Ayurveda Day 93: Mental Fasting

Today, I went to see my naturopath. We talked as I hadn’t seen him in over a year, and we discussed some interesting things from a naturopathic perspective to an ayurvedic perspective. Now I will say quite clearly that he is a licensed doctor who went through years of schooling to get a degree. His knowledge is very vast. My ayurvedic education is amazing and in depth, but no matter how many years I spend studying it, I will never be “Dr. Saran Ekambaram, AD (Ayurvedic Doctor :P). But it was nice to talk to him and see some parallels.

In his office, he has some books. One of the books I really like to read while waiting is about zen. They are in comic form, and have short one page stories about zen proverbs and teachings. In one of the teachings, they were talking about mental fasting.

I found just that term to be beautiful. Mental fasting.

It’s self-explanatory! When we fast, we typically stop eating, or reduce the eating, in order to cleanse the digestive/elimination systems. When we have a mental fast, what happens?

We stop thinking! It cleanses the mind!

Cool. But way easier said that done for anyone who has ever had a thought in their mind.

Just try this experiment to see it’s difficulty:

First try a normal fast. Congratulations, if you are not eating at this moment, technically you are fasting until you eat again!

Now, try a mental fast. Did you think?

I guarantee you did.

So let’s look at it more of as a “reduction” of thoughts. More specifically, it is about surrendering.

I took my dog, Indy, after my naturopath visit for a walk to the park. I let her off leash and just sat on the grass while she was free. She smiled and rubbed her back on the grass like a big doofus like she always does (it’s super cute). We played fetch, and by fetch I mean I throw a stick, she gets it, then I go to her to get back the stick. She even came to me and cuddled as we layed on the grass. It was a beautiful time. I was feeling sore after my naturopath visit because the doctor gives me injections in my shoulders and neck to promote healing from my motor vehicle accident. This was a necessary and happy compromise to me trying to hold her as she goes on a walk, which would have made me super sore.

The compromise wound up being amazing, as I just let go. I took a fast from all the controlling and planning I usually do and just let her be free. I created a space of trust that she would return to me, and she did, even when other dogs came by. I have been feeding the need lately to do so much to make sure all my plates keep spinning – work, school, relationships, pets, mortgage, debt, volunteering…it’s too much ahh!!!

So I just let some plates fall. I took a fast. A mental fast. I stopped thinking so much by reducing my main culprit of thought:

Worry.

Worry about the past.

Worry about the future.

I decided to just let my thoughts only go to the present moment. This is the heart of a mental fast.

As Indy played in the park I sat and meditated for a few moments, trusting the dog to do her thing and not stray too far. I asked my higher self to speak, and that I would be quieting my mind. Mentally fasting to allow it to have space to give me wisdom.

I asked it, “Oh higher self, what comes now?”

I listened and waited. My ego brought up thoughts. I dismissed them and went deeper. It wasn’t work. It wasn’t school. It wasn’t relationships. Eventually it came down to a whisper from my soul. As the ego quieted, it’s words became more clear:

“Go deeper into stillness and silence, and uncover your true self”

As I sat in stillness and silence, mentally fasting, ego-driven thoughts would come up. But I would let them go to the earth below. With my hands on the earth, I felt the immense energy as I focused only on what my hands were doing. I just felt the blades of grass touch my palms, and the soil moving underneath with tiny life. I felt the vibrations from the entire planet coming into my hands and grounding my whole body.

I realized there were so many blocks and barriers in my self that I needed to undo. As I mentally fast, they come to the surface where they can be let go of, into the earth (it helps to actually be touching the earth like I was).

That whisper is always in all of us. Our true self, that allows others to be free and doesn’t worry so much. The one that knows love is not about possession or control, but about appreciation.

Some of us become so obsessed with diet and lifestyle, we forget it all tends to start in the simplest place:

Our thoughts. Those thoughts are connected to our breath, the bridge between our body and mind. Just breathe. And reduce your thoughts. Mentally fast.

Another word for this is meditation. But meditation isn’t just to sit with crossed legs in lululemon clothes on a yoga mat with hands in chin mudra chanting “Om” over and over. That is just one type of meditation.

Life itself is a meditation. Washing the dishes, walking the dog, brushing your teeth, having sex, driving your car, sleeping at night – everything can be a meditation. If we mentally fast, we are entering into that space of meditation.

Everyone should mentally fast. You can start right now. Imagine going about your day without so many thoughts rattling around, and rather, hearing the wisdom of your true self whisper gently to you when the need arises. This is our true state of being. So give it a try. Just breathe, and tell your higher self you are surrendering to it’s wisdom. Then listen. Just listen. There’s no need to do anything else. There is more enlightenment to be found in a drop of silence than in the words of a thousand buddhas.

With gratitude,

S

Ayuveda Day 85: Buddha and the Angry Villagers

Today was a review class, so I get to write about whatever I want!

One of my favourite topics to write about are zen stories. Here is a favourite of mine starring Buddha:

The Angry Villagers

Buddha and his disciples were passing through a village one day. In this particular village however, there were many wise sages, some of whom were jealous of the buddha’s fame. He was approached by these men, who were all yelling and screaming at him.

Buddha just stood in silence, calmly and indifferently letting the men speak. To this sort of response, the men became even more upset!

“How can you stand there and not defend yourself? How dare you disrespect us so! Have you nothing to say for yourself?”

At this comment, a concerned look befell Buddha’s face. He said to them,

“In the previous village I was in, the people were overjoyed by my presence. They offered us many sweets as tribute, but since we had already eaten that day, and we do not take more than one meal per day from one place, we had to reject their offerings.”

The men who were screaming at Buddha were puzzled by this comment.

“What does this have to do with anything!?”

To this Buddha said,

“I wonder, what did the townspeople do with all the rejected gifts?”

“Is it really such a mystery?” said one of the men. “They must have distributed the gifts amongst the village and shared them!”

Buddha’s look grew even more concerning.

“This troubles me greatly. For in the same manner I had rejected their sweets, so to have I rejected your garbage. Will you now go home and spread this anger and resentment to your community? To your neighbours? To your family?”

Buddha and his disciples then passed through the village.

–

Anger is a concept I know all too well as a predominately pitta type. Too often I don’t deal with my emotions properly in the moment, and wind up taking them out on the people I care for most. It is far easier to drag someone down to your level than to rise above yourself and see these moments of anger for what they really are: opportunities.

Learning how to view the world from a perspective that is beyond good or bad, right or wrong, this or that – it is within that centre that the buddha nature is found. But if we let the ego take hold, then we will always be a slave to the polarizing nature of our thoughts and emotions.

With gratitude,

S

Ayurveda Day 73: The Buddhi

Today was a review day in class and not much new to talk about. I love these days because it gives me a chance to blog about things that I have kept on the back burner for a while, as more pressing blogs came to fruition. So today is a perfect day to do a review on a subject with all of you that is dear to my heart:

The Buddhi.

We have more than just our physical body. In fact, we have three bodies:

– The physical body

– The mental/emotional body

– The spiritual or causal body

We mostly live our lives through the first two bodies. Our body and our mind are interconnected via pranayama (breathing practices) which act as a sort of bridge. When we are physically breathing rapidly it is impossible to be relaxed mentally and emotionally. The breath is a tool we can use to effect the the mind/body connection.

In a similar way, there is a bridge between our mind and our higher self, or truth. This bridge can be thought of as our intellect. It takes in information, sensory input, data. But upon that bridge is an organ that is responsible for processing this information to serve one of two purposes:

– To serve our higher self, truth, and enlightenment

– To serve our lower self, our ego, our suffering

That organ is what we call the buddhi.

Buddhi obviously stems from the word Buddha which means “enlightened one” in Sanskrit. So it’s easy to remember our buddhi as a tool towards enlightenment.

But how does it work?

This is where the role of karma (cause and effect – not good or bad, just simply is!) and samskaras, or our tendencies, come into play.

We are born into this world with a sort of programming code that dictates what our tendencies will be. We come to know this as our constitution as described through vata, pitta, and kapha doshas.

But we also have the ability at any given time to overwrite these tendencies. This is why a person who displays pitta anger their whole life can still learn to have non-judgment. However, without proper training of our buddhi, we lean into our samskaras and further solidify them, forming habits. And unfortunately, the vast majority of the time, we tend to feed the habits that are disharmonious though non-intention and non-attention.

It requires deep intention and attention to be able to overcome that programming and make a better choice. This is one of the main causes of disease according to Ayurveda: the failure of our intellect, or the inability to make harmonious decisions.

The buddhi is just an organ of the mind/spirit connection. It will only do what we train it to do.

Let’s say someone cuts you off in traffic, an example most of us can relate to.

At this point, information has come into your brain. Then the mind can process it and decide what it wants to do. In the moment, your fight/flight/freeze instincts take over and you get angry, scared, or panic. This is just your programming. You do what you are used to. But here, the buddhi has a choice: Does it choose to recognize that this is not the way, and decide to pursue a path of peace, calm, and grace? Or does it just ignore the enlightened path and go straight into old habits driven by the ego?

The more we train the buddhi through inaction, the more it feeds that ego. Only through proper action can we overwrite our samskaras and bridge ourselves with a higher level of existence, of truth.

Ayurveda says there are three main causes of disease: misuse of our senses, failure of our intellect (buddhi), and decay due to time and motion.

However, there is always a fundamental cause of disease that if truly addressed ends our suffering, and that is remembrance of our true nature, beyond our first two bodies.

So when placed in situations that cause you that suffering, you must ask yourself:

“What is my buddhi training? My ego, or my higher self?”

There is always a thread of personal responsibility to everything that causes us suffering in life, no matter how convinced we may make ourselves out to be as a victim. We must own our own role in our existence, and recognize that everyone is responsible for their own wounds. But we are not without help. Our buddhi is there to solidify who we are, so long as we are willing to go through paths like Ayurveda (the science of personal responsibility).

With gratitude,

S