OK, Rosemary and I don't often talk about what's called "The Five Precepts" in Buddhism, but they are helpful to know with regards to this particular question. The Five Precepts are basic training guidelines; they look a little bit similar to the Ten Commandments. But they're just to be taken on as basic training guidelines, and include: not to intentionally kill; not to intentionally steal; not to intentionally have sexual misconduct; not to intentionally use speech in a way that's harmful (lying or gossip for selfish motivations); and not to intentionally take intoxicants which confuse the mind. Now I purposely said the word "intentionally" for each one of these, because this is the key to how Buddhism looks at what they call The Five Precepts. It's an intentional act that we do in order to get something done. So imagine you're walking down the path and you happen to look up for a minute and Oops, you step on a slug and you kill it. The intention was not to kill it. The intention was just to walk, and you looked around and you didn't see what happened. Then somebody else (especially a lot of little kids) walking along the path may see a slug and go up and kill it; an intentional act. So the precepts are based on an intention, and when we think of making Karma or Kamma, it's our intention that counts the most as to whether the result of the action is a good result, a negative result or simply neutral.
Now when it comes to alcohol, it's also important to look at your intention and understanding what the results of your action are going to be. Now yesterday we talked a little bit about the eight worldly conditions: wanting praise, wanting fame, not wanting some of the other things. Often in a family context this question comes up. Whenever the family drinks there's often a wanting to be part of a group and that "peer group pressure". Do we actually want to be part of a group just to be part of the group? With family it's difficult, we want to try to please family and keep good relationships. But in Australia today there is a whole different atmosphere to twenty years ago. For example, the whole business of designated drivers from parties. Somebody goes to a party and absolutely does not drink any alcohol so that they can drive everybody home. This is quite different to how I understand Australia was twenty years ago. So it's actually becoming more acceptable in this country, and I believe in other countries, to actually be a person who doesn't drink.
Again, do we want to encourage other people to stay with something that may not be helpful or do we want to be an example to bring people in a different direction? Now often, with a little bit of wine at dinner, people think, "Oh well, what's the problem? It's not a big deal." But most human beings don't stop with a little bit of wine with dinner, and eventually it'll go worse than that. It just is that way. People get the taste for it, people enjoy the "de-tensing" of it, as this person said, that little bit of happiness that comes from it, and so on. And it creates a condition that a little bit may be OK for this person or that person, but for somebody else in that crowd it won't just be a little bit, they're actually going to want more. And as we all know, a lot of the hospital beds in every hospital are due to of alcohol-related problems. In fact if you want to know statistics on that, many years ago when I worked with an alcohol and drug program in Bathurst, not far from here, the statistics were that one third of every patient in a hospital is there due to alcohol.
So by being an example for others, we can take them in a different direction. There is just a little bit of hurdle in the beginning, of saying to the family, "No, I think I'm not going to have that tonight, I'll just have some lemonade or something else." Initially they don't like it, maybe they feel awkward. But after a while, you're just wanting to drink some lemonade!