Reenita Malhotra Hora is an Indian-born American and an Ayurvedic clinician. She teaches at the University of California at San Francisco's Osher Center for Integrative Medicine and is the resident Ayurvedic Clinician at San Francisco's Institute of Health & Healing at California Pacific Medical Center. In this volume in The Mandala Wisdom Library, she presents a succinct and accessible overview of Ayurveda, the oldest medical science known to humankind, dating back more than 5,000 years. This system drawn from ancient Vedic culture emphasizes the interplay between mind, body, and spirit. It also is about living in balance:
"But, unlike other contemporary definitions of the word, balance does not indicate a state of all things being 'equal.' Rather, when we have understood our own natural state, balance can be understood as keeping that equilibrium between our innate physical and emotional tendencies, and maintaining it in relation to external influences. The inconsistencies of daily living challenge our ability to live per our natural state and constantly push us away from it. Ayurveda is the perfect balancer, because it addresses the whole person and her lifestyle, not just the physical body or the mind. Ayurveda's primary focus is on how to stay healthy and balanced rather than on cures for illness, which only address the symptoms and not the causes of imbalance."
There are chapters on:
• Basic Ayurvedic Physiological Principles
• The Anatomy of Ayurveda
• Disease in the Mind-Body
• Dietary and Medicinal Therapies
• Cleansing and Detoxification Therapies
• Ayurveda in Everyday Life
Hora does a fine job delineating the many dimensions of Ayurvedic medicine including its diagnostic measures, its preventative approach, its emphasis on diet, cleansing and detox.
