Ayurvedic Insight
Issue #20, June 2003
In This Issue
Healthy Skin for the Summer
By Shannon Mooney
As we enter into the summer months, we find ourselves outside more,
working off the extra pounds from the winter and soaking in the sun.
Even if you are not a sun worshipper, the rising temperatures can
cause fiery Pitta dosha to begin accumulating in the body. Excess
pitta dosha or heat in the body can react with ama or toxins in the
blood and express through the skin as inflammation. Many of summer's
common skin conditions like sunburn, fever blisters, rashes and hives,
can be treated by following a pitta-pacifying diet in conjunction
with simple herbal remedies.
The most effective way to calm pitta dosha is through a cooling,
fresh foods diet. These recommendations can help keep you as cool
as a cucumber during the long, hot summer months ahead.
- Minimize or avoid hot chili peppers, spicy salsas, pickles, fermented
foods, coffee and alcohol particularly if you are pitta predominant.
- Including fresh cilantro in your meals is especially cooling
and is balancing for all doshas. Try a couple teaspoons of fresh
cilantro juice internally, once or twice a day to reduce heat and
keep pitta in balance.
- Fresh coconut water contains essential electrolytes and has a
cooling effect on the body, as does the white flesh. Cilantro and
coconut combine in this month's featured recipe to make the perfect
pitta condiment: Fresh Coriander Chutney.
- Refresh with light bites of melon or cucumber with a spritz of
lime and fresh mint. The white rind of the melon can then be rubbed
over the skin to relieve minor rashes, eczema, and allergic conditions.
- A lovely beverage to help enliven a tired, hot body is hibiscus
cooler. Try mixing your own with one to two tablespoons of hibiscus
flower powder with a quart of water, and the juice of one lime.
Sweeten to taste and enjoy!
While eating in harmony with the summer season can provide instant
relief from the hot temperatures and keep pitta in check, herbs are
another powerful way to help ease the body into balance through their
cooling and cleansing actions.
Herbs are the perfect remedy during the summer months to remove excess
pitta and detoxify the blood. Toxins in the blood triggered by excess
heat can be the cause of many uncomfortable inflammatory skin conditions.
For internal cleansing of excess pitta, we suggest Blood Cleanse formula.
Blood Cleanse is a unique formula that contains powerful purifying
herbs that eliminate excess heat in the blood. Regular elimination
is also a factor in achieving healthy skin. Triphala, the mother of
all gentle eliminative formulas, assists in internal cleansing and
keeping the colon functioning optimally.
Externally, herbal pastes can bring quick relief when skin begins
to flare. The herb powders of turmeric and sandalwood are useful to
have on hand, particularly if you are prone to pitta-related outbreaks.
For rashes and hives, mix one part turmeric and two parts sandalwood
with enough milk (cow or goat) to form a paste. For sunburn, mix equal
amounts of turmeric and sandalwood with either cool water or aloe
gel. (Please note turmeric may cause a temporary yellow discoloration
of the skin). Apply these healing pastes to affected areas once or
twice daily, or as needed. They can be left on until semi-dry (about
15-20 minutes). Then, wash off with cool water and neem soap. These
simple Ayurvedic remedies can do wonders to balance pitta-related
skin irritations.
Balancing the whole body with foods and herbs that will counter this
season's heat brings more awareness to the cycles of nature and how
the qualities from our external environment directly affect our health.
Avoiding pitta-aggravating foods and using cooling herbs is a perfect
way to stay cool and have healthy skin this summer.
Note: The tablet formulas of Blood Cleanse and Triphala, bulk herbs
of hibiscus, turmeric, and sandalwood, and neem soap, are available
to order through Banyan Botanicals. Please look for the produce mentioned
above in your organic natural fresh foods store.
Recipe: Fresh Coriander Chutney
- 1 bunch (1/4 lb.) fresh cilantro (Chinese parsley)
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup grated coconut
- 2 Tbs. fresh ginger root, chopped
- 1 tsp. barley malt or honey
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
Blend lemon juice, water and fresh cilantro until cilantro is chopped.
Add remaining ingredients and blend until it is like a paste. Can
be stored in covered refrigerator up to one week. Excellent with dals,
grains, curries, bread.
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.
The Secret Potential of Brahmamuhurta
By Dr. Claudia Welch, D.O.M.
"Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?"
Rumi
Masters come to tell us this. They address us either as a man, from
the level of man - "O, man, awake!" - or from the level
of the soul, the conscious being - "O, children of Light, awake!
You are asleep. Being under the control of mind, your attention is
diffused into the world and identified with it. You are awakened outside
and are asleep from within. The God-Power is already within you, waiting
for you. Your true home is the True Home of your Father, that is,
of all-consciousness and all-wisdom. Why are you stuck fast in this
material world, in the outside things? These are only temporarily
given to you. The body, being made of matter, is changing every moment
of life. This is the golden opportunity which has been given to us
to realize ourselves, to know ourselves and to know the Controlling
Power which is controlling us in the body and is controlling the entire
universe."
Kirpal Singh ji Maharaj
I frequently see patients who believe that they have difficult lifelong
physical or emotional patterns resulting from trauma suffered in utero
or during birth. Often they feel a sense of hopelessness about changing
these patterns.
Combining two concepts in Ayurvedic philosophy may point a way to
address such maladies. These two concepts are brahmamuhurta, the pre-dawn
and dawn hours, and the concept of the relationship of the macrocosm
with the microcosm.
Let us look at each concept, individually, and then see how combining
the two may lead us to a therapeutic approach to certain disorders
that may arise.
Brahmamuhurta or the "Ambrosial Hours"
The healthy person should get up (from bed) during brahma muhurta,
to protect his life.
Ashtanga Hridayam, vol. I, 2:1
Brahmamuhurta is the name for the early hours of each day. There
are varied opinions about exactly which hours constitute brahmamuhurta.
The commentary on the above passage from Ashtanga Hridayam, one of
the foundational Ayurvedic texts, states that the hours of brahmamuhurta
are the "last three hours of the night (from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m.)."
Amitabhan, author of the article "Wake up Before Dawn" and
associated with contemporary saint Amrtanandamaya Ma (Ammachi, says
it covers "the one and a half hours before sunrise," when
the sky has a "rosy-red hue. A few stars may also be visible."
The tradition associated with Sivananda Yoga says it begins at 4 a.m.
The tradition of Sivananda Yoga includes 3 a.m. through dawn in the
amritavela;"elixir" or "ambrosial" hours, as brahmamuhurta
is also known. As this is the tradition into which I am initiated,
this is the time span I will consider in this exploration.
From Ammachi and Swami Sivananda, to my own lineage and even to Christian
traditions, these "ambrosial hours" are emphasized as being
the best time for meditation and prayer. The Ashtanga Hridayam teaches
that they are also ideal times for "study and [to] obtain brahma
or knowledge."
Often the reason given for why this time is ideal for meditation
and obtaining knowledge is that the outer environment is serene and
the mind is quieter at this time, more inclined within and less inclined
to feel it is missing out on important jobs of the daylight. Dr. Vasant
Lad also tells us that "at this time, there are loving (sattvic)
qualities in nature that can bring peace of mind and freshness to
the doors of perception."
Aside from these reasons, there may be other reasons to appreciate
brahmamuhurta. If we explore how it relates to the law of microcosms
and macrocosms, we might see how we can take advantage of brahmamuhurta
to lead to increased health and peace in our lives.
"Just as we clean the temple or holy place where we worship
God, in the same way, God Almighty is within us. So we must remove
all the worldly thoughts, all the bad things from our within and clean
it with the Simran [remembrance]. That Beloved who is within you is
always awake, so you should also wake up early in the morning."
Sant Ajaib Singh ji Maharaj
Law of Macrocosm and Microcosm
"According to the Law of Microcosm and Macrocosm, everything
that exists in the vast external universe, the macrocosm, also appears
in the internal cosmos of the human body, the microcosm. Caraka says,
'Man is the epitome of the universe. There is in man as much diversity
as in the world outside, and there is in the world as much diversity
as in man.' When the individual becomes aligned with the universe,
the lesser cosmos functions as a harmonious unit of the greater."
Dr. Robert Svoboda
The above is a succinct explanation of the Law of Microcosm and Macrocosm.
If everything that exists in the macrocosm exists in the microcosm,
then the reverse must also be true: that everything that exists in
the microcosm exists in the macrocosm. This can have profound implications.
But first let us look at some various examples of this law at work.
In Ayurveda, perhaps the most well-worn application of this law is
in the elemental macro- and microcosms. Herein there are five elements
(earth, water, fire, air and ether) and three governing forces, or
doshas (vata, pitta and kapha). Vata represents movement, pitta, transformation
and kapha, structure. The same five elements and three doshas make
up the universe and human beings. They act in the same manner in both.
For example, in the fire of summer we may have more of a tendency
to suffer from internal fiery conditions, such as ulcers, anger or
skin rashes. The macrocosm of the planetary environment is affecting
the microcosm of the human environment.
The microcosm affecting the macrocosm is expressed in the now famous
example of the butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world
and this affecting weather patterns on far-away continents. Sometimes
clearly expressed and, at other times, subtle or difficult to perceive,
the Law of Macrocosm and Microcosm is nonetheless a fundamental principle
in Ayurveda.
While not as frequently evoked as our elemental macro- and microcosms,
there are also temporal microcosms and macrocosms. In these, each
time cycle is a microcosm of the next. There is the twenty-four hour
cycle of night giving way to daytime. This daily rhythm goes on and
on and on, mimicking the grander cycles: the cycles of years, in which
the winter with its cold, lifeless months melts into the new growth
of spring; the cycles of a lifetime, in which a man goes from death
into birth and from birth again into death; the cycle of 8.4 million
births and deaths before the soul arrives in the human body, with
its golden sun of the opportunity to return to the Divine; the cycle
of yuga upon yuga moving from dissolution into manifested reality.
While we may have little or no control over the grander cycles of
the yugas, the eighty-four lakhs, or our birth into the human body
and the yearly seasonal cycles, we have a chance every morning to
take advantage of the cycle of the new day.
If this law of Macrocosms and Microcosms is valid, then it stands
that we can affect the macrocosm of a lifetime via the microcosm of
a twenty-four-hour cycle.
O traveler get up; it is
dawn - it is not right that you
continue sleeping.
One who awakes, he finds; One who is asleep, he loses.
Get up and open your eyes from slumber and meditate
on your Master.
Kabir
Combining Brahmamuhurta with the Law of Macrocosms and Microcosms
Brahmamuhurta is part of the twenty-four-hour time cycle. If we overlay
this twenty-four-hour cycle microcosm over the cycle of a lifetime,
we would see that brahmamuhurta roughly corresponds to (at least)
late pregnancy and birth in the life-cycle. Childhood would correspond
to morning, midlife to midday, old age - or the twilight of life -
to late afternoon through twilight, death to the fall of the night
and the unembodied soul to the night time.
While we could look at any one of these corresponding time pairs,
we are interested here in the particular importance of brahmamuhurta
as it relates to pregnancy and birth. If the former is in fact the
microcosm of the latter, we would suspect that there would be some
deep similarities between the two. And indeed there are. One striking
similarity is that both times are governed by vata.
In Ayurveda, vata, pitta and kapha are each said to govern certain
times of day or times of life. Of the three, vata governs all sandhis,
or joints, such as the transitions from birth to death, death to birth,
day to night, and night again into day. Vata governs the hours of
2 a.m. through 6 a.m., or through dawn, which we know embraces the
"joint" of night into day and encompasses brahmamuhurta.
Apana, one of the five subsets of vata, becomes particularly active
around dawn. Prana, another one of the five subsets of vata, is that
mystical and practical intelligence responsible for assembling a baby's
cells, tissues and organs during pregnancy. It controls the way a
body is put together and how it functions once it is assembled. The
same apana that is active during dawn is also responsible for successfully
delivering the baby into the world. So we can see that the same force
- vata - is dominant during both time cycles.
If the healthy functioning of prana assures optimal organization
of energy and physical matter in the developing person, and healthy
apana delivers the complete person into the world in an optimal manner,
then it follows that these principles apply to the microcosm of brahmamuhurta
as well. During the early morning hours, for example, the active prana
would be organizing the intelligence of our physical and mental srotas,
or pathways, as it does during pregnancy and delivery. Healthy apana
would allow us smooth entry into our day. It would also stand to reason
here that damaging or healing influences on prana, apana and the other
subsets of vata would be particularly significant during brahmamuhurta,
as they are during pregnancy and birth.
We may take advantage of the fact that the organizational and delivery
principles are particularly active, available and subject to influences
at this time, and we can provide healthy influences. Healthy influences
would be any that would pacify vata and facilitate the free flow of
prana.
This is how a human being
can change:
there's a worm addicted to
eating grape leaves.
Suddenly, he wakes up,
call it grace, whatever, something
wakes him, and he's no longer
a worm.
He's the entire vineyard,
and the orchard too,
the fruit, the trunks,
a growing wisdom and joy
that doesn't need to devour.
Rumi
Healing
Vata, by nature, is easily affected by influences - both positive
and negative. If the mother is calm and healthy during pregnancy,
vata and its subsets function optimally and the fetus's development
and birth progress in a healthy manner. If vata is disturbed during
pregnancy and/or birth, the life of that new human being may be negatively
affected. It is recognized in Ayurvedic medicine, Chinese medicine,
even Western medicine, that such trauma or discomfort may have a negative
impact on our physical, mental and emotional patterns throughout our
lives. In his Textbook of Ayurveda: Fundamental Principles, Dr. Vasant
Lad writes that, during pregnancy, "the mother's diet, lifestyle,
environment, and mental/emotional states" influence and even
alter the growing baby's lifelong constitution. So, influences during
pregnancy and birth may affect a person's entire life.
Does this mean that something we had no control over as a developing
fetus or an infant, will negatively affect us for the rest of our
lives? That perhaps our ability to have intimate relationships, to
trust, to digest physical or emotional experiences is forever and
unalterably afflicted?
It was the opinion of Sant Ajaib Singh ji Maharaj, my Guruji, that
there is always hope for change and healing. He told me "a doctor
should always think that he will be able to find the goodness; he
will be able to find the cure of the pain of the person." My
Guru didn't tell me that there were certain conditions that were impossible
to treat. He told me that the outcome of a treatment was not my concern;
that was in the hands of God, but that it was our job, both as doctors
and patients, to make the efforts. I have searched, therefore, to
find a way to access healing in these sometimes difficult cases. I
have explored utilizing brahmamuhurta in my practice to do this, with
some success.
We have seen that there is a window from the microcosm of brahmamuhurta
to the macrocosm of our life in utero and delivery. It may be through
this window that we have an opportunity to re-format those early patterns
and thereby begin to heal negative changes that took place during
that time. Each new morning we have another opportunity to establish
healthy pathways that will either replace the negative ones created
during our pregnancy or birth, or to reinforce the positive ones that
may have been created. Each new day ushers in a cascade of new possibilities
and a shower of second chances. The saints have told us how to take
advantage of these hours. They have told us to lovingly meditate in
these hours.
Whenever my Guruji would put us in meditation in these hours he would
say, "Never understand meditation as a burden. Always do it lovingly."
As with anything the saints say, there are secrets to this that go
deeper than the obvious meaning. The obvious meaning here is that
love and longing pull us closer to the Divine, while doing sadhana
as a chore may render it little more than an exercise. However, it
is possible that approaching our sadhana with love can also aid our
physical, mental, emotional well-being and serve to re-format negative
patterns that may have been established in utero or during birth.
This loving attitude will exert a healing influence on the vata that
is predominant during brahmamuhurta, and the relaxation will allow
for the smooth flow of prana. Prana is the equivalent of "qi"
in Chinese medicine and martial arts and it is well known in these
paradigms that qi cannot flow if the practitioner or patient is not
relaxed.
This is also a common understanding in the practice of Hatha Yoga:
that if the practitioner is not relaxed, prana will not be able to
flow. So, if we are tense and result-oriented, or rushed while we
do our spiritual practices in the morning, the qi or prana cannot
flow and this results in disturbance in the body, mind or spirit,
where prana flows. On the other hand, if we are so relaxed that we
sleep through these hours, we encourage tamas, or the force of inertia
in our lives, to create obstacles to the free flow of prana. It would
seem, therefore, most beneficial to follow the advice of the saints
and spend brahmamuhurta meditating or doing our spiritual practices,
in an alert, loving, relaxed manner.
Guru Arjan Dev ji Maharaj says, "Always go on remembering Him,
and every morning rise up early and make the effort. Take the food
of the devotion of Lord Almighty, then you will have no difficulties
at all." Guru Arjan Dev did not just say that this will better
our spiritual life. He said that we will have "no difficulties
at all" if we can take this "food" in the morning.
When we meditate lovingly during brahmamuhurta, we are able to accept
nourishment, or food of the Lord, in the same way that we might have
received sustenance during our in-utero and birth experience. We pacify
vata, prana flows freely, our mental and physical apparatus becomes
well organized, and we are delivered into the new day as healthy individuals.
And perhaps, as we have seen, we are healing the relative macrocosm
of our in-utero and birth experience at the same time, thereby benefiting
our entire life.
Now, if the microcosm of our lifetime can be lovingly affected, then
perhaps the macrocosm of even yugas will be positively affected.
Dr. Claudia Welch is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine and a practitioner
of Ayurvedic medicine. She worked at the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque,
NM with her teacher, Dr. Vasant Lad, for seven years. She received
her Master's Degree in Oriental Medicine from Southwest Acupuncture
College in 1997. Dr. Welch is a faculty member at Southwest Acupuncture
College and at The Institute for Postgraduate Studies in Acupuncture
and Oriental Medicine, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. To arrange a phone
consultation with Dr. Welch, please contact her office at: 505.899.8095
The above article was reprinted with permission from the premier
issue of NAMARUPA.
NAMARUPA, Categories of Indian Thought, is a new journal that seeks
to record, illustrate, honor and comment on the many systems of knowledge,
practical and theoretical, that have originated in the Indian sub-continent.
Passed down through the ages, these systems have left tracks, paths
already traveled, which can guide us back to the SELF - the source
of all names and forms.
The Banyan staff was delighted with the premier issue, filled with
insightful articles and beautiful pictures. We recommend it highly
for our readers that our interested in a deeper look at the wisdom
of India, written by leading experts in Sanskrit, Yoga, Ayurveda,
and Jyotish. To subscribe, visit http://www.namarupa.org.
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