Abstract
Despite the widespread critique of the hegemonic Cartesian view of human nature, no alternatives adequately surpass its limitations in the field of health. The philosophical base which informs these western dominant approaches is implicit, even when eastern health practices are imported. These have been acknowledged and promoted in the public healthcare system in Brazil since the 2006 health policy and later government decrees. Adaptations and western creations based on eastern practices are severed from their original tenets, fueled by commercialism and ignorance of its history. In the process, its integrative approach is lost, as the complementary health practice is used in psychology or in the mechanical and biologizing biomedical model. This article thus presents the philosophical Indian tenets of the Tantras in their historical context, as a foundation for Ayurveda and the contemplative practices aimed at spiritual development. Its brief and necessarily incomplete contextualization is based on academic analysis of historical sanskrit texts by scholars, Indian, American and Tibetan authors and teachers of lineage traditions. The concepts of mind, body, awareness and energy compose this nondual approach to human nature integrated with the universe in a complex and dynamic way, developed and researched throughout thousands of years.
Keywords:
Tantra; meditation; yoga; mind; Ayurveda