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| What is the secret of Asian longevity? Buddhist attitude and Asia diet habits like rice. |
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5 Longevity Tips From The Oldest Living Japanese American Person (today.com)
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Oldest living Japanese American, 110, shares her longevity tips and the 1 food she eats daily .
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| Supercentenarian Yoshiko Miwa, 110 |
With 110 years of life behind her, Buddhist American YOSHIKO MIWA, who was born in California, isn’t going to wallow in the negative, and she doesn’t want you to either.
The oldest living person of Japanese descent in the United States, according to the
Gerontology Research Group, Miwa prefers to focus on the times when she was happiest.
She’s lived through the Spanish flu [an epidemic everyone tried to keep secret except those in Spain], alcohol prohibition, Black Tuesday, World War II, and the losses of her parents, siblings, and friends, and still the supercentenarian’s go-to piece of longevity advice is: Don’t dwell.
California Buddhist roots
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| A Japanese mindful Zen Buddhist attitude is key |
[What's a more positive way of stating this? In Buddhist terms, the expression means "Be mindful." Mindfulness of the present -- with a radical awareness and acceptance of what is -- is the secret to good mental health. Rather than dwelling on the past or projecting into the future, it is possible to be safe right here right now. This is what Byron Katie teaches, it is what Eckhart Tolle has been trying to say in lecture after lecture, and it is what the Buddha taught. American academic turned spiritual guru Ram Dass (aka Harvard's Dr. Richard Alpert) famously said the exact same thing: "Be here now." Be where? Here, in the present moment. When? Now.]
Miwa is part of the
Nisei — the
second-generation Japanese Americans sent to internment camps during World War II [so she has something to dwell on if she let herself mope and be miserable] — who often say “
gaman,” which translates to “enduring the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity,” her son, Alan Miwa, tells
TODAY.com.
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| Buddhist Virgin Mary: Kwan Yin |
It’s often loosely translated as “perseverance,” “patience,” “tolerance” [or
the Buddhist term khanti, which can be translated as either “forbearance” or “forgiveness,” which is key to
karuna or “compassion.”]
These feelings, Alan Miwa suspects, are born from the resilience of many from his mother’s generation — who had much to endure. Shikata ga nai (仕方がない) -- a Japanese phrase meaning, “It cannot be helped” or “Nothing can be done about it” -- is a common saying among them, too, he adds.
Yoshiko Miwa was born
Yoshiko Tanaka in the U.S. on Feb. 28, 1914, to Japanese immigrants in
Guadalupe, California. She was the fifth of seven children.
When her mother and infant brother died in 1919, her father struggled to care for his family and tend to the farm he owned.
So Yoshiko Miwa and her siblings were sent to live at the children’s home founded by their parish,
Guadalupe Buddhist Church (
buddhistchurchesofamerica.org).
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| Massive Japanese Buddha, Bodh Gaya, India |
Who is Guadalupe? She is the Mexican apparition of the Virgin Mary, a goddess of compassion like Asia's Kwan Yin (Avalokiteshvara, Guanyin, Kwannon), beloved my Mexican Americans in California and throughout the Americas.- Her Buddhist faith energizes her: Yoshiko Miwa was 4 years old when her father turned to the Japanese Buddhist church for help. “The church then started a children’s home and taught us Buddhism, Japanese language, Japanese culture, and responsibility,” she recalls. “I’ve always been indebted to Reverend and Mrs. Matsuura.” She is grateful to them (leaders of the city of Guadalupe Buddhist Church), who took her in when her mother passed away.
- She loves to eat rice noodles: Yoshiko Miwa’s a fan of all kinds of [rice, yam, potato] noodles, eating them every day. “When I was in the children’s home, the cook used to make noodles, and I used to love them,” she says. “Today, I like...udon, ramen, soba, and any other kind of noodles.”
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She went on to graduate from Santa Maria High School in 1932, and she studied business at the
University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1936.
She married Henry Miwa in 1939.
During the Second World War, the pair and their families were sent to Poston Internment Camp in Arizona before relocating to Hawthorne, Southern California, after the war.
When they, along with many other
Japanese people, had difficulty finding work upon their release in 1945, her husband founded a
plant nursery business, and in 1963, Yoshiko Miwa got her nursing license.
Yoshiko Miwa has three sons, 10 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.
These days, Alan Miwa says she’s in good health and lives in a care facility, where she gets her hair done weekly and attends church services on Sundays.
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In addition to a positive spirit, keeping your mind and body active is the key to a long life,
Yoshiko Miwa has said in the past. Ahead she shares a few other aspects of her life that she believes have led to her longevity.
