From my BLOG

[ojai22]

This is an article that I wrote for my blog. I'm posting it here as it says it all:


Finally - Wholly - MACROBIOTICS May 19, 2008
Filed under: Wellness — ojai22 @ 6:27 am
Tags: Add new tag, macrobiotics, vegetarianism, brown rice, chemical sensitivity, Guidance

UPDATE: July 10, 2008 [at bottom of article]

UPDATE: July 1, 2008 [at bottom of article]

UPDATE: June 21, 2008 [at bottom of article]

UPDATE: June 6, 2008 [at bottom of article]

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“If you’re so healthy, why are you chemically sensitive?”?”

It was a question I had no answer for as I had asked it of myself everyday. I had stopped eating meat except fresh water fish once or twice a year, then no meat at all. I made my diet of veggies and grains and one day found I had healed myself of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It was gone before I had found a name for it.

In the next phase I stopped drinking tap water because of the chemicals. They kept popping up everywhere in almost everything I ate or used, so I began to look for organic food. I found sources for healthy products from tooth cleaner to foot cream.

As time passed the movement back to good health began to pick up momentum which resulted in more and better health products. The mainstream products added more chemicals and became impossible to use.

So I finally had good organic food, mountain spring water, good quality personal care products to use, but somewhere along the way I become chemically sensitive. As I look back on the journey I can see I have moved steadily, but slowly, in one direction. The move toward complete Macrobiotics, instead of living around it’s edges.

I hadn’t eaten enough brown rice, didn’t even know it’s true value. The only book I had read about macrobiotics was The Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy by Dirk Benedict which I’d had since the early 90’s. Suddenly I wanted to know more about how to eat properly. That’s when I saw that this had been a very slow journey with eating properly as the goal. Everything in my life has unfolded slowly. This was no exception.

I had Aveline Kushi’s Complete Guide to Macrobiotic Cooking. Got it out again to find some recipes.Then I re-read Kamikaze Cowboy. I’m always amazed at the info in KC. It tells the story of one man’s journey from dis-ease to good health. How he cured himself of prostate cancer using the simple, nourishing diet of Macrobiotics. This little book was first published in 1987 and is still going strong. A must read.

Finally the books I had ordered from Amazon.com arrived. “You are all Sanpaku” by George Ohsawa which knocked down doors and opened an entirely new way of thinking. This book should be required reading for everyone who knows how to read. “Swanson on Swanson,” as macrobiotics was a way of life for her. “The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health” by Michio Kushi and Alex Jack. What I learned about Water alone sent my senses reeling!

I love many fruits and veggies that are a no-no on a macrobiotic diet for the temperate zone in which I live, especially when you’re just beginning to be wholly macrobiotic . Which is the reason I skirted the real thing for so long. I went to the WholeFood Market and loaded up on brown rice. A few fresh, organic veggies, like carrots, cabbage, butternut squash, scallions, also miso and mustard greens. Adzuki beans, black beans, lentils. I ate mostly rice with a small amount of veggies. It was very filling. Didn’t even want sugar anymore.

Since I was used to eating more veggies than grains, I had to cut back on the veggies. Had to, I was eating too much. I hadn’t realized that. My food intake must have equaled a railroad worker’s. With brown rice, I needed a lot less food. And I didn’t count when I chewed - just chewed till it was liquid.

In a few days I was sleeping all night, with a feeling of well-being during the day. Had more energy. I could even see my thought processes change. Little things I had held onto began to fall away as unimportant. I’m building a website and was overwhelmed by all that I needed to learn. Several days after starting the Macrobiotic diet I noticed a difference - when I saw something that needed to be done, whether it was physical or mental, I just did it, then moved on to the next chore.

Then I awakened one morning with new thoughts on this ‘chemical sensitivity.’ It had seemed to increase over the years, as I continually decreased the use of chemicals. I remembered a question a chiropractor asked me once: If two people go out to dinner, one of them is health-conscious, the other just lives a regular life, one of them will get sick. Which one? At the time I didn’t know, so he told me the answer - the healthy person will get sick because of all the toxins in the restaurant food. The toxins won’t bother the other person, he’s used to them.

I began to see that I may have been looking at this thing only from the outside. From the inside my body is healthy; no toxins in my system. If I inadvertently eat something with toxins my body ejects it immediately. So I’m not ‘chemically sensitive’ after all, I just have a need for purity in my food, personal care products, air, water, etc. Why didn’t I see that before?

What has a front has a back…..

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UPDATE: June 6, 2008

Strange thing about brown rice. I’ve always liked wheat and oats better than rice but I had decided to eat it, so stuck with the diet. Here’s the strange part - it starts out being just rice, then you begin to like it more and more. The more you eat the better it tastes till you begin to look forward to eating brown rice. Every day.

The feeling of well-being deepens. It becomes more than physical, like you’re more integrated within yourself. Does it continue till there are no fragments, only wholeness? I think it’s more than the rice. I’ve been studying the teachings of J. Krishnamurti which teaches about the conditioning and fragmentation of human consciousness. Had I only gained insight into part of myself, leaving the physical till recently? Is eating a balanced food helping to bring together what I have struggled toward for so long?

There can be more to macrobiotics than just being physically healthy, but you can limit it to that, I’m sure. Or you can stop thinking of life as a fixed idea with many parts and begin to see it as a movement. And realize that you are moving with it, that Life is what you are. And it is Eternal.

All of this coming together from a lowly brown grain. Little wonder that the ancients worshiped it

I realize I’ve taken for granted the Guidance I’ve had all my life. I never thought of it as separate from my self, from my own mind. It was actually coming to me through ‘my mind’ and I’ve never had the profound gratitude for it that I should have had. I couldn’t have survived this far without it.

It has kept me out of hot water at times, as well as keeping me alive at other times. It has been silent when I needed to face situations that would drive me to the edge, but not before it gave me insight into what awaited beyond the pain. It has been a pillar of strength my entire life for which I will be eternally grateful.

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UPDATE: June 21, 2008

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I think I went at this backward. I added rice to my diet and made a few changes, then more changes as time passed. I found the pressure cooker that I wanted and bought it, also a ceramic Ohsawa Pot to actually cook the rice inside the metal pot. I’m beginning to wonder about ALL metal cooking pots.

I’m going to do the #7 regimen, starting tomorrow. I’m cooking 1/2 cup brown rice three times a day. Nothing else, not even seasonings. If that isn’t enough I can always increase the amount of rice it a bit. I also found a copy of ZEN Macrobiotics, which is out of print, and ordered it recently. This may be the place that people usually start, but I have never claimed to walk the well-traveled road.

I find I understand more of what I’m doing in building a website. Part of that is just plain studying, but another part is a clearer mind. I think one day I may be able to finish the book that I’ve been writing snatches of now and then. I published an excerpt of it here at this blog under the title Rising to the Light. I got favorable comments about it, so I ended it and removed it. I always knew I would write one day; the more I write the better I like it.

Dandelion Root Tea - surprise, surprise! I had never tasted it, but decided to try it. It looked terrible in the cup. Took the first sip and couldn’t stop. Couldn’t get enough of it. Like I was craving it. So how can you crave something you’ve never tasted before? Isn’t that like going home to a place you’ve never been before?

I’m really looking forward to seeing what effect the 10 day regimen of brown rice will have on my clarity of mind as well as on my physical being. Geez, what took me so long?

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UPDATE: July 1, 2008

You must get the booklet, ZEN Macrobiotics, the Art of Rejuvenation and Longevity. It’s out of print but can be found on the Internet. A good site for books and links is:

George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation

You can also find it at Amazon.com. Whatever else you do, get this book.

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UPDATE: July 10, 2008

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When I began the 10 day rice diet on 6-22, I realized right away that I wasn’t doing it quite right. I felt I should modify it somewhat so began taking small amounts of veggies with it. Then, because I was eating 2 meals a day without a sufficient amount of rice I was always hungry. Made a second mistake by increasing the veggies instead of the rice. I knew I had to correct it, but did learn a couple of things along the way. The ZEN Macrobiotic book came and I read it through immediately. Saw right away where I had gone wrong.

One of the things I learned was about the sacrifice of the food I was eating to survive. I had stopped eating meat long ago because I didn’t want to eat another creature. I reached a point where, to me, it seemed like cannibalism. Veggies were there as food for man, and that was that. Or so I thought.

Learning about the veggies sacrificing their life for my survival brought up a long-forgotten memory. Years ago I had read about a man who was doing research with plants, to see if they had any intelligence of their own. He hooked up machines to the plants to gauge their reactions through electronic waves that he learned to read by doing experiments. The results were astounding. When he struck a match near the plants, the waves displayed their fear of fire. He explained to them that he would not let the fire hurt them and they calmed down, as though they trusted him. He played Classical Music and the plants were ecstatic. When he played Rock and Roll music for the plants, the waves showed they did the equivalent of leaning as far as possible to get away from it. Not happy at all!

One of the most telling results that I remember happened while he was at work one day. He checked the time and thought about going home. When he arrived there and checked the plants, he noticed their reaction at the same time he had anticipated going home. The plants were several miles away, yet they knew when he thought about coming home. They reacted excitedly, apparently happy that he was returning.

Remembering this while I read about the sacrifice veggies make to be our food was overwhelming. Yes, you can walk around your kitchen crying while you cook the brown rice. A humbling experience indeed.

Another thing I learned is a bit more difficult. It has to do with seeing my entire life laid out before me, like a tapestry. Saw it as the one thing that it is. We fall into the darkness that we call human consciousness, thereby anchoring Mind to limitation, then we light a candle to find our way through it. For years I sifted through different religions but couldn’t find whatever it was I was looking for - I couldn’t find anything of substance in the thoughts of man about what he believed to be true, or should be true, or wanted to be true. The results of those religions interjected an idea between body and mind causing a division where none exists. Then the idea became the focal point and was worshiped. All the while I thought I was on a pathway that would lead to Truth. I finally found Krishnamurti, whose teachings are about the conditioning that includes all religions, plus everything else that you are taught that is wholly psychological, and you have to learn truth for yourself. No one can give it to you or even tell you what it is, as anything you would be told is only an idea. There is no pathway that leads to Truth and no boat to cross over to it.

Laid out before me was myself - made up of memories and experiences with a center that calls itself “I.” Of course, the entire thing is the center. And the content, the entire content, is my consciousness. Consciousness is truly it’s content. Outside the content, consciousness as we know it, doesn’t exist. So what is there when consciousness ends, as it must? I had been shown that long ago, that’s why I was looking for a boat.

The center we know as ourselves can be likened to a village. All the people in the village represent different thoughts, ideas, concepts. When Intelligence brings it to an end, the battle of all battles may ensue and can last a lifetime. The center, in it’s all-consuming desire for continuity, is fighting for it’s very existence. Intelligence remains ever calm through upheaval after upheaval of the center, as the center finally becomes silent. Intelligence reigns in the end, of course, as it is the One that allowed and built Life as we know it in the first place. In the Silence Intelligence can break through the barrier that is human consciousness and is free. And the village is no more. All this that I thought I had understood, I now realized, was only intellectual, conceptual. Merely information. Useless information. Knowledge.

I had not known about the philosophy-medicine link…
philosophy=regarding the structure of the Infinite Universe
medicine=food
Divine Justice and diet? I hadn’t a clue.

Personal growth discussed publicly is not a good idea, even though very few people will read this. However, I feel as though I’ve said more than I should. To those good folks who have helped me along the way with your kindness and generosity - and to those who did the opposite - I thank you for helping me grow. I appreciate having known all of you in real life, or through the internet, and I wish you All well. Now back to the food -

So I stood in my kitchen and realized that perhaps I had not made a mistake in the way I had handled the 10-day brown rice diet. The first 10 days was just another step along the way. On the ninth day I saw that the actual 10 days would start the next day. The tenth day would become the first. And so it began.

I decided not to use the pressure cooker and the ceramic pot. Opted for a 2-quart CorningWare pot that will go on top of the range, with a flame tamer under it. I cook enough rice for the entire day at the same time. ZEN Macrobiotics says you can use a bit of unrefined sea salt, organic Tamari, or miso made the MB way.

At first I was eating about 2 cups of cooked rice per meal. I was determined not to get hungry and therefore weak, unable to function. The morning of the sixth day brought a change. I had eaten half the bowl of rice when suddenly I was full. That was all I needed. Another bite would have been gluttony. The rice tasted even better.

My diet had been organic vegan for many years and I thought I was living in a very healthy way, even though there were things that I couldn’t correct no matter what I did, ate, or read. Now I see what I was ingesting was unbalanced, and was the cause of what I was trying to correct. I’ve lost a bit of weight, leg cramps at night have stopped, lashes have stopped itching and falling out, hair loss has lessened. All in all, I think I’ll continue with this way of living.

I just read an article about the Native American’s decision to return to their traditional diet of corn, beans and squash. That is, grains, beans and veggies. They were the original practitioners of holistic health. Their diet for the last hundred years has left 17% of them with diabetes, a condition that’s preventable with the proper diet. They’re also plagued with heart attacks and obesity caused by the way they’ve been eating for many years. They’re changing their diet to heal their nation. They’re also returning to their old spiritual practices as they know the two are inseparable. I wish them well.

If you want more info about Macrobiotics, or want to do the 10-day regimen, you should have on hand the following books: You Are All Sanpaku, The Book of Judgment, ZEN Macrobiotics, and at least one good MB cookbook. The Macrobiotic Path to Total Health by Michio Kushi and Alex Jack will tell you much about foods and their impact on the body. If you consider this diet, don’t do just the food part. Do it all together as it was meant to be done. Do otherwise and you’ll miss out on what is waiting for you; you’ll shortchange yourself.

Day 10 is about to end and I’m so glad I did this. Overall there is a feeling I can’t describe as I’ve never been here before. More than a feeling of physical well-being, it’s more profound, a feeling of coming together within yourself, of integration within the wholeness of yourself. And just under the surface, a glimpse of an erupting joy that causes the heart to soar and sing. I don’t know how this is going to unfold from here, but I’m going with it.

Happy Trails.

ojai22