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.
Each man is a microcosm of the universe. Your body is made of all the elements of the world. Nature supplied all the ingredients that make your body, which means that the universe made you by donating itself. You could accurately say that you are a small walking universe that can move, whereas the cosmic universe is stationary.
Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.
If we sincerely want to become a liberated person, then we have to be willing to be independent in a world where so few truly think for themselves.
Direct the mind resolutely towards God, restraining the senses in their various seats, and looking on the state of the body as a matter of indifference. Realise your oneness with God, remaining continually intent on identifying with its nature…for what use is there in other, empty things?
