"The Science of Life"

Ayruveda is a Sanskrit word that means "science of life". Having been in existence for over 5,000 years, this ancient healing system of India is immense in scope and application. To call it a "personality test" would be far too limiting and misleading, but there are similarities. In this Vedic science there are three main life forces, as evidenced by the elements: Air, Fire and Earth/Water. Human beings enter life with one dominant of these life forces, or Doshas. The three Doshas, with their corresponding elements are:

VATA - Air, wind, space
PITTA- Fire, bile
KAPHA- Water, Earth, phlegm

There are four factors that determine your dominant Dosha, or life force:

1. Intention during incarnation
2. Temperament of the sperm
3. Temperament of the ovum
4. God's wisdom

Even though we typically have one dominant dosha, it's quite possible that you are more than one dosha. Ultimately, there are seven different combinations of doshas that make up the human race. One dominant dosha, dual-doshas, or tri-doshas. It's important to note that you can't change your dosha. If you're a VATA pining to be a KAPHA, you're missing the essence of Ayruveda. It's not about changing ourselves into the person we'd rather be. It's much more about discovering who we already are, correcting any imbalances, and achieving liberation of mind, body and soul.

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"Can we accept all that it means to be human?"

 

It happens quite frequently that I will be going through my day and encounter some frustration or obstacle when all at once I hear my mother's old adages come into my mind. Lately, I haven't been able to shake one of her oft quoted sayings, that she didn't necessarily coin but one that she certainly believed herself, "We're human beings, not human doings."

It's actually a rather profound concept, all things considered. I have fallen into my default mode of living, which is the default of doing. I make lists and I carry them out. I have an idea of what needs to be accomplished for my day, and I set about accomplishing it. Even on the grand scale of life, I have the somewhat hazy vision of what I want my life to look like in 20 years from now, and so I attempt to accomplish whatever I think needs to happen in order to get there. It's not all bad really, this habit of doing that so drives us as humans. But what's going on internally amidst all this accomplishing?

It seems, from my perspective, that we go about life trying to do everything right. As Rodney Yee, a renowned yogi and guru, puts it, "they're always trying to do their life right."1

As I've been immersing myself in the study and practice of yoga over the last few months I have found this approach to life--the approach of "trying to do my life right"--fails miserably in this area. Well, really it fails us in every area, but yoga is managing to expose the fraudulent life I lead. I have been trying to approach my practice with the attitude of "Just show me how to do it right, and then I'll imitate that." I've been trying to approach the philosophy of yoga with the mindset, "Just spell it all out and I'll memorize the essential facts." All the while, no internal dialogue is happening. I'm doing the poses and my mind is somewhere else. I'm not really asking, "How does this pose feel? Where can this resistance lead me? Where is my breath?"

It's a profound experience for me to be immersed in a particular practice and philosophy that I can't "accomplish". I can't just simply acquire the knowledge and the how-to and then add it to my resume. I mean, I suppose I could do that. I suppose I could just go through the motions of it all and perpetuate this unhealthy trend of living a checked out life and finding my identity in my merits. But I want something more. I want something deeper. I want to fall into yoga. I want to really fall into living. I want to live my life moment to moment. "Yoga teaches you to continue to be present moment by moment by moment."2

I'm tired of running away from life. I spend too much time reminiscing and too much time planning. Instead, I want to live in reality, not the illusion of reality. "People think [yoga] is about stilling the mind. It's not about stilling the mind. It's about following the mind. It's really about deeply following something. What we're doing is we're disciplining the mind so that it can continue to follow the present moment, watching things arise as they arise. Watching thoughts arise as they arise and actually being cognizant of life as it's arising. To really be in it--otherwise you're not living a life. You're living an illusion of a life. You're actually disassociated from what's really going on."3

This is the opportunity I have in beginning my personal yoga practice, to "accept all that it means to be human."4



1. Rodney Yee, Yoga: The Poetry of the Body, p.46
2. p.123
3. p.126-7
4. p.52

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What's your Guna?

In Yoga philosophy you learn of the Three Gunas, or energies, that govern anything happening on the physical plane. Not only are these energies apparent in the actual movement and structure of each Asana, or posture, but they are apparent in the very temperament of how we approach each practice.

The Three Gunas are:

1) Rajas or Rajasic Energy: Forward-Backward Movement

ex: Downward Dog, Right Leg Lunge, Downward Dog, Left Leg Lunge. 

These Asanas inherently feel Rajasic--strong, intentional, willful. Another way of describing the Rajasic Guna is Inward-Outward movement. I can see the inward focus of Downward Dog, with head to the floor and hips to the sky, and then, with incredible strength and purpose, Right Leg Lunge, heart lifted, head and gaze to the sky--inward then outward in a forward-backward way.

2) Tamas or Tamasic Energy: Upward-Downward Movement

ex: Mountain Pose, down to Powerful Pose, down even further into a squat, then up to Powerful Pose again, return to Mountain Pose with hands at Namaste. 

Here the focus becomes deep and inward and simultaneously the head extends while the feet root into the earth. It feels slow, sure, quiet.

3) Sattva or Sattvic Energy: Side to Side Movement

ex: Warrior Two, Half Moon Pose, then Side Angle Pose

This energy movement is full of grace, clarity and balance. To me it almost feels like the perfect center, if the Three Gunas were presented on a scale. Rajas would be far left, Tamas would be far right, and perfectly balanced on the fulcrum would be Sattva.

I imagine that all of these energies drive our actions and affect our temperament day to day. The Gunas are symbiotic, which means you can't have one without the other. But each posture we assume is dominated by one of these three expressions or energies. What Guna are you in right now?

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