Fasting

Can fasting provide a devotional path to living a more conscious life?

Is fasting a symbol of restraint?

Can fasting be considered a mystical expression?

As restraining as it may seem, does it have a liberating power?

If done properly, can fasting bring about higher-power consciousness?

Why has it been promoted in all religious traditions as a way of exploring the territory of the spirit?

If done with the right intention can it bring back a wisdom needed to live a fulfilled life?

What could be the potential of fasting in helping us access the mystical realm?

In what way can fasting prove to be futile?

Is fasting an invitation to awareness?

Is it a call to compassion for the needy?

Does fasting provide nourishment for the spiritually hungry?

Does fasting need to be done with intention and heart?

Can fasting lead to greater level of awareness and compassion?

"Do you fast? Then feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick, do not forget the imprisoned, have pity on the tortured, comfort those who grieve and who weep, be merciful, humble, kind, calm, patient, sympathetic, forgiving, reverent, truthful and pious, so that God might accept your fasting and might plentifully grant you the fruits of repentance."

-St. John Chrysostom

“Even though outwardly the Fast is difficult and toilsome, yet inwardly it is bounty and tranquility.”

-Bahá’u’lláh

"What the eyes are for the outer world, fasts are for the inner."

-Gandhi

"Abstinence and fasting cure many a complaint."

-Danish Proverb

"Prayer brings us halfway to God, fasting takes us to the gateway of heaven."

Muhammad

"As bodily food fattens the body, so fasting strengthens the soul. Imparting it an easy flight, it makes it able to ascend on high, to contemplate lofty things, and to put the heavenly higher than the pleasant and pleasurable things of life."

-St. John Chrysostom

"Temperance includes the two virtues of abstinence and sobriety...Abstinence also includes fasting. These virtues take the first place in treating of temperance; for nourishment, being necessary for the preservation of life, is among the principal objects coveted by the appetites."

-Mary of Agreda

"Not nakedness, not platted hair, not dirt, not fasting or lying on the earth, not rubbing with dust, not sitting motionless, can purify a mortal who has not overcome desires."

– Buddha

"Fasting of the body is food for the soul."

-St. John Chrysostom

“Fasting is the cause of awakening man. The heart becomes tender and the spirituality of man increases. This is produced by the fact that man's thoughts will be confined to the commemoration of God, and through this awakening and stimulation surely ideal advancements follow.”

-Abdu’l-Bahá

"It is necessary, most of all, for one who is fasting to curb anger, to accustom her- or himself to meekness and condescension, to have a contrite heart, to repulse impure thoughts and desires, to examine one's conscience, to put one's mind to the test, and to verify what good has been done by us in this or any other week, and which deficiency we have corrected in ourself in the present week. This is true fasting."

-St. John Chrysostom

“This material fast is an outer token of the spiritual fast; it is a symbol of self-restraint, the withholding of oneself from all appetites of the self, taking on the characteristics of the spirit, being carried away by the breathings of heaven and catching fire from the love of God.”

-Abdu’l-Bahá

“Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, and kindles the true light of chastity. Enter again into yourself.”

-St Augustine

There’s a hidden sweetness
in the stomach’s emptiness.

We are lutes, no more, no less.
If the sound box is stuffed
full of anything, no music.

If the brain and the belly
are burning clean with fasting,
every moment a new song
comes out of the fire.

The fog clears, and a new
energy makes you run up the
steps in front of you.

Be emptier and cry like
reed instruments cry.
Emptier, write secrets with
the reed pen.

When you’re full of food and drink,
Satan sits where your
spirit should, an ugly metal
statue in place of the Kaaba.

When you fast, good habits gather
like friends who want to help.

Fasting is Solomon’s ring.
Don’t give it to some illusion
and lose your power.

But even if you’ve lost all
will and control, they come
back when you fast,
like soldiers appearing out
of the ground, pennants
flying above them.

-Rumi

"Fasting is the support of our soul: it gives us wings to ascend on high, and to enjoy the highest contemplation.”

- Saint John Chrysostom

“Don’t spoil and fatten the ego by giving it the pleasurable experiences it desires, for this will only give it more power over you . . . Because when the “stomach” of the ‘commanding self’ is filled and becomes comfortable, it becomes increasingly insolent and rebellious. Therefore, it is necessary to limit it to bran bread so that this ‘commanding self’ does not become strong, insolent, and rebellious.”

-Rumi

“Fasting will bring spiritual rebirth to those of you who cleanse and purify your bodies. The light of the world will illuminate within you when you fast and purify yourself.”

-Mahatma Gandhi