Buddha's Wise advice

From an American monk in the Theravada Buddhist tradition:

“To dispel any doubt about his reasons for prescribing this precept, the Buddha has written the explanation into the rule itself: one is to refrain from the use of intoxicating drinks and drugs because they are the cause of heedlessness (pamada). Heedlessness means moral recklessness, disregard for the bounds between right and wrong. It is the loss of heedfulness (appamada), moral scrupulousness based on a keen perception of the dangers in unwholesome states. … The use of alcohol blunts the sense of shame and moral dread and thus leads almost inevitably to a breach of the other precepts. One addicted to liquor will have little hesitation to lie or steal, will lose all sense of sexual decency, and may easily be provoked even to murder. Hard statistics clearly confirm the close connection between the use of alcohol and violent crime, not to speak of traffic accidents, occupational hazards, and disharmony within the home. Alcoholism is indeed a most costly burden on the whole society.” (from A Discipline of Sobriety by Bhikkhu Bodhi (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/bps-essay_36.html)

Bhikkhu Bodhi gets directly to the point in the quotation above. The problem is not drinking with your pals, the problem is the recklessness that inevitably follows from surrendering your self-control. “Losing your inhibitions” is the equivalent of losing awareness of the effect you’re having on others. “I don’t remember a thing” is not a defense, it’s an admission that you willingly abdicated responsibility for your actions. However, this doesn’t mean you are not responsible for any consequences that follow. No one is obliged to forgive you. You made the choice to make yourself (at least temporarily) stupid. The shame that often comes after an episode of intoxication can also cause the behavior to continue. It can become an unwholesome feedback loop: “I’m worthless, might as well get drunk.” At the societal level, intoxicants are probably responsible for inciting more mayhem than any other individual cause.

I’m thinking, too, of driving under the influence, or as we call it in Australia, drink driving. I know more than one family that has been dealt a horrible blow by a drunk driver. It’s an example of the most extreme heedlessness – getting behind the wheel of a car while incapable of driving responsibly. Even moderate heedlessness can cause lasting damage in the form of unretrievable negative words.

This is why it’s so important to examine our behavior and its effect on others. If our intention is to do no harm, then we have to be as much in command of ourselves as we can manage.