Originally posted by @wolfgang59Yes.
Wisdom is building on the past and not re-living it,
Guatama Buddha spent 6 years practising ascetics (fasting and doing hardcore ego-negating practices like yoga and weird postures, perhaps self-flagellation) , until some women found him almost dead and fed him. It was at this point he realized the "middle-way" and spent a night meditating under a bodi tree to reach enlightenment.
He later said that such extreme "yoga" was just"animal mastery" and did not answer his prime question in life . ( "Why do beings suffer and how to stop it" )
So we dont have to spend 6 years fasting ...
Just one example 🙂