First off let me say that I am well aware of the health risks associated with smoking. If you feel you must send me links to the Surgeon General’s smoking warnings you are welcome to do so, but please note, that I am in no way advocating that you or anyone pick up a two-pack a day habit.
Having said that . . . life is full; at times “busy” would an appropriate word, and slowing down has been more of a challenge for me lately.
For the last ten years or so I have consciously used breathing exercises, to aid my prayer life. Slowing down, listening to my breathing, focusing on my body’s rhythmic movement as my lungs fill and empty; focusing on my body so as to become aware of tensions and stresses I feel, etc. (as odd as this may sound I often listen to my body just long enough to become aware of the elastic in my socks or the weight of my earring).
I’ve come to see the meditative gift of pipe/cigar smoking. Few engagements commit a person to sitting still – often outdoors – for relatively long periods of time in such a way that awareness of one’s own breathing is central to the experience.
I find that when I smoke a pipe/cigar solo the time often becomes a type of centering prayer, meditative and contemplative. And when I smoke a pipe/cigar with another person our conversation inevitably drifts in the direction of holistic spirituality.
So, if you have a difficult time slowing, listening, or becoming self/body aware. I might recommend you pick-up a decent cigar; and submit to the spiritual disciple of smoking.
peace, dwight
Dwight, I completely agree. A friend encouraged me to pick up a pipe 1 1/2 years ago and it’s one of the most relaxing things I do. I don’t smoke inside, and it’s hard to get outside in the winter. But it’s very enjoyable.
Dwight – I’m in full agreement as well, but I wonder if you meant “meditation” and not “mediation.” Although, I suppose that sometimes mediation does occur through pipe-smoking as well.
my dad smokes a lot (1 pack/day) and so the thought of smoking as a spiritual discipline is somewhat foreign to me.
Whene’er I take my pipe and stuff it
And smoke to pass the time away
My thoughts, as I sit there and puff it,
Dwell on a picture sad and grey:
It teaches me that very like
Am I myself unto my pipe.
Like me this pipe, so fragrant burning,
Is made of naught but earthen clay;
To earth I too shall be returning,
And cannot halt my slow decay.
My well used pipe, now cracked and broken,
Of mortal life is but a token.
No stain, the pipe’s hue yet doth darken;
It remains white. Thus do I know
That when to death’s call I must harken
My body, too, all pale will grow.
To black beneath the sod ’twill turn,
Likewise the pipe, if oft it burn.
Or when the pipe is fairly glowing,
Behold then instantaneously,
The smoke off into thin air going,
‘Til naught but ash is left to see.
Man’s fame likewise away will burn
And unto dust his body turn.
How oft it happens when one’s smoking,
The tamper’s missing from it’s shelf,
And one goes with one’s finger poking
Into the bowl and burns oneself.
If in the pipe such pain doth dwell
How hot must be the pains of Hell!
Thus o’er my pipe in contemplation
Of such things – I can constantly
Indulge in fruitful meditation,
And so, puffing contentedly,
On land, at sea, at home, abroad,
I smoke my pipe and worship God.
Johann Sebastian Bach – 1725 (1685-1750)
From: The Second Little Clavier Book For Anna Magdalena Bach
So what were you smokin’ before you passed out at the 3000 conference?
dwight, i’d love to burn one down with you in the name of wholistic spirituality.
peace.
i find few things better than smoking a cigar out on my porch with a few friends.
Indeed, I would endorse a fine Cohiba and refer you to Charles Spurgeon who also endorsed cigar smoking. Upon being challenged by a fellow preacher he reportedly said:
“Well, dear friends, you know that some men can do to the glory of God what to other men would be sin. And notwithstanding what brother Pentecost has said, I intend to smoke a good cigar to the glory of God before I go to bed to-night.
http://www.spurgeon.org/misc/cigars.htm
this is the best post I have read in a while…you are so right on.