Smoking is a very difficult habit to break. Despite the health concerns related to tobacco use, there is an abundance of information supporting its beneficent properties in “organic” form, which includes prevention of Parkinson and Alzheimer Disease, along with elimination of HIV/AIDS virus. Yet in still, we find that the fatalities attributed to cigarette smoking far exceed any good that can be gleamed from normal tobacco use. According to CDC (Centers For Disease Control and Prevention), the damaging effects of tobacco use are as follows:
Smoking leads to disease and disability and harms nearly every organ of the body.
- More than 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking.
- For every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness.
- Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
- Smoking also increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis.
- Smoking is a known cause of erectile dysfunction in males.
Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death.
- Worldwide, tobacco use causes nearly 6 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.
- Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day.
- On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.
- If smoking continues at the current rate among U.S. youth, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 years of age are expected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness. This represents about one in every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today.
Spiritually, tobacco is related to the planet Mars (Buhqz in Ninzuwu) and its use is associated with certain protective elements of necromancy. I have seen Reiki Practitioners smoke cigarettes for recreational use. However in the Art of Ninzuwu’s teachings, Reiki is said to originate with the tengu and comes with its own Dharma. Although there are no prohibitions against smoking, Reiki practitioners are under obligation to maximize opportunities for having the best health possible. It would seem that smoking for a Reiki practitioner would violate one of the five Reiki principle of “Just for today, I will not worry.”