Ama - Creating More Energy

My Yoga Online has posted the second part of Todd Caldecott's insightful Ayurveda article series, Ama: Ayurvedic Medicine and Energy. This second part looks more in depth at the concept of Ama and how energy can be blocked by various lifestyle patterns and environmental factors.

In Ayurvedic medicine, ojas most closely corresponds to kapha dosha, one of the three humors recognized by Ayurveda, each of which is responsible for a particular subset of physiological balance called ‘homeostasis’.

Both kapha and ojas share similar qualities: both have heavy, moistening and stabilizing properties, and in essence are simply octaves of each other, one representing balance (ojas) and the other some metabolic disturbance (kapha). There is an importance difference however: kapha is generally associated with a cooling influence, an effect of decreased heat and physiological stasis in the body, causing the general congestion indicated by the translation of the term ‘kapha’, which literally means ‘phlegm’. In contrast, ojas contains within it not only the subtle refinement of the tissues, or dhatus, but also the subtle refinement of agni itself, the digestive fire, and thus has a mildly warming, gently stimulating effect, leading to the proper growth, development and nourishment of the body.

Last time, we also introduced a concept called ama, which forms as the result of a weak agni, allowing for the improper digestion of food. Like kapha and also ojas, ama is similarly heavy, wet and solid in nature, and has a self-structuring activity that in advanced conditions begins to form a second body, within the body. Cancer is an excellent example of ama, which when allowed to develop over years, begins to derange the activities of certain tissues, particularly those that are weak or already damaged, modifying the DNA and essentially taking over the machinery of the body to serve its own agenda.

Click Here to read the full article.