Journey to Light

There is a popular song from the 1980’s by a band called The Flying Lizards. It was a very catchy tune, and quite fun (if you were in that mindset at the time). The song opens with these lyrics: “The best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds and bees. I want money. That's what I want…”. That song captures the essence of this world we live in: 1) we cannot legally get any material thing without buying it through an exchange for money, and 2) we determine our happiness, success, and sense of fulfilment from the material wealth we accumulate – the more money we have the happier we are. In our world, money is the ultimate goal. So, of course the song by the Flying Lizards is an anthem for humanity. We are brainwashed into unconsciously believing that if we do not work to earn money, we are lazy “slackers” with no direction or ambition in life. Here’s the thing: we can have direction and ambition – we can even work very hard for something we believe in – but if it...

From a health and wellbeing perspective fasting is the process of occasionally abstaining from foods (and certain fluids) for a specified time – usually 12 to 24 hours, and repeating that on a regular cycle, like once per week. The reason for doing this is, typically, to lose body mass in order to bring our weight into a healthy range. Sometimes it can also be to wean ourselves off certain foods (like cream cakes) or fluids (such as alcohol) so that we can restore healthy bodily function (e.g. reduce fatty liver). Fasting is done for physical wellbeing reasons – to maintain a strong and heatlhy body. So, when Jesus Christ instructed us (in the Gospel of Thomas) to “fast from this world”, what was he saying? Let’s relate it back to fasting from foods and fluids. There are certain substances that are not healthy for us if we consume them in excess – that is, we take them too often and in too large a quantity. If we continue consuming those substances they bring us various types of diseas...