe that if you drink responsibly, know your limitations, and know how to not surpass those limitations even while drunk (which is entirely possible, I do it) then the harmful effects of alcohol can be cut down by quite a large margin.
Im actually not a huge fan of most drugs even for medicine wise... I have a feeling we are generally over drugged and ive also seen what pain meds can do to a person. I don't take antibiotics or pain medications unless its a dire thing.
Now just as clarification.. I dont view alcohol or drugs as bad or evil things, they are just natural or manmade items to use one way or another. infact im for full legalization of all illegal drugs, but I personally abstain from them.
I had a lot of alcoholism in my family when growing up, which also set a very negative example.
Personally, I just don't see the value in intoxicants, but it's each person's individual choice. We all have our bad habits, I saw that alcohol was not worth it to me.
What are your thoughts? Are you struggling?
The fact is we have evolved with it in our environment, bugs ferment sugar to alcohol. But in the past eating rotten fermented fruit was probably only accounting for a small quantity of ingested alcohol and our body coped with it easy enough.
There is an enzyme in the liver called alcohol dehydrogenase that metabolises it, and providing it isn't overwhelmed, its fine. But the way we consume alcoholic beverages means this enzyme can't cope so - in excessive consumption it causes liver disease and other problems.
I am as concerned about self righteous abstinence as I am about attachments to mental clarity as I am about making mistakes because of an alcohol fueled dulling of my perceptions.
I haven't been drunk except for one time when my grandma died. I have been tipsy maybe 10 times. Those are in the last year.
Some people are prone to alcoholism because of their genes.
If I was an alcoholic, no alcohol, ever.
I am not, so occasionally drink. Precepts, rules and abstention have their uses.
Moslems do not drink, Sikhs do not smoke, Buddhists do not judge.
. . . well that is the theory . . .
Cheers.
me so ill before that. I still can't do any wines. They don't like
my stomach...hahaha
Only clears....not strong....fruity and fancy
is everything when you only drink one at $10 ...lolololol
Social? Of course...You know me, right?
Only out....every other month...
God, mom! Anything else you want to know...??? hahaha
My fiancee's family is really into rum and scotch - they buy the really nice stuff and at family gatherings I'm usually offered a glass or two. I'd feel rude to not accept a glass, and they understand that I don't like to drink much anyway so it's not like I'm pressured to.
It affects every organ in the body, dulls the mind and impedes the central nervous system.
Alcohol kills brain cells, it's damaging to nearly every aspect of the body.
I have never seen alcohol have a single positive impact on ANYONE's life except temporarily allowing them to run from their problems. It has pretty much destroyed my childhood and have several friends who had theirs destroyed by it as well.
It is true that anything in excessive amounts is toxic, but not anything is addictive to the extreme extent that things like alcohol and tobacco are. A glass of water is always more healthy than a beer lol. Truth is, even if it is culturally the norm, among most illegal substances alcohol is by far the biggest demon.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/alcohol/art-20044551
It all comes down to quantity and what "light to moderate drinking" is in actuality for each individual. Of course this is strictly limited to physical effects- not heedlessness or other 'rules' via religion.
The fact remains that alcohol is a poison so why take it at all? If you need a drink to feel better then you have a deeper problem that would be better faced. It's all very well saying moderation in all things, but how does that help an recovering alcoholic, or stop a tipsy motorist from killing a pedestrian? Even one drink impairs reactions and habitual drinking can lead to dependency.
Alcohol abuse is rife in all professions, the medical profession investigates itself a bit more than other professions, and like buddhists are quick to self -diagnose themselves with some kind of addiction, it serves a purpose.
Thanks for sharing your view with us.
Mettha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication
If only the clarity from the teetotalers was more apparent than those occasionally imbibing alcohol here, then the dire anti alcohol warnings would be more credible.
I think that "extremely harmful" and "strongly disturbs the mind" can just as validly describe the pride of total abstinence.
It is always good to be very mindful of what you put into your body, in every way. That includes what you choose to listen to and view as well as what you put in your mouth. While alcohol consumption done irresponsibly can kill people, the addition we have to entertainment as a whole destroys more people, and actually makes them more prone to be addicts to begin with. So, there are any number of things that can cause us problems. Yes, true, being addicted to World of Warcraft or porn isn't going to kill the person on the highway with you. But children have been neglected and abused as a result of those addictions, too.
What's most important, IMO, is for us to do a better job at recognizing and valuing people's inherent worth and talents so there is less of a need for constant external entertainment and escapism. We can all do better with that, I think. People who have problems with drugs and alcohol need a lot of support, and that support doesn't have a chance if they aren't valued as people, first.
For me, as I said before, I am cautious. I have a beer or a glass of wine now and then because I enjoy a different taste of something now and then. I don't drink to get tipsy or drunk and quite hate the feeling of even being a little fuzzy. I am lucky in that despite my genetics, I don't appear to have the addiction bug. I can take it or leave it, and most often I leave it. My sister has to be more careful. She can leave it, but not once she has a drink. If she's going to have a beer,she's going to have 6 or more. My ex, at the height of his drinking (and he was addicted to prescription drugs as well) could drink 30+ beers in a night. There is no having a beer for my sister, or for him, but she's never been as bad off as he was. I watched alcohol take over the life of the man I loved and spent more than 10 years of my life with. I saw what it did to our kids, our family life, his employment,his amazing mind and creativity and eventually his life at the age of 35. His kids will celebrate what would have been his 40th birthday next week without him. But there was no stopping it. Just like Philip Seymore Hoffman, he could be sober for years, and then when he fell off the wagon, he fell hard. Addiction is a horrible thing. It didn't matter how smart he was (incredibly smart) how much he loved his kids, how much he was loved by his family. The person he truly was would never have done something to intentionally hurt anyone. The addiction made it impossible for him to even recognize that person. He had no control over it once he made the choice to try any of the things he did. Not easy for the rest of us to understand...seems simple, just don't drink/do drugs/log into the internet, or whatever. Doesn't work that way. As the saying goes, like a moth to the flame. You can't explain how dangerous it is, because the attraction is so strong it doesn't matter.
I watched people when I was growing up, seemingly incapable of going to sleep without going into a stupor, and waking up in the morning with a severe hangover, yet by midday were just starting to function yet immediately would go into decline laughing and joking with their 5th or 6th can of 'special brew and tenants extra'.
'special brew and tenants extra'; the connotations of these labels are very subtle but so shocking and sickening when you analyse them for what the marketing people produce; how do these companies get away with it? Because most people are in a stupor of one description or another and they prey upon weaker states of mind.
I am very lucky, I did drink to excess usually when going out as a teenager. It is a filthy, addictive poison for some. A class 'A' drug. At the moment people in the UK are fuelling up on coffee caffeine addiction fad. I smoked, even though neither of my parents did. Shameful peer pressure from the need to fit in . . .
Now I am a dharma junky. Imbibing nectar and ambrosia from those imaginary Buddha friends
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amrita
OM MANI PEME HUM
as we intoxicated ones might say . . .
Wow everyone at uni drinks! or did you go to the wrong uni or are you going out with the wrong group of people if you are shocked by such behavior. It may seem that everyone in the uk drinks, but, as you age and mix with the wider society you may find even more shocking behavior and also some tea-totallers as well.
We went to a friends wedding and all there was to drink was 'Schloer' and ''water' it was more refreshing than the normal wedding we usually go to, and the obligatory hangover was non-existent. I didn't have the balls to get up and dance though, I can't dance, and unless I have a couple of glasses of wine, or beer you won't see me 'shaking my booty!'. I didn't feel strange not drinking. I don't feel strange not drinking if I am the nominated driver for a social night out. Don't let your previous conditioning condition your thinking about others, you might find it spoils good relationships, and don't cause your self to be conditioned to take up drinking because of peer pressure.
I switched the subject for him; if he is an alcoholic, he won't be ready to stop drinking till he's in a hard place.
I've no problems with people drinking alcohol and being an alcoholic is the single best thing that's 'happened' to me (though I didn't think so when my life was a train wreck).
I used to drink to the point of blacking out most weekends. I have possible done irreversible damage to my brain and liver.
I now have maybe one beer or glass of wine most days of the week but the temptation is always there........it's a struggle but one I know I'll win! I am a strong willed person.