Breatharian

A place to discuss health and fitness, healthy diets. A fit body makes for a fit mind.
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mario92
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Breatharian

Post by mario92 »

Hello all, What is your opinion in being a breatharian? is it possible to live without food? Would you end like anorexic? Are these people telling the truth? There are many youtube videos. Thank you.

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Ceisiwr
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Re: Breatharian

Post by Ceisiwr »

You will die. The Buddha tried going without food and it nearly killed him.
“Knowing that this body is just like foam,
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
Mr. Seek
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Re: Breatharian

Post by Mr. Seek »

A lot of things are possible in this world. Wouldn't discount or exclude anything from being possible.

The arguement about Buddha this or Buddha that is irrelevant IMO. Fact is, everyone's different. Also, everything is in constant change. Your neighbour could be a deva, living off of light, and you wouldn't even know about it. Your boss could be a succubus, sucking energy off of others to feed herself. Anything's possible. What, you think humans are not used the same way they themselves use animals? If you're determined, you can do a lot of things.
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Sam Vara
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Re: Breatharian

Post by Sam Vara »

On my first Goenka Vipassana retreat, I was billeted with someone who claimed to be a breatharian. He told me that he was secretly maintaining his fast, and was hiding it from the instructors there as they don't like you mixing techniques. He absented himself from meals, or - to allay suspicions as he explained later - he turned up and just played with the food on his plate, and then tipped it away. It's possible of course that he had some other hidden stash (but why??!) but overall I shared a room with him for 10 days and he genuinely seemed to eat nothing.

He explained the theory behind it at the end of the retreat. He was thin, but not excessively so, and had rather deep-set and dry-looking eyes, which was the only odd-looking thing about him.

I've fasted for a week, so ten days wouldn't be all that different.
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mario92
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Re: Breatharian

Post by mario92 »

Thanks for the answers :anjali:
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Lucas Oliveira
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Re: Breatharian

Post by Lucas Oliveira »

Why did the Buddha choose not to live of Light?
"Devas, on seeing me, said, 'Gotama the contemplative is dead.' Other devas said, 'He isn't dead, he's dying.' Others said, 'He's neither dead nor dying, he's an arahant, for this is the way arahants live.'

"I thought: 'Suppose I were to practice going altogether without food.' Then devas came to me and said, 'Dear sir, please don't practice going altogether without food. If you go altogether without food, we'll infuse divine nourishment in through your pores, and you will survive on that.' I thought, 'If I were to claim to be completely fasting while these devas are infusing divine nourishment in through my pores, I would be lying.' So I dismissed them, saying, 'Enough.'

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .than.html
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=28736

:namaste:
I participate in this forum using Google Translator. http://translate.google.com.br

http://www.acessoaoinsight.net/
dharmacorps
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Re: Breatharian

Post by dharmacorps »

It is possible for people to go without food for some period of time.

Here's the key question I have: So what?

It has nothing to do with putting an end to suffering. Its just an interesting byproduct of concentration or meditation in general. It is not an attainment, it does not imply wisdom. In fact more often than not, its delusion or confusion.
denise
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Re: Breatharian

Post by denise »

be careful that
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mario92
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Re: Breatharian

Post by mario92 »

denise wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 11:03 pm be careful that
Thank you :anjali:
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DNS
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Re: Breatharian

Post by DNS »

Ceisiwr wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 5:03 pm You will die. The Buddha tried going without food and it nearly killed him.
I agree. All of the breatharian claimants are fake. They hide and eat when no one is looking.

A person could go about 10 to even 30 days without food, especially if they are still drinking water and not too active, but permanently for longer than that, they surely would die. Cesar Chavez regularly fasted for long periods of over 10 or even 20 days, sometimes for spiritual reasons, sometimes as part of a hunger strike. It damaged his organs and he didn't live too long as a result (passed away at age 66).
SarathW
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Re: Breatharian

Post by SarathW »

DNS wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 3:26 am
Ceisiwr wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 5:03 pm You will die. The Buddha tried going without food and it nearly killed him.
I agree. All of the breatharian claimants are fake. They hide and eat when no one is looking.

A person could go about 10 to even 30 days without food, especially if they are still drinking water and not too active, but permanently for longer than that, they surely would die. Cesar Chavez regularly fasted for long periods of over 10 or even 20 days, sometimes for spiritual reasons, sometimes as part of a hunger strike. It damaged his organs and he didn't live too long as a result (passed away at age 66).
I can recall a story like a breatharian in Buddha's time.
As per the story that people found they eat human excrement in the forest at night.
:shrug:
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Ceisiwr
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Re: Breatharian

Post by Ceisiwr »

DNS wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 3:26 am
Ceisiwr wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 5:03 pm You will die. The Buddha tried going without food and it nearly killed him.
I agree. All of the breatharian claimants are fake. They hide and eat when no one is looking.

A person could go about 10 to even 30 days without food, especially if they are still drinking water and not too active, but permanently for longer than that, they surely would die. Cesar Chavez regularly fasted for long periods of over 10 or even 20 days, sometimes for spiritual reasons, sometimes as part of a hunger strike. It damaged his organs and he didn't live too long as a result (passed away at age 66).
Exactly. The body is a biological machine, and like all machines it needs energy. This shouldn’t need saying really.
“Knowing that this body is just like foam,
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
Mr. Seek
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Re: Breatharian

Post by Mr. Seek »

Ceisiwr wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 9:36 am
DNS wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 3:26 am
Ceisiwr wrote: Fri Sep 17, 2021 5:03 pm You will die. The Buddha tried going without food and it nearly killed him.
I agree. All of the breatharian claimants are fake. They hide and eat when no one is looking.

A person could go about 10 to even 30 days without food, especially if they are still drinking water and not too active, but permanently for longer than that, they surely would die. Cesar Chavez regularly fasted for long periods of over 10 or even 20 days, sometimes for spiritual reasons, sometimes as part of a hunger strike. It damaged his organs and he didn't live too long as a result (passed away at age 66).
Exactly. The body is a biological machine, and like all machines it needs energy. This shouldn’t need saying really.
I mean, you said it yourself. It needs energy. So... just get it from an alternative source, simple. There's divine nourishment, there's all sorts of sources, from gross to fine, just like you can pick between different diets.

How do people in fourth jhana not breathe or have a heart rate then, according to some sources?

Hey, it's OK though. If you want to live in X kind of reality, then be my guest. I personally don't exclude any possibilities

Just because, maybe, the Earth was flat 2000 years ago, doesn't mean it can't turn round overnight, and then again flat some thousand years later; and then turn into the shape of an ice cream cone or whatever. A lot of things are possible. If you exclude something though, as being not possible, then you're just limiting yourself, putting boundaries, binding yourself to beliefs and conclusions, binding yourself and those around you. The path we're on is about the very opposite. You're just clinging to a set of beliefs, craving for certainty, thus establishing yourself firmly--firmly--in samsara, and suffering.

Maybe 2000 years from now people at large will consume a finer form of food; or each other. Look at just how different our lives are compared to those of people 2000 years ago.

In Buddhist cosmology, different devas feed on different things, from just elixers alone to metta or whatever. And, as time goes, the world and its inhabitants can evolve, devolve, etc. Consider how lower forms of life feed on even grosser foods than we do, like insects, live birds or game, excrement, etc.

If you think it's impoosible to survive without food, chances are, you'll never survive without food. If you want to escape the limits of reality, yet cling to those very same limits, how do you expect anything to work out for you?

There's stories from almost every spiritual system on Earth about such 'miracles', and more, like corpses that don't decay, or ones that vanish into fairy dust at the moment of death.

As Gotama said to Nanda in Snp 5.7: Those here who have abandoned what is seen, heard, and sensed--habits and practices--all--who have abandoned their manifold ways--again, all--who, comprehending craving, are effluent-free, they are the ones I say who have crossed over the flood.

Possible and impossible are like existence and non-existence, becoming and non-becoming. Cling to either and you get what you were asking for.

Not addressing anyone personally, just addressing the opinions that were shared.
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Ceisiwr
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Re: Breatharian

Post by Ceisiwr »

Mr. Seek wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 9:51 am ...
In order for there to be ATP synthesis you require fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Without those your body will die. We aren't plants. We aren't devas. We are apes, and apes have a certain nutritional requirement that must be maintained in order to live. It's not clinging to views to understand this basic fact of life. Even the Buddha had to eat, because he had a human body. The "escape" from reality is simply understanding it. It's epistemological, not ontological. If people follow this nonsense then they will die, just like if they choose medical woo like homeopathy or the like over medical science when it comes to treating their aggressive cancer.
“Knowing that this body is just like foam,
understanding it has the nature of a mirage,
cutting off Māra’s flower-tipped arrows,
one should go beyond the King of Death’s sight.”
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Sabbe_Dhamma_Anatta
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Re: Breatharian

Post by Sabbe_Dhamma_Anatta »

Mr. Seek wrote: Sat Sep 18, 2021 9:51 am ...
How do people in fourth jhana not breathe or have a heart rate then, according to some sources?
...
Then these sources are wrong.
Claims of human heart not pumping during whatever jhana must be plainly wrong.

Even long term naturally hibernating animals have heart beats (& breathing too), tho' much slower.
𝓑𝓾𝓭𝓭𝓱𝓪 𝓗𝓪𝓭 𝓤𝓷𝓮𝓺𝓾𝓲𝓿𝓸𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓓𝓮𝓬𝓵𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽
  • Iᴅᴇᴀ ᴏꜰ Sᴏᴜʟ ɪs Oᴜᴛᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴀɴ Uᴛᴛᴇʀʟʏ Fᴏᴏʟɪsʜ Vɪᴇᴡ
    V. Nanananda

𝓐𝓷𝓪𝓽𝓽ā 𝓜𝓮𝓪𝓷𝓼 𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓘𝓼
  • Nᴏ sᴜᴄʜ ᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴀs ᴀ Sᴇʟғ, Sᴏᴜʟ, Eɢᴏ, Sᴘɪʀɪᴛ, ᴏʀ Āᴛᴍᴀɴ
    V. Buddhādasa
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