Please enjoy this excerpt from our upcoming book, coauthored by our in-house doctor, Manish Chandra.
For reference, Dosha refers to the three biological characteristics of Ayurveda: Vata, Kapha, and Pitta, which you can read more about here. Dhatu refers to “support,” often meaning the 7 tissues of Ayurveda, such as muscles, bones, and skin. Mala refers to waste – distinct from “Maalaa,” or garland, which often refers to a string of 108 beads used to chant mantras or pray.
Enjoy!
The Integral Systems of Dosha, Dhatu, and Mala
Nutrition in Ayurveda is experienced directly. Ayurveda makes use of the natural, subjective and intuitive process that we ordinarily use in our day to day living. And it presents a model for further understanding and organizing ourselves and our experiences. Rarely do we analyze our metabolic needs and the biochemistry of each food before we eat. Ayurveda provides an experiential model to surrogate or supplement this information. Proper nutrition can not be realized without understanding it in its complete role as a pathway to personal growth. Then the wisdom of the experientially organizing principles of self-observation in this ancient system can be joined with the contemporary sciences of nutrition and physiology. Our lives then become the laboratory for developing a personal and experiential regulation of nutrition.
In Ayurveda, the individual is the first concern as people have different nutritional needs that change with time; and they will also digest and metabolize their food differently with time. The influence of one’s attitude and relationship to themselves and to food also plays an important role in the scheme of variables that creates our health. Analytical concerns such as vitamins and minerals have found a place, but the emphasis is on developing proper nutrition and regulation of nutrition through our own self-study and immediate experience. All seemingly isolated factors are unified by the principles of living with the underlying and organizing presence of consciousness. Understanding the spiral of interaction between the mind’s affect on nutrition and the affect of nutrition on the clarity of our mind becomes a pathway to not only higher levels of health but also inner peace.
The integral systems of the whole individual according to Ayurveda are described in the concepts of dosha (bio-forces and metabolic faults), dhatu (supports), and mala (wastes). These three integral concepts are mutually interactive and inter-dependent. They are essential factors that take us beyond our material model of a human being to a dynamic and experiential model of the meaning of wellness. These systems are derived form the five basic elements.
10/7/2024
