Subject: James Eagleton Responds to Inquiries about Ayurveda

From: [email-masked] (StevenB372)
Date: 28 Oct 1994 04:06:03 -0400

Dear Melamid,

That was a very interesting story. Nutmeg is one of the oldest known
sedatives and has been used in the Orient for thousands of years.
Hyperactivity is a very important subject and one that I will deal with at
length in the book I am writing with Dr. Sucheta Karare on child
development. Ayurveda offers some concrete, practical answers to this very
difficult problem. Severe hyperactivity is a extreme stress on the child
and all around them. It can spoil a child's life. 

With the help of Dr. Jagdish Bhutada, we are attempting to establish a
Ayurvedic Panchakarma clinic in Mexico and in India. One of our long term
goals is to establish a teaching institution that will present Ayurveda in
its classic form in English so that Western people can receive a proper
education in clinical practice. This work is not being done anywhere in
the world today. Most of the education programs in English are extremely
superficial and do not in any way prepare a physician for clinical
practice. A few stalwart Western students have gone to India and learned
Sanskrit as well as contemporary Indian languages and educated themselves
in Ayurveda under the guidance of experienced Vedyas. Needless to say,
this is not an option open to most people. 

At the present time we are establishing temporary Panchakarma retreat
experiences of five weeks duration in India. If you are interested in this
subject please contact us at our e-mail address: [email-masked]    or
at:

New Rasayana Retreats
P.O. Box 2187
Guerneville, CA 95446
Fax: (707)869-2562

J. Eagleton

Dear Pawan,

In answer to your e-mail to me, there are several generalized comments I
could make about the status of Ayurveda and its research. First,
unfortunately in India where Ayurveda is practiced by the greatest number
of people, it is in a very low status at this moment, so low in fact that
it will take a monumental effort by many well-meaning people to solve the
problem. There are no statistics on the subject, but the general
impression that one gets is that Ayurveda, as it is practiced by the
majority of practitioners, is really a type of perversion of Ayurvedic
principles. As an example, it seems that the majority of practitioners use
allopathic medicine in their practice, which is bad enough but they
compound this error by not having a clear understanding of the allopathic
medicines they are working with from the perspective of Dosha theory. Most
practitioners offer as an excuse for their use of allopathy that Ayurveda
and other natural healing systems are weak in the healing of serious,
acute disorders. Take the case of a young child presenting to the
physician with a case of pneumonia with a 105 degree temperature. Most
Vedyas would automatically prescribe antibiotics. Actually, this is an
extremely complicated issue and giving antibiotics has some justification
in the practical realities of the world, such as a limitaiton caused by
improper education of parents in the raising of children. Another
complicating issue is the fact that the status of Ayurvedic medicines and
their standardization is in a large percentage of cases of very poor
quality and in some instances, medicines are outright fraudulent. These
problems are compounded by the poor education that many Vedyas receive.
Ayurveda is going through a tremendous challenge and reformation led
mainly by a handful of great Indian scholars and a growing number of
Western researchers and practitioners. Sad to say, even many of these
great Vedyas have a very narrow perspective on the dilemma that Ayurveda
faces. As an example, one of the greatest Vedyas in the world has told me
that he feels that if people want to study Ayurveda, they should come to
India, learn Sanskrit, and study the scriptures in the traditional manner.
Without making a judgment about this viewpoint from the idealistic
perspective, the simple fact is if the propagation of ayurveda is
dependent upon Western or Eastern scholars studying the scriptures in
Sanskrit, then Ayurveda does not have a chance of broad circulation in the
modern world. This is a very big subject and is one of my primary
concerns. I have set as one of my objectives, to try to work on some of
these problems through dialogue with other practitioners, the
establishment of an educational institution teaching Ayurveda in English
and other Western languages in the most serious manner. We are trying to
establish Panchkarma clinics in India and in Mexico where we will attempt
to create a model of healing based on Vedic traditions but applicable to
modern people and their lifestyles.

I am very much interested in your community project in India. Please let
me know more about this. In the coming year, I will be spending a great
deal of my time in India and would like to see your site and understand
your project. Let me say this from my perspective, as I mentioned I am
trying to synthesize Ayurveda with contemporary lifestyles as I do not see
any incompatibility between Vedic teaching and any historical or cultural
context. Vedic teaching is universal and timeless. I am not sure if I
understand the import of a "traditional Vedic community," although I
certainly am not against such a concept. At the very least, it seems to me
that such a community would be a wonderful laboratory for community
building. In such a community, Ayurveda could be used to help people
regain their health and balance. But ultimately, Ayurveda is most properly
used not as a healing system but as a system for properly living a healthy
life.

Which brings me to the next subject that you brought up; the subject of
Ayurveda and pregnancy. As it so happens, I am writing a book on child
development with Dr. Sucheta Karare of Pune. Obviously, I consider this to
be a very important subject. The only way to solve the problems of the
world is to raise healthy, happy children. If you are not under the care
of an Ayurvedic physician, you should study the books on the subject. We
should start the process of preparing for conception and pregnancy years
before the fact. Since the majority of us are coming to these
understandings late, we do not have this luxury, but we can start where we
are. You must first know your own Prakruti (constitutional type). If we
had master Vedyas, they could determine the prakruti of a developing
infant from the horoscope. In my opinion, one's own prakruti is of the
greatest importance and the imbalances in oneself must be corrected to
whatever extent possible. A child developing inside the body of a healthy
woman has the greatest advantages for success. Without knowing your
situation or specific life challenges you might face, let me make these
general observations: Avoid all extremes, do not let yourself get too hot
or too cold, do not allow any excesses in your diet. Sattvic diet is ideal
diet, but Sattvic diet is different for each constitutional type. So, stay
in the middle. Avoid any excess Rasa (taste); in other words, no excessive
sour, sweet, salty, bitter, or pungent. Keep the acid levels of your body
low and eat easily digested food so as not to create aam (mucus toxins) or
gas. Many problems can be solved or at least benefited by moderation.
Don't overeat, don't sleep on a full stomach. Do not eat between meals.
Sleep well, have periods of relaxation and play. if you are a worrier,
this is a serious detriment to a developing child and you should work with
all your might on solving this problem--psychotherapy, meditation,
medicine, etc. Ayurveda teaches us that the two health problems of excess
acid and excess gas are the most serious ongoing threats to health and are
problems that the majority of people suffer from to a greater or lesser
extent depending on prakruti. Our book on child development will be like a
handbook for parents and prospective parents. We hope that it will be able
to contribute in some way to the education of the modern, young couple.

You asked if I am a TM practititoner. No, I am not. I have followed two
schools of meditation in my life, both coming from the Buddhist tradition.
The first was Zen, the second was Vipassana. In other words, I have
practiced in the two major schools of Buddhism, the Mahayana and the
Hinayana. These two schools are supposedly incompatible at their base, but
this is simply a prejudice that will not stand up to close scrutiny. At
the present time, using these Buddhist traditions as my foundation, I have
gone deeply into the matter of modern brain research and follow the basic
theories of meditation espoused by people like Charles Tart and Maxwell
Cade whose book "The Awakened Mind" reveals the most advanced theories of
consciousness based on scientific studies of the brain and states of
consciousness. Using contemporary brain studies, we can come to a clearer
and less ambiguous understanding of what we are trying to achieve in
meditation. This facilitates the meditation process and makes it more
available to a wider number of people. But again, we have gotten in a very
big subject.

Love yourself and love the developing child and you have given this child
the best foundation you can offer.

James Eagleton