The Dao of Health

I try to stay healthy most of the time. I practice tai chi and kung fu, and I make sure to stay away from obviously unhealthy food and try to eat as healthily as possible. I drink at least two cups of green tea every day. I don't smoke. Things like that.

I know people who have experience in drugs personally. Not just cannabis, but also harder drugs such as hallucinogenic mushrooms and cocaine, and two people having experience with heroin.

I don't use anything like that, not because it's illegal but also because I just don't like the feeling of having unnatural effects being placed on my mind. The thoughts scares me. I also have seen what happens to people who use them.

A lot of people rely on substances to offer a release, or an escape. They feel that the sensation offered by the drugs is simply "better" than the real world, or it offers a form of "enhanced perception". Such thinking could not be more dangerous. What hallucinogens, for example, are really doing is firing neurons in your brain in a very destructive, dangerous, volatile fashion.

Even with drugs that are not directly addictive, the risk is there... The desire is there. I've never understood the desire for a certain drug past that of a cigarette. It throws the entire body-mind balance out of whack! It throws it outside the Dao, the Way.

The Dao, or the Way, is described as being within the natural flow of things. Using drugs throws your body so far out of the natural order that it's incredibly difficult to become realigned with the Dao.

People who are slave to drugs rarely realize the manacles around their wrists, because their eyes are always on the next time they can alter their perception of the world. The worst part is, the people who are in the most danger of becoming addicts are often the ones who never realize it.

In one of my favorite books of all time, Lamb by Christopher Moore, one of the disciples of Joshua (otherwise known as Jesus), named Bartholomew, is portrayed as a Cynic and teaches Joshua of Cynic values. He describes it as living like a dog. "I own nothing, therefore I am slave to nothing." This resounds deeply within Buddhist values of removing suffering by removing desire. Similarly, removing the dependence on any substance breaks the shackles of a soul and emancipates it-- Grants it true, unabashed freedom.

Some people believe that drugs help them get "closer to God"... What they tragically fail to see-- Or, rather, what fails to be shown to them-- is that God is always close. What they destroy their body and their soul in order to see has always been right in front of them. It's in their friends, in the water they drink, in the food they eat, in the air they breathe. Everything they need is all right there.

If you know someone who is struggling with substance abuse, help them as you would want them to help you. Call 1 800 390 4056 or go to www.addict-help.com .