Interview with Neeshee Pandit, part 1
On Classical Ayurveda, Tibetan Medicine, Lineage Transmission et al
Below is the first part of a conversation I had recently with colleague Neeshee Pandit, Colorado-based practitioner of Ayurveda, Traditional East Asian Medicine, Tibetan Medicine and Jyotish. (We have plenty in common).
Be sure to check out Neeshee-ji’s substack, Somaraja, where he delves deep into all sorts of topics of interest Seeds readers. Keep your antennae up for more part two, along with other new voices gracing these pages in the weeks and months to come. -JHE
JHE: Tell us about your background and how you found your way to this field of traditional Asian medicine. Were Ayurveda and Tibetan Medicine on your radar screen from an early age as a possible career path, or were you going in some other direction initially?
NP: My parents immigrated to the United States from India, but I was born in the US. For most of my childhood, my grandparents also lived with us, and since they did not speak English, I became naturally bilingual at a young age. My grandfather, in particular, was a significant influence on me. I remember him grinding and preparing very pungent herbal preparations when I was young. He was a professor of history, but he had a keen interest in Ayurveda, Astrology, and Spirituality––and we would often discuss these topics together. So I was exposed to Ayurveda at a young age, though at the time I had no idea I would end up pursuing it as a career path. Much of Ayurvedic wisdom is embedded in Indian culture––in the use of spices in food and in simple home remedies. If anyone had digestive symptoms, my parents would pull open the drawer and give them a piece of sunthi (Ayurvedic dry ginger with limestone). My grandmother kept cloves in her purse and would often keep one in her mouth. When my cousins were babies, they had terrible colic, and my grandfather treated them with his own herbal preparation, the smell of which I can still recall!
My conscious interest in medicine began around age 15, when my father gave me a book on Chinese face diagnosis. I was fascinated with the book and the way it described the human body as a system of correspondences. From there, I somehow found my way to Ted Kaptchuck's Web That Has No Weaver, an excellent introduction to Chinese medicine that solidified my interest in acupuncture. At the time, there was only one acupuncturist where I was living, and I went to see her to experience what it was all about. It was at this time that I also started reading Dr. Lad's classic, Ayurveda: The Science of Self-Healing, a copy of which had been floating around my house since I was a child. I have to admit that I found the Ayurvedic doctrine difficult to parse and much more abstract than the Chinese medicine books I had been reading. It is a strange thing to feel more interested in the arts of a culture other than my own, but this has been an enduring pattern in my life.
My interest in medicine was concurrent with a spiritual revolution in my life. I was raised Hindu, but by the time I was 16, I had done a 10-day vipassana retreat and was embracing Tibetan Buddhism. I attended a local Tibetan center and became a student of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. He is an important figure in my life because he founded the Shang Shung Institute, where I would study Tibetan Medicine exactly 10 years later. At this time, Tibetan Medicine was not at all on my radar. I have some recollection of the Tibetan lama at the center mentioning Tibetan medicine once. My awareness of Tibetan Medicine was in seed form. By the time I was graduating high school, I had encountered another spiritual giant in Adi Da Samraj, whose autobiography (The Knee of Listening) deeply impressed me. I was a satisfied Buddhist, but a friend implored me to read Adi Da's works. At first, I was less than interested, but over the course of two years, Adi Da's presence in my life grew tremendously and mysteriously. I began to experience his spiritual transmission moving and working in my body, especially when I would look at his photo or read his words. He would come in my dreams, embrace me, and fill me with his brightness. I began to enjoy a spiritual relationship to him that felt more real than anything else.
This led me to become a formal devotee of Adi Da in 2008. After high school, I forwent college, and moved to Adi Da's ashram in northern California. From 2008-2023, I lived either in or adjacent to one of Adi Da's ashrams. The ashram was a place of spiritual refuge and depth for me, a holy place where I felt Adi Da's spiritual transmission with incredible potency. I lived like a monk, living the daily cycle of meditation, puja, chanting, study, and service. Early on, I also became involved in the editorial department that edited and prepared Adi Da's manuscripts for publication. I have worked as one of Adi Da's editors now for 15 years.
It was amidst this spiritual concentration in my life that I successively pursued Ayurveda, Tibetan Medicine, and Chinese Medicine. I decided to study Ayurveda not only because it was my heritage, but because it was available. As an unlicensed and unregulated profession, Ayurvedic education has a level of flexibility that Chinese medicine does not. This means I was able to complete most of my Ayurvedic education at a distance, without having to re-locate for full-time school. After I finished the programs at the California College of Ayurveda, I went on to study with Vaidya R.K. Mishra who was the lineage holder for his family tradition of Shaka Vansya Ayurveda. Vaidya's emphasis was deeply classical, he could quote the Caraka Samhita at random, and described his approach as "sutra to science". He had a special focus on pulse diagnosis and marma therapy.
Shortly thereafter, I decided to pursue what became a five-year study of Tibetan Medicine. I was very interested in how the Tibetans synthesized Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine. I had a feeling they had preserved another current of Ayurvedic thinking that was perhaps lost in India (and certainly absent in the West), and that it would bring me closer to my original interest in Chinese Medicine. In Tibetan Medicine, I found a unique holism and integrative approach, where a multitude of medical systems had been articulated into a coherent framework of theory and practice. I also learned in a traditional context, where my teacher, Dr. Phuntsog Wangmo, recited every verse of the Four Tantras to us, emphasizing oral transmission and the importance of lineage. She treated me like family and embodied the meaning of medicine as a spiritual practice. She has been a tremendous influence on me. Tibetan Medicine shares a number of modalities with Chinese Medicine––moxibustion, bloodletting, cupping, herbs, etc. All of this revitalized my interest in acupuncture.
Finally, in 2020, I began my formal study of Chinese Medicine. I started in an unusual manner by training in Worsley Five-Element Acupuncture. This was technically a post-graduate program, so I went somewhat in reverse. I learned the system I was interested in practicing and then enrolled in a 3-year Chinese Medicine program. I'm currently in the final months of the Master's program at the Middle Way Acupuncture Institute. In looking back, I'm very happy I decided to study all three systems, as each have completed something for me that would have remained unknown. For me, there was always a need to look further and to cross boundaries of knowledge and culture. All three systems agree with each other in significant ways, but they also each have very unique contributions and I feel the need for all of them. I am very grateful to all the teachers who were lights on my path and who continue to show me the way.
Part two coming soon.
Neeshee Pandit is a practitioner of Ayurveda, Tibetan Medicine, and Vedic Astrology. As a practitioner, Neeshee values the traditional pedagogy of lineage, oral tradition, and the teacher-disciple relationship. In 2021, Neeshee trained in Worsley Five-Element Acupuncture at the Worsley Institute and subsequently enrolled in a Master's program at the Middle Way Acupuncture Institute in Mt. Vernon, WA, where he is currently in the final months of the program. In addition to his private practice in Boulder, CO, Neeshee spends his time writing about medicine, teaching at The School of Ayurveda, and serving on the Worsley Institute Board of Trustees. s a practitioner of Ayurveda, Tibetan Medicine, and Vedic Astrology. As a practitioner, Neeshee values the traditional pedagogy of lineage, oral tradition, and the teacher-disciple relationship. In 2021, Neeshee trained in Worsley Five-Element Acupuncture at the Worsley Institute and subsequently enrolled in a Master's program at the Middle Way Acupuncture Institute in Mt. Vernon, WA, where he is currently in the final months of the program. In addition to his private practice in Boulder, CO, Neeshee spends his time writing about medicine, teaching at The School of Ayurveda, and serving on the Worsley Institute Board of Trustees.