Regarding Life and death, east and west thoughts are completly oppposite

Here is the limit of the judgement, the intellectuality, the thought represented by America. Occidental science totally ignores the world of spirtuality, happiness, peace - as Bergson so judiciously noted - while it has pressed to the extreme its study of materiality. It is only natural that the development of weapons of death or assassination in the West has attained heights never before imagined anywhere on earth!

The course of development of man's understanding of Life in the Extreme Orient is diametrically opposite to what has occurred in the West. Oriental man's original reaction to Life was complete astonishment. In contemplating the Universe as a whole as well as those phenomena on earth, he experienced deep wonder at what he saw: mountains, rivers, flowers, insects, wind and snow, rain and tempest. He was even more amazed at Life itself. He thought, reflected, meditated and concluded that the orgin of the material world is the VOID.

Occidentals have enormous difficulty understanding that the Universe is Infinite, Absolute and Eternal. For them, the principle of relativity encompasses all! But relativity being bounded and finite, we meet that finality wherein there is nothing more to penetrate. We come to unmistakable evidence that the "beyond" is infinite and absolute, we arrive at the despair, absurdity, discouragement and forlornness of the life of materiality.

Occidental science has developed over a period of several hundred years; the last thirty - the era of nuclear science - can be considered as the final stage of that development. Its last and greatest glory is a murderous weapon that has no equal: the atomic bomb. This is the exact antipode of the five great religons which are the pathways of Life, Justice, and Happiness in the Extreme Orient.

The Universe is a constant, centrifugal expansion (1) moving at the unmeasurable and unthinkable speed of Infinity, the Absolute, and Eternal. This cintrifugal expansion immediately produces two poles (11): Yin and Yang. These two produce all phenomena. Thus is born the finite world. Of necessity this world has an end since by definition it is finite and limited. At this final point, finite phenomena disappear instantaneously and take on the form of Infinity and the Absolute which are their orgin.This cycle repeats itself without end. This process of infinite vicissitude, or ephemeral, endless change in the Universe, is its true countenance: This is LIFE.

Those who know the Unique Principle of Macrobiotics, by contrast, never run the risk of coming to a tragic end no matter what the circumstances. You can, however, live an amusing and beautiful life in spite of poverty and obscurity, you can live a splendid independent existence without fame: merely apply Yin and Yang in your daily affairs and particularly at the table in your eating.

We must abandon the exclusivity that has brought us to the point of thinking that "our life' is ours and by us. We must recall occasionally that the great, infinite generator is our true life, the origin of our will and spirtuality. (1)

 

original book cover

 

1. Life and Death - George Ohsawa - First Published 1971
©Copyright George Ohsawa Macrobiotic Foundation - G.O.M.F