Intro to Ayurveda extra #2

In this way, we can already start to see what the doshas are.  Doshas mean that which is always changing.
Doshas are life energy that constitutes and runs the body. The Doshas play, work and move within the tissues, remember the tissues? which are called Dhatus, we talked about them in week number one, and it is within these Dhatus that the doshas find their medium to operate.

Doshas once again,  are the Ayurvedic explanation of how the elements in a playful manner create life. The word Dosha means “that which is always changing”, it is unique to Ayurvedic wisdom, although Traditional Chinese Medicine and Tibetan Medicine, and Thai Medicine have some similar concepts, the term Doshas is solely used in Ayurveda.

Doshas are the 5 elements, which are basically Prana or Life Force manifesting in Life. They are energetic principles.  So we could say that Doshas are Divinity creating life.

I wish to share this information not in such a flat, horizontal manner, but with some depth, some verticality to it.  Not just dosha, Vata, movement, etc, but I wish to invite you to feel and relax when you read or listen to this information and just let it sink in.

Doshas are a manifestation from the soul,  it is said that the Soul, chooses a vehicle onto where Prana flows.
out of the doshas the Dhatus or tissues manifest, they are living tissues, the tissues are alive, and out of the Dhatus, we get the malas or the waste products, as the nutrients move into each tissue a digestive process happens that produces waste or byproduct.  And all this is connected by and with the Srotas or the channels of communication.  And all this operates as One as a whole, with the mind observing. One single unit is connected with everything that exists as well.  The only thing that keeps us from feeling this connection, which is always there, is the mind thinking, making us absent from our lives.

There are three Doshas, and this is the most common information you will find everywhere in the internet and in books about Ayurveda.  The main Dosha is Vata which means “ that which moves “, this is the king dosha and it is formed by the elements of air and space.  Another one is Pitta which means “that which digests or transforms” and it is formed by the elements of fire and water, more will be explained when we talk about Pitta and the other dosha is Kapha which means “ that which binds “ and it is formed by the elements of water and earth.

We will talk deeper about the Doshas later, there will be one video for each Dosha, in which we will see what they are about within the body, and the mind and learn about the imbalances and how to balance these bioenergies to achieve better health.

Let’s make it more simple.  Vata Dosha creates movement, for example, the way in which the food we eat moves through our digestive system or our circulatory system and even our thoughts.  Pitta digests, for example, the digestion of food and the transformation of nutrients into substances that can be absorbed by the body for its nutrition and functioning, Agni, the digestive fire is a manifestation of Pitta and Kapha binds or creates matter, for example, all the organs, muscles, and fluids we have in our body for its operation.

The Doshas, due to the influence of everything, change constantly, and those which are stronger in the individual have a bigger tendency towards imbalance. For example, a person with an Air constitution (Vata) would have AIR energy more imbalanced, more often. The same would happen to someone with more Fire (Pitta) or with more Water (Kapha). The other two elements, Ether and Earth, are more stable and consistent elements that almost don’t change. That is why in Ayurveda, even though Ether and Earth exist in the Vata and Kapha Doshas respectively, the Doshas are mostly spoken of as Air (Vata), Fire (Pitta), and Water (Kapha) constitutions.

The Doshas exist at a physical and a mental/emotional levels. There is no separation between the levels. They are One. Working with the Doshas on an individual, the personal basis is life’s work, it is self-knowledge work and it is a rewarding job for the individual. This self-knowledge brings empowerment, relaxation, health, direction, growth, and enlightenment. Working with the Doshas means aiming to bring them into balance as much as possible, all the time.

THE CONCEPT OF THE DOSHAS IS EXCLUSIVE TO AYURVEDA AND THE MEANING OF THE DOSHAS IS THE BASIS FOR THE AYURVEDIC WORK. THIS UNDERSTANDING HAS EXISTED FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS AND HAS NOT BEEN MODIFIED WHATSOEVER, NOT IN ANY WAY, NEITHER UPDATED NOR CHANGED AT ALL. THIS PARTICULAR PIECE OF KNOWLEDGE ALLOWS AYURVEDA TO CLASSIFY BODY/MIND TYPES AND IMBALANCES. ADOPTION OF THIS KNOWLEDGE ALLOWS THE INDIVIDUAL TO DEVELOP A BETTER SELF-AWARENESS, A SELF-UNDERSTANDING, AND A CLEAR PERCEPTION OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES, AND THUS MAXIMIZE THE BENEFITS THAT THESE UNIQUE DIFFERENCES CAN BRING INTO HIS/HER LIFE.

DOSHAS SHOULDN’T BE USED FOR SELF-JUDGMENT OR TO CRITICIZE OTHERS. NO DOSHA IS BETTER THAN ANOTHER; THEY ARE THE ELEMENTS PLAYING, JUST LIKE DIVINITY. ONE WITHOUT THE OTHERS WOULDN’T EXIST. DOSHAS ARE THE DIVINE ENERGY OF LIFE FLOWING AND CREATING LIFE.

It is fair to say that all these orchestrations must have a sort of sacred intelligence within itself, that IS itself at the same time and is not separate, is itself.  It is just divinity flowing, now for the purpose of study, we use these words, that at some level, create a sense of possible separation, but there isn’t any separation.

We have the tendency in our understanding to see everything as separate entities, separate organs, the body, the mind, a doctor for each organ or function, and even the sense of being separate from the Earth where we live.  Ayurveda and all the ancestral sciences bring wisdom back so we can remember the reality. This reality is the interconnectedness of everything with everything, and this is the same with our bodies.

This easy way of seeing it already shows how Ayurveda explains the flow of the Divine Life Force of Nature to create life. Of course, there are many other aspects that could be explained in way deeper detail all the way until there is no gap possible in the understanding, although this understanding will not be able to be put in words, it has to be experienced, this is why modern science reaches a point in which it cannot explain those very subtle energies. We will play with this understanding more during this program. this little bit of information will suffice for us to move forward and enjoy this wisdom that has been around for thousands of years and that has been used by millions of humans so far.

Please do remember that these descriptions are using a language, English in this case, and that when we use the language we are objectifying Divinity, Sacredness, as something outside of us, which is already intrinsic within ourselves, in fact, we are IT, in other words, a relationship of object and subject does not apply because we are that, that is us, but for study purposes, the language does help us in the understanding.  Somehow.

The mission altogether, from the perspective of consciousness, is to realize that there isn’t a separation.

Did you know that Ayurveda was said to be the Medical Science of the Planet by the World Health Organization some time ago?, now why is not taught as such in the normal life of all of us humans is something aside we could consider, but again not important for the purpose of this program.  At least we are here studying it.  So, yes, Ayurveda is a Science of Life, but at the same time, it is a full-on Medical Science used in plenty of hospitals in India.

Ayurveda could be called the science of self-healing, the science of consciousness, the science of detoxification and purification, the science of life, and much more.  

Ayurveda originally comes from the Vedas, which are four books from India, considered unparalleled information about the Universe and its Laws.  These books are said to be 3500 years old.  Whaaaaatttt? That’s ancient recorded blessings.

The other day I was listening to a wise man. And he was saying that there is clarity that in the south of India in three states, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and another one I forgot, they have been using successful agriculture for over 12 thousand years.  And in the past 30-40 years the government decided to make some changes and that it was going to lead to serious problems.  

In India, it is taught in Universities and there are many Ayurvedic hospitals that are shared with normal allopathic medicine.  From an Ayurvedic perspective, allopathic medicine (the modern medicine) is useful in case of trauma (for example a broken leg), for surgery (although in Ayurvedic medicine they were performing surgeries about 2500 years ago and there is a complete compendium or encyclopedia called Sushutra Samhita, Sushutra was the surgeon that wrote it) and the other case is for infectious diseases.  

Sushruta Samhita is the first and foremost authentic text of  Ayurveda in the specialty of
surgery written around  1000BC by  Acharya Sushruta (acharya means wise one) who was primarily a surgeon and recognized as The Father of Surgery in the world.   It is known that surgery was the very, very last resource in the process of healing an individual.

Ayurveda does the rest: how to live, how to eat, how to merge the mind and the body into one (but not the only science to do that, and in fact yoga, the sister science does the same), how to extend life, how to detoxify the body and how to maximize the existence of humans on this earth during our lives.  Ayurveda brings meaning to our existence.

Ayurveda talks about everything you can think of related to human life and more.  In fact, the Vedas, those 4 books where the Ayurvedic wisdom comes from has all information related to everything they say. It is not that I have read them, at this moment I am sharing what is said.  Many other sciences arise from the Vedas as well, such as yoga, sound, mantra, breath, meditation, and deep wisdom about the meaning of life.

Consider Ayurveda the wisdom of the Elders that has come now to this modern world for us to start remembering how to live better and find more peace and balance in our lives.

One more thing, that is important in us learning to use this sciences and this program, when working with Ayurveda we need to take under consideration the Universal Laws of Same increases Same and Opposites Balance. And at the same time, we need to talk about the Gunas, which are the qualities of each element.

Again. Same increases same and Opposites balance.  

Why?  This is a key piece of information for your own use, this is how you will be doing healing on yourself, by understanding this small simple aspect.  So there are then pairs of qualities present within the elements.

You can find them in the book, but I am going to mention them here in order for us to understand what I mean by the Universal Law of same increases same and opposites balance.

So we have:

Heavy – Light 
 Dull or slow –  Sharp or penetrating 
 Cold or cool – Hot 
 Oily – Dry 
 Smooth –  Rough 
 Dense –  Porous 
 Soft –  Hard 
 Static or fixed or formed –  Mobile or running or flowing 
 Cloudy –  Clear 
 Solid –  Liquid

How is it beneficial to learn about these opposites? because once you learn about them and about the Universal laws of same and opposites then you can start to make changes that will assist you in healing yourself.  This is what we are going to be achieving within the Self Healing Journey program.

Same increases same: hot increases heat. Cold increases cold.  Dryness increases the dryness.  Oiliness increases the oiliness and so on.  

Remember when we spoke about the Dhatus. The tissues in the body.  This is when things get interesting. And let’s include in this the mind as well.  So, if you eat something heating over and over and over again, it will start moving deeper into the Dhatus. Remember I shared that it takes 40 days for food to navigate through all the Dhatus.  

But remember also that the body has its defense mechanisms and it is cleansing itself and organizing itself as much as it can, constantly, but when the time comes that the heat is too much, then that energy will start gradually hampering the srotas or the communication channels, which are the defense systems of the body to prevent the tissues from getting affected so that one heat will eventually make it through into the tissues at some point and then illness or disease will happen.

Opposites balance, cold balances the heat, in this case, is reverse operation.  This works up to a certain level particularly in the early stages of imbalances as we will see later on.  

But fortunately, I offer also within the Self Healing Journey Program, options to cleanse deeper the tissues and the channels of communication, in order to help you restore from deeper damage that was made to the body at other times by the possible abuse of certain lifestyles.

For example, sleeping after meals or during the day will increase Kapha Dosha.  Spending sleepless nights and over-exercising would increase Vata Dosha.  

Ok, so far with all the knowledge we have gathered we are then able to understand the following paragraph:

WHEN ALL DOSHAS (METABOLISMS OR BIO-ENERGIES) ARE BALANCED, THERE IS A HEALTHY APPETITE AND DIGESTIVE FIRE, ALL THE ANATOMICAL TISSUES ARE WORKING AS THEY INTEND AND ARE BALANCED AND ALL BIOLOGICAL WASTES ARE DISCARDED PROPERLY AND EFFICIENTLY WHILE KEEPING THE MIND AND THE SENSES IN A STATE OF CALMNESS AND BLISS IN ALIGNMENT WITH THE INNER SELF, THEN THIS WOULD BE A HEALTHY PERSON.

I share this with you just to tap into your curiosity.  I have had the honor of listening to Vedic scholars talk on topics such as peace and the wisdom is such that it just doesn’t leave any possibility of doubt and debate, it is simply Divine explanation.

In the next three videos we will talk about Vata, Pitta and Kapha, again I invite you to please take your time to digest the information, you might wish to do one video per day and then feel it, allowing it to sink in you.

I hope I Have gotten you excited enough.  Go ahead and enjoy the next three videos, we are going to talk about the Doshas and how they represent themselves in humans both as a balanced person and the possible imbalances that can arise from basically not knowing what we are doing.

Remember that Plato said: Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow and this applies to yourself, with yourself.