5 things non-Muslims may not know about Ramadan
By Yahoo! Singapore | Yahoo Newsroom – 9 hours ago
ricky l • Remove
Significance of Fasting in Buddhism.Reply
How fasting come about in Buddhism?
Sensual desire is one of the trigger point in 12 dependant origination of life.
Sexual desire is one.
Desire for “taste” to sustain life is one.
But moderation in fasting – is still the best method in spiritual practice.
Buddha before practicing Moderation or Middle Path – have been practicing extreme astercism (hermitism) – by believing that abstaining from all sensual desires (will help him to gain Enlightenment – as at that time, many hermits realise sensual desires are the culprit that cause human to be attached to this mundane Earth and binded in the sea of sufferings – vicious cycle of rebirth).
The hermits analsysis were correct, thus Buddha (before He gain Enlightenment) practice abstinence of all sensual desires – so determined was Him that He ate only 1 grain of rice per day and 1 drop of water a day maximum. Soon after months of such austere practice, Buddha is so thin and fragile – that it is only skin to bone and no flesh – and almost passed away – but cannot exceed his Spiritual attainment.
Buddha then realise that extreme fasting will make his body frail and weak, and His Mind will not be able to gain equilibrium to attain Enlightenment as meditation of the Mind require a healthy body (of 4 Great Elements equilibrium of Water, Matter, Temperatures and Air). Thus Buddha discover Moderation and Middle Path – a balance of clarity in Mind and Heart – with Body nourish with balance food (physical matter) – and Buddha attain Supreme Enlightenment.
During meditation retreat that Buddha conduct for His Disciples (usually during rainy season), Buddha realise that :-
- For His disciple to beg for alm (food) – 3 meals per day is a big chore and wasted their time to do meditation.
- Also during meditation season, when monks need to go out to beg for alms, they will have to step through padi field and will damage some of the crops.
Thus Buddha provide instructions to His disciples that during meditation retreat, all disciples must only take breakfast and lunch before 12 pm – and then fast until next day.
This is to help His disciples to :-
(1) Reduce sensual desires for food – and fasting half day will still help to keep their bodies healthy while reduce their sensual desires for food – that will help spiritual progress when doing meditation.
(2) Prevent damages to crops for farmers – out of Compassion.
(3) Spend more time in meditation rather than spending time looking for food.
True enough, many of Buddha’s disciples during the meditation retreat by adopting moderation in fasting (Middle Path) – has attained different stages of Enlightenment.
Some attained Sainthood of Sotapanna, some attained Sakadagami, some attained Anagami, some attained Arahatship (the Full Enlightenment).
Others attained Samadhi rupa 1st Jhana or 2nd Jhana or 3rd Jhana, or 4th Jhana. Some attained Samadhi Arupa 5th Jhana.
All these attainment are Divinity of Supramundane – not attained by any mundane Human.
In fact in this modern World, attainment of any of the above is very rare.
No comments:
Post a Comment