asceticism
The topic of asceticism is one that I want to bring to attention. This is a relatively rare choice for an American citizen to choose to engage in. In the version of America that I am familiar with, engaging in a way of life that consists of training oneself to abstain from sensual pleasures is most definitely far from the normal social norm. Within the context of American life I believe that the social norm is actually something that moves in the opposite direction. Something that resembles hedonism is much more prevalent. Excessive craving and consumption of pleasure inducing substances and activities seems to be the primary direction that culture seems to be heading in. I want to make a quick reference to the practice of fasting and list some common ideologies that incorporate this practice.
The concept known as fasting is the abstinence of food for a period of time. This is most widely known as occurring within religious traditions such as: Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Taoism, ect. Basically it has played a prominent and important role in the entirety of humanities religions. Since it is an act of denying oneself the pleasures associated with the ingestion of food, it then falls into the category of asceticism. In particular, this is the very act that I want to focus upon in reference to Buddhist thought and also modern human psychology.
Becoming awake or enlightened to the state of Nirvana is the ultimate goal in Buddhism. I want to connect this ideal with the modern secular ideal of achieving contentment within ones life in a nonspiritual mode. The rise and prevalence of secularism has gained quite a bit of momentum upon the majority of modern humans. Actually, in 2002 a survey done by Adherents.com estimated that the proportion of the world's population that identified as: "secular, non-religious, agnostics and atheists" was roughly 14%. That's roughly 1.05 billion people. A very large number of human beings have chosen to turn a false eye upon a very significant and meaningful portion of past human knowledge. Yet, the ascetic practice of fasting has been adopted and transitioned into modern secular practices. In these modern practices they have gone about explaining and identifying evidence to support the ascetic choice in relation to physiological well-being. I want to first refer to how it is that this ascetic choice helps one become awakened in the Buddhist sense, then I will attempt to transition to a more secular psychological scientific explanation and show the striking similarities in their logical construction.
In Buddhism, achieving the state of become what is referred to as 'awake' is that one has simply opened their eyes and are able to see reality as it really is. In a secular context this is referred to as having arrived at a rational comprehension of what stands before ones eyes. Essentially they are both saying with different words precisely the exact same thing. Now to refer to what role the task of fasting plays in the process of 'waking up' in the Buddhist sense, learning one part of the path or manner of walking that leads one to the ultimate destination of being free from the struggle within the duality of pleasure and pain, is begun by taking the mandatory mental leaps one is faced with when dealing with fasting. Perhaps there is a tremendous psychological lesson built into the very choice seeing that all the worlds religions also have adopted this practice as one that has important spiritual pertinence! Now back to the Buddhist language. There is a pali word: dukkha. This word is translated to many different meanings such as: unsatisfactoriness, stress, suffering, pain or stress. It is essentially just a conscious signal or wavelength emitting a mental signal that is some form of negative notification. Another signal emitted within the conscious mind is that of the need for sustenance. As a human being myself, I am fairly familiar with this signal. Learning how to become free from dukkha entirely being the ultimate aim and goal of Buddhism, when you first consider the signal of hunger, it is a signal that most certainly falls within the realm of dukkha. After establishing that fact, learning to condition oneself to become unbound and unsubdued to such a signal, it then become a practice that qualifies as becoming free from dukkha. It is most certainly obvious and certain that food is an absolute necessity for survival and maintaining ones health as a human being. Yet it is also very obvious and well known that massive overindulgence of food results in physical states of being known as obesity. Becoming physically large is very unhealthy for one psychologically and physiologically. So then, seeing that the task of fasting appears to put one closer to the goal of becoming awake in the Buddhist sense, is this same vision not also one that aligns with modern secular science?
Important spiritual responses that are made available from the task of fasting (that can also be secularly labeled as emotional management tactics), are provided by learning how to appropriately mentally respond to these signals of dukkha. Trying to become completely free from dukkha requires many of these learned lessons to then be considered awake. One of the primary lessons I've personally found that begins to begin to illuminate a path toward liberation is the task of fasting. This task also provides some rather stark and powerful contrasts within culture. It is a very worthwhile journey, I personally have gained quite a few rather worthwhile insights in doing so. I do believe that staying on the path is a very challenging and hopefully long pursuit. I just know that the psychological task of craving has been a very powerful and consistent force that has forcefully shaped and designed a large portion of my life. Trying to imagine a life that has become liberated from duhhka seems rather ideal, yet the mental notification of craving plays a very important role in so many aspects of life itself. Perhaps the category of food is a rather healthy and ultimately good point to then focus this post upon.
Asceticism is ultimately not advocated to be practiced in an extreme form by the conclusions that Buddha had arrived upon. The middle path is a path that is comprised of a balanced composition. While fasting may appear to be a rather unbalanced extreme negative choice, I firmly believe that the rising cultural tide of becoming acceptably overweight is immensely dangerous and destructive. From a physiological health standpoint, I think the scientific facts regarding physical well-being also point to the dangers regarding overindulgence and consumption of food. Some of us are not able to arrive at the physical conditions often used by many others that can offer some of the other consequences of asceticism. Ultimately, implementing the usage of choices that may appear to be for no positive purpose may seem self-destructive, unwise, and foolish. I am trying to do my best at saying that I have seen the personal positive consequences of journeying through the tides of Samsara (or just 'life') and I personally think that sometimes choosing to skip food might just be a very powerful and helpful choice in the long-run.
Cheers!
周培森