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Zoni

Mochi cooked in soup with vegetables.

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Zen Buddhism

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Zybicolin

 

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NOTE: The remedies listed in this dictionary are provided for informational purposes only. No external or food remedy cures a disease; rather it is used to relieve symptoms and to encourage healing. Caution is required if dealing with cancer or other serious illness. In all cases, consult one of the following home remedy books for specific instructions and a qualified health care provider. (Several of these books are currently out of print but may be found in libraries or from out-of-print book suppliers.)

• Aihara, Cornellia and Herman Aihara with Carl Ferré. Natural Healing from Head to Toe. Garden City Park, NY: Avery Publishing Group, 1994.
• Muramoto, Noboru. Healing Ourselves. New York: Avon Books, 1973.
• Ohsawa, George. Practical Guide to Far Eastern Macrobiotic Medicine. Chico, CA: George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation, 1976.
• Kushi, Michio and Alex Jack. Macrobiotic Path to Total Health. New York: Balantine Books, 2003.
• Kushi, Michio with Marc van Cauwenberge, MD. Macrobiotic Home Remedies. New York: Japan Publications, 1985.

In addition, many other macrobiotic books contain sections on home remedies and these may be useful as well.

Everything Changes: A shortened version of the sixth theorem of the Unifying Principle and used in some writings for the fifth law of the seven laws of the Order of the Universe. “In this world, all is subject to change; everything changes. Only the Order of the Universe remains unchanged. It’s only natural that the finite world obeys this order of the Universe because the former arises from the latter. This order is extremely simple; yet, it explains everything in the phenomenal world that can be understood in terms of yin and yang.” (Order of the Universe 42)

Stages of Sickness: Just as there is an orderly progression of life, there is an orderly progression of sickness beginning with fatigue and pain and ending with spiritual disease characterized by arrogance and intolerance. These diseases are often interconnected.

  1. Fatigue: The real foundation of all diseases caused by a disorderly life (undisciplined, mean, ungrateful) or a chaotic family or parents. Catching a cold even in cold weather is a sign of fatigue as is a lack of vitality.
  2. Pain and suffering: Physical distress caused by capricious, sentimental, or exclusive judgment. Psychosomatic illness also fits in this category. Pain is one of the reasons why people seek medical attention. In macrobiotic thinking, it’s a signal that something is wrong.
  3. Chronic symptoms: Long-lasting or recurring illnesses such as headache, painful chest, diarrhea, vomiting, ulcer, trachoma, leukemia and all skin and blood diseases caused by an excess of yin or yang in food.
  4. Sympatheticotonic or vagotonic: Sicknesses of the autonomic nervous system. Sympatheticotonic disease is tension of nerves in the thoracic and lumbar regions of the spinal cord. Vagotonic disease is hyperexcitability of the vagus nerve resulting in bradycardia, decreased heart output, and faintness.
  5. Functional and structural changes in the body or organs such as teeth, eyes, or heart.
  6. Psychological or emotional: Examples include paranoia, schizophrenia, easy loss of temper, neurasthenia, restlessness, hysteria, lack of sociability or patience, exclusiveness, and cardiac dilation.
  7. Spiritual disease: The feeling of separation from the Infinite or the order of the universe. Arrogant and intolerant people suffer from this last stage of sickness without experiencing the first six stages.

Seven Laws of the Order of the Universe: Seven laws or principles that form the basis for all laws of physical nature. These principles do not change and thus work in both the finite and infinite worlds. They may be used to resolve all conflicts by understanding that antagonisms are also complementary. The seven laws are:

  1. Inversion, Principle of: “What has a beginning has an end.” This principle negates the law of identity and contradiction in time. Individual life begins at birth and will end at some time. In a similar way, a sickness that begins one day will end in the future. This law is another way to say that everything in life changes over time. See Logic, Aristotelian.
  2. Front/Back, Principle of: “What has a front has a back.” This principle negates the law of identity and contradiction in space. Everything that exists has an opposite that is also complementary. The front is perceived as positive or useful while the back is perceived as negative or a shortcoming. An example is a medication (front) and its side effects (back). See Logic, Aristotelian.
  3. Difference, Principle of: “There is nothing identical.” This principle negates the law of identity. Even though there are countless stars in the universe and trillions of cells in one’s body, each is unique—for one thing, no two things can occupy the same space at the same time. See Logic, Aristotelian.
  4. Balance, Principle of: “The bigger the front, the bigger the back.” This principle negates the law of the excluded middle. This law is similar to the saying that something is too good to be true and the scientific principle that every action creates an equal and opposite reaction. An example is nuclear energy—a great front in the production of energy but a great back in terms of an accident or fallout. See Logic, Aristotelian.
  5. Nondual origin, Principle of: “Every antagonism is complementary.” This principle negates formal logic. All things are constantly in motion and thus changing due to the interplay of opposites. This law is another way of saying that everything changes and to look for both sides of every situation. See Logic, Aristotelian.
  6. Polarization, Principle of: “Yin and Yang are the classifications of all polarization. They are antagonistic and complementary.” This principle is the foundation of the universal dialectic logic. There is nothing that is complementary without antagonism. Yin and yang are the two arms of Oneness (Infinity) that create, sustain, destroy, and produce anew everything that exists in the finite world. Without conflict harmony has no meaning. Without contradiction there is no agreement.
  7. Polarizable Monism, Principle of: “Yin and Yang are the two arms of One (Infinity).” The unchanging, limitless, constant, and omnipotent world of Oneness produces and nourishes all things both physical and spiritual. Laws one through six are experienced by the five senses and may be analyzed by the mind or scientific instruments. In contrast, the seventh law is a sketch of the ultimate cause of the universe itself.

Nonduality: Macrobiotics is a nondual philosophy that literally means “not two.” It is opposed to dualism—the view that two substances (matter and spirit for example) are completely separate from each other. This idea negates monism—the theory that there is only one entity or principle that is the basis of reality. This Oneness produces all things through the interactions of connected yet opposing forces or tendencies.

Instinct-Intuition: Another name for Oneness or perfect consciousness. Instinct is a natural spontaneity or quality that leads to adaptability. Intuition is innate supreme judgment leading to an automatic inner knowing or feeling.

Justice, absolute: The impartial law that applies to all that exists and that leads to deserved punishment for violations of the order of the universe or the just reward for following it.

Truth: That which does not change. The only thing that doesn’t change in the finite (relative) world is the fact that everything changes, the implication being that the Infinite World is the real, true One.

Order of the Universe: Macrobiotic philosophy begins with the concept that everything emanates from the Infinite (Oneness) in an orderly progression that is knowable. This progression is the order of the universe, tracing the transformation from Universal Life (the Infinite) to individual life in seven worlds or steps in which each world creates and nourishes each subsequent one. The seven worlds are: Infinity, polarity, vibration, pre-atomic, elements, vegetal, and animal. See also Seven Laws of the Order of the Universe.

  1. Infinite World (Infinity): The unlimited, boundless, endless, invisible, and unmeasurable primal source of all things, including humankind. Other names for the Infinite World include: Infinity, Infinite Pure Expansion, Oneness, God, Spirit, Nature, the Tao, Taikyoku, Perfect Consciousness, Ether-Universe, Instinct-Intuition, Supreme Judgment, and Seventh Heaven. Since all things and people are considered to be created and continually nourished by the same source, everyone and everything is connected.
  2. Polarity, World of: The foundation of the relative world due to the polarization of the Infinite into yin (expansion) and yang (contraction). These two arms are both antagonistic and complementary to each other. The interplay between them is the origin of magnetism. It is the beginning of pulsation and life itself as these two energies intersect and collide with each other. Thus, yin-yang interaction is the foundation of the finite world (worlds two through seven).
  3. Vibration, World of: The beginning of the production of energy and origin of electricity as yin and yang continue to interact with each other and waves such as light and sound waves are created. Antagonisms and complementaries include visible and invisible radiation, hot and cold rays, dynamic and stimulating rays (yellow, orange, red) and static and calming rays (green, blue, indigo, violet), and infrared and ultraviolet radiation.
  4. Pre-Atomic World: The beginning of all subatomic particles as the two arms of Oneness continue to interact not only with each other but also with the waves of the world of vibration. Examples of antagonisms and complementaries include centrifugal and centripetal force and solid and gaseous.
  5. Elements, World of: The world of elements evolves from subatomic particles and is the beginning of atoms, stars, and millions of solar systems. Antagonisms and complementaries include mountain and river, land and sea, air and earth, polar and tropical regions, hot and cold, day and night, and surface and center of Earth. Worlds two through five comprise the inorganic world.
  6. Vegetal (Plant) World: The beginning of the organic world and all viruses, bacteria, and vegetables is born from the inorganic world of elements, earth, water, and air. This transition occurs by spontaneous generation. The main characteristic of the vegetal world is that all plants have chlorophyll, making then green. Antagonisms and complementaries include grass and tree, trunk and branch, branch and leaf, flower and seed (or fruit), cell and organ, germ and soma cells.
  7. Animal World: The beginning of animals, including humans, as the magnesium in chlorophyll is replaced by iron in the creation of hemoglobin—the essence of blood (red). Antagonisms and complementaries include white and red corpuscles, bone and flesh, man and woman, governors and governed, worker and capitalist, work and rest, love and hate, war and peace, sickness and health, and life and death.

Everything Changes: A shortened version of the sixth theorem of the Unifying Principle and used in some writings for the fifth law of the seven laws of the Order of the Universe. “In this world, all is subject to change; everything changes. Only the Order of the Universe remains unchanged. It’s only natural that the finite world obeys this order of the Universe because the former arises from the latter. This order is extremely simple; yet, it explains everything in the phenomenal world that can be understood in terms of yin and yang.” (Order of the Universe 42)

Change: Something that occurs differently in the future than if no action is taken in the present. There are four types of change: stepped, linear, spiralic, and cyclic. “In the stepped pattern there are no changes for a time, and then there is a sudden change. In the linear pattern, some changes happen every day in a certain proportion; a graph will be closer to a straight line or curve, but not the zigzag line of a stepped change…Another path for change is the spiralic way of change. There are two aspects of spiralic change. One is centrifugal and the other is centripetal…The last pattern of change is a cyclic one. These changes are manifested in natural rhythmic cycles. Our daily activity, hunger, bowel movement, sugar metabolism, etc., are changing by daily or hourly cycles. Then there are the monthly cycles, like menstruation or ovulation.” (Kaleidoscope 246-247)

Logic, Aristotelian: The foundation of Western scientific thinking “…based on the law of identity (A is A), the law of contradiction (A is not non-A), and the law of the excluded middle (X cannot be A and non-A at the same time)….This logic is negated by the Order of the Universe….Without deep thinking, the statement ‘A is A’ is valid. But from the careful observation of the world and our experiences, it is obvious that there is no A in existence identical to another A. In other words, ‘A is A’ is imaginary thinking, not realistic, because A is always changing. A is no more A at the next second. Such thinking is paradoxical thinking well expressed by the teachings of Lao Tsu, Buddha, and other Oriental wise men. George Ohsawa called this paradoxical thinking ‘supreme judgment.’ In his seven stages of judgment, it can be seen as the last, or the first.” (Kaleidoscope 206)