Rules That Buddhist Monks Have To Follow

Publish date: 2024-05-02

Practicing Buddhists typically take a vow to abstain from alcohol, which, according to Britannica, is the Fifth Precept. For Buddhist monks and nuns, however, the ban is absolute. A quote from An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics says that the Buddha said that anybody who followed him must "...not drink any strong liquor, even a drop on the point of a blade of grass." 

One central part of Buddhism is to free the mind of attachments. Psychology Today points out that from a Buddhist point of view, substance addiction is the "archetype of attachment" and should be avoided at all costs. The only exception to this rule is detailed in Buddhist Monastic Life, which allows for the use of alcohol in medicines. However, if too much alcohol is added to the medicine, it is deemed undrinkable, and it can only be used as an ointment.

Tricycle quotes a Buddhist Lama as saying, "Intoxicants take you away from reality; meditation takes you toward reality. Which do you want? You are already intoxicated by ignorance, anger, and attachment and suffer as a result. Why do you want to take more intoxicants?"

Therefore, consumption of alcohol is not a sin in the traditional sense but rather a means by which a person's judgment becomes clouded.

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