Macrobiotic Life

Hello all the readers/lovers/haters of my blog.
I needed to block all the comments to my articles, because of the boring spammers. But I understand them, because as I said in my last post, I was one of them in my past life, but hopefuly everything changes

If you want to exchange some comments, or just simply want a new friend at Facebook.. here’s my account.

I would like to summarize my latest life. What am I doing, what am I reading, what am I eating, loving, listening, thinking about.

I am now very influenced by my lack of money. Surprisingly, who is not Now comes the eternal question, should I leave or should I join? Join some employment position. Or leave somewhere into the Wild, where money have no power, or at least, where you get the illusion, that money are needed for nothing there I know only few places that could provide me this illusion. Partly, in one of them I am living now. It’s my parent’s house. I am paying monthly bills (I am not the bad lazy boy), but still the monthly “rent” is half of what I would pay somewhere else.
Another place, where one could get food and shelter and still having his life headed somewhere meaningful is.. you can guess for a while.. Kushi Institut at Amsterdam I am joking, but maybe not so much, because this option is really there.
Another places are around the whole Globe. Ashrams at India, communities at Russia (living according to Anastasia books), macrobiotic communities at France, Spain etc. Imagination is the main part and you can find many places, where you can learn a lot and not to pay anything.
Huh.. maybe I am little dumb, while thinking I should pay if I work somewhere? Maybe that’s because I am blinded (cannot see another option) by all the pricy courses, seminars, workshops and work&travel, volunteering services, where you really need to pay a lot of cash to work for them. But if I would like to get better at macrobiotic or massages or China medicine.. I don’t know a free place, where you can learn and practice for free.
I was at some job offer companies, that would involve me in the computer environment office and me doing some daunting computer programming work. Daunting for me now. Everything changes, maybe I will want to be a programmer in the summer, but I don’t think so. The more I chew everyday, day passes and the more I am feeling the power to go.. you know where.. into the Wild
When I chew well at the day, I am feeling really decided no to be employed and rather start something on my own. I was self employed all my life, it should be no problem, yes? Yes and no. If I realised that all I created, all the product of my self-employment, were spammy pages, that provide (yeah, they are still there and giving me some easy profits – in this part, I am still weak to delete them) no value.. then I decided to stop it and here’s the problem I am struggling with. What else can I do, to make some money on my own, while still creating real value.. and I am not aiming low now.. I mean REAL VALUE
I feel, something is coming, but I have this feeling nearly 80% of the year

The 5 Elements Theory began shortly after the Yin/Yang Theory was developed and is a separate system used by a limited number of practitioners of TCM who for the most part utilize the yin/yang system from a more mystical perspective rather than the physical perspective that macrobiotics follow. Initially the 5 Elements began as a physical system of understanding nature but later its meaning was changed and then attempts were made to correlate the 5 Elements with the 8 trigrams of the much earlier I Ching (Book of Changes) — of course, an impossibility.

The theory of the 5 Elements is a fixed system of “forced fits” and utilizes a discriminating system of correlative schema that are ethno-centric to ancient China and not applicable globally. Numerous flaws have been found by scores of Chinese philosophers, cosmologists, sages, (including Lao Tzu, Wang Chung, and Shao Yung) and its complexity is contrary to the Philosophical Taoists view of simplicity (although the Religious Taoists embrace it).

The 5 Elements have nothing in common with the Magic Square of 9 which again is a corruption of the well system that was designed by an an acnient agricultural engineer to divert flood water from the Yellow River. Modern macrobiotics, including George Ohsawa and Herman Aihara tried to steer clear from this contrived system and to simplify macrobiotic understanding so that it could be utilized by all people, but during the mid-1970’s one macobiotic teacher — Mr. Muramoto — who had a working background in TCM re-introduced these ideas into the modern macrobiotic lifestyle. While some macrobiotics tried to embrace these ideas, many others rebelled, and to this day it remains a controversy in the yin/yang paradigm — possibly strong enough to divide macrobiotics amongst themselves.

Macrobiotics and TCM are not the same. We can say that they are separate branches of the same tree, but each are unique upon themselves. Even practitioners of TCM are not fully convinced of the 5 Elements Theory. You can see for youself that most acupuncturists will favor a fixed diagram for needle insertion (usually cross referenced) over the designated two hours of organ activity and their respective needling times. In addition, the more traditional macrobiotics will favor finger manipulation (Shiatsu) over needles and look for non-technical applications over generalized body regions as opposed to specific points. Dietary adjustments are more of a priotity to macrobiotics, and without taking food into consideration acupuncture is seem only as symptomatic and temporary. Yet, there are numerous benefits when used together —

From my own point of view I feel that certain modifications of both systems (TCM & Macrobiotics) are needed in order to merge them into one effective system — and for the most part the central problem has to do with fixed correlative systems that have to do more with the world of magic than with natural science. In the back room of major macrobiotic communities there appears to be the growing need for rectification of macrobiotics as the new millenia approaches. I think this will take some time for it gets put on the table for discussion, but thanks to your inquirey and to the forthcoming messages perhaps this is the beginning of that long needed, and, hopefully, open dialog. For starters, here are two questions regarding the 5 Elements Theory:

1) How come some of the yang organs in this system are called yin by macrobiotic standards, and some of the yin organs are called yang by TCM practitioners?

2) We know that if you collect white light (ie sunlight) and pass it through a clear, solid prism it refracts into 6 distinct colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet) but in the 5 Element Theory blue, orange, and violet are missing?

Many things need to be discussed. We await friendly replies from our macrobiotic “teachers”. I hope this helps. In peace, Roy

Original article taken from:
http://www.yinyangstation.com/roy/index.cgi?read=46

Here’s a list of books that Ohsawa was reading, I suppose it’s not complete, but only a small preview. But it’s quite clear how broad territory he was involved into.

>St. Thomas Aquinas (1226-1270) Summa Theologica; Summa Contra Gentiles
>Dante Allegre (1265-1321) The Divine Comedy; The New Life
>Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) The Canterbury Tales
>Thomas A’ Kempis (1380-1471) The Immitation of Christ
>Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519) The Literary Works; Notebooks
>Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) The Praise of Folly
>Niccolo Machiavelli(1469-1521) The Prince
>Martin Luther (1483-1546) Works
>Francois Rabelais (1495-1553) Gargantuas and Pantagruel
>John Calvin (1509-1564) Institutes of Christian Religion
>Michael DeMontaigne(1533-1592) Essays
>Thomas Moore (1540-1596) Utopia (1516)
>Miguel de Cervantes(1547-1616) History of Don Quixote de la Mancha
>Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) The Faerie Queen
>William Shakespeare(1564-1616) Complete Works
>Sir Francis Bacon (1569-1636) Advancement of Learning
>Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Dialogue on the Great World Systems
>William Harvey (1578-1657) On the Circulation of Blood
>Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) The Rights of War and Peace
>Thomas Hobbes (1588-1674) Leviathan
>Rene Descartes (1596-1650) Discourse on Method
> Meditations on the First Philosophy
> Principles of Philosophy
>Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) El Cid;Cinna;Horace
>John Milton (1608-1674) Paradise Lost
>Blaisse Pascal (1622-1662) Pensees;The Provincial Letters
>John Moliere (1622-1693) Don Juan;Tartuffe;The Misanthrope;
> The Doctor in Spite of Himself;
> The School for Wives;Amphitryon;
> The Imaginary Invalid;
> The Fourberies of Scapin
>Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) Ethics;Political Treatise
>John Locke (1632-1704) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
>John B.Racine (1639-1699) Phedre;Andromaque;Athalie
>Issac Newton (1642-1726) Mathematical Principles of Natural
> Philosophy
>G.W von Leibniz (1646-1716) Monadology;Theodices;New Essays
> Concerning Human Understanding
>Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) Robinson Crusoe
>Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) Gullivers Travels;A Tale of a Tub
>Charles Montesquieu(1689-1755) The Spirit of the Laws,Persian Letters
>Francois Voltaire (1694-1778) Candide,Zadig,Philosophical Letters
>Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Autobiography,Poor Richards Almanac
>Henery Fielding (1707-1754) Tom Jones,Child Found
>David Hume (1711-1776) Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding
>Jean J.Rousseau (1712-1778) Social Contract,Emile,Confessions
>Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) The Life & Opions of Tristam Shandy
>Adam Smith (1723-1790) The Wealth of Nations
>Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Critique of Pure Reason,Critique of
> Pratical Reason,Critique of Judgement,
> Fundamental Principles of the
> Meatphysics of Morals
>Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire
>Johann W.von Goethe(1749-1832) Faust,The Sorrows of Young Wether,
> Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship,
> Poetry and Truth
>Thomas R.Malthus (1766-1834) Essay on the Principle of Population
>George W.F.Hegel (1770-1831) Phenomenology of the Mind,Reason in
> History,Science of Logic,The Philosophy
> of Right
>David Ricardo (1772-1823) The Principles of Political Economy
> and Taxation
>Marie H.B.Stendhal (1783-1842) The Red and the Black,The Charterhouse
> of Parma
>Auguste Comte (1798-1857) System of Positive Polity
>Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) Father Goriot;Cousin Pons; Eugenie
> Grandet;Cousin Bette; Cesar Birotteau;
> The Research of the Absolute
>St.Augustine (355-430) The City of God;The Confessions;
> On Grace;Against the Pagans St.
>Thomas Aquinas (1226-1270) Summa Theologica; Summa Contra Gentiles
>Dante Allegre (1265-1321) The Divine Comedy; The New Life
>Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) The Canterbury Tales
>Thomas A’ Kempis (1380-1471) The Immitation of Christ
>Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519) The Literary Works; Notebooks
>Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) The Praise of Folly
>Niccolo Machiavelli(1469-1521) The Prince
>Martin Luther (1483-1546) Works
>Francois Rabelais (1495-1553) Gargantuas and Pantagruel
>John Calvin (1509-1564) Institutes of Christian Religion
>Michael DeMontaigne(1533-1592) Essays
>Thomas Moore (1540-1596) Utopia (1516)
>Miguel de Cervantes(1547-1616) History of Don Quixote de la Mancha
>Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) The Faerie Queen
>William Shakespeare(1564-1616) Complete Works
>Sir Francis Bacon (1569-1636) Advancement of Learning
>Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Dialogue on the Great World Systems
>William Harvey (1578-1657) On the Circulation of Blood
>Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) The Rights of War and Peace
>Thomas Hobbes (1588-1674) Leviathan
>Rene Descartes (1596-1650) Discourse on Method
> Meditations on the First Philosophy
> Principles of Philosophy
>Pierre Corneille (1606-1684) El Cid;Cinna;Horace
>John Milton (1608-1674) Paradise Lost
>Blaisse Pascal (1622-1662) Pensees;The Provincial Letters
>John Moliere (1622-1693) Don Juan;Tartuffe;The Misanthrope;
> The Doctor in Spite of Himself;
> The School for Wives;Amphitryon;
> The Imaginary Invalid;
> The Fourberies of Scapin
>Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) Ethics;Political Treatise
>John Locke (1632-1704) An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
>John B.Racine (1639-1699) Phedre;Andromaque;Athalie
>Issac Newton (1642-1726) Mathematical Principles of Natural
> Philosophy
>G.W von Leibniz (1646-1716) Monadology;Theodices;New Essays
> Concerning Human Understanding
>Daniel Defoe (1661-1731) Robinson Crusoe
>Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) Gullivers Travels;A Tale of a Tub
>Charles Montesquieu(1689-1755) The Spirit of the Laws,Persian Letters
>Francois Voltaire (1694-1778) Candide,Zadig,Philosophical Letters
>Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Autobiography,Poor Richards Almanac
>Henery Fielding (1707-1754) Tom Jones,Child Found
>David Hume (1711-1776) Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding
>Jean J.Rousseau (1712-1778) Social Contract,Emile,Confessions
>Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) The Life & Opions of Tristam Shandy
>Adam Smith (1723-1790) The Wealth of Nations
>Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) Critique of Pure Reason,Critique of
> Pratical Reason,Critique of Judgement,
> Fundamental Principles of the
> Meatphysics of Morals
>Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire
>Johann W.von Goethe(1749-1832) Faust,The Sorrows of Young Wether,
> Wilhelm Meisters Apprenticeship,
> Poetry and Truth
>Thomas R.Malthus (1766-1834) Essay on the Principle of Population
>George W.F.Hegel (1770-1831) Phenomenology of the Mind,Reason in
> History,Science of Logic,The Philosophy
> of Right
>David Ricardo (1772-1823) The Principles of Political Economy
> and Taxation
>Marie H.B.Stendhal (1783-1842) The Red and the Black,The Charterhouse
> of Parma
>Auguste Comte (1798-1857) System of Positive Polity
>Honore de Balzac (1799-1850) Father Goriot;Cousin Pons; Eugenie
> Grandet;Cousin Bette; Cesar Birotteau;
> The Research of the Absolute
>Ralph
>W. Emerson (1803-1882) Writings
>John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) A System of Logic;On Liberty;
> Principles of Political Econonmy
>Charles Darwin (1809-1882) The Origin of the Species
>William M. Thackery(1811-1863) Vanity Fair;History of Henry Esmond
>Charles Dickins (1812-1870) Oliver Twist;Pickwick Papers;
> David Copperfield; Christmas Tales
>Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Concept of Dread;Sickness Unto Death
>Claude Bernard (1813-1878) Introduction of the Experimental
> Medicine
>Henery D.Thoreau (1817-1862) Walden [1849]
>Karl Marx (1818-1883) Communist Manifesto;Das Kapital
>Walt Whitman (1819-1892) Leaves of Grass
>Herman Melville (1819-1891) Moby Dick [1851]
>Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) Madame Bovary;The Sentimental Education
>Fedor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) Crime & Punishment;The Idiot;
> The Brothers Karamazov
>Jules Verne (1828-1905) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea;
> Around the World in 80 Days
>Hendrik Ibsen (1828-1906) A Doll’s House;Brand;Peer Gynt;
> The Wild Duck.
>Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) War & Peace;Anna Karenina;Resurrection
>Richard Dedekind (1831-1916) Continuity & Irrational Numbers.
>Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) Alice in Wonderland
>Samuel Butler (1835-1902) Erewhon
>Mark Twain (1835-1910) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
>James Bryce (1838-1922) Modern Democracy
>Emile Durckheim (18 -1 ) The Elementary Forms of the Religious
> -Life;Suicide.
>William James (1842-1910) Principles of Psychology;Pragmatism;
> The Will to Believe.
>Friedrich Nietzsche(1844-1900) Thus Spake Zarathustra;
> Beyond Good and Evil.
>Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) Civilization it’s Cause & Cure.
>Ivan P.Pavlov (1849-1931) Conditioned Reflexes.
>Jules H.Poincare (1854-1912) Science and Method.
>Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) The Psychopathology of Everyday Life;
> On Creativity and the Unconscious; An
> Outline of Psychoanalysis; A General
> Introduction to Psychoanalysis
>George B.Shaw (1856-1950) Pygmalion;St.Joan;Caesar & Cleopatra;
> Androcles & the Lion;Man & Superman
>Lucien Levy Bruhl (1857-1939) The Soul of the Primitive.
>Franz Boas (1858-1942) The Mind of Primitive Man
>Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) Ideas;General introduction to Pure
> -Phenomenology.
>Henri Bergson (1859-1941) Matter & Memory;Creative Evolution;
> The Two Sources of Morality & Religion
>Herbert G. Wells (1866-1949) The Time Machine
>Rene Quinton (1867-1925) Sea Water,” Le Eau de Mer”
>Vladmir I. Lenin (1870-1924) Materialism & Empirio-Criticism
>Marcel Proust (1871-1922) Rembrance of Things Past
>Alexis Carrell (1873-1944) Man the Unknown
>Thomas Mann (1875-1955) The Magic Mountain;Buddenbrooks;
> Dr.Faustus:The Life of the Composer
>Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) The Great Thinkers of India
>Ellsworth Huntington(1876-1947) Civilization and Climate Leon
>Trotsky (1879-1940) Literature and Revolution
>Lev Davidovich Bronstein The Russian Revolution
>Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Relativity:Special & General Theories
>Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) The Decline of the West
>James Joyce (1882-1941) Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
> Ulysses;Finnegans Wake
>Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) A Study of History
>F,S.C.Northrup (1893-19 ) The Meeting of the East & West
>Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) Brave New World
>Louis Kervran (1901-1983) Biological Transmutations
>W Heitler ( – ) Man and Science
> Schupengrae (1 -1 ) The Failure of Western Science
>Rachel Carson (1 -19 ) Silent Spring

Founded at:
http://www.yinyangstation.com/roy/index.cgi?read=907
http://www.yinyangstation.com/roy/index.cgi?read=906