Hey Robito,

Interesting project. I agree that “spirituality” isn’t worth much if it doesn’t change the way you actually behave.

When it comes to the precepts, I struggle with this myself, although it’s more numbers 3 and 4 that trip me up. 😉 As far as intoxicants go, I’ve always understood this as a kind of precaution. When under the influence of intoxicants, it’s very hard to stick to the rest of the precepts. It’s hard to be mindful of yourself when your mind’s not working properly, so to speak. So we abstain to help ourselves stick to the path, and not end up with a hangover both in the literal and in a kind of karmic “what have I done?!” sense.

I don’t drink or smoke anyway, so it’s fairly easy for me to say I pass this test. I do use caffeine sometimes, but not habitually. Is that against the precepts? I don’t know. Some people feel you can’t ‘abstain from killing’ unless you’re a vegetarian. They have a good point, but I’m not a vegetarian yet.

The way I see it, the precepts are a tool to challenge yourself, to be mindful of what you do, rather than hard and fast thou-shalt-nots. And I think it’s natural that there’s variations in interpretation. To you, abstaining from intoxicants might mean not to drink to intoxication, rather than not drinking at all. For me, abstaining from sexual misconduct might mean something wildly different than what it meant in the Buddha’s time, but that doesn’t mean I don’t take sexual morality and the consexuences of my actions seriously.

I think the key is that you think through what you do, and are careful of what the outcome of your actions may be for yourself and for others.