hummingbird

As I prepare to leave this beautiful land, I am so grateful for all the gentleness I have experienced here in so many ways. Even though Thai massage is known for its deep touch, there is a gentleness in many of the practitioners touch. In this gentleness, there is an atmosphere of nurturing and acceptance. I believe this comes through the strong Buddhist teachings here that encourage people to be more accepting of life. When someone touches me with acceptance, I feel comfortable, and I can let go of my mind's idea that I should be any different than I am in that moment. I may have thoughts like "I wish my back was looser" or "I really should have meditated today" or "I'm so lazy, I should really exercise more". But when I feel the atmosphere of acceptance, even as the practitioner is assessing my energy and my body and emotions, I can let go.

I felt so nurtured and accepted in the loving hands of Mor Noi, who had the most gentle of all the hands that I felt in Thailand. She is very tuned in to subtle energy, and within a few minutes of working with me, she could sense most of my physical challenges, as well as emotional patterns. And to each thing she discovered, she responded with love and acceptance. She used such a gentle touch to encourage the energy to flow, and I could really feel it! My friend Mary (who I know from Chicago) is now apprenticing with her, so she also had her hands on me, and it was like having these gentle gardeners, encouraging the little weeds to come out and release so that I can plant my the seeds of my dreams and intentions into soil that is clear and fertile. It is amazing what a little gentle love can do.

And speaking of love, I am in awe of the beautiful people that I have spent time with in Chiang Mai! On my last visit with some of them, I was gifted with a tiny gentle hummingbird wing that my friend found near our hostel, and sung and danced through the bamboo walkway off for my journey to India.

Hummingbirds symbolize the ability to stop in the middle of activity and be still, appreciating the wonder and joy of daily life. They also symbolize the ability to to pierce through tough outer shell and sense the inner sweetness. And the twittering, humming sound that they make gives them an internal massage that restores health and balance.

It is wonderful to have so many well wishes for my journey, from the tuk-tuk driver to the acupuncturist to my new friends, the sweet lady at the guesthouse, and all the travelers who have been there before me! Of course it is going to be an amazing journey. I can sense my fears, (as many people describe India as the most intensely challenging country to travel in) and I am acknowledging them, and bringing my awareness back to my breath, and my weight on the ground, and I step forward with confidence that it is all so perfect.

I arrive in Delhi airport tomorrow afternoon and will be picked up by a van service that will bring me directly to the ashram in Rishikesh where I will be studying yoga for a week or more!

I'm sending you all a little gentle hummingbird medicine...

village

I just spent ten days in a small Lahu hill tribe village in Northern Thailand, studying Thai massage with teachers who teach Asokananda's style of Thai massage. I studied in this village when I was here in 2004, and after hearing one of the assistants share his love of the village life and the meditation practice, I could feel the village calling me back. I longed to witness the simple life there, and I wanted to freshen my memory of the massage and meditation teachings, as well as get a break from the hussle and bussle of Chiang Mai.

Ho Nam Rin is a small village of about 500 Lahu people, a traditionally nomadic group of people who used to live in China. Only one person in the village actually does Thai massage, but my teacher Asokananda was invited to teach there, and set up his life there. He died of cancer in 2005, but his instructors still carry on his traditions with much love, compassion and wisdom. The slit bamboo platform where the classes are taught is right in the middle of the village, so students have to learn to live with the many sounds that come from the kids, pigs, chicken, puppies, kareoke, and fire-crackers! It is very interesting to meditate with fire-crackers exploding every three seconds. It was especially lively in the village this time because it was the Chinese New Year, and people were visiting from neighboring Lahu villages, and there was much celebration including pounding of rice, drinking, dancing, firecrackers, slaughtering of pigs, giddy teenagers singing songs with their cell phones.

But the scene was very serene up the hill where we gathered every day at 5:30 am for an hour of silent vipassana meditation, and a full yoga class. You could still hear the roosters echoing through the valley, but it was much more peaceful there. My instructor Laurino spends a lot of time meditating, and it was great to practice with him. The rest of the day was spent watching demonstrations of Thai massage, and practicing on each other. There were many assistants who were available to help us with any questions we had about the stretches and points we were working, as the work is very specific. The meals were very simple: sticky rice, vegetables, fruit, spicy peppers, and the occasional egg and brown rice.

I shared a lovely little bamboo bungalow in the outskirts of the village with a lovely French woman who helped motivate me to wake up for meditation. Though there were some nights where our third room mate kept me up for most of the night (I never did find out what it was, but it sounded bigger than a gecko, and it liked to chew on plastic). I decided not to make a fuss about it because it probably lived there most days of the year when there were no massage students staying there. The villagers would pass by our bungalow with their water buffalo on their way to graze in the meadows up the hill from us. One afternoon, as I attempted to take a nap, they were grazing just outside of my bungalow. I must have been really tired because I was still able to doze off despite the ringing of the bells around their necks.

The village really came alive during the Chinese New Year festivities. The Lahu people dressed up in their traditional colorful clothing, and blew off fireworks day and night. On new years eve, my vegetarian belly did a flip flop as I had to pass the central washing area in the village where they were smoking and butchering a half dozen pigs. It was quite the scene, villagers were walking away with buckets full of meat, and the dogs were feasting on the scraps. Many people stayed up all night to dance around in thier circular dance pit to the sounds of their traditional instruments. A few of us from the massage class went to watch, and they dragged us onto the dance floor where we attempted to copy what looked like simple foot work. Everyone had a good laugh that night. Our landlord invited us into his small bamboo home for a new years dinner that included pork, sticky rice, "french fries", and sticky rice cakes that were dipped in honey. I politely passed on the pork and pulled my cashews out of my bag to offer to the table, but I did have some broth to go on my sticky rice, and it was delicious! He was such a sweet man, and kept expressing his joy and gratitude that he was able to have us over for dinner.

I really enjoyed my classmates, who were from all over the world. Giving and receiving that much bodywork, meditating, and staying in a place where there aren't as many distractions (like TVs, internet, pubs, etc) can be a bit intense. Emotions surfaced, healing and understanding happened, and by the end of the 10 days, I felt pretty close with this group.

So now I am back in Chiang Mai, visiting with friends, new and old, and studying with Pichest for a few more days before I leave for India on Saturday for the 2010 International Yoga Festival in Rishikesh!

bao bao

I had a lovely day today, I woke up early and rode out to the countryside with a couple friends from Chicago, to have a massage with a medicine man named Maw Taw (sp?). He lives out in the countryside, near rice paddies and coconut trees. Before I got there, one of the healers suggested I make an offering of 39 Baht (Thai currency) to the Buddha. They had a separate room for meditation, with buddha statues and pictures of teachers and monks. I lit my incense and made my offering, and then we stepped into the warm sauna, and I felt comforted by the familiar smell of a Thai sauna. Once we were good and warmed up, we changed into really funny comfortable clothes and got massaged in the same open-air space. Each therapist started with quiet centering time, and an opening prayer or chant, and then started the massage. Maw Taw was not shy about jumping right in, and without warming me up, jumped right into my my tight muscles and tendons. He was using a technique called "nerve touch" and did a lot of "plucking", similar to playing to guitar, along my nerves and tendons. This is not my favorite technique, and I ended up doing a lot of laughing and saying, "bao bao" (gentle!) and he laughed right with me! I can still feel the strange electric energy flowing down my arms... very strange. But he did find my tight spots, and spent some time getting the energy flowing better in those areas. After our massages, we had fresh papaya and banana and tea, and hopped back into the sauna for another round.

We went out for a lovely lunch under a huge banyan tree where I ate a new leafy green that was like little baby ferns, and delicious. After lunch, I wandered over to the flower festival where I saw more orchids than you could possibly imagine, plus floats covered in flowers and seeds, in the shapes of elephants and deities, and all kinds of animals.

So, I had an amazing two weeks studying Thai Massage with Pichest. Tomorrow I will head back to the Lahu Hill Tribe village where I studied Thai Massage six years ago with a man named Asokananda. I am looking forward to getting out of the city, living the simple village life, in more of a retreat setting, where we all eat together and stay in simple bamboo bungalos, skattered throughout the village. I am also looking forward to learning more about meditation, and I can hopefully get myself up and out of bed before the sun rises to participate in the group meditation on the mountain. So I will not have email access until the 19th, which will probably be a nice "fast" from technology.

Peace!

listening

A week ago Monday morning, in the old walled city of Chiang Mai, I met up with a group of people from all over the world to go to the market to buy flowers, incense, candles and fruit for an offering to Buddha, God, and to the lineage of teachers of Thai massage. Known as "Nuad bo Rarn" here, Thai Massage is an ancient healing practice that uses "sacred medicine". It was brought here from India through China along with the teachings of the Buddha. There was a hermit, known today as Dr Shivago, who offered bodywork and healing to the Buddha and his sangha to keep them healthy in body and mind as they traveled and shared their teachings. This practice was passed down from generation to generation in the temples, and in families.

We drove 20 minutes outside of Chiang Mai to meet Pichest Boonthume, who is one of the more traditional Thai massage teachers in Thailand, and is truly a master. His teachings are deeper than I had expected them to be. I was interested in studying with Pichest because I had heard that he has found ways to use his body intelligently and not injure himself. I also knew that he did very deep physical work, but I had no idea his teachings were so deep emotionally and spiritually.

We begin the day in a relaxed way, people filtering into the classroom, which is a large room, with about 1/4 of the space used as a temple to the Buddha, teachers and our parents, and spirits. There are mats placed around the room, and pillows, and not one single chair. Pichest gives talks about meditation and dharma, and the importance of taking good care of ourselves so that we can give good feelings to people when we are giving massages. He shows us ways to get deep pressure without using too much energy or force, and even shows us ways for us to receive benefits (this reminds me of the principle of "Mutual Support" I have learned from Breema Bodywork. We spend some time praying and chanting to the buddha, and to the lineage of teachers, as well as spirit. The rest of the day is spent watching him give amazing effective treatments, and laughing (he really loves to make us laugh), and watching how he assesses the body with his heart, not his mind. We then take turns working on each other, and practicing listening and maybe some of the new techniques he demonstrated (but only if they are a good fit for the person we are working with).

My sessions with him have been quite intense and profound. He is incredibly intuitive and could see where I was holding on to emotions and things from my past, and used some ancient chants and folk medicine to help me to let go of this old energy. I felt incredibly light and free after this... like I had been carrying an invisible backpack, and it was suddenly gone. The next time, he was working very deeply on my neck and I burst into tears, but not because of the pain, but because an emotional block was being released.

I am beginning to understand the power of the heart, and the importance of taking time to sit with myself and listen. Listen to the emotions and thoughts, and watch them pass. He says that when you have a thought, it's like a big rock that is tossed into a still pond, and we usually follow the ripples which can be big and dramatic. But if we simply follow the rock, it simply falls to the bottom of the pond.

I resonate very deeply with his teachings, and feel that my intentions are very similar to his when I work. I can't tell you how often he says "listening" and "from the heart". And the name of my practice is Listening Touch and my logo is hands in the shape of a heart, with a ripple. So now, I will practice deepening in with my heart, and aim to not follow the ripples, both in my meditation, and in my bodywork.

Today was another amazing day. Pichest guided me to make a special offering and I received a blessing from a American Buddhist nun who only comes to see Pichest once per year. When she gave me blessings from the ancient mother goddess, I felt an old, negative thought pattern slip away. As I sat, listening, I could feel deep peace and unconditional love settle into my being, and it was sealed with gold leaf on my heart.

Wow... I am so grateful... and sending you a little virtual blessing of gold on your heart!