The goal of fasting is inner unity.
Interpretation
Fasting aims to achieve a sense of oneness within oneself.
Thomas Merton's quote highlights the purpose of fasting as a practice that goes beyond mere abstention from food; it is about achieving a state of inner harmony and unity. This process allows individuals to reflect on their lives, reconnect with their inner selves, and foster a deeper sense of spiritual or personal coherence.
In practice
In a speech about mindfulness, one might say, 'As Thomas Merton stated, 'The goal of fasting is inner unity,' emphasizing the importance of spiritual practices in achieving inner peace.
The devil is no fool. He can get people feeling about heaven the way they ought to feel about hell. He can make them fear the means of grace the way they do not fear sin. And he does so, not by light but by obscurity, not by realities but by shadows; not by clarity and substance, but by dreams and the creatures of psychosis. And men are so poor in intellect that a few cold chills down their spine will be enough to keep them from ever finding out the truth about anything.
Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny....To work out our identity in God.
Conscience is the light by which we interpret the will of God in our own lives.
You are made in the image of what you desire.
But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.
I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.
Though leaves are many, the root is one; Through all the lying days of my youth I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun Now I may wither into the truth.
Meditation... dissolves the mind. It erases itself. Throws the ego out on its big brittle ass.
Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.
How rare it is to find a soul quiet enough to hear God speak.
They're animals, all right. But why are you so goddam sure that makes us human beings?
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