What is Buddhism's views on smoking?
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Pls. If I smoke, will I have bad karma?
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Ask yourself if 2nd hand smoke has any consequences for those who don't smoke. Then you have your answer liao
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Then, if no one is affected by my second-hand smoke, will I have good karma?Originally posted by DriftingGuy:Ask yourself if 2nd hand smoke has any consequences for those who don't smoke. Then you have your answer liao 
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i dunoe..
but if u cant live without smoking then cont with it then..
as i tink if for e sake of gd karma u quit smoking even though in ur mind u still wan smoke..
its kinda being force like tat..
uhm tats wad i tink..feel free to correct me
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I hope this thread do not go the way of bluemoon's style....Originally posted by NUS_Superst@r:Pls. If I smoke, will I have bad karma? 
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How so? You affect the environment adversly, still bad karma.Originally posted by NUS_Superst@r:Then, if no one is affected by my second-hand smoke, will I have good karma? -
what happened?Originally posted by Chin Eng:I hope this thread do not go the way of bluemoon's style.... -
if you are a practioner, then better not because the tobacco plant originated from the vow of a demoness (got such word? anyway, a female destroyer of buddhism) who pledged that may her menstrual blood nourished the fields and grow a plant whose leaves are smoked and thus clogged the spiritual "veins" of all buddhist practioners.
there is also a saying that if your spiritual "veins" get too clogges, your consciousness cannot leave through the upper body - for all who practise Pure Land, you guys would know what this means -
Interesting... is that a view from Vajrayana? I never heard about that before.Originally posted by Xprobe:if you are a practioner, then better not because the tobacco plant originated from the vow of a demoness (got such word? anyway, a female destroyer of buddhism) who pledged that may her menstrual blood nourished the fields and grow a plant whose leaves are smoked and thus clogged the spiritual "veins" of all buddhist practioners.
there is also a saying that if your spiritual "veins" get too clogges, your consciousness cannot leave through the upper body - for all who practise Pure Land, you guys would know what this means -
I don't think it's possible not to affect others. The smoke affect others to various extent no matter how careful you are to avoid smoking near them.Originally posted by NUS_Superst@r:Then, if no one is affected by my second-hand smoke, will I have good karma?
And also affecting yourself also not so responsible la... ur body is given by your parents, dont destroy it and die a terrible death. You know.. suicide also have bad karma. Doesn't mean if I don't affect others I won't have bad karma. And anyway if you die you will affect your family also.. so... think deeper.
Also.. Buddhists believe in rebirth, and our habits deep latent in our consciousness will be brought forward to future lifetimes. So not only will you shorten your current life you might shorten your future lifetimes (by smoking again) It is better to clear whatever habits we have in this lifetime.
But that's still not the crux of the matter. Smoking involves deep craving, and in Buddhism, craving is dukkha. This form of addiction, craving, is what Buddhists want to get rid off through practise. So even if you smoke now... eventually you will have to learn to let go of such addictions, and in fact, all addictions. There are some teachers who are highly enlightened.. highly realised and haven't really stopped smoking, but eventually one has to learn to let go of them, because it's really a fetter. So in terms of stages of enlightenment, the Arhat path (stream enterer, once returner, non-returner, arhat), by the time one reaches the 'Once-returner' (still a bit left) or 'Non-returner' stage he would have cleared all sensual cravings. That is even before one reaches the stage of Arhat. That is... one experiences the highest bliss of Nirvana at all times and has no fetters remaining. Also as we said.. as Buddha said.. buddhism can be summarise as, "do good, avoid evil, purify the mind". Purify the mind is the most important part, we must cleanse it, eliminate until nothingness, not a single bit of defilements, habitual energy, ignorance is left. -
refer to this thread, paying attention to how it starts and how it ends.Originally posted by An Eternal Now:what happened?
http://www.sgforums.com/?action=thread_display&thread_id=222095
especially this quotation:
soooorryy... oot... but it is interesting to note the hidden agendas when people start threads (I am not referring to this one here on smoking).Originally posted by onceinabluemoon:OK the 3 professing Christians in this forum had spoken and I can only conclude thus:
You do not dispute that the casino is harmful. Yet you are willing to support the evil people and evil organisations. You are even willing to eat chay kuay teow sold by pimps trying to lure people near their prostitutes. As long as you and your family, you think is safe.
You have such low standards as Christians I would think that you are a disgrace to your faith. -
Oh I see... but i tink since this tread shldnt have any agendas (am i right?) it should be quite ok.Originally posted by Chin Eng:soooorryy... oot... but it is interesting to note the hidden agendas when people start threads (I am not referring to this one here on smoking). -
My master says, the very least a Buddhist should accomplish is to clear all unvirtuous habitual energies.
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sound like fairy tale to me.Originally posted by Xprobe:if you are a practioner, then better not because the tobacco plant originated from the vow of a demoness (got such word? anyway, a female destroyer of buddhism) who pledged that may her menstrual blood nourished the fields and grow a plant whose leaves are smoked and thus clogged the spiritual "veins" of all buddhist practioners.
there is also a saying that if your spiritual "veins" get too clogges, your consciousness cannot leave through the upper body - for all who practise Pure Land, you guys would know what this means -
I also wonder about that.. at least I have never heard before. Sinweiy, my forum moderator who is also a practitioner of Pure Land, told me he never heard b4.Originally posted by NUS_Superst@r:sound like fairy tale to me. -
so is the fluidity of time, quantum mechanics and water molecules reacting to vibes
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Doesn't mean a blank nothingness, but something real, the infinite light and brightness of our original nature will shine through. Another analogy is when we clear the layer of dust on the mirror, we will see the mirror, the reflections very clearly.Originally posted by An Eternal Now:Purify the mind is the most important part, we must cleanse it, eliminate until nothingness, not a single bit of defilements, habitual energy, ignorance is left. -
I think some stories are just made up to discourage children from certain things, like stealing...
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but is stealing good?Originally posted by NUS_Superst@r:I think some stories are just made up to discourage children from certain things, like stealing... -
hmm ok but just curious to know, where did you hear about the tobacco plant from?Originally posted by Xprobe:so is the fluidity of time, quantum mechanics and water molecules reacting to vibes -
http://www.lianhua33.com/rbq25.htm
http://www.fosss.org/jcxs/smoke.htm -
Ah as I expected.. Vajrayana (Tibetan) tradition. Tibetan Buddhism Master Padmasambhava spoke about it.Originally posted by Xprobe:http://www.lianhua33.com/rbq25.htm
http://www.fosss.org/jcxs/smoke.htm
I found this:
In Tibetan Buddhist teachings, especially in the predictions of Padmasambhava, tobacco is regarded as a black food, grown through wrongful prayer. Evil beings prayed that tobacco would disturb and harm people trying to live a good life, interfere with the development of their minds and not allow them to practice virtue, to practice meditation.
Many shortcomings of smoking are explained in the teachings. Cigarettes, opium and such things pollute the chakras and the wind, which is the vehicle of the mind, and thus cause many disturbing thoughts to arise. Smoking causes anger and attachment to arise very easily; it damages the mind, making it very dissatisfied and impatient. Smoking makes it very difficult to develop your mind, and it especially interferes with the practice of tantra.
Cigarette smoke enters the mouths and noses of surrounding people—even those who do not smoke—when they breathe in, then causes harm to their bodies and minds. Even though the person smoking may be a long way away from me, in another room, the smoke comes through the windows and goes into my lungs. I feel a pain in my heart.
When there is a lot of smoke, the mind becomes unclear and very, very sleepy. This proves that cigarette smoke pollutes the body and the mind. This is talking only about the problems you experience in this life—not in the life after this. As explained in the sutra teachings, what you will experience in the life after this will be much heavier.
You may spend a lot of money every day on cigarettes, alcohol or other drugs. If you are a Buddhist, besides giving this money to others, you could accumulate much good karma by offering it to the Triple Gem. You use all that money, which comes from your parents or other people, on alcohol—for just one or two minutes of pleasure. You could give all that money to charity. There are many people dying of starvation in the world. In Africa and many other places, there are famines. There are a lot of poor people and people in homes for the aged and hospices who need help. In the East there are Tibetan refugee camps. With all that money you could benefit hundreds of thousands of living beings. There is so much you could do with it. If you do not use the money in this way, but use it only for your own happiness, you are actually destroying your own life. Not only are you destroying yourself, but you are preventing yourself from benefiting all living beings. This is very important. Choose which you want to do: Do you want to benefit others? Or do you want to destroy yourself?
-- Lama Zopa Rinpoche -
mmm why u want to smoke in the first place?Originally posted by NUS_Superst@r:Pls. If I smoke, will I have bad karma?
Smoking-- > give u bad breathe, dry skins and almost all the girls i know don't like guys who smoke! -
Another point though about Padmasambhava...
Karl Brunnhölzl told me that this depends on the interpretation of one term which could equally be read as merely meaning "smoking opium".
Think is refering to both. -
wow interesting ....Originally posted by An Eternal Now:Ah as I expected.. Vajrayana (Tibetan) tradition. Tibetan Buddhism Master Padmasambhava spoke about it.
I found this:
In Tibetan Buddhist teachings, especially in the predictions of Padmasambhava, tobacco is regarded as a black food, grown through wrongful prayer. Evil beings prayed that tobacco would disturb and harm people trying to live a good life, interfere with the development of their minds and not allow them to practice virtue, to practice meditation.
Many shortcomings of smoking are explained in the teachings. Cigarettes, opium and such things pollute the chakras and the wind, which is the vehicle of the mind, and thus cause many disturbing thoughts to arise. Smoking causes anger and attachment to arise very easily; it damages the mind, making it very dissatisfied and impatient. Smoking makes it very difficult to develop your mind, and it especially interferes with the practice of tantra.
Cigarette smoke enters the mouths and noses of surrounding people—even those who do not smoke—when they breathe in, then causes harm to their bodies and minds. Even though the person smoking may be a long way away from me, in another room, the smoke comes through the windows and goes into my lungs. I feel a pain in my heart.
When there is a lot of smoke, the mind becomes unclear and very, very sleepy. This proves that cigarette smoke pollutes the body and the mind. This is talking only about the problems you experience in this life—not in the life after this. As explained in the sutra teachings, what you will experience in the life after this will be much heavier.
You may spend a lot of money every day on cigarettes, alcohol or other drugs. If you are a Buddhist, besides giving this money to others, you could accumulate much good karma by offering it to the Triple Gem. You use all that money, which comes from your parents or other people, on alcohol—for just one or two minutes of pleasure. You could give all that money to charity. There are many people dying of starvation in the world. In Africa and many other places, there are famines. There are a lot of poor people and people in homes for the aged and hospices who need help. In the East there are Tibetan refugee camps. With all that money you could benefit hundreds of thousands of living beings. There is so much you could do with it. If you do not use the money in this way, but use it only for your own happiness, you are actually destroying your own life. Not only are you destroying yourself, but you are preventing yourself from benefiting all living beings. This is very important. Choose which you want to do: Do you want to benefit others? Or do you want to destroy yourself?
-- Lama Zopa Rinpoche