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Question: Should smoking cigarettes and doing drugs end, for meditation to begin?

Comment: No! Because you should not pay much attention to the negative but spend your time developing positive habits. The human mind does not like to give up things. It likes to acquire things. So rather than giving up smoking and drugs first, start doing now something that is more interesting, something more useful--like meditation. One day (probably quite soon) you will have so many good, virtuous habits that you will become bored with your old habits and they will fall off one by one by themselves. I am not saying that I condone smoking or doing drugs. I only think that it is much better to concentrate on developing the positive side of yourself rather than trying to fight the negative side. It is better to acquire so many good habits that there will be no time left for the bad ones. In other words, always concentrate on the positive.

Your interest in meditation shows that you have a desire to satisfy yourself and to understand the universe. Doing drugs and smoking are also ways to satisfy yourself. The difference is that meditation will lead to permanent satisfaction, while drugs, etc. will give you only a temporary fix. Also consider that meditation has no known side effects, while addictive behavior has many side effects.

And one more thing: if you smoke, do drugs or engage in any other addictive activity (such as overeating) and hope to experience bliss, ecstasy or other high states of mind, you are asking for the impossible. You may temporarily experience "highs," but you will never be able to sustain higher states of mind and at the same time function normally in the world. "Neurotic" behavior and higher spiritual realms are simply not compatible with each other. That is why tantra yoga recommends that you quit addictions. I am suggesting a constructive way of doing so.

For instructions on how to start meditation practice, click here.

— Anatole