I’ve been going through a very rich but stressful time, and one thing that has taken the edge off is smoking cigarettes. I smoke a couple of cigarettes a day, and really enjoy it. My meditations have been exceptional. I’m reading “I Am That” by Nisargadatta Maharaj, and note that he smoked. (That’s not the reason I started, but it’s interesting to me that an enlightened being smoked with abandon). Frankly, I don’t have much incentive to quit at this point, although I will sooner or later, as I don’t want to become physically addicted to it. I’m not sure what I’m looking for here…maybe I’d like someone to give me a good reason to stop. 
Moderator note: Topic moved for better placement
Hi Meg
I wonder…
What do you mean with “the edge” ?
If you can define “the edge”…really define what it is to you…then perhaps you will know whether you should stop or not.
I know Nisargadatta smoked…but probable only because he enjoyed it 
Meg,
if you are going to use nicotine (and I don’t advise it because it is highly addictive), but if you are, try nicotine chewing-gum. It will give you all the buzz of cigarettes with much less harm to your system. With cigarettes, while the pleasant ‘buzz’ comes from the nicotine, much of the harm (including the risk of lung-cancer) comes from the smoke itself, not the nicotine.
by Nisargadatta Maharaj, and note that he smoked
Don’t let that encourage you to any extent. Nisagardatta Maharaj always admitted it was simply a bad habit – read: “a bad habit” – and he would have advised you not to take it up. Now, when he is saying he has a “bad habit”, he doesn’t mean he has a holy, enlightened bad habit that the masters tend to have (like, say, Ramakrishna going into ecstatic swoons at the most inopportune times), but rather an ordinary, unqualified, common-place, unholy, unhelpful “bad habit” as in “Gomer has a bad habit of swigging some whiskey whenever no-one is looking” – or " Marge, though weighing 400 lbs already, has a bad habit of eating a doughnut every half-hour". That kind of “bad habit” bad habit. LOL.
Chewing nicotine chewing-gum, while not necessarily a good habit, would be much less of a bad habit.
Hi Meg,
If you are smoking just a couple of cigarettes a day… you are probably not (hopelessly) chemically addicted to it… more the motion of smoking a cigarette creates an image of “ahh!!! relaxed!!!” in your head.
It is like something EMC posted
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2278#19114
uhha… well quit for about 6 months… then smoke again… and see how it affects your meditation:)
Cancer!!!
Heart disease!!!
Ugly teeth!!!
More Dirt On your Windshield!!!
Yup, and keep in mind that nicotine chewing-gum over cigarettes, while reducing the cancer and ugly-teeth and bad-breath risks, doesn’t help the heart-disease risk. So, while it’s unquestionably better than actually smoking the ciggies, it’s not a good habit itself long-term.
My brother, who smoked, kept going on nicotine chewing-gum. When he was on the chewing-gum, he stayed off the cigarettes without problems. When he went off the chewing-gum, he went back on the cigarettes, and so on for months. I kept telling him to cut the cigarettes out of the cycle. Having a problem of giving up nicotine-chewing gum addiction is a much better position to be in than having a problem of giving up smoking. Of course, he didn’t listen to me, and gave his lungs about ten years of an unnecessary beating, until he finally gave up the cigarettes.
Okay, okay - I’ll quit already! Right after this pack. 
Thanks for the suggestion for gum, David. It doesn’t much appeal to me; I’d rather quit. See, I like the process of rolling the tobacco slowly, drawing out the whole process, and then what am I gonna do with a rolled fag? Smoke it, of course. Maybe I need to take up knitting, or get a blanky, like Shweta says. She’s right, of course - it’s a mind addiction.
This is a nicotine free cigarette that is made from lettuce that is a substitute for tobacco. I don’t know how it would taste, but they did research it a lot and it’s selling a lot. It’s to help people quit who like smoking. I’m not endorsing it as I don’t smoke, but i’ve heard a lot about it and it’s clinically tested:
http://www.bravosmokes.com/
I smoke also, and am setting a date to quit at the end of this month. I’m debating whether to cold turkey it (I’ve done this in the past, it’s tough for the first few days as the body withdraws, but it works) or going the nicotine gum route.
Peace,
Nirodha
Terrence McKenna, a popular scientist in the 60’s and 70’s believed that cigarettes, alcohol, and caffeine are the “lower drugs” of the drug world. People for the oddest reason do not seem to believe they are drug users when they use any of those, but that is because the government does not readily classify them as such because they are legal and bring in a lot of money.
It is important to remember that you are using a drug, and if you are hooked on it, you are are technically a drug addict.
What I’m saying I guess is don’t fool yourself into thinking your habit is mild because it is legal. The tobacco industries certainly do not make light of thier status as the largest drug dealer in the US…but that’s basically what they are.
If I was ever a smoker, the fact alone that one is essentially the equivalent of a dope-addict coming back for more…but for some reason it is legal (and lucrative) would repel me enough. My friends who smoke cigarettes have tried rolling thier own, and that at least I think is better than nothing. You can buy an inexpensive roller, a box of tubes, and a pound of tobacco and save yourself a lot of money, not to mention avoid the 2000 legalized chamical additives. They also are lower in nicoteine, so it will ease your withdrawl.
I wouldn’t exactly deem tobacco a “lower drug,” in the scheme of things, just because Terrence McKenna said it was. It would depend on how it’s used. Please review the below excerpt:
“Native Americans used tobacco before Europeans arrived in North & South America, and early European settlers in North & South America learned to smoke and brought the practice back to Europe, where it became hugely popular. At extremely high doses, tobacco becomes hallucinogenic; accordingly, Native Americans generally did not use the drug recreationally. Rather, it was often consumed in extraordinarily high quantities and used as an entheogen; generally, this was done only by experienced shamans or medicine men. In addition to being smoked, uncured tobacco was often eaten, drunk as tobacco juice, or used in enemas. Early missionaries often reported on the state caused by tobacco, but as it spread into the west, it was no longer used in such large quantities or for entheogenic purposes. Religious use of tobacco is still common among many indigenous peoples, particularly those of South America. Among Native Americans, tobacco is very commonly known as “smoof” and “slave driver”.”
Excerpted from Tobacco - Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco#History
Recreational usage of any drug seems to be a problem. However, sacramental usage does not, generally, carry these risks.
Peace,
Nirodha
I agree with you both. With Nirodha, that use of tobacco is not necessarily abuse. With Anthony, I agree that alcohol and nicoteine are surely the two most-abused drugs in America.