WARNING: This may be hard to digest if you’ve been trying hard to nullify your sense of individuality, or if you’ve been carrying around thoughts like “I don’t exist”, “the ego isn’t real”, etc. But, if you’re inclined to embrace individuality and integrate that into the whole (family-->community-->universe), then this might be refreshing and helpful…on the topic of health (mind, body, AND spirit)...
From Prakriti: Your Ayurvedic Constitution by Dr. Robert E. Svoboda:
“Every human being is a unique individual, full of idiosyncrasies and peculiarities. Your most precious possession—your life—is your’s and your’s alone, unlike that of any other human being past, present or future. Each human is a unique manifestation of Mother Nature, the Creative Energy of the universe. Each possesses an indwelling fragment of the Universal Soul. The message of the Vedas is that each of us must find our own path to a life lived to the fullest, for only by making the most of ourselves can we repay to Nature the debt we owe Her for giving us life. The universe needs you to add your mite to the vast collective tapestry we call human civilization. You can make your fullest contribution to life only when you are healthy, and health alone enables you to enjoy your life to the fullest in return.
The word Svastha means “healthy” in Sanskrit. Sva (“self”) + Stha (“established”) = Svastha (“established in the self”). The “self” here is the ego, not the Freudian ego, but the power of individual identity, which separates every being from every other being. The ego is that which gives me my identity, which makes me me, which causes me to know that I am I and not you, he, she, we or they. This power which perpetually reminds me that I am I is called in Sanskrit ahamkara (literally, “the I-former”). Because each of us is a body, a mind and a spirit, we each have a body-I, a mind-I, and a spirit-I. To be “established in self” is to be established in each of these selves.
Today’s physicians tend to ignore individuality. They often look at people as “livers” or “lungs”, and neglect the organism that hosts that liver or lung. Some espouse the therapy they know best as a cure-all for all the ailing, overlooking the variations which exist even among patients of the same illness. Such piece-meal therapy cannot encourage balance in the organism. Since today’s doctors often fail to project health onto their patients, today’s patients must learn to project health themselves. Everyone in today’s world who wants to be healthy has a personal responsibility to learn as much as possible about health.”
