Questions to Master Deshimaru

Question

I'd like to know what you think of the macrobiotic diet?

Answer

Its chief value is in healing illnesses. It is a therapeutic technique, not a philosophy or a religion. I myself follow a macrobiotic diet sometimes, for my health. But it's not necessary, especially for young people. If you eat like a pigeon when you're young your stomach will be weak; meat and alcohol are necessary sometimes. But if you eat and drink too much then the macrobiotic diet becomes necessary. But that is not Zen. Zazen is true, profound religion. If you practice zazen you can understand what is going on in your body and choose the kind of diet you need. Through zazen you can understand, and then regulate accordingly. People who follow such diets tend to attach too much importance to their bodies and the choice of their food, and in the end they fall ill. Too much attachment to health leads to egotism. Unconscious egotism, but egotism all the same. It is important to pay attention to your health, but worrying about it all the time weakens the mind. I know lots of macrobiotic people, and they lack compassion, they are selfish. That is why Shakyamuni Buddha abandoned asceticism; it destroys one's harmony with other people. If you refuse everything when you are with other people, you cannot harmonize. I don't care for meat but when people offer it to me I must accept. It is extremely important to harmonize. I am a monk so I have to educate people, teach them what to do. A monk has a duty to observe the precepts but that is only one side, so I look at each person, and my teaching differs for each person. To those who have a narrow mind I say, "You must drink whiskey," or I tell them to get themselves a gigolo, while to another person l would say, "No more alcohol; get rid of your gigolo."