are nonviolence and sobriety “self-mortification”?
Yes. Mortification: 1 : the subjection and denial of bodily passions and appetites by abstinence or self-inflicted pain or discomfort Violence, even in it’s passive manifestation of eating meat, is an inherent attribute of human existence. “Sobriety,” which I define as the lack of consciousness-changing ingested substances, negates a profound attribute of human existence. I do not believe that either of these can be avoided. In fact, I do not believe that either of these should, for their own sake, be avoided. Buddhism has taught me that it is not the violence, nor the drugs, that are the problem: it is the attachment to them that is the problem. Two traveling monks reached a river where they met a young woman. Wary of the current, she asked if they could carry her across. One of the monks hesitated, but the other quickly picked her up onto his shoulders, transported her across the water, and put her down on the other bank. She thanked him and departed. As the monks continued on their
