Dietary
Exercise Suggested:
(To
be incorporated within the usual routine)
Dishes
comprising grains, pulses, nuts, seeds and noodles - i.e.
to take in many of the same thing.
Honeycomb
(honey to be
chewed from)
Commentary:
In
past consciousness it was possible for a man to take stock of his
herd without individually making a count of them. A merchant could
assess his bounty, a caterer could sense the weights and the volumes
of their ingredients, and travelers, by boat or by road would know
the lengths they had gone and the distance yet to go.
It
was possible to arrive at figures (much like we might in guessing
games of ‘how many colored beans are in the jar?’) without
addressing the sum unit-by-unit. Extraordinarily
we all have the
means to comprehend a body of units in such a way, without having to
individually count them.
The
experience of eating speaks to us on many levels. We have the
sensations of the flavors, we react to the heat or the coldness of
the food also, whether it is pleasurable or distasteful, depending as
well as to whether we are hungry or quite satiated ... And then, the
substance itself, taken into ourselves, is met with and tested and
made known to us - from its taste and its texture to its qualities of
nature. For some there are allergic reactions to foods whereupon they
are as poisons to their system’s complaining - for others they are
the joy of heaven, resplendent in verdant fecundity!
However
if it is (and hopefully we eat our meal in joy) to be had
occasionally as an intentional exercise, our food can become a very
meaningful teacher to us - one in which a primary experience will
cognise into concept, becoming a nutritive to the thinking, as well
as to our body and soul. (Conscious experiences become assimilated by
the ego, whereas unconscious impressionings become taken up and in by
the soul.)
A
plate of rice or a bowl of beans will, just by their organised mass,
speak to us of both units and the whole. This in itself is useful,
because, it is essential to the mathematical conceptualization that
we can comprehend units before attempting to apply ourselves to
formulas and equations - there needs be an idea of the actual unitary
fragments existing intrinsically to a greater mass firstly.
A
comprehension of area, of space, and of volume, of weight and of form
comes in the comparison of the one grain amongst the many ... not
only in the physical relation witnessed in the huddling of the tiny
mass of grains, but also in the nature
of that food, in what it itself imparts to us of itself in relation
to the plant. That nature ethericly (apart
from the noodle)
has a sociological order to it - a community to it from which each
fragment has and does form that little part. The inner
knowledge of this
may be known in our digestion!
The
honeycomb introduces to us a free spiritedness amongst the containing
order held crystalline within its nature. There is the sublimest of
contradictions within this substance, and above those contrasts
within there exists also the most beautiful harmony
enlivened throughout.
The
sanguine sugariness of the translucent fluid is given to
expansiveness - alight with life, the effects upon the ego are
encouraging and invigorating. When we consume sugars we are given to
experience this expansiveness, whilst at the same time experiencing
ourselves.
Usually
when men and women concentrate upon themselves it happens (mindfully
and egoicly in action) that they must narrow down from the world to
do this. Whether it be momentarily or marginally it is an effort of
constriction, of tightening, of closing all of the fissures that
would otherwise distract them from that sense of self.
In
balance to this we may also come to know the world and the souls
about us - and, moving out from our cloistered self, through loving
interest and curiosity, we can relax sufficiently to allow new
information and sensorial experiences to find their way to us. We
expand outwards in this action, and upon reflection or deliberation
about any given thing we contract back in again.
Now,
the unique quality that the honey endears us with is that it can
bring about the aspect of expansiveness
as well as that of
containment
- at the same time. We are inspired paradoxically to the peripheries
of our own self-containment as it stands enough to explore
experiences other than our own, but in no way departing our
consciousness of who we are in that very process.
The
honeycomb is the most fascinating of foods in that the honey itself
has a fluidic nature which is given to crystalline processes (which
enhance the thinking forces within a man) and are held within their
little hexagonal walls, giving an individual segment to an otherwise
fluidic and free force within. There becomes both thinking and
freedom contained. (Added to this there are many minerals also that
can be assimilated by the individual that would not otherwise be
absorbed.)
And
so, if it can be tolerated, the taking in of the honeycomb is
remarkably beneficial from not only its unitary aspects, but in that
of the harmony and sanguine beatification it brings as well.
2 comments:
The noodles obviously are bits and pieces, not spaghetti or any other long noodle. The dried noodle is not so ethericly active, but is useful for the sake of the exercise.
The Brothers have in general, advised against eating dried food- food which has had all the water taken out. Freeze dried is particularly bad here. There is a paper on why this is so.
http://wn.rsarchive.org/.../Eng.../SGP1975/NinBee_index.html Rudolf Steiner's - Nine Lectures on Bees. This would be a good accompaniment to the above.
From Nine Lectures on Bees by Rudolf Steiner: When honey is eaten it furthers the right connection in man between the airy and the watery elements. Nothing is better for man than to add the right proportion of honey to his food. For in a wonderful way the bees see to it that man learns to work with his soul upon the organs of his body. In the honey the bee gives back again to man what he needs to further the activity of his soul-forces within his body. Thus when man adds some honey to his food, he wishes so to prepare his soul that it may work rightly within his body — breathe rightly.
Bee-keeping is therefore something that greatly helps to advance our civilisation, for it makes men strong.
You see, when one realises that the bees receive very many influences from the starry worlds, one sees also how they can pass on to man what is fitted for him. All that is living, when it is rightly combined, works rightly together. When one stands before a hive of bees one should say quite solemnly to oneself: “By way of the bee-hive the whole Cosmos enters man and makes him strong and able.”.............
As we grow older, honey has an extremely favourable effect upon us. With children, it is milk that has a similar effect; honey helps us to build our bodies and is thus strongly to be recommended for people who are growing old. It is an exceedingly wholesome food; only one must not eat too much of it! If one eats too much of it, using it not merely as a condiment, one can make the formative forces too strongly active. The form may then get too rigid, and one may develop all kinds of illnesses. A healthy man feels just how much honey should take. Honey is particularly good for older people because it gives the body the right firmness.
One should also adopt the plan of giving just the right quantity of honey to children suffering from rickets when they are nine to ten months of age, and continue this honey diet till the age of three or four years. Rickets would then not be as bad as it is, for this illness consists in the body being too soft, and collapsing. Of course, in the very first weeks children ought only to be given milk; honey would at that age have no affect. Honey contains the forces that give man's body firmness.
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