Made me think about my own habits…

Hmmm….

Drink alchohol couple of times a week (couple of beers, or wine)
Lots of sugar…some sort of sugary thing as a pick me up every day…(dark chocolate, protein powder with sugar, and apple juices etc)
Checking meyemail way to much…(got to handle that!….any suggestion…??)

There is a great film about getting it all into balance:

http://www.wheeloflife.tv which I enjoyed. There are some spiritual teachers in it who are more into living an integrated and whole life…and there is also a fitness guy who is just like ‘Get moving, and stop eating so much’…so an interesting blend.

Anyway, once again, great post.

John

In my lifetime I have dealt with addiction issues ranging from drugs and tobacco, to video games to, yes, simple coffee.

Today I no longer smoke, drink or do drugs, and as of now I don’t drink coffee. I go through cycles with caffeine, still–I go for long periods of months on end with no caffeine, but then lapse into drinking coffee. I tend to start drinking coffee again during particularly stressful times in my life, when things are so demanding and I just don’t feel as though I have the energy to keep up.

I agree that caffeine is a more minor addiction, but also don’t think its consequences should be overlooked. I am a bit depressed and disappointed in myself this time around due to some of the differences I noticed.

I am normally very aware of my breathing and the circulation of my prana, but during a period of caffeine use, my breath becomes shallow and I don’t pay much attention to it. In general, it leads me to stop relying on my higher faculties and to begin relying on lower ones. To me that is completely inherent in my purposes for uding the caffeine: As a source of seeming energy, to feel more alert and able to cope with things. I am in essence then leaning on something physical whereas under normal circumstances I draw my power to keep moving from my higher self, from light. My motives tend to change to reflect this as well. I am more pleasure-seeking and self-serving in general during a period in which I am drinking coffee. These things, in me at least, are all linked and I take them pretty seriously.

I recognize that it may not be such a big deal for others, but I thought I’d offer some of my own perspectives on the matter.

I’m not denying the health problems associated with smoking. I forgot all about the stuff tobacco companies put in cigarettes – that is certainly an issue (and should be considered criminal in my book).

As for Blavatsky: there are speculations that she may have suffered from a disorder that made her eat a lot of meat, because she could not ingest some foodstuffs properly.

I disagree with you about smoking. Perhaps in Blavatsky’s day tobacco was tobacco, but today it bears little resemblance to what it once was. If I remember right, she always had some sort of tabacco lite.

I “was hooked” on smoking for 18 plus years and smoked 2 to 3 packs a day. In that time I smoked Indian cigarettes as well as South American cigarettes and even an occasional cigar.

It was the most difficult addiction I ever attempted to break. In addition to the tobacco, t is terrible what cigarette companies put into cigarettes causing them to be proven carcinogenic agents and responsible for emphysema, cancer, and other physical maladies. Cigarette smokers are also more prone to missing work due to ill health.

Tobacco is a mind altering substance just as any incense and any other air born particulate, to say that it is not, is folly to my way of thinking. Everything we ingest has its own consciousness and its effects on our physical, astral and perhaps mental bodies.

Smoking also has the same loathsome after effects as alcohol, i.e. it is so pervasive in our system that you can smell the smoke born of tobacco after a person has extinguished their cigarette. I assume the particles hang out in one’s etheric sheath.

Smoking also diminishes the body’s vitality. When I quit smoking, I was so out of shape, I could not run without gasping for air, or ride a bicycle for more than a half mile without tiring and being winded. Today, roughly 18 years after quitting I can run 3 miles at any given time and usually stop at 7 to 8 if I have a mind to do that. I can ride a bicycle approx. 4 minutes to the mile for 2 plus hours, and I can dance all night. Second hand smoke affects other people’s health, and mothers who smoke affect the future of their unborn children. All the adverse effects of smoking is well documented.

If I remember correctly, tobacco deadens the senses and this is why blavatsky continued to smoke. I suppose she continued her diet of meat due to her travels. Alwfully hard to find a veggie restaurant in the mid to late 19th century, let alone folks who did not have to live off the land and the critters there on, in order to survive.

Coffee is another bad thing in excess, but that is for another day.

Hope all is well with you.

Jeffrey