There is that great proverb — that until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. ☥ ☥ Chinua Achebe ☥
It is … a system of medicine in the sense that it systematizes and applies the knowledge about health and disease, i.e., of balanced and unbalanced states of living beings, and how unbalanced states can be corrected and the restored balance maintained. ॐ ॐ Dr. Vaidya Bhagwan Dash ॐ
Ayurveda means: “The Science Of Living.” It is a positive medicinal philosophy that helps us understand the profound effects that our mind and emotions have on our body. It teaches us how to become more aware so that we may know the difference between a balanced and imbalanced state within our body, mind, emotions and Spirit. Self-awareness helps us to make corrections and establish a heightened state of well-being regardless of our illness or age. The study ☥ practice of Ayurveda includes:
☥ Elemental Theory (pluralistic study of the elements)
☥ Healing of the body, mind, emotions and Spirit
☥ Rebalancing personal, family, professional and social lives
Ayurveda is a foundational medicine of:
☥ India
☥ Tibet
☥ Sri Lanka
☥ Burma
☥ Now being integrated into the western world
Ayurveda is an open-minded science. In this sense, like any form of true knowledge, it has no beginning and no end, and no work written on it can ever be complete. Although being extremely coherent and logical within its own realm, it is not limited to any particular fixed dogma, but rather universal and dynamic in character, like life itself. It is motivated by the sincere desire to restore and to maintain health ... ॐ ॐ Dr. Vaidya Bhagwan Dash ॐ
The Origin ☥ Spread ॐ Of Ayurveda
Colonization has dissected and dismantled much of Kamitian (Ancient Egyptian) culture, preventing it from developing in Africa. However, it survived through Ancient Africans, such as the Dravidians, who brought their intricate system of spiritual development ☥ lifestyle strategies into India thousands of years ago. However Aryan invaders imposed an apartheid caste system and outlawed the religions of the Africans. As a result, our integrated system of spiritual development was destroyed or broken up into separate philosophical systems that we recognize today as:
☥ Various forms of cosmology
☥ Meditation and mantras
☥ Invocation of the Gods ☥ Goddesses
☥ Yantras and mantras
☥ Various forms of yoga (hatha, kundalini, etc.)
☥ Tantric rituals, spiritual initiations, etc.
The colonization of Africa included the destruction, demonization and appropriation of indigenous healing practices. Aryan domination forced the omission of its African origins. As a result, many African healing practices that were suppressed/forbidden in Africa, were appropriated and able to develop in other parts of the world. Ayurveda is a healing practice that places its focus on correcting imbalances in the body ☥ mind ☥ emotions ☥ SPIRIT. We will begin the process of healing through the reclamation of our stolen legacies and by restoring balance to our understanding of Ayurveda's African origins.
From about 1885 to the end of the Second World War, most of Africa was under the yoke of colonialism; and hence colonial historiography held sway. According to this imperial historiography, Africa had no history and therefore the Africans were a people without history. They propagated the image of Africa as a 'dark continent.' Any historical process or movement in the continent was explained as the work of outsiders ... African history was seen as the history of Europeans in Africa ... Colonialism was celebrated as a 'civilising mission' carried out by traders, missionaries and administrators ... By Africa, for instance, many of the scholars meant 'sub-Saharan' or 'Black' Africa, definitions which were intended for various ideological and political reasons to divorce North Africa from the rest of the continent. Since the 19th century, many Western scholars have made strenuous efforts to deny the Africanness of North Africa and its peoples, especially the Africanness of the great civilization of Ancient Egypt. ☥ ☥ Dr. Bethwell Allan Ogot ☥
The Orishas of Western Africa most successfully developed elemental theory despite oppressive forces. Yet, when I did a search for images of Orishas, I found more white caricatures and practitioners than Black. In other words, colonizers were demonizing and forbidding us to participate in our cultural practices in the foreground, but studying and appropriating it for their benefit in the background. In fact, if image searches were my first exposure to the Orishas, I would think that they were white Catholic saints. Knowledge of the African Gods ☥ Goddesses were purposely kept from colonized people who were conquered, enslaved and pitted against each other for centuries. As we heal ☥ recover from psychological manipulation, we restore the dignity of our ancestors through the reclamation of our stolen legacies. A few North and West African deities who survived colonization include:
☥ Nut ☥ Goddess Of The Heavens
☥ Geb ☥ God Of Earth
☥ Shu ☥ God Of Air
☥ Ptah ☥ God Of Craftsmanship (metalwork, pottery, etc.) ☥ Creation
☥ Ausar ☥ God Of Transformation ☥ Our Ancestors
☥ Auset ☥ Goddess Of Alchemy
☥ Khnum ☥ God Of Water
☥ Anpu ☥ God Of Change ☥ Resourcefulness ☥ Servant To Lost Souls ☥ The
Disenfranchised
☥ Ra ☥ Sun God ☥ God Of Fire
☥ Ọlọrun ☥ God Of The Heavens
☥ Shango ☥ God Of Thunder
☥ Oyá ☥ Goddess Of Wind ☥ Fire ☥ Lightning
☥ Ogun ☥ God Of Metal (Iron)
☥ Yemayá ☥ Goddess Of The Ocean
☥ Mami Wata ☥ Goddess Of The Ocean
☥ Oshun ☥ Goddess Of Fertility ☥ Sexuality ☥ Sensuality ☥ Water (For Cleansing ☥ Purity)
I invite you to study the pictures below to learn about the Gods ☥ Goddesses pluralistically.
Other deities were so successfully appropriated, that their names are still not known today. For example, Auset ☥ Goddess Of Alchemy was renamed "isis" by the Ancient Greeks. Most sources will say that her name is "isis," but "the Ancient Egyptians referred to her as Auset," which is like me saying that my name is Boo-Boo Pe Do, but my parents referred to me as Phyllis. She is a Black woman and her name is Auset. When we say her name, we restore the dignity of our ancestors and reclaim our stolen legacies. In case you were wondering, "osiris" is not his name. He is a Black man, and his name is Ausar ☥ God Of Transformation ☥ Our Ancestors. And no, "anubis" is not his name. He is a Black man, represented with the head of a jackal, and his name is Anpu. Sources that lead with the Ancient Greek "rename" and then state "also known as ____ in Ancient Egyptian" need to be exposed and corrected. This behavior would not be tolerated by any other culture. We unknowingly tolerate it because the knowledge has purposely been hidden from us through psychological manipulation. As we awake, we strive to:
☥ Recognize self-hatred and seek healing through reconnection to our identity ☥ culture.
Examples could include listening to African ☥ Indigenous ☥ Indian (India represents a
massive migration of Africans/culture for us to rediscover) music until it no longer
sounds or feels “foreign” to us (Americans/Christians can listen to gospel music at first
without hesitation/fear); learning about our family’s history/legacy ☥ recognizing and
healing inner angst, jealousy or compulsions to compete in order to prove our worth.
If we look at how many white people are making money off of African drumming, playing/teaching us to play the 'Native American Flute,' teaching yoga, etc. and contemplate how and why they show up as having 'discovered' these 'new' finds and become the authoritative source of their definition and distribution, how do we open our eyes to the deception, love ☥ learn about ☥ support each other (especially in the start up and grassroots phases) and no longer buy into the many ways that xenophobia and disenfranchisement creeps into our lives?
I once heard a mother tell her son that Get Out is nonfiction. I chuckled, but I
believe her. Start with the 20th page of a Goggle search, because white people
dominate the first 20+ pages and Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant People often get
pushed behind them. The Asian flute music that I link to in A Cross-Cultural Healing
Haven (behind the yin yang image) was on the 14th page of Google, but had 16 million
views worldwide. That said, some of the best videos I've found have very few views on
YouTube, so seek quality and don't be fooled by the number of views. Colonizers can
afford to hire people to click on and view their videos/spam advertising.
☥ Say our ancestors' true names and reject colonizers' appropriation.
☥ Accept that some of the missing pieces of our identity ☥ culture are purposely erased
through "othering." For example, when I lived in Miami, I met Black Cubans, Haitians,
and Americans, and each group saw themselves as completely separate from each
other even though we all were brought from Africa to Cuba ☥ Haiti ☥ America,
respectively, and could even been related. Because colonizers "other" us, we project
this behavior on people within our culture to deflect pain instead of learning how to
heal and with people whom we perceive to be outside of our culture as a
passive/aggressive form of rank pulling. ☥ Accept that if they look like us, we most likely share ancestry. Seek understanding and
resist the colonizers' programming that causes us to "other" people.
☥ Assert the truth. Repeat the truth consistently.
☥ Practice continual self-care to overcome racial fatigue.
Bollywood, Blackface And Imitation Of Life
Ayurveda teaches us to stay connected with the truest part of ourselves, which includes making sure that we are comfortable and have plenty of healthy snacks available. We will travel through a number of digressions (that will appear to be unrelated to our eurocentric monolithic concept of understanding) in order to engage in pluralistic healing, a fundamental concept of Ayurveda. Colonizers worked deliberately to ensure that we did not know about the African ancestry of Indians. In their quest to control India, the British killed over 100 million Indians in just 40 years. Then, they hired an attorney to divide their land into what is now called “India” and “Pakistan.”
The social programming was designed to create xenophobia within their own land. Psychologically manipulative divide and conquer tactics, such as erasing the African ancestry of Indians continues to foster cultural ignorance and self-hatred.
If we watch Bollywood movies, we’ll notice that the main stars tend to have lighter skin which does not accurately represent the skin tone of the majority of their population. Similar tactics are employed throughout the African diaspora and are granular to the point of pitting tribes against each other. The general public is bombarded with propaganda such as violent and racist cartoons, TV shows, movies and commercial products for sale that promote racism and psychotic behavior. In the 1970's, television commercials about starving African children fostered self-hatred and caused Black children to use the term “African” to insult each other and as a coping mechanism. Hip Hop rivalries would sometimes end up in fatalities. Colorism and skin tone discrimination are promoted in mass media which perpetuates self-hatred and low self-esteem. Skin lightening creams are heavily marketed globally, especially in India and Africa. When I first started practicing massage therapy, I did in-home massage for a large prestigious Indian family. The matriarch of the family coordinated the visits and was pleasantly surprised to see me with my hairstyle, which featured a decorative cloth that was wrapped around and concealed two Afro puffs. She said, “You wear your hair like an Indian!” and I smiled and replied, “No, you wear your hair like an African.” I could tell that she had not considered my perspective even though her skin tone is as dark as mine, a true reflection of how deeply embedded the social programming exists within our culture.
When Immigrants move to America, they've already been imprinted with the colonizer's perception of African Americans (many don't even realize that Indigenous People are still here) and begin to distance themselves to keep from being treated as poorly as Black ☥ Indigenous People. Black ☥ Indigenous People see these Immigrants being allowed to start businesses in Black ☥ Indigenous neighborhoods (a sneaky divide and conquer tactic) and rank pull/behave with a sense of entitlement, which creates a considerable amount of angst fueled by survival instincts. The Immigrants don't realize that their presence in America was paid for by the blood, sweat and tears of enslaved Africans and Indigenous People. They don't see how they are being used to weaken the stability of Black ☥ Indigenous neighborhoods in America and in their own countries, and often speak negatively about their home country's government without a true understanding of the root causes of its behavior. Nor do they stop to consider who benefits most from their presence. Immigrants are sold a vision of the “American Dream” that omits the “American Nightmare” as it exists in our colonizers’ past and current behaviors. Black ☥ Indigenous People of America are sold a vision of Immigrants as competitors.
Our ignorance of each other keeps us in survival mode which prevents us from connecting long enough to see that we’ve all been fooled. A way out of this conundrum is to recognize our programming (which may be subconscious) and seek understanding to prevent being seduced into knee-jerk reactions.
Most Immigrants don't realize the politics of destabilizing a country by causing civil disturbances in the background which forces people to leave their country, extracting its talent and preventing socioeconomic development. In this way, we can see how colonization forces Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant People to focus on survival which prevents them from collaborating and accessing solutions that are almost impossible to see while struggling to meet basic needs. Survival can mean fighting others to get basic resources, but it can also mean collaborating ☥ pooling ☥ sharing resources ☥ ensuring that everyone has their basic needs met. Why do we so often defer to the former behavior? How can we train ourselves to see through ☥ transcend psychological manipulation/social programming?
Colonization has spawned a litany of sneaky side effects that reinforces its divide and conquer strategies and are so insidious, we can be caught up in and behaving from it subconsciously. The Phillis Wheatley programming is especially effective on immigrants. Imagine suffering in your home country and being forced to flee. You arrive in another country that makes you feel like you need to prove your worth and strongly supports certain types of social behaviors in order for you to be accepted. What you know of the people in this land is tightly controlled in the background, but appears to reflect an open society in the foreground. As an example, the publicized racist attacks in the news caused me to be interviewed for white publications. However, I now realize that these publications were expecting me to give them "Phillis Wheatley" responses/commentary instead of the truth. Once I spoke my truth, the articles were killed which inspired me to write Three Elephants Blocking Our Healing. Even children of immigrants who were born in this country can fall into the trap of taking advantage of liberties paid for by the blood, sweat and tears of Black ☥ Indigenous People. Vijay Chokalingam claims that he pretended to be Black to get into medical school. He speaks out against affirmative action as being reverse racism. The social programming that has affected his behavior shows inconsistencies as he:
☥ admits to being “harassed by policy officers and accused of shoplifting” while
pretending to be Black;
☥ got into medical school, dropped out which squandered the opportunity and took it
away from someone else;
☥ wrote a book that capitalizes off of Black People to earn money and continues to
speak out against affirmative action; and,
☥ fails to recognize that most articles about him lead with “Mindy Kaling’s brother”
instead of his name, reflecting the desperation to use this incident as a device to drive
a racial wedge between Black and Indian People.
I am in no way excusing his behavior, but we have to look more deeply at the root causes of social programming. It encourages us to cannibalize our own culture, turns us against each other, sabotages long-fought civil rights efforts, has created crime organizations as well as Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant pimps, murderers, spies and “front people” for colonizers, crime lords, hustlers and produced decades of multimedia that dumbed down our culture and denigrated women. We also need to consider how deeply this programming can be embedded within our psyche.
What Is Ayurveda? Part II dismantles colonial fallacies that promote xenophobia and offers strategies for healing and restoring the dignity of our ancestors. Uncover the wisdom of Ayurveda and learn about the doshas - Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Balance your body and mind with elemental theory and universal principles.
Copy/Paste Version Of A Full Citation Example:
Hubbard, P. S. (2020, September 27). What Is Ayurveda? PHYLLISHUBBARD.COM. <https://www.phyllishubbard.com/post/what-is-ayurveda>
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