FASTING
Fast from thoughts, fast:
thoughts are like the lion and the wild ass;
men’s hearts are the thickets they haunt.
Fasting is the first principle of health;
restraint is superior to medication;
scratching only aggravates the itch.
Fast, and behold the strength of the spirit.
MATHNAWI I, 2909–11
Rumi starts by comparing thoughts to wild animals roaming around; some can be fierce and dangerous — like a lion; while others are stubborn and scattered like donkeys.
So why fast from thoughts? Alan Watts has a great answer to this: “A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So, he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusions.”
That thoughts are only thoughts is a fact so simple and obvious that it is easy to forget. It is what they visit that ultimately matters — the heart. When we forget, we are trying to eat the menu rather than the actual dish.
To make matters worse, over thinking is similar to scratching an itch: it only makes things harder. It is only when the water is calm, that we see the bottom. When it tirelessly moves around we see but distortions.
Thus the wise fast, so that they may listen to the heart thru clear water.
Very nice quote. Which translation of Rumi are you using?