Merle, Get real and use your brain Merle! It's not the number of calories but the necessary nutrients for life are missing.
Hot water? Well I like that myself (I usually add several spices and sometimes lemon juice) but I hope you don't think anyone can subsist on it? Edgar On Nov 20, 2012, at 5:22 PM, Merle Lester wrote: > > because he did no heavy labour all day he needed less food... > how long did he live?... > plain hot water is great!... > does not believe in the principles of nutrition and you just ran with that > joe?.. > what?... > where is your zen spirit?. > .merle > > > Anyone who tries to convince you he lived on wild yam leaves and rice for 6 > years begins to sound like the oriental typical guru putting one over on > gullible disciples. > > How much did you pay him total for 'enlightening' you? > > Edgar > > > > On Nov 20, 2012, at 1:45 PM, Joe wrote: > >> >> Edgar, >> >> Negative. >> >> I suggest a reading of Ch'an Master Sheng's autobiography. >> >> When he taught us, he would often urge us to eat "properly" in our daily >> lives as we practice. But he added that he "does not believe in the >> principles of nutrition". That was always very interesting to me, but I >> never questioned him in detail about what he believed (or followed) instead. >> I was already a vegetarian before I met him. >> >> On the veracity of his story of his cultivating the "Taiwan wild mountain >> potato", I had no reason to doubt him. He mentioned that this potato is >> different from what we call potatoes in the West. And I suspect it is not >> related to our Solanaceous plants, which I think are only indigenous to S. >> Amer., and not Asia. So the leaves of his plants may have been differently >> nutritious, indeed!, compared with those of our Deadly Nightshades. >> >> In fact, it is a type of Yam. >> >> I must assume that he also had Tea; maybe he did not mention it because it's >> like an Englishman taking tea "for granted" as a commodity, except more so!, >> for a Chinese! ;-) >> >> But, ...he taught us on Retreat to drink plain hot water, and we had urns of >> it: I personally called this "Sheng Yen Tea". So, maybe he did not have any >> tea at all during his 6-year retreat. It's possible that he may have found >> Ginseng root on the mountain, however, too. >> >> He mentions the Yam potato leaves several times in his auto-bio, and in >> fact, there is an entire chapter (Chapt. 11) there, called "Wild Potato >> Leaves"... . >> >> For your reading, here is the reference to Sheng Yen's best-known >> autobiography in English. The book is quite clear about his diet on the >> mountain: >> >> Sheng Yen; FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW; THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CHINESE BUDDHIST >> MONK, 2008, Doubleday. >> >> You can also see the Amazon page: >> >> http://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Snow-Autobiography-Chinese-Buddhist/dp/B003JTHRT6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1353436592&sr=8-3&keywords=footprints+in+the+snow >> >> Best, >> >> --Joe >> >> > Edgar Owen <edgarowen@...> wrote: >> > >> > I suggest you use the same investigative intelligence you used to debunk >> > the hurricane Sandy photos to debunk your teacher's story. >> > >> > No human being could live on only wild potato leaves and rice for 6 years. >> > That's quite obvious. >> > > > > >
