Tuesday, June 27, 2006

An Inconvenient Truth

Roger Ebert, perhaps the country's premier movie reviewer,
said in his review of this film [An Inconvenient Truth]:

"In 39 years, I have never written these
words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to
see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should
explain to them why you decided not to."

This is one of the most powerful and well-made movies to come along in a while. It's deeply profound and frightening to see what Al Gore presents. Please see this movie, and go to www.climatecrisis.net so that you can find out what you can do to reduce your carbon footprint on the earth.

Macrobiotic people are already doing some of these things, but we can always do more.

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Macrobiotic "yajna": eco spirituality

Whenever I read my yoga magazines, I find so much overlap with what I learned in my macrobiotic studies. I loved this excerpt from Yoga International's March 2006 issue called Re-enchantment by Sandra Anderson. It said:

The Ritual of Life

"Yajna is ritual fire sacrifice on the one hand, but it's more general meaning is that which contributes to the beauty and well-being of creation. Yajna is that which sustains and nourishes the matrix of life. Swami Rama writes in his translation of the Bhagavad Gita, "In the universe, every action is a ritual, and the ritual is performed for the sake of sacrifice. The raindrop sacrifices itself to become part of the plant, the sun gives up its energy to give light and life to all beings." He was fond of saying "Giving is the law of the universe." Selfless actions, he would tell us, unconditional love, the offering of inner vitalities to the Lord of Life, working with less attachment to the outcome and more attention to our highest values -- these are yajnas."

Fragrant yajna offerings are burnt and the smoke ascends to the subtle realms "to nourish and propitiate the forces of nature. Acknowledging this interdependent matrix of life, the Bhagavad Gita says, "Beings are born from food; food is produced from the rain; rain is produced from sacrifice (yajna), and yajna arises from action." The actions of humans living in harmony with the environment nourish the atmosphere, keeping the rain in balance, and protecting the soil, plants, and entire food chain."

I feel good knowing that my dietary choices attempt to realign with nature and that somehow I am doing what I can to help nourish not just myself and the people that I cook for, but also the planet. Practicing macrobiotics is a form of yajna. I have a choice not to eat meat, dairy, sugar, and other extreme foods that would not only hurt my health, but in doing so also harm others.