Page 30 - Applied Buddhism

fifties. The former gave up smoking more than 15 years ago and the
later 10 years ago. The former was offered cigarettes by tobacco
companies and the latter by devotees. They both smoked a packet
of cigarettes a week.
In general, the practice of smoking amongst monks in
Malaysia represents a lower percentage when compared with the
total population. While only about 7% of the monks smoke, the
national percentage, according to 1996 Ministry of Health’s Survey
is 44% amongst the male population, and 3.5% amongst the female
population. There are no less than 100 nuns in Malaysia. All of
them do not smoke.
As far as the lay people are concerned, they normally find it
unacceptable for monks to smoke. The general perception is that
smoking amongst monks is incompatible with the teachings of the
Buddha. People generally cannot understand how monks who are
supposed to live a simple life of purification can indulge in a social
vice.
In my humble opinion, and I believe this is also the opinion
of most Buddhists who know something about Buddhism, monks
should be free from nicotine addiction, and therefore should not use
tobacco. On the contrary monks should be active in saving lives by
preventing tobacco use and helping people to quit. To say that there
is nothing in the Buddha’s teaching that discourage smoking is
more of an excuse rather than rational reasoning. It is true smoking
may not be included in the fifth precept since it does not lead to
intoxication; nevertheless there are other aspects of the Buddhist
teachings that obviously do not encourage smoking. For instance,
the Buddhist teachings encourage simple living, thrift and mental
development. These qualities are incompatible with smoking.
018 Applied Buddhism
During the time of the Buddha, some monks enquired from the
Buddha whether they could smoke during winter in order to keep
warm. The Buddha did not object. This is taken by some as the
green-light for smoking. One must understand that smoking was a
hard-to-come-by leisure in those days, when people did not often
smoke. It was only after the 1940’s that smoking took on a massive
scale as a result of the invention of cigarette-making machines.
This has brought about unprecedented health and social-economic
problems, which if the Buddha was around, I am sure He would not
agree to it.
It is also a well-known fact that smoking is a waste of money,
and it is hard to imagine monks who depend on the public for
their sustenance, puffing away the hard earned money of their
benefactors. In a story published in the Star (newspaper), a 70-year
old widow related how she made regular donations to a monk who
asked for donations to build a temple in Thailand. She continued
to do so for a year until she caught him smoking in a back alley
using his alms bowl as an ash tray. “l was so angry I wanted to hit
him,” the widow said. “All this while when I thought I was doing
something good, he was spending my money on cigarettes and who
knows what else!”
Since the Buddha’s teaching and the general perception of the
Buddhist devotees are not in favour of smoking, Buddhist monks
who are involved in smoking should stop this habit immediately. On
the other hand, laymen can discourage the use of tobacco amongst
monks, by saying politely, (quoted from Venerable Visudhacara):
“Venerable sir, with all due respect allow me to point out that you
are depending on the lay devotees for your support. You are unable
to earn any living except to live on alms and depend on the charity
of the people. Is it proper for you to burn away the good devotees’
Applied Buddhism 019