Guest guest Posted June 18, 2004 Report Share Posted June 18, 2004 Hi GB- when you survey various cultures you will see that some are fungiphobes and some are fungiphiles for e.g., some first nations groups in North America are in the former, along with traditional East Indian beliefs, whereas Chinese and Europeans tended to be fungiphiles in Ayurveda the thinking is that b/c fungi consume dying or decaying material they are more tamasic this is somewhat striking to Chinese practices however, in which eating mushrooms is generally thought to be good for the mind and meditation some fungi can cause problems in people with pre-existing fungal infections, e.g. candida, or sama conditions, but some mushrooms can actually benefit such cases, e.g. reishi, maitake, shitake, grifolia, trametes, codonopsis etc. etc. these same mushrooms are excellent in immune deficiency and cancer, to enhance ojas i use these mushrooms extensively in my practice, esp, reishi, which is an excellent herb to treat vata conditions such as anxiety, nervousness, insomnia etc. fungi can be difficult to identify, which may underlie some of the bias against them mycologists have an entire category of LBMs, 'little brown mushrooms' that can only be identified by examining the spore print with a microscope perhaps for this reason, as well as the fact that some fungi are toxic or psychoactive, or b/c they are hosts to insects, Indians traditionally stayed away from them but upon deeper examination, especially in the light of the story of Jivaka Komarabhacha who could not find a plant that could not be used as a medicine, i think the bias in Ayurveda against mushrooms is another example of a system that has been dragged down by inflexible rules the tenets of Ayurveda were revealed during the satya yuga - as we have descended into the kali yuga people have lost the capacity to think for themselves and instead increasingly rely upon laws and rules that may or may not be true medieval commentators in Ayurveda are notorious for coming up with all kinds of weird restrictions that were originally reflective of some inherent truth, but because that knowledge becomes so highly codified it becomes irrelevant and inflexible - this is simply a facet of the kali yuga as we move out of the kali yuga (according to Sri Yukteshvar) its important for all of us to think for ourselves when we come up against something like "fungi are tamasic" in Ayurveda we really need to examine this truth for ourselves: in my experience, it is not necessarily true > > > I have wondered about this for awhile. In Ayurveda, it is generally > recommended not to eat mushrooms. I know that mushrooms are > considered tamasic.However, in Chinese medicine, mushrooms are in many > remedies. Reishi, shitake and maitake are particularly recommended. > Why is there such a difference? > > Also, both TMC and Ayurveda both have 5 elements but differnet > elements. Is there a relationship between the different elements of > each philosophy? yes - they are the same but they have evolved in different cultures and thus have different characteristics, names, terms, descriptors etc but it is all the same - they evolved from the same mother system a good example of this is the chinese concept of the san jiao, the "triple burner" and tridosha sthana they are the same idea in this way, some aspects of Chinese medicine can greatly add to the sophistication of Ayurveda, and vice versa Caldecott todd www.toddcaldecott.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jodilee Posted July 5, 2010 Report Share Posted July 5, 2010 I have been studying the benefits of certain mushrooms as immune tonics, and have also felt that the old ideas of mushrooms being tamasic in nature is just that: and old and rigid idea. Do you think that it is acceptable to use them in formulation with traditional "Ayurvedic" herbs? If they present the same benefit as a nutritive tonic I would think that there is no conflict. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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