Returning to your Nature -

Fasting from the Church of Consumerism

by Erik Adams

It is a fact that we are biologically inseparable from and dependent upon our physical and social environments. Our state of health as individuals is totally reflected by the state of our outer world, by our local and global communities, ecology and culture.

Australia is said to be an example of a successful, wealthy and industrialised democracy. We live in a time when the engines of this so called success continue to accelerate the pace of modern life, ensuring that our senses are now saturated with a myriad options for information and distraction, entertainment, tastes, gadgets, music, sex and stimulants. Everything that we desire is at our disposal but for it, most of us must work harder, faster and longer. In the shadow of our success lies the 2/3rds of the world’s population that, as result of our colonial legacy, live in poverty, producing the cheap raw materials and accessories for our affluent urban lifestyles. Yet despite our privileged position of abundance, we are amongst the fattest, depressed and most suicidal nation on Earth.

The promise of scientific achievements, economic growth and modern medicine was of a bright future free from disease. While cures to many diseases have been found and some eradicated altogether, we have discovered that health problems can’t necessarily be cured by higher material standards of living. People in the west no longer suffer from the diseases of malnutrition and poor hygiene found in the developing world, and it is true that our life expectancy has increased. Yet with our modern lifestyles have come rates of heart disease, cancer and obesity unheard of in poorer nations. These are the diseases of over consumption and alienation, of having too much rather than not enough.

Many of these modern ailments reflect an approach to living that is disharmonious with nature, of poor food and lifestyle choices exacerbated by the demands of modern life, but importantly they reflect an emotional and spiritual poverty resulting from our focus on materialism and our loss of community.

What have we lost?

What is this gnawing malaise that lurks beneath our suburban exteriors expressing itself as a myriad of social, mental and physical problems. Have we gained the world and lost our soul?

Australian philosopher Clive Hamilton in his book “Growth Fetish” cites research done on what people rate as the most important ingredient for happiness and wellbeing. He found that the single attitude most strongly associated with life satisfaction was not material wealth but “a sense of meaning and purpose”.
Traditionally religions have served to give purpose and meaning to a mysterious universe. Today the influence of traditional religious institutions continues to diminish as the rise of economic rationalism and global capital directs us to the shopping mall, to Hollywood and TV to find the narratives of our lives.
The world's many great spiritual traditions are losing their appeal for the modern generation. Their often dogmatic and fixed qualities now limit their universality and appeal in an age of freedom, individuality and scientific scepticism. Stuck in their own historical and cultural baggage they perpetuate self-righteous inter-religious conflict and stasis.

Fortunately most spiritual traditions are at their core based on real experiential practices that have helped people find direct experience of meaning for hundreds and thousands of years. Unwrapping the baggage it is possible to discover simple ways that we may reconnect with meaning in our lives while still maintaining our uniqueness.

To find meaning and purpose in your life is basically to find out who you are, to find your own truth. In a world that is increasingly complex, busy and saturated with the opinions and judgements of others it is becoming harder to connect with and honour your true nature and the spirit that is its source.
One very simple yet profound practice, that is common to almost all spiritual traditions, is the combination of silence, fasting, immersion in nature and prayer/meditation.

The power of fasting was known by all the great spiritual leaders of nearly every religion.. Not only as a means of physical purification but also as a means to enhance mental clarity and spiritual insight. It was after lengthy periods of fasting and prayer in the wilderness that Moses, Jesus and Mohammed received their divine inspirations and teachings. Lao-Tsu, Confucius, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Hippocrates - the father of medicine, Leonardo da Vinci and Gandhi all used and recommended fasting.

If all these great inspired people fasted why is it that it has become so unpopular? Many people are afraid to fast, thinking that some harm might come to them , that they will die of malnutrition or get so hungry that it will be unbearable. We also are incredibly addicted to the foodstuffs we consume. Emotional attachments to food, caffeine, sugar, salt etc. have an insidious grip on many of us creating cravings and symptoms of withdrawal if we don’t get our fix. The truth is though, fasting is totally safe for most people ; it is not that hard when you are in the right environment and after some initial toxic feelings, it makes you feel really, really good. However, like anything, it should be done in moderation and according to your own body’s constitution.

Combining fasting with silence and abstinence from sensory stimulations such as television, music and newspapers can be doubly effective. This is a mental fasting that gives your mind a break from consuming information, allowing it some stillness and introspection. Practices such as meditation, yoga, light walking, tai-chi, deep breathing, massage and bathing are all highly beneficial when fasting.

Conclusion

Our whole society is diseased, which of course causes all the components of the society to be diseased. Yet our approach to health is to commonly treat the symptoms of the individual in isolation to the context in which he/she exists.
We must simultaneously work on healing ourselves and our society. We are not islands, we are all totally interconnected. We cannot truly be whole or healed unless we are all whole.
Educating yourself and taking full responsibility for the diet, lifestyle and consumer choices you make is the first and vital step.
When people become sick from consuming too much or the wrong things they don’t think to actually just stop. Animals know this wisdom. People go out trying to find some other consumable pharmaceutical, packaged remedy or supplement. Once again, the consumer world has brainwashed us into believing that through consuming we will be delivered from our ills, that we will be cured if we would just buy that expensive treatment or bottle of pills.
The body is an amazing organism with incredible powers of self-healing and rejuvenation. However, if we continually make it work digesting and processing the stuff that we’re feeding it, it doesn’t get a chance to focus its energy on detoxification and renewal.
Fasting or the abstinence from food for a period of time is an ancient practice. It is in fact the oldest therapeutic method known and also the simplest. It is its simplicity that is so attractive in a world that has become so complex. Yet it is this same simplicity that is not attractive to big business. No expensive accessories, supplements, crystals, treatments or practitioners are needed. Just you, giving your body a holiday from consuming.

Fasting is the earliest known, simplest and least expensive way to allow your body’s nature or ecosystem to re-establish equilibrium and wholeness
You may have seen cats or dogs when they are sick go off their food and start eating a bit of grass. It is not something intellectual, or that they learned. That’s just what they feel like at that moment. The body knows what it needs.
Unfortunately we so commonly override the body’s inherent wisdom with our conditioned minds, that are enslaved by desires, addictions and information and advice from other people that we have been taught to consider more important than our own knowing.

Fasting is not a diet
It helps to bring you back to who you are
It allows the space for your inner selfhealing mechanisms

Funkey Forest has been running silent fasting retreats since 1999. These 3 day and 7 day residential retreats combine organic juice fasting, silence, meditation, yoga and immersion in nature.