The Yoga of Herbs: An Ayurvedic Guide to Herbal Medicine

This Book offers a detailed explanation and classification of herbs, using the ancient system of Ayurveda. This fully developed and Theoretically articulated medical system developed in India as proved itself effective for more than 5000 years as that country’s classical healing tradition.

More than 270 herbs are listed, with 108, herbs herbs explained in detail, Included are may of the most commonly used western herbs with a profound ayurvedic perspective important Chinese and special Ayurvedic herbs are introduced. Beautiful diagrams and charts, as well as detailed glossaries appendices and index are included.

Dr. Vasant Lad, a Native of India, has been apracitioner and Professor of Years. For the Past four years he has been conducting the only full-time program of study on Ayurveda in the in the United States as Director of the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Medico. Dr. Lad has lectured extensively throughout the US and has published numerous articles on Ayurveda. He has also authored Ayurvedic: the Science of Self-healing.

The term "yoga" has many traditional meanings. In Ayurveda, the medical science of India, yoga refers to the "right usage" and "right combination" of herbs. A special combination of substances designed to bring about a specific effect upon the body or mind is thus called a "yoga. " This coordinated or integrated usage of herbs was based upon the ancient Ayurvedic science of herbal energetic. In this is a system for determining the qualities and powers of herbs according to the laws of nature, so that herbs can be used objectively and specifically according to individual conditions. A yogic usage of herbs implies such an harmonic application of the potencies of herbs.

In this book, for the first time, this Ayurvedic herbal science is applied to western herbs, as well as to a few major oriental herbs, both Indian and Chinese. It is the purpose of this book not to present Ayurveda in the distance, as something foreign or ancient, but to make it a practically applied system of herbalism.

We live in a very special, yet very dangerous time, wherein a new global culture is painfully struggling to be born. It is the challenge of our times to integrate human culture and knowledge. It is essential that this process occurs on the level of the healing sciences also. Healing is always a matter of unification. If our healing knowledge cannot be integrated, how can we as human beings find unity among ourselves?

Ayurveda is an eternal system that has already integrated eight limbs of healing within itself, from herbs to surgery to psychology. As such it offers such a point of unification. Its very basis is the spiritual knowledge of the ancient seers of India and the cosmic consciousness in which they lived.

This book is not just a presentation of traditional Ayurvedic knowledge. It attempts to show living Ayurveda, its creative and practical application to changing conditions. It is meant as a bridge between east and west. In this regard, it has been a collaboration of an easterner with profound knowledge of the west and a westerner with profound knowledge of the east. It is our deepest wish that it transmits this spirit of integration and collaboration. In the application of Ayurveda to the west, most traditional Ayurvedic medicines cannot be practically used. They may consist of special tropical herbs that are largely inaccessible here, or they may contain special mineral substances that can only be used after long and difficult preparations. Hence this book has arisen as a vehicle to make the healing knowledge of Ayurveda applicable to substances that are accessible and possess few potential side-effects.

At the same time, we have also attempted to preserve the integrality of the Ayurvedic healing system. For this we have included special effects of herbs upon the mind, and the deeper psychological and spiritual aspects of healing. Herbalism is part of this broader context of healing and without addressing these deeper issues of human life, no healing process can really be effective.

Sanskrit terms have been kept to a minimum and have been provided with easily understandable translations. For further elucidation of some of the medical concepts in this book, the reader is referred to Ayurveda, the Sciena. of Self-Healing, which is a companion volume to it.

The classification of western herbs into eastern energetic is not something that can be done once and for all. Even in Ayurveda differences of classification of herbs sometimes exist between different writers. So we welcome any comments or criticism in this regard and invite all who wish to join us in this work to contact us.

We would like to express our most heartfelt gratitude to the many people, friends and students, who have served as a help and an inspiration to this book, as well as to the many others who are working in a similar direction. May their labors be fruitful.

As an herbalist with over 18 years of experience using Western, Chinese and Ayurvedic herbs, I long ago came to the conclusion that without taking into account the overall energetics of herbs and foods in relation to individual constitutional differences, we are bound for tremendous inconsistency and failure. Such an approach keeps us from drawing broad useful conclusions necessary for the prevention and cure of disease. In this, biochemistry alone is simply not enough.

There is much that can be shared between ancient healing systems of Eastern and Western science. Some, imbued with the Western scientific perspective, believe that ours is the most advanced and therefore the only true way. We fail to recognize that there are already, fully developed and theoretically articulated medical systems in India and China which have proven themselves effective for more than 3000 years. Ours, however; has only been developed over the past several hundred years.

Ayurvedic medicine is certainly one of the oldest systems with a consistent theoretical basis and practical clinical application. Into its ancient well of profound healing wisdom, some of the greatest doctors and sages have poured their finest insights and discoveries. Yet, to fully appreciate the nectar of this Eastern healing wisdom, Westerners need to overcome their literal and linear process of thought to enter into a non- linear reasoning approach. Therefore, a perspective grounded in an intuitive vision of the whole rather than the microscopic view of contemporary science is necessary. The strength of Ayurveda lies in its broad, all-encompassing view of the dynamic interrelationship between organic physiological processes, external factors including climate, life work and diet along with internal emotional stages. In contrast, Western science takes a more particular view based upon specific molecular structure and chemistry It is paradoxical that both could be descanting the same condition in such different ways and with such diametrically opposed viewpoints.

Today, many people are drawn to Oriental healing systems and herbology because these approaches offer the promise of a healing system that is at once powerfully effective and gentle with the least danger of side effects. They rightly feel that disease occurs not as an arbitrary phenomenon but for definite reasons which if correctly understood could help to cure and more importantly, prevent recurrence.

Ayurveda, with its Tridosha or three humours system, is able to provide a complete understanding of the cause of health in terms of a metabolic balance. Disease is simply understood as an imbalance between the nerve energy (vata), catabolic fire energy (pitta) and anabolic nutritive energy (kapha). All foods and experiences have an effect on the overall balance of these respective humours. This is proven by the fact that through adjusting the balance of diet only, many health problems are alleviated (this is unfortunately still not considered a fact by the majority of Western-trained medical doctors.

Herbs are used as "special foods" serving to eliminate excesses and strengthen deficiencies. While they may possess a powerful nutritive impact on a weakened body, their primary action is to stimulate particular organic functions. This is the more illusive energetic aspect of herbs and indeed of all medicines, drugs and foods that need to be understood. Besides the specific function of a medicine or food, there is a more general effect in that for some who are predisposed, it can, broadly speaking, either raise or lower overall metabolism and stimulate or sedate nerve, nutritive or fire energies which comprise the Tridosha humoural system.

The fundamental error of Western medicine is to treat the disease rather than the padent. If drugs were prescribed sensitively according to the individual nature of each person, as herbs are in Oriental healing systems, many of the side effects that result could be avoided. The value of using herbs and foods lies particularly in their relative non-specific action or their "mildness?' If one misuses an herb, the results are relatively minor and are generally completed in the short span a day or so that it takes for the body to eliminate the residues of the herb from the system. It is more difficult with synthetic drugs or extracted concentrates. The liver may be unable to fully eliminate a drug from the tissues and cells of the body because it has not figured out how to neutralize it either for assimilation or elimination. Unable to fully process the substance, it is stored in the liver and tissues or circulates in the body, creating a toxic burden that impairs necessary organic physiological processes.

Before one can fully realize the healing benefits of Ayurveda or Chinese medicine, both of which are "energetic" systems of healing, all foods and herbs must be classified and understood in terms of their broader energetic effects on overall metabolic processes. I believe that Dr; David Frawley's and Dr. Vasant Lad's book successfully, for the first time, offers such a classification of herbs, including Western herbs and herbs common to both East and West. It is of coincidence that this manuscript should find its way into my hands just at the time that I have nearly completed my own research into classifying Western herbs into the traditional Chinese energetic system. It is also fascinating to see how, in many instances, their method of classification and my own demonstrate the same basic energetic understanding.

Dr. David Frawley and Dr. Lad have made a truly powerful and unique contribution to alternative, natural health care through their creation of this important book. It may take a while for the majority of non-Ayurvedically oriented people to see the practical benefits of this original work. However] it is simply the difference between a hit-and-miss approach] and the development of a consistent and valid herbal healing system.

This book for the first time will serve not only to make Ayurvedic medicine of greater practical value to Westerners] but in fact] ultimately advance the whole system of Western herbalism forward into greater effectiveness. I think anyone interested in herbs should closely study this book whether their interests lie in Western herbology, traditional Chinese herbology, or Ayurvedic medicine.

Contents and Sample Pages