Our Rasas or essential emotions are the main link between body and mind. They largely determine the impact of body chemistry on our thinking mind and how our thoughts affect our health.
Emotions are experienced as a
play
of elements and energies in the body.
"The Five Elements and the Seven Energy Centers in the Body"
by Pieter Weltevrede
(Click the picture for a larger image)
Rasas or the essences of our emotions are neither purely physical nor purely mental. Bad body chemistry creates disagreeable emotions and a healthy body offers the basis for more happy emotions. When a disagreeable Rasa catches us for a long period, the biochemical environment created in our body is difficult to get rid of and may lead to disease. Maintaining an agreeable Rasa over a long period will stabilize it, keeping our body healthy and curing disease.
According to the science of Ayurveda, the emotions that affect our mind through the Rasas relate to: the five basic elements; the three doshas (humors or temperaments); the three gunas (energy qualities of nature); the seven dhatus (constituents of the human body); the five senses; food; and prana (the vital life force).
Double-click on this video link to watch a free teaching clip on body, mind and emotions
(more rasas teaching clips)
Modern Western knowledge primarily has value in demonstrating the connection between body, mind and emotions. It mostly concentrates on complex mixtures of neurotransmitters and other information molecules that affect our emotions and mind and are affected by them. The approaches of Yoga, Tantra, and Ayurveda offer much more practicle insight about how to really work with our emotions through our body and vice versa.
One of the most fantastic findings of modern science is that we are continuously creating new connections between brain/nerve cells. Our emotions and thinking thus continuously create new neural patterns, pathways of communication between parts of the brain and also of the body. Thus, reprogramming our brain has never been science fiction - it happens all the time. Every neural pattern also reflects as a biochemical pattern in our body. Such a pattern consists of particular mixtures of information molecules spread throughout specific parts of the body. Rasa Sadhana offers a clear method to effectively change these emotional, neural, and biochemical reaction patterns.
