In Āyurveda, Śatāvarī has become a popular herb that is often called adaptogenic. Taking this herb without understanding its innate properties, combinations + methods of use is wasteful at best + harmful at its worst. This is from Caraka Siddhisthāna 2.24-28. The Siddhisthāna is the last book of the Caraka Saṃhitās. Much of this chapter […]
Tantra Yuktis In the workshop on Sunday I referenced the Tantra Yuktis of Āyurveda. Tantra means scientific system on a particular topic. Yutki is the process of thinking that comes from experience related to textual knowledge. Yutki also shares the root with the word Yojana (like Yoga). To apply Yojana to something, we apply organized thought to a subject – in this case, […]
How To Food… There are so many ways to go with diet, aren’t there? And it is so hard to choose what to eat when with so many different methods. There’s even conflict around something as simple as hydration! Lord! We can actually drink too much liquid and there is such a thing as too much water. […]
Epistemology – Nidana Parivarjana Nidana means a few things. It can mean the cause of something. This is also called a Hetu. It can also mean the combination of the Hetu and the process of disease manifestation, called the Samprapti. Because it means both things, often we use Hetu to indicate the actual cause for […]
An interesting intersection occurred last week as I completed the lecture portion of the course I was taking on the topic of Strī Roga (Women’s Reproductive Health). We were discussing how the Prarabdha Karmas प्रारब्धमखिलं, the sancita karmas (collection of actions) gathered from previous births, come to fruition in this particular incarnation (ie as you, […]
I just got back from 4 days in the backcountry of Ojai, California in the Sespe Wilderness. It was the first time I ever backpacked without the backup of someone with more experience than me. A dear friend and I went alone and it was hard and amazing. We hiked almost 40 miles in 3 […]
Ahamkara – Identity When we look at the Samkhya Darśana (Philosophy), we see that Ahamkara, aka the ego, develops right after Buddhi, who is the Director of Discernment. In the Yoga Darśans, we are working to clarify our actions so that we experience our inner wisdom or Buddhi guiding our choices and preventing us from […]
Swept Up by the Circus When I was in college, I was truly considering getting swept up in the actual circus. Unfortunately, my fear of heights combined with my inability to keep pointed toes while engaging in super muscular feats deflated that prospect. So, I stuck with Mime and acting. But, I digress… This week […]
This is a larger topic than this blog can cover – and many have spoken it more wisely than me – but I would like to examine how Ayurveda, the Purusarthas, and śloka 2.13 from the Bhagavad Gita are asking us to manage our physical selves in this material world as the process of realizing […]
I have noticed being a practitioner of Yoga and being from the West, a certain repetitive behavior that I understand and also find puzzling. Especially in the last few years, many of my fellow teachers of Yoga Asana, have become so let down by their practice, they abandon it for different physical modalities. I mentioned […]
