FASTING : Life is just Beginning: Episode 9

FASTING : Life is just beginning :  Episode 9

One way in which the Divine keeps me wedded to Him-Her as a devotee is by controlling my inflow. As I live at the edge, day by day, moment by moment, as no clients appear in my space, I do not eat. So, I fast. He-She-The-All- Knowing-Opulent- Divine Creator Master-Mistress-of-Everything lets me fast for several days on end. Then a glass of water becomes a holy spring of Divine Love. In it I see Life as just Beginning. HoHoHO !  H2O floats in a glass holding me together while I sit and watch a myriad birds, doing my holy mantras, focusing on Sun, enjoying its reflection on the still blue Knysna lagoon.

On such days, birds visit the back garden of the flat who have never visited before. Their feathers sparkle in rainbow colours in the light while blossomed trees around whisper bliss and ecstasy. I watch them building their nests, flying to and fro with bits of grass and tiny sticks, held firmly aloft. They do this to-ing and fro-ing the whole day long, one tiny mossie, not tiring. I’m awestruck at the magnificence of such endurance. No stopping to look for food, no nibbling between, just this backward and forward flying to this one half-built nest in a thickly branched acacia. There is an urgency, an urgency without haste, a knowledge that all can be done on time.

How unlike the human race who push and pull, manipulate to get things done at specific times, setting demanding deadlines which kill the joy of work. Then I turn inward. My skin becomes baby soft while fasting, my hair falls out, but what the heck, it is graying in any case and Life is just beginning !! My nails grow very fast during fasting sprees. Strange. I don’t know the reason for this ? Then there is all this time to do craft work and stitch interesting patterns and designs straight from the heart. Work becomes Joy. I fully comprehend Khalil Gibran who says “ When you work, you are a flute through which the whispering hours turn to music.”

In the Bible, David fasted for his child’s life, Ezra fasted on his return to Jerusalem, the Israelites fasted when confessing sins. Jews fasted when Haman wanted to destroy them, Queen Ester asked them to fast so that she could help them, they fasted in repentance during drought and called for holy fasts at times of need. In Zechariah the Creator asks whether fasting was really done for him and that fasting is to be joyful occasions. Do we touch joy when we fast ? Without a fast touching Joy, it has little meaning as we do not draw nearer the Divine – which is His-Her purpose with this spiritual tool.  

When Jesus was questioned about fasting, he gave the answer that when he is taken, his disciples will fast. I understand this to mean, when the Light leaves, fasting is necessary for a return to Light, as a purification tool : to shrink the cloth and make new wineskins so that new wine can be poured into new skins. Have you noticed how quickly the body renews itself when fasting ? Annah, the Prophetess fasted for many days before speaking about the role of Jesus. In the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, it is clear that fasting needs to be part of a process of humbling before God. Fasting is known to clear the mind and give the ability to speak the Truth as it comes from Divinity through a voice.  Jesus fasted before his Temptation. It obviously strengthened his resolve, faith and inner self. Saul fasted before he set off for Cyprus where his work was made lighter. Fasting as a preparation for the spreading of the Gospel seems to have been a regular practice. 

Fasting is to happen on the Day of Atonement, to please God. In Mathew, we understand that fasting is only for God. Muslims are very clear about this as a crucial tenet of Islam. Fasting is a pact between God, the Ultimate and the individual. The Holy Quran states that fasting is decreed during the month of Ramadaan to become righteous, except when ill or on a journey or menstruating. The Quran states that God wants fasting to be made easy - an understanding is that we fast for the glorification of the Creator, to increase our gratitude for His gifts and to make our path homeward clearer.

In a “Course in Miracles”, a more contemporary spiritual text, miracles are possible for anybody, if purification happens. Implicit is the need to fast, for purification of body, mind and strengthening of soul. The Bhagavad Gita speaks about a consciousness which relates to food and a consciousness which relates to bliss, the two on opposite ends of a scale of evolution.

How one understands food and relates to it, is obviously an important aspect of the development of consciousness. The more dense and toxic the food we eat, the more dense and toxic the body and mind. The lighter, fresher, more alive the food, the lighter, fresher, more alive the body and mind. Pure logic : We are what we eat. So refraining from food, it is just the breath we inhale which feeds us. If the air we breathe is as pure as we can find, and the thoughts we inhale with the breathe are pure, as we filter out that whose gravitational pull is low, Viola ! we raise our consciousness slowly, but surely –if refraining from food becomes a regular practice or we are Divinely controlled when fasting becomes a natural part of our cycle of being alive.

So Sweet Ones, what about foregoing those slap chips. Hard hey. But it can be done. Use the Will. Use the Will, Use the Will, Use the Will..