How To Get Started with Ayurvedic Pulse Diagnosis

[Guest guest]

How To Get Started with Ayurvedic Pulse Diagnosis

<http://fiteyes.com/blogs/dave/2007/11/27/how-to-get-started-with-ayurve\

dic-pulse-diagnosis> I just wrote a blog article about How To Get

Started with Ayurvedic Pulse Diagnosis. I thought people in this group

would find the article helpful. And I welcome any comments the experts

in this group would like to make about that article.

 

Regards,

Dave

http://fiteyes.com/blogs/dave/2007/11/27/how-to-get-started-with-ayurved\

ic-pulse-diagnosis

[Guest guest]

Hi David,

 

A couple thoughts on your blog posting:

 

1. I am skeptical of the current state of Ayurvedic pulse diagnosis.

You cite a quote that pulse diagnosis is " the centrepiece of a

classic Ayurveda examination " . If this were true, then why is it

that in Kerala, which many call the center of Ayurveda in India, you

will be hard pressed to find a physician that actually practices it.

This is apart from the fact that pulse is clearly anumana, or

" inferential " , according to Charakas delineation of " trividha

pariksha " , or the " the sources of knowledge " . How should inference

be considered the centerpiece of any evidence? Walking home late at

night, a man is startled because he sees something on the road. Is

it a snake or a stick? Only close observation can discern the

difference. To my mind, the mark of a good practitioner is their

thoroughness in obtaining knowledge from all sources and integrating

these into a unified whole. Sometimes this means knowing what to pay

attention to and what to ignore, especially when it comes to inference.

 

2. It seems that the system of pulse diagnosis that has dominated the

scene is very much derived from Dr. Vasant Lad's work on the

subject. What isn't well known however, is just how syncretic Dr.

Lad's system is. I became familiar with it about 15 years ago, and

even then it was easy to tell that much of his knowledge of pulse was

derived from readings on Chinese pulse diagnosis, particularly when

associating the pulse with specific organs. Before Dr. Lad's work,

there was very little material available on the subject of pulse,

which brings into question the exact origins of his system. There

are only a few Ayurvedic sources on pulse, and most are comparatively

late. You won't find any significant detail on the practice pulse

diagnosis in Charaka, Sushruta or Vagbhata. It appears to first make

its way into the late medieval texts including the Sharangadhara

(14th cent CE) and Bhavaprakasha (15th cent CE), after India had

extensive exposure to foreign cultures. Nonetheless, the

description of the technique is fairly abbreviated. Other commonly

cited texts on Ayurvedic pulse diagnosis include the Nadivijnanam and

the treatise by Shankara Sen, both only discovered recently. While

ShankarSen is quite recent, the Nadivijnanam is perhaps quite old

since it states to have been written by Maharishi Kanada, the same

author of the Vaisheshika sutra (c. 600 BCE). However, it was not

uncommon during the medieval period in India for an author to sign

his work in the name of an illustrious sage, to add weight to its

significance. Be that as it may, none of these pulse systems, and

especially that Nadivijnanam, can be said to lend any weight or

support to the system that Dr. Lad developed. Rather, it would seem,

esp. from the Nadivijnanam, that it is more important to understand

the quality of the pulse, since almost all of his descriptions of the

pulse relate to the movement of animals.

 

3. Based on the above, and also through consultation with many other

practitioners, I have found it more helpful to interpret the pulse

generally rather than to apply the elaborate and detailed methodology

espoused by Dr. Lad. Look for the quality of the pulsation and worry

less under which finger you feel the pulse. Is the pulse weak, thin

and subtle? This is vata. Is the pulse fast, hard and wiry? This

is pitta. Is the pulse slow, soft and wide? This is kapha. Fast

pulse indicates heat, slow pulse indicates cold. There are some

other simple aspects to take note of as well, such as the depth of

the pulse, by which you can assess teh quality of ojas and agni. And

by the way, Kapha is actually pronounced ka-pha, the " pha " sound

denoting an aspirated " p " sound. North Indian speakers have been

influenced by Farsi, and while some speaking sanskrit continue to use

the " f " sound for " ph " , this is really just a bad grammatical habit.

 

4. As for how the doshas relate to each finger, I am far from

convinced that we can say very simply that vata is the index finger,

pitta the middle and kapha the ring finger. First off, what do we

mean by this? Is it that the doshas can be understood simply by

feeling the pulse under the fingers? I think this is simplistic.

What about absence of pulsation under a particular finger? Does this

not mean anything? Why should we just take note of one aspect and

not both? The Chinese system actually adds much more subtlety to

this system, by emphasizing the idea that a strong pulse indicates

heightened metabolism whereas as weak pulse indicates decreased

metabolism. In the Chinese text on pulse written by Li Shi Zhen

(16th cent CE), the index, middle and ring fingers actually denote

different regions of the body: the index (the upper jiao, including

the chest and areas above), the middle (the middle jiao, including

the digestive organs), and the ring finger (indicating the lower

jiao, including the pelvic organs). Anyone reading this familiar

with Ayurveda will immediately see a correlation between this scheme

and how the doshas are said to maintain to different

" seats " (sthanas) in the body: vata is located from the umbilicus

downwards; pitta between the umbilicus and diaphragm; and kapha, from

the diaphragm upwards. For me, this was a revelation. It linked up

the rather more sophisticated and detailed TCM pulsology with

Ayurvedic theory, and suddenly the Chinese notion of the Triple

Burner (san jiao), which is something of an anomaly in TCM, links up

with a fundamental notion of Ayurveda. As such, while I interpret

the pulse very simply and weight it according to other signs and

symptoms, I also feel under which fingers the pulses are weak and

strong. Sometimes my findings can be rationalized according to Lad's

system, other times not. For example, if I feel a weakness under a

particular finger, I pay attention to see is that weakness can be

correlated to a particular region of the body. Thus a weak pulse

under the ring finger to me indicates some problem in the lower

regions of the body, usually related to the adrenals, and thus

corresponds to an increase in vata. In TCM pulsology we wold say

'kidney qi vacuity'. In contrast, a weak pulse under the index

finger can indicate a weakness in the chest regions, and often times

I will note some problem there. Likewise, a strong pulse under the

index finger often suggests some kind of heightened metabolic

activity, and is usually a good predictor of a kapha increase, such

as a cold. In other words, a strong pulse under the index finger

does not necessarily mean a vata increase!

 

5. Lastly, it is not true that " ...as a rule, there are no blood or

other body-fluid samples taken, and there is no laboratory testing,

as is typical of Western medicine " . In fact, feces and urine make up

a very important component of the ashtavidya pariksha ('eight methods

of diagnosis'), along with pulse, tongue, and other factors.

Laboratory testing is obviously absent, and yet the Ayurvedic

physicians had other methods. Even blood is sampled during rakta

mokshana, to determine its nature and quality.

 

Anyway, thanks for giving me the opportunity to address this issue

more fully.

 

best regards...

Caldecott, Dip. Cl.H, RH(AHG)

Ayurvedic practitioner, Medical Herbalist

203 - 1750 East 10th Ave

Vancouver, BC V5N 5K4 CANADA

web: http//:www.toddcaldecott.com

email: todd

tel: (1)778.896.8894

fax: (1)866.703.2792

____________________________

How To Get Started with Ayurvedic Pulse Diagnosis

<http://fiteyes.com/blogs/dave/2007/11/27/how-to-get-started-with-

ayurve\

dic-pulse-diagnosis>