Take Time for Harmony
There certainly are many obstacles and difficulties on this macrobiotic road we travel. Macrobiotics is not the easy way out. We who have practiced diligently for a long time and those of us who are just beginning know that macrobiotics is a demanding way of life.
Macrobiotics takes time. It takes study and practice. It's unusual, which means it's swimming upstream. It can make it hard to be social and spontaneous. It may be more expensive than conventional food. It can be isolating.
Macrobiotics means taking responsibility for ourselves. It means learning what symptoms mean and figuring out what to do about them. Sometimes so-called discharges are too serious to ignore, yet we minister to ourselves before we look to the doctor waiting at the door.
But these are at the same time the promise of macrobiotics. Taking responsibility for ourselves means being empowered and reliable. I can't blame anyone else for what happens to me; I am in charge. I do put my money where my mouth is-literally! I choose to pay more for less chemicals in my food. And, I am indeed different from the Coca Cola me-generation, from the unhappiness and ill health pervasive throughout society.
In the words of Robert Frost, “Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference.”
Why do I do this? Because macrobiotics promises me something more than trouble and bother. A good physical condition is only the beginning. My emotions are manageable and peaceful. I have developed a spiritual knowing that was absent the first two decades of my life. My life continues to evolve to a new experience of well being that I could never have envisioned. This is at once the most fundamental and most sublime reward I could imagine.
It is because there is a basic fact of life on earth, and that is, food creates harmony, personally and globally. What does this mean? On a physical level, harmony is comfort. Without being at ease, life is miserable. We struggle just to live. So physical comfort is the first level of harmony.
On a sensorial level harmony means health. Health can be defined as much more than the absence of symptoms-it includes vibrant energy, good appetite, deep and restful sleep, good memory and humor, clear thinking, and overall, a sense of justice. All of these are still the beginning of macrobiotics.
Macrobiotics offers emotional harmony-what we call love. I leave this definition to each of you, only reminding you that love is universal-we all feel and are in our essence love. This is the state of non-resistance when we at last let life flow.
The fourth level of harmony is called truth. What a wonderful thing it is to know the true working of this great universe, to understand that life is vast and perfect. This genuineness offers us certainty and assurance, and is the basis of faith.
On a social level harmony means peace. There can never be political peace because peace needs war to exist, and war requires peace. The peace that macrobiotics touches is inner calm, the serenity of knowing that “Everything is OK!” Peace is inner tranquility. Peace is serenity. Though war remains ever a possibility, there's no need for it. We are peace.
Harmony is justice on the sixth level. Here we unite all right and wrong, all cause and effect, and realize righteousness. This is the integrity and uprightness of honor and nobility.
Finally, macrobiotics touches freedom, and even then, just briefly. It is the highest level man can touch, little lower than the angels. This is the crown jewel, the most important endowment of life. We live for freedom, and we die for it. Nothing is more sacred, for freedom is the essence of God.
We must develop our understanding of nature in order to create such harmony. The easiest way is the simplest-by controlling our food. We have choice in our manner of eating. We chew our food, our liquids, and our ideas.
Let's create harmony in ourselves, our society, and our world. Macrobiotics is the art of adaptation. We can congratulate ourselves as we gather here to learn, listen and develop our intuition of harmony.
The Concept of Harmony
Food creates harmony--allows us to be independent, creative.
Physical level = comfort
Sensorial level = health
Emotional level = love
Intellectual level = truth
Social level = peace
Philosophical level = justice
Spiritual level = freedom