The Other Side of Nothing by Brad Warner

Author:Brad Warner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New World Library
Published: 2022-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

25. I VOW TO REFRAIN FROM INTOXICANTS

THE BODHIDHARMA ONE-MIND Precepts version of the precept about not using intoxicants goes, “Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the truth of original basic purity, not to give birth to ignorance is called ‘no selling wine, no drinking wine.’ ”

As you may have guessed from that, another version of this precept is “No selling of wine, no drinking of wine.” Another version is “Don’t live by selling liquor.”

Nishijima Roshi, commenting on the version that says not to live by selling liquor, says, “This seems rather strange as a religious precept. I feel that the original concept might have been not to drink liquor. Perhaps as Buddhism spread from India to countries like China and Japan this precept was altered to suit local conditions. In those northern countries alcohol was considered an important aid to survival during the cold winter months. So personally I feel that it is important not to drink, but we should recognize the precept in the form that it has come to us from the past.”

Some of the variations on this precept in English include, “A disciple of the Buddha refrains from taking or offering harmful intoxicants or drugs that delude body/mind” (Shunryu Suzuki), “A follower of the way does not intoxicate oneself or others” (Dainin Katagiri), and “Not to cause others to use liquors or drugs that confuse or weaken the mind and not to do so oneself, but to keep the mind clear” (Philip Kapleau).

The ever-reliable Diane Eshin Rizzetto has a wordier version that goes, “I take up the way of cultivating a clear mind. Fear holds the cup and I hide in the distortion of its shadow. The cup falls and sunlight blinds with painful brightness. I vow to stand with empty hands, tight chest, trembling, and tears. I vow to stand with eyes open to what is revealed. Who drops the cup?”

Ummm. OK, then!

Moving right along, the Brahmajala Sutra says, “A disciple of the Buddha must not trade in alcoholic beverages or encourage others to do so. He should not create the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of selling any intoxicant whatsoever, for intoxicants are the causes and conditions of all kinds of offenses. As a Buddha’s disciple, he ought to help all sentient beings achieve clear wisdom. If instead, he causes them to have upside-down, topsy-turvy thinking, he commits a major offense.”

Furthermore, abstaining from intoxicants can be a gift to others. The Buddha put it this way, “Furthermore, in abstaining from taking intoxicants, a disciple of the Buddha gives freedom from danger, animosity, and oppression to limitless numbers of beings. In giving freedom from danger, animosity, and oppression to limitless numbers of beings, he gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, animosity, and oppression.” When you don’t get drunk or high, the rest of us don’t have to deal with your drunk/high ass annoying us or crashing your car into us.

Pretty much everyone agrees that, even though the Chinese character for alcohol appears in this precept, it applies to all forms of intoxicants.

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