| | I've been to various Thai Forest retreats and a Mahasi centre, all in the UK, and there has never been any more comment about smoking than 'just go off the property'. There's usually a brief, non-judgemental note about it on the website or welcome pack. As to Goenka, perhaps it's worth asking the particular centre.
In terms of strategies: I have thought about smoking at most once or twice per retreat, if at all, as brief flashes, not even cravings. The longest I have been on retreat has been two weeks. It seriously wasn't a problem. The environment is so different to normal life that most of my triggers just don't arise. No one is smoking around you. Add that to the mind being preoccupied with the novelty of the retreat experience, and the fact that I was preoccupied with practice, and the instances for cravings to arise were minimal.
On early retreats I resolved to drag the mind back to the matter at hand whenever it wandered, because my concentration was poor and that was the only way of building it. On later retreats, I have noted distractions such as 'ah, fags' and then followed the next sensation that carries me away from that kind of sensual craving. As a result I've mainly kept my eye on the ball. That is perhaps a touch avoidant, but I'm not going to suggest you 'fully investigate the sensations of craving' in retreat conditions as that's not what I've done.
I have however done it as an exercise after a hard day at work (for instance) and found that either it built up willpower or the craving itself was seen through as not me or mine, and that has helped me to give up, though I don't wish to sound like a smug ex-smoker.
I suspect it's an issue of what would be worse for practice in terms of mental proliferation: having cigarettes or replacement therapy available and so having the mind turn to it inevitably, or not having them there at all and then finding cravings intolerable. |