Politics and Panchakarma
I was in India in 2016 when Trump won the election that year. I remember being in a sunny morning puja by an Amla tree and suddenly feeling a sinking sensation in my stomach. I shot my friend Erin a meaningful look and told her I had a bad feeling. She read my mind instantly. There’s no way she whispered. There’s no way he will win. A few hours later he did.
I never heard my Guruji mention anything about the election that day or since. The only thing I’ve heard him say about US politics is that it is our moral obligation as citizens of a democracy to cast our vote. America has decided again to choose Trump as our representative. It disappoints me, but like so many of the things about our society that disappoint me, I have to accept it and try to see a way forward.
This morning as I was pondering what the purpose for this choice we made was and what the outcomes might be, my mind (as it so often does these days) circled back to Ayurveda.
The Ayurvedic perspective on disease and healing is elegant, simple, and all about balance. Disease starts with an imbalance. If the imbalance goes unchecked, disease will naturally spring up in the most vulnerable area of the system (which varies person to person). If still nothing changes and the environment (internal and external) continues to support the disease process, the death process will eventually come in to reestablish balance by taking things back to zero.
There are many ways to reverse the disease process. In the early stages simply applying opposites through diet and lifestyle can bring a system back into balance. If the imbalance continues to a point where disease has taken root (established qualitative changes in the tissues), the body actually starts to crave the very things that created the imbalance, making the road to healing even harder. This is an interesting phenomenon that seems like a mistake on the part of nature/biology, but might actually also be aimed at balance. It takes great will power to say no to an unhealthy craving. Exercising this willpower can awaken a great healing force within. Sometimes it takes a “wake up call” to summon the power of our own commitment to health and well being, as individuals and as a society.
Panchakarma is one of the primary tools used in Ayurveda to help reverse the disease process and restore balance to the body. Translated it means “five actions” and these actions are all purgative measures. I won’t get into the details of Panchakarma now, but I bring it up to point out that purgation is an essential part of the healing process. Some of the purgative measures actually involve provoking the causes of the imbalance first in order to bring them to the surface so that they can be eliminated (for my Ayurvedic friends, think of vamana therapy). Another classic example of the provocation method is bringing a boil “to a head” by the application of heat and other irritating substances.
As unflattering as this analogy is, it’s the best one I can find for our current situation. We’ve got some deep toxins that need to be purged. What American can honestly deny that? We had the choice to go in a direction that might have masked some of the symptoms for longer (but ultimately allowed the disease process to continue by avoiding real change), but we chose the option that seems likely to exacerbate the symptoms and bring them “to a head.”
There is a healing force underneath the inflammation, the puss, the discomfort and the embarrassment that I hope we are able to be present with and utilize. Can we face the giant boil as it shows itself? Can we look at what we have created in this country without fear and judgment? Can we approach it the way Mother Teresa’s followers approached the diseased bodies of their brothers and sisters on the streets of Calcutta? It’s going to take real maturity and some trust in a higher power.
I have to trust in what is happening and keep trusting in the intelligence of a system much larger than myself. I believe we can show up in a good way for one another as we move toward healing. After seeing the way people have responded to a crisis here in Asheville (which is making the election seem almost trivial at the moment) I believe it is not only possible, it’s already happening.