Fasting for Peaceful Space, Part II

Most of the spiritual traditions of the world include some form of Fasting as a way of giving thanks, cleansing, and transcending the mundane concerns of everyday life. For millions of Muslims around the world, the month of Ramadan (on the Islamic lunar calendar) began this past week. Fasting the month of Ramadan is prescribed for the Muslims in their sacred text, the Holy Qur’an. During the month of Ramadan (which moves throughout the year based on lunar cycles) the believers are enjoined to fast from dawn in the morning until sunset. During this period the believer consumes neither food nor water. In fact, nothing passes the believer’s esophagus except what forms in the mouth. In Arizona, for example, fasting during our record-breaking heat wave like this August, 2010 is a great challenge. The summer that I arrived in Arizona, June 1980, the temperature reached 116 degrees during the first week of Ramadan, which began the first week of July that year. I can remember how attentive and appreciative I was at the end of the day to sit and drink a simple glass of water. Funny how fasting does that! It makes you appreciate the simple things in life!  During the Ramadan fast, the believer is also enjoined to avoid arguing, mischief of any kind, fighting, and also intimate relations during the daylight hours. The month is to be spent in mindfulness, meditation, prayer, reflection, and in Peaceful Space. At the end of the day the believers can eat and drink. The Ramadan fast is not simply for the individual believer. It is designed and enjoined to enhance the feeling of Peaceful Space among and between all elements of the larger community. Unfortunately, over the past several decades more and more acts of violence have occurred during the month of Ramadan, much of that violence being perpetrated by Muslims upon Muslims. In the Handbook, the Enia have suggested that this is a sign of the growing strength of the Oku Enia (the Corpse).

The key expression in beginning a fasting discipline is gradual process. Your body, mind, and spirit are designed to communicate with each other and to work together for your survival and well-being. If you pay attention and listen your body-mind-spirit will communicate to you what is working and when to make a change. If you currently eat three meals per day and stuff in-between you can begin by cutting out the stuff. Take the money that you would spend on stuff (munchies) each day or week and give it to a homeless person or someone else in need. That simple act adds positive energy to your actions and enhances your energy signature. Having eliminated the munchies, you can begin moving from three meals per day to two meals per day or two meal every other day or every three days. Start by replacing the morning meal with only fruit and then only an enhanced fruit juice blend like I described in my last Post. Over time you might begin moving your midday meal later and moving your evening meal earlier. The goal is for your midday, late afternoon meal to become your main meal of the day, and for your evening meal to become a lighter meal of the day. Your stomach will rebel and protest some of these changes and that is where gradual process and a nice cup of herbal tea come in. Over time the late meal can be eliminated and the late afternoon will be your one main meal of the day. Remember, this is not about one size fits all. It is about you getting in touch with yourself!

There are many possible paths to a fasting discipline. You can gradually replace your three meals with fruit so that you end up eating only vibrant color (fruit) one or two days per week. This is sometimes referred to as a cleansing fast. Abstinence is only one way of thinking about fasting. Actually, we sometimes give more to the body-mind by fasting than we do by feeding it. Eating is a labor-intensive process, not only for you in the preparation and consumption of the meal, but also for your body in carrying out the process of digestion and elimination. While you give your body-mind time to rejuvenate from this process you also give your spirit time to feed on the silence and the emptiness that accompany the fast. As the Enia believe, “Immortality exists in the space in-between events. Honor transition!”

Do parents still tell their children, think about all the hungry children in the world and eat everything on your plate? I’m not sure if that ever really worked to solve the problems of hungry children around the world but perhaps it did help to establish some sense of interconnectedness in our minds. Taking a portion of the money you save by fasting and donating it to some worthy cause is a wonderful and tangible way of elevating your fast and strengthening your spirit. Life can feel so negative and overwhelming sometimes. We can feel helpless to do anything about the horrendous problems we see in the world. Too many fires to put out! As fast as one problem is dealt with two or three more erupt into blazing fury! The more we try to change things, the more things there are that seem to need changing. Thoughts like these are a sign that the left-brain, our logical, rational mind is at-its-wits-end. They are also an indication of the need to shift to a more balanced approach between the Masculine Principle of Mind and the Feminine Principle of Mind. If the direct, mechanical, objective, logical approach to problem solving isn’t working, why not shift to a spiritual, intuitive, quantum approach? Fasting is an alternate approach to problem solving, a different way of affecting the world. Fasting unlocks the powers of the Feminine Principle because it is a transcendent discipline. Remember the example that the Mysterious Dr. M. gave in the Handbook of the Effect of Meditation on Crime Rates in Washington D.C.? Fasting for a higher purpose can have that some kind of effect.

Fasting is a silent discipline. It moves through the Quantum Field like the sonar of whales moving through the depths of the oceans. In the Muslim community it is not considered appropriate to ask a believer if they are fasting. That fact is between the believer and the One who enjoined the Ramadan fast. Likewise, with your self-imposed fast, it is not something that you proclaim, boast, or brag about. It is your silent way of moving the Ase (Quantum Energies) and affecting change in the world through indirect, spiritual means. When a Muslim breaks their fast or is unable to fast it is not an occasion for shame or ridicule. Instead the believer is enjoined to feed a poor person the equivalent of what they feed themselves. There will be days when you will break your fast for one reason or another, although these will hopefully come to be rare occasions. When this happens, be like water! Go with the flow! Fasting is about silent and unselfish giving without the expectation of acknowledgment or reciprocity. Don’t use the discipline of fasting as another excuse to beat yourself up because you failed! . Fasting for the enhancement of Peaceful Space in our world is a silent and unselfish way of making a different in the world. When you fast, you are not simply abstaining from food. You are also mindfully abstaining from adding any more negative energy into the Quantum Field. You are denying the Oku Enia (the Corpse) the fuel that it needs to enter our world with all of its vengeance. During your Day of Fasting your Energy Signature will be more calm and radiant, and that calming radiance will have its positive affect on the people around you. You will feel insulated from the effects of their negative actions, interactions, and reactions. You will also feel better able to transform negative energy into positive energy through your conduct in the world, part of the Prime Directive of the Human Family.

Living in alignment with the Prime Directive

is a choice to which everyone should be invited!
You have been invited!

Create Peaceful Space! 
Trust Your Process!

Peace, Love, and Health!

Preview The Handbook On Being Human, vol. I