Rumi on Fasting

There’s hidden sweetness in the stomh’s emptiness.
We are lutes, no more, no less.
If the soundbox is stuffed full of anything, no music.
If the brain and the belly are burning clean with fasting,
every moment a new song comes out of the fire.
The fog clears, and new energy
makes you run up the steps in front of you.
Be emptier and cry like reed instruments cry.
Emptier, write secrets with the reed pen.
When you’re full of food and drink
an ugly metal statue sits where your spirit should.
When you fast, good habits gather
like friends who want to help.
Fasting is Solomon’s ring. Don’t give it
to some illusion and lose your power.
But even if you have, if you’ve lost all will and control,
they come back when you fast,
like soldiers appearing our of the ground,
pennants flying above them.
A table descends to your tents,
Jesus’ table.
Expect to see it when you fast, this table
spread with food, better than the broth of cabbages.

-Rumi, Enlightened Sufi Scholar and Teacher
1207-1273