Macrobiotics has the reputation in some circles as being about food or health or curing cancer. In fact, it is not so much a diet or a cure as a spiritual path with practical applications.

Macrobiotics is really the teaching of Jesus, as expressed in the Gospel of Thomas, and of Buddha. Buddhism and Taoism and Macrobiotics are actually the same.

The founder of modern Macrobiotics, George Ohsawa, fashioned macrobiotic education on Lao-Tzu’s school. Lao-Tzu’s school had four parts:

1. Self Mastery: spiritual, physical and mental health, using the principles of yin and yang, or expansion and contraction, as a compass.
2. Order, peace and happiness in the family.
3. The creation of an orderly society. A social awareness that is not one-sided.
4. The formation of One Peaceful World.

George Ohsawa was interested in One Peaceful World, became a World Federalist and tried very hard to stop WWII. His favorite student was the first to use the word “ecology,” Ohsawa having used it in French.

Although Macrobiotics in general and Strengthening Health Macrobiotics in particular have had much success healing cancer, hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes and many other health problems and is associated with the inception of the natural foods movement in America, the origins and spirit of macrobiotics are in the spirituality of Jesus, Lao-Tzu and Buddha, and also have a long history of social and political involvement. In addition to being a powerful way to heal the self and family, Macrobiotics aims to heal society and the world.