Talk:Fasting

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• "Fasting kills the desire of the self and the appetite of greed, and from it comes purity of the heart, purification of the limbs, cultivation of the inner and the outer being, thankfulness for blessings, charity to the poor, increase of humble supplication, humility, weeping and most of the ways of seeking refuge in God"
  • Ja'far al-Sadiq, The Lantern of the Path, Fasting
• “The best medicines are rest and fasting.”
  • Benjamin Franklin
• “Fasting is the greatest remedy, the physician within”
  • Paracelsus
• "Fasting is a natural method of healing. When animals or savages are sick, they fast."
  • Paramahansa Yogananda
• "All the vitality and all the energy I have comes to me because my body is purified by fasting"
• "A genuine fast cleanses the body, mind and soul. It crucifies the flesh and, to that extent, sets the soul free... What the eyes are for the outer world, fasts are for the inner... My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray... Fasting will bring spiritual rebirth to those of you who cleanse and purify your bodies. The light of the world will illuminate within you when you fast and purify yourself... More caution and perhaps more restraint are necessary in breaking a fast than in keeping it."
  • Mahatma Gandhi
• "Even idiots know how to fast, but only the wise know how to correctly resume eating after a fast”.
  • Mahatma Gandhi
• "Fasting is an effective and safe method of detoxifying the body.. a technique that wise men have used for centuries to heal the sick. Fast regularly and help the body heal itself and stay well. Give all of your organs a rest. Fasting can help reverse the aging process, and if we use it correctly, we will live longer, happier lives."
  • James Balch , Prescription for Natural Healing
• "Fasting is like being a gifted sculptor who knows how to take areas of fatness and thinness and give them proper form."
  • Otto Buchinger , Founder of Buchinger Therapeutic Fasting , Germany
• "Through fasting I have found a perfect health, a new state of existence, a feeling of purity and happiness, something unknown to humans."
  • Upton Sinclair
• "The purpose of fasting is to loosen to some degree the ties which bind us to the world of material things and our surroundings as a whole, in order that we may concentrate all our spiritual powers upon the unseen and eternal things."
  • Ole Kristian Hallesby
• "Prayer brings us halfway to God, fasting takes us to the gateway of heaven."
  • Muhammad
• "Fasting, daily rituals, and austere self-discipline - those who keep the practice of these, are rewarded with less than a shell."
  • Guru Granth Sahib
• "It is right to fast frequently in order to subdue and control the body. For when the stomach is full, the body does not serve for preaching, for praying, or studying, or for doing anything else that is good. Under such circumstances God's Word cannot remain. But one should not fast with a view to meriting something by it as by a good work.
  • Martin Luther
• "Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, and kindles the true light of chastity. Enter again into yourself."
  • Saint Augustine
• "Fasting of the body is food for the soul. As bodily food fattens the body, so fasting strengthens the soul. Imparting it an easy flight, it makes it able to ascend on high, to contemplate lofty things, and to put the heavenly higher than the pleasant and pleasurable things of life."
  • St.John Chrysostom
• "I fast for greater physical and mental efficiency."
  • John Climacus
• "The gate is narrow and the way of fasting is hard, that way leading to the life of purity, and there are few to make the journey" after Matthew 7:13-7:14 KJV
  • John Climacus
• "What the first man lost by eating, the second Adam recovered by fasting. And he kept in the desert the law of abstinence given in paradise"
  • Maximus of Turin
• "Fasting is useful for expelling demons, excluding evil thoughts, remitting sins, mortifying vices, giving certain hope of future goods and a forestate of celestial joys"
  • Gunther of Pairis
• "Fasting empties the soul of matter and makes it, with the body, clear and light for the reception of divine truth"
  • Clement of Alexandria
• "Fasting.. cures disease, dries up the bodily humors, puts demons to flight, gets rid of impure thoughts, makes the mind clearer and the heart purer, the body santified and raises man to the throne of God"
  • Athanasius of Alexandria
• Sincere rabbinical student, 27. Enjoys Yom Kippur, Tisha B'av, Taanis Esther, Tzom Gedaliah, Asarah B'Teves, Shiva Asar B'Tammuz. Seeks companion for living life in the "fast" lane.
  • alleged personal ad in Israeli English-language newspaper The Jerusalem Post
• The White and the Black, the Woman and the Man, the Short and the Long
  • Mnemonic for remembering the six Jewish fasts.

Thomas Merton quote

The following quote apparently was Thomas Merton quoting Confucius, incorrectly attributed to Merton:

• The goal of fasting is inner unity. This means hearing, but not with the ear; hearing, but not with the understanding; it is hearing with the spirit, with your whole being. The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another, but the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear, or to the mind. Hence, it demands the emptiness of the faculties, and when the faculties are empty, then your whole being listens. There is then a direct grasp of what is right before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind. Fasting of the heart empties the faculties, frees you from limitations and from preoccupations.
  • Thomas Merton, The Living Bread

The above quote has been replaced with the following two quotes -both from the same book

• Do you know what I mean by fasting? It is not easy. But easy ways do not come from God.
  • Confucius quoted in The Way of Chuang Tzu, by Thomas Merton, p.52, (1965)

• The goal of fasting is inner unity. This means hearing, but not with the ear; hearing, but not with the understanding; it is hearing with the spirit, with your whole being. The hearing that is only in the ears is one thing. The hearing of the understanding is another, but the hearing of the spirit is not limited to any one faculty, to the ear, or to the mind. Hence, it demands the emptiness of the faculties, and when the faculties are empty, then your whole being listens. There is then a direct grasp of what is right before you that can never be heard with the ear or understood with the mind. Fasting of the heart empties the faculties, frees you from limitations and from preoccupations.
  • Confucius quoted in The Way of Chuang Tzu, by Thomas Merton, p.52 & 53, (1965)

Cheers Om777om (talk) 20:00, 16 April 2019 (UTC)