Do Buddhists drink alcohol

Answer 1

The short answer: no, not if they are following Buddhism correctly.

A Buddhist is someone who has taken refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, and who makes an effort to follow the Noble Eightfold Path - the path of morality, meditation and wisdom.

When observing the morality segment of the path, all Buddhists are expected to keep a certain number of moral precepts. For monks and nuns this number exceeds two hundred; for lay-people this will number no less than five.

These five precepts constitute the basic Buddhist moral code. They are:

# To avoid killing # To avoid stealing # To avoid sexual misconduct # To avoid false speech # To avoid alcohol and drugs. The Buddha said that addiction to intoxicants is one of the six causes of ruin. It brings about six main disadvantages: # loss of wealth, # arguments and strife, # poor health, # ruined reputation # shameless and indecent behaviour, # weakened intelligence. The fifth precept is often said to be the most important because if you break that one you can very easily break the rest, as the number of alcohol and drug related crimes testifies.

Answer 2

Yes they can, but not all do.

Answer:

Buddhism is not given to putting out prohibitions (A list of "Don't do this" items). In place of that they suggest that a more skillful approach to life is to follow certain suggestions or avoid harmful activities. These are contained in the Eightfold Path. The approach to alcohol is that it, and other drugs, interferes with the logical processes of the mind and may lead a person into activities and actions that are harmful to themselves and others. Some Buddhists drink others abstain - no one should be judgemental about this.

Answer 3

Many Buddhists abstain from alcohol and Buddhist monks take a vow against drinking alcohol. There is a legend that reinforces the importance of this: A monk was meditating in a cave when a demon appeared before him along with a warrior, a dancing girl and a jug of wine. The demon told him "You will die now if you do not either kill the warrior, have sex with the girl or drink the wine. Choose." The monk thought about each of these acts. Each would break a vow. Finally he decided to break the least of the vows. So he drank the wine, then killed the warrior and slept with the dancing girl.

Answer 4

Can denotes physical possibility - if question intends to then, answer has to be yes - Any human being can drink alcohol.

However, if question was - Should Hindu drink alcohol?

Then answer would be, no - Hindu should not drink alcohol. For that matter nobody should do anything capable of an addiction.

Answer 5

First of all there is no brahmana in this age.

Brahmana is not decided by birth. A brahmana should be judged by his qualities and activities.

As Lord Krishna says in Bhagavad gita : " catur varnyam maya srstam, guna karma vibhagasha..". So He does not mention birth here.

Brahmana is supposed to follow the vedic injunctions.

According to Srimad Bhagavatam, the 4 regulative principles namely - no intoxication, no gambling , no meat eating and no illicit sex are the principles of austerity, truthfulness, mercifulness and cleanliness respectively which a brahmana is supposed to have.

If a so called brahmana is breaking the regulative principle by taking intoxications (alcohol, drugs etc).. then he is no more fit to be called a brahmana.

Answer 6

Each Buddhist may have a slightly different view on the subject, some Buddhists take alcohol and others might smoke. It is generally accepted amongst Buddhists that drunkenness is not a beneficial state to be in. Some Buddhist take vows that would prohibit them from smoking or drinking. There's not one answer for all Buddhists

Answer 7

The fifth Precept of Buddhist morality is to avoid alcohol. The reason to avoid drinking is because it disrupts a personâ??s consciousness and self-awareness.