African Dance with Mabiba Baegne & Jade Beall
Every Thursday night 7:30 - 9:00 pm
Introduction to Traditional Therapeutic Thai Massage
July 26-27th | 9am - 6pm
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Introduction to Traditional Therapeutic Thai Massage
(Nuad Thai Boran)
with John Slattery
July 26-27, 2008 | 9am-6pm
$240 deposit of $60 due by July 21
This introductory course is intended for beginners and advanced practitioners alike. As taught by my primary teacher, Pichest Boonthomme, basic principles of movement, structure, and connection to the receiver through the Divine is the foundation for this introductory course. We will investigate the subtleties of movement, our posture and the dynamic of touch, or "sensing," to arrive at a solid foundation for development or enhancement of this traditional healing art form. Included will be Chi Gung exercises in order to cultivate a sense of harmony within the practitioner and promote the flow of chi or prana between giver and receiver.
This introductory course precedes Levels I-III (Beginner through Advanced) which will be offered over the coming year. Dates to be announced.
Thai Massage - Nuad Thai Boran
Traditional Thai Massage (Nuad Thai Boran) is a dynamic healing art which has grown up organically with the peoples of Thailand. The Father Doctor of Thai Medicine and the Healing Arts is Jivaka Kormarpaaj, or Komarabhacca. The story of his birth is similar to that of Moses being set adrift down the river in a reed basket as an unwanted offspring within the court. He learned the healing arts while apprenticing as a young man in Taxila, India and went on to administer personally to the needs of the Buddha. Each day Nuad Thai practitioners pray to Jivaka for blessings and to act as an intermediary for divine intervention in their massage work. The spiritual component in Nuad Thai is strong. Jivaka is credited with bringing this wisdom to Siam from India. As Thailand changed greatly over the 20th century, the healing arts remained preserved within the temples and within the villages amongst its people. No westerner was admitted to learn traditional Thai healing practices until perhaps the 1980s. What had been preserved was an organic form within the villages. Amongst the temples and within the royalty different forms of Nuad Thai were preserved. The royalty, of course, being more refined in its courteous behavior and its utmost care not to offend is a less personal and less spiritual form of Nuad Thai. Although, whatever has survived of the principles of Thai medical theory may be found within the court. Some of what is taught in schools in Thailand today is influenced by this tradition. Within the temples, or wat, the healing arts were practiced and passed on by the buddhist monks. In this form the meditative aspect of Nuad Thai was kept alive and deepened. The spiritual healing of Thailand is vast and diverse. Many aspects of Buddhism has blended with indigenous culture in a beautiful alchemy of spiritual healing. When one looks to the farming villages or the hill tribes of northern Thailand there is a sense of rootedness to the earth, connection to family and quiet humility. Profound in their subtle ease within the healing arts - Nuad Thai, Thai herbal healing, Spiritual healing in the form of prayer, ceremony, ritual - the farmers and hilltribesmen connect the people to the land through culture like a spider's web seemingly woven haphazardly across the tapestry of northern Thailand.
Today many Westerners, or farang, have becomed skilled in the healing traditions of Thailand, particularly Nuad Thai or traditional massage. Primarily concerned with promoting harmony (physical, mental and spiritual) within the human being Nuad Thai is truly holistic. It has been pointed out that Nuad Thai is helpful in stimulating lymph flow, loosening stiff joints, helping acute injuries heal more readily, promoting relaxation, ease and a calm mind, relieving pain from chronic injuries, and so on . . . Thai massage is still relatively marginal in its notoriety in the US, but has been gaining in appeal and recognition the more educated and effective its western practitioners become and the western mind opens more gracefully to a holistic practice. I recommend to seek out a local practitioner and spend a couple of hours receiving some of Thailand's ancient healing art, Nuad Thai Boran.
For Registration contact John Slattery - 520.275.2105 or email desertortoisebotanicals@gmail.com