Dosha for Life

Ayurveda is a 5000 year old science of healing and wellbeing, but if it is scientific, how does it work? How does Ayurveda act as a preventative health care system and what is the role of Ayurvedic treatments?

The essence of Ayurvedic healing, and the cornerstone of Dosha for Life teaching s the knowledge that effective and long lasting healthcare only comes from knowing ourselves, from learning about our constitutions and from balancing the nutritional, emotional and environmental factors in our lives, including the physical aspects of our surroundings, the sights, sounds and smells and the changing seasons. 

Ayurveda is a complete science of wellbeing based upon acquiring knowledge of our individual constitution and relating that to our nutritional, spiritual and environmental needs. These factors are influenced by the three underlying principles of Ahimsa, Cosmic Memory and Sadhana.

These principles require a firm commitment to rebuilding the relationship between self and natural rhythms. The earth and all life forms are seen to be an interrelated whole. We share the same atomic and molecular structures and the same building blocks as all life forms. What happens to one part affects the whole.

Ahimsa, or non-violence to self and others underpins the systems, and is achieved by caring for the self through a life of balance in terms of nutrition, environmental factors and mindful awareness in our daily activities. Sadhana, the active meditation upon the daily rituals of living, is the means by which these inter-related features are integrated into hourly and daily activity.

The daily preparation of food is a vital ritual. Sadhana is the active meditation of food preparation, of mindfulness in our daily cleansing rituals, of close attention to sound, and to the way we breathe and use breath in our lives. Daily routines are rituals that help us to establish the conditions for attaining harmony.

Achieving mental and physical balance through daily activities helps to rebuild the qualities damaged by modern living. Harmony counterbalances all of the change in life because harmony is unchanging. Harmony is a living force within the heart and mind of each person that can be generated through Sadhana, re-creating energies and rhythms that we have forgotten.

The theory of cosmic memory has parallels with Jung’s theory of collective unconscious and other theories on morphic resonance and aspects of quantum physics, string theory and attractor patterns in nature.

Tissues and cells have the capacity to “remember” their pre-ordained function. Each cell in our body grows from our initial conception to be a part of a whole system. Each cell “knows” where it belongs, whether it be in our eyes, nails, heart, feet or skin. The cells know their location and function in our bodies, just as they do in a lion or a fish or a tree or a blade of grass.

In this fashion, food contains the genetic information and memory of its historical function. The act of choosing, preparing and eating food, of caring for our environment and of paying attention to the way we live and breathe resounds with our own cosmic memory. Food is the only medium that carries ojas, prana and tejas (the three gunas, or primordial conditions of the universe) into our bodies. Food takes us through the complete cycle of being; the food cycle is our complete memory, from seed to sprout to plant to fruit. Food is one of the most powerful transformers of consciousness in human life.

In Ayurveda, wellbeing and health are initiated by nutrition and in particular by taste. Taste triggers responses that go deep into our psyche and which have a major impact on our awareness. So much of our instinctive healing response is lost when we use herbs in tablet, pill and capsule form. It is essential that we work directly with herbs and spices in our nutrition; the sensation of taste directly triggers the healing response within our bodies. Nutrition builds the cells in our bodies, and the six tastes of Ayurveda are critical to maintaining cellular health.

The combinations of tastes in our diet can either compliment or undermine our constitution. The tastes are sweet, sour, pungent, astringent, salty and bitter. Understanding these taste categories and using those foods which best suit our constitution (dosha) help to create wellbeing. Our doshas and the seasonal variations of the planet are in a constantly fluctuating relationship leading to imbalances at critical seasonal junctures. These fluctuations create different nutritional needs throughout the year according to our dosha; emotional and environmental factors also lead to imbalance. We address the imbalances by dealing with the tastes in our diet.

Within Ayurveda, food does not simply provide units of energy and the pleasure of consumption. Food rebuilds our bodies at the cellular level. It contains all of the elements from the natural world that we are composed of and preparing, cooking and eating good natural food is, within Ayurveda, a very special act of renewal that sustains our connection with the total environment we live in. Disconnection from that environment makes us ill; losing touch with our roots creates dis – ease. The way we begin to repair and reconnect is by learning about ourselves: understanding our constitution (dosha) and its unique requirements is the single most effective step towards achieving balance of body, mind and soul.

Dosha for Life teachings helps us to understand that we create ourselves on an hourly and daily basis. The good and the bad, the healthy and the unhealthy aspects of our lives all come from inside us. We are not just what we eat, we are what we think and do and we learn that Ayurveda can help us take responsibility for ourselves and create a better quality of life.

Vani (Linda Bretherton) teaches how practical daily activity based upon nutrition and active meditation can stop the maddening inner chatter that most people experience and how it can strengthen our health and sense of wellbeing. It is powerful and effective work that can change people.

© Jim Whitham 2006