posted March 31, 2009 01:13 AM         

Fasting can be quite a challenge for most of us. It can also be a time where we are the most spiritually powerful, if we are brave enough to rest in the places where we feel uncertainty. I always fast to shed the burden I am carrying around. I fast to open my life up. Knowing that what is irritating me in any given moment on the cleanse, like my boredom, or any other irritating part of the process presents me with a dilemma.

How do we continue the fast when we are bored and fed up? Fasting will bring moments to us that are instead of being calm and wakeful, are quite edgy and irritable. This is an interesting place. For the fasting practitioner this is an exceedingly important place. Fasting will continually put you in a position of being squeezed. All who fast find ourselves in the squeeze. It's a place where we look for alternatives to just being there. It's an uncomfortable place, and it's often a place where people just give up. We like fasting when we feel inspired and in touch with ourselves and on the right path. But what about when it starts to feel like a burden, like we made the wrong choice and it's not living up to our expectations at all?

When we feel squeezed, there is a tendency for the mind to become small. We feel miserable, like a pathetic, hopeless case. Yet believe it or not, at that moment of bewilderment our minds could become bigger. We're so used to running from our discomfort, and we're so predictable. If we don't like it, we strike out finding fault with fasting, or beat up on ourselves. When we fast we just have to grow up. I find that when I fast, my best mantra becomes, "OM" Grow up "Svaha".

posted March 31, 2009 01:18 AM         

This is what we are doing when we fast. It's like inviting what scares us to introduce itself and hang around for awhile. I always say to my fears, "It is wonderful you demons came today. You must come again tomorrow. From time to time, we should converse." Fasting can help you to exorcise your demons, by treating them with compassion. When we fast we, "Approach what you find repulsive, and go to the places that scare you."

When I fast I think of poison as medicine. We can use difficult situations "poison" as fuel for waking up. When anything difficult arises, instead of trying to get rid of it, we breathe it in. The three poisons are passion {this includes addiction, or craving}, aggression, and ignorance {which includes denial, or the tendency to close down or shut out}. We would usually think of these poisons as something bad, something to be avoided. But that isn't the attitude while on a fast, instead they become seeds of compassion and openness. When suffering arises, let the story line go and breathe it in. Instead of pushing it away or running from it, we breathe in and connect with it fully.

Our habitual tendency is to struggle against what's happening to us or in us. When we fast it is best to move toward the difficulties rather than backing away. We don't get this kind of encouragement very often.

Everything that occurs while on a fast is not only usable and workable but is actually the path itself. We can use everything that happens to us as the means for waking up and staying on our program. Regarding whatever arises on the cleanse as the manifestation of awakened energy, as sacred.

Often on a fast we panic. We must deal with the demons of our hopes and fears. How do we stop struggling against ourselves? We go to the places that scare us when we fast, there is just no way around it. That place is charnel ground for manifesting our wisdom. This wisdom is the basis of freedom and also the basis of confusion. In every moment on the cleanse we make a choice. Which way do we go?

JUST RELAX and LIGHTEN UP! When we wake up in the morning we can dedicate this day of our fast to learning how to do this. We can cultivate a sense of humor and practice giving ourselves a break. Each day we fast, we can think of it as training to lighten up, to have a sense of humor, to relax.

1. No more struggle: "Whatever arises, train again and again in seeing it for what it is. The innermost essence of mind is without bias. Things arise and dissolve forever and ever. Whatever happens, we can look at it with a nonjudgmental attitude. This is the primary method for working with painful situations."

2. Using poison as medicine: "When suffering arises, we breathe it in for everybody. This poison is not just our personal misfortune. Everyone on a fast must overcome cravings for food. We have a kinship with everyone who has ever survived a fast, when we are on the program. Instead of pushing away, or running from our discomforts while cleansing, we breathe them in. We connect with what is going on fully. Knowing that we do this with the wish that all who cleanse can be free of suffering."

posted April 01, 2009 12:21 AM         

I'm fasting right now- this is the longest so far. I plan to keep going for a while and get a colonic for the first time. Apparently all the awful side affects from fasting are eliminated if we clean out the bowel. I found that true, my headache went away right after the salt flush.
I remember you did a fast for 11 days or something one time? How did you feel by then?

posted April 02, 2009 07:53 PM         

Those salt flushes feel great, dont they?

posted April 03, 2009 02:27 PM         

Fasting is great!

posted April 04, 2009 03:43 AM         

I was just reflecting on those exact same thoughts just five minutes ago!

By fasting in one area- from solid foods and stimulants it made other habits stand out, almost as if they were swollen and staring me in the face for inspection. Fasting is the best high and low ever!

posted April 04, 2009 08:29 PM         

Great point, HSC.
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My main priority for awhile has been abstaining from the other garbage; or trying to. Which is a way bigger mountain to climb, I think. I agree that purifying ourselves on inner levels helps to purify what's coming into us from the outer automatically. Yet it's important to put the proper things into your system all the same, especially when the inner levels are unbalanced. And I notice I feel so much better when I just eat less.

A family member of mine will have none of this. To her its all about the food and supplements we put in. And she has become a kind of crazed cult member in this department. Pushing her latest health food guru's fad on everyone she can. Then it changes and that one's not the right way, this is. If only everyone would eat this way, they'd be fine. She knows it all because she's read a bunch of stuff and followed all these health gurus rules. And she's never looked so horrible in her life. It's disturbing and sad. She's stuck on one piece of the puzzle and thinks she's found The Answer.