I have heard a certain interpretation of the 5th precept and I'm curious about it, the person said that for lay people the 5th precept means "not drinking alcohol to the point you get intoxicated or lose control of your actions", therefore it would be ok to drink a glass of wine having dinner for instance. On the other hand, once you start drinking it becomes very hard to know your limits, most of the people don't have this ability. Is there a limit or something regarding drinking alcohol according to Buddhism?

Some drugs, like ecstasy, help build empathy and help our mind see things from a different point of view. What about if meditation is the obsolete ways to see enlightment and perhaps drugs are the easier ways?

>It goes without saying that alcohol makes you mindless. Theres debate about pot creating conditions for enhanced mindfulness in SOME individuals. My question is not "is it okay". I know what to expect. Are there any specific stories involving Buddha on the subject of someone ingesting an herb or something, specifically to be mindful... and how that is bad. I'm asking for the story or stories.

I know it's discouraged for Buddhists to intoxicate their body, but were there any known cases of monks using psychedelic drugs intentionally in the past?

I don't want to consult any doctor about my obsession. I do not even want to speak about it to my family and friends. I wish to get an answer tailor-made for me about my obsession with getting dead-drunk and practicing self, the meditation. Please don't take it otherwise but a question to Buddha & his disciples. I am so fed up of the dependence of me on drugs. It happens, believe me (i have seen many others, too). Please provide/mark/show/point wordings of Buddha if he has said something near to this. If any modern Buddha is reading this than please share actual revert of you with example. I am standing at a dead-end (may be here's some way ahead but my thought isn't going beyond my confusion. My philosophy about buddhism says that it's a way of living that is worth living. I am practicing meditation in routine in early morning timings. The rest of the day i depend on drugs to stay connected to the will of mine to become a Buddha, it appears like a bridge that i can walk and i walk across it, everytime. *How is it possible to leave behind my obsession with drugs?* I want to quit my drugs. I wish to be free.

Given that awakening is accomplished by the destruction of the āsava, understanding what precisely the āsava are (and what they are not) is a key to unraveling the mystery of the Buddha's teaching. At the 13:29 mark of this talk, 2016-11-16: Ajahn Sucitto: Asava and Careful Attention Ajahn Sucitto made the following claim: > The āsava are the saṅkhāra that are encoded with ignorance [avijjā] IMHO, this simple statement is profound. It places the āsava here: **paṭiloma-paṭiccasamuppāda:** 1: avijjā 2: saṅkhāra ** knowledge** I am 99% convinced that this interpretation is correct. It just fits. However, if possible, I would like some evidence from the suttas to corroborate this interpretation. Does such evidence exist? Ajahn Sucitto kindly responded to my request for information on this matter, thusly: > “'Avjijja paccaya sankhāra’ is the frequently reiterated beginning of > the paticcasamuppada (dependent origination) sequence. If you google > this you’ll find many sutta references. This means: ‘with ignorance as > a condition, formative energies arise’. These sankhara formulate > consciousness - the outward-looking intelligence that formulates data > in terms of labels and forms (nāma-rupa). The motivation behind this > formulating is to generate a substantial and enduring reality out of > them. This is the asava of ‘existence/becoming’ (bhava). There is also > the motivation towards stimulation; this is ‘sensuality’ (kāma). > Ignorance as the other of the three asava is the motivation to ignore > the others and just keep adding more proliferation to the mix. This > conclusion has arisen through prolonged study and practice."

I've been to a nice restaurant (pictured below) where the bar was decorated with statues of the Buddha. Given the 5th precept and all; this seemed a bit odd. Would it be correct to surmise that the 5th precept is understood in different ways among Buddhists?

The fifth precept most directly guides us to abstain from alcohol. Coffee is a stimulant and probably so is tea. Drinking either beverage affects our mental calm and makes us behave in ways that we would not do so without having drunk it. In this sense, drinking coffee and tea is not that different from drinking alcohol. Does drinking coffee or tea is considered against the fifth precept? In Asia, many people, including monks, drink tea. Does this indicate that drinking tea is at least not against the fifth precept?

Since the mapping of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS) began about ten years ago, around 500 new subsatances has been discovered. This is a somewhat different situation than what was the case 2500 years ago. Some NPS are not illegal, and even it they are defined as pshychoactive they're not intoxicating but more like caffein ("upper") or melatonin (for sleep) or valerian (calming). What defines - in the different traditions - whether taking an NPS is against the five precepts or not? Is it the intention with which you take the substance? Is it the effect? Neurobiological damage? Physical damage? Frequency? Does legal status come in to the picture? Is this something one should take directly with the teacher? Or something you can define according to your own conscience?

How did Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche justify drinking alcohol? How did his students justify his drinking? Is it possible an enlightened being could or would drink alcohol if they had been physically injured and had serious chronic pain? Like Rinpoche had chronic physical pain? What about strong opiate pain killers?

I quote Andrei from [here](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/40/461) : >Apparently, Buddha's first teacher, Arada Kalama, taught Shukla Dhyana through visualizing oneself in the center of progressively empty context (village --> empty field --> empty sky --> nothingness), culminating in a state of thoughtless concentration with no content. On a TV show**1** I once heard a description of a guided trip on magic mushrooms, which reminded me of -- that description was: > You're on a ship → then the ship's gone → the water's gone → you're gone. What might have been the role/relevance of drugs, when Arada taught the Buddha? Is it possible that Arada (or his students) might have used some psychoactive drugs? And is it right to find the description of Shukla Dhyana comparable with the documentary's description of "the ship gone, etc."? --- **1** It was a TV documentary of Albert Hofmann, where they investigated to medicinal usage of psychedelics to help people suffering from severe depression.

The fifth precept is > I undertake the training rule to abstain from fermented drink that > causes heedlessness but I have read interpretations that translate it as > I undertake to abstain from intoxicants Are there any references in the Buddhist scriptures about the fifth precept having a broader interpretations that refer to intoxicants of different forms - not just chemical stimulants? I'm interested in views of any schools as I imagine the interpretation of the precept may be different between them. I'm also interested in any references to more modern teachers who take this broader approach if anyone knows of them.

This post was submitted to reddit and I thought it might be interesting to re-post it here. I will now copy and paste the body of text the original poster submitted: "It seems like so many people who use psychedelics are drawn to the Eastern way of thought. I could probably count on one hand the amount of people in the world who took LSD and became a supporter of Hobbes' argument for the sovereign or any other western way of thought (save, perhaps, existentialism). Conversely, almost any forum for psychedelic drug users will have lots of discussions of meditation, buddhism, taoism, and so forth, especially when discussing how the drugs have changed the individual using them. What is it about psychedelics and eastern thought that causes this? Why is this correlation exist?" re: http://www.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/2aqzgw/why_do_users_of_psychedelic_drugs_tend_to/ So why is this?

I am aware that drinking is against the fifth precept, but there are certain occasions where I can enjoy a few drinks (few times a month). I read a lot that it is not recommended to meditate _purposely_ on any drug - but what if I did take a few drinks, should I still meditate (e.g. Vipassana) or should I skip it?

Tantric rituals harness the power/engergy of taboo acts by including either actual or visualizations of alcohol, meat and sex into the ritual. In that system, does it still work if people don't actually believe that there is anything wrong with drinking alcohol, eating meat or sex ? Also, maybe I just am not familiar with tantra, but this list is 3 out of five of the five precepts. Do tantric rituals also harness the power of theft and killing?