Tao Eating, Zen Digesting: Pillar Five

By Sensei Yula

In addition to being informed of the scientific analyses of food, knowing the thermal nature of food is essential, even for those who are the regular users of natural food. This is because the energies (thermal natures) of the foods we consume interact with each other once they have entered the body. This results in both positive and negative effects. The positive effects are good digestion, a healthy body, and a calm mind. The negative effects are poor digestion, unhealthy organs or skin, and a disturbed mind. This book directs you on how to ensure a positive effect of the foods you consume based the right combination of foods, seasonal factors and the method of preparation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sensei Yula
• Release date: Apr 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9780986734373

Sensei Yula

Sensei Yula has been practicing and teaching yoga, martial arts and healing arts for over 36 years. In the late eighties, he founded Centre for the Ways in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Prior to that, he ran a successful business in Halifax, Nova Scotia that included a health food cafe, several health food retail outlets and martial arts classes.As an acupuncturist and traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, he successfully treats people with conditions including heart disease, digestive problems, lower back aches, headaches, insomnia, mental disorders, gynaecological problems, infertility, and many others.From this experience as well as his training in Shiatsu, he has developed a system called Zen Kiatsu-Tao TCM. It is very relaxing and effective for the prevention and cure of many disorders.After decades of practicing and teaching Karate-Do, yoga and Yang style Tai-Chi, he founded the Zenki-Do System of Martial Art, a Yang-Yu style of Tai Chi called Tai Chi Chuan-Tao, and Chi Kung-Yoga Energetics.To share this experience, he has co-authored The Eight Pillars of the Heaven (Volume One, 2010; Volume Two, 2013) as well as Chi Kung-Yoga Energetics for Health: A Manual for Daily Practice (2012). He is currently working on books related to his repertoire of experience in healing and martial arts.

Book preview

Tao Eating, Zen Digesting

Pillar Five

Sensei Yula & Becca Mukti

Published by Centre for the Ways at Smashwords

Copyright 2013 Sensei Yula and Becca Mukti

There are eight pillars in all and each is available in ebook format:

Reality and the Truth: Pillar One

The Path of Transformation: Pillar Two

Body Physio-Energetics: Pillar Three

Environmental Righteousness: Pillar Four

Tao Eating, Zen Digesting: Pillar Five

Yoga Energetics as an Alternative Medicine: Pillar Six

The Tao of Intimacy and the Ultimate Gynaecological Reality: Pillar Seven

Enlightenment: Pillar Eight

The first four pillars are available in print at Centre for the Ways.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is for your personal use only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. You may, however, encourage others to purchase a copy for themselves or purchase one for them as a gift. If you are reading this ebook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the authors.

~~~ ♦ ~~~

This series is dedicated to humanity and Mother Earth.

~~~~ ♥ ~~~

Table of Contents

The Wise Diet on a Small Planet

The Theory of Interdependability of Physical Health, Vital Energy and Mental Health

Eat Healthy, Be Happy, Stay Young, and Have a Lean Body

Light on Macrobiotics

Light on Vegetarianism

The Yin-Yang Tao of Eating

Table 5A: A Partial List of Junk Foods High in Purine

Table 5B: A Partial List of Natural Foods high in Purine

The Therapeutic Use of Food in Oriental Dietotherapy

The Five Energies of Food

Table 5C: An Example of the Classification of some of the Common Grains, Beans and Nuts according to the Five Thermal Natures

Table 5D: An Example of the Classification of some of the Common Fruits and Vegetables according to the Five Thermal Natures

Table 5E: An Example of the Classification of some of the Common Animal Products, Seafood and Herbs according to the Five Thermal Natures

The Five Flavours of Food and their Effects on the Body

Table 5F: The Relationship between the Natural Flavour of Food and the Internal Organs

An Evaluation of the Nutritional Values of Commonly Used Foods

Grains

Vegetables

Beans & Lentils

Nuts & Seeds

Fruits

Animal Products

Seafood

Herbs & Spices

Recipes

Moonchi-Crunch Granola

Basmati Rice

Brown Rice

Quabuli Rice

Vegetable Biryani Rice

Rice Biryani with Nuts and Seeds

Split Mung Bean Khichari

Lentil Khichari

Mung Bean Khichari

Adzuki Bean Khichari

Large Bean Khichari

Grain Khichari

Vegetable Soup with Brown Rice

Vegetable Soup with Grains or Beans

Chicken Fried Rice

Shrimp Fried Rice

Tofu Sautéyaki

Tofu Burgers

Spice Mixes

Garam Masala Chicken, Lamb or Beef

Curry Masala Chicken, Lamb or Beef

Tandoori Dishes

BeccaYuli Salad

Pizza Mushrooms

Eggplant Delight

Seermas

Yogurt Tzatziki Dip

Roasted Nuts and Seeds

Concluding Remarks

Appendix

Reasons for Writing this Series

About the Eight Pillars

Caveats

About the Authors

List of Publications by the Authors

About Centre for the Ways

Connect with Us

Support Us

~~~~ BEGIN ~~~

The Wise Diet on a Small Planet (return to Contents)

Growing up all through high school and university, I was known as a healthy and happy young man by my teachers and fellow students. They called me Alive Man, by which they meant Happy Man in English. This was so until fate caught up with me.

After I had landed in Canada in the early 1970s, I went to Halifax where I was enrolled at Dalhousie University for post-graduate studies. On my first day, I remember walking into the university cafeteria for lunch. The smell of french fries, hamburgers and sausages being prepared on the premises was breathtaking, particularly as where and when I grew up those things did not exist, period.

After I had approached the serving counter, a beautiful young girl looked into my eyes with a friendly smile. She filled my plate with exotic-to-me foods including slices of toasted, buttered white bread and poured me a large glass of milk. Holy Moses, I am in heaven, I said to myself.

And then I thought, Moses was absolutely right! There is a heaven somewhere, and somehow I am in it! Then I started to feel sorry for Grandma Eve and Grandpa Adam because they left this heaven for a piece of apple or a few grains of wheat or whatever forever.

Once I had myself convinced that I wasn’t dead, and it wasn’t the heaven after death which two-thirds of the world’s population are waiting for, it was real life, but only I didn’t know much about it, I started to feel sad for all of my friends and relatives back home. I pictured them eating those boring, organically-grown and wholly cooked foods such as brown rice, seasonal vegetables and pot-cooked lamb. I imagined them drinking tea instead of beer and walking instead of driving to the local market, which was sometimes a mile away.

My fantasy lasted about 3 months then I started to experience discomfort, and my health started to deteriorate. No problem, I said to myself, in this wonderfully developed world I am living in with free healthcare services, including all kinds of doctors and hospitals, what in heaven do I have to worry about?

I took a journey to the hospital expecting a miracle. With all fairness, everybody was helpful and kind. They put me through a series of food allergy tests, but found nothing.

After a while, I became so uncomfortable that I was scared to eat anything. That was when I thought to myself, I am not in heaven after all. I am in the halfway house.

I tell you what the halfway house is in case you do not know. Based on some religious beliefs, there are three places people go after they die: heaven if they are good, hell if they are bad and the halfway house if their status is not clear. As we all know what heaven and hell are like, at least from our inherited, religious beliefs point-of-view, I tell you about the halfway house. The halfway house is a place where you see all kinds of good stuff, but cannot have any of it; like a child in a candy store with no money to buy anything.

After I had realized where I was, I was disappointed and did not know what to do.

Until one day, I was sitting in the cafeteria during lunch hour and not eating anything when another student joined me. At first he thought I was waiting for friends, so he offered to sit at another table. Once I told him that was not the case, he asked, Why aren’t you eating then?

After I had explained my situation to him, he asked me where I was from, and I told him the place of my origin. Then he said he visited the area when he was growing up because his father was a missionary. He then suggested my problem was the change in my diet.

I said I knew that by then, but did not know what to do about it since anywhere I went, the food was the same or similar. He told me about a nearby health food store and encouraged me to go see what they had to offer.

After class that day, I went to the store he recommended and was shocked at what I saw. I said to myself, Oh, Mother Teresa, because it was the same kind of store selling some of the same kind of foods I grew up eating.

Eventually, I started to work there. After awhile, I bought the store in partnership with my wife at the time. We managed to promote health food all over Halifax and ended up with five locations, including a health food café, a bakery and three retail stores.

Since then I have never had any serious health problem, which I attribute to my pre-heaven lifestyle (before moving to Canada to be sarcastic), moderation in eating and my regular yoga and martial arts practices.

In this pillar, we do not waste your time counting calories or talking about refined carbohydrates, cholesterol and so forth, which are a result of an unjustifiable greed on the part of the food and drug industries. These industries are supported by health professionals who generally do not have enough knowledge of real food. Instead, we provide you with information and knowledge on real food as real food is one of the primal fountains of human life. If you remember from Pillar Three, Body Physio-Energetics, the three essential substances – energy, blood and body fluids – are sourced from our constitutional essence that we inherit from our parents and from the air we breathe, the fluids we drink, and the foods we eat. Based on this understanding, we present some knowledge within our capacity on the typical foods we consume and digest to provide us with these substances so we can sustain a healthy life.

It is a fact that organic or non-commercially grown natural food is not the same quality as 50 or 60 years ago due to general pollution in the air, water and soil. In comparison to then, however, there is so much more food available today (both in variety and quantity) that it compensates for the loss to some degree. At the same time, this degradation of our food cannot go on forever. If it does, eventually our green leafy vegetables and nice red pomegranates, unless they are dyed with chemicals, will become pale like most of us without cosmetics.

Unfortunately, the lack of enough interest in good organic or locally grown decent food discourages local farmers from producing it and businesses from shelving it. Perhaps there are two main reasons for this. One reason is that the general public is not aware of the differences between organic and non-organic food. Most people do not even know that commercial processing can destroy most of the nutritional properties of food. Adding a few synthetically-made chemicals under the guise of nutrients is only good for meeting government requirements. In fact, they have no nutritional value and can create more damage than good.

The second reason for a lack of interest in natural food is that the public perceives organic and even non-commercially-grown food as being too expensive in comparison to commercially-grown and processed food. There is some truth to this. The irony, though, is that some people who think they cannot afford organic or natural food are usually addicted to vitamin pills and supplements. Sometimes the pills and supplements cost a lot more than the difference between organic and non-organic food. In fact, even cutting out potato chips, pop or fake juice drinks can compensate for the seemingly extra cost of natural food. Furthermore, organic or natural, unprocessed food is not really more expensive than processed food because a person does not need to consume as much to be satisfied or to acquire the nutrients needed to maintain good health.

The wise dietary regime that we discuss in this pillar includes a dualistic system of yes’s and no’s as follows:

What to eat and what not to eat?

When to eat and when not to eat?

What to combine and what not to combine?

How to eat and how not to eat?

Where to eat and where not to eat?

Please note that we are not trying to take the pleasure of eating away from anyone. On the contrary, we show an alternative diet that provides better value and better taste. There is a catch, however; you must learn how to prepare and cook food naturally.

The Theory of Interdependability of Physical Health, Vital Energy and Mental Health (return to Contents)

The theory of interdependability suggests that the three aspects of our being, our body, energy (lifeforce), and mind are inseparable and interdependent. They are inseparable because not one of them can exist without the other two. They are interdependent because the dysfunction of one can affect the function of the others.

Even though these three aspects are interdependent, most people, unfortunately, do not relate their health problems, whether they are physical, mental or emotional, to what they consume. For example, people have recently started to become concerned about their mental health, but they are not properly informed about the connection between their physical health, lifeforce, and mental health, neither are they provided with enough information about the disease-causing foods which dominate a great portion of their daily consumption. In our clinical experience, lots of diseases including headaches, chronic lower backaches, stomach problems, high blood pressure, chronic fatigue and irritability as well as premature degeneration of the bones and muscle atrophy can be prevented or cured by adopting a healthy lifestyle. Even diseases that are classified as mental-emotional, such as so-called anxiety or depression, can be brought under control or cured by adjusting the daily diet accompanied by an appropriate daily exercise routine. Therefore, as our physical body is the home for our mind and lifeforce, we should not be careless about the health of our body, and neither should we take it for granted.

We all probably mostly agree that we are what we eat, meaning that eating unhealthy food can cause us physical ills. What many of us may not realize, however, is that our physical ailments can affect our vital energy and, therefore, our thinking process. An unhealthy body can pollute the lifeforce and lead to mental confusion. Since all human behaviour starts in our mind, when our mind is malfunctioning, our deeds and the quality of our performance are affected. When some of our clients bring their young children to us because they fight with their siblings, we recommend a diet change, such as restricting the consumption of food with processed sugar, junk food and soft drinks. It seems to work well for them; don't you think it would help you too?

Health is the number one most important component of our lives, at least it should be. We always think about how much money we make, what type of car we want to drive or what size of house we want to live in, but the average individual seldom thinks about what kind of body they would like to have, particularly people in Confused Pink Societies. Why Confused Pink Societies? Because people in these nations, in general, think that if they get sick, it is not a big deal; they can call in sick without losing any pay, and they can go to a doctor for medication which is usually covered by the government or insurance. In most developing and undeveloped countries though, people are more careful not to get sick. There, being sick means losing their livelihood. They might not even have a doctor to go to, and even if they do, they have to pay for his advice and medication from their own empty pockets, which most cannot afford.

Health does not necessarily mean the absence of aches and pains; in fact, far from it. We can get rid of aches and pains by taking drugs or narcotics, but neither can secure our health. In reality, they can make us more vulnerable to serious diseases. We may not feel any discomfort, but we feel miserable most of the time without knowing why. We