Food as Medicine #1 | What is food?

Dear RastaItes family, Ian’I is glad to introduce to you all this important document about food and nutrition as medicine to our body mind and spirit. The author is Ras Ibi, healing arts practitioner and expert in natural medicine, massage and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Ras Ibi is a well known Rastafari Bredren because his beautiful music released during the last twentyfive years. He’s also known to those involved in Rastafari activities for his long militancy and because he’s repatriated in Ethiopia since year 2000. Few people may know that he has been studiyng and practicing natural healing arts since early nineties with specialization in Ear Acupunture and Energy Massage. Being a Rastaman he combines the millenarian food knowledge of Chinese Medicine with the Ital diet that Ian’I promote. The teaching you will find here has been presented in the public seminar: “Food As Medicine” that Ras Ibi held this past august 2016 at Rototom Sunsplash Reggae Festival. Ian’I hope that these sugggestions can enrich your eating habit and consequently improve your own life. The document will be divided in three parts. Let the food be our medicine and the medicine our food!

 

Ras TafarI greetings of perfect peace perfect love to one and all.

First I like to say welcome to everyone and humbly giving thanks for the invitation to do this ”Food as Medicin” presentation.  I will start with a reasoning about what is food.  And what it is supposed to feed.  Then continue to specific foodstuffs and symptoms that these can alliviate.  And then to specific symptoms and foodstuff that can alliviate these.  I have a background of studies in TCM (with a specialization in Ear Acupuncture) so some of my reasonings will reflect this tradition.  I n I Rastafari troddition is life-centered and so, most naturally, I will reason from this perspective.

Now talking about food , that involves everything that feed us.  All of our being. Through our eyes, nostrils mouth or ears – the proverbial seven seals.

•        Morning sun, morning dew, fresh air,  are also ”food” as they feed  both the temple and the Irit with vital energy,(Qi or prana).  Inhaling the breath of life in a natural, peaceful setting must also be considered to ”eat”.  Like InI that say amongst InI that InI sip the cup or eat the chalice.   (Some actually manage to live by air and sunlight – breathtarians)   Sweets sounds of Iration must also be considered as food…

•        The keyword is life – so what is good for life and nature is also good FarI.  Good, nourishing food for the goody/temple but also good thought and pleaseant sights and sounds.  As the song says ”see no evil hear no evil”  Your mental attitude – healthful.

•        Vegetarian / fruiterian by nature, prefered intake – live elements like fruits, berries, vegetables, roots,  grains, seeds, nuts, herbs…only life can give life / from life comes life.  Consuming inferior beings or dead flesh cause the stomach to become a cemetary.

•        On this road of life we are given choises; we can Live to eat – or – Eat to live

•        The body, or rather, the goody can be percived as as temple.  A goody – temple that host the LifeGiver, the I AM that I AM, the HeadCreator for a dispensation of life.  It is made to last, most wonderfully, and can take lot of abuse before seriously complaining.  On the other hand, if consciously lived in and lovingly cared for, the three in one and the one in three, the goody / temple, the mind/heavens and the heart/spirit will graciously grow in to a lifetime of service.

•        I B I. I point of reasoning is balance.  Whenever there is lack of balance, or imbalance especially if it’s a long-standing imbalance there naturally follows some effects or symptoms.  Now at that stage we have choises to make, like a few different roads to walk up.   The local hospital will offer a shot, painkillers, antibiotics etc. for your symptoms. Neccessary not helping or adjusting the imbalance, which is the root of the symptoms.

Then we can try to ignore the imbalance, yet that can only work for so long.  And then we have the natural way, the Divine way of re-storing or healing the imbalance.  For when the balance is re-gained, then all symptoms naturally disappear.

•        Since we are here in such a fantastic variety of nations I would like to point out that the one thing that all faith’s, religions and Iritical trodditions have in common is fasting (and praying).  Thru fasting the blood is purged of toxins, clogging waste and decaying and diseased cells, and healthy cells are built of better material to replace those cast out of the goody/temple during the fast.  This is re-generation,(the secret of the Ancient Masters).

•        Clean water – drink it plentifully, take baths in rivers, lakes, streams or springs, or even the bathtub.   Clean water is a great cleansing and healing agent, internaly or externaly.

•        So fasting is essential.  And just like it means to abstain from a lot of food, drinks and activities, both of the mind and the goody, it should also be joyfull.  And there are many ways of fasting.  Shorter or longer term.  Drinking only water, herbal teas or juice fasting…  Loving your self so much that you give your self a few days of drinking just fruit and vegetable juices will not only give you a purification and boost but also turn you in to a more loving character.  It lengthens our lives.  It is a means of getting rid of fears, controlling the digestive system , the blood circulation and the mind.  It is recommended as a medical treatment.  During fasting time the metabolism of the goody is stronger; this causes all substances leading to illness, indisposition and dissatisfaction to be burnt up.

•         The use of herb as food for thought is an ancient and universal practise.  Herbal meditation with a focus on healing can vibrate wonders. For the one who practise it, in the micro cosmos, and also in the macro cosmos, even to the endless universe.(not unto the ends..)  The healing process can thus/then also be strengthened from distance by consciously vibrating and directing healing energy.

•        It is Iniversally recognized that herb (yes that one with so many names..) is important to physical, mental and Iritical health.  And since man beomes what he eats, a balanced intake of herb can be beneficial on all levels.  Whatever way one ingest it.   Divinely sanctioned from the first book in the Bible, Genesis 1 : 11-12:  And Jah said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so.   And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after its kind, and Jah saw that it was good. So if it was good for Jah way back then, it will still be good FarI today….

•        Man can not live by bread alone… but by every word that proceded out of I Fathers mouth.

•        We have all heard and agree that prevention is better than curing.  In ancient China, a doctor was only paid if he kept his patients in good health.  If he failed in his regular check-ups, usually at the end of every season, to detect signs that some changes was necessary in the lifestyle of the patient to prevent let’s say a cold or flu to break out and it did happen, then the doctor would receive no payment.

•        It’s all good and wonderfull that we can buy all these fantastic healing herbs from all around the globe yet, if the disease is local, then the medicine is local.

•        Purification is essential for all change starts within.  Purity of goody, mind and spirit.. The first necessary step to accuire the Divine life is purity.  Bad thoughts and feelings give rise to great impurities in the mental and astral worlds. More so than in the physical.

•        All the fundamental elements that the goody needs are bountifully supplied in natural foods, and they keep people alive.  Yet the additives, preservatives, colorings, enhancers etc. that are added in minute quantities to a lot of the foods are what kills people slowly.

When our daily foods are demineralized, refined, devitalized, they tend to slowly poison us as they are lacking those life-giving properties so essential for blood-making  and …

Especially in the west, it is very common that people are over-fed and under-nourished.

•        Remember that food improperly prepared loose much of its food value. (Over-heating, over-boiling and also aluminum utensils )

•        In ancient China, and up to today in TCM, it is said that a person who have an illness is blessed indeed…

•        Whatever and whenever the I eat – Bless the food and the hands that prepare it.

Giving thanks for what we eat surely enhances the life-giving properties of food !  The act of eating is a sacred act and should be approached with due Iverence.

•        The thoughts and feelings which accompant the process of eating are extremely important.  For instance most ones may have observed that one’s digestion is not functioning properly when one  is stressed or upset.  Ideally, one should eat with a feeling of gratitude in ones mind and heart.   Gratitude for the food itself, to the tree or plant that produced it, and to the ones who have grown and transported it.

•        To feel Gratitude is to eat in peace and harmony and be aware of the Divine gift that food represents.   The value of chewing the food properly must not be underestimated.  Assimilation and digestion are improved, also the vital force (Qi) is partly extracted in the mouth.  It should remain longer in the mouth so that part of its energy can penetrate the tongue.  The tongue extracts the spiritual energy from foods which cannot otherwise be absorbed.

•        Remember that food creates us, so it is capable of elevating us and also lowering us.

You will come to resemble the food you eat, this law applies in both physical and mental realms.  Every person has to choose food  for themselves. And find out what is suitable for them.  If you eat food inappropriate for you, you will suffer as those foods cause disturbances in the goody.  In order to know which food is sound, one is recommended to observe its effect upon ones thoughts, feelings and action.

Ras Ibi