As you are externally aware, so also you can be inwardly aware of your thoughts and feelings, of your motives and urges, of your prejudices, envies, greed and pride…This outward and inward awareness is a unitary process which brings about a total integration of human understanding.
Words can confer strength; they can drain it off; Words can gain friends; they can turn them into enemies; words can elevate or lower the individual. One must learn the habit of making one’s words sweet, soft, and pleasant.
Fasting in the monastic community is considered an ascetic practice, a “dhutanga” practice. Dhutanga means “to shake up” or “invigoration”. The Buddha, as is well known, emphasized moderation, the Middle Way that avoids extremes, in all things. Fasting is an additional method that one can take up, with supervision, for a time.
