Question
I have been practicing for more than ten years. When a strong desire arises (in my case, the desire to have a cigarette), how can I avoid giving in? I focus on my breathing, let it pass, observe what is happening, observe who has this desire, try not to move… It works most of the time, but sometimes the desire is very strong and I relapse… It is an ongoing struggle that takes up too much space (almost obsessively at times), and I cannot find the root to cut so that the temptation disappears. Thank you for listening. Wishing you well,
Anonymous
Answer from Master Kosen
Change your thoughts. Observe this desire, so strong yet so quick to disappear when you let it pass. Breathe out this dependence and pollution, breathe in love and life, and say thank you. Love and be grateful for breathing freely. Persevere; do not take even one puff under any circumstances. Become aware of, and do not forget, the disgust with tobacco that motivated you to take on this struggle: full ashtrays, that dust, that dependence—do not forget. Be patient, focus on the benefits rather than what you miss. Take up things you did not do before because you smoked. Run, practice breath-holding and pranayama, discover the incredible capacity of human breathing, which until then had been enslaved by tobacco. Know that the origin of society’s tobacco addiction, passed down from father to son ever since, lies in war, particularly 1914–18, just as American soldiers returned from Vietnam and Iraq addicted to amphetamines, heroin, and other coke. Soldiers were given tobacco and red wine to withstand this barbarity, to bear having to go to their deaths. Afterward, civilians, in a way wanting to share their heroism, adopted this harmful habit of shielding themselves from horror by swallowing their anxiety in the form of smoke, which became the fashion for tobacco. Encouraged by the state, which manufactured the product itself and made considerable profits from it, entire populations were poisoned, whether at work or in the army, where you were offered free tobacco as an initiation rite of acceptance into the adult world. Until the day when, realizing that tobacco cost money rather than bringing it in, the state and insurance companies began persecuting smokers and decided to eliminate them.
Kosen