After reading http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/new ... a-20130606 from the Rolling Stone magazine about a Tibetan Buddhist cult in which a member died from severe dehydration, I've become concerned and confused. This organization (Diamond Mountain) is not traditionally Buddhist, and yet the Buddha himself fasted for many days on end, nearly to the point of death. Is this practice encouraged by the Buddha? I know that fasting is, but even in pursuit of enlightenment, hurting oneself to the point of disrepair seems almost irresponsible. Thoughts?
sabbe dhammā nālaṃ abhinivesāyā’ti
"All phenomena are unworthy of attachment"
SN 7.58
It was actually an ascetic practice rejected by the Buddha as not conducive to the path.
Anyone who thinks that extreme fasting and Buddhism are compatible are mistaken.
kind regards,
Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
Someone ought to send a correction the journalist who wrote the piece.
"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:
'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta
In MN 25 ( http://palicanon.org/index.php/sutta-pi ... a-the-bait ), the Buddha gave a great simile to taught us the "middle way" which avoids both extremes of indulgence in sensual pleasures and extreme austerites..
I think that the term fasting can be applied to the Buddhas promoting of abstaining from food after noon.....but of course this is not at all what is being discussed.......but on the other hand it can be said that the Buddha did suggest that fasting is beneficial given an expanded meaning for fasting.
chownah
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725
cult in which a member died from severe dehydration, I've become concerned and confused. This organization (Diamond Mountain) is not traditionally Buddhist, and yet the Buddha himself fasted for many days on end, nearly to the point of death. Is this practice encouraged by the Buddha? I know that fasting is, but even in pursuit of enlightenment, hurting oneself to the point of disrepair seems almost irresponsible. Thoughts? 
