Buddhism and fasting?

Just wondering how Buddhist culture sees fasting. I became a Buddhist a while ago, and I've always loved fasting periodically for health/discipline benefits. Does a Buddhist fast? If so, for what reasons? How long typically? Thanks for any tips

as i know there is no rule and law in Buddhism.
my suggestion, create your self the law of fasting.
or you may see Islamic fasting,oh i dint know you hate Islam. sorry.

-Faitth, Philloshophy, Teoryes And Inna Cos M?s..

Here is a link for fasting.
http://www.islamreligion.com/articles/47/

Purpose of fasting.
http://www.parvez-video.com/insight/Islam/Ramadan/index.asp

Fasting, like overeating is an extreme. I would like to avoid both.

I only know of the Sejong fasting. This is voluntary among laypeople (don't know about ordained), and consists of one meal before sunrise, one meal at noon, and nothing else until the next day when regular eating is resumed. The Sejong meals have no animal products in them.

I haven't paid much attention to it, except to note that there are exemptions for those who have physical difficulties with partial fasting. I also know that some of our older Buddhists have had to stop this partial fasting, due to diabetic conditions or the fasting causing cardiac arrhythmia's. These things happen increasingly as we age.

Before he became enlightened, Siddhatta Gotama practiced extreme fasting as an ascetic for six years and became so emaciated he nearly died. There are many evocative sculptures depicting this period in Lord Buddha's life, with his spine 'visible like knotted rope'. However, he didn't get enlightened, he just got weaker. Realising that a weak body could not do the work of freeing the mind, he abandoned the practice of fasting.

So the Buddha taught the Middle Way, which is the avoidance of both the extreme of sensual indulgence and the extreme of harsh austerities. If the body is over-indulged, it becomes slothful and attached to pleasure. If it is continually deprived, it grows weak and sick.

What exactly is meant by practicing the Middle Way depends on a person's dominant shortcomings. If a person is too attached to food, it will mean eating less food. If a person is too attached to starving their body to the detriment of their mental and physical health, it will mean eating more. Seeming there are very few people who desire to eat too little, for most of us, practicing Buddha's teachings will mean reducing our desire for sensual pleasure, including food.

That is why monks and nuns only eat before midday, and the time between when the sun reaches its zenith and dawn the next day is a time of fasting for them. They may eat one or two meals before noon. Lay people are also encouraged to keep this practice approximately four times a month, on the lunar observance days, which are called 'upset'. (The following link has a calendar). http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sila/uposatha2010.html

This type of fasting is widely preferred by Buddhists, because it combats the clinging to food without causing stress on the body for healthy individuals (although it may be inadvisable for those with diabetes or sensitivity to changes in blood sugar levels, the pregnant, the ill, children and the elderly etc.) It's permitted to take sweetened non-milk drinks, filtered fruit-juice etc. while fasting to avoid the unpleasant effects of a sugar-low.

Some particularly zealous individuals, finding that fasting suits their characters, do fast for longer time periods, between a few days and a few weeks (with liquid food or supplements -or by eating pine needles, in the case of a famous Korean monk!). I know of many monks who swear it improves their meditation and makes their minds very clear. This is particularly common among the monks of the Thai Forest tradition.

If you would like to read more about the experiences of monks who keep mild ascetic practices, such as fasting, you should read 'Patipada' and the other texts available on line at: http://www.forestdhammabooks.com