On fasting

Fasting. There is nothing a human being can do that is more powerful, enlightening and defiant than fasting. I've heard LSD comes close, but like all other drugs taken for recreation, it is the faux-spirituality of the weak. An enemy who thinks they can crush you is powerless when you decide on the simple act of fasting. Mahatma Ghandi and Bobby Sands both resisted power, oppression and injustice by resorting to fasting - they triumphed. Bhuddha reached enlightenment and glimpsed the beyond by fasting. Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert, besieged by falsehood and temptation, he came out of it an elevated man. The more I think of fasting, the more I see in it the triumph of the weak human being over her environment, over the earthly delights which alienate her from her true self. The point is not that you are tired, thirsty and hungry - it is in not minding. Only when you recognise this do you realise that these things are distractions which routinely cloud your thought and judgement. When you recognise the illusory nature of desire and temptation and that it is truly seperate, you begin to realise that there is a 'you' which is quite distinct from this shell you inhabit. Cogito ergo sum indeed, but I am not here to clash with skeptics, for me this disembodied 'you' that is capable of independent thought has a practical expression. To realise through fasting that the trappings of wealth are prisons rather than freedom gives the 'poor' dignity and the 'rich' humility. In a capitalist and material world centered around the morality of those who don't know any better we are enslaved by our own belongings and desires. I think there has never been a greater need nor urgency to break free than we have today. What do we have to lose apart from our chains?

Ramadan kareem to everyone...