Ayurveda Healing Arts Institute
Your
Californian
College
of
Clinical
Ayurvedic
Therapies
from
the
Buddhist -
Yogic -
Vedic
Tradition
Home Page -
www.Ayurveda-California.com
Visit our future site:
www.Ayurveda-Institute.org
2210 McKinley Avenue, Unit 4 (1 minute walk from Downtown Berkeley BART 1 block west of Martin Luther King, between Allston and Bancroft across from Bank of America Public Parking Lot - Click
here for directions), Berkeley, California, 94703
USA
(1) 510-292-6696
-
Please CALL US,
no e-mail available
(Namo AT Shurangama.com).
"Om Namo Aryavalokiteshvaraya Bodhisattvaya Mahasattvaya Maha Karunikaya Om Sarva Abhaya!"
Ayurvedic Yoga Level I: Ayurvedic Perspectives on Yoga Therapeutics (YOG108) – 0.50 trimester unit / 7.5 course hours
(Click here to listen to the audio of this page)
Prerequisites: High School Diploma or General Equivalency Diploma (G.E.D.)
An in-depth course of the key concepts and practices of Yoga from an Ayurvedic perspective (Ayur-Yoga), a Buddhist, a Hindu and a Christian perspective. The purpose of the Ayur-Yoga (Sanskrit for "Life-Union") Level I course is to deepen the appreciation of Ayurveda, Buddhism and Hinduism via the practice of Hatha Yoga and by grasping the specific healing effects that Yoga has upon imbalance of the constitution (vikruti of vata, pitta, and kapha) and upon particular illnesses. This course was developed to motivate and support those desiring to create either a home or a clinical therapeutic Yoga practice. Those who are already accomplished Yoginis (advanced female Yoga practitioners) and Yogis (male practitioners) will expand and augment their perception of Yoga by understanding the doshic effects (on vata, pitta, or kapha doshas). The course will cover the classic energetically heating Surya Namaskar Asana (Sun Salutation Pose) and the lesser known yet very potently cooling Chandra Namaskar Asana (Moon Salutation Pose). Also covered will be around thirty basic asanas (exercise poses or postures), specific health restorative postures, a range of pranayama (breathing practices - like Qi Gong), and dhyana (meditation). Special focus on learning about vata, pitta and kapha with respect to Yoga are taught as well as other aspects of Ayurveda as they relate to and are found in Yoga. Discussion of Astanga Yoga – the classical eight limbs of Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Tantra Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Iyengar Yoga, Integral Yoga, Bhikram Yoga, and other types. Introduction to the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali, following moral precepts (yama and niyama), mantras (dharani, prayers and chants), mudras (symbols) and bandhas (locks) are also taught. Mudras will include Dharmachakra, Bhumisparsa, Varada, Dhyana, Abhaya, Namaskara, Vitarka, Tarjani, Vajrahumkara, Jnana, Karana, Ksepana, Uttarabodhi, Shurangama Platform Mudras and others. Students are required to practice Yama (Five Precepts), Niyama (spiritual practices), yoga asanas, mantras and mudras on a daily basis, and will be tested at the end of the program for both their intellectual, spiritual and practical understanding of Yoga. Will examine Yoga and its relationship to Ayurvedic Marma Acupressure Points.
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Organized primarily around long standing experience of Betheyla, formerly on the Yoga Faculty of the Ayurvedic Institute and her teacher the world-renowned Ayurvedic Physician Dr. Vasant Lad and his Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies and Textbook of Ayurveda Volume I. Secondarily the course is based on the Sutra on the Eight Realizations of the Great Beings (Simplicity, Generosity and Compassion), on The Sutra Discourse on the Ten Wholesome Ways of Action, on Chandragomin’s Twenty Verses on the Bodhisattva Vow, on Shantideva’s Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, on Dharma Realm Buddhist Association’s (www.drba.org) Handbook of Bodhisattva Precepts for the Laity, on H.H. the Dalai Lama’s Healing Anger – The Power of Patience from a Buddhist Perspective, on B.K.S Iyengar’s Yoga The Path to Holistic Health, on Dr. David Frawley’s (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri) Yoga and Ayurveda: Self-Healing and Self-Realization, on the Sivananda Companion to Yoga, on Dr. J.T. Shah’s Therapeutic Yoga, on Dr. G.D. Singhal’s Surgical Ethics in Ayurveda, on S. Metha’s Yoga the Iyengar Way, on Eon Eknath Easwaran’s Meditation and on Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro’s Broad View, Boundless Heart. We also make use of the materials of several distinguished Indo-Tibetan Ayurvedic and Chinese physicians and healers such as the Venerable Buddhist Master Hsuan Hua, Dr. Ron Epstein, Dharma Master Heng Sure, Swami Satchitananda, Dr. Partap Chauhan, Betheyla, Dr. P.H. Kulkarni, Dr. K.N. Udupa, Dr. R.H. Singh, Dr. Robert Svoboda, Dr. Baghwan Dash, Dr. Sunil Joshi, Dr. Lapsang Rapgay, Dr. Yeshe Donden, Dr. Bill Celentano, Michael Dick, Bri Maya Tiwari, Robert Sachs, Dr. Bob Flaws, Dr. Giovanni Maciocia, Dr. Barry Clark, Swami Sada Shiva Tirtha, Jai Hanuman Fournier, Tom Billings, Losang Jinpa and others and around the Ayurvedic Classic Texts (Sutras) and Buddhist, Yogic and Hindu Sutras combined with additional book readings, lectures, handouts and audio-visuals.
Requires short written term paper and exam or a self-made chanting audio tape or MP3 / WMA file of your pronunciation of the alphabet and the Sanskrit mantras to be submitted to the instructor or oral exam via telephone or in-person.
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The Medicine Buddha Healing Center and its Ayurveda Healing Arts Institute consider the virtues and ethical precepts that are rooted in the Buddhist-Yogic-Vedic-Confucian spiritual traditions to be the prime guiding lights to us as Ayurvedic healers. Together, these learnings transform a student into a unique and powerful instrument of healing. We have founded our school on the following mottos:
"Bringing fun, friendship, spirituality and
the joy of service back into healthcare."
“The healer who
regards kindness to humanity as his supreme religion and treats his patients
accordingly, succeeds best in achieving his aims of life and obtains the
greatest pleasure.”
-- from
Charaka, honored 2nd century B.C. Ayurvedic Physician
Giving is a form of the Bodhisattva Vow to save living beings from suffering. The 34 Buddhist Lay Bodhisattva Path Precept Vows requires of us to: “Compassionately help those suffering from ill health.” Hence, we study, practice, and teach Indo-Tibetan Ayurvedic healing as “joyful relentless service.”
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Ayurvedic medical ethics and its kindhearted spirit, having grown out of the Buddhist, Yogic and Vedic moral traditions, consider the importance of following the Buddhist Five Precepts which take as their foundation the process of giving by forgetting one’s selfish desires and compassionately serving others.
Our faculty and graduates understand and demonstrate the importance of acting ethically in their personal and professional lives following time-tested Buddhist-Yogic-Vedic spiritual ethical guidelines (The Five Precepts) of:
In summary, we must follow the Six Guidelines of the the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua's City of Ten Thousand Buddhas: "No fighting, no greed, no seeking, no being selfish, no pursuing personal advantage, and no lying."
(Click here to listen to the audio of the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua speaking the Six Guidelines)
Please see Venerable Master Hua's Seven Guidelines for Recognizing True Teachers in order to understand how these fundamental moral precepts must be followed by teachers at the Ayurveda Healing Arts Institute.
Just before Shakyamuni Buddha left this world, he was asked by his disciple Ananda, "Who shall be our teacher now that you are departing this world?" The Buddha replied, "Take the Precepts as your teacher."
Audio Lectures Explaining More Deeply the Roots of Buddhist and Yogic Ethics
For a greater explanation of the Code of Ethics, click here for the directory to download and listen to numerous sample readings from Losang Jinpa, D.Ayur from Dr. Epstein's wonderful Buddhist Dictionary.
The following sample audios require the
Microsoft Windows Media Player.
For a full listing of our sample audio
seminars, visit our online
Medicine Master Buddha Library.
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Our students will have exposure to the Buddhist Vinaya texts where they will study ethics, morality, precepts, and the right comportment of a healing practitioner. The Yogic version of the above Buddhist Five Precepts are the Five Moral Disciplines / Restraints (yamah in Sanskrit) and the Constructive Observances (niyamah in Sanskrit). The revered 2000+ year old Ayurvedic medical classics support these Buddhist-Yogic-Vedic ethical guidelines. These guidelines are best summed up by saying that a healer or teacher must dissolve in himself and the patient or student the Three Poisons of Greed, Hatred and Ignorance. Tibetan Ayurveda says that karma is the cause of all health and ill health and that the Three Poisons cause all disease. Greed (desire – rajas in Sanskrit), hatred (arrogance, anger, hypercriticalness, jealousy) and ignorance (foolishness – tamas in Sanskrit) are mentioned in Ayurveda as related respectively to the negative emotional aspects of the three constitutions (doshas): vata (space-air: wind), pitta (fire-water: bile), and kapha (water-earth: phlegm). Through the purifying fire of vowing (pranidhana) to hold compassionate moral precepts, we can transform our excessive rajasic and tamasic behaviors into sattvic (wise, generous, lucid and pure) behaviors. These sattvic behaviors are the practice of limitless compassion and charity, loving kindness, empathetic joy and equanimity.
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In the classic text, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali we see the core of Ayurvedic moral values and their goal to decrease selfishness through the maintaining of altruistic moral precepts. The Five Moral Disciplines / Restraints (yamah) are: 1. Celibacy 2. Harmlessness. 3. Truthfulness. 4. Non-stealing. 5. Non-possessiveness. The Constructive Observances (niyamah) are: 1. Purity. 2. Contentment. 3. Austerity. 4. Self-Study. 5. Surrender to God. With respect to "Surrendering to God" (bakti), Voltaire said, "The physician’s job is to entertain, while God heals." In Tibetan Medicine a healer regards medicine as an offering the Medicine Buddha. The 2nd century B.C. Charaka (one of the Healer-Saint-Sages of the Ayurvedic tradition) affirms, "He who regards kindness to humanity as his supreme religion and treats his patients accordingly, succeeds best in achieving his aims of life and obtains the greatest pleasure." Charaka also asserts, "He, who treats his patients only on humanitarian grounds without desiring any money or personal benefit in return, supersedes all other physicians."
"True poverty comes from a lack of human ethics," asserts our teacher, the Venerable Buddhist Master Hsuan Hua of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas (www.drba.org) in California. This fact is obvious if one looks profoundly and observes the operation of karma and retribution (cause and effect) in daily life. With the great advances of science in the last century we sometimes overlook the importance of the simple ethics of giving and the poverty created through our limitless greed and may disregard the importance of psychological and spiritual aspects of care of the sick.
All of these great healing and religious traditions speak of the importance of giving. Buddha says that great wisdom (prajna in Sanskrit) and samadhi (the ultimate meditative state) come from the good roots planted through the daily practice of generosity combined with holding of the Five Moral Precepts (yamah and niyamah in Yoga) and the making of great Bodhisattva vows (pranidhana) to help heal living beings and remove their suffering. Hence, in this spirit, it is our "Bodhisattva Vow", part of our "Big Dao" (path) to offer Ayurvedic healing to the world.
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Additionally, we believe that the following quotes from the Ayurvedic Classic texts Charaka Samhita from 200 B.C. should be your guide as a lifelong student and practitioner of Buddhist-Yogic-Ayurveda:
A physician should be kind and compassionate to all patients, providing each with appropriate, specific treatment.
A physician should have extensive theoretical and practical knowledge and, having studied under a well-experienced physician, possess a complete understanding of the etiology, symptomatology, pathology, specific individual treatment and prevention of disease.
- Charaka Samhita, Sutrasthana, Chapter Nine
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A wise person desiring to become a physician should first examine the system being taught, its authenticity, completeness and applicability.
Thereafter, one should examine the teacher. The teacher should possess a deep understanding of the theoretical and practical aspects of the science, have extensive experience in practice, be skillful, friendly, pure, compassionate, fatherly to students, and capable of infusing understanding.
Having decided, approached the teacher with respect and been accepted, a student should engage in study seriously; wake up early, finish morning routines and spiritual practices; pay respect to saints, sages, preceptors, elders, the teacher and all beings. The student should then make efforts to comprehend, clearly express, and discuss the knowledge by studying the information already acquired, entering deeply in contemplation in order to completely understand the meaning and the applications. In this way the student should continue the study without wasting time in midday, afternoon and evening.
- Charaka Samhita, Vimanasthanam, Chapter Eight
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A completely dedicated student should conserve vital energies, speak the truth, refrain from envy and anger, observe non-violence and eat a vegetarian diet. The student should act without ego, jealousy, ambition or self-praise, never making an exhibition of knowledge and act with care, affection, and compassion.
The student's appearance should be clean and modest and speech should be pleasant, pure and truthful, never speaking ill or backbiting, using useful and measured words.
The student should not even think of committing adultery or covet another's property and should not smoke, , alcohol or any mind-altering substances except under the supervision of a physician.
The student's behavior should never directly or indirectly cause harm to the teacher, the school or others.
- Charaka Samhita, Vimanasthanam, Chapter Eight
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See the Buddhist - Yogic Precepts
See the Code of Ethics for the School
See the Code of Ethics for Ayurvedic Practitioners
See the Buddhist Ayurvedic Five Precepts Sacrament
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See the True Meaning of Taking Refuge