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.
There are no greater treasures than the highest human qualities such as compassion, courage and hope. Not even tragic accident or disaster can destroy such treasures of the heart.
The knowledge in your mind is immeasurably greater than all that you learnt, in all manner of ways, since birth, as a child, at school, in life, in the world, in your profession. This immeasurable knowledge sometimes percolates into the dream experience; sometimes it comes as intuitive ideas, as creative feelings.
You may control a mad elephant; You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger; Ride the lion and play with the cobra; By alchemy you may earn your livelihood; You may wander through the universe incognito; Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful; You may walk on water and live in fire; But control of the mind is better and more difficult.
Contemplating upon divine qualities, performing good deeds and chanting are all ways of destroying delusion through satsang.
You love your family, but not your neighbor. You love your parents, but not others’ parents. You love your religion, but not all religions. You love your country, but not all countries. This is not true love, it is limited love. Transformation of limited love into divine love is the goal of spirituality.
To awaken to the absolute view is profound and transformative, but to awaken from all fixed points of view is the birth of true non-duality.
If we celebrate the festival with the objective of divine wealth then we will get an experience of supreme Bliss or anand and the desire for worldly inferior pleasures will automatically start reducing, leading to our true Liberation.
