If you don’t “get” Ayurveda, the problem isn’t you. It’s that Ayurveda isn’t meant to be gotten.
Ayurveda is not like Western medicine. We don’t address the heart without looking at the quality of the blood, or treat the mind as if what’s going on in the large intestine doesn’t matter.
If health were so simple, we’d all be living without any sickness. But here we are, sputtering and limping through this experience of life.
Why is Ayurveda Confusing?
When Westerners — we who have been steeped in the scientific process, we who feel far more comfortable with either black or white and not a million variations, we who just want someone to tell us what to do — begin to study Ayurveda, we become confused.
Things don’t make sense — how does using our hands to eat support digestion?
Things are contradictory — why does one teacher tell me to never eat fruit with other foods and another gives you a recipe for mango chutney?
And some things are just strange — how is carrying an umbrella whenever I leave the house related to my health?
Go Deeper
The main tripping point is this: Ayurveda, just like yoga, is meant to be contemplative. Nothing is finite and fixed in contemplative practices. Instead, there are guideposts and directions from those who have gotten to the state of health you want to reach. And what is that state of health? Who knows? Because Ayurveda understands that your longevity and physical health is partially determined by the karma you brought into this life and body, while simultaneously sharing tools that can absolutely change the direction of the road you walk.
If you want easy lists, quick fixes, and failsafe direction, you’re not going to be satisfied here.
But if you hear the call and want to stay for a while, start to see every teaching Ayurveda offers as a meditation, and then build your path toward health upon that.
