Introduction To Ayurveda Part One

Thank you for joining me for this first in a series of three introductory talks on Ayurvedic medicine.

Ayurveda is the traditional medicine of India,

Like yoga.

Ayurveda comes from the Vedas,

Four sacred texts that are part of the wisdom traditions of India,

And which link Ayurveda and yoga in their underlying philosophical understanding.

Ayurveda and yoga are considered sister sciences,

And it's common in the West to come to Ayurveda through the doorway of yoga.

Ayurveda translates from Sanskrit to life wisdom,

Ayur meaning life or longevity,

And veda meaning wisdom.

The purpose of Ayurveda is to maintain the quality and longevity of life,

And support recovery and healing when we're experiencing illness.

It's an art of daily living that has evolved from experiential,

Philosophical,

And spiritual illumination,

And is considered a living medicine continuing to evolve in understanding and practice today.

As a method for supporting health and longevity,

Ayurveda helps us connect to our unique nature and the rhythms of nature,

Providing tools and remedies to support health and balance throughout life.

To illustrate the longevity of this wonderful medicine,

The first text on Ayurveda that is still studied and considered today,

The Charaka Samhita,

Is dated from 200 to 400 CE.

As a testament to its relevance and longevity,

Ayurveda continues to grow in its wisdom and popularity around the world.

Let's look for a moment at this philosophical background linking Ayurveda and yoga called Samkhya.

It's translated from Sanskrit,

Sam meaning truth,

And khya meaning to realize,

To know,

Or to understand.

So to understand or know truth.

Samkhya philosophy is a model of evolving consciousness into material form,

Beginning with primordial consciousness,

Purusha in Sanskrit,

And primordial matter,

Prakruti.

These two primordial energies exist in all of nature,

And in each one of us as part of our primordial inheritance.

Purusha is a subtle,

Non-material potential energy,

Which is continually seeking to express itself in the diversity of material creation.

However,

Purusha,

As pure consciousness,

Is considered to be inert without primordial matter,

Prakruti,

Creative potential.

It is said that within the womb of Prakruti,

The entire universe is born.

In the potential energy of Purusha,

And the creative will of Prakruti,

We find an understanding of the evolution or journey of pure consciousness into material expression,

And all that we know and experience in the universe around us on a macro and micro level,

Including what we know of our body,

Mind,

And spirit.

As part of this transmutation from subtle into form,

The five great elements took form.

The Pancha,

Mahabhuta,

Ether,

Akash,

Air,

Vayu,

Fire,

Agni,

Water,

Apas,

And Earth,

Prithvi.

The elements are universal energies and are perhaps the most materially available for us to experience.

It was observed by the early sages of Ayurveda that as the elements themselves moved towards greater form and manifestation,

They could be categorized into three forces which came to be known as the doshas.

Vata,

Pitta,

And Kapha.

Vata,

Air,

And Ether is the kinetic force.

Pitta,

Fire,

And Water is the force of transmutation.

And Kapha,

Water,

And Earth,

Potential energy,

Stability,

Stasis.

The different permutations,

Characteristics,

And expressions of the doshas make up the ebb and flow of nature and the ebb and flow of life within us.

The doshas can be used as an accessible concept to help us understand our unique nature and the signs and symptoms of imbalance within us.

It is from this understanding of how the subtle manifests into material form that we can understand both the rhythms of nature and our place within it.

The qualities of the elements and subsequent doshas are embedded in many aspects of Ayurvedic understanding.

From how we maintain health and balance,

To how illness develops,

As well as which foods,

Remedies,

And lifestyle practices to use to help us maintain our health.

It's a way to connect to the primordial elements within us and connect more deeply to the rhythms of nature.

I'll speak more about the elements and the doshas in my second in this series of three talks on Ayurveda.

For the remainder of our time together,

I'll expand on the scope and breadth of Ayurveda as a medicine.

As a holistic system,

Ayurveda's practices include prevention of illness,

Maintenance of health,

And treatments for when there are imbalances or illness occurring.

Included within this is a detailed understanding of how our tissues are nourished,

How we maintain our health,

As well as the stages of disease development,

And how to identify and intervene at each stage.

From an Ayurvedic understanding,

Health is experienced in three ways.

Sama dosha,

The doshas,

Vata,

Pitta,

And kapha must be in equilibrium.

Sama agni,

The digestive fire or agni,

Must be in a balanced state.

Sama,

Datu,

Mala,

Kriya,

The datus,

Bodily tissues,

And mala,

Waste materials,

Must be functioning normally.

These are concepts you'll see come up again and again when studying Ayurveda.

So let's break them down a little bit to understand what each of these statements mean.

Sama dosha,

The doshas,

Vata,

Pitta,

And kapha,

Must be in equilibrium.

This is reflected in the assessment of our prakriti and our vikruti.

Prakriti is the particular predominance of the doshas at the time of our birth,

Our birth constitution.

We tend to predominate in one or two doshas as part of our prakriti,

And in our lives we tend to express the characteristics and signs and symptoms of imbalance of that dosha throughout our lives.

Each person's balance and equilibrium of the doshas will look slightly different based on the predominance of the doshas in their prakriti,

Their birth constitution.

And vikruti,

Our current state imbalances,

Usually related to the season that we're in,

Where we live,

And various lifestyle factors such as our diet,

Our stage of life,

Our career,

And includes already existing areas of vulnerability and weakness.

And next,

Sama agni,

The digestifier or agni,

Must be in a balanced state.

Implicit in an ayurvedic understanding of health is the proper function of the digestive system.

Balanced agni or digestifier allows us to effectively digest our food and produce a substance called ahara rasa.

Ahara rasa is produced when our digestion is functioning optimally and it nourishes all of our bodily tissues.

Agni that is too high,

Too low,

Or irregular contributes to the many different digestive disturbances we can experience.

When agni is low or otherwise disturbed,

Ama,

A residue,

Can be created and build up in our body and mind.

Ama is a concept that comes up quite often in ayurveda,

And this residue created from improper digestion can also come into the body and mind from external sources.

And the third in the factors of health from an ayurvedic perspective,

Sama,

Datu,

Mala,

Kriya.

The datus,

Bodily tissues,

And mala,

Waste materials such as urine,

Feces,

And sweat,

Must be functioning normally.

When,

For example,

The mala or waste materials are moving efficiently,

Ama is properly eliminated and cannot build up as easily in our body and mind.

Let's take a moment to speak to the datus or tissues from an ayurvedic perspective.

The healthy functioning of which is essential for our overall health and resilience.

There are seven tissues in ayurveda.

These are rasa or plasma,

Rakta or blood,

Mamsa or muscle,

Asthi,

Bone,

Maja,

Nerve or marrow,

Shukra and arthava,

The male and female reproductive tissue.

The tissues are nourished by ahara rasa,

The healthy end product of digestion I spoke about a few moments ago.

The tissues receive the ahara rasa in order from the plasma first to the reproductive tissue as the last.

As health is defined by particular factors,

The states of imbalance and illness are also categorized into four main areas.

In Sanskrit,

This is called dukkha samyoga.

They're areas to consider that can be contributing to imbalance or illness in the body.

They are external factors such as injuries,

Accidents,

Bites,

Microbial infections and exposure to toxic chemicals.

There are internal factors such as nutritional deficiencies,

Metabolic disturbances and the of ama or toxicity.

And there are psychoemotional factors such as greed,

Pride,

Falsehood,

Anxiety and sorrow.

And this is usually a problem when they build up or we experience them in excess over time in our lives.

And there are natural factors such as birthing or aging,

Hunger or thirst.

And maybe at this point you're asking yourself,

How do Ayurvedic doctors or practitioners figure out a person's state of health or imbalance?

What diagnostic tools did they use to determine the state of health or illness in the body or mind?

To determine the state of the doshas,

Agni,

The tissues or the wastes?

Before the use of modern diagnostic tools like blood tests and imaging,

Doctors and healers of Ayurveda were taught to work with the following tools.

Authoritative knowledge through what we take in and what we learn from teachers and schooling,

Learning from the experience of our elders and trusted texts.

And direct perception,

Diagnosis through observing,

Questioning,

Listening and palpation.

Diagnosis was revealed through the experience of all that we take in,

Including what we take in with our senses,

What we see,

Smell,

Hear and feel.

What do you see,

For example,

When looking at the appearance of the eyes,

The skin,

The nails,

The urine,

The stool and palpation,

Particularly of areas related to the concern of the patient,

For example,

The abdomen or the spine or the joints.

And pulse and tongue diagnosis.

These are examined for dosha and tissue imbalances.

And the pulse is one of the primary ways of determining your dosha constitution.

And as I mentioned,

Any current state imbalances.

And questioning and listening,

Asking good questions and deep listening brings out many important details of a person's case.

Today,

Ayurvedic doctors and practitioners have access to modern medical diagnostic tools like blood work and imaging,

Whether directly or indirectly,

Whereby their patients are coming in with these tests already done.

And so they're not reliant exclusively on the above diagnostic tools.

But the importance of doing a proper assessment through to traditional assessment is still an important part of Ayurvedic education and practice today.

Let's turn our attention to the varied treatment measures of Ayurvedic medicine.

Once an Ayurvedic doctor or practitioner has done their assessment,

Treatment is applied in an individualized manner using the many tools available to them.

Treatment approaches work with diet and nutrition,

Lifestyle modification,

Medicinal herbs,

Body work,

And include extensive purification or detoxification practices called panchakarma and rejuvenation practices called rasayana.

Treatment approaches are applied on an individualized basis and usually include modifications around diet and nutrition,

Herbal medicine,

Yoga and pranayama,

As well as the use of particular oils,

Aromatherapy,

Gem therapy,

Mantra,

And jyotish,

Vedic astrology.

Within Ayurveda,

There's a profound understanding of food as medicine.

Dietary practices can be modified for the doshas,

The tissues,

And specific illness needs.

And there are many medicinal herbs often used in single form or in complex multi-herb formulas of which there are many modern and classic Ayurvedic herbal formulations.

Often,

Herbs are taken at particular times of day or year to accommodate for doshic imbalances.

Many Ayurvedic doctors and practitioners use body work to directly access the nadis,

Or energy meridians,

With the goal of encouraging the smooth flow of prana into all of the tissues.

And let's take a moment to briefly mention the wonderful cleansing and rejuvenation practices of Ayurveda.

Panchakarma,

Translated to the five actions,

Is a detailed system of cleansing practices focused on moving the doshas and ama from the tissues of the body into the digestive tract where they can be eliminated.

Panchakarma usually takes place over a period of time from two weeks to one month and is helpful in chronic illness conditions which are often related in one way or another to the buildup of ama.

And rasayana,

Rejuvenation practices,

Used often after panchakarma to foster the general strength and immunity of the body and mind.

It's also used in convalescence and recovery and particularly if there's been a loss of after illness or prolonged periods of stress.

What methods are used and how they're used is based on the individual needs of each person.

In my second talk in this series,

We'll dive more deeply into the doshas and how they function in our body and mind.

In my third talk,

We'll focus on various lifestyle practices that can support the doshas.

I hope this talk was helpful in bringing some awareness on the breath and wisdom of Ayurveda.

Thank you for joining me.

May your day be filled with ease and peace.

Namaste.