Textbook of Ayurveda, Volume One: Fundamental Principles
Product Description
In his Ayurvedic Studies Program, Vasant Lad, Ayurvedic Physician, teaches Ayurveda as a science of moment-to-moment living. Each lecture that he gives flows from his own heart in a river of healing wisdom that is inspired by and pertinent to the students who are present at the time of the lecture. This textbook is a presentation of Dr. Lad’s years of teaching in that classroom setting. It conveys the philosophical and fundamental principles of his first year Ayurvedic Studies Program at the Ayurvedic Institute in a dynamic and inspirational way. This book will give the student a detailed foundation upon which to pursue deeper knowledge, including that of the future volumes in this series…. More >>
Textbook of Ayurveda, Volume One: Fundamental Principles
Book was received new as described. Fast shipping, thoughtfully packaged to prevent damage. Will purchase from this Seller again. Thank you!
Rating: 5 / 5
very informative, everyone interested in maintaining good health would appreciate it! Health is Wealth afterall.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book is phenomenal. As a yoga and Sanskrit student, this book answers many questions I have about my studies. It has also influenced me to attend the Ayurveda Institute this fall ’09. I am also looking forward to a career in Ayurveda where I can help people live long, happy lives.
I included this book in my best reads list in my yoga journal:
http://mariaradloff.com/yoga_journal/?page_id=49
Rating: 5 / 5
I think this is a through textbook.
I do yoga, meditation for 20 years and have read a lot of books, still there is a lot to learn in this book.
Also as an MD(Internal medicine)i enjoy adding knowledge of ayurveda and i feel using that for my regular office based patients is a big plus .
i strongly recommend this book .
Rating: 5 / 5
Destined to become the definitive English-language textbook of ayurveda
Dr. Vasant Lad is a world-renowned ayurvedic physician, born and educated in India, with more than forty years of clinical experience. He is one of the world’s leading teachers and scholars of ayurveda, and served as professor of clinical medicine at the University of Pune College of Ayurvedic Medicine & Surgery as well as director of its affiliated hospital. Currently, he is president of and a senior faculty member at the Ayurvedic Institute, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Vasant Lad is the author of several professional texts and popular works on ayurveda and has written countless articles on the subject.
There have been many textbooks published for intending practitioners of ayurveda, but until now nearly all of these have been in Sanskrit or more frequently Hindi or one of India’s regional languages. Lacking facility in one or more of these, the English speaking student was left with one of two relatively time-consuming and unsatisfactory alternatives: consulting English-language translations of ayurveda’s classics (i.e., the Sushruta and Charaka compendiums and the Astanga Hridaya, inter alia, a prospect unwieldy to say the least given the host of ancient therapies no longer in existence in today’s world and the often untranslatable proper names of conditions and medicines) or compiling and correlating information from popular works on the subject and online sources.
Dr. Vasant Lad’s “Textbook of Ayurveda: Fundamental Principles” has resolved this daunting task for the professional student of ayurveda and provided in one well-organized, well-written and very clear English-language volume all salient aspects of the philosophical and scientific foundation that ayurveda stands upon: from the metaphysical underpinnings to the foundations of ayurvedic anatomy and physiology.
The book is arranged into ten sections covering, respectively the shad darshan (the metaphysical assumptions underlying ayurveda); the elements, gunas (qualities of matter) and the tridoshic theory; dosha subtypes and their locations and functions; agni (degistive processes) the sapta dhatus (seven tissue types); srotamsi (channels or meridians), ojas, tejas, and prana (subtle forms of the doshas), digestion and nutrition and swasthavritti (ayurvedic concepts of healthy lifestyles and regimens). The flow of instructional material in the book is superlatively well-organized, with the information provided in one section providing a knowledge base for the effective study of material provided in subsequent sections.
With the coming of ayurveda to the West, there has emerged a great need for a foundation-level textbook that not only caters to Western learning styles but that also forges a link between ayurveda’s conceptions of anatomy and physiology and those of Western biomedicine. It contains the necessary foundation for the understanding of a paradigm of health and disease far removed from the Western one, going far beyond the level of detail and sophistication than that encountered in works published for the interested lay public.
The appearance of this valuable work by Dr. Lad is synchronous with the creation of more and higher quality, academically rigorous programs of instruction and training in ayurveda outside of the country of its birth. Dr. Lad has written what I believe will become the definitive textbook of ayurveda for English-speaking and reading students in the West, and is due an enormous debt of thanks by the ayurvedic profession and by the public in general. I heartily and unhesitatingly recommend this work as a necessity for all aspiring practitioners of ayurveda. It will also be of use to health professionals schooled in Western biomedical concepts who wish to achieve a degree of familiarity with ayurvedic concepts.
Rating: 5 / 5