Its bindings that come in the way

“By not eating, you gather the impressions of ‘not eating’. Doing or not doing anything— whether sleeping, staying awake or even breathing—creates impressions on your mind. Therefore you may fast indefinitely, hang yourself upside down or knock out your brains on a slab of stone, and yet not free your mind of its impressions

“Why then should you necessarily give up eating, drinking, doing your duty to your wife and children and looking after the welfare of others? Such duties do not obstruct your way to the path at all.

What do come in your way are the bindings which you create unnecessarily for yourself through attachment to the objects connected with those duties. You can own the world without being attached to it so long as you do not allow yourself to be owned by any part of it.”

-Listen Humanity, p42