The Reading List.
Novels and non-fiction read through an Ayurvedic lens —
what I discern about the doshas, gunas and the progression of disease,
as the classical texts describe, whilst I read.
Written by Dr. Arlini Singh.
Before the diagnosis.
Ann Patchett's The Dutch House, read through kriyakala — the six-stage arc by which classical Ayurveda traces a disease backward to its quiet beginning. By the time the name arrives, the work was needed three stages ago.
Read the essay →"The disease that begins in childhood does not arrive on time for the diagnosis. It accumulates, is provoked, spreads, settles, and only then is given a name."
What's being read.
The Dutch House, returned to — the father this time, on overwork, on attachments held in brick, and on what foreshortens a life.
Towles' A Gentleman in Moscow — on the discipline of refusing despair, and what the classical texts call achara rasayana, the medicine that is conduct.
Wally Lamb's The River Is Waiting — on addiction, the daily keeping of a vow, and what classical Ayurveda calls sankalpa, the resolution that becomes a body's spine.
