Ayurveda Camp 2023 – Fall Session

Event Dates

Part 1 – October 26, 27, 28, and 29, 2023

Part 2 – November 30 and December 1, 2, and 3, 2023

Topics Covered

Part 1 – Presentation of the 10 formative qualities – Nirmanya-Guna

Part 2 – Presentation of the 20 general qualities – Vimshati-Guna

Who Can Participate?

- Ayurveda instructors

- Ayurveda students

- People who are not enrolled in Ayurveda courses

NIRMANYA-GUNA

The Sanskrit term guna is also used in Ayurveda to mean a general formative quality (nirmanya-guna). Ayurveda recognizes ten such general formative qualities (nirmanya-guna): 1. predominance (para), 2. subordination (apara), 3. property (yukti), 4. number (samkhya), 5. combination (samyoga), 6. division (vibhaga), 7. separation (prithaktva), 8. measurement (parimana), 9. transformation (samskara), and 10. repetition (abhyasa). All these general formative qualities (nirmanya-guna) act as sui generis “operators” (prachalaka), whose role is to modulate, in a specific way, the interactions among the various subtle formative forces or energies that contribute to the makeup of a particular structure or of an animate, living form, or an inanimate, nonliving structure or form. The general formative qualities (nirmanya-guna) actually measure the distinctive nature of a particular structure's subtle composition by highlighting the relationships among the subtle forces and energies that constitute the formative factors of that structure or form. This is why Ayurveda regards the general formative qualities (nirmanya-guna) as essential factors of structural differentiation throughout manifestation.

VIMSHATI-GUNA

In Ayurveda, the Sanskrit term guna most often refers to the concept of a fundamental general quality (adhara-guna), which is also a perceptible quality and plays an important role in defining distinctions. Such an essential general quality (adhara-guna) is described and defined from a less abstract and less general perspective; in other words, it is presented within a framework much closer to sensory manifestation, which can be perceived through the senses and through ordinary human perception in general. The foundational Ayurvedic treatise Charaka-Samhita mentions the following 20 general qualities (guna), grouped into 10 complementary pairs: heavy (guru) – light (laghu); hot/warm (ushna) – cold/cool (shita); dry (ruksha) – moist/oily (snigdha); rough (khara) – smooth/slippery (slakshna); sharp/fast-acting (tikshna) – slow (manda); mobile/moving (chala) – immobile/static (sthira); ); hard/firm (kathina) – soft/fine (mridu); solid/dense (sandra) – liquid/fluid (drava); clear/thin (vishadha) – cloudy/viscous (picchila); subtle (sukshma) – gross (sthula); The Ayurvedic concept of general quality (guna), together with the entire system of the 20 general qualities (vimshati-guna), forms the theoretical and practical foundation of the entire traditional applied science of Ayurveda, across all its branches.