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The Sacred Art of Fasting

Author: Thomas Ryan

Publisher: SkyLight Paths Publishing

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1594730784

Open your mind and heart and discover how the sacred art of fasting can strengthen your spiritual appetite Fasting as a religious act increases our sensitivity to that mystery always and everywhere present to us . It is an invitation to awareness, a call to compassion for the needy, a cry of distress, and a song of joy. It is a discipline of self-restraint, a ritual of purification, and a sanctuary for offerings of atonement. It is a wellspring for the spiritually dry, a compass for the spiritually lost, and inner nourishment for the spiritually hungry. from chapter 9 Though fasting is practiced in some form by nearly every faith tradition throughout the world, it is often seen as scary or something only for monastic life. But fasting doesn t have to be intimidating. And it doesn t have to mean going weeks without food. "The Sacred Art of Fasting" invites you to explore the practical approaches, spiritual motivations, and physical benefits of this ancient practice by looking at the ways it is observed in several faith traditions. Inspiring personal reflections, helpful advice, and encouragement from people who practice fasting answer your questions, allay your fears, and reveal how you too can safely incorporate fasting into your spiritual life.

The Sacred Art of Fasting

Author: Rev. Thomas Ryan, CSP

Publisher: Turner Publishing Company

Published: 2012-04-12

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1594734224

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Open your mind and heart and discover how the sacred art of fasting can strengthen your spiritual appetite Fasting as a religious act increases our sensitivity to that mystery always and everywhere present to us.... It is an invitation to awareness, a call to compassion for the needy, a cry of distress, and a song of joy. It is a discipline of self-restraint, a ritual of purification, and a sanctuary for offerings of atonement. It is a wellspring for the spiritually dry, a compass for the spiritually lost, and inner nourishment for the spiritually hungry. —from chapter 9 Though fasting is practiced in some form by nearly every faith tradition throughout the world, it is often seen as scary or something only for monastic life. But fasting doesn’t have to be intimidating. And it doesn’t have to mean going weeks without food. The Sacred Art of Fasting invites you to explore the practical approaches, spiritual motivations, and physical benefits of this ancient practice by looking at the ways it is observed in several faith traditions. Inspiring personal reflections, helpful advice, and encouragement from people who practice fasting answer your questions, allay your fears, and reveal how you too can safely incorporate fasting into your spiritual life.

The Transformational Power of Fasting

Author: Stephen Harrod Buhner

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-02-02

Total Pages: 167

ISBN-13: 1594776946

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Fasting practices to reconnect with the sacred, regain a sense of your life’s purpose, and heal physically and emotionally • Details what to expect during your fast physically, emotionally, and spiritually • Provides step-by-step guidelines on preparing for the fast, how long you should fast, what you can and can’t do during the fast, and how to end your fast • Explains how fasting can help or heal many chronic conditions, such as type II diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, psoriasis, and insomnia For millennia humans have fasted for spiritual, emotional, and physical reasons--as a way to heal their bodies, reconnect to the sacred, regain a sense of life’s purpose, and allow their souls to detoxify. We are evolutionarily designed to fast, and the body knows how to do it very well. Fasting allows the body and all its systems to rest, purify, and heal. During a fast, the body enters the same cleansing and healing cycle it normally enters during sleep. As a fast progresses, the body consumes everything that is not essential to bodily functioning--including bacteria, viruses, fibroid tumors, waste products in the blood, buildup around the joints, and stored fat--and the mind and heart release their toxic buildup as well. As Stephen Harrod Buhner reveals, in order to be truly transformed, you must first empty yourself. Offering step-by-step guidelines to fully prepare yourself for a deep fast, Buhner explores what to expect during and after spiritual, emotional, and physical fasting and detoxification. He details the necessary dietary and mental preparations leading up to your fast, what you can and can’t do during a fast, and how to end your fast. He also explains how to plan the length of your fast and how to choose between a water fast, a juice fast, or a mono-diet fast. Revealing how fasting can help or heal many chronic conditions, such as type II diabetes, childhood seizures, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, psoriasis, insomnia, and fibromyalgia, Buhner shows fasting as a way to truly inhabit the body, to experience its sacredness, and to activate its deep capabilities for self-healing.

The Science and Fine Art of Fasting

Author: Herbert M. Shelton

Publisher: Ravenio Books

Published: 2015-11-14

Total Pages: 661

ISBN-13:

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In presenting this volume on fasting I am well aware of existing prejudices against the procedure. It has long been the practice to feed the sick and to stuff the weak on the theory that “the sick must eat to keep up their strength.” It is very unpleasant to many to see long established customs broken, and long cherished prejudices set at naught, even when a great good is to be achieved. “Shall we not respect the accumulated wisdom of the three thousand years?,” ask the defenders of the regular school and their feeding and drugging practices. Where, we ask, is the wisdom for us to respect? We see little more than an accumulation of absurdities and barbarities. “The accumulated wisdom of three thousand years!” Look at sick humanity around you; look at the mortality reports; look at generation after generation cut off in the very spring-time of life, and then talk of wisdom or science! In this volume we offer you real wisdom and true science—we offer you the accumulated wisdom of many thousands of years, wisdom that will still be good when the mass of weakening, poisoning and mischief-inflicting methods of regular medicine are forgotten.

The Sacred Art of Soul Making

Author: Joseph Naft

Publisher: Joseph Naft

Published: 2006-06

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0978610903

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"Deep within each of us dwells the source of peace, purpose, and love. Yet we live in the chaotic dissonance of the superficial layers of our hearts and minds. A sea of the most precious spiritual energies surrounds us, inside and out, yet our thirst remains unquenched, our souls malnourished and unformed." (from the Introduction). Bridging East and West, "The Sacred Art of Soul Making" addresses the central questions of spiritual practice with the depth and subtlety they require and with unexpected clarity. As Westerners raised in Christianity or Judaism progress in their Eastern practices, they often find themselves drawn back toward their own religious roots and the search for the Divinity. They may rediscover their need for a personal relationship with the Divine, for the practice of prayer, openness to conscience and the understanding of will found in the monotheistic religions. Many people have not engaged Eastern meditative practices out of devotion to their own religion. Those may well find the inner work forms of presence and meditation, stripped of cultural trappings, to be important adjuncts to the practice of prayer, helping open the way to the sacred depths sought in Western religions. This authentic, substantive, and multi-faceted spirituality for our time begins where we are and ultimately takes us beyond consciousness, toward the abode of the sacred. That sacredness can touch and transform each of us, if we make the necessary, devoted effort. This book helps make that possible.

The Sacred Art of Bowing

Author: Andi Young

Publisher: Turner Publishing Company

Published: 2012-01-21

Total Pages: 121

ISBN-13: 1594735034

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Open your heart, strengthen your spiritual core, and discover how the sacred art of bowing can enrich your spiritual life. Daily, across America and across the world, people begin their day by bowing. Christians kneel for morning prayers, Muslims turn east to Mecca for the first salat (prayer) of the day, Jews daven (pray), and Buddhists prostrate themselves. Over the course of the day, many more people will find time to pause and, bending their body toward the earth, bow as part of their spiritual practice. —from Chapter 1 The Sacred Art of Bowing serves as a welcoming introduction to the whys and ways of bowing. This ancient tradition—so often mistakenly tagged as only part of Asian cultures—has roots in nearly every religion around the world. In different forms in different faiths, people bow as a physical expression of their spiritual aspirations, humility, gratitude, and respect. A companion for your journey rather than an instruction book, The Sacred Art of Bowing shares helpful insights that will inspire you to begin or deepen your own bowing practice through: A comprehensive look at bowing as practiced in many spiritual traditions Illustrations of bowing in practice Inspiring reflections from people who practice the sacred art of bowing Advice on how you too can incorporate bowing in your daily spiritual life

Holy Feast and Holy Fast

Author: Caroline Walker Bynum

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1988-01-07

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 0520908783

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In the period between 1200 and 1500 in western Europe, a number of religious women gained widespread veneration and even canonization as saints for their extraordinary devotion to the Christian eucharist, supernatural multiplications of food and drink, and miracles of bodily manipulation, including stigmata and inedia (living without eating). The occurrence of such phenomena sheds much light on the nature of medieval society and medieval religion. It also forms a chapter in the history of women. Previous scholars have occasionally noted the various phenomena in isolation from each other and have sometimes applied modern medical or psychological theories to them. Using materials based on saints' lives and the religious and mystical writings of medieval women and men, Caroline Walker Bynum uncovers the pattern lying behind these aspects of women's religiosity and behind the fascination men and women felt for such miracles and devotional practices. She argues that food lies at the heart of much of women's piety. Women renounced ordinary food through fasting in order to prepare for receiving extraordinary food in the eucharist. They also offered themselves as food in miracles of feeding and bodily manipulation. Providing both functionalist and phenomenological explanations, Bynum explores the ways in which food practices enabled women to exert control within the family and to define their religious vocations. She also describes what women meant by seeing their own bodies and God's body as food and what men meant when they too associated women with food and flesh. The author's interpretation of women's piety offers a new view of the nature of medieval asceticism and, drawing upon both anthropology and feminist theory, she illuminates the distinctive features of women's use of symbols. Rejecting presentist interpretations of women as exploited or masochistic, she shows the power and creativity of women's writing and women's lives.

Conversation--The Sacred Art

Author: Diane M. Millis

Publisher: SkyLight Paths Publishing

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1594734747

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Cultivate the potential for deeper connection in every conversation. "To think of conversation as a sacred art challenges us to imagine all the conversations in which we participate, from the acquaintance we run into at Target to the dialogue for which we've spent weeks in preparation, as a potentially sacred conversation." --from the Introduction We often find ourselves distracted and overwhelmed by a constant stream of information and demand for connectivity. Now more than ever, we need to develop our capacity for greater presence in our daily lives and relationships. One of the best ways to do this is by improving the quality of our conversations. Dr. Diane M. Millis offers us inspirational stories, insights and spiritual practices from many faith traditions to increase our awareness of the deep, natural holiness waiting to be unlocked in our everyday encounters. This resource is a catalyst for anyone who would like to enrich seemingly ordinary conversations as well as for leaders in educational, ministry and corporate settings who want to: Increase their capacity to listen deeply Become more self-aware and attentive to others Learn how to move beyond conventional topics to exploring purpose, meaning and values in conversation.

Fasting

Author: Lynne M. Baab

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 2009-09-20

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 0830875204

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"You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God." Matthew 5:6 The Message We live in hungry times. Ours is a consumer culture, predisposed to quickly fill the cravings of body and mind. The idea of fasting--the voluntary denial of something for a specific time, for a spiritual purpose--sets us immediately on edge. But Lynne Baab makes the case that anyone can fast. Fasting is an expression of freedom. Free from the patterns and habits that mark everyday life, from time to time we can move beyond our appetites into meaningful encounter with God. In Fasting you'll discover an ancient Christian practice that extends beyond giving up food to any regular activity in our contemporary lives. You'll see how taking a break from eating--or driving, or checking e-mail, or watching television--opens us up to discover new things about ourselves and God and the world around us. You'll see that while not everyone should forgo food, anyone can step out of routine to feed the soul. In a time of great spiritual hunger, God invites us all to a feast: fellowship with the Creator of the universe, where all our truest needs are identified and attended to.

Fasting

Author: Scot McKnight

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Published: 2010-12-27

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1418576131

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“Fasting is the body talking what the spirit yearns, what the soul longs for, and what the mind knows to be true.” — Scot McKnight Christianity has traditionally been at odds with the human body. At times in the history of the church, Christians have viewed the body and physical desires as the enemy. Now, Scot McKnight, best-selling author of The Jesus Creed , reconnects the spiritual and the physical in the ancient discipline of fasting. Inside You'll Find: In-depth biblical precedents for the practice of fasting; How to fast effectively—and safely; Different methods of fasting as practiced in the Bible; Straight talk on pitfalls, such as cheating and motivation. Join McKnight as he explores the idea of “whole-body spirituality,” in which fasting plays a central role. This ancient practice, he says, doesn’t make sense to most of us until we have grasped the importance of the body for our spirituality, until we can view it as a spiritual response to a sacred moment. Fasting—simple, primitive, and ancient—still demonstrates a whole person’s earnest need and hunger for the presence of God, just as it has in the lives of God’s people throughout history. The Ancient Practices There is a hunger in every human heart for connection, primitive and raw, to God. To satisfy it, many are beginning to explore traditional spiritual disciplines used for centuries . . . everything from fixed-hour prayer to fasting to sincere observance of the Sabbath. Compelling and readable, the Ancient Practices series is for every spiritual sojourner, for every Christian seeker who wants more.