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Since it is the holy month of Ramadan for 1 in 6 people in the world, my mind turns to the notion of self-denial. I myself am neither a muslim nor any other form of devotee to any doctrine that makes me believe I have to deny myself anything at any time. Perhaps the wise but detached ideas of the Buddha, Robert Pirsig and a number of unorthodox sufis, taoists and even jewish and christian 'fringe' spiritualists (like Jesus) do not require of you that you force yourself to be denied but let's not forget that circumstnaces sometimes force anyone and everyone to be denied.

Training yourself for it comes in two forms. You can practise, and that's all that Ramadan is for, and lent, and other similar things in just about every 'religion'. And you can get stuck in a situation where you have to fast. The so-called prophets and sages would trap themselves into it by wandering out into the desert so that 40 days or so would pass before they could eat some meat again. Nuts and berries got them through but in their deliriums they missed the point that spirituality does not enjoy having a material form and religion is not a desirable feature of anyone's struggle for enlightenment and tranquil sagacity.

I never denied myself but often have lived through periods of near total starvation - up to the point where I have had to get through lengthy periods with no more food than I know for a fact (by reading an account by Primo Levi) concentration camp prisoners had in their work day. Of course they lived in a prison-hell of death and I live in freedom. Similarly suffer Palestinians, many of whom often have even less than I do and many of whom always have about as little as I would have when my portions are comparable to the concentration camp dweller. However the Jews and Palestinians in those situations also had to fear death by nasty means all the time and live/lived in a psychological prison also.

And in these periods which were utter hell I first lost a lot of time - I lost my university degree - I could easily have been a double-first student and been encouraged to pursue further degree levels beyond my masters, but I recall spending far too many days living only on toast and potatoes. Weeks like that. And this meant that I, at the time, did not do my work properly, did not read properly, did not write properly, etc.

Then when I first started my business periods of starvation and occasional illness caused by low-level malnutrition did not block me from doing well but did ultimately

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