The worthy person is grateful and mindful of benefits done to him. This gratitude, this mindfulness, is congenial to the best people.
When your sense of self is no longer tied to thought, is no longer conceptual, there is a depth of feeling, of sensing, of compassion, of loving, that was not there when you were trapped in mental concepts. You are that depth.
Fight with yourself, why fight with external foes? He, who overcomes self will obtain happiness.
This is true knowledge: to seek the Self as the true end of wisdom always. To seek anything else is ignorance.
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.
