[Buddha-l] Re: Can Buddhists quit smoking?

[Richard Hayes]

Curt Steinmetz suspects:

> My suspicion is that there is a great deal of overlap among those who
> whimper for the AC to be turned on and those who whimper about a little
> incense smoke - as well as those who whimper about chanting in foreign
> languages, and those who whimper about bowing, and those who whimper
> about  "hierarchy", and those who want more socializing, and those who
> complain about the food .....

I have actually observed people whimpering about it being too hot or too cold, 
but I have not observed people whimpering about any of these other things. So 
I have no way of knowing whether what Dr Steinmetz suspects is true. I guess 
that makes me agnostic on this issue.

If the name of this game is to voice a bunch of unfounded suspicions, however, 
I suspect mine would be somewhat different from Dr Stienmetz's. I suspect he 
makes the common but inexcusably careless mistake of lumping all whimpering 
together into a single category. That would be as egregious a blunder as 
lumping all Detroit Tigers fans, or all Jews, or all black-capped chickadees 
together. Wise men and women call such careless lumping prejudice. 

My years of careful study of abhidharma have led me to distinguish several 
kinds of whimperer.

People who whimper about it being too hot or too cold tend to be addicted to 
physical comforts. Complaining about physical comfort is contrary to both 
Buddhist and Protestant advice, so we can safely say of such people that they 
are pretty inferior in their Buddhist practice and in their Protestant 
practice.

People who whimper about incense smoke, tobacco smoke, perfumes and after 
shave lotions  tend to be asthmatics or people with allergies, so we could 
safely say of them that they have medical conditions that warrant their 
speaking up. They are thus in an entirely different category from those who 
whimper about climate.

People who prefer chanting in languages they understand almost never whimper. 
Generally speaking they are in the same category as those who read contracts 
before signing them. They are careful, sensible people and therefore could be 
rather good at both Buddhist and Protestant practice. There is no reason to 
suspect either a positive or negative correlation between these sensible 
people and either addicts to physical comfort or people with medical 
afflictions.

I've never heard of anyone, except some violinists, whimpering about bowing, 
so I have no idea what such people might be like. I suspect they may be men 
made of straw.

It is unimaginable to me that a Buddhist would whimper about hierarchy as 
such. Just about everything in Buddhism is based on progressing though 
hierarchies of conditions, from the pathetic condition of being a foolish 
commoner (bala-p.rthag-jaana) to the noble conditions of being a stream 
entrant, a once-returner, a never returner and an arhant, of (if one prefers 
other evaluative schemes) progressing from Hinayana to Mahayana. Never having 
heard anyone whimpering about this sort of hierarchy, I suspect we are once 
again in the realm of straw men being torched for rhetorical effect.

Whimpering about socializing and food is another thing I have never observed 
in anyone except teenagers, so we find a minor population explosion in the 
land of the straw men.

> Don't get me wrong

I have discovered that getting you wrong is the fastest route to the truth.

> - I complain as much as the next person.

Perhaps you should consider spending several months in New Mexico. We don't 
even complain here, let alone whimper. It's considered a breech of etiquette 
to grumble, grouse, bellyache or kvetch. My guess is that the taboo against 
grumbling is a coincidental similarity among Navajo, Pueblo, Hispanic 
Catholic and Anglo Protestant cultures. I'd have to ask an anthropologist, or 
at least a socialist apologist, to confirm or rebuke that guess. All I know 
for sure is that here on the range we call home, seldom is heard a 
discouraging word, and the deer and the antelope pray, while the wolves and 
the coyotes prey. And that's what makes New Mexico an ideal environment for 
Buddhist practice. That's why we moved buddha-l to New Mexico.

-- 
Richard
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes