Death is coming

The closer death creeps up upon me the less I am able to understand the reasons for life or living.

Yes I have experienced a close family member dying and unlike television it takes decades to handle such a thing. To think I am going to put my family through such a thing when I finally leave is more horrific to me than the thought of death itself.

My life was and is still a learning experience but when all said and done what am I to do with all this accumulated learning over my lifetime if I just die. There is no logic or reason to this.

Long ago I became aware that the God story that is sold to the majority is just a nice story to give mankind with a message of a basic layout of how nice life could be if everyone followed these ideas. Not many in life do and if one thinks about it the good and evil structures actually depend on each other. The good that can be experienced in life is only understood as good when there is it's opposite to compare it to. This is not rocket science only common sense in reality. I am not saying we need to experience bad but understanding in it is needed to appreciate the great things many of us can have in our lives. From birth to death there are many ways mankind helps his fellow man. How many ways can you help?


Thursday, July 22, 2010

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.

Why is it that many of us, (actually, most of us) now and then feel some sort of a barren sensation in our lives? It is like being ravenous. When we eat, we are satiated and become slightly indifferent to food. But after some time, we once again feel like having food. Then suddenly we are drawn again to the aroma and picture of food. We can also feel strange pangs of hunger when we are not actually craving for food - just after having eaten something. Some of us have a craving all the time.

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 begin by looking at an example of this 'completion' with something very close to our mind - our stomach.

Whole Food VS Part Food

We are familiar with the word 'whole food.' It is said that consuming whole food is the secret to the health and fitness we need. What has whole food got more than 'part food?'

A complete grain pulsates with a life of its own. If one keeps the complete grain in water, drains it off and keeps it for a few days, it germinates. It has got a full life. When we consume such an item, our body absorbs the full spectrum nourishment. It has the ability to clean, cure and nourish various 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.

'Half food' sometimes has more sweetness and flavour but not much other nutrition. We like its taste, but we could develop a long-term illness if we only ate 'half 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.

Part Life-'Sweetness' of Life

So, if we view our life now, a lot of what we are doing is akin to eating 'semi food.' Just relishing the sweet taste of life but discarding the actual nourishing part. And if we immerse this 'semi life' in water with other bits and kept it under the sun, could it sprout and develop into a lovely full life?

Whole food is not (as some people seem to believe) of a bland taste. In fact it tastes better if cooked properly. But as requirement is low, it is more costly. It is in reality more cost-effective in the long term though, as we will have to pay less as medical costs later on. When more people will start having it, it would automatically become less expensive as it is a simple food with less processing cost and waste.

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 that we do not perceive?

Imagine a life where we didn't really feel we were missing anything there.

The secret is right here. The secret of a full 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 don't have to go back to the Stone Age to find the wholeness. Wholeness exists right now. All we need do is look closely; look closely enough to really see.

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 real nourishing part of our life is what makes us feel good deep down. It is like the part of food that makes our body become healthy in the long-term. Feelings we experience in our everyday life are the real key to our long-term happiness. And there are feelings that make us feel more complete.

The smiles we see when we give acknowledgements to others. The joy we feel when we give gifts to others. The love we feel when we see our children being happy. The inspirations we receive when we feel our life is full of meaning

Let us absorb these moments of our life wholeheartedly and savour the aroma of our full life. Then we will find how it is not obligatory to incessantly fill our heart (and belly!) with earthly satisfactions - those types of things that only add to our yearnings afterwards.

We can actually sense this pleasure, gratefulness and ardour in order to be aware of life as a whole at any moment despite the conditions. It is not about what we find, what we learn or what we accomplish that finalize our life in its entirety. It is about what we 'elect to' experience about our life.

Yes, our life in fact is already whole.

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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