Koshthabhedah - Types of digestive tracts

In Sanskrit, Koshtha means a border. Just as a castle has its walls, a body has its border. In this verse regarding the human body, the visible, peripheral parts are mentioned as borders that surround many organs, tissues and energies of different kinds. Koshtha (the border) will reflect  how doshas iare present. When Vatta dominates within a body, the body (Koshtha) is hard on its surface, is dried out (Krura). When Pitta dominates within Koshtha, then it is soft (mrudu), flexible, smooth, shiny. If Kapha dominates in a body, then the body is tense, fat, swollen, bloated, bulky, overfull. If doshas are balanced in a body (sam), i.e., no dosha predominates, then Koshtha is neither dry, nor shiny nor fat...

A corpse will always be hard, otherwise a living body is always relatively soft.

We have to understand the concept of what is average here, what the state of equilibrium is for whatever we are observing. The qualities we observe indicate to us what kind of agni is present, and that will indicate what the dosha is, and once know that, then we know how to balance the dosha. Whatever is most obvious and striking is what should be addressed. An Ayurveda practitioner does not look for things, he perceives them. We must understand what the difference is. When we look for things, we do so according to predefined parameters, and if what we see does not conform to the parameters, we ignore it. 

For example, if you look at a garden in springtime, what do you see first - the green everywhere, or the unusual color of a blooming tulip? You notice what is unusual - the agni in the tulip is higher than the agni of everything else. Our attention automatically goes to the stronger force, always. We should never try to predict what will come to our attention. Knowledge comes when people are able to perceive, instead of when they seek something predetermined. It is only possible to genuinely perceive when the mind is calm, when we know how to detach from sensory input and then resume using the senses. We naturally focus on what is abnormal, not on what is normal, but in order to understand what is abnormal, we have to be open to the full field of input, without prejudice.