Fasting

Prayer and fasting have come down to us through the prophets and saints of all ages and are a part of every major religion worldwide. Fasting as a ritual of purification has always reflected the desire to withdraw from involvement in worldly things and to clear the body and the senses for communion with the inner light.

Fasting is the oldest, safest, and most effective method known to man for rejuvenation of the body, the mind, and the spirit. Even Mother Nature herself is well known to prescribe a forced fast—sickness—when she needs a little time to rectify imbalances in the system. Fasting is a habit which the physical body and the body elemental take to with delight.

Benefits

Many students of the ascended masters fast weekly on Saturday, using the violet flame, physical exercise and internal cleansing to give the physical body its Sabbath rest. Several days before the sun-sign change and the new moon each month are also auspicious times for prayer and fasting. The ten days before the solstices and equinoxes are the high marks for self-emptying in preparation for the infilling, invigorating Light released from the Great Central Sun on these four occasions.

The goal of this ritual of fasting is for spiritual purification—the self-emptying, that the Holy Spirit may enter in. Many have discovered healthful side benefits, such as weight normalization, detoxification, mental clarity, and physical inner peace.

How to fast

Because of past diets people have been on, initial reactions to fasting may vary from severe to mild to none at all. El Morya’s advice is: Go easy, be well informed, proceed with caution, know when to stop.

Some additional recommendations concerning fasting: Never fast if you are pregnant or a nursing mother. If you have a medical or mental health condition, consult your doctor before fasting. Fasting for more than three days is not recommended unless you consult a health professional. If you feel lightheaded or disoriented or if you become ill while fasting, stop your fast and gradually return to solid foods.

The body eliminates toxins through the intestines, the skin, the lungs and the kidneys. You can increase the effectiveness of your fast by stimulating elimination through these avenues of cleansing. To aid elimination through the skin, brush your skin with a dry natural fiber brush. This will remove toxins and old layers of skin that clog the pores. Brushing also increases the action of the lymphatic system, which carries waste from the cells into the blood. The blood then delivers the waste to the kidneys, where it is converted to urine and deposited in the bladder.

To increase elimination through the lungs, breathe deeply and rhythmically, preferably outdoors, in the fresh air and sunshine. Give Djwal Kul’s breathing exercise daily. To support the kidneys, drink calendula or dandelion leaf tea. Moderate exercise three times a day and a sauna or steam bath once a day for fifteen to twenty minutes will invigorate the mind and purify the body. When you come off a fast, a mild enema or colonic may be beneficial.

Fasting and the spiritual path

Saint Germain speaks of the benefits of fasting for those on the spiritual path:

The need for fasting is one which we have said from the beginning. For the resting of the seventh day is the resting of the physical body and the lower vehicles of consciousness by that fast which can easily be accomplished when you have a momentum on it. Even the taking of juices and other liquids that sustain you during work hours is better than eating solid food during that twenty-four-hour period when, therefore, the angels of light come with transmutation and the violet flame to flush out the cells of the mind.

Beloved hearts, when you concentrate on the clearing of the brain and the brain cells and the nervous system by the correct uses of fruits and vegetable juices and herbs, you will find that there can occur a greater oneness of the Higher Mental Body (Holy Christ Self) with the mental body and the physical counterpart.

And remember, beloved hearts, that consciousness is throughout the body temple and not only in the central nervous system or in the brain. Realize that your consciousness is in the spinal altar and in the Kundalini fire and in every cell of your being and in your chakras. And that God consciousness is able to hold a fire, an all-consuming fire, for the cleaning up of the earth and also for the wisdom of the Buddha that tells you the way to go.

Beloved ones, sometimes when we speak and you are nonresponsive, the only reason is that you have allowed yourself to become too toxic, too filled with substance and therefore not sensitive to our call. We desire not to see a movement of fanatics but the most well-balanced and well-rounded body of servers whose example may truly be an example to those whom we would draw into this teaching. Heed, therefore, our Word and take our suggestions for the manifestation of that community of the Holy Spirit which truly is the real city set on a hill that cannot be hid.

Let your light so shine in the eye, the heart, and the body temple. Let the fervor of your spirit recognize with all wisdom that which is taking place. Let your hearts go forth as the brooding Mother and as the fire of Kali to bind these devils.

Gautama Buddha says:

If your spiritual path embodies fanaticism, it is best that you bow out and silently move on to the place where compassion is the key, where man-made doctrines do not bind men to superstition, to thoughts of Death and Hell and eternal damnation or purgatory just because they do not believe what some “authorities” have taught as the final word, the definitive interpretation of the gospel.

Dogmatism and fanaticism go hand in hand. To be doctrinaire is to be dictatorial. This engenders rigidity. Blessed ones, let us not be rigid! Let us be the pliant ones.

Therefore, let us, without breaking, empty ourselves of the fruits of wrong sowing and wrong reaping. Yes, let us become the pliant ones. Let us self-empty that we might be filled.... Continue your fasting. Continue self-elevating. Continue building the building blocks of the body, the mind, the soul—the building blocks that steady the emotions because you are deeply rooted in that soil of the Great Tao.

A brown rice fast

The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, the oldest-known book of Chinese medicine and the foundation of the macrobiotic diet based on the yin-yang principle, describes a ten-day rice gruel fast as the first remedy for disease.

Ronald E. Kotzsch writes in Macrobiotics: Yesterday and Today that The Yellow Emperor's Classic ...

... asserts that food is an important means for treating disease. It says that in “medieval days” the sages treated illness first by diet, usually prescribing a regime of rice gruel for ten days. If this treatment was not successful, then the roots and leaves of medicinal plants were used to harmonize the energies. Acupuncture and moxibustion were employed only as a last resort.

If the emotions and the will of the patient are stable, says the Classic, then cereals alone can effect a cure. Grains have a special importance and power as human food. Water and grains are the root of life and “death comes only when they are exhausted.” In particular, rice is mentioned as a vital and harmonious food.

The Yellow Emperor’s Classic is attributed to Huang Ti, the legendary Yellow Emperor (born c. 2704 B.C.), but was probably not written down until about 500 B.C. The Yellow Emperor is believed to have ruled China during a golden age and is considered the ancestor of all Chinese people. Lord Lanto, working under Sanat Kumara, is said to have inspired The Yellow Emperor's Classic.

A ten-day brown rice fast may be too severe for those who have not already practiced the macrobiotic diet for some time. Such a fast is not recommended unless you get good macrobiotic counseling, know the body’s signs of yin and yang, and know how to break the fast. Instead, you can try a rice fast for one or two days. Eat as much pressure-cooked brown rice as you want.

You can follow this with a couple of days of rice and vegetables with a light miso soup as the body gently comes off the rice fast and adapts to a greater variety of vegetarian foods. The longer the rice fast, the easier you should make the transition. It is wise to wait a week or more after the rice fast before eating fish, if this is part of your regular diet. Because of the past diets people have been on, reactions may vary from severe to mild to none at all.

Recipe for pressure-cooked brown rice:

• 1/2 teaspoon good sea salt to 5 cups of rice and 8 cups of pure water.
• Wash rice and put in pressure cooker.
• Add water and bring to a boil.
• Add salt and place cover on pressure cooker.
• Bring cooker up to pressure then reduce flame to medium-low. Put flame deflector under cooker and cook for 45 min.
• Remove pressure cooker from flame and let sit for 5 min. without opening, then remove rice from the pot so it doesn't keep cooking.

For regular daily use of brown rice when not fasting, use 1–2 teaspoons of salt per pot according to personal taste and need.

Recipe for bancha twig tea (also called kukicha):

• If the twigs you have are not already roasted, you should roast them in a dry skillet for 3–4 min.
• Place 1–2 tablespoons bancha twigs in a pot with 4 cups of pure water, bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat and simmer for 5–10 min., or 10–15 min. for stronger tea.
• When tea is finished steeping, remove twigs from the tea and let them dry.

Twigs can be reused a few times, adding some new twigs each time.

Sources

The Coming Revolution magazine, spring 1983 issue.

Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 28, no. 24.

Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 32, no. 19.

Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 40, no. 2.