Life Style

Life Style

There are lots of talks about ‘Life Style’ now.  See how in ancient India this subject was interconnected with entire psyche of human being covering whole life:

…it is the more generalizable point that what we now call ‘life-style’-and not just impeccable moral guidelines-is folded into the conception of wellness, so that continual attention to the whole of our subjectivity is espoused as the model of the well life by Caraka {in The Caraka Samhita a medical text}. It would, then, not be so puzzling to Carakan physicians that being able to resist sensory immersion in computer games or pornographic websites, and wearing sensible shoes, showering regularly, donating to charities, and taking time to talk to the elderly all seem to matter to the constitution of our sense of ourselves as being well. It should also be noted that the text’s motivation for laying down these strictures is medical: it is health that is at the heart of the matter….(p. 52)

…An example where the absence of control leads to a medical problem and where the treatment for it is an unexpected prescription of a civilized environment, concerns the urge to shed tears.

Suppression of tears leads to rhinitis, eye disease, ailments in the chest, loss of appetite, and dizziness.  In such cases, sleep, wine and pleasant conversation are helpful. [Chara Samhita, Su 7.22}

So the response to physiological problems involves interventions that are not themselves directed at the physical state that is the sickness. (p. 53)— Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Human Being, Bodily Being: Phenomenology from Classical India, Oxford, Oxford University Press, [2018], Paperback 2021