Energetics of Food and Eating Part 1

The author in the kitchen

Energetics of Food and Eating

This essay is partially a translation from Pollozek/Behringer’s excellent book “The Timeless Ayurvedic Kitchen – Healing Power of Our Food,” (in German) combined with my own experience of ayurvedic cooking and yogic lifestyle. After I left my parents house and lived in communes during the time of the 70’s counterculture, I had become aware of macrobiotics, brown rice and growing your own food and even during my rock’n roll years in New York I shopped mostly at farmer’s markets, yet only when I began my studies of yoga and ayurveda with Myra Lewin, have I learned about the deep healing powers of our food and how we handle and eat it. Ayurveda is the oldest medicine system that we know of, comparable to the better known Traditional Chinese Medicine in its completeness. It is not an abstract concept but is applied differently to each person taking in account their unique combination of the elements of air, water, earth, fire and ether in a particular time and space called the doshas.

Ayurveda defines health as:

The three energetic doshas Vata, Pitta and Kapha are in balance.

The metabolism/digestion functions well.

The tissues are healthy and well developed and the waste is adequately moved out.

The sense and touch organs work properly.

The soul and spirit are in a state of permanent happiness.

Sushruta Samahita, 15.38, 1 Century BC

1. How much should we eat?  Honor the burb.

Only when our stomach is empty, when our previous meal is digested and we have a natural feeling of hunger should we eat. The stomach should only be filled half with food, one quarter with liquids from the juices of the food or some water (at least room temperature), the last quarter should remain empty. If you don’t eat too fast and pay attention you will notice a small burb forming in your stomach. This is a sign that anything you eat after this signal is not digestable, turns into toxins and eventually disease. After a while you will feel this even before the burb forms. Later you will intuitively put just the right amount of food on your plate. You feel satisfied, neither hungry nor tired.

The signs of adequate amounts of food are:

No pressure, pain in your stomach, sides or heart area;

No feelings of hunger or thirst;

No feeling of heaviness or tiredness;

The senses and the spirit are relaxed, strengthened and satisfied;

A light and pleasant feeling. The German word is “Sättigungsgefühl”. There is no direct translation that I could find. It is a feeling of satisfaction specific to eating.

2. What foods are inadequate?

Avoid foods that have little or no energy (Prana, Mana, Chi)

De-naturalised foods, reheated leftovers (It is best to take leftovers out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature naturally. 24 hrs is the experation date. Frozen, microwaved, canned, fast food or foods with added chemicals, refined foods like sugar ionized salts, too much animal proteins, refined sweets, white flower, zero fat products, too much caffeine or alcohol.

Healthy foods are oily, warm, fresh and easily digested. Raw food is very popular today, but is very difficult or impossible to digest for most people. There is much literature on the ayurvedic perspective on raw food.

It is preferable to eat organic produce that is grown in the region you live. Especially grains, milk and everything that grows in the earth should be organic. Support small farms and cooperatives or grow some of your own food, which is especially satisfying. Every time food is cooled or reheated it loses energy that the body needs in order to digest it.

The food should fit your specific constitution (your dosha), your digestive fire and your preferences. Each person has a different metabolism, the ability to digest varies depending on appetite, time of year, mood, intuition and age.

Lunch at the author’s place with Kylie Kumalae Ota and Miks De Los Santos

3. Where? The right place.

Eat in a place that has a calm  and clean atmosphere without too much distraction. Avoid TV, electronics, driving or too much talk. A golden rule is: everything you do with consciousness and joy is good; everything you do with resistance and unconsciousness will create problems. When we eat with consciousness our taste receptors send out specific enzymes fitting what we eat. The meal becomes satisfying. Unconscious eating leads to a loss in digestive activity. As a result we develop cravings, excessive eating and ama, waste products in our digestive tracts, which eventually leads to disease.

Eat with people who are sympathetic to you. The food should be prepared with love. Restaurants are especially difficult. Have you ever worked in a restaurant? I have for many years and now chose carefully. A meal that is prepared with love and attention will satisfy your body and soul.

4. What is important before you eat?

Wash your hands and ideally face and feet. Only eat when you are hungry.

Pay attention to your right nostril. It shows how strong your agni, digestive fire, is. If it is blocked breathe deeply for a minute through your right nostril only. A great digestive help is a slice or small pyramid of chopped ginger with some salt and lime. It starts the digestive fire, agni.

If Kapha is out of balance or if you are overweight it is ok to drink something before and during a meal. It is best not to drink for 45 min to an hour after a meal in order not to weaken your agni.

Take a moment to slow down and go inward, bless the food, the farmers, the company or anything else you like. Loosen the relationship between your ego and the food as object that you own.

5. What is important after eating?

It is best not to sleep, study, have sex, a deep bath for two hours after eating, don’t engage in sports or heavy physical work for one hour. All these activities lead to undigested food, ama. A short silent acknowledgment of the meal is helpful. It is ok to eat a few fennel seeds or clean your mouth with your tongue or a toothpick but brushing your teeth immediately after a meal is not recommended. Urinating is good – to provoke elimination is not.

Vata and Pitta types can rest a little while Kapha types should walk “1 000” steps to help their more sluggish digestion.

 

 

 

 

One of the author’s ayurvedic bentos with the ginger appetizer on a leaf of shiso

6. How should we eat?

Keep the food hot for only three to four hours. That is better than reheating. It is ok to leave leftover that you cooked for lunch at room temperature  and eat it for dinner. This does not apply to fish or meat.

Every meal should stimulate all senses. Eating with your hands involves the sense of taste and leads to slower and less eating.

A disturbed, tense or tired mind affects  appetite and agni. Chew each bite with consciousness and as much as possible. It is ok to drink small sips of warm water. Ice water is not recommended.

7. Avoid certain combinations of food. They can be toxic.

This topic affords an entire chapter of its own, to follow.

8. When should we eat?

It is best to eat at regular times. Then your digestive system will work like clockwork. The appetite as well as the digestion will be right there for you. Too short or too long a time between meals are not good. 4-5 hours is ok, but 6 is too long. It leads to digestive disturbances and indigestion.

Cooked ripe bananas with ghee, raisins and cinnamon make a great breakfast.

Breakfast is best between 7:00 and 8:30 AM

Regular intervals are important:
Vata: 3-4 hrs/depending on work/activity a small snack is ok.

Pitta: 4-5 hrs/depending on work/activity one small snack is ok.

Kapha: 5-6 hrs/ no snack

Lunch should be the main meal between 11:00 and 2:00

The strength of the sun matches the strength of the digestion. The body is ready to take in a larger amount of food and to metabolize it. Do not miss lunch. It will ruin your health in the long run. Raw food, fish, meat, eggs are best eaten at this time and not for dinner.

Dinner is best eaten before sunset 6:00 – 7:30 PM

Best foods are cooked vegetables, soups, stews, grains, legumes. These foods enhance digestion and longevity. To eat at night challenges the liver, blood and colon. Dinner should be eaten 2-3 hrs befor bed time.

Generally do not eat before the last meal is digested.

Mashed Purple Sweet PotatoesHow should meals be prepared?

9. How should meals be prepared?

All six tastes steer our psyche. Enough oil stimulates the gallbladder. If all six tastes are present eating disorders and binging attacks are rare. The food should be natural and balanced, if it is not balanced spices are used to enhance, balance and add energy. Specific ways of cooking can make cool ingredients warmer, lighter foods heavier and vice versa. The doshas, age and time of year should be considered. The six tastes are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, astringent.

10. Who eats how? The consciousness of eating.

The eater is more important than the food. Recognize and learn about your specific constitution. Then you know what is good for you and what not. Use your intuition, but be able to discriminate between intuition and craving. We often follow our cravings and ignore our intuition. Eat only what you like and what you can digest.

Never eat when you are too emotional or not hungry. In these states your body is in flight or fight mode and not able to  eat or digest. Never eat when you are angry, depressed, sad, too excited, bored or to swallow stacked up emotions. Even the best food, eaten during emotional stress turns into ama.

Eat with respect and consciousness of what nature provides you with, then even a badly prepared meal can be good.

Sources:

Alexander Pollozek & Dominik Behringer, Die Zeitlose Ayurvedische Küche – Heilkraft unserer Nahrung, 2012 Narayana Verlag, 3rd Edition 2013

What Goes On – The Amazing – The Pathetic and The Opportunity

a recent morning view from my lanai

What goes on in your heart – what goes on in your mind (Lou Reed)? the spiritual and the mundane live right next to each other and can be one and the same. I have written about the spiritual aspect of the Velvet Underground elsewhere, but here is what goes on in my heart and mind now. This year I have taught 5 or 6 classes on Ayurvedic cooking using principles that go back 5 000 years to the Vedas, and are designed to create the food that is healthy, great tasting and helps create balance in specific ways tailored for you now. Most of these classes were held at my humble semi-out-door kitchen on the beautiful shores of Kaneohe Bay. Ayurveda is not an abstract concept, but adjusts to your singular daily needs. Recently I cooked a variation of the basic ayurvedic rice, beans and vegetable stew called kitchadi for a family every day for a week.  The result of a greatly improved digestive system especially for the person who was suffering the most from digestive problems before.

Brown basmati rice, mung beans, pumkin, broccoli, goat cheese, ayurvedic ginger appetizer on a leaf of shiso.

Last month, I had the pleasure of teaching an Ayurvedic cooking class at the Honolulu Down to Earth.  The class was held in DTE’s community room kitchen and fully equipped with cameras and projection of the cooking process.  The attendees were genuinely curious and open minded group which made for a fun and interesting class.  A great break through came when I taught a two day class on Maui organized by Ayurvedic doctor Sylvia Welchel.  The Maui classes consisted of 15 women that were highly motivated and familiar with concepts of holistic medicine, one of them being a chef.  I was very excited with the high vibration of the class.

Ti Leaves collected and arranged by Na’ilima Ahuna

I had asked a women, whom I’ll call Suzanne, to help steer a mix of ghee and spices. I noticed something in her eyes which will remain unspoken. Later I noticed that Suzanne was missing and thought that she had gone to the bathroom.  Upon her return, I noticed a different glimmer in her eyes but didn’t think much more about it, being that I was quite busy teaching and cooking, while engaging in dialogue with everyone.

After class Sylvia, my collaborator and I sat down and she asked me if I knew what had happened to Suzanne. This is her story. Suzanne had lost her sense of smell as a child, caused by her mother’s incessant smoking. She never cooked and had developed a heavy eating disorder. During the cooking, Suzanne had had a breakdown and breakthrough. Sylvia took her into her treatment room. Suzanne was able to “feel the smell of the cooking food.” Indeed, a major breakthrough. My answer was, “if this is the only outcome of the whole weekend, all the prep, shopping, flying to Maui, etc it would still be more than amazing. If that would be the only thing I ever did, it would be ok.

My next cooking class will be held on EARTH day April 22 9 AM-12 PM. Location TBA.

living, working, eating, yoga all right here

Now, my landlord, who studied to be a doctor and then had a heart attack likes to get his rent check on time. He is not of the belief that I should live for free in his house because I do such good things and get him the newspaper most days. He is in a wheelchair. Living in Hawaii has its price. My rent is $ 1590.-, which after living here for eight years, I can almost consider a bargain. This is what I had to do to pay rent this month. Get as much cash advance from my second credit card, the first one is already maxed out, put in the cash I had made the day before for a private cooking class, and use my $ 500 ‘covercheck’ that covers bounced  checks. All this creates more interest and puts me deeper into depth. I have applied for social security and will get about $ 500 monthly, once it gets through and I will probably get Medicaid 2, and I might have health insurance for the first time in 17 years. For those of you who don’t know, I make my living through selling art, teaching art, yoga, taiji and ayurvedic cooking, house painting and occasionally I sell one of the NYN 7′ re-issue. Recently a gallery has sold a painting of mine on layaway. That is great. Really? Layaway? I didn’t know that existed still and I have no idea when I get paid. Another gallery has more than $ 20 000 worth of my paintings. I also have a good amount of paintings and prints at my house. Needless to say, this is the last month I can pull this off, because now everything is maxed out. Pathetic, ridiculous and stressful. I am not asking for charity. So how do you help an artist? Buy her/his art.

Here is your opportunity and here is some affordable art that is guaranteed to inspire your soul.

1. Sri Yantra, woodcuts at $50 a piece for you yogis and meditators. for more on the Yantras. Yantra, Mandala, Pop-up        
2. Inspirational woodcut cards. Each one a unique print.10 for $ 90. Some of the cards are scanned at 3 200 DPI and can be printed at pretty much any size. They look amazing blown up. 
3. NYN vinyl 7′ re-issue limited hand numbered 1…/250. On the record and other multiples.
   
4. “100 Views of Taiji” Archival print of 100 paintings,                                                      hand signed and numbered, $ 100        
5. “Gold Waves” giclee of an oil painting 50″ x 64″, or any smaller size. on request, I’ll paint over the giclee. When I Paint my Masterpiece and more paintings. Earth – Water – Sky

DieterRunge GoldWavesBottom 50×64 200, 6/18/15, 5:22 PM, 8C, 10918×14081 (162+720), 150%, Custom, 1/8 s, R39.3, G30.5, B49.7

Of course there is much more. Check out the rest of the site and contact me directly at dieter.runge.808@gmail.com

If you like to know more about What Goes On, here is a heartfelt version of one of my favorite VU tunes recorded at my house a couple of years ago.  I think I might play this song as long as I can hold a guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MyXSukquz4

We have used Alice Neel as band name for a few years. When Will Williams II Stephen Niles and I formed the band, being all painters the name fell into our laps via Stephen’s great mind. Here is a clip with the real Alice: Inside New York’s Art World: Alice Neel. Music is on hiatus for the moment. When I start a new band there will be a new name.

As always, with much love and Aloha, dieter

at a recent wedding – polaroids are popular again.

 

 

ACCEPT – 4 GIVE – CREATE – LOVE

Inspirational woodcuts – cards to walls

Unique woodblock prints with inspirational messages 4” x 6” mounted on folded card-stock 5” x 7”, with mail envelopes in clear folio. Some are scanned at 3 200 dpi and can be digitally printed to large size.

Each of these handmade cards is unique, created with consciousness and love in my studio at the shore of beautiful Kaneohe Bay. Check for new cards. The carved blocks are printed on prepared BFK paper, cut-up ghost or test prints from previous projects.

Enter a caption

                                  GIVE. wood cut. 4″ x 6″ and 4″ x 6″ with 18″ x 24″ digital print.

 

This post is a continuation of my Allow Surrender Courage Ease entry. The content of the cards reflect my spiritual practice.

At the current moment there are about 30 words or sentences with more coming on. You’ll find a list below. Each print consists of two layers. The first layers derives from test and ghost prints that are cut to size and then printed with the word(s) on top. So, each print is unique.

The word(s) are carved into 1/4″ plywood, then printed on top of the ghost or test print. After drying the 4×6 cards are mounted on 7×10 card stock, which is folded in half to achieve the standard 5×7 folded cards. Finally, each card is put into a clear envelope together with a mailing envelope.

Cutting the 4″ x 6″ block of 1/4″ plywood

There are a fe steps before carving or cutting the block. Once you have a design you transfer it to the block or draw it on directly. One has to consider the block has to be carved as the reverse or backwards image of what one wants to see in the print.

 

Printing on the small press in the background

Printing is fun and messy if one doesn’t watch out. The ink has a tendency to travel from block to hand to apron to paper or in any other possibility that you can imagine and some you can’t.

mounting the cards on the 7″ x 10 1/2″ card stock and folding the cards in half

During the gluing and folding everything has to be clean again.

3 cards  run though the press to clean up the fold

High Vibrations is the aim.

1. ALLOW – Sometimes all we have to do is step back, relax and allow the good things in life come to us
2. ALIGN – Align your body, align your intentions and most of all align with your true self,  and everything comes easy to you.
3. B KIND – There is always room for more kindness.
4. COURAGE – Do not despair you have a lot of courage, often it is just hidden.
5. CREATE – Express your self. Don’t face reality. Crate your own reality.
6. DANCE – Turn up the music, turn on the disco ball and dance.
7. (I) FEEL GOOD – We can’t control all circumstances, but we have the power about how we feel. Find something that makes you feel good and build momentum. Good Times will come. I feel good.
8. FAITH – It is good to have faith, in someone, something, best to have faith in your true self.
9. 12. FUN – Fun, Fun, Fun and don’t stop when daddy takes the T-bird away (for the younger readers, check the Beach Boys, FUN FUN FUN.
10. 4 GIVE – Give and forgive. It is essential to forgive in order for liberation to take place. Most of all forgive your self.
11. EASE – Ease up. When we do things with EASE, we are most successful.
12. JOY – Especially in trying times it serves us well to express joy. Joy is our essential nature.
13. LOVE – Be love, love more, love passionately, love life.
14. MAKE IT FUNKY – What can I say? Bring some funk into your life, like you just don’t care. Make it Funky
15. THINGS ALWAYS WORK OUT… Make it your mantra. Think about it.
16. PLAY – God is happiest when the children are at play.
17. SURRENDER – Surrender to what you can’t control – Create what you can. Surrender to LOVE.
18. TRUST – Trust someone or something, best: “Trust your self”
19. YES – Say yes to life.
20. BLISS – Follow your bliss.
21. Inspire – Inspire someone. Lead by example.
22. Free – We are all meant to be free in body and mind.
23. IMAGINE – Imagine the impossible, the unthinkable.
24. Dream – Hang on to your dreams. Hang on to Your Self.
25. GRACE – Isn’t that what we all aim for, doing things gracefully, reaching a state of grace?

 

https://dieterrunge.wordpress.com          http://festivalofpatience.blogspot.com

https://soundcloud.com/dieterosten       https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dieterosten

https://www.facebook.com/dieter.runge.92        dieter runge linkedin

 

 

 

Every Breath I Take

 

David Hockney – Pool Painting

 

In every dream home a heartache

And every step I take

Takes me further from heaven

Is there a heaven?

I`d like to think so

IN EVERY DREAM HOME A HEARTACHE Roxy Music

 

Bryan Ferry sings about the miseries of the modern life in this very unusual song, on Roxy Music’s 1972 Second Album For Your Pleasure.

Basic necessities are covered, we enjoy a certain amount of luxuries, but somehow, no matter what we accomplish or own we cannot escape a feeling of emptiness. Let us replace every step with very breath in Bryan Ferry’s lyrics, and it describes exactly how many of us live day by day, short shallow breaths that indeed take us further from heaven and quicker to our graves, short shallow breaths that produce more fear, stressed, not relaxed.

Qi Gong – Summer – (detail) oil on canvas 6′ x 6′ unfinished, ca 2005, by the author

Some indigenous cultures claim that each human being is born with a certain amount of breaths, once the number is reached we die. True or not, it is an interesting concept. Let us all slow down and take a deep breath.

Savasana – pic, dieter runge

 

For 35 years I have studied meditation, qi gong, taiji and for the past 9 years, yoga, including meditation and pranayama. Every morning I sit in the dark and do breathing exercises (pranayama) for about 30 minutes before I meditate. Pranayama, the cultivation of prana (life-force energy, like qi, ki, mana) includes very vigorous breathing, holding the breath, holding the breathing-out position, breathing in and out of alternate nostrils and moving the stomach in and out, sideways and circular, while keeping the outbreath position. It stimulates digestion, is heating or cooling, depending on which one we practice. It calms the mind, helps us focus and in my own experience regulates an irregular heartbeat, but most of all it helped me to become aware of my breath in the most profound way.

 

“In Ayurveda the vital life force that animates all beings is known as prana. Without prana we would not be able to enjoy and experience pleasure because it is this life force that gives us the ability to perceive. All perception through the five senses is governed by prana. Being such an important element of life, yoga has developed a science for controlling and expanding this vital life force called pranayama.”

We do not stop thinking when we meditate, at least I don’t, but when we are aware of our breath we can let our thoughts flow by and don’t become attached to a chain of thoughts. Instead we notice how the breath slows down more and more, especially when we practice regularly. We notice the ever-expanding space between breaths. Sometimes we might not even remember what comes next. Am I going to breathe in or out? Not that is does really matter, but here we are in the moment. This is the moment were transformation can occur and we feel the possibility that every breath can indeed take us closer to heaven. Does this lengthen our lives? Maybe, but I promise that it will greatly increase the quality of yours.

Prism – rainbow – chakras – photo – dieter runge

 

Many mornings when I sit doing pranayama or meditation, the thought pops into my mind that, “Wow, I am actually taking the longest breath that I have ever taken.” At the end of In Every Dream Home a Heartache, Bryan Ferry blows up a rubber doll, his silent companion, and once his breath is inside her, she blows his mind. A wild guitar rave-up follows and ends the song. During pranayama and meditation I become acutely aware, how my breath actually holds my entire body, my being, up. Once the last breath is exhaled, the body will collapse and slowly disintegrate. It just blows my mind.

Roxy Music – In Every Dream Home a Heartache

My next Ayurvedic cooking class is this upcoming Saturday. I teach art, yoga, taiji, meditation, ayurvedic cooking and on special request, the practice and attitude of rock’n roll.

 

On the Soul of Cooking and How to Love Yourself

 

View from my Lanai, Kaneohe, Hawaii

 

The availability of fresh food, the results of processed foods, malnutrition, overweight, diabetes, mental health, eating in a hurry and even the state of the planet are all connected and the daily choices we make create the difference.

The other day, while taking a meal that I had cooked, to a friend, I was listening to The Body Show on Hawaii Public Radio. The guest, Dr. David Hunnicutt explained that people who cook less than half an hour daily are much more likely to suffer from overweight, diabetes, etc. than people who cook an hour or more daily, that the key for health is to eat foods as whole as possible. He emphasized that this does not mean that one has to eat raw foods only (see below), that if we eat primarily processed foods we do not get what we need to nourish our body. That’s why we go for snacks not long after we have eaten. Processed food does not deliver what we need.

If ingredients are listed the food is most likely processed too much and the body cannot utilize the ingredients. This is the reason why many of us eat more than our body can handle while we never get what we really need. What we can’t digest turns into toxins and eventually is stored in the body as poor quality fat.

We are constantly more or less in a state of malnutrition while we crave more and more of that which makes us sick. It is a state of disconnection.

Local organic produce at Kokua Coop, Honolulu.

How can we get to a state of connectedness with our self and feel what is good for us? Ideally, growing at least some of your own food is the best, second is to buy whole foods, local, organic, primarily vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, nuts etc. (animal products or not is another discussion). Preparing the produce, washing, cutting, learning what spices are good to use, which ones are better than others for the season or your particular state of health or sickness, gets you in touch with the food as with your self.

To learn more about the produce available empowers you. When you shop at the farmers market you can learn how a particular farm grows their produce, what does the farmer look like, healthy, bright eyed, a ready smile? Why are most carrots orange, but recently we see more purple, yellow or white ones? How is it digestible for me? Do red beets taste different the golden ones? The more you know, the better your choices, and the more you handle the food with your hands the better it gets.

Yoga teacher and massage therapist Christy Dawn Souza cleans Olena (turmeric) we just harvested in my garden

Cooking your food is possibly one of the most soulful activities that is available to us. It is like going to church, making music, dancing or meditating. We all eat, most of us at least. Cooking is a way to develop self-love as well as love for others, to cultivate friendships. In these days of deep-seated self-hatred this is an opportunity that we cannot miss out on.

During the 50’s and 60’s it became chic to avoid or speed up the drudgery of cooking, canned food, TV dinners, fast, fast, fast became de-rigueur. I remember it clearly and our popular consciousness developed a dislike for cooking, a brilliant move by the food industry and the ad agencies. Fortunately, this is, ever so slowly, changing. For the upscale gourmet crowd the trend is to seek sensational foods, unusual combinations and presentations, another form of disconnect. Fortunately too, there is a small trend that an authoritarian and sexist culture in the kitchen does not necessarily produce the best food. Unfortunately this hasn’t spread very widely yet. Having worked my self in restaurants for many years, I know that the food I cook with attention and a peaceful heart has a much greater value than when it comes from a kitchen were underpaid workers and yelling chefs fight and go at each other with meat cleavers, which I have experienced

Soup Cans by Andy Warhol

Why organic? Large-scale industrial agriculture is destroying the soil, bees, etc. Even the UN recognizes that small-scale organic farming is the way to go. Do you really want to put all the pesticides, herbicides into your body?

Organic is so expensive – Medical bills and the destruction of the environment come at a much higher cost.

Studies on happiness and a long life. People who are the happiest and live the longest (Some areas in Okinawa, some people in Sardinia and other places) all have a few things in common, a mostly plant based diet, lots of beans, little meat: they live a vertical lifestyle, get up and down off the floor about 30 times a day (can you get up off the floor without using your hands), climb stairs, live together multigenerational and when they exercise they do something that is fun.

On cravings and intuition. It is important to discern between cravings and intuition. Cravings take you out of balance while intuition gives you truths. Mostly we give in to cravings while we ignore intuition. Be honest and you’ll know.

How to overcome cravings? By eating well, whole foods prepared in the right combinations, with the proper spices eaten in peace and regularly. If your body gets what it needs, cravings and addictions eventually fall by the wayside and you can easily walk by the chips, the extra piece of cake, the food that is just fat, salt and sugar, and you feel better and better and stop violating your vibrant self.

       Oh, you can’t cook? Can you read? You can also come to one of my cooking classes or get some private instruction. I even re-organize your kitchen for the most enjoyable cooking experience.

Cooking for your self does call for a little planning, but most of all it can be one of the best things you can do for your self, your family, friends or even strangers.

Since January 2009 I have studied Yoga and Ayurveda with Myra Lewin and have cooked for her yoga teacher trainings and retreats.

My next small cooking class will be on November 5th, 2016

Sources:

Freedom in Your Relationship with Food: An Everyday Guide, Myra Lewin,

This book is a great entry to ayurvedic cooking and how to establish new habits.

http://www.halepule.com/store/p53/Freedom_in_Your_Relationship_with_Food%3A_An_Everyday_Guide.html

Simple Ayurvedic Recipes, Myra Lewin,

Myra’s second book on Ayurvedic cooking is full of recipes, divided by grains, legumes, vegetables, side dishes and illness recovery foods, with a preface for each section on how to specifically approach cooking beans, etc.

http://www.halepule.com/store/p51/Simple_Ayurvedic_Recipes_%28paperback%29.html

Raw Foods: An Ayurvedic Perspective, Valencia Porter, M.D., M.P.H., FACN

This article includes how different doshas can or can’t handle raw foods: http://www.chopra.com/articles/raw-foods-an-ayurvedic-perspective

Ayurveda Life: Raw Food vs. Ayurveda, Cate Stillman

http://www.prana.com/life/2014/11/17/ayurveda-life-raw-food-vs-ayurveda/

ASPECTS OF AYURVEDA 1- GENERAL – DOSHAS – MILK AND GHEE, dIETER RUNGE

https://dieterrunge.wordpress.com/yogaayurveda/aspects-of-ayurveda-1-general-doshas-milk-and-ghee/

FOOD AND TAKING CARE OF YOUR SELF, AN AYURVEDIC PERSPECTIVE, DIETER RUNGE

https://dieterrunge.wordpress.com/yogaayurveda/food-and-taking-care-of-your-self-an-ayurvedic-perspective/

 

 

Food and Taking Care of Your Self, an Ayurvedic Perspective

Food and Taking Care of Your Self, an Ayurvedic Perspective.

What Goes On

original mini. is it worth to restore?

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be cleaning you out
For some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from the beyond.

My friend Lucie Lynch posted this Rumi poem on her facebook page this morning and since it is exactly what I like to express here, I just pass it on.

this thrush visits me every time I take out the compost

oh yeah, those rainbows. view from my lanai

Success, failure, health and illness, accidents, bad or good economy; it is all part of our existence as human beings and has all been part of my life this year. Early in the year I went through a 3 week class to  be able to work as a substitute teacher in Oahu’s public education system and for the private schools as well. I thought that I would be working by March, but it didn’t happen until the beginning of the new school year in August. Still, I have worked only one single week full time, some 2 or 3 days some even less. It is probably ok this way, since I am not sure if I could have handled more days. I have worked with 2nd graders all the way to high school seniors in Waimanalo, Kailua and Kaneohe. Right now the 2nd graders are my favorites. I have worked in art, English, math, science and PE (physical education) and also Special Ed. As a substitute teacher I experience the public education system from the underbelly, so to speak. I have met kids from heartbreaking backgrounds, a family with 10 kids, who live on the beach, I have met teenagers who read and write like 4th graders, and have no motivation whatsoever in school, but dream that they will become professional body boarders, and I have spend the last day of school with 6 special ed kids that ranged from completely non verbal, with severest bodily and mental malfunctions to a kid that knew all large and medium cities in Europe and their location in relation to the next boarder and when they were bombed during WWII. I have also met well adjusted students who are a pleasure to talk to and who seem to move with ease through a system that seems beyond repair. I try not to judge what I experience, which is sometimes very difficult, especially when faced with a bratty kid, who’s only intend seems to be to make my life miserable.

if the classroom looks this good, the substituting usually goes smoothly

if the teacher’s desk looks like this, trouble might loom ahead

yes, sometimes there is love

It had been my intention to get back into painting, and to collaborate with others as much as possible. I invited Mike Nice to create a large Ganesh woodcut together and we did. My band Alice Neel played a few gigs culminating in a fun show last Saturday and we are in the middle of recording 3 songs. I also created a wood cut series of the Sri Yantra, and a second edition with the great help of my assistant Jenny, who is visiting from Hamburg, which was part of a flurry of art happenings at the end of the year. Like last year, when I had the opportunity to teach printmaking in New York city, the end of the year brought home some  fruits of my labor. I sold 17 prints of the second yantra edition, my track racers print won a price in a show in Boulder, CO, I was invited to print 60 postcards for the Hawaii Arts Alliance, I taught a yoga workshop at Yoga Hawaii and finally my biggest painting sold.  Alas, I never got really into painting. I did create a couple of small paintings, but I never could establish the daily practice of painting again.

Ganesh wood cut traveled to Kauai

Sri Yantra, 16 x

studies in oil of the lanai view

wood cut print taro leaf postcard for Hawaii Arts Alliance, Mane’o = itchy

“water’ oil on linen by dieter runge at Cedar Street Gallery with Michael Schnack

Sitting in the dark and practicing pranayama and meditation and doing asanas, the physical part of the 8 limbs of yoga, that, I did do on a daily basis. It is what keeps me together and allows me to continually evolve, at least that’s what I believe. You’ll be the judge. I also went through some depressing days and weeks, a few month of emotional turmoil culminating in a serious shoulder injury and fortunately a period of healing and realignment. I wouldn’t be here now without the help of some of my amazing friends. You know who you are and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I continuously ask my self: Who am I? And: Who is asking the question?

Kayo Iwaki practicing warrior II at my house

seen on Kaneohe Bay Drive, is it a Christo?

Am I an artist, a teacher, a musician, a yogi, an anarchist, bohemian Buddhist monk? The eminent Herbie Hancock, who practices Nichiren Buddhism, like Wayne Shorter and other jazz musicians of his generation since the early 1970’s, puts it this way: ” I realized that if I perceive myself as a musician, somehow there’s an invisible barrier between myself and people who aren’t musicians. But if I define myself as a human being, all the barriers disappear.”

Jaimey Hamilton-Faris grooving with the drums. Thanksgiving

Jenny Wuebbe and unidentified enjoy Thanksgiving

Now, what does it exactly mean to be a human being? This is the task of our lives to find out and to present the result that we come up with as truthfully as possible at any moment.

what else can be said?

A few years ago a friend asked me for some words of wisdom for the new year. Here is this years expanded version. I am responsible for my experiences (stop blaming everything and everybody else including myself). Everything that happens to me has several dimensions, among them emotional as well as spiritual ones. If I want change I have to work on all the different levels. Without clearing up my stuck emotions, I am doomed to repeat my negative patterns. Ultimately, all the solutions are on the spiritual realm. I wish everybody great holidays, the best 2014 and much Aloha!

Andrew’s winter solstice party