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.
Earth teaches me to forget myself as melted snow forgets its life. Earth teaches me resignation as the leaves which die in the fall… Earth teaches me regeneration as the seed which rises in the spring.
A spring of infinite power is coiled up and is inside this little body and that spring is spreading itself.
Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit.
