Humans have, over time, realized that spiritual hunger can be fed by purifiying the body by fasting and meditating.
The Master Cleanse is a good way to achieve spiritual purification, especially when you are able to fast for longer periods of time. I found that once the digestive system has been quieted and my cravings had subsided, that my interests in loftier thoughts took up the room thinking about food had previously been. I consider myself a spiritual person already, but the Master Cleanse gave me an opportunity to develop a spiritual relationship between fasting and making food choices. I desired to shift my food choices to those which would help me feel connected to myself rather than shutting those feelings off by numbing or drugging myself with food.
Many cultures and religions also fast to achieve a connection to God or their Higher Source by restricting other aspects of their life. The Master Cleanse helps us achieve this goal AND to improve the quality of our health at the same time.
Below is an article on Spiritual Purification which offers a simple meditation to help enhance your spiritual connection and can also help relieve stress when those time come during the Master Cleanse when you feel like you are at the end of your rope. Meditation can be done anywhere, anytime. The goal is to pull your senses in
and to focus on the breath....
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Spiritual Purification
Spirituality and fasting have been linked together throughout the ages. Spiritual seekers have gone without food and practiced meditation and other disciplines in an attempt to come to a clearer understanding of life's purpose. By freeing the ties to the physical, the mind is able to turn to higher pursuits, and experience some of its own deeper mysteries.
Also, a multitude of scientific studies have linked our mental state with overall health. Toxic thoughts like anger, fear and worry create toxins inside our body and have been shown to increase our risk of all sorts of illness. There is an inseparable connection between mind and body. A good positive mental state is probably the best medicine we can use.
Spiritually, the body is the outer expression and instrument of a profound and vast reality - spanning physical, vital, mental, psychic and spiritual realms. The Master Cleanse can be a means of spiritual renewal and self-discovery. For those interested in exploring this facet of cleansing we recommend the practice of meditation as a pathway to deeper awareness.
A Simple Exercise
As the body is cleansed and purified, so it seems our thoughts become clearer, our minds less confused and distracted. Many feel a sense of new life, free of worries, fears and anxieties. Here is a simple concentration/meditation exercise to practice in conjunction with the Master Cleanse.
1. Set aside ten minutes per day, preferably early in the morning before you enter into your daily routine.
2. Choose a place where you can sit alone peacefully, perhaps a corner of your room which is kept clean. It is helpful to set up a small sacred space, a place with flowers and/or a candle. Play some peaceful, meditative music and light some incense. Alternatively, select a peaceful spot outside amidst nature.
3. Sit comfortably either in a chair or on a cushion with your spine erect to keep you alert.
4. Try to focus your attention on your breath. Focusing on each inhalation and exhalation. As you breath in feel that you are breathing in a feeling of peace and calm and as you exhale feel that you are releasing any feelings of tension or anxiety and that you are allowing the peaceful feeling to spread throughout your body. Finally, try to allow your breath to become very calm and quiet, imagining that if someone placed a feather in front of your nose that it would hardly move.
5. To focus your mind, breathe in as you slowly count to five, hold for two counts and then exhale again for five counts. This must be comfortable without straining your lungs. Try to make the counting absolutely regular, rhythmical. Feel that nothing else exists in the world apart from your breathing and counting. This is the only task that matters. If other distracting thoughts enter your mind try to let them go and return your focus to your breath.
6. After a few minutes of counting, feel that what you are breathing in is not air but solid peace. Imagine that this peace enters directly into the depths of your heart. From there it flows outward, permeating your heart, mind, emotions and physical body.
7. In the same way you can breath in any quality you need: patience, love, power, tolerance, joy. During the course of the Master Cleanse practice breathing in the feeling of purity. Observe purity flowing from your heart, through your body, through your mind and your emotions. Consciously imagine you are breathing out all the toxins and waste from your system and that they are being replaced with vibrant energy, enthusiasm and joy.
8. When finishing your meditation practice, gradually return your awareness to your surroundings.
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"Meditation is like going to the bottom of the sea, where everything is calm and tranquil. On the surface there may be a multiple of waves, but the sea is all silence. When we start meditating, first we try to reach our own inner existence, our true existence - that is to say, the bottom of the sea. Then, when the waves come from the outside world, we are not affected. Fear, doubt, worry and all the earthly will just wash away, because inside us is solid peace. Thoughts cannot trouble us, because our mind is all peace, all silence, all oneness. Like fish in the sea, they jump and swim but leave no mark. So when we are in our highest meditation we feel that we are the sea, and the animals in the sea cannot affect us. We feel that we are the sky, and all the birds flying past cannot affect us. Our mind is the sky and our heart is the infinite sea. This is meditation."
- Sri Chinmoy
http://www.srichinmoy.org
Simple daily exercise is also a great part of the spiritual side of cleansing. Cardiovascular exercise can be like a meditation when we try to keep our mind focused on our breath or in the experience of the exercise. Try not to allow your thoughts to focus on the past or on the future. Try to keep it still and focused on the exercise, your breath, or if you are in nature, on the beauty of the surrounding nature.
Some other interesting links on Spirituality and fasting
All Religions
http://www.beliefnet.com/features/fasting_chart.html
Christians
http://ma.essortment.com/biblefasting_riif.htm
Muslims
http://fasting.xaper.com/
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article source: http://www.neerasupercleanse.com/spiritual.htm
be happy, be well,
Zoe