Whatever we are doing, believing, thinking, desiring, understanding, feeling – if we are not aware of them while aware of ourselves in the present – we are asleep, and all are but embers of a dream.
You say: “He lost his life” or “my life”, as if life were something that you can possess or lose. The truth is: you don’t have a life, you are life. The One Life, the one consciousness that pervades the entire universe and takes temporary form to experience itself as a stone or blade of grass, as an animal, a person, a star or a galaxy.
Success, peace and prosperity will always remain elusive as long as there is discord but where there is unity, perfect harmony prevails there and nobody would dare to attack such a place.
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.
