Senin,
this is a huge conversation and one I have tried to have so many times. There is massive problems with the level of education of Ayurveda in the West and those who are calling themselves practitioners just the same as there is in yoga. 200 hours does not make anyone a teacher of anything neither does 500 hours training, but that is what is the industry of yoga. in Ayurveda, the minimum education in india is the BAMS doctorate which is 6 years long of full time medical school. In the other foreign countries you find nothing comparative yet they will all argue and defend. What this does is cause a huge problem in the people that are out there practicing. Even the education in the BAMS in india has massive problems because the overseeing govt programs are corrupt AYUSH and ICCM. You really cannot trust that even Ayurvedic doctors have any knowledge. HUGE problem. Then if you come down to the level of forums and reading stuff on the internet, wow, slim pickens.
Most of what you read out there is garbage. Most of what is written is for making a name and making money. This is just the honest truth. Too much fraud and fake and the problem is, without real knowledge how are you to have any discernment at all.
Ask 10 different Western ayurveda practitioners what the doshas do in the seasons and you will get all sorts of different answers. they are taught from their teachers books and not the actual texts. You go to the Ayurvedic Institute in New mexico to the reknown Dr. lad and you pay an outragous price for 5 days of what is not even real Panchakarma. You can simply research on the internet what is panchakarma and then go to their website to verify this. For that price you can also pay for a few years of the BAMS course for a real doctor in india's education. Funny.
If you wanna learn ayurveda, study the real text. Ashtanga samgraha is the easiest text to study. There are not poses for vata pitta and kapha so drop all of that, it is westernized garbage. The learning of ayurveda is not superficial, everything is very very deep and takes time.
Ideally it takes a teacher that is a real teacher an knowledgeable and experienced.
I myself trained in Ayurveda by doing David Frawleys correspondence courses, then when i was done i realized I knew nothing practical. So I then searched and found that the Ayuvedic Institute was the best in the US. I left my life to go there and ended up leaving early and not finishing because I knew it was not proper. I ended up doing my third course for 3 years in the East bay of San Francisco. After that, i was fed up with the superficial knowledge and was lucky to find a teacher in india. For 7 years I lived in a ayurvedic hospital in an ayurvedic university studying from Charaka Samhita daily in sanskrit with my teacher and having clinic in the hospital. I totally lucked out but have come to the end point that all of this knowledge is quite useless here in the West when all there is its such a mess. There are no hospitals here so how can anyone have any real clinical hours to learn? There is so much limitation in the Westernized education of ayurveda and what we consider to be allowable education to then go and practice. And trust me, no one likes me saying any of this.
There is no rule of do no harm in Western ayurveda. Sorry. What we do not know, we do not know. If the education remains superficial, no one takes responsibility for what harm they do because it is not in their ability to see the damage they do. I can say the very same thing about yoga.
I would also say this, if we continue to take western sciences and western thought and concepts and place them on yoga or ayurveda, we will continue to destroy these sciences. if you were to look up any disease on this forum, as i have, what is given for remedies is a western exercise theory and western medicine take on the disease. no where here (or in books on yoga therapy etc) is there the understanding from a real yoga or ayurveda knowledge, just western ones. Huge harm being done by those that don't have the knowledge to see the damage they are doing because the very education and knowledge that comes from that proper education does not exist. What to do?
As far as your question, your are made of all 5 elements. Everyone is. There is no single dosha thing, this is all fabricated western stuff. Stay away from it. Instead of one of those practitioners not knowing what they are doing, maybe it is the entire way ayurveda is being taught in the West. If I was show this to any of my indian Ayurvedic doctor friends, they would laugh at how ridiculous we are. I have done this by the way. They acnnot believe the stuff that is being taught in the West.
Do your asana practice. asana is just the beginning and only the start. Without pranayama and meditation it is nothing really. Fine it is health for the body. Yoga is not asana. Pick up any real yoga text. Read.
If you imbalance your vata following westernized ideas of blending yoga and ayurveda, you will bring on disease. Pretty much that simple.
Asana is to only to make you available to sit for meditation where the greater benefits lie.
learn the seasons from a real ayurvedic text and learn how to be eating, this is where the real important stuff is, not your asana practice. And stay away from reading stuff about ayurveda on the internet. Not really much there that is real.
Hope that helps.
