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The Cause of Suffering According to Ayurveda and How to Move Through It
by Rose Carol
Ayurvedic Healing is not just about diet, lifestyle, and herbs, it goes above and beyond this. It’s about creating a state of awareness that is at peace and can perceive the interconnectivity with everything. In other words, the main purpose of Ayurveda is primarily to grow toward higher states of consciousness and awareness and to live our full potential. A variety of Ayurvedic modalities help to refine one’s perception on all the levels of the senses, subtle body, mind and emotions down to the very source of them. This includes a growing interconnection with all of life, everything included – the Sun, The Moon, distant galaxies, and everything everywhere to the source and back. This growing sensitivity and awareness that allows one to live more in-tuned with the natural tendencies of our very own nature.
This results in the ability to make better decisions, prevent health problems or avert tendencies that create pain and suffering in some way. It creates an intuition and awareness that’s involved in making better choices, gain deep insights about life, and have a positive effect on other people and the environment. Your human superpowers naturally begin to unfold as you get unstuck and evolve into who you were meant to be and which already exists. One of my teachers, Maharishi, back in the 1970’s said, just as a seed contains all of the possibility and intelligence of a fully blossomed flower, your full potential already exists inside. The time-tested ancient knowledge of Ayurveda is just one of many ways that acts as a midwife to birth this full blossoming of one’s innate potential. I believe that it is our human birth right to live our full potential.
Maharishi also said, “Suffering is caused by violating the laws of nature”. That means breaking them knowingly or unknowingly. That could mean a variety of things. One might knowingly do something that you know is wrong, for example keep eating foods that you know are harmful for your health. Or unknowingly, doing something you are not aware of that is harmful. One of the words for cause of suffering in Sanskrit is Pragyaparada. This word has many meanings, but the main interpretation is, “mistake of the intellect. This means we become over identified with the experience and loose perception of wholeness, life is perceived as fragmented and we fall into a myopic way of seeing, feeling, and believing that causes pain to ourself and others. (This is lengthy topic of discussion on Ayurvedic Psychology is my 8 hour lecture divided into four parts in my Ayurveda Lifestyle and Nutrition Course Training but can also be purchased separately, please email for info rosecarolayurveda@gmail.com).
So the remedy would then be to enlighten the intellect and mind about the deep interconnection of life and the source of life. This can be accomplished with reading and listening to various aspects of vedic literature pertaining to the nature of reality. This recommendation is often left out of Ayurvedic Recommendations. Not just knowledge, but the experience of the source of knowledge by going to the very most subtle layer of Being, deep in the most silent place of one’s own consciousness, beyond thoughts, beyond beliefs, beyond opinions, beyond likes and dislikes, and beyond any thought. It is the experience of pure being already inside of you. One just needs so some direction on how to turn the attention to that place. There are a variety of ways to experience this, my personal favorite way is through TM Meditation which I started in 1976 (read the previous blog, Meeting A Sage for more details).
But even a little study of the wholeness of life, that nature of life can help reduce suffering. Reading ancient vedic scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Upanishads, can be good options. I also love this book written by my dear friend, Wayne Foster called Being Connected. With beautiful photos and simple explainations is truly an uplifting experience. And better yet, you can also take my online class on Ayurvedic Psychology through my online school. In it, we explore in more depth the cause of suffering and how Ayurveda addresses depression, anxiety and other mental health problems.
The remedy to suffering is called Sattvavijaya – it means the light of consciousness wins over darkness and wins over the shadows of the intellect and mind. Since the mind and body are connected and the mind comes first in Ayurveda, healing the mind is a priority. Our thoughts, beliefs, feelings may be contributing factors to illness of any type. Illness not just in the body but illness may also mean not getting along with people, relationship problems, financial, societal and environmental imbalances. Health is truly holistic in this way. Sattvavijaya includes a variety of ways to awaken the memory of one’s true nature – whether through meditation, knowledge of the nature of one’s Self beyond the ego, reading of vedic literature, self-inquiry, Ayurvedic body therapies, and Ayurveda pulse taking. An ancient saying from the vedas says:
“Even a little of this knowledge and practice protects one from great fear”.
-Bhagavad Gita – Chapter 2 v. 40
This means, you don’t have to feel results from years and years of practice, just a little bit will be of great relief. The Vedas say that, this ancient body of knowledge is the greatest purifyer. It purifies the mind from darkness to light. The light of truth of the nature of yourself, all of life is available.
For questions and comments please contact ayurvedaamritanam@gmail.com