Monday, December 21, 2009

Food For Your Body And Soul

By Masami Sato

As the age old adage says, health is wealth. Here we are speaking about soul's wealth. Nutritious food is good for one's health because body can absorb its essence - it is ditto with our life. When we espouse life in its entirety, enjoying all the impressions and sensations in it, our soul will be able to take in its 'quintessence', coming to terms with the core of our existence, and helping us to live our lives to the highest. Masami Sato shares the mystery of living a complete life in this excerpt from her latest book, ONE.

How come that many of us, (in fact, more of us) occasionally have a hollow feeling in our life? It is like the pangs of hunger. When we eat, the hunger is appeased and then we are not as much interested in food. But after a while, we become hungry again. Then, surprisingly we feel again enticed by the flavour and vision of food. We also experience some sort of a pining when we are not even actually hungry - just after we had some food. Some of us are perpetually hungry.

Persistent emotional thirst is not the happiest feeling to have. Then how can we live our lives to the brim? How can we be more contented enduringly?

Maybe the answer is simple: just live our lives as a whole. The word 'whole' holds the meaning of completion. Then the secret to live a complete life is simply to live it as a whole.

Let us commence by looking at a sample of this 'fullness' with something very close to our heart - our stomach.

Whole Food VS Semi Food

We are used to the usage 'whole food.' People say that taking whole food is the secret to the vigour and wellbeing that we require. How is whole food better than 'semi food?'

A whole grain for example has a life. So, if you soak the whole grain in water, drain the next day and leave for a few days, it sprouts. It has a life of its own. When we eat such food, our body absorbs the full live nutrients. It has all the properties to cleanse, heal and nurture different body cells.

And exactly like the example of a grain, much of customary eating includes consuming whole edible creatures as well. Eating full fresh fish used to be more prevalent than having a half of it and casting the rest away. It was exactly so for meat and every edible plant product.

'Semi food' at times is more sweet and aromatic but does not offer much nutrition. We may savour its taste, but we could become a victim of a long-time malady if we only ate 'semi food' every day of our life.

So, to compensate the absent half, we started to have dietary supplements. We have been analysing and learning for quite some time to reach the correct balance. It becomes more and more problematical as we chop up the food, process it and ship it, and even try to make up the deficiency with other parts that have its origin in other countries, seasons or sources. Some of these supplements do not even come from natural food sources. They are artificially made. After testing and analysing, it is endorsed to be edible. But no matter how much we strive; we cannot bring all the 'bits' together to make it alive and pulsating.

Semi Life-'Sweetness' of Life

So, if we looked at our life now, part of what we are doing can be like eating the 'half food'. Just savouring the sweetness of life but throwing away the real nourishing part. And if we soaked our 'half life' in water with other bits and left it in the sunlight, could it shoot and grow into a beautiful whole life?

Whole food is not (as some people view it) insipid. It is in reality very tasty if prepared expertly. But as the demand is minimal, it has become costly. It will in fact prove to be cheaper in the long run though, as we will not have to spend on medicines later on. When more people will opt to have it, it will normally become less costly because it is a simple food with little wastage and processing.

Our life is the same. When we only appreciate the 'sweetness', and throw away the rest in rubbish bins because we don't see its value, we may be wasting the most important part. And the part we throw away could have the greatest power for the sustainability of our life and our economy. It also takes more energy and resources to discard it. Better yet, the part we throw away is free.

So, what is it we are not seeing?

Picture a life where we didn't in fact believe that we were lacking anything there.

The secret is right there. The secret of a whole life.

Full Life-The Complete Life

When it's 'whole', it doesn't matter how big the whole is. It can expand simultaneously. It can still contain all the elements to sustain itself as a whole living being. Once it grows to a certain size, it can still live without some of the parts. Like plants can live after being eaten a little by birds or trees still thrive even after losing their leaves. But if we neglect the balance for a very long time, eventually it can start creating a fatal imbalance. Then it could become too complicated to get back into balance.

We do not have to return to prehistoric times to find fullness. Fullness exists in the present. All that is required to do is view intently; view intently enough to actually find.

When we can see our life as an entirety and resist jettisoning what feeds our life the most, we start feeling more and more satisfied without searching for 'material' to fill the depressions and vacuums of our life. Everything finally finds its level. We now recognize the entire apparatus of the world in a very altered way.

Yes, it is now time to learn how we can form (and find) this equilibrium constantly and manageably.

The actual enriching part of our life is what makes us feel fine deep inside. It is like that portion of food that makes us hale and hearty in the final tally. Sensations we experience in our daily life are the real answer to our lasting joy. And there are sensations that make us feel more full.

The happy faces we see when we give recognition to others. The pleasure we experience when we give presents to others. The affection we feel when we see our kids being happy. The encouragements we get when we feel our life is full of significance ..

Let us internalize these moments of our life totally and relish the flavour of our entire life. Then we will perceive how it is not so imperative to constantly fill our heart (and tummy!) with physical indulgences - those types of things that only increase our cravings afterwards.

We can actually feel this joy, gratitude and love in order to experience the life as a whole at any moment regardless of the situations. It is not about what we see, what we hear or what we do that complete our life as a whole. It is about what we 'choose to' feel about our life.

Yes, our life indeed is already absolute.

When we initiate taking actions based on this knowledge, we can have real control over the balance creation - enduring health, prosperity, enriching connection and delight.

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