Blessing Twenty:
Restraint from Drinking Intoxicants
D. BENEFITS OF NOT DRINKING ALCOHOL
The Buddha taught that if we don’t drink alcohol, it will pave the way for the higher blessings ahead on the path — with advantages such as:
• knowing events in the past, present and future without delay
• mindfulness in all situations (rather than the mind wandering continuously)
• non-recklessness
• lack of envious enemies
• respect from others
• happiness
• appreciating the virtue of others [kataññū]
• repaying one’s debt of gratitude to others [katavedī]
• generosity
• purity of precepts
• wisdom
• worldly wealth
• heavenly wealth
• the ability to be a true refuge to oneself
• the wealth of Nirvana
Furthermore the purity by which we can avoid the Tenfold Path of Unwholesomeness will be avoided together with the Subtle Defilements of mind. We will have less tendency to engage in:
• lies
• malicious gossip
• insults or swearing
• idle chatter
• deviousness
• ill-temperedness
• lack of shame of evil [hiri]
• lack of fear of (the retribution) of evil [ottappa]
• wrong view
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