From Louise:

Taraxacum officinale.

Proposed Sanskrit: tooth of the lion, simhasyadADAkaH

bitter,sweet/cooling/pungent.

PK- V+

On an herb trip one of the instructors had a printed T-shirt that said ” If you can’t beat em eat em”. This is referring to the plant with the yellow flowers that appear in the spring time. Flowers that open with the morning sun and close in the evening and in gray weather.

By the way – spring time is time to clean our liver not just our house.

Our Dandelion, considered an obnoxious, annoying weed that won’t go away despite our efforts to eradicate it.

It is hardy, abundant, and ever there. It is thought that Dandelion was introduced to America by the pioneers from Europe and Asia. Why? Because since ancient times it was widely and successfully used as a food, a medicine, and a dye.

In the U.S. it is seen more and more in the grocery stores. The systems affected by Dandelion are the liver, stomach, kidneys, and bladder. Its properties are diuretic, hepatic [medicinal action on the liver], chologogue [stimulates bile in the liver], anti rheumatic, laxative, and tonic.

Dandelion plant is traditionally used as a tonic, blood purifier, for constipation, and liver, gall bladder, kidney ailments, inflammatory skin conditions, joint pain, eczema, weak digestion, and rheumatism. Chinese medicine uses Dandelion for lung, breast tumors abscesses, and hepatitis.

A red dye is made from the Dandelion root.

Dandelion contains vitamins A [ a richer source than carrots], B [thiamine, nicotinic acid], C and D. And minerals magnesium, zinc, potassium,manganese, copper. And more iron and calcium than spinach. There is boron, silicon, and hi carotenoid. More beta carotene than carrots, more potassium than broccoli or spinach.

The root is dried, roasted and ground for a coffee substitute that has no caffeine. The roots are used in the treatment of rheumatism because they are a mild anti-inflammatory. Root is used for dyspepsia, loss of appetite, a diuretic, and for disorders associated with inhibited bile secretion from the liver.

Young leaves are less bitter – with the flowers are eaten raw in salads. Leaves can be cooked or boiled as a pot herb.

The leaves are a diuretic with a good source of natural potassium. Thus, can be use for water retention and bloating with the flatulence and loss of appetite.

The fresh juice is applied externally to kill bacteria and help heal wounds. The white sap from fresh leaves eases pain from sores and bee stings, removes calluses, corns, warts, and acne.

However, some people may be allergic to the milky sap.

People with gallstones should be under a physicians care when using Dandelion. The bitter compounds in the root help stimulate digestion are are mildly laxative. The acidity may cause hyperacidity in some people and may increase pain in those with ulcers.

Because of the increased bile secretion, people with bile duct obstruction or other serious gall bladder and gall stones should avoid Dandelion or be under a physician’s care.

There are no known drug interactions with Dandelion. But, the drugs used to decrease blood sugar levels [hypoglycemic medicines] may work with Dandelion root to lower the blood sugar levels further. And the physician may adjust the medicine doses.

People taking blood thinning drugs or anti-inflammatory drugs be in contact with your physician. Because, in Dandelion there are chemical compounds similar to warfarin [coumadin]. If you plan on taking herbs for treatment of an illness first talk to a certified herbalist or health practitioner.

Always be aware of the side effects of the modern, experimental, pharmaceutical drugs. Is it better to take care of one symptom or organ while the others are being damaged?

After all of that here is a tasty receipe:

Dip full bloom Dandelion flowers in a bowl of water, then dip in corn meal, and saute [not fry] 2 minutes in butter or ghee or an oil you like. You can add spices that you like. Yummmm. ‘

Here is a Dandelion wine receipe from Ann Drucker’s herb class:

3 quarts dandelion blossoms 2 1/2 lbs. sugar 2 lemons 1 orange 1 yeast cake [any variety] Pour 5 quarts boiling water over the blossoms. Let stand between 3 hours to 3 days.

Strain, add the sugar, lemon and orange rinds. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes. Cut up orange lemons. And pour cooked mixture on top of fruit.

When mixture cools to just above body temp. add yeast which has been dissolved in 1 cup of the warm mixture. Let entire mixture stand 12 hours, then strain.

Let it stand for 2 months and strain again. Sample in 4-6 months.

It is traditional to make the wine at the summer solstice and drink it in the winter.

A Dandelion Italiano receipe from Ann’s class:

Put 3-4 cups dandelion leaves in a pot. Boil water separately and pour over the leaves. Let water come to a boil, then strain. Repeat with new water.

In a skillet saute 6+ cloves garlic. Turn off heat and add the dandelions. Mix in 1 Tbsp. olive oil, 1 1/2 tbsp. vinegar, 1 tbsp tamari. Adjust to your taste.

References: class notes takes over the years. And the dictionary.

Holy Moley.

Here is a study in the New Scientist that is just about as positive as can be.

“It can almost completely correct the measurable defects of the disease,” says Michael Caplan at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, US, part of the research team.

It doesn’t get any better than that, at least in mice.

Caplan cautions that this does not necessarily mean that curcumin will work in humans. He notes that Asian people do have a much lower incidence of the disease, but says this may have more to do with population genetics than with more turmeric in their diet.

“It would be great if people had figured out 2000 years ago that this stuff works and we’re just rediscovering it,” he says. A human clinical trial is now being launched by the US Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

I am keenly interested in cystic fibrosis these days, having just written a long paper on a case study using Ayurveda and astrology.

Turmeric makes PERFECT sense in the case study because of turmerics’ actions against systemic catabolic activity that is central to the model proposed in the paper.

I had an interesting experience the other day: I was within the field of consciousness if only for a minute.

I had my feet up as it happened. I looked at my feet and said, “What nice feet.” I wasn’t actually just complimenting my feet. I was the self as it is upon waking and before cognition. I was the me that is still me in my few visits to past lives. I was the me that is still me in my one surprising preview of a future life. I was my eternal self, the “seer in my own nature” (I.3)

It may sound funny, me just looking at my feet, but I swear to you: it had the effect of a thousand storms.

Many if not most of you have been in this sort of being at least for a little while.

The Yoga Sutras say

yogaz citta vRtti nirodhaH

Yoga is the process of ending of the definitions/limitations of the field of consciousness. (I.2)

and the Yoga Sutras give 10 recipes for how to clarify the field of consciousness which is citta (and yes one basically is dreamwork).

I think I just stumbled upon the truth of one of them, from Chapter one, sUtra 35, that goes like this:

viSayavatI vA pravRttir utpannA manasaH sthiti-nibandhanI

Or, a cognition which has arisen, related to a sensory object, holding the steadiness of mind (clarifies citta). (I.35)

There are no accidents, but how to make this happen again? The ten ways, from Yoga Sutras I.33-I.39:

being in the realization of friendship with regard to the experiences of :

— happiness

— compassion with pain

— elation with virtue

— neutrality with non-virtue

also

–holding in or out of breath

— [what I said above] holding cognition of a sensory object with a steadiness of mind

–cognition which is sorrowless or luminous

–cognition of an object which transcends attachment

–having as supporting object the knowledge of dreams or sleep

–whatever desired way of meditation

I love this series of passages. They are pretty succinct all in all, wouldn’t you say? And I really appreciate the thought of the last one: “whatever desired way of meditation”. It feels very welcoming and supportive.

I guess I am only in chapter one in my journey to realizing yoga, (pitta alert!) but it was a great experience.

Why not work with the advice of the ten ways to being in this state all the time? What’s the danger?

I’ll tell ya what it is for me: attachment.

Attachment is holding on to prior happiness. (II.7)

Dislike is attachment to prior pain. (II.8)

That’s all there is to it. Sigh.

He who is freed from attachment,
liberated, whose mind is established
in wisdom, who acts for the sake of
yagya, his action is entirely
dissolved. (BhagavAd GItA, 23)

[Dr. Lad seems to embody the above paragraph to me.]

Above is the iconic image of Jyotish, the kuNDali or astrology chart.

It’s beauty is clear and when the planets are placed on it, it is believed to contain the cosmos.

The diamond labelled 1 is what faces the Eastern horizon on the Earth’s surface at the point and time of the chart. Diamond 7 is what faces West, opposite of 1.

The diamond labelled 10 is what is overhead, 4 is what is beneath the feet.

The native and the planet earth’s center is the point in the middle.

The triangles are what are respectively in between the cornerstones 1, 4, 7, and 10. The latter are called kendras.

The first time I saw this I wanted to go home, get paper and scissors, and construct the universe.

I tried, but it isn’t possible to create a 12 sided convex polygon with 4 squares and 8 triangles. The angles and sides just do not add up. There is a platonic solid with twelve sides but it requires a pentagonal face for each of the 12 sides.

What about splitting up the diamonds (squares) each into 2 triangles, thus aspiring to have a 16 sided convex regular polyhedron? Still doesn’t exist, at least not in 3-D.

You can have a regular cuboctagon, but if you look carefully 2 sides would have to be wide open:

It’s interesting that the konas (important houses 5, and 9 besides 1) have a physical element with the snub tetrahedron: they would allow a stability of this physical model if set on the “ground” with the yellow 1 triangles pointing up, like it’s on an inner tripod.

Here’s an interesting site on the solid form. If you can get through the first paragraph, go to the animation on the bottom of the page and count to three. At that point the pink triangles show pretty well how to construct the snub.

But I don’t like the word “irregularity” when talking about the universe or of having empty 3-D spaces therein. Plus, “snub” is a funny word.

Also it’s not clear how to take a pair of scissors and cut up the surface of the snub tetrahedron so that it would lie on a 2D surface (such as your screen or your chart) and form something like the kuNDali at the top of this post.

So I did what I could: I looked into the 4th dimension.

Consider the dodecaplex which very importantly is both regular and convex in 4 dimensions, thus satisfying my desire for symmetry and allows for the convex nature of a screen for shining bodies.

I totally recommend installing this software. It is a program that will show you visually a lot more than I can say with words. (Yep, it’s virus free and exceedingly cool.)

[Could the five hyper-sides of each tetrahedron house element have to do with the five Maha Bhutas (five elements)?

Could the icosahedron in 3D that has 20 faces of triangles have to do with the 20gunas of Ayurveda composed of 3 doshas?]

The beautiful complications toward the middle of the dodecaplex could account for the amshas.

Finally, by projection (cross-section or shadow) the snub cuboctahedron or 3-D image we are trying to represent is:

A [snub] cuboctahedron can be obtained by taking an appropriatecross section of a four-dimensional cross-polytope. [i.e., a dodecaplex], Wikipedia

Projection or shining of light seems entirely appropriate to the meaning ofJyotish, especially as compared to cutting something up to form a net.

And corresponding objects exist in even higher dimensions.

Extra dimensions are not a problem in the Vedas – they are talked about often and at length.

In this video, two doctors on Medscape describe highly technical, mechanical and avant garde attempts to simulate valuable ancient analysis of complex pulsatile blood pressure.

When they speak of the benefits of accessing the wave interactions of blood flow and flowback from the entire arterial tree, I am reminded of Dr. Lad speaking of pulse analysis as really an effort to describe a tree using only words.

Stunning, the wisdom of ancient Ayurveda.

For a nice article on Ayurvedic pulse reading from a student at the California College of Ayurveda, click here.

We learned in a recent course on Ayurvedic fertility and conception that the woman’s uterus has a “flowering period” 9 days after ovulation, appropriately named pushpa (Sanskrit for flower) when conception is most likely.

I think it’s interesting and telling that, if all the village women ovulate on the same day, say on the full moon, that the pushpa period would then fall after the 8/28 section of the zodiac from the full moon, or in other words the yogi point of the chart of ovulation, calculated via the pushya nakshatra, the eighth lunar mansion, used in the definition of ayuS or life.

Therefore, the village conceptions would be on the day fullest, most healthy, most fulsome astrologically.

Amazing!

More beauty from Ayurvedic Astrology.