{"id":78348,"date":"2024-03-21T09:33:25","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T08:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.buchinger-wilhelmi.com\/fasten-und-meditation-ueber-die-transformative-kraft-der-stille\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T11:21:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:21:17","slug":"fasting-and-meditation-about-the-transformative-power-of-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.buchinger-wilhelmi.com\/en\/fasting-and-meditation-about-the-transformative-power-of-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"Fasting & Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]JESUIT PRIEST AND ZEN MASTER NIKLAUS BRANTSCHEN AT BUCHINGER WILHELMI<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”12px”]
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\n\t\tFasting and meditation: About the transformative power of silence\t<\/h2>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space height=”24px”][vc_column_text]Niklaus Brantschen is holding a week-long event on \u201cMeditating at Lent\u201d at Buchinger Wilhelmi in \u00dcberlingen. The focus is on the spiritual dimension of fasting, on finding peace of mind and reconnecting with ourselves in silence \u2013 an aspect that has grown in importance at our clinics over the last 30\u00a0years. Brantschen encourages us to be respectful of, but not to fear unfamiliar sensations that can occur during fasting as well as during meditation. Consciously shifting our focus from outer to inner nourishment helps us to find and cultivate silence within us, he says.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”24px”][vc_column_text]\n\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”64px”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

\u201cMeditating at Lent\u201d \u2013 Finding contemplation and reorientation<\/h3>\n

Pausing for a moment, reconnecting with ourselves and contemplating \u2013 these are things that many people long for in our hectic, noisy, overstimulating and crisis-ridden times. Practising Zen meditation can be a great help in our search for relaxation, tranquillity, inner peace, new sources of strength and the meaning and source of life.<\/p>\n

But what is Zen? A mysterious, Far Eastern tradition with strange rituals that are difficult to learn? No, says Niklaus Brantschen, Jesuit and Catholic priest, Zen master, fasting instructor and a friend of the family: Zen is not exotic, it is neither a mere technique nor an abstract system of teachings, but rather a path of quiet concentration and contemplation that leads inwards, from doing and wanting, to being, and finally turning outwards again, into a deeper relationship with our environment and our reason for being. For Zen master Brantschen, who has practised and taught Japanese Zen Buddhism for many years and is able to bring together the essence of Zen and the Christian spirituality of the West in a meaningful dialogue, the connection to fasting is obvious: Both support and reinforce each other and lead to greater mindfulness, self-awareness and sensitivity for one\u2019s own needs and those of others.
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The three dimensions of fasting from the perspective of Zen<\/h3>\n

Fasting is as three-dimensional as life itself, says Brantschen in an interview with Fran\u00e7oise Wilhelmi de Toledo. He talks about it as a relationship on three levels:<\/p>\n