WINTER 2001

"We are wellness. We are consciousness. Disease is an imposter."
-- Swamini Mayatitananda

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Health, peace, and prosperity are the result of lifeways that are in harmony with nature. The Vedic seers inform that good health won't be found outside ourselves, it's not something we pursue, it's a natural state of being in the form of the "true self". Once we realize the true self to be a conscious entity, intrinsically whole -- we may eliminate the sense of separation that disharmony and disease. Our modern lifestyles pull us away from nature. We need to evoke the memory of our inner medicine nurtured by nature to "return" to the true self. Ayurveda which began eons ago, to which I have devoted my life's work, is about cultivating inner healing powers through living in harmony with nature.

Health and longevity intertwine with the cycles of nature. Ayurveda informs that disease only takes hold in the body during the seasonal juncture. This powerful truth suggests that the preservation of good health is entirely within our grasp. We are formed from nature's memories and rhythms and therefore to reclaim health and longevity, we must strive to find our connection to her elements, seasons, rhythms, and sustenance.

Unfortunately, in our hectic, modern world, a great number of contemporary Ayurvedic practitioners in America, many of whom are also trained in Western healing modalities, appear to concentrate more on the prescriptive, disease-care approach, than the preventative, nature-rhythm, heath-oriented approach which is the root of Ayurveda.

In the last quarter century, incidents of disease, fatigue and stress related disorders have been on a rapid rise. By the age of thirty, 70% of the population experience some form of illness. By the year 2010, it's projected that one out of 5 women will have some form of cancer relating to her reproductive organs; 10% of men will experience some form of infertility; and every other child will be born with either a hereditary disorder or some form of allergy.

The fact is that the number of diseases has increased tenfold in the last two decades. There is overwhelming evidence in our modern culture which suggests that most people believe that disease is inevitable -- a sure probability -- a natural occurrence in the course of life. This is an entirely false perception. We must strive to educate the health challenged so that they may shift their attitude to reflect their true nature. We are wellness. We are consciousness. Disease is an imposter. This is the vision of Ayurveda in the Wise Earth Tradition. Wise Earth teachings restore grassroots wisdom of living in sadhana -- ancient bedrock of nature's cycles and sustenance from which Ayurveda begun. They inform that nature's most potent medicine is inner medicine -- our innate healing power through food, breath, and sound. In the sadhana tradition of Ayurveda, we strive to live and resonate harmoniously with nature's cycles and rhythms. Simple everyday actions are transformed into sacred practices that awaken intrinsic forces of healing within and without.

In the busy world we create for ourselves, we pursue good health, peace and prosperity, but miss the imperative meaning of the whole true self. We devalue the very source of our healing nurturance. Last year health magazines reported that, American consumers have spent 50 million dollars on herbal medicines. Many holistic practitioners applauded this awesome news seeing it as a quantum leap in consumer confidence supporting herbal products. Few recognized that this speaks to a desperate and inured need within the American consumer, cultivated over the last fifty years as a dependency on medicine -- an obsession to find the magic pill.

It matters very little if the pill comes from a synthetic, chemical, or natural plant. The fact is, the rise of herbal sales is forcing our so called holistic producers to reek the same havoc on mother earth and her creatures as pharmaceutical corporations have done for centuries. Right here in America, many prominent herbal manufactures are monocropping thousands of acres of once pristine land to meet the demand for herbal products. Now, because of the damage monocropping causes, they must spray or fumigate crops for pests . In the final analysis, we have not changed our thinking about health, or transformed our behavior at all. We are still addicted to taking a pill, thinking it will heal us. We are still looking outside of ourselves, hoping to find cures for our ailments. Meanwhile, mega-corporations -- conventional and holistic -- continue to prosper off the fat of our ignorance while they continue to destroy nature.