From Fasting Saints to Anorexic Girls: The History of Self-Starvation is an intense history of eating disorders, patterns of the illness, and examples of how society has viewed food denial in different ways. The book covers the saints who abstained from food, Victorian hysterics, and tragic cases like the Welsh Fasting Girl. Men are covered […]
3 Bowls: Vegetarian Recipes from an American Zen Buddhist Monastery
Both a cookbook and an introduction to the practice of American Zen Buddhism, Three Bowls is a distinctive collection of vegetarian recipes from Seppo Ed Farrey, the tenzo (chef) of the Dai Bosatsu Zendo, a traditional Zen Buddhist monastery in New York State. Perhaps no Eastern religion is considered more chic and intellectually sophisticated in […]
Buddha’s Fasting Experience
Buddha spoke highly of fasting and said that during his fasts, “My soul becomes brighter, my spirit, more alive in wisdom and truth.” Buddha’s fasting experience played a central role in formation of Buddhism. Around 500 B.C.E., Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) left his affluent family in search of enlightenment. Siddhartha believed that desire was the root […]
Fasting: An Exceptional Human Experience
In honor of the release of my new book, Fasting: An Exceptional Human Experience, I will be posting blogs that are excerpts from the book. As a psychotherapist, I often talk with people who have sacrificed self-care in lieu of other activities, usually work related. Many of them have either abandoned a spiritual practice or […]