According to Ayurveda, everything is experienced as a mixture of 20 different qualities, or attributes, which describe everything in our physical and mental world. An excess or deficiency in one of these qualities can lead to an imbalance in health. These opposite features point the way to effective diagnosis and treatment of illness in Ayurveda. Ayurveda believes that if the treatment is like the ailment it’s treating, it increases that ailment. Only an opposite quality can combat it.
| Dull | Sharp |
| Hard | Soft |
| Heavy | Light |
| Cold | Hot |
| Wet | Dry |
| Dense | Subtle |
| Rough | Smooth |
| Slow | Quick |
| Solid | Liquid |
| Oily | Brittle |