INTOXICATION AND THE MIND, Speaking Tree Paper, 5th Dec 2010

The Buddha laid down five guidelines for laity who wished to follow the Dharma.

These were:

1. Avoid killing
2. Avoid lying
3. Avoid sexual mis-conduct (sex outside of marriage, un-natural sex etc)
4. Avoid stealing
5. Avoid intoxication

While all the five are obvious for a peaceful and happy life, this piece in particular delves into the reasons of the issues related to intoxication.

In modern lives where stress is high, social life vibrant, the desire to ‘unwind’ over a glass of wine or one’s favourite tipple, is an accepted norm. Personally i find nothing wrong in this although i do not wish to advocate it. However, if we are mindful of what the Buddha must have actually cautioned us against, these experiences will be better understood and therefore better enjoyed.

We have seen through previous columns that we all have a buddha mind in us. Every sentient being has it. This mind is always present, always clear, always perfect and has always been with us. Infact the natural expression of this omnipresent and omniperfect mind is clarity. The issues arise when this mind is clouded by delusions, defilements, aggressive, and non-virtuous thoughts arising typically out of the five poisons (pride, ignorance, greed jealousy and anger). With this karmic mind - that we out of ignorance identify as and presume to be the ‘base mind’ - we tend to carry out our actions of body, speech and mind, landing us into all sorts of suffering.

Let us for a moment presume that we have made some progress on the path and have actually been able to see, in our meditative sessions, glimpses of our base mind differentiating it from the karmic mind. We ‘see’ a distinct clarity between the base mind and the afflicted mind.

Here is what intoxication does to this clear situation. As alcohol begins to enter our blood stream, it begins to bring in the confusion with it. Slowly as the intoxicant takes effect, the clarity of the base mind and the dullness of the karmic mind begin to get merged. The otherwise black-white starkness gives way to an increasing ‘grey area’ expanse. As more intoxicant floods the blood stream, this state of confusion increases to finally becoming total. The confused mind is in no way able to identify thoughts, speech and action between virtuous and non-virtuous, ethical and unethical, noble and wretched, wise and foolish, friendly and hostile and so on. The ingested volume till such time the confusion sets in and become total, might vary from person to person, but it is inevitable.

So what should one do? I’m not recommending abstinence. Nobody stops you from exercising it either!

What we must necessarily do, when tippling, are two things:

1. Keep a close ‘watch’ on the goings on in the mind. If you sense the greying, one needs to be even more vigilant (than we are at other times) of what is being processed in the mind and therefore what is being churned out in the form of speech and action.
2. Stop indulging when we sense that the confusion is about to get out of ‘hand’. Give time for the levels of intoxicant to settle down.

This is particularly of use at social events. There are people we may have all seen in our lives who make such fools of themselves, that it becomes embarrassing for the accompanying spouse, friend or the host to take hold of the situation. At unfortunate times, the scene turns ugly and violent too. How many times have we heard of the same person who behaved inappropriately the previous evening, to call up to apologize for his/her behaviour? All this only because, the confused mind has been restored from sloth to its true state of clarity.

Tibetan Buddhists say a short prayer before partaking any alcohol or intoxicant which essentially makes an offering of it to the presiding deities and buddhas, but more importantly appeals to them to keep the effects of the substance under the control of the body (digestability) and mind (not confusing it)!

So friends, if we continue to be mindful about ingestion of intoxicants, we will see that they can help us in some ways if they are used rather than bring us suffering by improper acts of body, speech and mind, with its abuse. Going further, if the regulars use this “intoxication meditation” to see what is actually happening to their minds, each and every time, they can easily give it up or remain way below confusion levels.

Cheers to life and living!

Girish Deshpande
(The author is a Pune based Dharma practitioner)