As the proverb goes, health is wealth. And in this instance we are talking about the wealth of the human spirit. Good food is necessary for our health because our body is able to absorb its full nutrients – it is exactly so with our life. When we accept life in its sum total, relishing all its phenomena and sensations, our soul will be able to imbibe its entire range of ‘nutrients’, comprehending the full meaning of our existence, and letting us live our life to the utmost. Masami Sato shares the secret of living a full life in this excerpt from her latest book, ONE.
How come that many of us, (in fact, more of us) occasionally have a hollow feeling in our life? It is like the pangs of hunger. When we eat, the hunger is appeased and then we are not as much interested in food. But after a while, we become hungry again. Then, surprisingly we feel again enticed by the flavour and vision of food. We also experience some sort of a pining when we are not even actually hungry – just after we had some food. Some of us are perpetually hungry.
Constant emotional hunger is not the most pleasant thing to have. Then, how can we live our lives to the fullest? How can we be more satisfied permanently?
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 commence by looking at a sample of this ‘fullness’ with something very close to our heart – our stomach.
Whole Food VS Semi Food
We have heard the term ‘whole food’. They say that eating whole food is the key to the health and wellness we seek. Then why is whole food so much better than ‘half food’?
A full grain throbs with a life of its own. If you put the full grain in water, drain the next day and keep for a few days, it shoots. It has its own life. When we dine on such food, our body takes in the entire live nutrients. It has all the qualities required to purify, remedy and foster different body cells.
As in the example of a grain, most conventional dining includes having whole creatures as well. Having entire fresh fish used to be more popular than taking a portion of fish and throwing the balance away. It was ditto for poultry and also for vegetables.
‘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 perceive our life now, much of what we are doing can be similar to eating the ‘part food.’ Just enjoying the sugariness of life but jettisoning the real nutritious part. And if we put our ‘part life’ in water with other pieces and left it in the sunlight, could it germinate and grow into a beautiful complete life?
Whole food is not (as some people perceive it) poor in taste. It is actually tastier when we prepare it properly. But while the demand is low, it is more expensive. It is actually more economical in the long run though, as we have less medical expenses later on. When more people start eating it, it will naturally become cheaper because it is a simpler food with less processing 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?
Picture a life where we didn’t in fact believe that we were lacking anything there.
The secret is right here. The secret of a full life.
Entire Life-The Complete Life
When it is ‘full’, it does not matter how big the full is. It can spread out all at once. It can still have within it all the components to uphold itself as a complete living thing. Once it develops to a given size, it can continue to live without some portions of it. Like plants can remain alive after birds feed on a little of it or trees survive even after losing their leaves. But if we ignore the equilibrium for a pretty long time, finally it can lead to a deadly disproportion. Then it might become too difficult to revert to normalcy.
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 discover how we can fashion (and perceive) this equation consistently and affordably.
The actual enriching part of our life is what makes us feel fine deep inside. It is like that portion of food that makes us hale and hearty in the final tally. Sensations we experience in our daily life are the real answer to our lasting joy. And there are sensations that make us feel more full.
The happy faces we see when we give recognition to others. The pleasure we experience when we give presents to others. The affection we feel when we see our kids being happy. The encouragements we get when we feel our life is full of significance ..
Let’s experience these moments of our life fully and enjoy the flavour of our whole life. Then we will see how it is not so necessary to continuously fill our mind (and stomach!) with temporal gratifications-those types of things that make us even hungrier afterwards.
We can actually experience this delight, thankfulness and affection in order to sense life as a whole at any minute irrespective of the circumstances. It is not about what we perceive, what we are told or how we act that conclude our life as a whole. It is about what we ‘opt to’ feel about our life.
Yes, our life indeed is already absolute.
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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