EFTA01160176

Most 
westerners would shrink from any 
hint that alcohol 
is an agent of mass destruction. 
However, consider 
some of the following national 
statistics from 
the USA summarized in a 
Scientific American report 
in June 1998 (p.67): 
• Alcohol consumption 
contributes annually to 
100,000 deaths in the USA alone. 
• Alcoholism is the third most 
common preventable 
cause of death after smoking and 
obesity. 
EFTA01162036

• 14-20 million Americans have 
some history of 
their lives being disrupted by their 
relations with 
alcohol. 
• An estimated 40% of Americans 
have been intimately 
exposed to the effects of alcohol 
abuse 
through a family member. 
• As many as 12,000 children born 
annually to 
drinking mothers in the US have 
mental and 
physical deficiencies as a result of 
their exposure 
to alcohol in utero. 
EFTA01162037

The mores and traditions of our era 
form a veil of 
self-satisfying myths which often 
blind us to the 
damage alcohol consumption 
actually brings to 
modern society — and perhaps by 
understanding 
how deeply alcohol is woven into 
Western culture, 
can we take care not to have the 
wool pulled over 
our eyes too! 
In the West before the popularity 
of tea and coffee 
in the late eighteenth century, 
alcohol was 
EFTA01162038

claimed to be one of the only 
hygenic drinks available. 
Although Judeo-Christian 
teachings prevalent 
in the west have never supported 
drunkenness, 
they have portrayed alcohol 
consumption as a necessary 
coping mechanism in the face of 
social hardship: 
"Give strong drink unto him that is 
ready 
to perish, and wine unto those that 
be of 
heavy hearts. Let him drink, and 
forget his 
poverty, and remember his misery 
EFTA01162039

no 
more." (Proverbs 31) 
Wine has even been incorporated 
into the most sacred 
of Christian ceremonies — the 
Mass. Historically 
speaking, the escalation in the 
seriousness of 
alcohol problems has been 
accelerated as the distilled 
liquor products have become more 
readily 
available on the market. Research 
as early as 1813 
established the connection between 
alcohol consumption 
and liver disease, jaundice, wasting 
EFTA01162040

and 
mental disfunction. Indeed, alcohol 
consumption 
has not gone completely 
unopposed in the West —
however, in Christian circles such 
opposition has 
mostly come in the form of 
temperance rather than 
abstinence. It was Methodist 
values backed by clinical 
research which led to the 
American Prohibition 
from 1920 to 1933. 
Because of its long history of 
acceptance in Judeo-
Christian culture alcohol remains 
EFTA01162041

deeply rooted in 
the Western idea of respectability. 
Thus, as we pur-
Blessing Twenty: 
Restraint from 
Drinking Intoxicants 
234 A Manual of Peace: 38 Steps 
towards Enlightened Living 
sue our path of the Manual of 
Peace, whether in a 
Buddhist context or otherwise, we 
need to take care 
to make ourselves truly open to 
alternative approaches 
to intoxicants like alcohol — 
EFTA01162042

westerners 
reading the content of this blessing 
need (perhaps 
more than for other blessings) to 
have particular 
conviction in the wisdom of 
`Restraint from drinking 
intoxicants' to adopt standards 
concerning the 
consumption of alcohol based on 
the Buddha's 
teachings rather than the current 
social norms. 
A.2 Why Buddhists consider 
abstinence from 
alcohol indispensable 
Abstaining from alcohol is a virtue 
EFTA01162043

we have already 
encountered several times on our 
journey through 
the Manual of Peace — as a `road 
to ruin' in Blessings 
Six, Seven, Thirteen and Fourteen, 
as the Fifth 
Precept in Blessing Nine and as a 
substance which 
is not to be sold for one's 
livelihood in Blessing 
Eighteen. The Buddha devotes an 
entire blessing 
to `Restraint from Drinking 
Intoxicants' in Blessing 
Twenty, not simply because of the 
damage alcohol 
EFTA01162044

does to one's physical health, but 
because if 
one doesn't abstain from alcohol 
definitively by this 
point in the Manual of Peace, one 
will have no 
chance to upgrade oneself in the 
direction of Blessing 
Twenty-One (Avoiding 
recklessness in the 
Dhamma) and beyond. 
If you consider self-discipline 
based on the Five 
Precepts, you will find that each of 
the Five Precepts 
are more or less independent from 
one another 
EFTA01162045

except for the fifth. If you break 
the any of 
the first four precepts, normally it 
will not cause 
any other of the Precepts to be 
broken. However, if 
the Fifth Precept is ever broken, it 
subsequently increases 
the risk of breaking all the other 
four Precepts. 
When you drink, you say more 
than you 
mean to, some is true, the rest 
breaks the fourth Precept. 
If you have some latent adulterous 
tendencies, 
they will manifest themselves 
EFTA01162046

when you are 
drunk. If you have tendencies to 
steal then you will 
find it hard to keep your hands to 
yourself when 
you are drunk. If you are normally 
bad-tempered, 
when you are drunk you will be 
uninhibited in your 
violence. Alcohol may be the 
single reason why you 
break all the Precepts. Without 
alcohol, when our 
conscience is fully-functional, we 
cannot do anything 
harmful, because we still feel shy 
of wicked 
EFTA01162047

deeds — especially for our 
reputation. Thus alcohol 
is something about which we have 
to be extremely 
wary. 
For most of us, no matter how bad 
we may start 
out, if we don't go to the lengths of 
drinking alcohol, 
we still have the opportunity to 
change ourselves 
for the better. Supposing someone 
is a ruffian 
who likes to pick fights, usually 
such habits 
will only last for as long as he is a 
teenager. When 
EFTA01162048

he is more mature he will stop by 
himself. Thieves 
who have been stealing since they 
were young, as 
they grow up will start to think, 
"Am I going to 
keep on stealing like this until the 
day I die?" Even 
the Casanovas of the world, as 
they get older will 
become reflective about their own 
condition — they 
will become self-conscious about 
being seen by others 
as a `dirty old man'. Liars too will 
eventually 
become bored of lying. However, 
EFTA01162049

if any of these four 
types of people are still drinking 
alcohol as well, 
they will be unable to stop their 
old ways. The 
thought of stopping might cross 
their minds, but 
as soon as they start drinking, their 
behaviour will 
regress into its old ways. The fifth 
Precept is thus 
the most crucial. If you ever hear 
anyone boasting 
that they can keep all the Precepts 
except the last, 
take their claims with a pinch of 
salt — all five of 
EFTA01162050

their Precepts are at risk. 
A.3 How alcohol affects the mind 
The problem with alcohol is that it 
worsens the latent 
weaknesses and unwholesome 
tendencies that already 
exist in the mind.The Buddha 
taught that the untrained 
mind tends to have the following 
four weaknesses: 
I. It is habituated to 
unwholesomeness: The 
mind will squirm like a fish out of 
water: being 
so used to negative moods as soon 
as you 
start to take the mind away from 
EFTA01162051

these negative 
states it will struggle. 
2. It will change continuously: 
You will tend to 
change your mind about any 
decision you 
have made 
3. It will wander: It is hard to keep 
the mind on 
a single thing 
4. It is hard to pacify. 
Blessing Twenty: Restraint from 
Drinking Intoxicants 235 
Under the influence of alcohol, all 
these bad features 
of the mind have the chance to 
manifest themselves 
EFTA01162052

to the full. 
A.4 Drunkenness even without 
alcohol 
Even if we are sober it is difficult 
enough to perceive 
the true nature of life and the 
world around 
us. The Buddha taught that, even if 
we don't smoke, 
drink alcohol or abuse drugs, we 
are already drunk 
the whole of the time — especially 
concerning the 
following three things: 
I. we are drunken concerning our 
youth (we tend 
to think "I am still young 
I can 
EFTA01162053

still go out 
every night. I am still beautiful 
I can still 
turn the heads of young men") 
2. we are drunken concerning our 
freedom of disease. 
Those who are healthy are wont to 
think 
that they will be healthy like that 
forever and 
that abuse of their health doesn't 
matter. 
3. we are drunken concerning the 
length of our 
lives. We think that the likes of us 
doesn't die 
so easily. We tend to think we are 
EFTA01162054

still strong 
and that our time has not come —
in fact we 
are fooling ourselves. 
The Buddha called such attitudes 
'drunkenness'. 
Even without drinking alcohol, 
people still think 
like this. If we drink alcohol as 
well, there will be 
many more forms of drunkenness 
which will be 
attracted to us as the result. 
B. DEFINITIONS 
B.1 Definition of `intoxicants' 
Intoxicants [majjhapAna] in this 
blessing refer to 
EFTA01162055