Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit.
Many people know so little what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves and find nothing! Therefore, they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves, either.
When the creative impulse sweeps over you, grab it! You grab it and honour it and use it, because momentum is a rare gift.
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.
If we cannot envision the world we would like to live in, we cannot work towards its creation. If we cannot place ourselves in it in our imagination, we will not believe it is possible.
