Ayurvedic Tradition and Robert
M. Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality
by Dan Glover May, 1999
Our western culture is a deterministically inclined society;
this legacy left over from ancient Greek culture.
Traditionally, western medicine treats physical symptoms
as "causes" of ailments that beset us from time to time, then
deterministically sets about to cure those causes, sometimes withmedicines,
sometimes with surgery, sometimes with even more aggressive therapies.
Many times though, condition of patient in general is overlooked,
since A) most physicians simply hasn't time to adequately access
patients; B) in doing his/her limited assessment, cause is focused onto
exclusion of all else; C) classical western medical determinism failsto
address this very "real" non-physical part of our beings adequately.
In his book "Quantum Healing; Exploring the Frontiers
of Mind/Body Medicine"
Dr. Deepak Chopra questions, if our body has enough intelligence
to heal a cut, then why would it not be intelligent
enough to cure itself of lung cancer or heart disease
or diabetes? He examines many cases of so-called spontaneous
remissions of diseases western medicine simply cannot cure and asks, are
these remissions true miracles - results of some supernatural
intervention - or are these miracles only that certain individuals have
found ways to switch on self healing mechanisms in their own bodies?
This is center to a system of medicine called Ayurveda,
which translated means "science of life", a 5000 -
year -old Indian medical tradition whose guiding principle
is that mind exerts a powerful influence over body.
In other words, Ayurveda is medical tradition that looks
at not only our physical body, but normally unseen non-physical influence
of mind over that physical body. Also, unlike other alternative systems,Ayurveda
allows physicians to work within our western, or allopathic, system
of medicine. Basic tenets of Ayurveda are simple. Mind controls
body. But first, perhaps we should explore just what we mean when we say
"mind".
Robert M. Pirsig studied in India, and though he doesn't
write of it, I suspect that he must have been exposed
to Ayurveda during his time there. Ayurvedic tradition is so ingrained
into India's culture that it is like folklore, even though it is seldom
practiced in actuality anymore from what I understand. Pirsig's Metaphysics
of Quality states that four static quality levels,
which contain everything that we are and know, are each discrete and follow
their own moral code, in seeming opposition to each other.
Furthermore, intellect level moral codes cannot directly affect biological
or inorganic level moral codes without being mediated
by social level codes. Putting this into Ayurvedic
tradition, it becomes clear that "mind" which controls "body" is all four
levels of Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality, plus undefined Dynamic
Quality. Each level must be in balance to allow Dynamic free flow
of life. Looking at Ayurveda from a Metaphysics of Quality point ofview
opens up many intriguing insights into mind/body connections.
According to Ayurveda, being in balance means that we
live in tune with our
particular nature, which we are each born with. Being
in balance means our body mobilizes its own perfectly
attuned defense system to keep us well. It seems implicit
in Ayurvedic tradition to treat not only physical inorganic
level, but also non-physical biological, social and intellect levels as
well. Mental stress, arising from our social interactions with others,become
physical illnesses affecting biological level moral codes. Intellect
level cannot treat biological level moral codes directly,
but must first address social environment stress.
In order to identify some correct ways of addressing social
imbalance, (which doesn't "cause" stress, but rather
stress values this preconditioned social imbalance) Ayurveda states that
there are three main "doshas", places where mind and
body actually meet, and they control metabolism, motion
and structure. Each dosha are sets of characteristics that
define mental and physical needs, strengths and weaknesses. This allows
Ayurvedic practitioners to identify particular patient's doshasintellectually
and recommend social changes which will ultimately bring about
biological attunement.
Doshas are developed from elements of nature: space, air,
fire, water and earth. This corresponds to inorganic
level moral codes in Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality,
and like Metaphysics of Quality, doshas evolve from basic elements of nature
into temperaments uniquely individualistic for each living being, depending
upon that being's environmental circumstances. We all
know hot-tempered individuals, who we think of as "fiery", and of coursewe
all know individuals who must be talked into doing anything new;
"stick-in-the-mud" is often applied to those persons. So
we already tend to link individualistic temperaments
to elements of nature by matter of habit.
In traditional western medicine, social aspects of our
environments are often times overlooked in search
for causal factors within biological level moral codes.
Being out of balance, which happens when we fight our nature, leads to
psychological distress and physical illness because our defense systembecomes
damaged. Because social level moral codes mediate between intellect and
biological level moral codes, what happens socially eventually manifests
itself in our biological bodies. When we are under
stress, it doesn't take long for a boss who aggravates us at work to make
us feel frustrated and angry. Andthose feelings are translated into physical
symptoms, such as headaches, stomach problems and
insomnia.
In Ayurvedic system, healing is usually achieved by individuals
who,
recognizing that they are out of balance, begin living
socially according to their true nature. Three main
doshas are vata, pitta, and kapha. Vata is associated
with air and space. Vatas do everything quickly: move, think, act.
They tend to eat and sleep irregularly. Most of them can eat anything without
gaining weight. Vatas are most common. When they are out
of balance, vatas suffer from constipation, hypertension, insomnia,anxiety,
depression, backaches, muscle spasms and irregular heart rhythm.
Pittas are associated with fire and water. They are articulate,
and all great orators are pittas. Pittas are bold, sharp-witted and sharp-tongued.They're
ones who take over when they think that a leader is needed. When
out of balance, pittas tend to be angry and irritable. Kaphas
are associated with earth and water. They're stable and sturdy. Problems
don't upset kaphas. They tend to be calm, forgiving
and loving. Unlike vatas, they may take some time
learning something new, but they never forget. An out ofbalance kapha might
suffer lots of colds, allergies and sinus infections. With their predilection
for over-eating, they can also develop diabetes and cholesterol
problems.
Most people find characteristics of at least two doshas
in their own
personalities, and many times all three. This in total
makes up prakiti, or mind/body type of that
individual. Basically, Ayurvedic tradition intellectually
focuses upon social interaction of individuals in an effort
to bring about relief from biological stress factors that lead to illness
and eventual death. Of course this is a very complex interaction andnot
nearly as simple as my delineation here, but nevertheless there are clear
connections with Ayurveda and Pirsig's Metaphysics of Quality.
Put into context in Metaphysics of Quality, Ayurvedic
tradition gives higher focus to that which we are unaware of, Dynamic Quality
and Dynamic free flow of life, rather than that which we are physically
aware of, static quality and stasis. Identifying stasis becomes much more
than just identifying "cause", rather Ayurveda throws causality out
our proverbial window and embraces holistic approaches to health,
where "all" is of higher value than is particular concerns which traditional
western medicine focuses upon as cause of disease.
This allows identification of not only biological illness,
but also social illness, one major cause of stress in our 20th century
culture. Biological and social levels are linked intrinsically, yet social
level moral codes have come to dominate biological level moral codes and
therefore exert basically unseen influences over us all, which our traditional
medicine has failed to address in proper fashion. Perhaps in combining
Ayurveda and allopathic medicine, many solutions to health concerns can
be addressed that up to now have been left twisting furiously. Pirsig's
Metaphysics of Quality gives us rational guideline for realizing why this
would be, and in doing so, gives mind even greater power to heal body and
restore free flow of Dynamic life to us all. Thank you for reading!
For those who are interested in further explorations of
Ayurvedic tradition, here are some helpful links:
