辟谷
Abstention from Grains (part 4)
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（一）饥饿疗法
(1) The Starvation Healing Method
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Abstention from Grains contains three forms of fasting. Firstly, there is the so-called Starvation Healing Method; secondly, the Substitution of Grains; and thirdly, the Entering of the Cave and Seclusion. In society, only the Starvation Healing Method and the Substitution of Grains can be successfully applied and practised. The information from this article all stems from oral transmissions by Li Shi Fu (fiveimmortals.com).
The Starvation Healing Method is simply not eating any foods. When you are hungry and you do not drink water, the generated poisons in your body are all expelled. The Starvation Healing Method [ji e liao fa 饥饿疗法] refers to not eating for three days, precisely without eating and without drinking. If you go further than that, it is trouble, as you feel uncomfortable and you want to eat. When you skip one meal, the inside is calling, desirign to eat, since you formed the habit over so many years. The beginning is called Starvation Healing Method. If you cannot fast for three days, just fast for one day. If you cannot fast for one day, skip one meal. It is a step-by-step procedure and slowly you will reap the benefits of the Abstention from Grains experience. In order to fast seven, nine or dozens of days you need another channel; that is the second kind of fasting discussed here.
The key point is how one sets one’s objective and aim. Fasting is a requirement for expelling diseases. For longevity purposes it clears the intestines and expels poison. There are different sets of requirements for the refinement of the Elixir, the cultivation of the Dao and Internal Alchemy. The goal is different, thus the requirements are different. The person is different, thus the methods are different. For the Substitution of Grains, in China in the past they used pills of medicines with a tonifying nature, which are strengthening the body. The medicines are then pulverized into honey pills and three pills are consumed every day for three days. A lot of assistance was implemented and orchestrated on that level. Another method would apply the ingestion of red dates, only dates, namely seven dates every day, not a bite more. They would be referred to as Power Dates or Strength Dates.
The Substitution of Grains is just an experience and not long-lasting, as you would stop after three to four days. It takes two to two and a half days for the comprehensive body and endocrine system’s regulation, as it entirely opens and the past’s old hidden issues would surface. Some people will manifest new problems, which are all positive changes and transformations. In this situation the place where the problem manifests can subsequently be regulated. People react differently to fasting. Some people are worried, but are not hungry for seven days. Some people the hungrier they get the lighter they feel and the more power and vigour and vitality [jing shen 精神] they have. Some are in trouble, not on the physical level, but due to desires, and get angry, when they see others eat, since food desires arise for delicious fruits, but those could be used on the Substitution for Grains, the second type of fasting. At the hardest time during a fast, when you feel the most hungry, give your body a little bit of food. For example put one date in your mouth, chew it for one hour, and little by little swallow it down. It is not truly taking fruit to resolve hunger.
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