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Ayurvedic Insight
Issue #5, February 2002
In this Issue
“Imbalance: Prajnaparadha”
By Dr. Robert E. Svoboda
Unless you are a saint, you will go out of balance and become sick
from time to time. Occasional sickness is inevitable for a mortal;
continuously perfect health does not exist on our planet. Every body-mind-spirit
has some weak point, somewhere.
Prajnaparadha – literally, “an offense against wisdom”
– happens whenever one part of you insists on an action that
is detrimental to the rest of you. It happens when you know deep inside
that something is not right for your body-mind-spirit, but you obstinately
go ahead and do it anyway, ignoring Nature’s warnings.
Any part of you can perform prajnaparadha from the cancerous cell
that rebels against the organism’s wisdom, to the mind that
insists on its idiosyncratic version of reality. Ayurvedists who survey
today’s world find prajnaparadha everywhere they look, and are
not surprised to discover gargantuan imbalances emerging as rampant
disease.
My mentor was very big on the real reality. “It is always better
to live with reality,” he would say, “because otherwise,
without fail, reality will come to live with you.” While you
are a child you live in a world of seemingly unlimited possibilities.
As you become an adult, limitations set in, and you learn that you
have to live within your limits if you want to enjoy unimpeded flow.
Life without limits perverts your reality; it sours your sweetness,
or turns it bitter. Sickness is “reality coming to live with
you,” which is why it is all right to be sick. Sickness is Nature’s
tap on your shoulder, her reminder to you that you have strayed from
the path. When you open yourself to her again, and allow her to work
within you, she will reawaken your body’s innate healing abilities
to set things right.
Until you return to that path, Nature will go on reminding you, for
as long as it takes – or until your viability as a body-mind-spirit
complex expires. How well your natural healing mechanisms will work
in any specific instance depends mainly on two things: how carefully
you follow the appropriate regimen (without being stiff or humorless
about it), and how much vitality your system retains. After all, everyone
has to die of something.
When you are sick, you should ask yourself practical questions, such
as how to change your ways so that your disease will disappear. Do
not, however, fall into the trap of trying to figure out what you
did to bring this on yourself. There is little to be gained by getting
stuck on some simplistic cause-effect relationship when you are tying
to extricate yourself from the jaws of a disease. You will do better
to focus on regaining your health instead of trying to conduct an
autopsy on how you went wrong.
Because it is always best to detect and correct imbalances while
they are still incubating, it is useful to learn about your own physical,
energetic, mental, and emotional “blind spots” and then
try to keep a regular eye on them. You should try to pay attention
to yourself when you are feeling fine, so that you will quickly take
notice when you are not feeling right. The earlier you can detect
that something is wrong with you, even if it is not detectable on
any of the standard diagnostic tests, the sooner you can treat yourself
and prevent the disease from needing to manifest itself fully. This
also applies of course, to everyone you are parenting. It is good
to keep a watch on your children, by such means as their pulses, voices,
or food habits, and try to nip any problems in the bud.
You will find it easier to recognize blind spots if you can also
identify strengths. Perhaps the most striking of the many differences
between Ayurveda and Western medicine is that while the latter focuses
on disease to the extent that it defines health as its absence, Ayurveda
focuses on health. Ayurvedic diagnosis, therefore, begins with what
is right with you: how well nourished, toned, and “excellent”
your tissues are, and how effective your channels flow.
Reprinted with permission from Ayurveda For Women; A Guide To Vitality
and Health by Dr. Robert E. Svoboda, Healing Arts Press. ©2000
All Rights Reserved.
A Healthy Alternative to Chocolate
Butterscotch Brownies
Preparation time: 30- 40 minutes.
Makes: two-dozen 1”x1”x3” bars or sixteen 2”
squares
Ingredients:
- 6 tablespoons ghee
- 1 cup Sucanat
- ½ cup rice or whole-wheat flour
- ½ cup pecans or walnuts or coconut, chopped
- ¼ cup sunflower seeds, raw (optional)
- 1 egg (or egg substitute)
- 1¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Warm the ghee in a medium-sized saucepan
over low heat. Stir in the Sucanat. It will get moist like brown sugar,
but will not dissolve the way brown sugar would. Measure the flower
and nuts into a mixing bowl and immediately stir in the Sucanat-ghee
mixture. Beat the egg in a separate small bowl and add in the vanilla
to the egg. Add the baking powder and salt to the flour-Sucanat mixture,
and then combine the egg into the flour as well. Beat well. Spoon
into an oiled 8-inch x 8-inch baking pan- if you want thicker brownies,
do not fill up the whole pan. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a
knife inserted into the middle of the brownies comes out cleanly.
Cool and cut.
Comments: Not for anyone looking to decrease ama (toxins) or kapha.
Addictive and difficult to resist. You can use barley flour in this
recipe; cut the ghee to 5 tablespoons and leave the flour at ½
cup. When doubling this rule, use two 8-inch square pans rather than
one large pan, for best results.
Recipe reprinted with permission from The Ayurvedic Cookbook by Amadea
Morningstar with Urmila Desai, Lotus Press, P.O. Box 325, Twin Lakes,
WI 53181. ©1990 All Rights Reserved.
Ashwagandha
By Dr. John Douillard
In a world where eighty percent of all disease can be attributed
to stress it is not surprising that we are attracted to the Ayurvedic
herb, Ashwagandha. Winter cherry, in English, Withania somnifera is
sometimes referred to as Indian Ginseng making reference to its nervous
system rejuvenative and tonic actions. Numerous studies have exhibited
its anti-stress adaptogenic properties, many of which demonstrated
superior adaptogenic properties than that of Ginseng. It is quickly
becoming well known as an herb for energy, endurance and stress.
According to Ayurvedic medicine, Ashwagandha balances both the Nervous
System (vata = air) and the Musculo-Skeletal System (kapha = earth,
water) simultaneously while it increases heat (pitta) in the body.
In chronic conditions it is common to see Vata-Kapha imbalances that
are usually long standing and difficult to treat. A classic example
of such a condition is arthritis, which involves painful, dry joints
(a vata condition) along with swollen and inflamed joints (a kapha
condition). Ashwagandha would be the medicine of choice in such a
condition as it balances both the vata and kapha aspects of this imbalance.
Ashwagandha is also indicated in many other conditions that combine
vata and kapha imbalances.
Traditionally, Ashwagandha has been used to treat: general debility,
arthritis, depression, chronic fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, depressed
immunity, sexual debility, infertility, memory loss, breathing difficulties,
hormonal imbalances and more.
It is used very effectively for insomnia, but not as a sedative.
Its rejuvenative and nervous system restorative properties provide
the body with the energy (prana), which is needed by the body to settle
itself down and sleep. In this way its adaptogenic properties help
the body deal with a stress related condition rather than mask it
with a sedative.
In Ayurveda, Ashwagandha is considered a sweet root. In ancient times
herbs were classified by their taste. The sweet taste allows the herb
penetrate into the deeper tissues of the body. The sweet taste would
open the tissues rather than constrict them. Very bitter roots would
constrict and cleanse but not deeply access and rejuvenate the body
like Ashwagandha. Its secondary taste of bitter and astringent would
stimulate a deep tissue cleansing and rejuvenation that would not
be possible with an aggressive bitter herb. Also because of its sweet
taste, Ashwagandha is considered a heavy herb and may be necessary
to take it with meals or with ginger to effectively digest it. Toxicity
is not usually encountered with Ashwagandha.
Article reprinted with permission from John Douillard's LifeSpa,
6666 Gunpark Dr E #102, Boulder, CO 80301. (303) 516-4848. For more
information about Dr. John Douillard’s practice or products,
or to read the article in full, please go to www.lifespa.com.
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