Drugs vs. Sacraments

You know the cultural corrective about tobacco being wildly abused when for most of its relationship with humanity it has been a sacrament?

That, but from Jews, regarding alcohol.

(Many Jews also need this message.)

This was inspired by the like fifth thingI’ve seen the premise of which is “astrology, but drunk,” but what it really brings to mind is the Chasidic farbrengens I’ve been to.

I’m not gonna name names, but ha’meivin mevin. Doritos and room-temperature vodka in plastic cups type of thing.

This is kiruv? This is how you bring people in from the cold? By destroying their bodies with cheap bliss?

We make kiddush (sanctifying) and havdalah (separating) as blessings upon moments of time using alcohol. Why? because it elevates consciousness into the plane of recognizing the specialness of time. A mouthful ought to do. More than that, and you’re lowering it again.

I am often asked the always potent question of how I could have taken the fifth Buddhist precept, the shorthand for which is probably “no intoxicants.” Here’s the thing: In MY sangha, anyway, the precept is against “clouding the mind.”

I’m “clouding my mind with intoxicants” all day just by thinking intoxicating thoughts. Skillful means, to me, is finding the right alchemy to “proceed clearly” (also in our precept language). To see this requires “clarity” of what “proceeding” is.

When you’re watching someone else using intoxicants, you can tell the difference, can’t you? Between someone who is getting somewhere and someone who is nowhere?

Anyway, as in all things, I become wary of seeing extreme behaviors becoming casual.