The Yoga of Herbs

Book excerpt: The term yoga has many traditional meanings. In Ayurveda, the medical science of India, yoga refers to the right usage and right combination of herbs. A special combination of substances designed to bring about a specific effect upon the body or mind is thus called yoga. This coordinated or integrated usage of herbs is based upon the ancient Ayurvedic science of herbal energetics. This is a system for determining the qualities and powers of herbs according to the laws of nature, so that herbs can be used objectively and specifically according to individual condition. A yogic usage of herbs implies such an harmonic application of the potencies of herbs. In this book, for the first time, this Ayurvedic herbal science is applied to western herbs, as well as to a few major oriental herbs, both Indian and Chinese. It is the purpose of this book not to present Ayurveda in the distance, as some-thing foreign or anci-ent, but to make it a practically applied syst-em of herbalism. This book is just a presentation of traditi-onal Ayurvedic know-ledge. It attempts to show living Ayurveda, its creative and practical application to changing conditions. It is meant as a bridge between east and west. In this regard, it has been a collaboration of an easterner with profound knowledge of the west and a westerner with profound knowledge of the east.