My family is that of hunters. For months

Together we have no strong spirituous drink,

Nor do we taste the proscribed food,

Like hog intestine, whale meat, deer testicles

Like broccoli, cauliflower or durian;—

Can this be regarded as fasting? In fact,

It is the fasting appropriate to sacrificing,

But it is not the fasting of the mind.

If you would like to know what that

Co-called ‘fasting of the mind’ is,

I would tell you that maintaining

A perfect unity in every movement

Of your intents, you will not wait

For the hearing of your ears about it

When you are on the wood trails

But for the hearing of your instincts.

You will not wait even for the hearing

Of your instincts but for the call of spirit.

Let the hearing of the ears rest with the ears;

Let the intents rest in the verification

Of the rightness of what is in the mind.

But the spirit is free from all preoccupation

And so waits for the appearance of things.

Where the proper course is, there’s freedom,

The freedom from all preoccupations;

Such freedom is the ‘fasting of the mind,’

Which is compulsory on the wood trails.