Useful and worth reading | The Path of Practice: A Woman's Book of Ayurvedic Healing

The Path of Practice | The Path of Practice: A Woman's Book of Ayurvedic Healing | Bri Maya Tiwari

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	• The Path of Practice: A Woman's Book of Ayurvedic Healing Bri Maya Tiwari Wellspring/Ballantine, 2001 - 432 pages average customer review:based on 6 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Ancient wisdom

It is not a book for the faint of heart, neither is it right for those who desire definite and concrete answers to their lives problems. While Bri Maya Tiwari offers a full richness of ancient Ayurvedic practices which may lead to deep insights they are far from what our Western culture would define as definite. Nothing is definite or concrete when you open your heart and mind to the wisdom of your own inner self. It is a very feminine quality which leads one to intuitive learning from our very own heart. If you are looking for ways to connect with the wisdom of your deeper self through finding your ancestral roots and your connection to the Divine Mother you may find the book helpfull. Bri Maya's journey opened the doors which my culture kept shut for over one thousand years, the doors to the the vast ocean of universal knowledge (knowledge that does not rely purely on reason) that dwells within us and is available to an ardent seeker.

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Useful and worth reading

I learned of this book at a lecture on Ayurvedic medicine, which was the first time I had heard about these practices.

I agree with the other reviewers who praised Tiwari's prose. In general the book is relaxing and easy to read.

I also agree with the reviewers who found some of the religious imagery a bit over the top. I think most of the anecdotes come across as far-fetched, wishful thinking.

Nevertheless, the recipes are useful, and it also serves as a nice reference for a variety of meditation practices. Much of what she says strikes a balance between traditional practices and modern-day life with Western medicine. I like that she doesn't completely discount science, although some of her advice (to drink rainwater, for example, as if it's safe to do that anywhere!) seems ignorant and unsafe to me.

Perhaps what I found most frustrating is that Tiwari herself has chosen to effectively 'check out' of society. I would find her more useful as a role model if she had found a way to merge her Vedic practices with a successful career doing something other than teaching meditation, cooking and music while living in a log cabin.

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The Path of Practice

I wish I could read this book aloud to cancer sufferers. Written as part memoir, part how-to guide, The Path of Practice is a conversational, self-described "course in healing and in living." Bri Maya maintains that "all pain is a reminder that we have strayed from the natural rhythms of life," and this book acts as a guiding light to bring us back.
My fascination with The Path of Practice took hold in the chapter on Bri Maya's personal ordeal with ovarian cancer. After fighting a two-and-a-half-year battle with operations and allopathic treatments, while simultaneously building a fast-paced career as a New York fashion designer, she retreated to the wintry woods of Vermont to die alone.
In that Vermont cabin, Bri Maya reconnected with her Indian roots of self-sustainment by baking Indian breads, sifting grains and grinding masalas. She spent six months immersed in journaling, meditation and prayers, and when she emerged from her retreat the cancer that had pervaded her vital organs had gone into remission. Bri Maya continued learning about the Vedas, reconnecting with Divine Mother, and disseminating her knowledge. She founded and runs the Wise Earth School of Ayurveda, and a charity, called Mother Om Mission, to reunite at-risk communities with the universe's natural rhythms.
Bri Maya has delved into a lifetime of experience and boiled it down into The Path of Practice, briefly but precisely explaining the key principles of sadhana, mantra, mudra, meditation, pranayama, chakras, ancestral legacies, cosmic sound and silence, doshas and cycles of the moon. Peppered with personal examples and appropriately chosen quotes from Vedic lore, this book is an excellent primer or reference book for those who feel drawn to reconnect with innate natural rhythms in their daily lives.
The chapters on "Sound medicine and spirit healing" and "The inner sound of the human voice" were of particular interest to me. Tejas, or soul vibration, "makes cosmic sound audible and produces our inner powers of transformation, our inner voice and intuition." She explains chanting exercises, prayers and mantras, and stresses the power of vibration and periods of silence. As I practised the Sanskrit chants, I serendipitously learned that the vibration will scare my kittens away from scratching up the rugeureka!
This book is a valuable cross-section of practices that facilitate a deeper connection with universal rhythms. Bri Maya's prose is lulling, accessible and entirely readable for the Ayurvedic novice, with enough comprehensive content to satisfy seasoned practitioners.

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The Path of Practice: A Woman's Book of Ayurvedic Healing

This book is a must for any woman (or man) who has a keen interest in building the best possible health practices. It has information ranging from uterine fibroids, which way to face when sleeping, to recipes and family relationship ideas. It is an extremely important book for today's reader.

"We are wellness. We are consciousness. That is our natural state. Disease is an imposter."

As one of the world's only female experts on the ancient Indian tradition of Ayurvedic medicine, renowned teacher Bri. Maya Tiwari has devoted her heart and soul to sharing the philosophy and methods that saved her from terminal cancer and redirected her life. Now, in The Path of Practice, she offers a short course in healing and living and reveals how she has gone back to the sources of Ayurvedic wisdom to reclaim time-honored, natural, and spiritual techniques for contemporary life.

Diagnosed with ovarian cancer at twenty-three, Bri. Maya was given two months to live. Her doctors' advice: die painlessly with heavy dosages of morphine. Instead, in the middle of winter, she left her career as a popular fashion designer in New York City and began several months of intensive meditation and holistic nutrition alone in a remote Vermont cabin. By Spring, her health and vitality had been restored. Inspired by dramatic visions and dreams of her family and ancestors, Bri. Maya became a student of one of India's few living masters of the traditional Vedas. Today, healthy in body and spirit, she devotes herself to teaching the wisdom practices of the Vedas to help others heal emotional and spiritual discomfort, dis-ease, and physical illness.

In The Path of Practice, Bri. Maya's gentle, compassionate voice instructs you in living life consciously in the present moment, so that you can recover your natural rhythms and align yourself and your inner cycles with the universe. With particular emphasis on using the primordial feminine healing power of shakti--which everyone possesses--Bri. Maya leads you through the daily practice, or sadhana, of a three-part wellness program that includes nutrition and cooking with whole foods, breath work and meditation, and chanting with healing sounds. Encouraged by the inspirational stories of Bri. Maya's life and those of others who have made these simple but powerful practices an integral part of their lives, you will learn how to take charge of your own health. Through Bri. Maya's unique philosophy and practice of "cosmic memory," you will discover your personal, body wisdom and intuition, your singular mission in the world, and your connection to the divine within you and around you.

Filled with illuminating insights, easy-to-follow recipes, and meditations and exercises that can be adapted to different lifestyles and traditions, The Path of Practice is one of the only holistic programs designed for women by a woman. Imbued with the spiritual strength and centeredness of its remarkable author, here is a practical and profound book you will turn to time and time again for instruction, wisdom, and peace of mind.

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