- Details
-
Category: Humour
-
Created: Thursday, 28 February 2008 04:43
-
Published: Thursday, 28 February 2008 04:37
-
Written by Verena von Pfetten
-
Hits: 2884
I can tell you right off the bat that fasting is not for me.
It's just not my thing. My one and only attempt at a fast involved the Master Cleanse, which is a fancy name for a creative concoction of hot water, lemon, paprika, and maple syrup. I lasted five hours before my stomach staged a coup and I found myself chowing down a Big Mac. 'Nuff said. But honestly, I'm nowhere near a level of spirituality where fasting would be at all beneficial, and really, I have no interest in crash-dieting under a pretense of spirituality and lastly, the idea of yogarexia makes me feel stabby.
{josquote}It's supposed to be the ultimate sign of self-sacrifice, the definitive form of self-control. And yet the whole point of it is to release control - control of the material world, of earthly needs.{/josquote}
I thought about doing one of those diary of a fast-type posts, but they're always the same. Either you're miserable and cheat and spend a self-indulgent 800 words discussing your coffee-withdrawal headache, or you're energized and clear and spend a self-indulgent 800 words discussing the regularity of your bowel movements. (You can probably guess which one I'd be.)
Nonetheless, fasting is an important topic. Nearly every religion, from Christianity to Buddhism to Baha'i has some form of fasting. Sikhism is probably the only major / organized religion to actively discourage fasting as a spiritual task. And this is my point, really. No one I know actually fasts as a spiritual endeavor. I mean, half my office fasts, but let me tell you, they're not trying to find god, they're trying to find their way into size 2 pants. The only person I've ever known to fast religiously was my Muslim friend in high-school who observed Ramadan because his parents said so.
Full story...
