There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.
Fasting in the monastic community is considered an ascetic practice, a “dhutanga” practice. Dhutanga means “to shake up” or “invigoration”. The Buddha, as is well known, emphasized moderation, the Middle Way that avoids extremes, in all things. Fasting is an additional method that one can take up, with supervision, for a time.
Crime and punishment grow out of one stem. Punishment is a fruit that, unsuspected, ripens with the flower of the pleasure that concealed it.
That which gives pleasure to one man gives pain to another. That sage who identifies himself with the imperishable Self and stands as a spectator of the mental modifications enjoys supreme peace and infinite bliss.
The churning separates the butter from the milk. In the same manner, through cosmic processes and upheavals of heat and cold, the five fundamental elements - earth, water, fire, air and space were separated and Earth, this Ball of Butter, emerged as the product of the churning.
