Familiarize yourself with the spiritual building blocks of the universe.
Ayurveda is an approach to life from a spiritual standpoint. It isn’t just a system of healing. It’s a whole philosophy of existence. It is part of the Vedas — texts from ancient India that tell us wisdom about life. From this wisdom, we can deduce many things about our health. Before we try to understand healing, we must understand what the universe is made of so that we can be guided to make healthy choices.
There are five elements in Ayurveda: space, air, fire, water, and earth. Ayurveda tells us that everything in existence is composed of some combination of these elements. And there are building blocks of existence, as well: the doshas. The doshas are each made of two of these elements.
When we understand the doshas, we understand what’s really going on.
There are dosha quizzes that will tell you which dosha is prominent in your composition. Your primary dosha can be mental and physical. It will tell you a lot about your tendencies and how to balance yourself to achieve optimum health. However, in this short post, I will not talk about the doshas as they exist in us specifically. This post is about the doshas as they exist anywhere in the universe, including in our minds and bodies.
Vata
Air and space are the two elements that make up Vata. Think of movement, liberation, creativity, cold, and dry, and you’ll know Vata. Vata appears on a cold autumn day when the wind is blowing the dry leaves around. Vata gives us all the ability to seek new experiences and come up with novel ideas. It is light. It is free.
Vata is not reliable. It’s a butterfly, moving erratically. It’s your mind on your first day at a new job, or the feeling of welcoming a new baby to a family. It is newness. It can’t stay still. It seeks movement. Sometimes it spins out of control in its ungrounded flight. Sometimes it isn’t sure of itself.
In everything, Vata is the essential component that keeps us creating. It keeps us connected through transition and relationships. It moves so that new things can enter and things that no longer serve can exit. It lightens us and helps us ascend.
Pitta
Water and fire are the two elements that create Pitta. Like digestive acid, Pitta can take something and totally transform it into something else — something useful. Pitta is focused, sharp, hot, and oily. It’s a summer day with the sun beating down and sweat coming from our pores. It is our determination to finish a project or our inflamed anger when something isn’t done right.
Pitta stays on schedule. It is an eagle, targeting its prey and swooping in with grace, poising its sharp talons. It explodes sometimes, destroying things with its heat. Other times, it heals by burning away the brush.
In the universe, Pitta is the energy needed to make change happen. It transforms things from one situation to the next. It takes situations as they are and creates conclusions from them. Without it, we would have the ideas but lack the follow-through — we would have life but no power to change it.
Kapha
Water and earth are the two elements in Kapha. It is heavy, cold, thick, and stagnant. It is stubborn. It’s a winter day when the potatoes are the only harvest out of the cold ground. It’s the evening when we feel lethargic. It stays put, and this means it can nurture and provide empathy.
Kapha is slow. It won’t change its ways easily. It keeps us grounded. It is the thing that allows us to stay in bed and heal when we’re sick. Sometimes it is too grounded and won’t budge, blocking us. Sometimes we need to be blocked. It is a slow-moving elephant, loving and heavy, loyal and true.
If you liked this post, you might want to check out my upcoming classes about Ayurveda.
The divine in me recognizes the divine in you.
