Stars

I wrote this for our newsletter. Figured I'd copy and paste it here just for fun.

Fresh from the Rocky Mountains near Aspen, Colorado, where I went camping with my son for a couple weeks, I am back in the city, a bit closer to sea level where the oxygen is thick and the temperature is high. And the stars are hiding.

I think the thing that hit me the most was the stars at night. I forgot. I mean I completely forgot that there were stars in the sky. At least more than a few scattered here and there. It was like I've been eating one of those tasteless winter tomatoes for so long that it never occures to me that they resemble tomatoes in shape and color only. And when I finally taste a real one, the explosion of flavor wakes me up as if from a restless sleep.

Seeing the milky way, those millions of stars like a soft cloud band stretching across the sky literally took my breath away. And even on that moonless night, the stars caused the prairie to glow as if from within. I felt the connection to power so vast and wondrous that I had this strange feeling of being an infant, cradled in creation.

And then appeared a meteorite, so close I swear I heard it, that caused the hairs on the back of my neck to dance.

May we all re-remember the feeling of the stars in the sky.

Thai Massage Basics

Paul and Paul had a grand old time teaching some Thai massage basics to a group of people in the yoga teacher training program at the school as well as massage therapists and people just exploring. Thanks to Marty Tribble for helping to set this up and to Pam Bliss, owner, yogini and visionary. Thank you for letting us be a part of your global mission.

June Graduate Clinic!

If you would like to receive work from one of our graduates, we welcome you to join us. We will be open every Tuesday evening in June for you to receive some of the best bodywork in town!

This is a great opportunity to receive a reasonably priced Thai Massage from graduates of CSTM who are currently working in the field. These practitioners are highly motivated to share their passion for the owrk with the general public. They are also committed to continuing their professional growth.

Just like student clinic, we will be in a big room with other people giving and receiving, just like in Thailand. One fo the directors, Paul Weitz or Paul Fowler, will be there too, keeping the energy light, fun and peaceful. They will be guiding the therapists on occasion using the space as an opportunity for learning and understanding.

You can choose one day or you can book all three days if you wish!

If you are interested in joining us, please contact our Graduate Clinic Director, Yuko at kajino74@yahoo.com or (312) 203-3940.

We look forward to seeing you!

Thai massages at Green Festival!

CSTM graduates Johanna Vargas, Aurora Tabar, Lauren Daniel and Keom Granger worked our booth at Green Festival this year giving samples of Thai massage. It's nice to see that you can create a meditative space in the middle of so much noise and busyness.

Feldenkrais

There is a Feldenkrais workshop happening that I wish I could go to!
Over the last month or so I've taken movement lessons with Michael Eastwood, a student of the Anat Baniel Feldenkrais Method, and I've been very inspired and affected by the process of this work.

Pathways in Rolling: Friday, May 28, 2010
6:45-8 pm, $10 drop-in-no one turned away
OUTERspace: 1474 N. Milwaukee

In this workshop, we will explore a variety of ways to organize to roll including judo rolls, rolling like a baby, like a bear, rolling through sitting to standing, etc but with very little momentum. Eliminating the push of momentum, we can begin to explore the sequential pathways through our whole self and hopefully discover new ways to initiate, follow-through, highlight, transition, and organize movement.

This workshop is based in The Feldenkrais Method and Awareness Through Movement®. Awareness Through Movement lessons teach us about where we might be overworking and holding, how to work with gravity, and how we can organize oursleves differently,-to have dynamic alignment and to move with more of ourselves available to us.- to be free. The Feldenkrais Method goes beyond the mechanics of movement and functional anatomy, and into the whole self, intending to illuminate awareness, patterns, and expand our self-image. This work unveils methods that we can, in Moshes words, "become aware of what we are doing, and not what we say or think that we are doing", so that we can more and more do what we intend.

Graduate Clinic

I sat in on the Graduate Clinic last Tuesday and took a few photographs. It was a very peaceful room.

Receive a Discounted Thai Massage at our Graduate Clinic!

Every Tuesday evening in May at our studio in the Board of Trade building, we are conducting a clinic featuring the work of graduates of our program. The clinic will be conducted in a group setting similar to what is done in Thailand. The group energy is one of the things that makes this experience so much fun. One of the school directors will be there as well to oversee the work and make sure it is the best that it can be for you.

We still have spaces open for May 18 and May 25! If you are interested, please contact our Graduate Clinic Coordinator Yuko Kajino (kajino74@yahoo.com) or call her at 312-203-3940 to sign up for your treatment now! Graduate clinic runs on Tuesday evenings from 6:45-8:45pm. Treatments are two hours long! Please be there between 6:00 and 6:20 to take care of paperwork and get comfortable. Cost is $80 and is payable by cash or check. We look forward to sharing this amazing practice with you!

Happy Thai New Year Temple Style

Today, I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon at an amazing temple and celebrate Songkran with the monks and rest of the Sangha. I'm sorry I don't know the name of it now, but it is the temple of the late revered teacher Achaan Chah who was Jack Kornfield's teacher among others. He taught in the Thai Forest Tradition and was the main inspiration for Theravada Buddhism traveling to the west Anyways, my teacher Herman is the doctor to the head monks at this temple and brought me there along with O, his wife, and kids. We chanted a bit and then got in line to do the 'monk soaks layman' ritual.

Basically, the monks are all seated in a row and the parishioners get on their knees and knee walk down the line. In front of each monk they pour some water on the monks hands as a sign of respect and then the monk responds by pouring cups, bowls and sometimes buckets of ice water on their head and back. They will often lift the back collar of the persons shirt to make sure a healthy dose of ice cubes makes its way down their back. It's a breathtaking 15 minutes, literally. And of course, me being the lone farang, they had an especially good time with me, sometimes pouring their entire bucket on my head, shoulders and back. Everyone was laughing the whole time. It was a whole other side of songkran, that's for sure.

It was funny watching people all dressed nice for temple and getting soaked top to bottom. And the fact that young and old could walk on their knees down the whole line. Not something you would see in the western world, that's for sure!

I ended up going home on the back of Songtao which was full so I had to stand on the back (meaning a ledge on the outside of the bus). I was the sole target for buckets of ice water and waterguns. The employees at the local Shell station, completely geared up in their Shell uniforms, wailing on sitting ducks like me was a pretty funny sight. I got home shivering and happy. And headed for a hot shower!

Violence in Bkk

Last time I was here, less than a year and a half ago, the yellow shirts (characterized as mainly urban intellectuals) took over the airport and forced the dissolution of the ruling party. This year, the red shirts (characterized as mainly rural laborers) are possibly doing the same thing. Last year, the yellow shirts protested 192 days before the government walked, this year, it's been about 30 days, though 30 days in 100-110 degree heat in the shade (and much of the time there is no shade!). Thousands of boiled brains and a generous serving of hot chili peppers Thai style, makes for one spicy somtom (a favorite dish of the Thai people consisting of crunchy strands of green papaya, raw green beans, dried shrimp, fish sauce, peanuts, palm sugar, lemon juice tomatoes, and of course lots of little red and green chiles). Throw in a healthy dose of 24/7 firey speechifying blasting through the streets of Bangkok as well as TV's and radios throughout the country, a group of mainly rural people who feel like they are getting a raw deal (though are doing quite well on the 1000 baht a day they receive to join the protest!), an ubber-wealthy, fugitive, ex-prime minister pulling strings from some secret location, a questionable military consisting of mainly rural folks themselves (many are called watermelons - green on the outside, red on the inside) and again, that somtom gets even spicier.

The above picture shows the consecutive headlines of the Bangkok Post from April 7 (There'll Be No Force)-today, the 11th (The Battle For Bangkok). Hmmm.

The picture is so very Thai, with the red shirts putting monks on the front line against the oncoming line of soldiers with shields. It would be very unlikely for anyone to cross a monk here in this devoutly religious Buddhist country. So, the military had their women go to the front lines. Since monks can't touch a woman (if they do, a very involved purifying ceremony must ensue), the monks retreated. Score one for the government.

There have been many strange moments like this in the stalemate leading up to yesterdays confrontation. People here are praying for peace. A lot of fingers crossed (actually they don't know what that means - I asked today), or the Thai equivalent.

There are no problems in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is a predominently red shirt town. There have been no protests, no violence. Everyone happy happy, sabai, sabai. No prom-plem. Life goes on as normal. Songkran will go on as normal and people will celebrate and have a good time in the way Thai people do.

The only problem is in a small section of Bangkok, so even Bangkok is not a problem as long as you stay away from the protest sites. As horrible as yesterday was, it's magnified a million times by the media making it seem like the country is on fire. Maybe a millionth of the country is on fire. Something like that. And hopefully they come to a resolution shortly and move on. Time will tell. Let's all hope for a peaceful solution so all the protesters can come home to a dry shirt and some red pork and rice and take a little rest from the somtom!

Happy Thai New Year!

It's the year of the Buddha 2553 this week and time for the most insane holiday of the year in Thailand; Songkran. Basically, the whole country takes off work and plays with water in the street for a week. It's been 105 degrees for a week now and will be going up the next few days. So it makes complete sense. Everyone is fair game, whether you are in a suit and tie or shorts and t-shirt. You can't walk down the street in the center of Chiang Mai without getting soaked by a grinning kid with a supersoaker complete with backpack water canister or an old lady with a garden hose or a young man with a gallon bucket. Most Thai's love it, though there are plenty of detractors as you might imagine. It's dangerous on the motorbikes, when someone throws a bucket of water in your face at 30 miles an hour. And the roads can get pretty slippery too. A friend of mine had a bucket of ice water thrown at her while she was riding her motorbike at last years Songkran and took a spill. Anyways, I will be sure to wrap my bag in plastic tomorrow before I venture out to study!

My New Teacher

Meet Herman. I met him about 3 weeks ago and from pretty much the first day, I knew that I wanted to study with him. After the second day, I realized two weeks wasn't going to be enough, so I extended my trip a couple of weeks to get more time. He's Chi Gong practitioner and well as a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine. However, he doesn't really like either of those titles, and prefers to think of himself as a person who helps people on their healing journey.

He is the most thoughtful, intelligent, solid teacher I've ever had. His understanding of energy is deep and vast. It is connected with reality on it's most fundamental level. We were doing one pose the other day and I asked, should my legs be completely straight or slightly bent. "Wrong question" he said. It's not about do you straighten your legs or do you bend you knees, but, where is the energy most flowing, where is there both strength and relaxation. Where is there groundedness and stability? Where is there energy connecting your upper leg to the lower leg?

There are rules in is Chi gong practice, though all of them point in the same direction and are based in the chinese concept of harmony and balance, yin and yang. Chi Gong takes these principles and applies them to the body, to the positions. Yesterday he said, the dhamma is the nature, yes? The law of nature. You can find he dhamma when you write, when you draw, and here, we are finding the dhamma in the body; in our bodies expression.

I work with him one on one 4-8 or even more hours a day. Sometimes we work on the Chi Gong forms, sometimes he teaches me about Chinese Medicine. Sometimes we talk about the nature of suffering or reincarnation or metta. He encourages me to question him. And I do so often. Whether it be reincarnation or western vs eastern medicine, we have healthy discussions. Yesterday we talked for an hour about metta. What it is and what it isn't. And the importance of choosing wisely where you give, and to whom you give and what your true intention is while giving. Just giving is not enough, in fact, sometimes it is wrong. You have to be intelligent, he says when and when not to give.

We talk about how to protect our energy and what that even means in a very real sense. We learn how to fall, how to catch someone falling, how to move the body when a car is heading for us and the importance waiting and not just reacting. We talk about how to work with someone with a painful back, modifications of the chi gong movements, teaching me and then other people the incredible subtleties of the breath, what it sounds like at the beginning, middle and end of a exhale and where the holding is, or the overexertion is, or the underexertion that loses energy.

I practice massage with him and he is teaching me how energy gets lost when my thumb is positioned in a certain way and how that energy bounces back into me and helps me clue into the tension it creates. We talk about how to walk and how to move from the Dantian and how when I kick up my knee, the difference between moving from the Dantian and moving from the joint, thereby stressing the joint and causing more problems.

You can see how this is a powerful practice that is directly connected to my massage practice as well as learning how to heal the body. In a way, I've been looking for a practice to compliment the Thai massage. I've been shying away from yoga for a number of years now, but haven't found a way to really work with people to help them heal themselves. Because no matter how good our bodywork sessions are, if people go back to their life and fall into the same old habits and have no tools with which to make real changes in their body, then the next time they see us, they will be in the same place they were previously.

I look forward to sharing these teachings when I return and into the future, as I slowly incorporate this practice into my body.

Beautiful Bali

I was just looking through some pictures from the trip and noticed this one from an island off the coast of Bali called Nusa Lembongan. It's really beautiful so I thought I would share it with you. The trees are mangrove trees which, by definition are trees that thrive in salt water conditions. And yes, that's a volcano in the background. Enjoy!

Don't worry, though, I'm still in Thailand!

Myanmar!

I am excited to have, after all these years, finally stepped over the boarder into Myanmar (the former Burma). Featuring one of the most repressive regimes in the world, I am happy to say that my boarder crossing was fairly uneventful and not even that strange. I went there to get a two week visa extension. I was basically participating in the dance of the farang (foreigners - ex-patriots), who, on a periodic basis, need to leave Thailand either into Myanmar, Laos, Malasia or Cambodia, get their passport stamped, pay a fee, and then re-enter Thailand with another month or two (or in my case, two weeks), to kick around this strange and beautiful country.

The crazy thing about my trip was that it was so unexpected and therefore done in a unusual way. Usually people just take bus from Chiang Mai, over the hills and mountains in an overly air conditioned, but comfortable bus, directly to Mai Sai, the Thai border town, cross over, get back on the bus, and head back to Chiang Mai that day. But I got some misinformation in which I was told that I could do all my visa extension in Chiang Mai. But when I got to the immigration office yesterday morning at 9, they said that they only do 7 day extensions. So, my friend, in her SUV (an unusual tank of a car in this land of motorcycles), raced me to the bus station, while working the cell phone to figure out how I was going to get there and back in one day. The direct bus to Mai Sai had already left but the bus to Chaing Rai was about to leave. So after a quick breakfast of some classic Thai northern sausage and sticky rice, i jumped on. The day went like this: Over-airconditioned 4 hour ride over twisting mountain roads to Chiang Rai. Tuk tuk (little three wheel open air taxi) to the other bus station in Chiang Rai. 2 hours on a local bus with seats so small that i had to sit completely sideways and when it filled up, i gave my seat to a pregnant woman and stood the rest of the way but i was too tall so i had to crane my neck to keep it from hitting the ceiling which it did every time we hit a bump. A motorcycle taxi from the Mai Sai bus station to the boarder. A motorcycle taxi from the boarder back to the Mai sai bus station. After consulting and realizing that the last bus from Chaing Rai was leaving at 5:30, I paid 400 baht ($15) to a motorcycle taxi to take me the 30 miles to Chaing Rai. After two check points and a thorough going over by the Thai police (to make sure I wasn't smuggling any gems or drugs from Myanmar), we made it to Chaing Rai with 5 minutes left before the bus left. I jumped on the bus, not so nice as the first, and took the most jarring, whiplash inducing bus ride back to Chiang Mai. Then the final tuk tuk ride back to my hotel by 10 pm. Another Thailand adventure under my belt!

More Pichest Wisdom - Take care of yourself!

Pichest is constantly trying to get us to understand one simple, yet extremely difficult piece of wisdom. It's this..."if client comes in with problem, and you have same problem, then how to fix? Cannot fix! Cannot help!"

It's a call to action for all of us who work in the field of helping others. If we don't understand our own problems; our own physical problems, our own mental problems, our depression, fear,and of course, most of all, desire, of which all human suffering is rooted (so spoke the Buddha), then how can we help those who are struggling with the same challenges. It's a call to action to get our own house in order. To slow down, to work more deeply on our own stuff, to improve our mental and physical strength. Because if we don't, then what do we really have to give except techniques. And as Pichest is fond of saying, "technique no feel!" In other words, when you do a technique on someone that you saw from someone else and apply it without wisdom, without determining if that would truly help, without deeply sensing, then we are nothing more than book learners. And book learners are disconnected with reality. The only book we need to read is the one we are touching. All the questions and all the answers are there. It is up to us to learn to read the language of the body, the language of the heart.

Another Pichestism goes like this..."mind no feel, but body feel". In other words,the body is a victim to the minds desires. The mind wants, and the body has to put up with what it wants. "But the body is telling, but don't know how to listen". We only hear the chatter, the desire of the mind, and it drowns out what the body is already saying. So we injure our bodies and other bodies constantly through unwise thoughts, unwise words, and unwise actions.

To bring this full circle, we must, as people who want to help others, help ourselves first. Take care of ourselves first. Then, when we are healthy and strong and understand how to heal our own bodies, we can truly assist others in helping them to heal their own bodies as well.

Mary and Michelle in Thailand

Last fall two CSTM graduates, Mary and Michelle, headed off for Thailand to study with a very special and respected teacher called Pichest Boonthumme.
They've been keeping a blog together about their experiences.
Michelle writes:

As we spend more time in (Pichest's) space and witness and receive more interactions, we see that much more is happening energetically at Pichest’s than appears on the surface (in fact, this “other” work is often happening precisely at those times when one might have the impression that absolutely “nothing” is happening.)

I like this description...the idea that something is happening while it might seem like nothing is happening. You can see more pictures and read about their experience at: http://thaitravellers.wordpress.com/

What is Ayurveda?

What is Ayurveda and what does it have to do with Thai massage?
Ayurveda developed in India over 5000 years ago. In Sanskrit the word “ayu” means life and “veda” means knowledge/science. Ayurvedic medicine uses a number of tools such as diet, behavior, lifestyle, herbs, massage and yoga. Like most holistic approaches, it focuses on balance as the key to healing and healthy living.

In Ayurveda there are three basic constitutions; Vata, Pitta and Kapha.
Vata is air/space, Pitta is fire/water and Kapha is water/earth. Within each person there is a unique balance of these three energies. For some people it might be fairly even, others might lean much more toward one (or two) of the doshas. These elements are a part of us and affect everything - our personality, the way our body looks and feels, our likes and dislikes, the way we fit in with the world around us. Some of these qualities are inherent while others fluctuate and shift.

When I first learned about the doshas I was a little skeptical. It seemed overly simplified and I wanted to avoid stereotyping people, especially in terms of body types or characteristics. But as I started observing my family and friends and asking them questions, the principles of the doshas really rang true. I saw that I have a lot of fiery friends in my life...and I've noticed several of these people are also fire signs. I don't know a lot about astrology but the aspect of the elements was always what sounded the most interesting to me.

So what does Thai massage have to do with any of this? Though Thai massage has a long history in Thailand, its origins are actually in India and it is interconnected with Ayurvedic and yoga practices. If you have received a Thai massage, you know it is very physical and grounding. There is flowing movement, stretching and sometimes deep muscle compression. But it is also energy work. A learned Thai practitioner will connect with the energy in your body and help move it. This doesn’t mean just one thing. It is unique for everyone, and unique to each session. A practitioner might focus on moving energy where it is stuck, settling energy where it is overactive, bringing warmth where there is coldness, or a lightness where there is heaviness. Maybe the emotions are also touched in some way.

All of this relates to the theory of doshas and the presence of these elemental qualities - air, fire, water, earth. Just to give an example - if someone has a lot of fire in their body he/she might respond to conflict with anger, have a hearty appetite or be more susceptible to infections and inflammatory diseases. He/she might have a strong initiative or drive to get things done, which obviously has its pros but can also have its cons if it's on the excessive side. The concept of the doshas made me realize that nothing is essentially “bad”. How can you attach a value judgment to something like "warmth"? It all depends on the context. Of course if there is an excess of heat, things are thrown off balance and problems arise.

This is very different from the Western approach to health, which teaches us to see illness or a problem as the enemy, as an evil invasion that has nothing to do with ourselves. Even though there are many wonderful things about Western medicine and it certainly has its place, it seems to encourage us to overlook the great power of preventative care and focus instead on having a certain kind of strength used to attack and kill off the symptoms, ignoring the root of the issue. When it comes to Thai massage, Ayurveda, healing and good health, it’s all about finding balance. 


Thailand Part 2

In his book, Bangkok 8, John Burdett write's this... at least I think he wrote it. He actually attributes it to a Professor Beckendorf, but I can't seem to find the reference so I am assuming Burdett wrote it. In some ways it's futile to explain the differences between west and east. But it's fascinating to try. I don't want to be perceived as just knocking western culture. There are problems here too. Big ones. Perhaps I'll get to them later. But for now, I thought this was a really interesting essay. It hits home to me in a general kind of way despite it's idealization. Perhaps it does to you as well. (By the way, the picture is actually some Balinese friends. And the rice on their faces is common during ceremonies.)

"Whereas your average Westerner does all he can to direct and control his fate, the latter-day Thai is no closer to adopting this attitude to life than were his ancestors a hundred or two hundred years ago. If there is any aspect of modern Thai psychology which continues to accept in toto the Buddhist doctrine of karma (so close to that Islamic fatalism often expressed by the phrase: It is written) it is surely in the conviction that que sera, sera. At first glance such fatalism may seem backward, even perverse given the dazzling spectrum of weapons Westerners now have in their arsenal against the vicissitudes of life; but anyone who spends much time in the kingdom quickly finds themselves questioning the wisdom, and even the sincerity, of Western attitudes.

When he has paid up his taxes, his life insurance, his medical insurance, accident insurance, retrained himself in the latest marketable skills, saved for his kids' education, paid alimony, bought the house and car which his status absolutely requires he buy within the rules of his particlular tribe, given up alcohol abuse, nicotine, extramarital sex and recreational drugs, spent his two week vacation on some self-improving (but safe) adventure holiday, learned to be hypercareful of what he says to or does with memeber of the opposite sex, the average Westerner may - and often does - wonder where his life went. He may also - and invariably does - feel cheated when he discovers existentially that all the worrying and all the insurance payments have availed him not a jot or tittle in protecting him against fire, burglary, flood, earthquake, tornado, the sack, terrorist activity, or his spouse's precipitate desertion with the kids, the car and all the spare cash in the joint bank account. True enough, in a kingdom without safety nets a citizen may well be brutally flattened by accident or illness, where a Westerner might well have bought himself a measure of protection, but in between the bumps a Thai still lives his life in a state of sublime insouciance. The standard Western observation is that the Thai is living in a fool's paradise. Perhaps, but might the Thai not reply that the Westerner has built himself a fool's hell?"

Thailand - Jai Dee

I've got a lot to say about my studies with Pichest this year. I've got a lot to say about my experiences with some other local Thai healers as well. However, before I do, I want to share a general feeling about Thailand and Thai people.

When Paul Weitz and myself were at Sunshine School speaking with Max, the director of the school, he said something that caught my ear.
He said, "There is a language problem here but it's not what you think. People here speak from the heart and it comes out differently from us westerners who speak from our head." He then gave me this Einstein quote that reads, "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift...and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."

We came across this Thai way of thinking again a few days later when we met Ma Noi, a local traditional healer.
She has some land a bit north of the city where she and her husband live. She wants to give it to anyone who will use it to benefit the people who need help in her community. She wants no money for it. But she wants to make sure the people who take it can work with her and respect the spirit of the land. It was hard to take this in. This generosity. This complete lack of greed or want. We are conditioned in our culture to not trust this.
But when Pichest talks about giving and sharing, that you can't take it with you, he is speaking not just how he thinks people should behave, but what is necessary in order to be happy. That especially in the west, we want and want and take and take, but in truth, we can't take any of it.
And it only creates more suffering inside us as we try to hold onto things that ultimately are not ours. This is the mindset, the heartset of the people here. A people who can immediately sense if you have a good heart (jai dee).
And where the true measure of a person can summed up in that simple statement, jai dee.

Graduation, February 2010

The CSTM graduates of February 2010!

Seva, January 2010

Our vision for doing community service on a larger scale was realized as we treated 20 staff and community members of Association House in Humbolt Park to free Thai massage. Our students got as much out of it as the people who they served. Thank you to Kate Beck for helping us to organize the event. Thanks to Lynda Guillu for the amazing pictures. We are hoping to be back a few more times this year!