Excerpts from an unpublished article by Herman Aihara (pt 1)

[Roy Collins]

Excerpts from one of Herman Aihara’s last articles
written on George Ohsawa’s 102 Birthday (Oct. 18. 1995)

Note: The following excerpts are from an 18 page essay written in response to Don Matesz who was critical of the yin/yang concept used in macrobiotics:

Rectification of Terms:

DM tells Herman (HA) that: It is necessary to rectify words whenever the use of primary scientific terms causes confusion of the Tao of common sense and nature. The
transliteration of the central terminology of the Oriental sciences into the notoriously mutable alphabetical languages greatly increases the chances for loss of ancient Oriental knowledge. Furthermore, there are well-intentioned teaches who are using key Oriental terms that might confuse the traditional definitions.

HA replies: I agree with you. In ancient China, some confused scholar changed the common natural word for SKY to the religious/metaphysical word HEAVEN and called it YANG because heaven is the source of all energy and matter. However, Heaven, Heaven is not a name in nature. Look at the Unabridged Webster Dictionary. It says “Heaven is the last place where the blessed go after death.” You know heaven is the place only the blessed go. You and I cannot go there. Why is such an exclusive place yang? In my opinion, those words are not the original words of Fu Hsi but a Confucian scholar’s rectification of the word Chien (or T’ien) whose characters mean sky above people (and earth). Therefore the later idea of Heaven is different from the original meaning.

On Yin and Yang:

DM: The original Chinese character for yang depicts the sunny, southern side of a mountain, which is under the influence of Chien..

HA: The word YANG does not mean southern, or mountain under heaven. The Chinese character for yang is (OB script). This word is made from of two sections. The left side means HILL but not mountain and the right side means changing sun. Sun changes from morning to night. Therefore yang means sunny hill that receives warm sunshine and is constantly changing.

A hill has no shade because there is no high point such as a mountain which makes shade against the sun. Therefore it is a mistake to say that the northern side of a mountain is under the influence of yin. The Chinese character for yin depicts a hill on the left side which is covered by a cloud.

I agree with you that a flame is yang because it is bright, hot and dry. However, I do not agree because it expands outward, outward and centrifugal that this is also yang. You as well as Westerners forget that SPACE is the greatest YIN. The flame expands and ascends into space because flame is yang and space is yin. They are attracted to each other, therefore yin space attracts yang flame. As flame expands into space it becomes
colder (yin).

In your traditional Oriental yin and yang list, you said CONTRACTION is yin therefore causes coldness. This makes no sense and is against modern scientific principle. Do you know how a car engine works? In the four stroke engine, it works by compression, expansion, emission and inhalation. This mixture of air and gasoline vapor is delivered by the cylinder by the carburetor and is compressed by the first stroke of the piston. This heats the gas, and the higher pressure will create a quick combustion by ignition of the spark. Compression creates heat and pressure of the gas inside of the cylinder. It becomes extremely yang and when combined with the spark created by the electricity which is also yang, this creates explosion of the mixture of gasoline, vapor and air.

This is the principle of the car engine. In other words, compression creates heat and pressure which is yang. Therefor compression is yang but not expansion. This heat and pressure occurs inside a closed space like a cylinder. If you try this in open space no matter how much heat and pressure you apply nothing will happen because het and pressure go up and spreads into yin space.

You said in your article that “It must be emphasized that the traditional conceptions of
yin and yang are not arbitrary” Then I must add they are relative and there is no absolute yin nor yang. For example, we say hot is yang and cold is yin but we cannot say that above 0 degrees C. temperature is yang and below is yin. This is Einstein’s Relativity Theory. According to him, all values in the world are relative such as yin and yang. Then what is absolute yin and absolute yang? In your article you declared energy is yang and matter is yin. By modern science this is not so easy to determine. According to “Matter” written by Ralph E. Lapp and the Editors of Life Magazine, “for all we have learned about matter, some of its fundamental mysteries persist. The more scientists probe, the greater complexities they encounter. They now know , for instance that almost nothing, even the hardest diamond, is rarely solid; that the atom itself – the heart of matter—is mostly space; and it each atom were collapsed into a sphere no bigger than its own core, or nucleus, then all the bulk of the Washington Monument could be crammed into a space smaller than the eraser on a pencil.”

What is matter?

Whatever occupies space says the dictionary; that which is considered to constitute the substance of the universe. That is to say, the earth,m seas, the breeze, the sun, the stars, -- everything that man surveys, can touch or feel, is matter. Because we can touch and feelmatter, then the opposite of matter is yin – something we can not touch or feel. Is there anything in existence that is such a thing? Yes, that is SPACE. Therefore space is the opposite concept of yang matter. Therefoere, in my opinion, space is yin but not energy. According to modern science matter is energy, and energy is matter. They are the same thing and viewd from different points of view…..

More later….

[Roy Collins]

Pt. 2 More Herman Excerpts (to Don Matesz):

Thank you for your criticism on yin and yang usage in macrobiotics. I learned yin and yang concept from George Ohsawa in 1941. Since then I have been studying more or less by myself and trhough discussions with my students on various occasions and during lectures. My half century of life was devoted to the yin and yang concept and I am not finished yet. Upon reading your well studied critique on the use of yin and yang concept in macrobiotics, I was obliged to write this article so that I may help clarify the subject for macrobiotics and well as people who practice Traditional Chinese Medicine.

On Salt:

HA (to DM): You claim that salt and salty foods are very yin – cooling, sedating, and moistening. You are right. Salt has the character of slow burning. Therefore, it is sometimes cooling. Lead added to gasoline makes ignition slower so that the engine’s compression can go higher. This is higher octane gas. Salt makes higher octane energy. Of course, if we eat too much salt it makes us cold because salt slows heartbeat. Heart will become contracted and less expansion.

In macrobiotic terms salt is too YANG. Too much yang causes yin. Ohsawa said quantity changes quality. I advise you to read more of Ohsawa’s writings.

The same thing goes for soft wood which burns fast and makes the room warm quickly.
However hardwood which contains more sodium and especially that which is taken nearer to the ocean burns slowly so that the temperature of the room stays heated for a longer period of time.

Another example is fruit sugar and white sugar which give us quick energy but burns so quickly that people feel tired afterward. Brown rice with a little salt makes slower burning but gives long lasting energy and you don’t become tired easy.

I consulted many vegetarians who stopped salt eating in the diet and they became tired, frigid, lost sexual appetite, food appetite, and had insomnia and were prone to infection.

You wrote that “salt is the essence of water, it is extracted from water by the application of fire.” This is wrong. Salt is produced fro ocean water by dehydrating ocean water by sun heat and/or fire. Salt originally existed in mountains and the earth which desolved by rain and runoff went into the rivers and then the ocean. Scientists say that 4 billion years ago there was NO salt in the oceans, therefore it was acidic.

Our bodies contain about 50-70 % water and about 1% salt. Salt is YANG and hold s the water. If our body fluids lack salt we lose water, dehydrate and die. An example of this was the Asiatic Cholera epidemic that started in 1817 in India. It traced back and forth over the subcontinent for three years; leaving in its wake an estimated 600,000 dead. The diarrhea caused by cholera couldn’t be stopped by drinking pain water. In 1931 Dr. Thomas Latta Leith of Scotland found by injected a salty solution into a dying woman it saved her life (see Sea of Life by William D. Snively).

Salt can create high osmosis in water, and since the body fluids contain 0.85% salt this high osmosis can hold water in the body. Therefore, it the sodium in the solution that stopped the diarrhea (and dehydration) from cholera. So salt (Na or Nacl) is YANG. This sodium in the body is antagonistic/complimentary with potassium as you see from the following diagram:

K/Na in average foods 30/1
K/Na in Blood Plasma 1/30
K/Na in Red Blood Cells 30/1
K/Na in White Blood Cells 1/30
K/Na in Body Cells 30/1

(from Guyton’s Physiology and Schule’s Mineral Metabolism)

This potassium and sodium relationship is the starting point of the macrobiotic diet started by Japanese Army doctor Sagen Ishizuka
and later expanded upon by George Ohsawa, who applied yin to potassium and yang for sodium.

This list shows that Na is yang and K is yin, because blood plasma and white blood cells are part of the immune response which dehydrate and kill bacteria with their higher osmotic pressure. NaCl has the highest osmosis as Guyton stated. Thereffore salt holds water. This is the reason why Dr. Thomas Lata cured cholera with saline injections.

You wrote that sour taste makes coagulation because it is YANG. This is wrong. Sour (acid) causes milk condensation. This is not the result of yang or contraction but is the resuls of acid and alkaline combined to create the chemical equivelaent of SALT (a scientific term used when acid and alkaline combine). In other words, sour is not constrictive by itself but requires the alkaline element to make salt before it works.

What you call yin is sometimes yang by the macrobiotic concept. Cinnamin, ginger, and pepper (capsicum) are yin because they expand blood vessels and makes you feel warmer. Warmness is the result of expansion. Therefoere spices are yin even though they make you feel warm in some cases. However eating spices always makes body yin.

More later…

[Roy Collins]

More Herman (pt. 3)

I Ching: Fu Hsi (Fu Xi) Order vs. King Wen Order:

According to the Webster dictionary, Heaven is the final place where the blessed go after death. This is Christian thinking but not ancient Chinese. I advise to use the word SKY
instead of Heaven as the symbol for the ultimate yin trigram (3 broken lines) as Ohsawa did because according to modern science, high up in the sky there is no light, dark, no gravity, but is cold and dark with almost no matter (comparatively) but mostly space. Contrary to SKY is the Earth, because it is very yang because earth is spinning itself by 1000 miles per hour speed and circling the Sun at 66,000 miles per hour speed the of 543,400,000 miles. If the SKY is yin then Earth is its complimentary opposite and is yang.

In the Fu Hsi Order of the I Ching all cardinal directions are polarized by opposite/complimentary trigrams:

North (SKY); three yin, broken lines is opposed in the South (EARTH) by three yang
solid lines.
Northwest (MOUNTAIN): two yin broken lines at the bottom is opposed by Southeast
(LAKE) which has tow yang solid lines at the bottom.
West (WATER): two yin lines holding one yang solid in the middle is opposed by East (Fire) which has two yang solind lines holding one yin broken line in the middle.
Southwest (WIND): two yang solid lines above one yin,broken line is opposed by Northeast (THUNDER): which has one yang solid line below two yin broken lines. Thus in the FU Hsi Order every direction shows harmonious balance. This is not true with the King Wen Order, however.

According to King Wen Order there is some orderliness in the North and South and East and West, however NW, King Wen names it Heaven (or Sky) and gives it the symbol of three yang, SOLID lines. This trigram is opposed by SE (WIND) and symbolized by two yang solid lines at the top of one yin, broken line instead of three yin broken lines to represent EARTH. This makes no sense. SW (EARTH) has three yin broken lines and opposed by NE (MOUNTAIN) symbolized by Keing WEn as two yin broken lines with one yang solid line on top. Again this does not show complimentary/antagonistic relationship. Therefore King Wen Order has half or no orderliness.

According to Fu Hsi order of trigrams, change is very orderly and gradual.

Yin/yang Order in Organs:

Ohsawa define the empty organs as yin in comparison to the solid organs such as the heart, kidneys, etc. Of course the stomach, intestine, and other digestive organs are active but not as much as the solid organs. Also digestive organs begin on the periphery inside the body where foods are first digested then go next into deeper region of the body. By King Wen’s standard digestive organs are governed by Heaven and considered YANG in Chinese Medicine.

But followers of the Fu Hsi system believe SKY or Heaven environment is YIN, therefore digestive organs being more to the outside are governed by YIN force.
From the standpoint of health, all organs are equally important, whether they are yin or yang. However, you will die if the solid, yang organs are (surgically) removed – heart, liver, kidneys, lungs, pancreas, etc. When yin organs are removed, like stomach (bladder, etc) you can live without it for a long time. But if you remove the heart it is fatal. I know some macrobiotic people living for a long time without stomach. Many colon cancer people get some part of colon removed and live for a long time as well.

If we decide yin and yang by fatality alone, then brain is the most yang of organs, But we con’t call it yang but instead yin because it sits at the highest part of the body and it
doesn’t move (only electrical activity inside) like other organs. Similarily, digestive organs are most peripheral and show less activity than yang (solid) organs.

Another reason the heart and kidney are called yang is because both are very active: 1) heart beats about 70 times per min. and pumps out 4-6 qts of blood per minute, 240-360 qts per hr. pr 5760 – 8640 qts per day when resting. It beats 150 times per minute and pumps out 20 qts. of blood per minute after vigorous exercise. This means heart pumps out 1200 qts. of blood per hr or more than one ton of blood after vigorous exercise. Heart is yang organ. 2.) The kidney’s job is to clean vein blood. It can clean 1.2 qtas of blood per minute, 72 qts, per hour, or 1726 qts. per day amd 14.4 qts of urine per day. This means kidneys have to o take care of almost two tons of blood and produce 14 qtas of urine every day. What a busy organ! 3) Lung repirates, The normal respiratory rate is 12 breaths per min or 6 qts of air per min or 360 qts per hr. or 8640 qts of air per day. This is much lighter than water, however. It is more critical than any food or drinking water, because lack of oxygen for three minutes in our brain means death. Therefore lungs are the most important organs which has to pulsate (expand/contract) constantly all the time – same as kidney, heart. It is understandable that lung cancer is the highest cause of death among all cancers.

More later…

[Roy Collins]

Androcentric (male-centered)Thinking:

HM: You think that macrobiotic philosophy over emphasizes androcentric thinking because the 12 Principles says that all things are yang at the center. You are completely wrong. These words “all things are yang at he center” cames from Lao Tzu’s Tao The Ching, Chapter 42:

“One creates Two
Two creates Three
Three creates all things
All things hold yin on the outside,
yang in their center.”

This concept is quite similar to the modern concept of the atomic structure. In 1913 Neils Bohr, a Danish scientist, suggested an atomic model which serves chemists well to the present day. He pictured the atom as consisting of three basic particles: electron, protons, and neutrons. The electron is a particle possessing a negative electrical charge. The proton is a particle consisting of a a positive electrical charge equal in magnitude to the charge of the electron. The neutron is a particle with no electrical charge.

Proton and neutron are at the center of the atom that from the weight whereas the electrons circulate around the neucleus by maintaining definite average distances fro the nucleus.

This modern theory of atomic structure illustrates quite well what Lao Tzu said thousands of years ago.

You claim that macrobiotic teaching is male-centered and female is on the peripheral, superficial and seemingly second rate. This is completely opposite in reality. In macrobiotic practice, center is yang as in the case of the material world – such as demonstrated by the atomic model. However, in the case of the spiritual world, the center is yin, feminine.

I summarized George Ohsawa’s talk on his mother which was recorded on June 16, 1964 in Kaleidoscope. The following shows you how much he admired his mother:

“When George Ohsawa was 6 years old his father ran off with another woman. Caring for George and his younger brother and younger sister was difficult for his mother and she began to lose the battle for survival. However she had a strong mind and soon overcame depression. She first studied nursing in a medical school and then got licensed as a nurse and a midwife.

“She worked hard helping sick and pregnant women. She offerd free help to thosae who could not afford to pay. However she soon became overworked wich weakened her immune system and she became infected with tuberculosis germs from one of her patients. Soon her two sisters became infected with tuberculosis and died. As her illness progressed she became unable to work and soon fell into poverty. Knowing that she was going to die made her worry about her children’s future. But she never complained about her bad luck and hardships. Ohswa said in a tape that his mother knew that death was nearby and called George and younger brother to her bedside. She told George to become a scholar because she knew he was yin and told the brother to become a soldier because he was yang type. Soon after this discussion with the two boys she died at age 32 (1903).”

Ohsawa said on the tape that his biggest lesson in life was given to him by his mother through her wordless teaching, who never complained about her sadness, impovershed circumstances, her illness, etc. Ohswa told us that his mother was his greatest teacher because she taught that happiness comes as a result of NO COMPLAINING. Ohsawa followed this wordless teaching and studied always how to cure the sick and teaching how to be happy. Therefore macrobiotic teaching is centered around motherhood, feminity, endurance, patience, and not complaining (appreciate life).

Ohsawa loved his mother and respected her. Therefore he was a feminist as well. Most of his male students left him but females students stayed a longer time. Some female students devoted their lives to his work and went without marrying their entire lives because they repected and worshipped him as a teacher and as their life’s savior with devotion and royalty. Therefore it is not true that macrobiotics neglect the impoirtance of pregnancy and lactation. If there is such a person that is the result of misunderstanding macrobiotics. There is a teaching of pregnant woment to study called TAIKYO in the orient which states that pregnant women must follow a good diet and avoid animal foods, nerve stimulating foods, nerve distorting alcoholic drink and watching violent movies or TV or reading emotional novels. This makes one more peaceful and helps to make baby sound of body and mind.

Practical Application of Macrobiotic Theory:

I agree with you that some unfortunate circumstances that occurred among macrobiotic followers and counselors. To me, this did not come from macrobiotic theory but rather arrogance of some macrobiotic teachers and counselors who were more or less self-appointed. Macrobiotic teaching began only 35 years ago by George Ohsawa. Since then he lived only for 6 years and during that time came to America only a few times to conduct summer camps in New York and California. He gave only a few lectures in New York City and Los Angeles.

After his death macrobiotics were taught by unexperienced and arrogant students like me. Furthermore, arrogant Americans started teaching and counseling sick people after less than one year of studying macrobiotics. This is the cause of miss-treatment and miss-advice. Therefore it is not macrobiotic theory that is wrong but rather people’s attitudes and wrong understanding about macrobiotics.

To avoid this happening we have to follow Ohsawa’s footsteps when he told us that we could counsel the sick only after we can cure our own sickness, maintain family health and happiness and after help thousands of sick people toward health and happiness.

Conclusion:

You claim that the term yin and yang belong to the Chinese language and Chinese Medicine. The 20th century was a period of mass communication – there is no one word that belongs to one culture or one language. The term yin and yang belongs to humanity. As president FD Roosevelt said on Jan 6 1941, we have freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world.

According to Random House dictionary, yin and yang is defined as follows: [In Chinese philosophy and religion] two principles, one negative, dark, and feminine (yin) and one positive, bright, and masculine (yang) whose interaction influences the destinies of creatures and things. This means the term yin and yang are not the words of the Chinese alone any more than Bohr’s atomic theory belongs to the Danish._

You claim that No individual or group should be allowed to change the ancient meanings without consensus of the Chinese language experts and the Chinese medical community, etc. This is the most arrogant and exclusive words I ever heard. This is not a sane mentality. No Chinese people dare to claim such a thing, because they know that any explanation of truth is no longer truth once it is expressed, just as Lao Tzu said in the Tao Te Ching (chapter 1):

Tao, as the absolute Way of the universe
cannot be conveyed with words,
That which can be conveyed with words is
merely relative conception.
Although names have been applied to it,
the absolute Truth is indescribable.
One may designate Nothingness [nothingness is yin]
as the origin of the universe,
And Beingness [Beingness is yang] as the mother
of the myriad things….

etc.

My last advice to Don Matesz is: You better call your center: “ANTIMACROBIOTIC LEARNING CENTER” if you wish to be a wise man.