Fundamentals

Instead of an introduction: A few thoughts about Ayurveda

Ayurveda  a word that is heard very often nowadays. It is mostly used in connection with "Wellness" and "Beauty". Some people who grew up in the West smile a little about this Asian healing method which has been used to heal patients in India many thousand years ago and is still used today. When Ayurveda came to Sri Lanka two different treatment methods developed that can sometimes be very different: an Indian and a Sri Lanka method. An often discussed example, especially for people who already received Ayurvedic treatments in both countries, are the body massages: In India they mostly last for 45 to 60 minutes, whereas in Sri Lanka also the current energies of the body are taken into consideration, so that massages in some cases only last for 10 or 15 minutes.

More rarely western physicians are among those who rather disapprove of Ayurveda. A big difference between Ayurvedic and western treatments is that because of many millenniums worth of experience in Ayurveda it rarely happens that one "discovers something new", as it practically occurs regularly in the western medicine. Some of these discoveries have already been known for a long time in Ayurveda. It is important to know that it does not "lie back" on its success, but also engages in dealing with new and "modern" illnesses such as AIDS, SARS or cancer. For these illnesses some specialists in the western medicine as well as in Ayurveda have developed their own in-depth subject knowledge (The Lotus-Villa presently has contact to over 20 of those specialists). The Ayurveda physicians have indeed some advantage as they have access to the old healing methods as well as to the newest scientific discoveries in the western medicine. Therefore they have developed their own method in healing these illnesses und complaints. Western patients or physicians are often surprised about the healing success, which in Ayurveda is very often justified with that an illness should be healed and not fought against.

Surely it is a strange situation for a person that has grown up in the west when an Ayurveda-physician discovers something apparently easy and "only" with the help of pulse diagnosis. Something for which a physician back home would need several tests to finally conclude with the same diagnosis. And when he then uses simple methods and potions such as roots and barkes for healing, many patients are at least surprised and often even feel unsettled. However one should bear in mind that "western medicine" is almost in all cases also produced from natural products and many pharma companies roam through the forests of this world, trying to gain knowledge from the medicine men, Shamans and "herb witches" living in the jungle, and trying to find out which natural products they use for which illnesses. Mainly they only just want to discover the basic ingredients for their "new" medicines.

In this context it is important to know that the following thought is only true for the western medicine:

"This medicine is good for my illness, therefore it is also good for everyone else with the same illness."

In Ayurveda this thought is hardly applicable, often not even at all as in Ayurveda everything, really everything, is perfectly matched to suit the individual person. This is especially true for nutrition, but it is also important for the treatments and the medicine taken. Hence the thought in Ayurveda is as followed:

"Something that is good for me is not necessarily be good for somebody else." Or the other way round "Something that is good for someone else does not always mean that it is also good for me."

Should you continue reading now: Enjoy !

Spiegel Report
20/10/04

A report about the Lotus-Villa in the German magazine "DER SPIEGEL"

Health: SPIEGEL -writer Michael Schmidt-Klingenberg about the Indian healing art Ayurveda

"Der Puls des Lebens" - "The pulse of life"

A millennium old Indian healing art conquers the wellness temples in Europe: Ayurveda defeats stress and tiredness. But does it also help healing a melanoma.

Written by Michael Schmidt-Klingenberg