On May 17, 2009, at 9:08 AM, Duveyoung wrote:
Just on the level of physiology, fasting
seems to be a fairly powerful tool to
achieve both precise and general health
and consciousness goals.
Unless you have a specific sadhana designed to use fasting as a tool,
fasting more than a couple of days is folly, esp. for vatas--typically
the type of people who seem to go for these type of dietary heroics.
"FASTING
Ayurveda frowns on longterm fasting because the sense of deprivation
created by a long fast encourages you to follow it with a long spell
of indulgence to rebuild Ahamkara's confidence. I knew a Westerner in
India who had decided to fast his way to enlightenment. He was an
extreme example of the V constitution so I knew it would be dangerous
and warned him pointedly about the possible perils. It was impossible
to change his mind; he obstinately ignored all warnings. One day his
starving, devitalized immune system landed him in the hospital, where
doctors lanced a long abscess running all the way up his leg. The
outcome of this adventure into higher consciousness? After his
recovery he returned to North America and became a cook!
His obsession with food never left him, because his persistent fasting
so starved his Dhatus that they eventually overwhelmed his resolve.
This cycle of overrestriction followed by overgratification aggravates
Vata in everyone who attempts it. It is better to fast regularly for a
day once every week or two. The digestive organs need a day off as
much as any human workers do, and it will not do to make them work
overtime for months in a row without any rest and then give them a
long enforced fasting vacation.
Robert Svoboda, Prakruti
