[Buddha-l] Can Buddhists quit smoking?

[Vicente Gonzalez]

curt wrote:

c> Incense is a traditional "offering" - in fact the burning of incense 
c> probably has it's origin as a replacement for blood sacrifice. We could
c> always go back to that, and then have a barbecue (outdoors) afterwards.

probably the root of such thing is not in the smell but in smoke and
embers. Both were used from prehistorical times as a protection or
facilitator with spirits. From here one can speculate a logical
evolution adding aromatic plants, and it can be the origin
of incense. Although it is not sure.
Smell becomes a main thing in a more evolved religion (Egypt, etc..).
The highest expression is the Kodo (the way of incense) inside
Japanese Buddhism. It is an spiritual tool together others like Chado
or Kyudo.  Smelling also appears as a way to practice inside the
Surangama Sutra. 

Although the origin is obscure, one can ask about the explanations of
substitution of sacrifices, because in Roma and Greece incense was
burned and smoked for visionary purposes, while sacrifices existed.
Same in America with tobacco, which also was used with visionary
purposes and as another incense.
Still today many clairvoyant people uses burning cigars, contemplating
the ember and the smoke.
Probably the use of smoke is older than Egypt and advanced religions.
Prehistorical paintings in caves shows the people surely had visions
with the only company of smoke and embers. In sensorial deprivation
(caves, etc..) such visions appears quickly, and in still today in
many religions there is a practice for those visions in caves, holes,
etc... In example it is a common practice in Tibetan Bön.

The old question about how that people drew so well in caves with so
scarce light and no knowledge maybe can be answered. Probably that
people painted so well because they were seeing those things in the
walls of their caves. Then just they needed drawing by following the
traces of their own visions in the walls.


best regards,