by Dr. Claudia Welch Personal Experience When I was 19, I went to live in Benares, India to study Ayurveda… I thought. It was a year-long program through the University of Wisconsin, and the heftiest program requirement was to write a 100+ page research paper. I planned...
रागादिरोगान् सततानुषक्तानशेषकायप्रसृतानशेषान् औत्सुक्यमोहारतिदान् जघान योऽपूर्ववैद्याय नमोस्तुतस्मैः Aṣṭāṅga Hṛdayam:I:1 rāgādi-rogān satatānuṣaktān-aśeṣa-kāya-prasṛtān-aśeṣān autsukya-mohāratidān jaghāna yo’pūrva-vaidyāya namo’stu-tasmai //1// Obeisance be unto that unique and rare (incomparable) physician [that’d be God] who has completely eliminated limitless diseases that are closely associated with and spreading all over the body and mind, perpetually causing...
ऋ॒तं च॑ स॒त्यं चा॒भी॑द्धा॒त्तप॒सोऽध्य॑जायत ṛtaṃ ca satyaṃ cābhīddhāt tapaso 'dhy ajāyata Truth was born and the order of truth from the kindled fire of energy of consciousness. Rig Veda 10.190.1 I’ve been reflecting on the relationship between the Sanskrit words, “satyam” and, “ṛta” or, “ṛtam.” Satyam: The Chandogya Upanishad tells us...
By Dr. Ramkumar, Dr. Robert Svoboda & Dr. Claudia Welch Note: This is an evolving work. We have already changed the title and edited the article a bit in response to thoughtful input from readers. We have added links at the bottom of this article to...
By Dr. Claudia Welch Disclaimer, Introduction and entry into svādhyāya (self-introspection): While certainly Black people and people outside the US are welcome to read this, I am a white woman, and it is generally intended to speak to the perspective and perhaps shared experience of other...
By Dr. Claudia Welch For a long time I have reflected on something that my guru said on more than one occasion. Here are the exact words, in one case: “And then we should have confidence, because a coward can never achieve any success. Only a strong-hearted...
(Like the pithy title?) I just finished the second of two books I read back-to-back. Well, actually I listened to them on Audible (www.audible.com). (While in many cases I prefer reading books, this one is particularly wonderful to listen to I find the reader, Simon Vance,...
by Dr. Claudia Welch I'm awfully close to turning 50...
How do we decide whether or not to undergo a, "preventative" procedure like a mammogram? First, we might want to educate ourselves. This is trickier than it seems at first. Because many of the sources of our information may be difficult to trust. Consider, as one of any...
Dear Friends, My previous book, "How the Art of Medicine Makes the Science More Effective: Becoming the Medicine We Practice" was just released in January 2017 in paperback under its new (much better) title: "The Four Qualities of Effective Physicians: Practical Ayurvedic Wisdom for Modern Physicians". In...
Today, in the wake of the 2016 US Presidential election, there is shock, daze, awe, grief, disbelief, or all of the above, on all sides of the political totem. It feels familiar to me. I think maybe because I have been involved in birth and death before. What the...
By Dr. Claudia Welch As of January 2011, a Kaiser Family Foundation study found that, if you were an average young American, you would be spending almost every waking minute, outside of time in school, on either a smart phone, computer, TV or some other electronic...
Gentle Reader, I am guilty of this too. I could pretend I’m not, but then there would be pretense on top of pretense. Today’s New York Times reported something we probably already knew. (One of my favorite kind of studies and forms of reporting…so satisfying). Fake smiling...
I was thinking lately… I was thinking that traditionally the Aghora sect of Hinduism has, at least in part, at least according to my understanding, embraced practices that would seem extreme to non-Aghori Hindus. Or just about anybody else. Meditating in graveyards, maybe on corpses, inviting a...
“Alas, I have good news.” In late May 2010, I got this cheerful voicemail message from Renee Sedliar, the affable and talented Executive Editor at Da Capo. I stood in the Baltimore airport, between flights, slightly confused. She quickly corrected, “I mean, at last, I have good news.” Da...
A few months ago, I was reading about how one of the big Hindu Gods (Brahma) was lusting after his own daughter. She would try to escape his line of vision but he kept creating himself new faces, so he could continue to look upon her in...
I just spent such a delightful weekend with the Kripalu School of Ayurveda students, who should be graduating, like, any minute now. It was truly, madly, deeply enjoyable for me to spend time with them. Hopefully it wasn’t lousy for them either. I am also aware...
Years ago a new patient came from out of state for an office visit. Over the course of the consultation, I learned she had several health issues that had been plaguing her since early childhood. She felt they were possibly related to her birth, and...