Why Do Our Gods Want Us to Stop Eating?

Sacrifice

Fasting, which means to deliberately deny your body the daily nourishment it needs, is a surprisingly universal form of sacrifice. With the notable exception of Protestant sects, almost all religions recommend from time to time we stop feeding the body, not to diet, but to concentrate on feeding the spirit or soul so that virtue grows. Think: “abstinence makes the heart grow fonder.” Fasting usually includes giving up alcohol and sexual relations too, anything that might interfere with the soul connecting to the sublime or divine. The Bible calls fasting the way to become humble in the sight of God, and the ideal way to request, perhaps even to receive, forgiveness for errors. Other religious texts say a body temporarily freed from worry about where its next meal is coming from can focus all its energy on spiritual achievement and make significant progress. Many religions actually specify the best times to stop feeding the body and start feeding the spirit. Here are a few.

Sandra Garson is the author of Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking and How to Fix a Leek and Other Food From Your Farmers’ Market. As a longtime student of Tibetan Buddhism and well-known cook for Dharma centers from Maine to Mongolia, she became the first food historian to explore the Buddha’s influence on how the world now eats. This led to exploration of more religious beliefs about food.

Lent

Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Lent requires forty days of partial fasting to commemorate Jesus’ fast during his temptation in the desert. The purpose of abstaining sometimes just from meat, other times from an entire meal or two, is not to make you suffer and sicken, but help us control gluttony, lust, greed and other harmful human impulses that actually cause suffering. Lent is about repenting for the harm these desires have caused. By allowing us to experience hunger, it is also a provocation to compassion for those who go hungry every day. The Orthodox Church says increased prayer and charitable deeds must accompany Lenten fasting, for genuine repentance includes reaching out to help others. To simply stop eating without wisely using the time gained makes the entire effort pointless, even spiritually harmful. Lenten fasting leads into the explosive joy of the Resurrection, with its Easter feasting for Spring’s renewal of life.

Yom Kippur

This is the annual Day of Atonement. A meal may be had on the eve of Yom Kippur before sundown, but after that there is to be no eating until the sun sets on this solemn day. The 24-hour fast provides a long uninterrupted period for self-searching and prayer, for tuning into the divine. Coming ten days after Rosh Hashonah, the Jewish New Year, Yom Kippur is the finale to personal reflection that allows you to acknowledge and repent for the sins and harms of the year just ended. You then promise improved behavior, and ask God’s blessing to grant that in the year ahead. Not being able to eat or drink for 24 hours is considered conducive to the real contrition necessary for genuine atonement. Jews believe abstaining from physical indulgences increases awareness of food and drink’s importance to life, creates a greater appreciation for human dependence on God’s blessings, and realization of his great compassion in creating and providing for our survival.

Ramadan

The 9th month of the Islamic calendar, the one that coincides with the month the Qur’an was first revealed to Mohammad, is Ramadan, the time from sunrise to sunset Muslims must abstain from food, drink, smoking, profanity and sex. This extended period of daylight fasting is meant to instill the virtues of patience, chastity, modesty and submission to Divine will. Muslims ask Allah to forgive their sins committed in the previous year and to provide spiritual guidance in the months to come. They give up corporeal needs and pleasures to show their soul’s yearning to connect to Allah, to earn tagwa, which means something like 'God consciousness.' The fasting of Ramadan also includes purification of unholy behavior through good deeds like sharing after sundown what food we have to eat with those who have none.

Nyung Ne

When Tibetan Buddhists try to arouse within themselves the sublime spirit of Chenrezig, the shining white multi-armed deity who sees and soothes all suffering, they renounce the immediate desires of their human body. It’s a practice that began a millennium ago with a nun on the verge of death from leprosy. With no options, she devoted herself to fasting in order to pray continuously to Chenrezig who, when sincerely beseeched, jumps into action. And so it was that during meditation, he appeared to liberate her from leprosy, emotional pain and the fear of death. Nyung Ne, pronounced neyung nay, literally means “ritual fasting.” Abstaining from food, drink, intimate bodily contact, even talking, for an extended period like 48 hours, releases the physical constraints on our consciousness so spiritual awareness expands. When we sacrifice our self-serving needs to make time to consider the en suffering of others, we cancel negative karma accumulated from past hurtful actions. That sends us further down the path to the stainless perfection and healing power of Chenrezig.

Sunday

Mormons recommend fasting on the first Sunday of each month, believing this allows for a concentration that helps achieve and perpetuate closeness to God. The Sunday fast requires giving up two consecutive daily meals and drink—an almost 24 hour fast that provides long prayer time. The fast also requires donating the food or money saved to the needy, for good deeds show as much devotion as praying. The late President of the Latter Day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley is said to have asked: “What would happen if the principles of Fast Day and the fast offering were observed throughout the world? The hungry would be fed, the naked clothed, the homeless sheltered. ... A new measure of concern and unselfishness would grow in the hearts of people everywhere.”

The Full Moon

Hindus can choose among many Fast Day opportunities, but prominent among them is the monthly Purnima or Full Moon Day. Their Sanskrit word for fasting is upavaasa that translates literally as “to stay near”, meaning to attain spiritual (mental) proximity to the Divine. On Fast Days, they deliberately restrain the senses and passions as a way to gain control of the body in order to pacify, strengthen and focus the mind. Fasting might mean just giving up meat, fish and eggs, eating only one meal a day, or living on a liquid diet. Hindus believe this bodily cleansing through prescribed abstinence helps purify the soul. Its scriptures say fasting helps to establish the harmonious balance of body and soul that keeps one in tune with the Absolute.