I would be interested in hearing about the experiences of people who fast for spiritual reasons.

This is currently Ramadan, the Muslim period of holy fast. Later in the spring, Baha'i's will fast for 19 days prior to the first day of Spring (Naw Ruz, a Persion holy day).

I have fasted for various reasons throughout my life--to cleanse, to be in solidarity (but not on a street corner protesting war, w.c. ), to enhance my own spiritual practices.

I know that the Catholic church has a tradition of holy fasting, and I have talked with some Protestants who have fasted as a kind of petition prayer (I'm a little unclear on this last one and would like to know more).

How has fasting helped you in your spiritual path? What has been the specific nature of your fastin practice? To what end have you fasted? What advice would you give others about fasting?

I know, a lot of questions....I'm curious.
shanti

Dear Shanthi,

I'm glad you opened this thread because now I have a chance to tell you how much I admire you. I intended to do that on the 'On the Verge of War' thread, but I wasn't sure if you had decided not to read that thread anymore. I admire you because you are a social worker. I can imagine how emotionally demanding such a job can be and how it can leave people burnt out, if they don't take particular care of themselves and retank their energies on a regular basis. I admire you because you are a peace activist: It is one thing to have sentiments about peace and even live it in one's life but another to go out there and do something concrete to force changes. I admire you because you derive your strength from your spiritual practice.

Now to your questions about experience with fasting. I used to fast quite often when I was younger. In the good old Catholic tradition, the whole family used to give up meat and fish for the whole period of Advent and Lent. Apart from that I always fasted with the intention of twisting God's hand to get something specific! I once gave up meat and fish for four YEARS and broke my fast not because I got what I was fasting for (God has still NOT granted that request) but as a result of an Ignatian retreat. We were supposed to partake in certain scenes from the Bible and experience it personally. So when I was supposed to share breakfast with Jesus at the sea shore after His resurrection and He offered me fish as He did the others, I couldn't accept it because I was fasting! So Jesus and I had a good long talk and I had to give in (I do that if the argument is good enough!!!).

I once fasted for 14 days, living only on liquids: tea and soup, and I did get what I was fasting for. In Shanthivanam, at Fr. Bede Griffiths Ashram, I fasted on some ocassions too - to intensify my prayer. It DOES work wonders! I'm sure you have made that experience too.

I would love to have fasted at the group retreats I later attended (primarily because I would have no opportunity to neglect prayer as a result of fasting), but we were not allowed to. Obedience to the rules and not trying to be something special, I was told was the best response at a group retreat.

Later, I could no longer fast on my own because I found that fasting became an end itself and I did not spend any time in prayer. Fasting is supposed to intensify prayer and not become a substitute for it.

I once knew an Indian lady student from Saudi Arabia, who fasted during Ramadan. (We had dinner together in the evenings when she broke her fast for the day.) I don't know how she managed without even drinking water all day, but she did. She worked all day in the lab, on her feet almost all day. Her life seemed totally normal and nobody could have guessed that she was fasting like that.

Gandhi as you surely know fasted regularly one day in the week and spent all day in silence and prayer. It seems to me that when fasting is combined with the fasting of the senses, tongue and mind, it aids immensely in prayer.

Now I don't go on food fasts anymore, I try to fast by silencing my tongue (which is very very difficult indeed!).

My two cents worth:

As for food fasting, it can be done in many different ways. Some give up only one particular food and call it fasting. Some take only some particular foods and call it fasting. So one can fast by drinking only water, only fruit juices, or include soups, eat only vegetables or fruit, eat only rice ...all sorts of combinations. One must make sure to drink adequate fluids, that is all.

Some tips:

If one is fasting for spiritual reasons, it is important to keep in mind that fasting is not an end in itself, but only an aid to prayer. One should spend more time in prayer! If one cannot pray at all (as it became in my case), then the fast is useless.

Take a purgative, (pure castor oil from the chemist is the best thing) to clean out the system.

Drink plenty of fluids - at least three litres - water, fruit juice, herbal tea, vegetable broth...(no soft drinks!).

Break the fast gradually, if one has been on a longer fast.

Thank you for the good words, SJ, and I must tell you that I am in the process of leaving social work (the paid kind, anyway, I probably will do volunteer work) in order to move in another direction. It's a little vague in my mind right now (and will no doubt impact my pocketbook), but I feel it is a spiritual thing, so I'm putting one foot in front of the other and trying to trust.

And thank you for so much information about your experience with fasting. I have never fasted from all food for more than a few days at a time. Ramadan and the Naw Ruz fast are similar--they both are sunrise to sundown fasts, so one has the opportunity to refresh in the evening. And in addition, one is suppose to augment the fast with alms giving, which I think of as a fasting of income.

You have a good point when you say that fasting should not become an end in itself, but rather be a tool to bring one closer to God and to that I would add, an appreciation of the interrelatedness of all creation.

I read in the newspaper the other day that a church was going to have an "Oxfam dinner" which is, I believe, an experiential event. People are assigned a status when they arrive. Some get a nice dinner. Some get plain rice and tea, and some get nothing. Not exactly a fast, but certainly a way in which going without food can bring a person into greater awareness of how some people on this planet live.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences.

shanti

Thanks for starting this thread, shanti.

I've been to an Oxfam dinner (you can have one such without Oxfam being involved, of course), and I found it a good way to raise awareness about world hunger. Let us know your experiences with this.

I'm not much of a faster, as my physiology is such as to leave me feeling weak and headachey without food. In fact, my optimal eating pattern is four small meals a day, taken every four hours or so. Kind of like a hobbit, I like first breakfast and "second breakfast."

Occasionally, I do fast by skipping a meal or eating very small portions. There is unquestionably an increase in mental alertness, until the headaches come, then I'm good for nothing.

Shanthi,

If my words served you in any way at all, remember it is the work of the Holy Spirit!

You say that you intend to leave social work to discover another way of life more suited to your spiritual yearnings. I wish you success along whatever path God leads you. I like St. John of the Cross (I haven't read much of his writings, but what I have read has impressed me no end) because he emphasises that God speaks through our reason and common sense - that is His normal way of communicating with human beings. He advices against looking for special signs and wonders and angels appearing to give God's message. I have met several people from around the world in Fr. Bede's Ashram in India, who gave up their normal lives and professions in order to go on a spiritual journey: some of them got totally lost in the search, others found it difficult to find their way back to the 'market place' of normal society and work after they discovered that bringing spirituality to ordinary life was the spiritual path. Since you mention that you are not quite sure about what you want to do, I thought you could give some thought to the experience of certain people. As long as your intention remains pure, God will lead you, purify you and use you for His glory, no matter what decision you take.

Thanks for reminding me about experiencing the interconnectedness. In that context I'm reminded of a story in one of Sheldon Kopp's books: ' If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him/ The Pickpocket and the Saint. It is about a little boy who is to become a spiritual master like his father. The father does not however start training his son as soon as he is old enough to understand spiritual teachings with the head. One day the little boy found a little wounded bird lying on the ground. He picked it up and as the bird trembled in its dying moments in the palm of the boy's hand, the little boy felt the pain of the bird and suffered its dying agony. When he told his father about his experience, the father decided that the son was finally ready to recieve the spiritual teachings.

I remember your pain and fear, when you talked about your mother-in-law living in Baghdad. If Bush could feel the pain of the death of every innocent Iraqi child as the death of his own, he would have a totally different opinion of ? inevitable collateral damage and make his decisions concerning their fate accordingly. I read somewhere recently that even Satan cannot devise the method of appropriate revenge for the death of an innocent child.

Soja/Priya

Dear Phil--I can understand the need to be healthy in eating. I like your intentionality in skipping a meal now and then in order to fast. In my mind, the fast of one meal in a lifetime is a fast, if that was the purpose of skipping the meal.

Big things from little things grow.

And I believe many traditions of fasting have exemptions. The elderly, the very young, the sick and frail, travelers, etc.

shanti

Dear Priya--Thank you for the encouraging post and for reminding me that teachings don't come from humans alone, but from an eternal source.

I started this thread because I think I want to start some sort of regular fasting program in my life, but not any of the ones I am most familiar with. I may take a lesson from Phil and not try to make it overly ritualized.

However, I know a sense of order can have importance, and there are people I know who fast in certain ways at certain times on a regular basis. Even with this knowledge there is still the fact that one can see or hear about something 25 times and it doesn't make sense or insipire one until the 26th time! Each step gets one closer to a breakthrough. On the other hand, I don't know all there is to know about fasting, either, so I may be further back in my steps.

I'm still feeling my way on this. I know fasting will help me spiritually because I've done it before, but current details haven't revealed themselves to me yet. This is why I am hoping to learn about the experiences of others, especially the ways in which the fasting experience has affected one's spirituality.

Also, if people feel that fasting is not a good idea or irrelevant, I'd like to hear about that, too. I don't really want to debate here, just see what people have experienced, so I am open to cautionery tales.

shanti

Hmmm, I think fasting works better for some other people more than it does me. The major spiritual effect I experience is that it makes me a cranky b*st*rd.

jon