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!

meandering

Ah Chiang Mai...

I am settling into life here quite easily. Chiang mai was my home base when I was here six years ago, so it feels familiar and comfortable to me, although there are even more tourist-oriented businesses than before, and it seems a bit more crowded. But it is still lovely. I have a room in a simple guesthouse, right down the street from my favorite restaurant, the blue diamond, in the old walled city of Chiang Mai, where there aren't many blocks without a stupa or a bodhi tree. One of my favorite things to do is bicycle through the little narrow streets and see what I find. It is a small enough area that if I get lost, I can't be that far from my guesthouse. One of my favorite sights that I saw yesterday was a man taking a nap during the heat of the day, with his five little dogs, one of them he was resting his legs on (just like a bolster is used during massage!) I snapped a photo before the dogs started barking and woke him up.


If I ever feel like I don't know what to do with myself, there is usually a temple close by where I can sit and meditate while the monks chant. The weather has been sunny every day, with humidity getting pretty intense at times, and lovely cool evenings that make me snuggle into my silk sleeping sack (something I splurged on for this trip... highly recommend it for you travelers out there!) and blankets.

In Thailand, blind people are trained to do massage and there are clinics where all the therapists are blind and do massage. I have enjoyed a couple sessions with them already, and tomorrow I will get a session from a man named Sinchai. He is also a teacher of Thai massage, which peaked my curiosity because I couldn't imagine teaching and not being able to see what my students are doing. So I got to observe him teaching and see how he feels his student's position and where they are on the recipients body, and was fascinated. He had about six students, and each one took turns practicing after he demonstrated.

I found a lovely yoga studio that has anusara yoga teachers here! (one of my favorite styles of yoga) It's a small world there, yesterday I bumped into a woman who taught raw food classes when I did my fast six here years ago, a friend of a friend, and my friend Mary from Chicago stopped by too! I topped off my yoga practice in the beautiful Thai sauna complete with singing rainbow songs and chants with a new friend, and shortly melted into bed feeling totally relaxed! And tonight, they have a kirtan (yogic chanting) which I am really looking forward to. I've been feeling inspired to stay connected to my Breema practice, and I am doing self-breema in the mornings, and hope to teach a self-breema class at one of the yoga studios here before I go!

I am really looking forward to starting class on Monday with the Thai massage teacher Pichest. Even though I have studied Thai Massage with Chuck Duff, The Old Medicine Hospital, and Asokananda (now deceased), I am ready for a new perspective. I have heard such amazing things about Pichest, that he is really into the meditation aspect, making sure that you are in a good space (mentally, emotionally, physically) before you offer healing to someone else. He is very devotional, as well and expects his students to bring flowers, insence, candles and fruit to offer to Buddha. I also hear that he is quite the character, and can be a bit rough, and very unstructured... but as long as you go with a beginner's mind, and have a good sense of humor, and not many expectations, it can be an amazing experience.

Sending you a bit of sunshine!