Quit Smoking the Buddhist Way
(By Tsem Rinpoche)
I am happy to see how, more and more, Buddhism is being applied and used in so many diverse platforms and industries these days. Schools are infusing Buddhism into its students’ daily lives by having meditation classes and substituting detention with meditation sessions. And what’s amazing is that they have noticed positive changes in their students’ behaviour as a result.
More recently, I came across this article that shows how Buddhism can also help people quit smoking. This is excellent news because it proves what I have known since I was a young boy, which is that Buddhism is very effective to inspire transformation in people.
I hope you enjoy the article and do leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
Tsem Rinpoche
Yale Psychiatrist Uses Buddhist Concept to Help Smokers Quit
By Ed Stannard, Register Metro Editor
POSTED: 02/23/09, 12:01 AM EST | UPDATED: ON 02/23/2009
WEST HAVEN — A Yale psychiatrist is bringing together neuroscience and Buddhist practices to help people overcome their addictions.
Dr. Judson A. Brewer has conducted studies with alcoholics and cocaine addicts and now is beginning research to help people quit smoking.
Brewer is medical director of the Yale Therapeutic Neuroscience Clinic, based at the Veterans Affairs medical center. What he teaches is mindfulness, a concept rooted in Buddhism.
“Mindfulness has a two-component definition for the scientific community,” Brewer said. “First, it’s maintaining your attention on the present moment, and the second is you’re bringing to that a nonjudgmental attitude of acceptance and curiosity.”
Addicts use their drug or substance of choice to relieve stress and tension, Brewer said, and that behavior becomes habitual. “Everybody forms habits based on their prior experiences,” Brewer said. “Those habits inform how we approach each new situation.”
What the clinic’s training does is help the addict break the cycle of turning to a drug to relieve the seemingly unbearable feelings created by stresses such as loneliness or anger. Brewer compares it to surfing; the wave represents a feeling like anger; we wipe out to get rid of the feeling.
“The secret is, your anger’s going to go away anyway, if you can just ride that wave,” even though you fear that you’re going to wipe out in the surf, Brewer said.
“You get crushed by these waves. Every time you react to them you get crushed by them. Every time they ride that wave, they get better at riding it.”
The knowledge that the addict is not a slave to the drug enables him or her to resist the urge more easily each time. “That adds this huge element of openness — when you know how something works there’s much more freedom to not react to it.”
The experienced Buddhist knows that anger and other stresses will go away. “Where Buddhism comes in, it says everything is impermanent,” that life is change, Brewer said. That includes suffering.
Buddhism is based on the Four Noble Truths. The first is that life is suffering, and the second is that we cause our own suffering through our ignorance and attachments to our desires. The third truth is that we can overcome those desires and the fourth is to follow the Buddhist path to enlightenment.
Mindfulness training is the clinic’s version of that path, in which people are given exercises which Brewer summed up by the acronym SOBER: Stop; Observe the body, emotions and thoughts; Breathe and notice your breath; Expand your awareness to other phenomena; and Respond in a healthy way.
Trainees are also taught various kinds of meditation, including one called loving kindness meditation.
“You just practice saying certain phrases over and over: may you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be free from inner and outer harm, may you live with ease.”
The exercises develop concentration, Brewer said. “It also helps us soften our often very firm boundaries between ourselves and other people.” That in turn helps make us more nonjudgmental, one of the basic tenets of mindfulness.
The studies are too new to have yielded definitive results, but Brewer said researchers have compared how well mindfulness reduces stress with the more traditional cognitive behavioral therapy. Mindfulness training did at least as well in decreasing the fight-or-flight response, in modulating heart rate and breathing.
Brewer said researchers have not proven a connection with the physical dependency that drugs create. “We know mindfulness can affect physiologic response … but we don’t know how it’s doing it.”
Also, addictions are incredibly difficult to treat. Smokers typically try five to seven times before they’re successful, Brewer said. But even if mindfulness doesn’t turn out to have greater success than more traditional techniques, it also does no harm, with no drugs and no negative side effects.
While the marriage of religion and neuroscience may seem contradictory, Brewer said Buddhism may be the most appealing religion to the scientific mind. It does not have a traditional concept of God and practitioners are encouraged to learn from experience, not from faith. He practices the Theravadan school that focuses solely on the Buddha’s teachings, rejecting traditions and beliefs added on by later branches.
“It draws a lot of scientists because it’s very rigorous and very experiential,” he said.
Brewer first tried Buddhist meditation in graduate school, he said, and it guided him into his specialty. Following the Buddhist precept of not harming any creature, he stopped doing animal research, “and the only thing left is people.”
His research on people is not harmful, either, and Brewer believes that the philosophy that has helped relieve his stress can help others conquer the dangerous addictions that threaten their health and their lives.
The clinic is seeking volunteers for its smoking-cessation study, which pays $10 per session and $100 for completing the 10-session course. Call the clinic’s hot line at 376-7059. More information is on the Web site at www.ytnc.yale.edu.
Source: http://www.nhregister.com/article/NH/20090223/NEWS/302239990
For more interesting information:
- Take Steps to Prevent Cancer!
- No Smoking: A Journey From Addiction
- The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered
- Silence is Good For the Brain
- Sometimes What I Am is Not Me
- What Happens When We Die? Here’s What Buddhism Says!
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Interesting article. I never thought meditation can help oneself quit smoking without consumption of medication or drugs. According to an article in The Buddhist Review, not smoking is a result of developing calm and reducing clinging through authentic Dharma practice. Mindfulness-based interventions can help people learn to pay attention to and work with negative feelings, cravings, and other symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. By focusing on our breathing the mind becomes calm and single-pointed. Many are aware of the health risks and addictive properties of nicotine that are harmful. Buddhism is very effective to inspire transformation in people. Good read of how a Yale psychiatrist bringing together neuroscience and Buddhist practices to help people overcome their addictions. Thank you Dr. Judson for the great research work.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
Thank you so much for this article. I will surely try out this way!
Only mind played an interesting part of an individual to quit smoking. Secondly their attitude to practice and the belief. Many know that smokers and alcoholic are difficult to treat by medication. Here I find the treatment and methods were simple but may take time to recover. Practice make a habit,so by knowing the intentions of smoking one can be treated by most unique way through Buddhist without drugs.
Thanks for the overall team who had share their experiences through this article. I was pleasant surprise to know about the article and was eager to know what are the concept rooted in Buddhist to quit smoking. I don’t smoke, but intend to introduce one in future. Often hear smokers take this has a habit when their are stressful and to release their tension. People usually consult a doctor after knowing their a addicted.
Glad to here about the research done by Dr. Judson A Brewer and the Yale psychiatrist bringing together neuroscience and Buddhist practice has prevent one to quit smoking. Hope many will be benefit from this and introduce their friends and family members who actually can overcome their problem and enjoy the healthy lifestyle.
This is a very interesting article, it seems people once they understand themselves why they indulged in a habit thats a first step to kicking the habit. I also think if patients can think its possible to kick a habit, that will give them the impetus to kick a particularly non beneficial habit.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this interesting article.
Buddha’s teaching is amazing. It can be apply in any area, on anyone/situation and it never outdated. Buddhism can be used on managing a company, transforming ourself for spiritual purposes, for our daily life and now it is being use by psychiatrist to help people quit smoking. Meditation is a much prefered choice as it has no side effects as compare to using drug.
Looking forward to seeing Buddhism being applied in health care industry which help to heal patients in pain, fighting with deadly disease such as cancer, AIDS & etc.
Interesting article. I never thought meditation can help oneself quit smoking without consumption of medication or drugs.
I believed that being mindfulness is an important role in this situation.It is because meditation could help one person stay calm, relax mentally,emotionally,physically and spirituality.
I’m not a smoker but I would like to share my experience of meditation.I have practiced it for 11 years.I experienced feeling happy,pain,hurt during my meditation section.I do cry in my meditation.That time I was in deep stressed and depressed. At times, I will laugh and smile too. All these are out of control and it’s a release.Sometimes,my mind will flow somewhere far beyond which I ended up falling asleep in my meditation(LOL).I even experienced running nose after meditation(beginning) which take about 2 weeks.At beginning, it might difficult to start but one must cultivate it into daily practice and it will become a habit.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this wonderful article.
I like how Brewer intertwined the essence of Buddhist teaching mindfulness and impermanent into his research. In Buddhist context, we can achieve mindfulness through meditation and this method can help us to know our mind, train our mind and eventually free our mind. When smokers want to quit smoking, first they will have to find out the reason why they started this habit the eventually whey they wish to end this habit. The discovery of our mind can be very interesting. Our mind is not static but pliable, so if we can pick up any habits and be addicted to it, such as smoking, why is that so difficult to just give up this habit which before you pick up smoking as habit, you were not smoking. It tells how our mind works and how it affect our life.
Buddhist calm becomes big business?
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/current-affairs/big-buddhist-hit-calmic-yogic-technique.html
谢谢仁波切的分享。
佛法是如此的博大精深， 现在科学家也以佛法的教诲和角度来研究我们人类的心识对于烟瘾的影响。 虽然这些研究都还是在初期阶段， 不过想信未来这些研究想必可以帮助更多人。
负责这项研究的科学家不只是研究佛陀的教诲而已， 他还自己有在佛教小乘的道场学习。 而且现他也已经停止以动物为实验品的研究， 只专注在人体研究。 想必佛陀的教诲也在他的生命中带来巨大和有益社会的影响。
谢谢。
I believe that the mind controls our actions. Therefore, the addiction that we have whether it is smoking or drug abuse, when the mind is set to quit, then it will fight to quit no matter what. Yes, Mindfullness is very important as the article suggest, it is maintaining your attention on the present moment, and bringing to that moment a nonjudgmental attitude of acceptance and curiosity. We have to be always alert and have a strong mind to follow it through until breakthrough.
I myself have tried to quit smoking a few times over the years and failed. That is because the reason behind quitting is not strong enough and always subject to desires. The last time I quit was close to 2 years ago and succeeded. Being in the present and associating the negative effects of smoking which makes me stop picking up a cigarette.
感谢仁波切您的教诲与分享：
我们常跟随上师学习佛法，听闻佛法，修持佛法，而仁波切也常提到说，佛法并不是只是每天那1至2小时中，坐在那里念诵经文，或是进行一些仪轨，使用法器或供养而已，而是我们必须把佛法融入我们的生活当中，并运用出来，并且转化我们的心识，这才是正真的佛法。
很开心地发现，越来越多的组织团体，开始并不只是把佛法归类单单只是“宗教”而已，而是开始发掘出，佛法能够帮助到人类（无论大家是任何的信仰）的生活，习惯，习性，情绪等等，得到很好的改善与稳定。
佛法是博大与博爱的，佛法不是单单于一下仪轨或是念诵经文而已，而佛法是一种学问，教导我们如何面对人生旅途中所面对的一切生老病死，并且引领我们走向正确的方向。
谢谢
Jerry Sito
Smoking is a indeed an addictive habit. It gives smokers the perceived stress relief. And in some cases, like myself, it was cool to smoke…way back then like 30 years ago. But today, it is clear smoking is so NOT cool. If I take a step back and look at the times I desire a cigarette… yes, when I am stressed, overwhelmed and/or anxious. Therefore this article makes total sense. Incorporating the fundamentals of Buddhism is not about getting rid of the cigarettes but removing the elements leading us to smoke. I could not agree more. Please find here another article to support this one shared by Rinpoche. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3180092/Trying-stop-smoking-Meditation-key-success-reduces-cravings-without-realising.html
Namo buddhaya
I love buddhist
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It is good to know that researchers have found out that meditation can help someone to quit smoking.
It is known that meditating can help calm and relax a person’s mind, since people smoke cigarettes when they are stressed out meditation can be used instead of a cigarette. Meditation is better as it has no side effects and it will not harm you and it can also improve one’s patience and concentration, cigarettes on the other hand has been linked to cancer and other respiratory disease/infections it may also harm others around you when you exhale the contents of the cigarette.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this informative post on how to quit smoking the Buddhist way.
I believe smoking is an addictions arose from the sickness of the mind. The mind is used to certain behaviour and subconsciously we are repeating that behaviour even though is detrimental to us.
Buddhism has an antidote and proper method in training the mind. Scientist found that Buddhism is the most logical method based on past experiences and not god. As such, there is potential possibility for scientist to explore and from that develope methods to curve more people.
I feel that scientist should focus more on meditation and mindfulness, that is the fundamental teachings and method for Buddhists in training the mind and have attainment. There is a vast knowledge and wisdom in Buddhism, there are answers inside Buddhism in resolving the major conflicts and issues facing our world. i hope it will become the major method for most people in achieving peace, harmony and loving kindness
It is great to know that scientist now also agreed that meditation is a a great way to counter smoking habit. Meditation is a practise to control our mind.
The more we are in control our mind the better we are in countering all types of negative bad habit and including smoking. I have friends who said that who said smoking is good to reduce stress, help in digestion and etc. I guess it is the wrong view and finding excuses to continue with this bad habit.
In addition, meditation is a good method as compared to taking medicine which may have side effect.
We all know that when nicotine is inhaled, it can cause a feeling of temporary relaxation or stress relief. What makes it so difficult to quit smoking is because smokers have to face the withdrawal syndromes, the irritation, the stress & all the negative feelings once they stop smoking. Every now and then there will be some inventions introduced to the smokers to quit smoking. It’s so rare that a Buddhist way is actually being introduced to them to help to bring their attention to the present moment to face all the uncomfortable feelings like helplessness or loneliness. It’s just like how we do in meditation session; smokers will learn to accept discomfort as it is without judgment and response in a healthier way. If all the discomfort can be accepted with loving kindness without diverting the attention to cigarettes, then gradually nicotine will no longer be needed by the body.
It’s very normal that a few attempts might be needed to quit the smoking habit. If this Buddhist way is effective to quit smoking, then it can be applied to other negative habits and suffering in life too. Eventually we will recognize that suffering, discomfort, pain are impermanent in life. This mindfulness practice can bring transformation towards a healthier lifestyle without any addiction, as well as to reduce unnecessary stress, fear and anxiety.
Thank you Rinpoche for posting this article. As a doctor, this topic fascinates me. it is actually fairly well know that meditation or mindfulness training as they call it, is used and helps many illnesses. One example is the use of meditation in the treatment of migraine, and there have been many studies showing changes in the brain activity during meditation. Two patients with the same disease severity will behave/ react to their illness in different ways, and I the “severity” of illness can definately be improved by the mind, if the perception on the situation can be given clarity. If the mind is happier or less stressed, this can translate to improved physical healing, it has been shown in many studies.
It is great that the medical field is now beginning to realise the benefits of meditation in the treatment of many disorders. We could take it one step further and perhaps scientifically prove its benefits for preventing some diseases too.
Ming HY
That last statement you made is so true. Accomplished Buddhist masters are known to have full control of their life and death and have the ability to heal their body’s illnesses and diseases thru the power of the mind and the control of the 4 elements that make up our bodies as described by Pastor Jean Ai below. At its most basic level, this control of the mind can be experienced through meditation and to overcome addiction is just a teeny tiny glimpse of the benefits of the mastery of the mind.
I too would love to see a scientific study on how meditation can overcome illnesses and so called incurable diseases. Perhaps Tung Shin Hospital would like to do such a study? ☺️
Smoking, like all other addictions starts with the mind, not the body. Our mind sends signals to our body and tells it that this is good for us. This leads to us wanting to repeat the action over and over again, making it become our habit.
This is the first time reading about a Buddhist approach towards helping people get over their addiction of smoking through meditation does sound very logical and interesting.
I hope that Dr Brewer will be able to help thousands of people give up their smoking addiction through his methods.
Hi Jutika, just wanted to correct you a little there in your comment about the mind telling the body to help you understand a bit better 🙂 in the case of addiction, we also have to consider the chemical response of the body. The body consists of the four elements – wind, earth, water, fire – and when something is added to this mix, it throws off the balance and produces a reaction. When the reaction is something pleasurable, and the reaction is produced repeatedly, eventually you develop the habit and craving of wanting that reaction. Mindfulness, I guess, attacks that craving and habit by helping us to gain control of our mind and break the cycle of the body’s reactions affecting the mind.
So things like alcohol and drugs have a chemical reaction on our body because they alter the balance of the four elements. Even things like chocolate produce a minor addiction response. When people eat chocolate, it produces neurotransmitters like phenylethlyamine, serotonin, dopamine and endorphins, all of which tells our body, “Yes, eating this thing gives me a good, happy feeling, I should eat more of it!” Eventually, over time, people can be addicted to chocolate.
Anyway it would be interesting for Dr Brewer to develop the research further and to explore how mindfulness affects physiological response. Buddhism already has the answers but as always, with Western science, they need quantifiable data and proof 😉
It is wonderful to see that Buddhist meditation to help people quit smoking. One of the Meditation the smokers practice is “loving Kindness”, a method of develop compassion. In short, this method of quit smoking brings no harm to the body and at the same time develop concentration and compassion.
Thank you Brewer introduce this method to peoples. Buddhist meditation besides the benefits mentioned above, it also bring clarity, emotional positivity, and a calm seeing of the true nature of things. Siddhartha meditated under Boddi tree for forty nine days to discover all pain and suffering in the world and he became an enlightened one, a Buddha. This shows that the power of Meditation.
Breathing meditation is considered as one of the methods to maintain our attention on the present moment. We can focus on our breath, the inhale and exhale. A regular practice of mindful breathing can help to reduce stressed or anxious. For those who are really want to quit the smoking, must have try with this method.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this effective idea to quit smoking and at the same time to help the person get closer to the dharma.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this informative article will us. It is amazing what holy Buddha teaching because if we study and contemplated the teaching it has no false everything that Buddha teach is base on logic and we practitioner has to experience it by ourselves instead of based on blind faith, that is what the Brewer said , so The Buddha has review the true of everything that happen to us as a result of it a lot of people find it Buddhism is very difficult to practice because we ourselves has to put in hard work to do it. By using Buddha teaching to overcome addiction is possible because it help to train our mind to be mindful about our desire and to understand where this desire come from and is bad for us so that for us to kick off this addiction.
I totally agreed with Brewer’s statement on how our habits were developed base on our prior experiences. Smoking is certainly one such habits that many have started & become an addiction which they find difficult to quit later.
I do believe that Brewer’s approach to the problem with mindfulness practices will yield many positive results. Buddha has taught about how everything stem from the mind, with mindfulness practices & meditation, it helps to keep the mind calm & hence be able to react positively to whatever difficult situation that one is facing. What follows is that we are replacing those prior negative experiences with the positive one & hence slowly cutting away the negative habits eventually.
It is great to know that modern scientists are combining Buddhism in their research & approach to find new ways & methods to benefit people’s life. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this interesting article
Do not underestimate the power of the mind!
Thanks Rinpoche and the blog team for sharing this information on how Buddhism and science work hand in hand for smokers to quit smoking habit.
There’s not a moment in samsara without suffering, the activities that we think are happiness or a relief from suffering is just a temporary moment that have lesser suffering. Smoking is one of it that a lot of people find temporary solace from tangled and unsolved moments, and some just become a habituation to smoke whenever we are able to.
I am not a heavy smoker but I do understand the reason to smoke and not to. What mentioned here in the article is enlightening that actually everything is in the mind, that we can find other solution when we feel like lighting up a cigarette, to tame that mind.
Practicing mindfulness is very practical where we watch how our mind affect our action and we do something to prevent us from dwelling into something addictive.
Thank you.
It all starts in the mind. The body follows suit. Since the mind is telling the body what to do and if the body feels satisfied with the physical results of the drug, it reinforces what the mind thought which then leads to a repeated action. It becomes habituation. This pattern is seen in all other types of actions whether good or bad. Why did the mind start down that road in the first place?
I’ve heard of the rat experiments (poor rats) in the 1970’s by a professor of Psychology in Vancouver called Bruce Alexander. In one cage was one lone rat with 2 bottles i.e. plain water and drug-infused water. The lone rat tended to drink only from the drug-filled bottle.
The other was a lush cage where the rats would have colored balls and the best rat-food and tunnels to scamper down and plenty of friends: everything a rat about town could want. These rats seemed to not be interested in the drug-infused water.
What they found was, the rats with good lives didn’t like the drugged water and mostly shunned it, while the lonely rat had nothing better to do but be fixed on the drug.
It goes to show that the way to tackle drug addiction is not just cold turkey which is just superficial. The problem is not the drug but deep down unhappiness, and as long as that is still there, rehab will only have temporary results.
In Buddhist practice, we are to focus out. When we’re constantly occupied with serving and benefitting others, the result is happiness. The constant focus on the “I” is what brings us all the suffering and unhappiness and is the root cause of drug addiction.
I must say this is the first time I hear that Buddhism teaching is used to curb addictions, and it is indeed an eye opener. I have personally heard quite a few Christian organised drug rehab centre which have many success cases, but Buddhist organised drug rehab centres are quite rare.
May Dr Brewer gain much success in adopting Buddhism meditation method to curb addiction, and may Dr Brewer find even better methods to help people quite smoking because there are millions of people who wish to quite smoking.
i have dealt with many drug addicts in the past and did noticed one thing; most of them are more likely to return to drugs if they are not religious. Drugs spoils the brain system and most of the time it is the temptation that makes former drug addicts return to drugs. This is when i reflected on this phrase of “it’s all in the mind.”
By taming the mind, like someone going into religion, it does help to reshape one’s thinking and over time, a person is able to reshape his way of life. Hence i am not too surprised to learn that Buddhist meditation methods are actually being used by doctors to cure addictions.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. I’m impressed that Dr. Brewer tried Buddhist meditation in graduate school which guided him into his specialty. Following the Buddhist precept of not harming any creature, he also stopped doing animal research.
His research on people is not harmful. So, Dr. Brewer believes that the philosophy that has helped relieve his stress can help others conquer the dangerous addictions that threaten their health and their lives.
Hopefully in the near future, more and more people will apply the Buddhist teachings into their daily lives. With this, the world will be at peace and harmony.
_/\_
A Yale Psychiatrist uses Mindfulness to counter addiction to cigarette smoking. Brewer says he uses the 2 component definition of mindfulness -” First, it’s maintaining your attention on the present moment, and the second is you’re bringing to that a nonjudgmental attitude of acceptance and curiosity.”
As most people turn to drugs or cigarettes to relieve stress related to loneliness or anger and other such negative emotions, the heart of the treatment is in focusing on the transience and impermanence of these negative feelings in meditation. They come in waves -so let each wave pass and not react. Once you can ride the wave and not succumb and be crushed, then you can break the habit and the addiction eventually.
How powerful are the Buddha’s teachings in helping us to understand and be aware of our emotions, to recognise their impermanence, to control our negative reactions and through all this learn to develop inner peace.
Smoking is an additive habit seen as an early form of releasing frustration, tension and to create excitement. Mindfulness training seems like a good religious method used today to kerb and cure smoking, as it is also said related to emotion as researched by Buddhism clinical way! It gives them a kind of feeling to relieve their sense of bad feeling from worries and negativity as well as suffering too. Like many people said, they started smoking very young, through experimentation, curiousity and great egoism. The very first few puffs, some on piffered cigarettes of their parents and friends ended up for many, becoming keen smokers at 12 years old up to grown up age! Most tried to quit many a times, a few made it, but quite a number failed, until an actual happening circumstances showed them why they should stop! Perhaps amongst the group of smokers, one of the smoker’s auntie died of cancer, and she was seen and medically certified as a longterm chained smoker. The cause of death as confirmed by the medical report was due to longterm smoking as being the cause of death! Quitting smoking isn’t an easy task by most, as smoking is physically and mentally additive. Unless health has become an issue of increasing awareness, like death in this example, then many may take it more with seriousness and sincerity the Buddhist Way! A great many thanks for the sharing of this interesting article, Rinpoche.
Good information….now one can quit smoking the Buddhist Way, Dr. Judson A. Brewer a psychiatrist is bringing together neuroscience and Buddhist practices to help people quit smoking.It is good news that more and more people are practicing Buddhism to help them in many way.Schools are infusing Buddhism to have meditation classes too.
I understand that some people smoke to release stress,anger and so forth but long term it is bad for their health.There fore i do hope those smokers out there can quit smoking the Buddhist way…..meditation and mindfulness training that might help.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this interesting article,
It is interesting that more and more are turning to integrating Buddhist practices into their line of work. Now Dr. Judson A. Brewer is researching on integration of Buddhist meditations into his cure to addictions. Although his research is still on going but the positiveness are there to warrant the continuation of his research. Meditation quieten down the brain activity so that we may be able to connect with out inner being and if we were to integrate Buddhist mindfulness into the meditation itself, then the focus will be on the positive. If the mind is fulfilled then external stimulant will not be needed to fill the emptiness which habituates leading to addiction. It is cutting addiction at its very core where the need is. I certainly hope that soon meditation will be norm as a solution for psychological problems that plague the world and these problems are on the increase. Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this interest article with us.
“ Brewer first tried Buddhist meditation in graduate school, he said, and it guided him into his specialty. Following the Buddhist precept of not harming any creature, he stopped doing animal research, “and the only thing left is people..” I like how Brewer put what he learnt into practice and most of all, his research is beneficial for others.
Habits can be formed, broken, reform and break again due to both external causes like environmental and internal causes like how our mind works. Brewer uses the examples of how Buddhists view anger issue and how they overcome it and be at peace. This is a very good linkage with how he uses buddha’s wisdom to help people quit smoking. Both smoking and anger issue are addictive. Both smoking and getting angry can be seen as a form of releasing tension and it varies at each situation.
Mindfulness training seems like the new clinical medicine to many illness related to emotions. Smoking is also related to emotion as some smokers claim that when they smoke, it gives them a kind of feeling that they are free from worries, unhappiness and other negative feelings. However, the fact is, after thousands of ciggerates, they are still unhappy.