Does smoking violate fifth precept?

[gogota]

Does smoking violate fifth precept?
Are monk allowed to smoke. Please refer attached article.

http://www.fsnewsletter.amaravati.org/html/38/38.htm

Is it possible a person who attain Sotapanna will smoke?

my father in law and mother in law are heavy smoker.

My father in law got a stroke in May last year, after that , whole body cannot move. His organ damage one by one. Last November, he died of hunger because all his organ failed. He beg for mercy from God every night.

My mother in law was confirmed with lung cancer last year July. Last week, the cancer has spread to the bone and attack the nerve. The kind of suffering she get nobody can imagine. REALLY REALLY PAINFUL. Many committed suicide at this stage.

Continue to smoke if you want to know how hell looks like.

Tan

[equilibrium]

SarathW
The two smokers are equal and both have the potential to attain Nirvana.
Even though the first smoker wants to stop now and change course.....this does not mean the second smoker will not do so at a later date.
Healthy life isn't Nirvana is it?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The more I learn about nicotine, the more inclined I am to say that it does violate the fifth precept. Whatever, its clearly not compatible with the path to the cessation of craving. If you are addicted to nicotine, you won't regret getting free from that craving.

We Love Cigarettes (BBC Horizon).

[gogota]

These are some of the thing that will happened to a smoker :

1) Heart attack
This is the most merciful dead, but not everyone. Some got serious brain damage and became vege all of their life

2) stroke
My father in law got it, take seven months for him to die. Very very horrible. Just can't imagine the horror of the dying process

3) Lung failure
Need oxygen therapy to survive. Just lying on the bed and breath using machine. Worse than dead

4) Lung cancer
The worst of all. When a pain reach a level no longer sustainable by a human, the doctor will give morphine or sleeping pill. Many commit suicide at late stage. Too painful.

5) Live a long life.
Very very few have this chance. All my relatives and friends who smoke are 6 feet under.

Stop smoking = stop suffering

[SarathW]

Bhante Pesala
I hole heatedly agree with you. I wrote my article about two years ago.
Then I was under the impression that Sotapanna will not strictly follow the five precepts.
However after joining this forum, I have a better understanding of this.
So it is impossible for me to imagine that Sotapanna person will have any addictions.

[pilgrim]

Just for interest sake, I understand that smoking for medicinal purposes is allowed in the vinaya. I can't cite the reference though. Maybe someone with more interest in the subject may be inclined to dig it up.

[Jerrod Lopes]

Of course smoking when the vinaya was created is a whole lot different today. The tobacco in many regions that produce it is treated with chemical fertilizers and pesticides that were not available in the Buddha's time. Undoubtedly this changes from place to place, but I know in the US that tobacco, especially for cigarettes, is loaded with added chemicals not naturally found in the tobacco leaf itself. I thought that could be pertinent.

[pilgrim]

Smoking is practised in a large number of cultures, even tribal ones. In modern and westernised cultures, smoking was considered socially acceptable until maybe a couple of decades ago when its adverse health effects became widely known. Smoking is bad for health, but it is not inherently morally bad so I don't think it violates the 5th Precept. The fifth precept prohibits the use of intoxicants - stuff that clouds the mind to the point that one easily breaks the first four. I think the question is not whether smoking violates the fifth precept but what one smokes that breaks the fifth precept.

[Cittasanto]

Just for interest sake, I understand that smoking for medicinal purposes is allowed in the vinaya. I can't cite the reference though. Maybe someone with more interest in the subject may be inclined to dig it up.

this was brought up in another thread.
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=13494
and in the Dhammawiki
http://www.dhammawiki.com/index.php?title=Cannabis
it is in the Mahavagga though smoking tobbaco would be referred to in this thread. which didn't come to be used or known for the purpose until the Americas were discovered.

[bradford]

It might be a punctuation question (in paraphrase)

refrain from using drugs which lead to heedlessness, or
refrain from using drugs, which lead to heedlessness.

I prefer the former, which permits a stimulant like coffee or tea,
and perhaps even entheogens, as these do not conduce to pamada or heedlessness.

I spoze dying from lung cancer could distract one from the work.

[Cittasanto]

It might be a punctuation question (in paraphrase)

refrain from using drugs which lead to heedlessness, or
refrain from using drugs, which lead to heedlessness.

I prefer the former, which permits a stimulant like coffee or tea,
and perhaps even entheogens, as these do not conduce to pamada or heedlessness.

I spoze dying from lung cancer could distract one from the work.

the rule actually refers to alcoholic drinks, not any drug, but they would be covered if they lead to heedlesness.
and this actually points to what is meant by heedlessness in the rule. caffeine would not fall under the rule as it does not cause us to be week minded and do things we wouldn't normally do.
but death is our constant companion.

[Jerrod Lopes]

During the Buddha's time and in the region in which he taught, soma was used extensively in the Vedic traditions. It is believed by historians and religious scholars that soma was the plant and the drink both which were very likely ephedra or something very much like it. It was known as a cause for many "heedless" behaviors. The Buddha most certainly would have known about this, especially if he were actually a prince as a lot of the stories say. He would have had occasion to use the drug during rituals being of the ruling caste. Undoubtedly he meant alcohol when he created this precept, but surely he would have included soma as well.