The Complete Course of Ayurveda: 6/20/2011
Jai Dev Singh Module 7
This is a presentation from Floracopeia Aromatic Treasures and MedicineCrow.com, the grassroots
healthcare network.
All right, module seven and this is going to be our module, our class on Ayurvedic herbology my favorite
subjects and a really powerful aspect of the course that everyone usually loves. Before we get started with
this module I want to remind everyone if you have questions that you can go ahead and submit them on
the page there and we’ll be doing our final question and answer class after the conclusion of module
eight.
Also we wanted to let everyone know that if you are interested in having this course in a workshop format
in your area combined with the Kundalini Yoga then you can e-mail me and let me know. We’re going to
be taking it on the road in the fall and we’re now scheduling in courses throughout different parts of the
country. Just e-mail me at [email protected] if you’re interested in organizing one of those events.
Ayurvedic herbology, really this is a continuation of the last module where we started with the Dravya
Guna, well actually this is the continuation of the last two modules where we started in module five with
Dravya Guna Ayurvedic pharmacology and then in module six with the science and the art of using food
as medicine. Now really using food in Ayurveda and using herbs in Ayurveda are part of the same
science.
Herbs are in many cases foods that have a particularly strong energetic potency, particularly and
unusually or unusually potent pranic intelligence. Many herbs of the nutrient variety really could be
considered foods. As I defined the difference between food and medicine in the last module, we could
define food as being that which gives nutrition to the body, that which gives strength to the body and that
which builds and gives prana to the body. We could define medicine as that which increases the digestive
capabilities of the body, not just within the digestive system but throughout all of the different tissue
layers of the body all the way to the cultivation of the ojas, the vitality that keeps everything running
properly and well and allows the prana to flow in the body optimally.
When we talk about Ayurvedic herbology, one thing to point out is that this is not in any way a “New
Age Science,” I wouldn’t even consider it alternative. Alternative to Western Allopathic Medicine
perhaps, but not alternative or new age in the sense that it’s anything new, because this science of using
herbs, using food and using medicine in Ayurveda is probably the oldest, most developed and most
visionary approaches to medicine on the planet. From this root of Ayurveda most all of the other medical
traditions and herbal traditions have stemmed, including the Chinese System, including the Greek
System, including the Unani System and so forth and so the first thing to keep in mind when we’re
speaking about the healing powers of medicinal plants is that we’re speaking immediately of the healing
power of nature in its various forms and not just through the context of the herb. When we’re studying the
intelligence of nature as it expresses itself in the form of the herb then we’re simultaneously just studying
the nature as it expresses itself in the intelligence of our own bodies, the prana in our own bodies and
then how the intelligence of the plant and the intelligence of our body interact with each other.
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So the real art and science of Ayurvedic medicine is being able to understand the energetics of what’s
happening in your own organism, body and mind, and then being able to use a substance, use a medicine,
use a mantra, use a pranayama, use a environment or use an activity in order to adjust that energy so that
you feel good, so that you’re enjoying your life and things work out.
Ayurveda is not speaking in the language of bio-chemistry and that’s one reason why I really like it is
because it’s not speaking in a language that you have to have a high level of scientific expertise in order
to understand it, anyone can understand it. I know I’ve reiterated that several times throughout the course;
but instead we’re speaking in the language of nature itself. They are energetic principles that are not only
found in the property of plants but they’re found everywhere.
When you understand the language of Ayurveda, you can take any plant, you can take any food, and you
can take any substance and understand a great deal about it without even having to open a book. That’s
part of where I want to go with this class in particular and what we’ve already done in the previous
classes is instead of just feeding you the fish I’d rather teach you how to fish. Really this is only an
introduction to herbalism from the Ayurvedic perspective because Ayurvedic herbalism is a vast huge
subject and you could spend your whole lifetime just studying that one branch of Ayurveda without a
doubt and you’d never come to an end because it’s a never ending subject. It’s something where you can
always learn more, you can always discover more and so forth, but what the goal is for this class today is
to teach you the system and that’s what I want to stress as I’ve stressed before is that it is a system, it’s a
system that once you possess this knowledge and understand the system itself it allows you to understand
all herbs and all medicines. So instead of having to rely on me or rely on a book or rely on anything, once
you know it well enough there is a certain amount of understanding of perspective of knowledge that you
can gain from just tasting something without even having to hear what someone else has to say about it
and then of course you want to take it to the next step and learn more.
Perhaps the most important part of this part of the course is recognizing this system and getting a good
clear understanding of this system and it’s not that difficult to understand. Rasa, virya, vipaka, prabhava.
What a structure provided and what a system provides is a very clear starting point for you to go inside of
a field of knowledge or a field of awareness. Go inside that particular herbs pranic intelligence, go inside
that particular foods field of intelligence and then be able to get, in a sense downloads about what that
particular medicine has the power to help you with. If you just try to do that without any starting point or
without any system, it’s very difficult and very few people would ever be able to have any success of just
being able to pick up a plant and understand what it’s powers are without having some sort of good clear
starting point and so what this does is it gives us a very good starting point and structure so that our
intuition has a structure to move through, otherwise it’s very difficult to really get anything of any real
substance out of something we’re studying. When we’re going into this it’s really imperative that you
have some good books, some good reference that you’re using along the way because what you’re going
to get today in this class is a starting point that’s going to allow you to dive into the study of herbs in a
very in-depth way if you choose. So what you’re going to get today is the building blocks that are
necessary in order to study herbs from the Ayurvedic perspective long term. All you need for that long
term study is going to be in this class and to a certain degree you already have it from the previous two
modules.
One book that I recommend that is my favorite is The Yoga of Herbs by Vasant Lad and Dr. David
Frawley. “The Yoga of Herbs” is a very good book, it’s not completely comprehensive but it has most of
the important Ayurvedic herbs as well as most of the important Western Herbs and it addresses each herb
from the Ayurvedic perspective and it also has a good introductory portion of the book where it describes
the Dravya Guna, the rasa, virya, vipaka, prabhava and other Ayurvedic principles that give the context
for understanding the herbs in this Ayurvedic way.
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I think herbs, next to actually sadhana and the direct manipulation of prana, the pranayama, the asana
and via of course meditation. Next to the sadhana practices, the use of herbs is the most potent way of
adjusting your physiological mental environment in order for you to feel good, in order for you to move
in the direction that you’re wanting to go, whether it’s more physical health, more happiness, or more and
better relationships. These herbs are invaluable and the reason why I love this so much and I’m so
passionate about the herbs is because I’ve gotten so much good results from using them. Really, it’s to the
point with me, similarly to how I feel about yoga, is that’s it hard for me to imagine going through life
without using them because I lean on them so much every single day. It’s how I start my day along with
sadhana every single evening, its how I am today and then it’s what I’m doing throughout the day and in
between because I have a clarity about what I’m wanting to achieve. I know to a certain extent what it’s
going to take to achieve that and understanding the magnitude of what that mission is about, the direction
that it needs to take and who I need to become in order to succeed, I need every little bit of help that I can
get.
For me, I would feel like it would be stupid for me to not be using these things because they’re so helpful
and we’ll go into some of those herbs here today in this class.
Before I move into the actual substance of the class here, one other book that I’ll mention that I like a lot
and is very useful is Planetary herbology by Michael Tierra. That’s a very good book too and it also
includes the energetics. I like the herb books that include energetics and not many of them do, the
Ayurvedic ones usually do and Michael Tierra’s does and it includes a lot of Ayurvedic herbs, it includes
lots and lots of Western Herbs, lots of Chinese Herbs and so it will give you descriptions of the herbs, it
will give you the energetics of the herbs and that’s very useful reference book to have and then there are
many others as well. I can recommend some more in the questions and answer module, if you have more
questions about that just submit your questions.
Now we’re going to move into the substance of the class here but what I want to start with is just to give a
quick review of Dravya Guna, the Ayurvedic energetics. Let’s just go back to the previous two modules.
First you have the rasa, the first thing you want to know about any herb is what is that herbs rasa?
What is its taste? Is it sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter or astringent?
Sweet is Earth and Water
Sour is Fire and Earth
Salty is Fire and Water
Pungent is Air and Fire
Bitter is Air and Ether
Astringent is Earth and Air
The first thing we want to know about any herb is its taste. What is its rasa and the rasa tells us how its
going to affect the body but also tells us how its going to affect the mind and the emotions based on those
elements.
The sweet rasas are the rasas that are more nutritive.
The sour, salty and pungent rasas increase digestion.
The bitter rasas purifies
The astringent rasas tonifies
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Next you have your virya which is the energetic of the herb.
Does it heat the body up or does it cool the body down?
Does it have heaviness or does it have lightness?
Does it increase digestion or does it decrease and constrict digestion?
Does it dilate the channels which is what the heating medicine substances do
or does it constrict the channels which is what the cooler substances do?
For instance, with sweetness, medicines, herbs and foods that have sweet rasa, sweetness generates
satisfaction, the primary affect of the sweet taste and therefore it is constricting the channels of the mind
because when you’re satisfied you’re not looking to digest more things.
In the body sweetness is giving you satisfaction of the Ahamkar of the sense of self through the nutritive
sweet affect of the sweet taste and so therefore it’s colder and it’s heavy.
Sweet has a cold virya.
Sour has a hot virya and increases digestion,
Salty has a hot virya and increases digestion.
Pungent has a hot virya.
Bitter has a cool virya, the coldest of all of the tastes.
Astringent has the cold virya as well.
The sweet, bitter and astringent have a cooling virya so they decrease Pitta.
The sour, salty and pungent tastes have a heating virya so they increase Pitta.
The sweet taste decreases Pitta and Vata because it’s heavy; it decreases Vata and because it’s cool it
decreases Pitta.
The sour taste decreases Vata because it’s heavy and it’s hot and Vata is cold and light; it increases
Kapha because it’s heavy and it increases Pitta because it’s hot.
The salty taste decreases Vata because it’s hot and heavy; it increases Pitta because it’s hot and increases
Kapha because it’s heavy.
The pungent taste decreases Kapha, it’s best for Kapha because Kapha is heavy and cold and pungent is
hot and light. Pungent is best for Kapha, its okay for Vata in moderation because it’s hot but it’s also dry
and Vata is dry. Pitta increases of course because it’s hot and drying.
The bitter taste is Air and Ether so it’s cold and increases Vata which is Air and Ether itself, and then it
decreases Pitta because of its cooling nature and decreases Kapha because of its lightning nature.
The astringent taste is best for Pitta because it is cooling; it increases Vata because it’s too cold and it
decreases Kapha a little bit because it’s on the light side.
That’s just a simple way to think of this and by now this should kind of be instilled into your mind as to
how to think about these particular tastes. This is really what you need to know in order to really start to
master this art and science of using food, herbs and medicine is the six tastes, the six tastes to manage the
chemistry between the body and the mind.
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The dhatus, the tissue layers are the substratum for your mind, for your emotions, for the psychology.
How are you going to decrease the tissues, increase the tissues, increase the quality of the tissues, increase
the digestive capacity of the tissues is primarily through your food and even more so the use of herbs and
that’s how we’re using these.
Your next part of the Dravya Guna is the vipaka and the vipaka is what is the post digestive affect of the
herb. First you have the taste which is the initial affect both on the mind and the digestive system and so
as soon as that herb touches your tongue your body is sending the right signals in order to create the right
types of digestive enzymes and juices in order to prepare the body in order to assimilate and digest that
particular taste of that particular plant as best as possible.
The vipaka is the effect that the substance has after the initial digestion is over, so once the substance is
assimilated into the body, then after the digestive process, you have the ahara rasa or the chyle, that post
digestive substance that then gets processed through the liver and in the liver. If you were to refer to your
seven dhatu chart from module four you would see that in the liver you have those five Punchabhuta
Agnis, so the five elemental Agnis. In the liver there is a digestive Fire, there is a Fire and Agni for the
Earth element, there is an Agni for the Water element, there is an Agni for the Fire element, there is an
Agni for the Air element and there is an Agni for the Ether element. The five elements within that plant,
because every substance has all five elements, and whether it is a sweet substance, predominantly a sweet
substance, then all we’re saying is that it has a predominance of Earth and Water or all it’s telling us is
that it has a predominance of Earth and Water compared to the rest of the elements.
If I say I’m a Kapha person then I have a predominance of Earth and Water in my constitution in relation
to the other three elements.
There is an Agni that digests each element that exists within that herb and then that substance then
nurtures the rasa dhatu (the plasma and the lymph and down into the blood) the digestive Agni of that
tissue layer, then refines a little more into the blood, the rakta dhatu and then into the mamsa Agni which
creates the mamsa dhatu which is the muscle and skin, which gives you that layer of protection and
security and then the medas Agni, the digestive Fire of the medas dhatu creates the medas which is the
fat. So that substance is now being refined and refined into more refined tissue layers and fat is what
gives you your nurturance, your self love, your insulation and the asthi Agni is the digestive Fire of the
asthi dhatu which then creates the bone, the nails and the teeth and that psychologically gives you your
stature, your ability to support yourself. Then you have the majja Agni, which is the Agni of the majja
dhatu which is the nerve and the marrow, that which fills your empty spaces and that’s what gives you a
sense of feeling full, you feel like full person and then you can project that out into your environment via
the shukra, the final dhatu, the shukra Agni, the Agni of the digestive Fire of the shukra dhatu creates the
shukra which is your sexual system and that is also your creative capacity and then the end result of all of
that is of course the ojas, the immune system, the auric field which is what is going to generate the end
result of all of this which is your deep contentment, vitality and your radiance.
That’s the alchemical process and that’s really what the vipaka is about is your post digestive effect after
you’ve digested whatever that food or that herb is, now it’s being assimilated through all of the dhatu
layers of the body which is really what your body is made up of, its Earth, Water, Fire and Air moving
through channels of Space. Your body is made up of tissues and channels and organs. Those tissue layers
are the substratum for your psychological well being but they are also the terrain in which the doshas will
express themselves when the tissues become covered with the aama, which is the toxicity from
indigestion.
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Either you’re digesting the nutrients or you’re creating aama and that’s why we need the digestive tastes
and the digestive herbs so that we keep the digestive Fire of the body strong so that we can assimilate the
heavier herbs and create nutrients to nourish the tissue, create high quality tissue and then all the way
down through until we’re creating a high quality ojas which is what allows us to be a really whole, well
integrated person that’s enjoying ourselves and our lives and are moving in a positive direction in our life.
There are six tastes, but there are three vipakas, post digestive effects and the vipaka, the herb can have a
sweet vipaka, a sour vipaka, a pungent vipaka.
The sweet vipaka means that‘s its having a tonifying anabolic strengthening affect on your tissues, so its
building.
The pungent vipaka means that it’s having a catabolic decreasing affect on the tissues, a purifying affect
on the tissues and therefore it is increasing the digestive capacity of the body, so digestive and the
digestive system and then the herbs with the pungent vipaka will then move through your tissue layers
and increase the digestive Agni of each tissue layer which is very important.
The sour vipaka, it neither builds nor decreases but increases the digestion.
In general sweet and salty substances have a sweet vipaka, there are exceptions. Pungent, bitter and
astringent tastes typically have a pungent vipaka. Sour tastes, like a lemon and lime and those types of
fruits, will have a sour vipaka, meaning it’s not going to have a decreasing affect on your tissue but it’s
going to help the digestion, the sour substances are very valuable. Then of course we have exceptions to
these rules and we’ll talk about some of those exceptions a little later.
Last you have the prabhava and that’s the special action of the herb, the special actions of the medicines.
First you have the rasa,
Second you have the virya, what is its energy, cooling, heating, does it increase the digestion or
decrease the digestion
Then you have the vipaka, what is that post digestive effect, what is the long term affect going to
be of that substance after the initial digestion is over.
Now the prabhava is what most herbalists focus on in Western Herbalism because it tells us what is the
special action of that herb so for instance,
1, Does it work on the digestive system?
2, Does it work in the blood stream?
3, Does it have lymphatic stimulation properties?
4, Does it work on the urinary system?
5, What disorders does it act on?
6, How does it help them?
7, What tissue layers and organs does it act on?
8, What systems of the body does it have an affinity for?
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The rasa tells us what the makeup of the elements which tells us the tastes or vise versa.
The virya tells us how it is going to affect the energy of the body, the heating and the cooling and the
digestion
The prabhava tells us, is this going to have a nutritive affect or is it going to have a purifying or digestive
enhancing effect. The prabhava tells us the specific activity that that herb is going to have in our body
and that is really the pranic intelligence of the plant because the five elements will only tell us so much.
It will tell us about the energy but it won’t tell us the specifics about that particular plants intelligence.
For instance if brahmi has the prabhava of giving tranquility to the mind and enhancing the memory and
helping to purify the subconscious, that is it’s prabhava which it won’t know that just because we know
its bitter. Dandelion is also bitter but it doesn’t necessarily tell us, it doesn’t necessarily have the affects
on the mind that that something like brahmi or Gotu Kola has.
That’s what the prabhava is all about so why don’t we go through a couple of herbs and go through each
aspect of the Dravya Guna so that you can understand what it looks like in a real life experience. Let’s
use a couple of common herbs that everybody knows.
We’ll start with Licorice as the first one.
Licorice is a very common yet very important herb whose rasa taste is what? It’s sweet. It’s a sweet
rasa but it does have a secondary bitter taste to it. It’s definitely predominantly sweet and has secondary
bitter. Almost every food and every herb has secondary and even tertiary tastes so licorice is sweet
primarily and then secondarily bitter. Then its virya, its energy of course is cooling. Sweet taste is usually
cooling, bitter taste is usually cooling and so licorice is definitely a cooling herb. Then its vipaka, its post
digestive effect, is also sweet. That means it’s a building, strengthening, anabolic herb. If it’s anabolic,
it’s building, it’s strengthening, and it’s sweet, what dosha does it increase? It increases Kapha dosha
because it is sweet and Kapha is sweet. Sweet is Earth and Water and Kapha is Earth and Water. Its
vipaka is anabolic and Kapha is anabolic, it’s building and so it decreases Vata because it’s nurturing, and
sweet. Most herbs with a sweet vipaka, meaning they’re strengthening, are going to be good for Vata
because Vata is Air and Ether and Vata is always depleted and so one way to antidote Vata is by
nurturing, strengthening. However Vata people usually have the worse digestive system but they’re the
ones that need the heaviest, the most nutritive substances so the trick with Vata is to use heavier nutritive
substances while also keeping the digestive system and the digestive Fire of the Agni strong. That’s the
science of this stuff. Licorice also decreases Pitta because it’s cooling and it’s moisturizing and although
we know that Pitta is oily, long term heat, which is what Pitta is prone to, dries us up and depletes us, so
it’s the sweet, moisturizing, nutritive quality of licorice that decreases Vata, decreases Pitta, and increases
Kapha. If you were to see this in a book, you would see it as the energetics, such as in the Yoga of Herbs,
the energetics are written out, it would say sweet, bitter/cooling/sweet. So it will say sweet, bitter/
cooling/sweet. That’s telling us its rasa is sweet, bitter, its virya is cooling, and its vipaka is sweet. Then
underneath it will usually say vp-k+, which means it reduces Vata and Pitta and increases Kapha.
Remember we’re always trying to antidote so if we have high Kapha, we want to reduce Kapha. If we
have high Vata, reduce Vata. If we have high Pitta, reduce Pitta. So we’re applying the opposite
qualities.
And now we will talk about the prabhava. And in the prabhava of the herb would be explained in when
you see what systems does this herb work on? What tissues layers does it work on? Then all the
explanations of how the herbs work and in the Yoga of Herbs is very good, it gives you some ethnobotany, it gives you the traditional uses, it gives you both from Ayurvedic and Western standpoints. In
most herbal books and most herbal teachers, they are mostly and a lot of times solely focused on what we
would call the prabhava, the special action of the herb.
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But it takes it to a whole other level doesn’t it when you have the understanding of the rasa, the virya and
the vipaka and then combine that with the prabhava, now you can use herbs with some sophisticated
intelligence.
So the prabhava of licorice; what are the primary systems that licorice works on? We would say
respiratory and digestive systems. It works on other systems too but we’ll keep it simple here. What are
the first systems you think about with Licorice? Respiratory and digestive and then what are its actions?
Its actions are demulcent meaning it moisturizes. It’s an expectorant meaning it helps remove phlegm
from the respiratory system, it’s a tonic, it strengthens the tissues, it’s a rejuvenative, it has a rejuvenative
affect meaning and it does that in licorices case because it helps to not only to have an anabolic affect on
the tissues but it also moisturizes the tissues. What tissues does it moisturize? It moisturizes the tissue
layers of the systems that it acts on. So it moisturizes the rasa dhatu, the rakta dhatu, the mamsa dhatu,
and the medas dhatu as well so the rasa, rakta, mamsa, medas, and those are the primary tissues, those
tissue layers of those specific systems.
So what would be the rasa of the digestive system? It would be the mucus membranes of the digestive
wall so when you use a licorice tea it’s going to sooth and coat the mucus membranes of the digestive
wall and so it decreases acidity, it decreases burning indigestion, the Pitta, it helps with constipation,
constipation of a dry nature, and so often for Vata people we’ll combine our triphala primary laxative
herb with licorice because they need that moisturizing quality in order to help the bowels move through
the large intestines.
In the respiratory system it’s going to do the same thing, it’s important for dry respiratory systems, dry
coughs, sore throats and any sort of irritations; it’s going to sooth the mucus membranes of the respiratory
system, but at the same time it actually helps excessive phlegm move out of the respiratory system by
softening the phlegm and then we would always combine it with some other herbs such as cardamom or
black pepper or another sort of pungent expectorant herb that would then help move that phlegm out of
the respiratory system so you can eliminate it. So that’s part of the prabhava, the intelligence of the
licorice, other aspects are that licorice is very Sattvic and that’s another important aspect of these
medicines that we need to know. What is the energy from the context of the gunas, is it Tamasic, meaning
that it going to create more inertia, is it Rajasic, is it going to create more activity? Or is it Sattvic
meaning that it’s going to lend itself to more clarity. So licorice has a Sattvic influence on the mind.
That’s one reason that we love it a lot because not only does it have all of these excellent actions on your
digestive system, your respiratory system, thus it soothes the mind as well. It increases cerebral spinal
fluid and nourishes the brain, calms the mind, it gives strength, rejuvenation, and restoration for your
voice, vision, hair and complexion. These are all the prabhava of licorice.
The last thing you want to know about an herb is, of course, its contraindications meaning you might not
want to use it and in licorices case it creates water retention so you don’t want to use a lot of licorice if
you have edema or also hypertension, high blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure licorice is not
your herb.
That’s all the things you want to know. So when we go through all of the different actions of an herb,
since it calms the mind, it strengthens and rejuvenates the voice, it helps with the complexion, your
vision, your hair, this is the prabhava and that’s the beauty and that’s the fun part of herbology is
understanding this little plant. It has this affinity for your hair, for making your skin beautiful, and again
it’s always finding what are your motivational points for doing the work? What are your motivational
points for doing yoga in the morning? What are your motivational points that will get you to take herbs
during the day?
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If for you it’s not about having a calm mind, maybe it’s about having beautiful skin. Maybe it’s about
having beautiful hair, maybe its about your physical appearance and there is nothing wrong with that
because what’s going to happen is your going to start using those herbs and they are going to give you
that affect, but they’re also going to give you the other more subtle affects and your going to begin to
understand their grander value beyond just giving you beautiful skin, which is an important thing,
everyone wants to look good but if that’s my motivation point right now that’s where I’ll get my
motivation from and just connect the dots. What do I really want in my life right now and then be able to
connect the dots between the Ayurvedic remedies or the yogic practices and how those particular things
are going to get me what I want right now.
What is your profound, deeply profound, motivation in your life? Is it relationships, is it money, is it
health, is it your insomnia at night. Whatever it is, everyone’s got something you’ve got to get connected
to whatever that deeply profound motivation is in your life and then these medicines become real
powerful. Then you have motivation to take them and that’s why I like to teach this course
comprehensively because we have enough time or we can paint on the canvas how these types of things
can be connected to your bank account or to your relationship or to any aspect of your life.
Let’s do another herb as an example: Let’s use cardamom.
Cardamom: Most people have a kitchen with a whole bunch of very powerful herbs in them. Cardamom,
cinnamon, turmeric, cilantro, oregano, thyme, ginger, these are all very powerful medicinal plants. We
have them in our kitchen, kitchen medicine. What is the rasa of the taste of cardamom? Cardamom is
primarily pungent, secondarily sweet, pungent and sweet. That’s why it also combines very well with
sweet things. You have cardamom in your oatmeal, it has that secondary sweetness, but it’s primarily
pungent and has a heating virya. The beauty of cardamom is it has an Agni increasing, a heating virya and
yet it does not increase Pitta unless you use it in excess and its vipaka is pungent, it’s catabolic. It
decreases Vata because of its warmth, it’s good for Vata because it increases digestion which is what Vata
needs and it is warming which is what Vata needs and it decreases Kapha because it’s lightening and it’s
digestive increasing and again it will increase Pitta only in excess. Most heating herbs will increase Pitta,
in cardamoms case only if you use it excessively. Then its prabhava is that its primary system is digestive
and then also respiratory, circulatory and nervous system but the nervous system specifically in
relationship to your digestive system.
So you can see how rasa, virya, vipaka, prabhava gives you an excellent starting point but then once you
get into studying every different herb, that’s why it’s a lifetime study, think of how many species of
plants are on the planet? It’s a lifetime study and it’s a beautiful study and it’s a really glorious one if you
have the good fortune of that being your particular dharma in life to be able to have your focus on plants,
it’s a beautiful one.
For instance if you look at the systems that cardamom works on, we know what are its actions? Its actions
are it has a stimulant aspect so it works on circulatory system but in a stimulating way so it’s a
circulatory stimulant. If you have cold hands and feet cardamom is a nice one to keep in your diet and in
generous portions and if you have gas, tendencies towards gas, cardamom is a carminative meaning it
dispels gas. We know it works on the digestive system, but how does it work on the digestive system? It’s
a carminative and it increases absorption.
Most all of the spices in your kitchen are digestives and carminatives, they decrease gas, increase
absorption and increase Agni. It is also a diaphoretic; it increases the sweating so it increases perspiration.
What are we going to use cardamom for? Indigestion, poor absorption, gas and also colds, coughs and
asthma because it works on the respiratory as an expectorant as well as I mentioned a moment ago. Some
other prabhavas of cardamom is it’s also a very Sattvic herb so that’s another reason why it’s very much
revered in Ayurveda.
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The most revered herbs in Ayurveda are the ones that are:
1, Sattvic in nature
2, Has a very profound pranic intelligence and often a very unusual quality, so maybe a sour herb
and yet it’s cooling instead of heating or maybe a pungent herb but has a sweet vipaka, that’s
what I mean by an unusual pattern of characteristics.
Towards the end of the class I’ll go into some of those particular herbs.
Other special qualities of cardamom are it has a special action on the movement of prana in the body so it
increases the flow of prana throughout the body and that is connected to:
1, Its stimulating properties in combination with the Sattvic qualities so it’s stimulating
Sattvic qualities and
2, Its going to increase the flow of prana in the body.
If you put a little bit of cardamom in your warm milk it will decrease the mucus promoting qualities of
your milk. Some people can’t do much milk because it creates too much mucus. A little cardamom in
coffee neutralizes to toxic qualities of the caffeine. So that’s useful to know if you’re a coffee drinker and
again it gives clarity to the mind due to its Sattvic nature. So that’s cardamom.
That’s just two examples of how you can go through any particular herb, understand it and then study into
it and then the art of it is combining it and what’s going on with me”
1, What’s my Prakriti, my constitution, my Pitta Vata, Vata Pitta etc.
2, What’s the vikriti,
3, What’s my current state of imbalance and what are they?
I’m having this kind of chronic on and off constipation or I’m being just more irritable lately than I have
been or that I normally am or that I want to me. In fact I’ve been irritable like this my whole life and now
it’s time for it to stop. So that’s the vikriti. I’m having bursts of anger in conversations with my wife and
it’s not really necessary, that’s vikriti. So I need to understand my constitution, my Prakriti, what’s
happening now, my vikriti. Then once I know those two particular things then I’ll say “Well what types of
herbs are going to be best for what I’ve got going on”? It may seem like that’s a complicated connecting
the dots but its not that complicated because there are a lot of different things that will work. Then based
on all of the different things that will work I might look at a little brahmi will be good or a little Gotu
Kola would be good, licorice would be good, this would be good and there is a whole Sankhapuspi and
bhringaraj and then I can look at all of these things and then use my intuitive sense as to which one do I
resonate with and then I read about it. I suggest to people that every herb you’re taking you should read
about it and study it, you should definitely be tasting it even if you take them in capsules, open that
capsule up and taste it because if you’re not getting the taste on your tongue you’re limiting the impact
that herb is going to have in your system. It’s still going to work, it’s still going to have impact but it’s
just going to be slightly less than if you’re actually getting that taste on your tongue because the moment
your tongue has that taste it’s immediately affecting your mind and immediately affecting your body
because rasa means taste but it also mean emotion, it also mean melody, it also means your juice, it also
means your interests so the more meanings the word has the more insight we have as to what the affect of
what the rasa is.
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If you’re to look at herbs and we’re not going to go in depth into this but I wanted to bring a point out
about this is that the different parts of the plant correspond to the different tissue layers of the body.
That’s a profound and fascinating thing to look at and study and if you have The Yoga of Herbs, Dr. Lad
created a beautiful chart that shows the different aspects of the plant which is:
The sap is related to the rasa dhatu
The parts of the leaf are related to majja dhatu, the nervous system.
The bark is related to the bone or asthi dhatu
The roots are related to the Earth Element
Different plants like manjishtha is a bark or the roots are related to different elements, the Earth Element.
Then you have more plants that have more Water Element and so the different tissue layers of the plant
respond very much to the tissue layers of the human body.
When you’re using an herb, different parts of the plants are used more often with different herbs than
other herbs so Ashwagandha we use the root and so forth. I mentioned that manjishtha is a bark and so
forth and so that’s a more advanced, more in-depth study of herbology but it’s a fascinating thing to know
about.
The main thing for us to know about for the purposes of this course is we don’t have to remember all of
these things but we want to come away with this with a WOW that’s potent, that’s profound, because
that’s what’s going to give us the context in order to:
1, Have motivation in order to take the herbs
2, It actually allows you to open up your channels of awareness in regards to how these medicines
work and how prana works and therefore you’re able to get better affects because than you
would be if you would just go to the health food store and just buy an herb and pop the capsule
in your mouth.
You’re going to get a better effect if you have understanding of how these work and right now you’re
getting a fairly in-depth of understanding in a fairly short amount of time.
Next we’re going to go through the categories of the herbs because you want to have as much knowledge
of herbs that you can and there are so many different herbs that you can know, it’s important to be able to
put them in basic categories of herbs. I’m not going to go into every category of herbs as if this was a
herbalism course, but I’m going to go into some of the major categories of herbs so that when you talk
about them specifically we have a little more context or framework in order to discuss them.
By the way, most herbs can fall into different categories or multiple categories and then how we’re using
those herbs or how we want to direct them to a specific category is going to be based on a couple of
things. If I want to use licorice but I don’t need it for my respiratory system I want it more for my
digestive system we’re going to direct it to the digestive system by:
1, Our intention which certainly has an affect, where you’re attention goes, your prana flows.
2, Attention is what generates intention.
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On a side note; why most individuals aren’t able to manifest their intentions is because they have not
developed the skill of sustained attention long enough in order to get real results and that’s the difference,
that’s why we stress the deep meditation and consistency, consistency with the herbs, consistency with
the meditation because if you want to get real results it takes sustained attention so that you’re intention
becomes manifest.
The other way we’re going to direct an herb towards a specific system other than your intention is by
combining it with other herbs that have an affinity for that system, that will direct it towards that system.
Most digestive herbs also have an affinity for your respiratory system so you’re going to get duel effects
but if your body needs help in the digestive system your going to get it there.
Digestive herbs and also carminative herbs, meaning herbs that dispel gas from the body, they’re going to
increase absorption, increase Agni, move out accumulated Vata, which is in the large intestines, decrease
the accumulated Kapha in the stomach, and then the particular cooling digestive herbs will alleviate the
Pitta in the small intestines and then the other primary affect of digestive herbs we call depina in
Ayurveda is, decrease aama, dispel aama, and destroy aama from the body, from the digestive system
and the tissue layers.
Examples: most spices, most digestive herbs, are pungent and heating with a pungent vipaka. There are
exceptions in general and they’re also usually fragrant, most digestive herbs also contain potent essential
oils that stimulate the gastrointestinal nerves and that’s why the fragrant herbs, the essential oils have
such a powerful affect on the prana because the gastrointestinal nerves or any of the nerves are the
physical connections to the prana, to the vayus and in this case Apana vayu, your eliminating prana in the
large intestines, and the Samana vayu which is your absorbing prana, your assimilating prana in the
small intestines.
Some digestive herbs you know, they are cinnamon, cardamom, basil, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, oregano,
turmeric, and on and on.
Then you have your specific cooling digestive herbs which are more rare, most of them are heating but
the cooling digestive herbs are: fennel, cumin, coriander, (the primary ones) and they are all carminatives
as well meaning they dispel gas. These are your primary herbs if you have a hot digestive system. If
you’re a Pitta type person or a Pitta type vikriti and get burning indigestion, acid indigestion these are the
herbs and they are phenomenal. Use fennel, cumin and coriander with your meals or use fennel, cumin
and coriander tea and sip it with your meals, your hot digestive problems will go away if you’re
consistent with it. Other cooling digestive herbs of course are: peppermint and then chamomile as well,
they’re all cooling. Those are your cooling digestive herbs.
The next category we have would be known as diaphoretics which they increase perspiration and restore
circulation. They make you sweat; they eliminate toxicities from the body via the surface of the skin or
the surface of the body. They purify primarily rasa dhatu (plasma, lymph). You have heating diaphoretics
and you have cooling diaphoretics. Heating diaphoretics are again mostly fragrant, eucalyptus, ginger,
cardamom, camphor, basil, and cloves. The cooling diaphoretics are peppermint, chamomile, and
chrysanthemum are the cooling diaphoretics because they make you sweat. For Pitta people the sweat
relieves the heat and then cools the body down. The heating diaphoretics relieve stagnated heat but they
also still heat up the body by increasing circulation.
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The next category of herbs you have your expectorant and demulcent herbs.
Expectorants are herbs that remove phlegm from your respiratory system.
There are two types of expectorants;
1, one is pungent expectorants
2, the other is like licorice demulcent expectorants
Both of them promote the discharge of phlegm from the body but also they promote the discharge of
phlegm from the digestive system, but primarily from the respiratory system. Usually the two types of
expectorants are used together in order to have the balancing effect and so the pungent ones are drying,
they dry the mucus in the body and again the demulcent ones soften the mucus. The drying pungent
expectorants are mostly the same herbs that are also carminative digestive herbs and also diaphoretic
herbs and that’s ginger, cardamom, tulsi, holy basil, and pippali, which is long pepper.
Pippalis a phenomenal herb, it’s a good one to know about, it’s closely related to black pepper but it’s
more revered in Ayurveda because it has a sweet vipaka. Pippali is spicy, its long pepper, its hot and its
pungent, then it has a sweet vipaka. It’s not nutritive with a sweet vipaka such as licorice or ashwaganda
but it has a top tonifying affect on the digestive system. It a very interesting herb and the best way to get
pippali is in the famous Ayurvedic formula called trikato. Trikato means the three spices and the trikato
is the equal portions of black pepper, pippali and ginger. You can get trikato in most health food stores
and this is specifically if you have Kapha type digestion or if you’re eating Kaphagenic foods.
If I’m going to have a pizza for instance, I may take a little trikato before I eat pizza, about fifteen
minutes before and try to get a little warmth in my belly, then eat that heavy cheese pizza so I don’t create
a bunch of aama because I ate this heavy bread, this heavy cheese pizza. That’s smart use of herbs and
especially with the children you can put the trikato in the honey and give them the honey with the trikato
before they eat the pizza and after too. You can take the trikato after also.
It’s not like just because these herbs decrease Kapha they’re only for Kapha people. You’re going to
make good use of all of these herbs just at different times. Especially if I’m going to eat pizza in the
springtime when already Kapha is high and now I’m eating this mucus like food, then even though I’m a
hot Pitta type person already trikato is my friend in that case. If I notice I’m heating myself up I’ll cool
myself down later with some fennel, licorice, and peppermint tea, Yum, that also helps to digest. It’s just
manage your tattvas, manage the elements, manage your physiology, and manage your mind, and these
are your friends that help you do it.
Other moistening demulcent, cool, sweet, heavy, expectorant herbs that soften and liquefy the Kapha so it
can be discharged from the body are marshmallow, comfrey, and slippery elm. Slippery elm is one of my
favorites but unfortunately the trees are endangered because you have to take the tree in order to harvest
the slippery elm that we use, also raw sugar is a good expectorant. People in the west have a problem with
sugar, it has a bad rap but we’re talking about table white sugar which is not good.
There is a very famous wonderful traditional Ayurvedic herbal formula called sitopaladi that is wonderful
for colds and flu or for a sign of a cold or a cough, excessive phlegm in the respiratory system and it has a
combination of a lot of hot pungent expectorant spices, some demulcent and raw sugar, jaggery and that
sugar really helps to soften and liquefy the mucus along with those hot spices. So it’s the combination of
your demulcents so maybe licorice by itself might be a little too heavy but if you take your licorice and
combine it with peppermint or you take your licorice and you combine it with black pepper or you make a
ginger, clove, cardamom, and strong licorice infusion when you have a cough or a cold its wonderful.
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Next category would be your bitters:
Bitters and what we call alteratives: Alteratives are that which cleanse the rakta dhatu or purifying and
cooling the blood and reduce the Pitta. When we talk about rakta dhatu (blood) we’re also talking about
the liver as well. They cleanse and purify the blood in the liver and dispel aama from the tissues, and
specifically dispel the aama from the liver and the blood.
Examples again, the most cooling would be burdock root, it is important. Burdock root is a very
wonderful bitter root to use in your food. Add a little bit, you don’t need much because it will make your
food very bitter but in your soups or stews or kitchari, take just about six inches of burdock root if it’s a
big pot of kitchari, less if it’s a small pot, and slice that burdock root and cook that with your kitchari if
you want a nice springtime medicinal mung beans and rice or what else do we have? Aloe Vera is a
wonderful alternative that is also moisturizing and that’s the beauty of Aloe Vera. Most bitters of course
are drying, Aloe Vera is moisturizing so summertime when its hot and dry in Northern California Aloe
Vera is like an every day substance, an every day thing for me, I take a little Aloe Vera juice and put it in
my tea in the morning or just take some water with Aloe Vera in it and its great. It detoxifies the blood
and summertime is the time of the year where your bloods going to get more hot and toxic. It detoxifies
the liver, it keeps you cool, it’s moisturizing so it’s great for the skin, it’s a wonderful wonderful plant
Aloe Vera. If you get the real Aloe Vera like right out of the plant that stuff is extremely bitter, the juice
once you get it out of the store its not as bitter anymore, it’s more sweet. The real medicinal stuff is if you
have some Aloe Vera plant and you can get the juice right out of the stuff but that takes a more brave
palate.
Another one of my favorite alternatives is manjistha. Manjishtha is a bark actually and it’s a bright red
beautiful color when you get the powder and it’s a great blood purifier, it also a great lymphatic stimulant.
First sign of a cold I take manjishtha actually because over eighty percent of your immune system is in
your lymphatic system so I want to get my lymphatic circulation working really well and purify the
blood. Dandelion of course is a strong alternative, it’s very bitter and then of course you have echinacea
and golden seal. Then you have like your real anti-pyretic herbs which are very strong or refrigerant herbs
that are extremely bitter and very cold such as your goldenseal, chaparral and ginseng and these are herbs
that you would use when you’re trying to get rid of a high fever or some sort of a strong virus you can use
those but in general terms you don’t want to use your strong anti-pyretic herbs like goldenseal, you
reserve that for more when you’re really trying to work against something. General alteratives can be
used throughout the spring and the summertime as a good healthy maintenance to keep your skin looking
good. If you have a lot of acne or if you’re prone to red skin alteratives are your friend. If you want really
beautiful skin you should use alteratives. You don’t want to use them as much in the wintertime though
because that’s the Vata time of the year and you’re going to increase Vata.
Next category we have in your nervine tonics
Nervine tonics and these are also what we could call mind herbs as well because they strengthen
functions of the majja dhatu (nervous system) and the mind. Most are cooling because when we have
irritability or problems in the mind it’s often of a hot nature. Not all are cooling but most are cooling, all
are calming to the mind and the nerves. They reduce Vata and Pitta primarily because when we’re talking
about the nervous system we’re talking Vata because the nervous system is emotion and we’re talking
about Pitta because the nervous system is prone to irritation.
There are also nervine stimulants that reduce Kapha when we are lethargic like calamus where we have
a heavy what we call tarpaka Kapha which is your Kapha heavy sluggishness of the mind. Those are
more heating in nature.
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But the nervine tonics, which are very important herbs, are herbs such as brahmi, my favorite brahmi
and Gotu Kola. Brahmi and Gotu Kola are very closely related and some people use them interchangeably
and call them both brahmi, but the real brahmi is the (Bacopa minniera) and the Gotu Kola is the
(Centella asiatica) so with herbs once you get into the more specific study of herbs knowing Latin names
of herbs becomes important because the folk names of herbs sometimes becomes confusing and you have
different plants that are called the same thing. So if you want to be specific about identifying a plant then
knowing the Latin name is important. So in this case you have Gotu Kola and brahmi and both do almost
the same thing. Brahmi is wonderful again for that purification of the mind, it calms and cools the mind as
does Gotu Kola but they’re also alteratives, they have an affect on the liver, they purify the liver but they
also strengthen the functions of the liver and they also strengthen the function of your memory.
What I find is that brahmi is more effective for the more subtle aspects of the mental, psychological and
spiritual nature where as Gotu Kola is better for the memory, strengthening of the liver and the rakta
dhatu (blood) and if you look at that Gotu Kola does have more Earth energy. Gotu Kola grows in hotter
soil and more Sun rather then brahmi which needs to grow in mostly water and pond sides. So you see
that result in the energetics as well.
Other nervine herbs would be like chamomile of course and it’s specifically for the connection again
between the nervous system and the digestive system. There is an incredible amount of nerve endings in
your gut. Most digestive problems have a nervous system aspect to it.
What I’ll talk about in just a little bit towards the end of this class which we’re approaching is where to
start and if you’re going to start somewhere, start with the digestive system and nervous system.
Chamomile, Peter Rabbit, for his tummy that’s what he used was chamomile tea and then skullcap is a
great Western Herb for the nervous system, it’s calm and cooling to the mind. Bhringaraj is very similar
to brahmi. Jatamansi is one of the most important nervine tonics we can use. When we talk about sleep
and insomnia jatamansi is your primary herb. It’s difficult to get the herb because it’s another endangered
species and so it’s actually illegal to export it out of India so it’s difficult to get now. It’s a high altitude
root and so it grows in these high altitude environments and very difficult to harvest and it’s supposed to
be harvested when the snow is the highest and so it’s difficult and hard labor to harvest the jatamansi
root and so what happens is the people will harvest it in the time of the year when it’s not ideal to harvest
it but easier and therefore the crop isn’t propagated as well and because it’s such a revered herb, people
will use a lot of it and therefore we don’t have good access to it. What you can get through Floracopeia is
the jatamansi oil, essential oil, and you can use a drop of jatamansi oil in a little bit of sesame oil and
massage that into your feet before bedtime and it helps a great deal and it’s a valerianaceaes herb so it’s a
relative of valerian and it smells a little bit like valerian but not as bad. It’s sweeter than valerian and it’s
not Tamasic like valerian. That’s why we love jatamansi over valerian because valerian although it’s
wonderful, Tamasic herbs have their place and it can be useful but jatamansi won’t create that drowsiness
that valerian will create. It’s more Sattvic in nature, it’s a wonderful, wonderful herb and you can take
capsules of it if you can find a source for it and you have insomnia you can combine it with ashwaganda
or brahmi or all three and you can take a capsule of it forty five minutes before bed or one or two capsules
and then another two capsules fifteen minutes later, another two capsules fifteen minutes later and then
fifteen minutes after that you can go to bed, you’ll sleep and you’ll get good sleep. So those are some
nervines, passion flower, sandalwood, the list goes on and on.
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Next you have what is called nutritive tonics
Nutritive tonics and these are herbs that strengthen and increase the tissues, the dhatu layers. They are
like herbal foods because they are providing nutrition, high quality nutrition with incredible pranic
intelligence. That’s why they are more in the herb category than the food category. They are anabolic so
they decrease Vata and most of the time decrease Pitta and most of the time they increase Kapha because
they are anabolic.
They are good for depletion, weakened tissue, and most are heavier and hard to digest so you have to
include digestives to help digest them but these are your marshmallow root, your licorice, dong quai for
the females, ginseng, shatavari, wild yam, and foods that we would also put in as nutritive tonics would
be almonds, almonds are very powerful medicine and medicinal food specifically for the shukra dhatu
(reproduction system), dates as well, and milk as well. A lot of the nutritive tonics work on the
reproductive system well because of course that’s your final dhatu layer and then once you build good
shukra then you create good ojas.
Then our final category which is very closely related to your nutritive tonics is what is known in
Ayurveda as rasayanas.
Rasayana means the path of rasa. What is the path of rasa, rasa, rakta, mamsa, medas, asthi, majja,
shukra into the ojas. Rasayana are special types of tonics that not only increase the tissue but builds high
quality tissue and typically possess extraordinary actions, extraordinary prabhava or a wide range of
prabhavas or unique patterns of energetics. Not all rasayanas are necessarily nutritive tonics, most of
them are, but some are defined because they have a special ability to reverse the aging process or help to
reverse the aging process and they allow the body to adapt to stress. The naturopathic term for this is an
adaptogenic herb. Ashwaganda is an adaptogenic herb meaning it allows your organism to adapt.
Adaptogen, to adapt to your environment, to your stress and that’s why many of these adaptogens are also
immune building because that’s essentially what your immune system is doing. Most of these herbs have
a sweet vipaka; some of those don’t though like turmeric is considered a rasayanic, Tulsi and holy basil is
considered a rasayanic, that’s because they are phenomenal adaptogens, high antioxidants.
Then you have kind of like a sub category of rasayanics. That are called vajikarana which mean the
stamina of a horse and these are your ojas building rasayanics that are also aphrodisiacs, but they are not
aphrodisiacs in the superficial sense like a jasmine or damiana where they are stimulant aphrodisiacs,
these are deep nutritive rasayana aphrodisiacs meaning like ashwaganda and shatavari. Ashwaganda is
your primary herb for the male and shatavari is the primary herb for the female but both are good for both
genders. They are building your shukra dhatu (reproductive fluids) so long term its going to increase the
libido, its going to increase your sexual health but the deeper more important aspect of that is that it is
also building your vitality. So the sexual health and your vitality are very intimately connected as you can
see from your chart of the seven dhatus. Agni and ojas, is from your shukra dhatu, which is your
reproductive system comes the ojas and out of the ojas comes the immune system and the auric field and
so that’s why the Yogis pay a lot of attention into maintaining their sexual energy so that they can not use
it all for sexual pleasure but use most of it for transmuting it into ojas which allows the individual to
contain more prana. The more ojas you have the more prana you can hold in your system.
It’s not hard to generate a lot of prana but what’s more difficult is being able to hold that prana in your
system. When you can contain that prana within the central nervous system that’s when you can use the
prana, that’s when you have potency and power and that’s why. Does it mean you should be celibate? No
it doesn’t mean that unless you’re on some special monastic path. It just means that’s there is a
mindfulness of how you use sexual energy and that’s going to be different for everyone. Then also when
you do use sexual energy or engage in intercourse, what is the context in which you’re doing so? That’s
going to affect on how that shukra is used and how that’s going to either deplete or potentially increase
the ojas. That’s another topic for another class.
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We have these rasayanas and some of your rasayanas are the ashwaganda, the amalaki, and the
shatavari. Ginseng would be a rasayana, even garlic is considered a rasayana, haritaki means it’s a
destroyer of disease and it’s one of your three herbs in triphala, a most important Ayurvedic formula.
Brahmi of course is a rasayana, saffron is considered a rasayana, bhibitaki also from triphala, guggul is
a rasayana and guggul is one with a pungent vipaka, but guggul is a rasayana for your circulatory
system and if you have the high cholesterol or heart problems then guggul is a good herb for you to
become familiar with.
If you have something like atherosclerosis or arteriosclerosis guggul is a phenomenal herb, it’s a resin
actually and the resin is like the blood of the plant and that’s what it’s working with, it’s closely related to
myrrh, it’s a commiphora, commiphora myrrha is myrrh.
So this is some of your rasayanas and you have your handout for the major herbs of Ayurveda and that’s
what goes through several of the major herbs in case you don’t have one of the books yet to get you
started and so those are some of the major categories of herbs.
Of course there are many other herbal categories that but that would be more for an Ayurvedic herbal
course which perhaps we can do.
Moving toward the last part of this class here, one thing I want to mention before I go on is what’s known
in Ayurveda as your anupama and your anupama is the vehicle in which you take the herb. For instance
if you’re using it as a tea, as an infusion, the hot water is your anupama. Cool water is sometimes an
anupama so in the summertime for instance I might take red clover and in the evening before I go to bed
I’ll take like a couple liter water bottle and put a couple of tablespoons of red clover in just cool good
water and then if I have moonlight I’ll set it outside, covered and in the moonlight, and then the soma, the
lunar cooling quality of the moonlight, that is now influencing your water. Of course the moon going to
affect water and then the cooling red alterative, red clover, that I’ll then strain in the morning time and
then drink that throughout the day. It’s just a cooling, detoxifying anti Pitta alterative, skin enhancing
water.
Then a hot infusion is another anupama. Different anupamas are used in order to:
1, Carry the herb to a specific system or dhatu.
For instance we use medicated oils and specifically medicated ghee a lot in Ayurveda and that’s to
2, Carry it to the deeper subtle tissues like the nervous system in the shukra dhatu.
So it’s great to take some ashwaganda tincture or some ashwaganda capsule but if you really want to get
the deep shukra level nutritive affects of herbs like ashwaganda, shatavari, and dong quai, then use it in a
medicated ghee or a medicated milk and then that is the anupama that will direct it to the deeper dhatu
layers. It will still affect the rasa dhatu and so forth but you’re directing it to a deeper layer.
Tinctures go more into the blood rasa and tinctures also do have an affect on the nervous system. I’m not
a huge fan of tinctures but I use them occasionally.
Then you have just taking the powder or the powdered herb which is what we call the churna in
Ayurveda which is the primary way I use herbs is via churna. You’re taking the whole herb and you’re
either using it in a capsule or you’re making a tea with it or you put it in some honey.
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Honey is another anupama that will direct it to the respiratory system for instance or honey can also go
into the deeper layers of the dhatus as well. Honey has a very special quality that directs it into the more
subtle aspects of your organism, or you might use an anupama to specifically help alleviate a particular
dosha.
For instance, like I was doing with the red clover, it’s more of an anti Pitta so I’m using cooler water with
a cooling herb or you may use hot or warm water if you’re working on getting ride of phlegm in the body
or reducing the Vata or reducing the Kapha.
Then the other thing you may use an anupama for or why you would use an anupama or how is to
strengthen the affect of that herb or draw out one of its actions. So again using medicated milks with
ashwaganda is going to increase its tonic properties, it’s going to strengthen its already strong properties.
Of course you never take milk cold because it’s too hard to digest. Don’t drink milk cold, it’s not a good
idea, but it’s a wonderful idea if you can digest it to drink it warm with digestive spices and tonic herbs.
So if you take some hot or warm up some good organic milk, ideally it’s raw, and you add a half teaspoon
to a teaspoon of ashwaganda powder and then shatavari powder and you maybe want to use a little
saffron with that and then you have a whole rasayana and those are heavy herbs and the heavy milks so
you definitely want to have some pungent digestive herbs such as how about cardamom, how about
cinnamon, how about a little pippali so you can digest it? This is the way to think about it. That might not
taste so good because you have some bitter herbs in there and some pungent herbs in there so how about
some maple syrup? Yum and you can add a little rose water if you have a good quality rose water and so
that’s like a tonic milk. So that’s a great wintertime nutritive tonic that will keep your immune system
strong, it will keep your nervous system strong, it will build your shukra, (reproductive fluids) it will
increase your vitality and increase your ojas, keep you content and keep you healthy. It’s a wonderful
thing.
In the summertime you can use that same thing. Milk is cooling but you want to warm it, even if it’s
warm, hot peppermint tea for instance isn’t going to heat you up, it’s going to cool you down. They have
a little short term time when you feel a little hot but even in the hot deserts people drink peppermint tea to
cool themselves down. In the summertime you can have a warm milk with the brahmi and it’s great.
Moving right along, that is your anupama and in a more in depth herbal class we would go through all the
different anupamas and how to prepare them and so forth but you can learn all of that easily with a little
research.
In closing though what I want to bring to your attention and this will kind of continue a little bit of this
into our final module which is really about the life style and the lifestyle is the practical application of
everything you’ve learned into your daily life. That’s important right?
If you’re going to start somewhere with herbs, there are a lot of different herbs you can take, there are a
lot of systems of the body and all of us have a lot of different problems that we want to work on or a lot of
different aspirations as well. I started in two primary places, digestive and nervous system/mind. Because
again important is the body but more important is the mind. So it’s treating the mind because at some
level your mind is at the root of whatever the problem is you’re having. Oh my arthritis, my mind isn’t
involved with your arthritis? Yes it is.
Most important are the mind and your digestion. Those are the two most important areas to digest because
first the digestion needs the Agni and the good Agni in the digestive system means good Agni through all
of the different tissue layers. The tissue layer Agnis are dependent on the Jather Agni. The primary
digestive Fire of the digestive system
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The health of your organism could really be boiled down to two primary things: Agni and ojas.
Ojas is the container that gives your body intelligence. Prana is the intelligence, ojas is the container.
If you don’t have the ojas, you can’t have the prana. Ojas gives you the luster of the eyes and the skin
and the strength of the immune system.
The primary goal is not to cleanse, our primary goal is to build, is to strengthen because we don’t want to
be depleted, we want to be strong. The only reason we cleanse is so that we can build but we need to build
high quality tissues so what cleansing is about is restoring Agni because if you don’t occasionally give
your digestive system a system reboot then what’s going to happen is it’s going to get sluggish over time
and instead of digesting, it’s going to start creating aama. Then you’re digesting aama and instead of
building high quality tissue, you’re building aama rich, toxic rich tissue, low quality tissue. That means
you have low intelligence in your physiology and then the doshas are going to become predominant in the
tissue layers as opposed to prana and vitality. So we need both digestive support and rasayanas. So
rasayanas/nervine herbs and digestive herbs.
First you need to have a good enough digestive system to be able to assimilate your nutritive tonics, the
rasayanas, and the starting point for everyone would be having a regiment for your digestion and a
regiment for your mind/ojas, but first I would start digestion/mind. A lot of your mind nervines herbs are
lighter than your tonics. If you have really good digestion you can you can also use your tonics, but right
now you could start with getting your digestion ready and whenever winter comes is when you move into
your stronger tonics, ashwaganda and so forth. You can take lighter rasayanas at anytime such as your
brahmi.
For digestion what do you use is going to depend on who you are.
So if you have a more Vata type digestion, very gassy, cold and variable, sometimes you have no appetite,
sometimes you have a lot of appetite, then you can use all of the warming depina herbs like cardamom,
cinnamon, cumin is good as well. Or there is a famous Ayurvedic formula that is specifically a Vata
digestive formula called Hingvastak that uses Hing or Asafoetida along with various other pungent spices
in salts, different types of salt because it’s the Vata digestion system. You don’t need much, it’s a very
powerful little digestive thing and if you take like a quarter of a teaspoon in a little warm water and you
take it before your meals. Some even like to sprinkle it on their food; you just have to try it first to see
what you think. That’s a great digestive herb and you take them before meals and then be consistent with
it especially before heavy meals.
If you’re a Pitta digestive system and if it’s in the summertime you use a fennel, cumin, and coriander
like I mentioned. You can also use peppermint.
one half teaspoon of fennel seeds
one half teaspoon cumin seeds
one half teaspoon of coriander seeds
Put a cup of hot water over it, let it steep and then strain it or use a tea straw
and sift that before your meals and during your meals.
It works phenomenally as long as you’re consistent.
Then for Kapha we talked about trikato and taking some trikato before your meals.
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Then of course it’s going to change throughout the seasons as we know and everyone can use triphala.
The three fruits, triphala which is amalaki, haritaki and bhibitaki. In every health food store you can get
triphala. I prefer the organic India brand of triphala, it’s very high quality. Triphala, amalaki is sour but
reduces the Pitta dosha. Sour usually increases Pitta but it’s a tonic rasayana for Pitta. Haritaki is
astringent but it reduces Vata. Astringent usually increases Vata and then bhibitaki is the rasayana for
Kapha. All five tastes but salty have an affect on the digestive system, they cleanse, dispel aama from the
digestive system, they increase absorption by scraping the aama away from the villi of the digestive
walls, they increase elimination, it’s a laxative formula, but it’s not a habit forming laxative formula. You
can take triphala for long periods of time and then come off of it and you’ll still eliminate great. It
increases the Apana vayu and the health of your Apana vayu, you’re eliminating prana and when you’re
eliminating well you can assimilate well.
The idea is to optimize how you intake things through the five senses and what you can eliminate out and
if you do those two well everything else seems to work fine. So by taking Triphala everyone can benefit
and it keeps your Agni strong all through the seven dhatus, it works on all seven dhatus and the most
common way to take it is before bed and in the early morning when you get up. You can take capsules
and there are other forms.
Please listen to the super herbs of Ayurvedic class that I did for more about a lot of these herbs and I will
include that on the module page here so that you have that along with all of the other modules. It’s a class
I did on MedicineCrow but I go in more detail into some of these herbs and how to take them and then
use the Yoga of Herbs and research anything you’re going to take. This is just a start but triphala, every
household should have triphala in the cabinet period and the digestive aspect of it is the primary aspect
but it works for so many other things. Triphala is one of those things that if you don’t know what else to
do take triphala and everyone can benefit from it. Vata people sometimes need to combine it with
demulcent herbs because it can be slightly drying but its tridoshic, balancing to all three doshas.
Then your mind nervine herbs that you can consider taking:
If you’re on the Vata side of things, think ashwaganda, jatamansi, and also tulsi, you can’t go wrong with
tulsi, tulsi tea. Get the tulsi tea and drink it every day. That’s the first thing I drink when I wake up. In
module eight we’ll talk about that a little bit.
If you’re on the Pitta side of things think brahmi, Gotu Cola, or passion flower is great, shankhpushpi is
another Ayurvedic herb. I drink a brahmi shankhpushpi tea everyday, it’s just something I always do and
It works wonders for me.
If you’re on the Kapha side of things think shilajit, it’s on your major herbs of Ayurveda handout and
then as I mentioned guggul. Guggul is important to know and then of course trikato would be also
digestive/rasayana.
And these are just a couple, there are many others you could use and use the Yoga of Herbs or other
books and you can ask any questions you want and submit them on the page there and I’ll answer them in
the final Q&A module and that is our module seven.
Meet you at module eight.
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