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Smoking .....
minimayhen88
Veteran
Dearest all,
Would any of you consider smoking a violation of the First Precept. I am finding it so hard to stop smoking, most days I smoke no more that 3 .... but I worry my 'second hand smoke' is harming others. When I smoke in public I try and blow smoke away from those I am with. I only really smoke around fellow smokers, but even with them I try and blow the smoke away from them. It is a hard one, but I would love to read your opinions.
Claudie :wave:
Would any of you consider smoking a violation of the First Precept. I am finding it so hard to stop smoking, most days I smoke no more that 3 .... but I worry my 'second hand smoke' is harming others. When I smoke in public I try and blow smoke away from those I am with. I only really smoke around fellow smokers, but even with them I try and blow the smoke away from them. It is a hard one, but I would love to read your opinions.
Claudie :wave:
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Comments
I used to smoke and quit along with my wife because she had bad health problems and we were going broke buying them. So I had help, because neither of us was going to quit on our own and when I felt like lighting up, I could think of it causing my wife to light up again and grit my teeth instead. Those first couple of months I was miserable, so I certainly know what you're going through.
Of course anything like this is not good, however there are also worse things to do.I know my middle daughter who has pretty big anxiety uses it to calm down. Since she can be quite dramatic I see how it helps. That makes it harder because it is a drug that affects you and helps as well as hurts.
I think if you want to quit you will need to look at the physical part of the addiction and the habit. I am still learning a few of my triggers and for those times I have the nicotine gum until I am more solid in changing the habit. But beating yourself up is also not going to help so find that middle way balance
Like a smoky room, it's hazy!
Mini: how do people get started smoking, anyway? What's the motivation? Doesn't it burn your throat? Isn't that painful?
With love
1. We know smoking is bad for our health. You don't have to tell us. We know we shouldn't be smoking. You don't have to tell us that, either. My grandparents knew smoking was bad for the health. That's why they were called "coffin nails". Telling us something we're already telling ourselves every time we light up is not helping.
2. Quitting is hard for anyone. Almost everyone who has smoked for a while has tried multiple times to quit. It's not just the craving. It's the fact that you're craving while surrounded with opportunities to buy another pack of cigarettes. I tried quitting at least a dozen times before I succeeded.
3. So encouragement and cheer them on. And if someone smokes, it doesn't make them weak or thoughtless or ignorant, just a smoker.
Yes, it would be really interesting to know their opinion :-) and I think you are right, drinking in excess is really a violation of the first precept, in that it has a negative impact upon ones body - via dehydration, toxic liver damage etc. Well to be honest, I personally smoked firstly as a relaxant, in my bedroom secretly, when I was about 17!!.. and a very unhappy and stressed individual. Then when I left home at 18 and lived with some wonderful international students, a couple of them smoked ... so I did socially. From then on, a majority of my closest friends are smokers ... so I smoke a little with them ... and now I'm addicted!!!
Too be honest (this maybee a little over analytical!!!) I personally think I associate smoking with relaxation and .... because I'm quite a nervous person and they give me something to occupy my hands with and a sense of relaxation.
I'm struggling not to smoke! I know I wont because I do not wish to pollute myself or others ..... But its harder than I though ... but I'm determined!!.
With sincere Kindness,
Claudie xx
I was thinking smoking and alcoholism might be against the first precept because they're a means of slow death. But if Fo Guang Shan interprets the 1st precept as no harming in general, whether self or others, then yeah, even if death isn't the eventual result, it's harming. An aunt of mine got emphysema from smoking. Just something to keep in mind.
:thumbsup:
it's a poison that afflicts one mind...and body
causes addiction, addiction is attachment.
Mind you, two friends of a friend quit recently and both died soon after, which gives my highly devious mental demons a good excuse for putting off the decision. All the same, my feeling is that shortening ones life through unnecessary indulgences cannot possibly be in the spirit of the precepts. I wish it were otherwise.
Weird. Completely dysfunctional farming practices. One wonders how they managed to survive in Europe for hundreds of years, farming that way.
Oh and don't forget that there are no exceptions, even for winter. So I'm usually forced to freeze my balls off. The way it should be? allow the building owners to decide whether or not to allow smoking. That way some places will allow smoking, while others do not. Or have the option for places to have an outdoor section of the restaurant or bar, where smoking is allowed. When I was out in Oregon there was this one bar in Ashland. Beautiful place. The outdoor section had nice big heat lamps that would be on during the winter as well as a pavilion roof. Felt just as comfortable as inside the building, and that way smokers could smoke and non smokers wouldn't have to smell it.
In my country (and I think in others) the principal cause of cars accident with death result is alcohol, not much time ago a kid that was thinking in be a running man when growth up was crash by a drunk driver and lost his two legs.
This cause a great media shock, so that government have to make strict laws about driving with alcohol.
Blessings with metta.
Oh well. Don't mind me... Maybe it has something to do with that backwoods hunting culture you're in?
Then it hit me: you're polluting your lungs in order to get fresh air into them?? Life's little ironies.
:thumbsup:
Now for a cup of tea and a smoke.
Mind you, I doubt I would have discovered Buddhism had I not smoked, but that's a long story.
While smoking itself may be harmful to your health, most people do so because they find it enjoyable and/or their mind/body craves it. Of course, it's not really good for you or those around you, but I don't think it violates the first precept if your not trying to intentionally cause harm (and it sounds like you're trying to do the opposite by blowing it away from others). This is coming from a Theravadin perspective, however, and other traditions may have different views about it.
I've also lost over a quarter of my body weight and though there were a combination of factors smoking surely helped me lose weight. Huge gut fat is probably nearly as harmful as non-inhaling (pipe) smoking.
I don't want to practice tantra. And in any case I eat onions and baked cheese haha.
http://whyquit.com/joel/ntap.pdf
I tried smoking once. It made me as light headed, and as poorly feeling as the first time I drank too much.
I think if anything in your life has so much control over you that it's obsessive or compulsive (not talking OCD as a mental illness here) that it can be considered to break the 5th precept. Some things are more a stretch than others, and only the person affected can be honest with themselves about how much the habit affects them. I don't get any feeling at all when I drink. I might have a small glass of wine with dinner. However, the very nature of alcohol changes my brain in some small ways, even if they are imperceptible to me. Nicotine is the same way.
I think with intent, you still have to be careful. If you are a smoker and you do what you can to minimize how much it affects others and follow the laws, then no problem. If you have kids and you smoke in the home and in the car with them? More of a problem despite what your intent is.