Taoist idea of enlightenment as living and dying in accord with nature’s
simplicity grounds the notion of healthy death. Chuang Tzu rejected his
disciples’ plans for his funeral, named heaven and earth as his coffin, and
accepted his imminent death without dread.^18 Poems by Zen Buddhist
monks, written close to the moment of death, epitomize the idea of dying
in a state of health sufficient to permit awareness and expression of one’s
final experience.^19
Equilibrium
In Åyurveda the meaning of health centers on the concept of equilibrium.
Healing involves restoration of balanced states of being within the organ-
ism—that is, at the level of the doÓsasor constituent principles of the
mind/body complex, and between organism and environment. Broadly
conceived, equilibrium in Åyurveda means the stable and harmonious
functioning of “our organs and systems, psyche and spirit, but also a bal-
anced and creative relationship with our fellow creatures and nature as a
whole.”^20
The body and mind constitute the substrata of diseases and happiness
(i.e., positive health). Balanced utilization (of time, mental faculties, and
objects of sense organs) is the cause of happiness.
CS 1:1.55The technical meaning of equilibrium or balance in Åyurveda refers
to the equilibrium of the three dhatus ̄ or doÓsas. Health on the Åyurvedic
interpretation is the equilibrium of vata ̄ , pitta, and kapha, the tri-dhatu ̄ ,
the three ‘tissue-elements,’ more precisely termed ‘systematic constituents’
or ‘sustaining factors.’ Their imbalance constitutes impaired health, and is
referred to as tridoÓsa, the three systematic problems.
The very object of this science is the maintenance of the equilibrium of
the tissue elements [dh ̄atusamya: ̄ equilibrium of sustaining and nourish-
ing factors].
CS 1:1.53As the author himself will say, the disturbance of the equilibrium of tis-
sue elements [dh ̄atus] is the disease, while the maintenance of equilib-
rium is health.
AD 1:1.53Applications of tridoÓsatheory include:
- Classification of the patient’s psychophysical constitution-type, de-
termined by the predominance of one or more doÓsas.
52 religious therapeutics