Edward Esko
Over the last generation, macrobiotics has grown from a handful of hippies and dropouts into a health revolution that is spreading into the mainstream. From Boston to Sydney, from San Francisco to Beijing, from Denver to New Delhi, macrobiotic principles are guiding society toward a healthier, more peaceful way of life as we enter the new century.
Hotels, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons are now actively serving macrobiotic products to their staffs, clients, and the general public. In Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian Institution opened a permanent collection at the National Museum of American History recognizing macrobiotics as the catalyst and spearhead for the natural, organic foods movement and alternative and complementary medicine in the United States.
Edward Esko, the author of this book, has been among the most active contemporary macrobiotic teachers over the last twenty-five years, lecturing and counseling in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and throughout North America and writing and editing numerous books and articles. Building on the teachings of George Ohsawa, Michio Kushi, and other forebears, he has applied yin and yang--the universal principles of change and harmony--to helping solve personal health concerns, as well as problems related to crime and violence in society, the environmental crisis, and other social ills.
Contemporary Macrobiotics recounts the author's adventures, discoveries, and travels. Like a peaceful Jedi Knight, we see him sallying forth through the dark, forbidding nutritional landscape of Europe, upholding the virtues of sea salt against an array of detractors. Like a modern samurai swordsman, we see him plunging into the thicket of biological transmutation, conceiving of new ways to produce steel, tungsten, and other precious metals and defuse the approaching energy crisis. From John Lennon and Yoko Ono to Dr. Spock and T. Colin Campbell, he engages seers and prophets of balance who have foreseen the limits of modern society.
On his journeys, Edward continually offers practical advice to individuals and families, organizations and nations. In these pages, we see him showing parents how to prevent their children from being hyperactive. He helps others reverse schizophrenia, overcome hypoglycemia, or relieve a kidney stone. In macrobiotics, the personal and planetary are inseparable. When one person is nourished, the whole planet benefits. When the world is healed, each person is cleansed and refreshed.
The essays in this book are part of the most exciting adventure in the world today--macrobiotica, the universal life--to preserve our planet and ensure humanity's continued biological and spiritual evolution for future generations. Please enjoy the literary voyage before you, begin to incorporate principles of natural order in your own life, and join in the eternal quest for enduring health and peace.
Edward Esko is one of the most active contemporary macrobiotic teachers in the world. Over the last twenty-five years, he has lectured and counseled in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and throughout North America, and has written and edited numerous books and articles. Building on the teachings of George Ohsawa, Michio Kushi, and other modern macrobiotic pioneers, he has applied yin and yang--the universal principles of change and harmony--to helping solve personal health concerns, as well as problems related to crime and violence in society, the environmental crisis, and other social ills. He has served as Vice President of the East West Foundation in Boston and as a faculty member of the the Kushi Institute in the Berkshires. He is the co-founder of One Peaceful World Press, KINA, LLC, a natural products company, and eMacrobiotics.com, a popular website dedicated to personal and planetary health.
What are the benefits of macrobiotic living? Eating this way can help us maintain optimal health and achieve longevity. People such as the Hunza in Kashmir, known for their good health and longevity, eat grains and vegetables as their main food. They were eating more or less a macrobiotic diet adapted to their mountainous terrain and climate. The first benefit of macrobiotic eating is physical health and longevity.
A second benefit is peace of mind. That peace of mind comes from the awareness that we are living and eating in harmony with the universe. We are living in harmony with the movement of energy. That is the source of inner peace. Our mind and emotions are very much conditioned by what we eat. If you feed your child plenty of sugar, what kind of mind or emotions result? Children become hyperactive or cry a lot, and become overly emotional. If we eat plenty of meat, what kind of mind and emotions are produced? We become aggressive or in the extreme, even violent. What happens when we eat plenty of nightshade vegetables such as tomatoes or potatoes? We become depressed. Incidentally, these vegetables have recently been found to contain nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive substance, and that may explain why many people find it difficult to stop eating these vegetables.
As your mind and emotions become more stable and peaceful, you naturally develop a sense of family and community. Modern values--such as competition, dog eat dog, survival of the fittest, etc.--have all arisen from a carnivorous diet. Grain-eating people develop a completely opposite view. Instead of seeing scarcity on the earth, we realize that we live in a universe of abundance. Rather than fighting over resources, the issue becomes how to share the tremendous natural wealth on our planet. Meat-eating tends to produce isolation, something like the lone hunter or lone wolf, rather than a sense of community. Hunters such as lions and hyenas are constantly fighting with each other. Grain-eaters develop a completely opposite way of thinking based on cooperation.
Macrobiotic living strengthens our community and family life. People naturally desire to help and support each other. Through macrobiotics, you become friends with everyone. As we continue to eat this way, our concept of family expands to include all of humanity. We reconnect with our human family on planet earth.
Macrobiotic living can also help us gain spiritual understanding. Do you think it is easy to meditate if we eat hamburgers, or if our mind is very angry or upset, or if we are always stressed out? Or if we are eating sugar or drinking Coke all the time, so that our mind is often hyperactive and scattered, can we really stabilize and center our energy? These conditions make if very difficult to enter into deep, tranquil, and peaceful meditation. In order to allow spiritual energy to smoothly channel through us, and to use that energy, macrobiotic eating--grains and vegetables--is ideal.
We should not forget that all great spiritual traditions included some form of dietary discipline. In the Orient, the cooking in Buddhist and Taoist monasteries was called shojin ryiori, or 'cooking for spiritual development.' These traditions were based on the understanding that food accelerates our spiritual consciousness. By selecting the proper food, we develop our spiritual quality. In these traditions, do you think animal food was a part of their diets? No. They were completely vegetarian. However, in traditional times, vegetarian eating, especially in cooler climates, meant eating cooked brown rice, daikon and other vegetables, tofu and bean products, etc., rather than a lot of raw fruit or salad.
Finally, as we achieve good health, peace of mind, a sense of family and community, and spiritual understanding, we gain the ability to play and have a big dream or adventure in this life. Macrobiotics is based on change or transmutation. In other words, we try to gain the ability to change things into their opposite according to our free will. So if we are experiencing difficulty, using macrobiotic understanding, we try to change that into pleasure or enjoyment. Or if we are experiencing sickness, we self-transform that into health. Or if the world is in danger of war, as our adventure, as our play, as our challenge, we transform that into peace. You can even gain the ability to transmute or transform any type of food into your health and vitality. In other words, you embrace your antagonist and turn it into your friend. As George Ohsawa said, ultimately there are no restrictions. The realization of total freedom, or the freedom to play endlessly in this infinite universe, is the ultimate benefit of macrobiotic living.
