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Beer Fast ~ Day 13

Posted by on May 21, 2012 in Art Monastery Italia, Blog, Process | 7 Comments
Beer Fast ~ Day 13

[Fasts have long been a part of contemplative tradition. Monastics abstain from food to achieve greater clarity, embodiment, and spiritual vision. They change your physical reality, which in turn affects your emotional and spiritual realities. Indeed, the whole reason we do them is to bring about personal transformation. This series of blog posts—”Beer Fast”—documents the experiences of a pair of Artmonks as they undergo one western monastic fasting practice: consuming nothing but beer and water. With that in mind, these entries are raw, containing a higher-than-usual dose of intimate reflections.]

Again last night, I dreamt I broke the fast. Not so many specific details made it back with me past the consciousness checkpoint, but the gist is there. I might be ready for food. Disappointingly (but understandably) I’ve learned that the stepping out process should actually be longer than the stepping down was — that I should have just juices for the first day or two, and just fruit + juices + miso soup for the next few days, then introducing raw vegetables. Definitely no fats for at least 7 days. Luckily the big thing I’ve been craving is applesauce. Aunt Sara’s homemade chunky applesauce with cinnamon. Huh. Of all the things to crave.

This morning after sitting, I enjoyed a really 100% perfect hot bath, while watching the iTunesU free download of Shelly Kagan’s Philosophy of Death class from Yale. The name of that lecture was “Arguments for the existence of a soul.”

Then getting dressed and listening to the other folks in the house begin to stir a point came to me with total clarity. Everybody’s got their shit. Everyone. It’s easier to see in some people than other’s. The question is never, does that person have it 100% figured out. Nobody does. The question is more, does that person know what their shit is? And even worse: Do I know what my shit is? Even if I think I know, am I right? Would my friends tell me? Would my family? Would my therapist? If any and all of those people deliver that information all the time, can I hear it?

 

7 Comments

  1. Nathan
    May 21, 2012

    Omg that class looks amazing and soooo Vigilsy!

  2. Betsy
    May 21, 2012

    It *is*! I just downloaded the lecture “How to live given the certainty of death”! Can you believe there’s a lecture called that? The very question that our show this summer poses is: How can I live when I know I will die? (It’s so gorgeous in Italian: Come posso vivere quando so che morirò?) You’ve seen the video, yes? https://www.artmonastery.org/ad-mortem

    • Nathan
      May 21, 2012

      Yes! You guys rock.

      I’m gonna add Keaney’s whole class to the resources page… in the new section for Vigils and the Monastic Cycle.

      • Betsy
        May 22, 2012

        Better listen to some of it first! He’s crazy! He operates on such an intellectual level that he argues fear of death is absurd. You know what he offers as a more reasonable response to the inevitability of death? Gratitude!

        The example he gives is that someone gave you an ice cream cone. You’re in the process of enjoying it and then you realize the cone only has so many scoops. You say, “I’m afraid that this ice cream cone will end. I’m afraid I might not get another cone after this!” He offers, instead, that the most appropriate response to death is to live in gratitude for the lives (and the ice cream cones) that we’ve got. Right now. Right here.

      • Betsy
        May 22, 2012

        Julia, that is so beautiful. The big question I always come to is: how? How does one get comfy with death? And Hirst offers an answer. Apparently in ancient Rome the nobility used to hire people to cry and publicly mourn for them because it was inappropriate for them to do it themselves. Fascinating!

  3. Julia
    May 21, 2012

    They say it’s the best way to enjoy life is get comfy with death…I was just reading an article about Damien Hirst’s diamond skull and the interesting thing that stuck with me is the idea that decorating something is a way to come to terms with it…I thought of the Cripta dei Cappuccini (bone sculptures etc) in Rome or the way people used to dress their own dead people instead of farming it out. There’s something in that…

  4. testman
    May 21, 2012

    Test comment

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