Ayurveda Archives

Repetitive Stress Injury, The SomaVeda® Thai Yoga Approach to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

August 22, 2018March 11, 2018 by Thai1on

Thai Yoga Mastery with Aachan James

Repetitive Stress Injury, The SomaVeda® Thai Yoga Approach to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
(Reprint Original Article December 27, 2011)

Repetitive Stress Injury, The SomaVeda® Thai Yoga Approach to Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Part 1 of 2. by Anthony B James DNM(C), ND, MD(AM), DOM(C), DPHC(h.c.), PhD, RAAP, SMOKH

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is a challenge that is cropping up more and more frequently. Conventional remedial treatments are fine and can be examples of compassion in action, but Western style physical therapeutic and orthopedic approaches are limited in just how much compassionate relief they are able to deliver. This is because the conventional Western therapeutic model for treatment is not holistically based. A more compassionate approach is a protocol which leads to fundamental understanding and renders the application of remedial therapies unnecessary! This approach is entirely holistic (Naturopathic and Religious Therapeutic).

What is CTS? The common conventional medical understanding of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome or CTS as quoted from “Tabers Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary” defines CTS as “soreness, tenderness, and weakness of the muscles of the thumb caused by pressure on the Median Nerve at the point at which it goes through the carpal tunnel of the wrist.”

The origin of the Median Nerve or Nerve Medianus are the internal and external cords of the brachial plexus. It is a motor and a sensory nerve. Its function is to enervate the pronators and flexors of the forearm, two external lumbricales, thenar muscles of the thumb, skin of the palm and the first four fingers.

Considered a syndrome, the generally accepted cause is fatigue injury and concomitant secondary trauma derived from over-use. This would also generally classify CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome) as an RSS or Repetitive Stress Syndrome type of injury. In most of the cases that I have seen, the cause was simple and easy to determine and verify. Clients were performing menial, repetitive tasks which primarily focused workload, pressure and or impact on the thumb, fingers and wrist. They were pushing with the thumb, pressing or tapping with the fingers, grasping, squeezing and twisting with the hand, or combinations of the above. In some cases they were doing all of the above. The kinds of situations which can produce this kind of working stress are quite varied and diverse; typing or working on computers including extensive mouse work or pick and place tasking on a manufacturing line. Virtually any repetitive work involving the fingers and hands done over a period of time can lead to this type of break down.

The more narrow the parameters of the particular stress the more likely the stress is to lead to the development of the syndrome. It has been noted for instance that the simple act of typing on a keyboard transfers thousands of individual impacts which send minute shock waves to the wrist and forearm. It is the combination of these little shock waves and the narrow range of motion one must maintain in order to type efficiently that eventually leads to breakdown and deterioration.

CTS is turning up more frequently among Western style therapists and even oriental style therapists who use a few narrowly defined techniques for every client, over and over again. Especially susceptible are those who squeeze and twist the fingers and wrist while exerting pressure on or with the thumbs. This does not necessarily mean that the techniques themselves are bad, although some are. Rather, repetitively performing these narrowly focused techniques with an ever-diminishing range of motion is bad. In a sense, this is inevitable for these therapists because as they gain experience in these methods, they will tend to become more efficient in the application of the few techniques they are using and the one or two body parts that they are using.

I have personally interviewed massage therapists whose total pharmacopoeia of therapeutic “hand” tools was based on no more than five different positions of the hand, and was limited to only using the hands to apply pressure! There are even schools that teach that the only part of a therapist’s body which may touch the client is their hands and that it is somehow improper or immoral to use another part of the body! As a SomaVeda® Thai Yoga stylist you may laugh, but this is no laughing matter. Therapists trained in this simple way of using just a few techniques for everything are bound to breakdown sooner or later as the cumulative stress of releasing tens of thousands of individual points and squeezing tons of flesh and muscle with just the hands and fingers begins to take its toll. Working conditions further exacerbate the problem, such as the Western practice of exclusively working on or around a massage table.

Although there are operations and applications that seem to be well suited to a massage table, by and large the table by design engenders poor body mechanics. The table simply holds the body of the therapist out and away from the area they are working on. Some schools and state licensing boards even prevent the therapist from leaning on the table for support! Why is this? The fundamental idea upon which proper body mechanics is based on is that the closer your center of gravity is to the point or area you are applying pressure to, the less muscular effort it takes and the more efficient the application of pressure becomes.

A concrete example that we use in class is in standing. When you are simply standing you are maximizing the application of pressure under your feet with little or no stress to the rest of your body. Depending on how much you weigh, you could be exerting one or more than one hundred pounds of pressure on the surface of your feet to the surface under your feet with zero effort, no more effort than if you were just standing. As the point or surface you wish to press on moves away from your center of gravity you become less efficient and strain more. This straining is your attempt to create a compensation for being off center through muscular contraction. It is possible to do this but it costs dearly. It costs in the actual amount of energy that you expend as you work and it costs in the wear and tear, stress and deterioration of your own body/mind/spirit. We work off center because we are off center. Strain and the resultant suffering from strain seem like normal and acceptable consequences of making our way in life. However, this is not true! When we are established in our center and work from our center, we are balanced in everything that we do. When we work from a place of balance there is less effort required, with few or no detrimental consequences from this kind of effort. In fact, this kind of effort actually increases your capacity to do more.

Using the massage table is also part of the SomaVeda® Thai Yoga repertoire! Doing Thai Yoga and Thai Massage has always been a very important part of traditional Thai Medical Massage applications, especially in Thai Hospitals. There are approximately one hundred seventy Thai VA or veteran’s hospitals run by the Royal Ministry of Health. All of them have a wing or floor exclusively devoted to Thai Traditional Medicine and all of them use tables and raised platforms to do their work. The difference between the Thai Table applications and methods is the variety of techniques and the dramatic differences in body mechanics used in Thai Style Yoga therapy. So, please do not misunderstand when I speak of the harmful effects caused by working on a massage table because I am referring only to Western types of massage or massage therapy techniques on the table.

This is another reason why the integrated holistic approach of the SomaVeda® Thai Yoga Massage way is so brilliant. When we say, “we use the whole person to treat the whole person,” we are also saying that we use the whole body as the instrument with which we apply pressure and energy to the body of our client! As the workload is more evenly distributed with dozens of different tools and as we switch from tool to tool, such as from hand pressure to foot pressure, there is little opportunity for a repetitive stress disability to occur. The bottom line is that therapists trained in limited and conventional Western protocols do not know what the prognosis is for their practice longevity. On the other hand, the specific TAO or WAY of working we share as SomaVeda® Thai Style Yoga therapists has already been refined and perfected over many, many years.

CTS and RSS syndromes may become the leading cause of disability among working massage, massage therapists, physical therapists, body work therapists etc. in the not so distant future. Already many therapists and professional body workers that I meet in trainings and workshops suffer from the precursors of wrist, hand and arm pain in one or both hands. Not all persons stressed in the same manner will develop CTS, but there are mediating factors which could determine predisposition such as age, heredity, physical conditioning including functional range of motion, diet/nutrition (i.e. any specific deficiency), pre-existing trauma, injury, or scarring resulting from injury.

Additional mediating factors in susceptibility to not only CTS but any degradation of health, function and longevity are nutritional, emotional, mental and energetic. Energetically we must also consider the balance of and between the major Chakras and the representation of their homeodynamic status or balance in the physical, psychological and emotional states. For example, if one performs the very same menial task in a “good place” versus in an “angry place,” one is more likely to hurt them selves in the latter.

The SomaVeda® treatment protocol is basically always the same. The treatment itself may be broken down into three distinct phases or categories. INNER, OUTER, & SECRET.

The Inner deals with the innate energetic, pranic, and Chakra correlations and considerations found in the matrix body. For those of you not familiar with the terminology, the matrix body is your total energetic body including all of the chakras, lom (Wind Gates), all of the Sen or Prana Nadis, meridians, elements, extraordinary vessels and acupuncture points which make up the luminous body. Treatment of the Inner may or may not be performed hands on or with Asanas. It may also utilize Puja, prayer, affirmation and focused intention with visualization or meditation techniques and guided breathing or Prana Yama. The focus of the Inner is to create or stimulate a movement toward balance between the various energetic parts of us. This state is evidenced by the free and unrestricted flow of energy or prana. The Inner is also related to the healing mind and innate wisdom of balance which operates in every cell and which is the true overseer of healing processes in the body/mind/spirit. When we place our hand on the client and ask permission and direction to treat, this is the “who” or “what” we are communicating with.

Because the inner deals with the energy body and disruptions within the energy system, then we also consider here the role of pathological emotional and mental states. In SomaVeda® we teach that the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body’s energy system. Examples of negative emotions are fears, phobias, compulsions, neurosis, anxieties and the like which are unreasonable and or irrational.

The Outer addresses the symptomatic and observable physiologic/pathological considerations in the tangible physical body (TPB). This usually involves hands on application of pressure to the body by holding specific points and applying therapeutic Asanas or postures. The focus of the Outer is the same as in the Inner except that we are looking for homeodynamic stasis or a balanced and harmonious state between the physical being and all of its parts. This may look like a reduction in obvious trauma and sensitivity as well as an increase in all circulation, a reduction in number and intensity of active and latent trigger points with a corresponding increase in mobility and range of motion.

Results may also include reduced edema and swelling, lower residuals of metabolic waste and by products of the trauma along with a reduction in atrophy, scar tissue and further reduction in the pathological production of scar tissue and less pain. In short, a movement toward optimum health and return to function.

The Secret approaches the spiritual or metaphysical aspects of this challenge to one’s harmony and equilibrium in the context of one’s whole life and person.

Please note: The mentioned distinctions of energetic and physical self are arbitrary to help in your understanding. In reality, all such distinctions are illusion and can be limiting. In actual treatment the more advanced practitioner addresses the Inner, Outer and Secret simultaneously without preference for one over the other.

In Part 2 of this article I will break down treatment approaches and strategies for each of the Inner, Outer and Secret elements of the disorder.

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Original Post © Anthony B. James, The Thai Yoga Center, Brooksville, FL December 27, 2011

Thai Yoga Concepts: Sustainable Eating and Sustainable Health: Part 4 of 4

March 4, 2018 by Thai1on

Thai Yoga Concepts: Sustainable Eating and Sustainable Health: Part 4 of 4

By Dr. Anthony B. James DM(P), ND, MD(AM), SMOKH

(Repost: Transcribed from a live talk at the Florida Sustainable Living and Perma-culture Conference, Plant City Florida, March 26, 2011)

Edible should also mean to buy local

Besides the lowered impact on the environment, another reason to buy local is to support your local community! We buy food from Peggy and Jeff at Eco-farm because they are our neighbors! That’s it, that’s the reason. We want to support them, they are up to good things, they are helping us to have a longer, healthier, happier life and by God, if I’m going to support anybody in the world, before I send 100 bucks to the American Red Cross, I’m going to send 100 bucks to Peggy and Jeff with my local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and buy some food with it. I need them and they need me and that’s why I do it. Buy local. Make it personal. If you don’t personally know someone that you can buy food from, you need to cure that by getting out and meeting somebody who grows food.

A clear conscience makes the food taste better!

These choices to bring consciousness to what and how we eat need to be personal and emotional. That is conscience, by the way, and we need conscience. Edible means to eat food with a clear conscience. To have a clear conscience about what you eat. What does conscience mean? I’ll give you my definition. Conscience is an emotional realization of the truth. So its very important for me to have a good conscience about what I eat and to emotionally know that I am doing the best that I can. If I don’t know that and I go ahead and I consume it anyways, then I am acquiescing to the possibility that the food may cause harm to me and to somebody else. That’s tough, I know.

5% Meat

Edible means to eat less meat. Research from many sources suggests minimum 95% plant-based nutrition and 5% animal products. That’s just science, its nothing personal. You want to live happier, healthier, longer lives? You want to support the soil on the inside and out? You want to support the ecology and reduce global warming? You want to have more support for democracy in the world? Eat less meat. And then, whatever meat you do eat, make sure that you’re supporting the local farmers, that it is organic, grass fed, free range, chemical free, antibiotic free, etc.

Don’t expect to change overnight! I use the 95/5 idea because it is unrealistic to expect everyone to become a vegetarian now. We have several thousand years of indoctrination into “eating meat equals prosperity” to overcome. We’re not going to be able to turn on a dime. You vegetarians and you vegans, get the freak off the backs of your meat-eating friends! Get off their backs, because what you resist, persists. The harder you push them, the harder they will hold on to those unproductive ways of eating. If you want people to change the way they eat then do it by example. Make the most nutritious, happy, fun-filled, exciting food that you can to share with them, so that they feel like it would be crazy not to eat your delicious food. That will make it easier.

95% Plant Based Diet

Edible means to prefer a plant-based diet. Aside from the morality question of cruelty to animals from factory production of animal based foods, animal food factories are the single largest users of antibiotics. 70% of all manufactured antibiotics go to animal food production. You need to know this especially if you are against the use of antibiotics and you think that the epidemic increase in antibiotic-resistant methicillin and staph bacteria is not a good thing. 70% of the antibiotics are not being used on human patients, but they are going to the cows that people eat. Then they go from their urine and their feces into the water supply. Then from aquifers into the water supplies of the hospitals where it is then recycled into the bodies of people with deficient immune systems, where they then become susceptible to antibiotic resistant bacteria. See? It’s the circle of life. Eat less meat. Prefer a plant-based diet.

Eat the widest variety of foods you can manage

Why? That’s the way foods naturally grow in the world, in a healthy ecosystem, and it is also the way they are supposed to come into our system, in great variety and in seasonal rotation. Every type of food offers a different nutrient profile and benefit towards helping you living a full healthy and happy life. Give every good thing in nature the possibility of sharing its life enhancing qualities with you. Variety and diversity strengthen your immune system and make your taste buds happy. There is research that suggest that rotating your foods and diet can reduce allergies and may even be part of a productive strategy for mental and emotional health. Ortho-molecular Medicine and research specializes in this field. Try more. Try everything!

For everyone sake grow something!

Grow a good perma-culture based garden in a little square foot of land- you should be able to grow 6, 8 or 10 different kinds of plants. If you don’t have that little plot then invest in a pot of some kind and put an edible plant, vegetable, herb, or flower in it. Practice becoming a more conscious person by nurturing and caring for it until it matures and then eat it! Everyone can and should grow something. No reason why not!

I’m serious, grow something to eat!

ANYTHING! Everybody here should be growing one food item. Grow anything! Grow a chive! I mean come on, grow something. Anybody can grow a Chia pet. You can eat them! It’s about elevating your consciousness and bringing energy, attention, consciousness, breath and pressure to changing your environment. GROW SOMETHING.

Perma-culture experience in Thailand

Go to Thailand, you’ll see farms that if you’re not paying attention you would never know it was a farm because it looks like an overgrown jungle. You say, “What do you mean, this is a farm?” And they say, “This is a multi-generational farm! We’ve been farming here for years.” You say, “But we’re on a trail in the jungle!” And they say, “No, no, you’re on a trail through the farm!” You look around saying, “What farm? What are you talking about?” The guy reaches out and plucks a leaf off a bush and says, ‘”Put this in your mouth.” You take a bite of it- its green tea! “Whoa! Oh! There are tea plants here!” He says, “No, there are ten thousand! This is a tea plantation.” This all happened to me and I thought I was in a jungle. I said “Well, what is all this other weeds and under-growth around the base here?” He says, “Oh, that’s edible morning glories, and these are coffee.” Did you know coffee and tea grow together? They can! You don’t have to mono-culture either coffee or tea! I said “Oh, well what is this kind of viny thing here that looks like it’s choking the life out of these plants?” “Oh,” he says, “that’s edible morning glory.” Turns out to be one of my most favorite edible green foods on the whole planet.

Reasonable eating means seasonal eating

Edible means to eat seasonally for your region of the country. A billion years of survival data in our DNA tells us that the most appropriate foods for us to eat at any given time are the foods that are ripe and ready for harvest right this moment. That’s what we are supposed to be eating right now. If you don’t know what that is, well that shows the measure of separation from the environment that you are currently suffering. The proper treatment is education and experience!

Stick out your nose, open up the window, look outside, talk to a friend and say, “Hey! It’s the end of March, what is in season? What foods are in season in my geographic area?” Seek them out as your primary foods. It will change! The foods you eat are supposed to rotate, just like in nature. The soil isn’t always the same. The variety that you see in the natural ecology in December is not the same as you see in March. There will still be an equally great diversity but it will just be different. “Same same but different” as the Thai’s say “Munkan mai munkan.”

Edible should mean- eat only foods that you know you’re not allergic to!

Stop eating that which inflames you! I’d bet that everyone in this room knows or suspects something that they eat that they are allergic to. When you eat foods that are allergens, they cause a histamine reaction in your brain. This triggers an inflammatory response in your tissue, which triggers edema. Inflammation and edema are the hotbeds of disease. So one of the ways to prevent disease through your eating habits is to stop eating the foods that you already know you’re allergic to. That means stop eating any food that when you eat it regularly it makes you feel bad. It’s really easy, but we’re so out of touch with our inner ecology that we don’t know this.

Consider your overall attitude towards eating new food in general, if it has a label, READ IT.

Don’t buy it until you actually read the label. You will be surprised how many times you will put something back that you were 99% sure you were going to buy after you read the label.

Don’t waste food- compost food waste

Composting is one of the very best ways to justify our existence on this planet. It’s one of the proven simple technologies that actually feeds the earth. As a practice it runs contrary to the trends overwhelming the eco-systems and environment with harmful waste. Composting keep the useful biomass out of the land fill and on the soil where it belongs. Keep in mind that “circle of life” thing. Using your own compost to enhance the soil of your garden, or your friends garden will help insure more vital and amazing foods. These foods have more minerals and bio-available nutrients and healthy bacteria. Composting supports the process of these foods becoming our essential medicines. Everyone should compost.

Make the best possible food choices according to your understanding

Before shopping, make a list- if it is not on your list it is probably not edible. Involve your family, friends, church, social network or group in a food project, or join one. Edible should be part of that.

Make your food beyond interesting and nutritious

We have to be ninja. I’m a ninja for food! You want to know I am a healthy food ninja? How I went from a raging carnivore to a plant based diet? Know how I do it? Julie and I, we craft in the secret dark recesses of our attic with our candles and our sigils on the floor and our sacred tomes of secret knowledge (I mean favorite recipe books) and we flip the pages and we recite the ancient magic incantations of holistic, organic, local, fresh, seasonal ingredients and we put them (boil, boil, toil and trouble) into our cauldron (our safe crokery) and we put our own energy and our own sacred essence in to that boiling cauldron of magic elixir and we call it to allurement, we call it to glamor, and healing affirmation and we call it to create life and we call it to manifest our vision for the world as we see the swirl of the world inside that pot and then we serve that on the table and its an irresistible force. People are drawn to it, “OOOOHHH! What is that?” And Julie goes, “Dinner!” Then they eat and they are like, “oh, uh, um, how?” You can see it, the trying to adjust, trying to adapt, trying to encapsulate the idea that the tastiest thing that’s ever crossed this inner and outer brain barrier, has no meat! And it’s tasty! And it’s medicine! Then they start to make these little adjustments. “Hey, do you have a recipe? What are the ingredients? Is it hard to make?” “Nah,” we say, “you just throw some healthy ingredients, veggies, herbs, grains, herbs, minerals in a bowl and stir it up! It’s easy!” And then they start to do it and next thing you know, you’ve saved a soul, you’ve got another person who is going to live a longer, healthier, happier life.

Thai Yoga Concepts:Sustainable Eating and Sustainable Health Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Learn SomaVeda® Thai Yoga!

Disclaimer:

All Information is provided for educational purposes only and not intended to be used for any therapeutic purpose, neither is it intended to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure any disease. Please consult a health care professional for diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. While all attempts have been made to ensure the accuracy of this information. The author and ThaiYogaCenter.Com does not accept any responsibility for any errors or omissions.

Copyright© 2011, Dr. Anthony B. James All rights reserved under International and Pan American copyright conventions. World rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Inquires should be addressed to: Dr. Anthony B. James, 5401 Saving Grace Ln. Brooksville, FL 34602 · http://www.ThaiYogaCenter.Com

Thai Yoga Concepts: Sustainable Eating and Sustainable Health: Part 3 of 4

March 11, 2018March 4, 2018 by Thai1on

Thai Yoga Concepts: Sustainable Eating and Sustainable Health: Part 3 of 4

Dr. Anthony B James receives the UTTS Hanuman Award

By Dr. Anthony B. James DM(P), ND, MD(AM), SMOKH

(Repost: Transcribed from a live talk at the Florida Sustainable Living and Perma-culture Conference, Plant City Florida, March 26, 2011)

Food and eating strategies need to be based on non-violence

We are utterly and completely dependent on the viruses and the bacteria in the soil for our life. Somehow we lost that connection and so when we begin to experience them in our body, we think that they are foreign invaders and so we have to cut, kill and burn them. We think we have to destroy them so we do the same thing as when we apply pesticide to the soil outside, we kill them! Then the soil is no longer is able to sustain the biodiversity that life is dependent upon, monoculture prevails and diversity dies. Inevitably there is a dissolution of life and a cascading domino effect on other ecologies and eventually everybody draws the same picture: if we continue to create monoculture, the world is going to be unsuitable for human existence at a definite point in time. Everybody comes to the same conclusion. If we do the same inside of our body, guess what? We come to the same conclusion. We don’t need to kill the bacteria in our body, we don’t need to kill the viruses in our body; they have ALWAYS been with us. We need to learn how to be an ecosystem within our selves and we need to learn how to communicate. Non-violent communication, how about that? NVC applied to your body’s internal ecology. I am not trying to kill the bacteria in my body; I am negotiating an existence that is compatible, mutual, and supportive. That’s what my food strategies are about.

If it’s not right we fix it not kill it

People will say, “Well, what about infection?” Yeah? What about it? What do you do when the soil PH is not right? What do you do if you look at the soil and the mycology and bacterial structure of the soil is not right? Do you then kill it? What do you do? You AMEND it. You actually bring in plants and structure that out of their life cycle will create the balance that you want. Why? Because that is sustainable. If you dump chemicals on it, it will chemically give you a balance on a test and then you will have the imbalance that will be the consequence of the chemically induced state and it won’t be sustainable. The longer you do that to the soil and the longer you force it to produce, eventually it looks like desertification. You will kill it and reduce its ability to sustain life at the microbial level to a point to where it is no longer possible for life to be sustained. The soil will turn to sand and rock, no longer able to sustain life. We are going to end up doing the same thing to our selves because we don’t eat right and we don’t have productive eating strategies. We need to bring the same sustainable strategies to eating that we would to the soil, inner soil and outer soil, that’s what I’m saying.

Do you want to know how to get connected to the earth?

The easiest way in the world to re-establish and to revitalize your connection to the earth is to bring consciousness to what you eat. It’s so simple and you don’t have to get all big and spiritual about it. My late, adopted father Chief Floyd Real bird would have said it the same way. He would have said, “I don’t give a damn about ritual and external ceremony, the only thing mother earth cares about is how you live! Mother earth doesn’t care if you do a smudge, you light some sage or you whoop a pipe around in the air. Mother earth doesn’t care! Mother earth is all about how gentle you walk on her, how compatible you are with her other children and these kinds of things.” It is more important who you are than what you do. You want to get in touch with the planet, you want to get in touch with your roots, and you want to get in touch with your most fundamental spiritual essence? You want to get in touch with the source of life? Bring consciousness to your food. It’s the easiest way.

I am the laziest person that you’ve ever met in your whole life so I’m looking for the easiest way. What is the easiest way I can make all these universal connections? Cause’ I’m a lazy guy, right? So I’ve figured it out. The easiest way to handle all those things is to bring consciousness to what I eat! And guess what? Just by doing that not only do I get to live healthier and happier and be more functioning, but my family does too. Just by doing that alone, I lost 50 lbs in the last 2 years. I haven’t been on a diet for one minute. I eat like a freaking horse because I love to eat! I just brought consciousness to my food and my body. Soil harmonized. It equalized. It balanced. It looks like me 50 lbs lighter.

Get down on the food chain

Lets run through a couple of things. One, consider eating lower on the food chain. Ever hear the justification of “the little things eat the bigger things and then it goes on until we’re at the top of the food chain eating every damn thing else?” When you start thinking of sentient beings in the company of other sentient beings, that’s not going to work is it? It is not sustainable if we eat and or consume everything else. It’s not going to work! We need to eat a little bit lower down. On the food chain we are about where the herbivores are. Eating much above that doesn’t work and looks like were going to destroy the planet. We have that whole food chain thing wrong and we need to get down on the food chain. As a perma-culture person would say it, we need to get our hands dirty!

Get your hands dirty

What do you have to do if you want to know what is going on with the soil?

The finest, most sophisticated technological instrument ever created for agriculture is the finger! I think that’s why we have them. Some people say it’s for tools. Maybe if a tool is a hoe but that’s not the only reason we have fingers. We have fingers so we can point at each other and say “Hey! You aint’ doin’ the right thing!” We have fingers so we can put them in the dirt and know what’s happening. That’s how we make our connection, right? Want to develop superpowers? Spend more time with your fingers in the dirt. In yoga we call them Siddhas. You want to develop Siddhas? You want to become a Reishi yogi, a magnificent supernatural superman or woman? I’ll give you a secret- get your fingers dirty, get your hands dirty and it will change your life.

Change your definition of what is “edible”

Second, consider changing your definition of “edible.” I want to challenge what that means. One idea that I would recommend to you is to bring consciousness to your definition of the word edible because it may be enlightening and very helpful for you. In that context I have a corollary, and I want you to be crystal clear about this: “Substantially the same as food,” does NOT equal food. Whenever you see something that’s labeled, marked or promoted to you as “substantially equivalent to food,” that means it is not food. Food is food and anything that’s not food is something else!

Oil, tar and coal and their derivatives are not edible

Most likely the “substantially equivalent” is chemical and it actually a derivative of crude oil. 99% of “substantially the equivalent of food,” is a derivative of oil, and as a species we were never meant to consume oil or oil byproducts.

We evolved as a species over billions of years from plankton to human beings or if you take the creationist biblical perspective it has only been 6 or 7 thousand years. However you do it, the entire time we have been here, it is only in the last hundred years that we have been exposed to byproducts of carbon and oil because they were underground. There were a few sources of natural tars and natural oils but 99% of humanity didn’t have access to them. So biologically in our DNA we do not have the ability to metabolize crude oil in any form, derivative or solvent. Oil is one of the primary ecologic contributors that has contaminated our food supply. One of the biggest things we can do is be clear that “substantially the same as food,” does not equal food.

Edible should mean organic, fresh, whole, non-GMO food

If it is not organic we should automatically question whether or not it is adulterated and to what degree. We have to keep the idea in the back of our mind that there are no known safe levels for any chemical in the human body. It is not a true or scientific statement to say that the amount of contamination with XYZ chemical has been deemed to be safe for humans. Don’t take my word for it, research it yourself and you will find that scientifically speaking, there are no known safe levels of any chemical substance in the human body. If anybody says otherwise then they actually haven’t looked at the science.

Edible should mean the reduction of adulterated food consumption

Adulterated food includes foods that on the surface are advertised as “natural” or “real” but have been adulterated by the manufacturing process and include things such as trans fats, hydrogenated fats and oils, high fructose corn syrup, refined sugar, aspartame, etc. Though these foods are advertised and promoted as natural or as derivatives of natural substances, they are not! From a marketing standpoint all additives, chemicals and constituents that are derived from oil are technically derived from natural substance because oil is natural. All of them, which are coming from the parent, are equally harmful, including baby oil! Just because it says “baby” doesn’t mean that it is healthy for you. For example, baby oil contains Benzene. Benzene is considered to be one of the most deadly, dangerous, immune disrupters that man has made. Plutonium is the most dangerous, but Benzene completely, immediately and instantaneously disrupts your immune system. It’s in baby oil and chapstick!

Edible should be local

Weigh and measure what you eat based on how far it travels to get in your mouth. The further from you the origin of your food is the higher the carbon footprint. That means more oil in the air. Your carbon footprint is your contribution to environmental toxicity, contamination of water, support of the fossil fuel industry, oppression of native peoples due to deforestation, etc. All of this eventually comes back around to increase your own toxic exposure. That’s the way it works. I have my favorite foods that come from other countries.

For me, it has been a challenge to reduce the amount of food that comes from foreign countries. That includes herbs, spices, the kind of rice that I prefer, etc. It has been a real challenge and I’m still working on it. I’m not perfect at it, I’m transitional and it’s very hard when you have a beautiful kitchen like I have that is fully stocked with spices and 8 different kinds of rice and all kinds of stuff. It all represents an investment. See, mentally I have a problem tossing out everything in my closet that has a foreign origin because I can’t help but think of the economics of it. However, when I start to think about the economics of it, I start to be able to let it go a little better.

Continued in Thai Yoga Concepts: Sustainable Eating and Sustainable Health Part 4.

Sustainable Part 1, Sustainable Part 2, Sustainable Part 3, Sustainable Part 4

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Disclaimer:

Copyright© 2011, Dr. Anthony B. James DNM(P), ND(T), MD(AM), PhD, RAAP, SMOKH All rights reserved under International and Pan American copyright conventions. World rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Inquires should be addressed to: Dr. Anthony B. James, 5401 Saving Grace Ln. Brooksville, FL 34602 · http://www.ThaiYogaCenter.Com

Thai Yoga Concepts: Sustainable Eating and Sustainable Health: Part 2 of 4

March 4, 2018March 4, 2018 by Thai1on

Thai Yoga Concepts: Sustainable Eating and Sustainable Health: Part 2 of 4

UTTS issues Dr. Anthony James Lifetime Credentials

By Dr. Anthony B. James DNM(P), ND(T), MD(AM), SMOKH

(Re-Post: Transcribed from a live talk at the Florida Sustainable Living and Perma-culture Conference, Plant City Florida, March 26, 2011)

An amazing possibility is occurring right now!

Right now this second there are groups just like the group in this room who are having the exact same conversation about exactly the same topics in about a hundred different locations around the planet! Right now this minute! That’s never happened before, so that’s our possibility of hope. But what are we going to do with it? That’s the question.

Its one thing to philosophically get it and it’s another thing to have practical solutions. I’m going to go through some practical solutions. We’re ahead of the curb, right? I’m a hopeful guy, I actually do believe that there is hope that we can come out of this and we can actually survive in a good way. That is what I work for.

What’s the core issue with sustainability?

I want to focus on what I think is really the fundamental issue in sustainable eating and health. Pardon me if this is elementary because I know there are some experts in the room, but I’m just speaking across the board.

I believe the number one issue is food. I have all these doctor technologies and no matter what I learn I keep coming back food as the number one issue. It’s the one issue above all others that we actually have the capacity to substantially control. So because we have the ability to have some input in relation to what we eat, where it comes from and what the impact is of our food on ourselves and on our environment, it’s one of the places where we can add our influence, both internally and externally. That’s why I choose to focus on food. I’m going to keep coming at it from a health point of view because I just can’t help it!

Whatever it takes to live a long and happy life!

Hippocrates said “let they food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” So what is medicine? There are a lot of misconceptions about what medicine is. The definition of medicine is same as the definition of sustainable living! There’s a source of conflict and confusion right there. We compartmentalize and create distinctions and say, “medicine is over here, and food is over here.” There is some crossover but it is a misconception and a misperception that they are unrelated. Let’s go back to the definition of sustainable living: Whatever it takes to live a long healthy and happy life, while respecting and caring for the community of life in which we live. Well guess what? That’s the definition of medicine too: whatever it takes to live a long and happy life. Let food be your medicine, let food be part of your strategy of whatever it takes. Let whatever it takes to be happy be your food, so let’s stop eating things that don’t make us happy. That’s a real simple way to say it isn’t it?

Stay away from the dominant cultures medical system

Statistically speaking, other then changing your eating habits the number one thing you can do to prolong your life and guarantee that you’ll have a long healthy life in this country (I’m not necessarily talking about the whole world) is to do whatever it takes to stay out of hospitals and to stay out of the conventional medical system.

The current system has failed. Where is the outrage?

I’m a pastoral medical doctor so I get a copy of JAMA and the different journals that are published under the banner of JAMA. According to JAMA, give or take, some 380,000 people a year die directly from medical malpractice. I think this is a conservative estimate because it might be a little self-incriminating. We drive down the highway and see billboards of the sheriff with the reflective glasses and the words “drive drunk and pay the price.” We see MADD billboards with the cameo of the teenage son or daughter who will not live a long and happy life because of an incursion due to drunk driving. Virtually every city in the country including has federal, state and local funding of millions of dollars for the formation of DUI task forces, random roadblocks, and breathalyzers. There have been 12,000 constructed expansions of prisons in the US just to take the additional prisoner loads of DUI’s into the jail system and the legal system. There are about 48,000 deaths a year on average as a result of drunk driving.

It gets worse

I’m not saying that I support drunk driving, but compare that to 380,000 deaths a year due to medical malpractice. When is the last time you were driving down the road and you saw a billboard with a man or a woman in a white jacket with a stethoscope hanging around their neck with a “have you seen this person? Call “1-800-STOPDOC” to report that you have seen one of these people wanted for murder, mayhem, malpractice and for just damn not trying to help you and being part of a system that kills you at 4, 5 and 6 times the annual rate of drunk drivers.” That’s not the bad news; it gets worse. I’m not quoting the national inquirer, although technically it might be more accurate and I’m sorry to say that.

According to these medical statistics, another 400,000 die simply from unsuccessful procedures that were properly applied. In other words, it wasn’t malpractice. They did exactly what was the standard medical practice according to standard medical disciplines, according to standard medical procedures. 400,000 people died from operations that were considered a complete success. They did everything right and the patient died. These numbers are per year, not in the last 100 years, but the annual numbers! 400,000 people died from side effects.

There are no side effects!

There is no such thing as a side effect! How many people have heard that there is such a thing as a drug side effect? You have been misled and that is a programming issue and propaganda issue because there are actually NO side effects of any known prescription drug or procedure. There are secondary effects that we don’t want, which are less popular. You can get a copy of a Merck Manual or the Physician’s Desk Reference to Drugs and for every single drug there will be the primary benefit listed and immediately there will be up to 92 different secondary effects. For marketing, they are referred to as “side effects” as if they are optional.

A chemical doesn’t know what a side-effect is

A relative of mine has an advanced degree in pharmacology. He would say that it is all chemistry- you ingest the chemical and get the effect. The chemical doesn’t know primary from secondary. The chemical doesn’t know what a side effect is, it just does what it does. For many of these drugs there are up to 92 side effects and I’ve even seen a drug that has more than that. Generally there are between 70 and 90 secondary effects and about a third of them are fatal. That’s how you get these 400,000 deaths. We need to be logical, so how do we get there? That’s not the malpractice, that’s when everybody agreed that it was appropriate for you and it still caused you harm.

The source of your primary health care has to be your eating habits

So what is the alternative? If we are not going to rely on the conventional medical system as our primary health care, then “let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.” The source of your primary health care has to be your eating habits. You have no choice! There is no other alternative. I know some of you that might be offended to even hear me say so, but I am giving you my professional medical advice. As you would with any doctor, or perhaps as you should do with any doctor, take my advise or leave it.

Health is a fluid balance between toxicity and deficiency

Traditional Chinese Medicine theory postulates that health is a dynamic equilibrium between internal and external pernicious influences. Health is a constant balancing act. This could be anything that reduces our capacity to live the full natural possibility of life or whatever life as a human being on this planet could be. That includes everything from the environment and landscape, both internal and external. Internal pernicious influences are what take place when harmful influences bridge the world-skin barrier and become part of us causing changes within us. This includes mental and emotional psychology, the ecology of our inner world and how we handle toxins, virus, bacteria, and cancers. The external landscape is everything outside of your skin that has the ability to affect your longevity, health and well being.

We can also talk about the 5 elements because we have fire, earth, metal, water, and wood, or in Chinese medicine and Ayurveda we have ether, air, fire, water and earth. Any way you slice it, whatever is out there is part of us and then we have this really funny philosophy that says that we are also part of everything that’s out there.

We are children of the soil

So health is about managing this equilibrium between the inside and the outside, the two landscapes. Sometimes we use the word soil, and I know perma-culture people really want to talk about the soil a lot; in fact, that’s one reason I love them! The first book I ever read on the soil was Secrets of the Soil and I developed this whole different idea about the ground and what the nature of the soil was. I learned that it was alive and there was energy in it and that it was communicating to me!

Of course I knew from my bible lessons as a child that eventually I would become the soil. I thought, “Whoa! Dirt to dirt! So what you’re saying is that I’m actually a child of the soil and that I am soil in a flesh bag walking around for a while and then I go back to my origin which is the soil?” Somewhere I had lost the connection or the conscious knowledge that I was really just a bag of dirt walking around. What is my function then, as mobile dirt?

I realized that part of the reason why we are so unhealthy is because we have been separated from our proper relationship to our mother ecology, which of course is the soil. Now that we are ego-encapsulated soil flesh bags we think that we are separate and somehow isolated from the total environment that surrounds us. We pretend and we act and we create structures that are based on this false idea that we are somehow separate from the soil. We no longer rely on the soil as our nutrient base and we no longer honor the fact that its part of our lifestyle to sustain the soil.

What is my path in life?

When we say, “Oh, I’m looking for my path,” we are really wondering, “What is the purpose of a human being?” A human bring is a mobile expression of the vital life of the planet. There are probably lots of purposes for human beings but part of the reason why we were given legs in the first place was to act as landscapers, caretakers, moderators and enhancers of the vital communication capacity of the earth that is expressed in the life of the soil. It is the proper time to rejoin the community of other sentient beings and the earth which all return their essence to the dirt. You might say, “Oh my god, that’s just crazy!” You know what? If you start to think about it like that for a minute, I think some things might come clear.

We are not that special

Like the Native Americans say, “What is a human being? An upright two-legged being.” No different than any other! No different than the four-legged, no different from the ones with wings, no different than the ones that swim. No different than the ones who crawl through the earth and no different than the microbes. Guess what? Microbes are sentient. How about that? Bacteria is sentient, virus is sentient. Like the Dalai Llama says, “ALL LIVING BEINGS ARE SENTIENT.” We pray for all sentient beings, so when we are praying for all sentient beings we pray for the virus and the bacteria.

Sustainable Eating Part 1, Sustainable Eating Part 2, Sustainable Eating Part 3, Sustainable Eating Part 4

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Disclaimer:
All Information is provided for educational purposes only and not intended to be used for any therapeutic purpose, neither is it intended to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure any disease. Please consult a health care professional for diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. While all attempts have been made to ensure the accuracy of this information. The author and ThaiYogaCenter.Com does not accept any responsibility for any errors or omissions.

Copyright© 2011, Dr. Anthony B. James. All rights reserved under International and Pan American copyright conventions. World rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Inquires should be addressed to: Dr. Anthony B. James http://www.ThaiYogaCenter.Com

Thai Yoga Concepts: Sustainable Eating and Sustainable Health: Part 1 of 4

March 8, 2018March 4, 2018 by Thai1on

Thai Yoga Concepts: Sustainable Eating and Sustainable Health: Part 1 of 4

Veda Vyasa Award August 2017

By Anthony B. James DNM(P), ND(T), MD(AM), OMD, Ph.D., RAAP

(Transcribed from a live talk at the Florida Sustainable Living and Perma-culture Conference, Plant City Florida, March 26, 2011)

Welcome! I am so happy that you all have come to share this Sustainable Living and Perma-culture conference with us and explore what sustainability is. There is clearly a lot of passion in this group about what sustainability is and what a sustainable life means. I’ve been going around and talking to lots of beautiful people with really succinct, clear and dynamic visions about what they are trying to achieve. These are big goals!

I am a medical doctor (Monastic Physician), Traditional Naturopathic physician, Oriental Medical Doctor, Vidya (Classical Indian Ayurvedic Physician) and Aachan i.e. traditional master teacher/ professor of Thai Traditional Ayurveda and Yoga Therapy. I am what you think of when you hear about alternative medicine or complementary medicine. What you think of when you hear about wacky medicine that actually has conscience. I am one of those people and I’m proud to be one of those people. I teach medicine, alternative medicine, holistic health, yoga, and everything to do with what it means to try and survive in this world as a healthy balanced person.

At first when I was brainstorming for this talk sustainable living I thought, “well maybe I can talk about 10 principles of health for sustainable living.” The more I thought about it the more I realized “well that’s just crap! I’m not going to be able to do that!” First of all, anybody who knows me knows that one thing I like to do is get behind the curtain and go behind the scenes to get to the real issues because I’m one of those crazy doctors that thinks that in order to balance and achieve optimal health we actually have to go to the origin of the symptoms of our dysfunction. The problem with that is that there are a lot of causes, and some of them are kind of big! There is such a thing as geo-pathic stress, there is such a thing as economic stress, there is such a thing as social stress, there is such a thing as ecological stress, interpersonal stress, toxins, poisons, bacteria, viruses, chemicals and especially radiation right now. Add to that mix of external stress the internal truth that we can be our own worst enemies. Whew!

All these things are contributing to whether or not you feel happy and well right now in this moment. How are we going to achieve that? Even more complex, how are we going to sustain it? Oh my god! That’s a complicated issue. But we have to start somewhere. I have taken some insight from some of the other presentations here and I may not be able to remember the individual names of the presenters because I was so tied up in the really beautiful messages that they speak. I want to always pay respect that I learn from other people, that’s basically how I got here. I’ve been fortunate to have really good role models for sustainable ideas about personal health, wellness and balance and that’s what I’m trying to perpetuate.

Our common survival is linked

So I am Dr. Anthony James and I live here. This is my home, this is my classroom and this is where I teach every day. I want to welcome you to share our space and to bring your energy and contributions on a personal level because I think one of the core concepts that we have to focus on in sustainability is that while we get caught up in the environment, we get caught up in ecology, we get caught up in the external landscape issues, the bottom line is that we are people and we are concerned with ourselves and each other. One of our primary motivations to try and find sustainable solutions to the questions that the world is giving us right now is so we can survive as humans, so we can survive as people! I think one of the most important ideas that we have for sustainability is that we keep reaching toward connectivity with each other and that we don’t let these issues separate us and cause us to fracture and to go off in our own little survival corners with our own little survival strategies. I think our survival as a species or as individuals is absolutely connected to us remaining connected to each other. No matter the kinds of strategies we’re working with, we’ve got to hang! Our survival is dependent on one another. No matter what else I say it’s always going to be in the context of community because the more research I do, the more I realize that I don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving long term if you personally aren’t going to help me do it. It’s not going to happen! On many simultaneous levels I am completely dependent on my community for survival. No matter what our individual strategy of sustainability we have to keep bringing it back to our family, to our friends, to our community, which are all flesh and blood people. You know, “you prick at them, they doth bleed” kind of thing, that’s the core of it right there.

In this community I know we have some people in our midst that are hardcore sustainable educators and perma-culture educators. But we also have a few people here who don’t really know what the word means. They’re not really sure- What is this sustainability thing? What does that even mean? I am going to start with that and then take my marching orders and try to get through as much of what I have to talk to you about as possible. I know you’re probably not going to remember anything other than the “hello,” however, I also believe that there is such a thing as the Akashic record. I also believe that the ‘stress adaptive human biological transformational machine’ that is sitting in the chair has an absolute perfect ability to mimic, record and adapt to external environments and circumstances. If in fact I can say anything at all that has substance and resonates with any core truth within you then you will have a perfect memory for it and at some point you will recollect it in context, although you may not remember where it came from and I’m OK with that.

What are the principles of sustainable living?

Whatever it take to live a long, healthy, and happy life while respecting and caring for the community of life in which we live.

–Working to improve the quality of our life, enabling human beings to realize their full potential for life expression. Building self-confidence and leading lives of dignity that are in and of themselves fulfilling.

-Living in such a way as not to be a burden by creating suffering for ourselves or others while seeking health education, a decent living, political freedom of expression, human rights, and freedom from violence. Sustainable means stepping away consciously from the origin cycle of the creation of suffering for ourselves and for others.

Some of you might recognize that last phrase. It is the last statement in the Metta Sutra Buddhist mantra that is considered to be the most perfect example of Bodhichitta or generating a perfect thought. An example of the most perfect thought a person can have in their head is, “May all beings be happy, may all beings be free from suffering.” Regardless of high, low or middle status, may they be free from suffering. The last sentence in the Metta Sutra says, “May I no longer participate in the origination cycle for the creation of suffering for myself and for other beings.” Essentially those are the principles of sustainable living!

We have the technologies, ideals and philosophies of sustainable living, but how do we get there? How do I no longer participate in the creation cycle of suffering for myself and for other beings, and then how do I explore, experience, and receive the effect of that philosophy? This is where we get into our green technologies. We get into to our democratic social imperatives, our holistic medical paradigms, and we get into our geologic viewpoint of “think global, act local.” These are technologies to actually implement the imperatives.

I am connected to the global paradigm of life

I know that I want to say no to pain, suffering, disorganization, disease, manipulation and coercive ideologies. How do I do that in real terms for myself, my family, my friends, my neighborhood, my community, my town, my county, my state, my country, my nation, my ocean, my sky, my world? How do I do that? Is there a way that I can be functional on all those hierarchies? I do believe that it is possible. Again, I’m another one of these holotropically and holographically minded people and I believe on some level that simultaneously within the context of my humanity and expression of physiology and my DNA that energetically physically, emotionally, and mentally I am connected to the global paradigm of life, I am part of the thin veil or film on the surface of mother earth that we call organic life. On some level, we all serve a function and we’re all interconnected in that way. There is a way to live within the framework of internal and external natural equilibrium’s and sustainability is the key. There is a way to conserve the earth’s vital resources and diversity while promoting our own for our selves, our friends and families, children and children’s children. As the Native Americans say, “we work for the life of seven generations.”

Not being sustainable is counter-intuitive to you own survival

The main reason to be sustainable is that it’s crazy not to be! It’s crazy! If you really understand what’s going on, it would be insane to not be. So, I don’t want to be crazy! It has been part of my path of life to move myself through whatever means was available towards a progression of sanity. I want to be more; I don’t want to be less. Not to be sustainable is counter intuitive to your survival. Thoughts, actions and deeds that are counter intuitive to your survival and those around you are freaking crazy! I don’t want to be crazy and that’s one reason I want to be sustainable.

Planetary die-off cycles of humanity?

Did anyone hear the lecture yesterday on paleo-human life here in the state of Florida? Did you hear the part about periodic human die-off? 12,000 years ago there was proliferation, anthropologically speaking there were millions of humans in our geographic region. Then they just kind of go away and there was a period of time where they weren’t here. Several thousand years later we start to see a continuation but it’s not too good. The technologies aren’t too good and it’s like they lost something. Then they kind of pick it up and they get going again and the arrowheads get a little sharper and a little more precise – and then, they go away for a couple thousand years! Then they come back again.

My understanding is that we are at the precipice of one of those cycles right now and we are arrogant to ignore that these cycles exists. They have been repeated several times in the last 12,000 or 15,000 years! We will be subject to the consequences if we ignore our external environment and internal environment. Anthropologists say that the disappearance and resurgence of the population is a result of conflict over harvesting of food and inappropriately harvesting of food that led to massive die offs. Spreading of disease without containment strategy also led to massive die-offs. Not understanding the impending doom by noticing the changing planetary conditions led to planetary die off.

Guess what folks? We have all of these things happening right now. The only difference between us and our paleo brothers and sisters is that we have the internet so we have more of a real-time communication network that allows us to address these issues a little bit faster whereas our paleo brothers and sisters were dependent on the “telephone game” to communicate this information. “The sky is falling! The glaciers are coming!” Then a couple of thousand miles away: “I heard something about…there is some guy with snow-cones coming?” “Well I don’t even like snow-cones, so screw that!” They were subject to that problem. We have the possibility of hope because we have a greater ability to communicate. It’s not necessarily technology, but the possibility of simultaneous global communication. Continued in “Thai Yoga Concepts: Sustainable Eating and Sustainable Health Part 2“.

(Sustainable Eating Part 2, 3, 4)

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Sustainable Eating and Sustainable Health: Part 1 of 4… Copyright© 2011, Anthony B. James, DNM(P), ND(T), MD(AM) All rights reserved under International and Pan American copyright conventions. World rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Inquires should be addressed to: Anthony B. James, DNM(P), ND(T), MD(AM), 4715 Brooksville · http://www.ThaiYogaCenter.Com

What is Traditional Thai Yoga Therapy?

March 19, 2018December 14, 2017 by Thai1on

Thai Yoga Center

What Is Traditional Thai Yoga or Traditional Thai Massage (Thai Yoga Massage)?

Thai Yoga is comprehensive, sophisticated healing arts derivative of Theraveda Buddhism, Buddhist medicine, Buddhist Psychology, Theraveda Vipassana Bhavana, Classical Indian and Tibetan Ayurveda and Yoga Vedanta. It is not required that one become a Buddhist to practice this healing art, though it is helpful to understand Buddhist principles. It is more accurate to call this medicine by its traditional names like “ancient, anachronistic or Old Thai Way of Healing with The Hands,” but the slang form, “Thai Massage” is in use, and as long as this is so there will be some understandable confusion.

The type of traditional Thai Yoga therapy that most people will be exposed to is ráksãa thaang nûat (healing massage treatment). This is commonly known as the Nuat Thai or Nuad Boran styles of Thai Yoga therapy, spiritual massage, and healing work of Thailand.

The primary outcomes associated with the practice of Thai Yoga are called ProMiiWihan Sii ( Brahmavihara) or four divine, boundless sublime states of mind; Love, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity. As long as these four qualities are communicated, transmitted and exemplified during a session, it is considered to be successful. For this reason it is possible to have a Thai Yoga session with little or no actual touching!

In addition to the four divine states of mind we practice and perform Puja– a ritual healing process of prayer, affirmation and acknowledgement. We acknowledge the sacred space shared by client and Yogi, we honor and acknowledge the Bodhisattvas and progenitors of our way and teaching, and we “generate the Boddichitta,” the perfected mental processes of enlightened beings through Mantra recitation of OmNamoShivago, the Metta Sutra or anything else that invokes and invites the essence and energy of love and healing to move within ourselves and our client.

This prayerful and thoughtful meditation attunes powerful energies and petitions the sacred and symbolic metaphors of deities, ancient guides, and role models that provide the basis for all further communication and expression of Promiiwihan Sii.

The secondary outcomes are of lesser importance and may or may not share characteristics common to many forms of western massage such as effleurage (stroking and kneading the muscles), manipulation (manipulating or aligning osseous or skeletal parts) and pressure point or acupressure style technique (applying deep, consistent pressure to specific nerves, tendons, or ligaments and accupoints or Lom). In order to balance the functions of the four Dosha or body elements called thâat tháng sìi (Lom, Fai, Din, Naam), Thai Yoga incorporates elements of energetic and Prana assessment, mindfulness, gentle rocking, Asana positional release, deep stretching, focused breathing or Prana Yama, Chakra balancing, Prana Nadi or Sen line balancing and rhythmic compression to create a singular healing experience.

Native American Indigenous Church (NAIC),The SomaVeda College of Natural Medicine (SCNM) and the Thai Yoga Center are representative of and support authentic Traditional Thai Medicine (TTM), Thai culture and healing arts. Our member instructors are directly authorized teachers, representatives and traditional lineage holders in several different traditional secular and Buddhist schools:

–Buddhai Sawan Institute Ayudthaya and Nongkam (famous for martial and healing arts for 900 years)
–Phra Wat Chetuphon (Buddhist Temple, Wat Po Traditional Thai Medical School…One of the oldest schools of traditional arts),
–Buntautuk Hilltribes Northern Provencial Hospital and Training Institute also known as “The Old Medicine Hospital of Shivago Komarpai.”
-ITM (International Thai Massage, Chiangmai)
–Mama Lek Chaiya
-The Foundation for the Blind
-Buddhist Temple Wat Sawankholok, School for the Blind
–Wiang Klaikangwon Industrial Community & Educational College program sponsored by HM. King Bhumibol, Anantasuk Thai Massage)

There are several other significant lineages, teachers and Grand Masters. Most important is the Buddhist medicine derived from the famous Saint Shivago (Jivaka). In the United States traditional lineage and teaching is primarily passed on via the educational programs of the Thai Yoga Center in Brooksville, FL. Additionally, we recognize all schools formally recognized by the Royal Thai Ministries of Health and of Education and The Union of Thai Traditional Medicine Society (UTTS) listed or not!

There are actually quite a few different traditional “schools” of Thai yoga Therapy. They range from the big university driven or supported programs of Bangkok, to the “family” style oral and traditional lineages of Thailand’s Northern Hill Tribe people such as Karen, Lisu, Lahu, Mien and Akha People. Their influence is a growing factor in the modern expression of Thai Massage, especially in the North.

Thai Yoga is a colloquial or geographically distinctive system. Modern Thai yoga Therapy is a synthesis of several different regional variations based on location, region and in some cases the specific influence of a charismatic teacher. Traditionally there was mention of the “Seven Schools”. Of course there was not in the past only seven schools! Considering this was the primary medicine of millions of people for over a thousand years it is logical to assume there were many different schools in operation at one time or another. For example, every temple teaching or practicing these healing arts could have been considered a school and there were hundreds if not thousands of these over the years.

The most famous traditional school in the north is The Buntautuk Northern Hill Tribe Medical Hospital or “The Old Medicine Hospital.” Under the auspices of Grand Master Aajan Sintorn Chaichagun (Transitioned November 2005) it has become a national and international phenomenon. Teaching various levels of programs to Thai and falang (foreigner) alike, Aajan Sintorn was also famous for his daily recitation of the Pali Om Namo Shivago prayer and invocation for blessing. Twice each day he would lead the entire community in this rhythmic and beautiful traditional mantra for healing. In the north they say, “you don’t know Thai Massage until you know this mantra!” Today the Wat Po Association of Traditional Doctors, member schools and Aachans or Master Instructors are bringing this work into the modern world. Famous schools and their head Masters such as Anantasuk Rongrian under both Phaa Kruu Anantasuk and Aachan Nantipa Anantasuk work with the King’s Rajaprajanugroh projects to completely document the traditional medicine and preserve its rich heritage.

Northern Thailand is closer to main land China so there is more Chinese and Laotion influenced massage techniques. For example, a well known teacher and practitioner in Chiangmai, Mama Lek Chaiya and her family teach what is called nûat jàp sên (nerve-touch massage), a Chinese-style massage technique that works with the body’s nerve meridians much like acupuncture. Some of the plucking techniques are reminiscent of Tuina and can be quite unpleasant. However, the ultimate aim of balancing the chi takes precedence over comfort!

It is important to remember that any and all applications of physical pressure are intended to convey ProMiiwihan Sii to balance and harmonize the thâat tháng sìi and Tri_dosha or Three Winds, Humors or energetically based body types. Thai yoga is a sophisticated system of exchanging love with pressure, just as a hug can convey care, consideration and love with physical pressure. It’s just that in Thai Yoga that loving embrace is conveyed with great detail and sophistication.

The practice of Thai Yoga is substantially based on principles of classical Ayurveda as described in the Caraka Samhita Sutra, Susrita Samhita Sutra, Gheranda Samhita, Atharvaveda, Pradipika, and Ramayana, without most of the overt references to Hindu deities. The philosophies and principles of these Ayurvedic texts have also been re-interpreted in Theraveda Buddhism. Two influential texts in the Theraveda system are the Buddha Dhama and the Vipassana Bhavanna. Ayurvedic practices emphasized in Thai yoga include Samkhya (Sanskrit= Satkhya), Creation Cosmology, Rajas, Satvas and Tamas, Dhatus, Doshas, Sen Lines (Prana Nadi), Lom (Wind Gates, Sanskrit= Marma), Pancha Karma, Asana, Prana Yama, and Mantra.

Traditional Thai Yoga IS Yoga and has within it’s practice all of the benefits of Yoga practice. To read an outstanding article on 18 amazing benifits of Yoga, According to Science by Author Jen Miller Click Here!

The four Thai Ayurvedic elements are: earth (din-solid parts of the body, including nerves, skeleton, muscles, blood vessels, tendons and ligaments); water (náam-blood and bodily secretions); fire (fai-digestion and metabolism); and air (lom-respiration, and circulation). Borrowing from India’s Ayurvedic tradition, some practitioners employ Pali-Sanskrit terms for the four bodily elements: pathavidhatu, apodhatu, tecodhatu and vayodhatu. The book “Lines, Wheels, Points and Specific Remedies” covers this theory in detail.

Thai Yoga Massage and or Traditional Thai massage are systems of yoga therapy and all aspects Somaveda® Style Thai Yoga follow Ayurvedic and yogic principles.

From the Ayudthaya period until early this century, the Thai government’s Department of Health included an official massage (Marma Cikitsa) division (phanâek mãw nûat). Under the influence of international medicine and modern hospital development, the responsibility for the national propagation/maintenance of temple based Thai Ayurveda was eventually transferred to Phra Wat Chetaphon (Wat Pho) in Bangkok, where it remains today. Traditional Yoga therapy has persisted in most of the provinces and there has recently been a resurgence of popularity throughout the country. The Wat Po system is divided into two completely separate and distinctive categories: the tourist massage pavilion and Tourist massage school, (Ronrian Sala Thaang Nuaat) and the School for traditional Medicine for training and certification of Maw Nuad (Massage Doctors). There are huge differences in the term and quality of training. For example, a tourist may receive an introductory massage certificate in as little as ten days, where the full program for Maw Nuad is twelve to fourteen semesters or four full years. In the United States we have many different levels of recognitions for Certified Thai Yoga/Massage Practitioners.

The Royal Thai Ministry of Health relies on the Union of Thai Traditional Medicine Society (UTTS) to formulate and maintain standards of practice and competency necessary for formal licensing of secular, non-religious professional Traditional Thai Medicine providers in the kingdom.

Within the traditional Thai medical context, a Thai Yoga massage therapist (mãw nûat, literally, ‘massage doctor’) usually applies Thai Yoga together with pharmacological (herbal) and/or psycho-spiritual treatments as prescribed for a specific problem or specific imbalance of the Dosha or winds and humors of the body, mind, and spirit. It is becoming quite popular for many Thais to also use traditional Thai Yoga as a tool for relaxation and disease prevention, rather than for a specific medical problem. However, once you leave the big city and move into the country you begin to see more reliance on the application as energy based medicine. This includes the resurgence and growing popularity of the self treatment regimes and Yoga practices of “Reusi Dotan” or Reishi Yoga.

Traditional Thai yoga, Thai Yoga massage and or Thai massage is not the same as “Massage,” “Massage Therapy,” or “bodywork,” as commonly defined in so-called “Massage Laws.” The term “Thai Massage” is western slang, mostly promoted by tourists in Thailand. Although the use of the term is now common, it still is misunderstood and misused by the misinformed. It is easy to be confused when similar words are used, such as “Massage,” but legally there are distinctions and differences in definitions.

Please note: In common English when we use the word “massage” we do not mean it in the same context as the typical western usage. In the west “Massage” means something like a “rub down” for money and is primarily referring to systems derived from Swedish Massage and Massage Therapy. “Thai Yoga and or Thai Massage” (Phaen Boran Ráksãa Thaang Nûat) is completely unrelated!

Legally words can have different meanings than words used in common, non-legal language. For example, “Massage and Massage Therapy” definitions are based on the practice of “Swedish massage.” “Swedish Massage” is new (less than one hundred years) in European and American culture. According to the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine “The term “massage therapy” encompasses many different techniques (see box for examples). In general, therapists press, rub, and otherwise manipulate the muscles and other soft tissues of the body. They most often use their hands and fingers, but may use their forearms, elbows, or feet”.

Compare this definition with the definition given for what is Thai Yoga at the beginning of this article “Thai Yoga is comprehensive, sophisticated healing arts derivative of Theraveda Buddhism, Buddhist medicine, Buddhist Psychology, Theraveda Vipassana Bhavana, Classical Indian and Tibetan Ayurveda and Yoga Vedanta. “

Thai yoga massage sounds similar to Western-style massage at first glance, but what is not mentioned in the proceeding definition is that Thai yoga massage is a spiritually based system of healing and movement education (Yoga). It is based entirely on principles of energy balancing (Sen, Tri-Dosha, Lom, Chakra etc.) and the actual touching, contact or soft tissue manipulation is incidental to, and not the central aim of the practice! I want to emphasize this statement again “It is possible to have a Thai Yoga session with little or no actual touching”. However, touching is good! This work brings fundamental elements and energy into harmony and creates wholeness of mind, body and spirit.

Thai yoga massage is a spiritually based Somatic technique and profession, a modality with standards established in the Buddhist holistic centers and temples thousands of years ago. It has an established code of ethics known as the Buddha Dharma, The Eight Fold Path, Ahimsa (non-violence) and the “Ten Rules of the Healer.” There is an established criterion for education and professional practice for services that were never intended to be “Massage” or “Massage therapy.”

Where Can I Learn Thai Yoga and Thai Massage?

1) NAIC/ SCNM: Thai Yoga Center provides a registry of approved schools, teachers and certified practitioners of Thai Yoga and Thai Massage. Thai Yoga and Thai Massage Directory

NAIC Members are legally entitled to practice Thai yoga, Thai Yoga Therapy , Thai Massage in all fifty states with NAIC Membership and Authorization without requiring any special licensing. Of course that means as long as what is practiced is not in violation of existing medical laws or that the practice is under the umbrella of an expressive private membership association or recognized church or ecclesiastical authority or organization. We are happy to answer any questions that you have pertaining to the legal practice of our energetic and spiritually based art of healing and transformation.

2) The Thai Yoga Center: In the US today the traditional lineages of Thai Yoga Therapy and Traditional Thai Massage are passed on via the in Brooksville, Florida through the Mastery and teaching of Aachan Anthony B. James ND, MDAM. Aachan James, after 30 plus years of extensive devotion, practice and research brings several different and complimentary traditional lineages to life.

To learn more about the SomaVeda College of Natural Medicine and Thai Yoga Center Click Here!

SomaVeda® Thai Yoga is the core modality of our four Certificate and five College Degree Programs. Other elements include but are not limited to Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Native American and Western Nature Cure or Traditional Naturopathy (Non-Drug, Non-Surgery, Non-Radiation or any dangerous, unsafe, invasive, non-natural therapy).

The SomaVeda® Thai Yoga based Associate of Sacred Arts: Major Natural Wellness(SCNM: A.S.A) degree program qualifies graduates to sit for the ANMCB (American Naturopathic Medical Certification Board) Traditional Naturopathic National Boards. A Traditional Naturopath is considered by many to be at the top of the holistic pyramid. We have established a program to educate conscience and spirit based natural and holistic health providers and ministers of all types and levels in the traditional, spiritual based healing methods of Thai Yoga.

If this all sounds interesting to you and you would like to experience SomaVeda@ Thai Yoga on a first hand basis, then consider taking one of our certification courses or joining one of our famous Thailand Externship Programs. We have been providing quality access to Thailand, Thai yoga massage and Thai Culture for over 30 years. Our programs feature extensive hands on massage training and internationally recognized certification as well as great exposure to the country and the people through our Eco-Tour, country survey style approach. Join us for the adventure of a lifetime!

Disclaimer:
All Information is provided for educational purposes only and not intended to be used for any therapeutic purpose, neither is it intended to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure any disease. Please consult a health care professional for diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. No infection treatment products are sold from this website and every attempt is made to make statements which are unbiased and are solely in the best interest of the members, public and patient.While all attempts have been made to ensure the accuracy of this information. The author and ThaiYogaCenter.Com does not accept any responsibility for any errors or omissions.

The information provided in this article and or website has not been reviewed by the FDA. The FDA specifically considers anecdotal information and or research to be unreliable and or non valid. Additionally the information provided in this article is educational and to some degree anecdotal and in no context or meaning is it implied by the author or the website that it be intended as a substitute for competent medical advise. Patients suffering from a severe medical condition are advised to consult with their physician.

Copyright© 2017, Anthony B. James, All rights reserved under International and Pan American copyright conventions. World rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Inquires should be addressed to: Anthony B. James, 5401 Saving Grace, Ln, Brooksville, FL 34602· http://www.ThaiYogaCenter.Com

September 2017, NAIC Seminary: 200 Hr. SomaVeda® Thai Yoga Practitioner, CTP1

July 4, 2018October 5, 2017 by Thai1on

NAIC/ SCNM: Thai Yoga Center for Indigenous Thai Yoga, Ayurveda, Yoga Therapy and Natural Medicine Photo’s

Sacred Ayurveda, Yoga Therapy, SomaVeda® Thai Yoga, Indigenous Traditional and Natural Medicine

SCNM: Thai Yoga Center for Ayurveda, Yoga Therapy and Natural Medicine Photo’s September 2017 intensive Thai Yoga Therapy at The Native American Indigenous Church (NAIC): SomaVeda College of Natural Medicine and Thai Yoga Center located at the NAIC Sancturary in Brooksville, Florida.

Students participated in the NAIC Seminary: SomaVeda® Indigenous Thai Ayurveda and Thai Yoga Therapy Basic Practitioner Certificate Course (CTP1). This SomaVeda Integrated Traditional Therapies® Indigenous Thai Ayurveda and Yoga Therapy Practitioner Certificate Training included SomaVeda® Level One. Balance of the program was rescheduled do to mandatory evacuation for hurricane Irma!

CTP program includes fifteen additional courses emphasizing Sacred Nutrition, Counseling, Emotional Mental Health Strategies, Nutrition and supplementation to enhance practice results, Ayurveda, Yoga Therapy and Legal Guidelines for NAIC Ministers.

SomaVeda® Thai Yoga programs stress practice development and marketing strategies that work!

NAIC/SCNM: Thai Yoga Center Ayurveda/ Thai Yoga/ Yoga Therapy/ Indigenous, Traditional Medicine, Thai Traditional Medicine religious therapeutics educational programs and Certification programs visit ThaiYogaCenter.Com

Learn more about the science behind SomaVeda® Thai Traditional Medicine at www.ThaiMassage.Com

SomaVeda® Indigenous Thai Yoga certification programs are under the direction of Aachan, Dr. Anthony B. James and Thai Yoga Center staff teachers: Khruu Dr. Julie James.

For information on NAIC Seminary College Degree Programs visit SomaVeda.Org Thai Traditional Medicine: (Indigenous Traditional Thai Yoga: Traditional Thai Massage: Indigenous Traditional Medicine: Yoga Therapy: Ayurveda: Ayurveda Yoga Therapist: Ayurveda Health Counselor: Yoga Therapist: Learn Thai Yoga: Doctor of Sacred Natural Medicine).

Schedules and Locations for NAIC Sponsored SomaVeda® Thai Yoga and Ayurveda Certification programs are posted at SomaVeda® Thai Yoga Calander.

AAPNA Veda Vyasa Award 2017

August 9, 2017 by Thai1on

AAPNA Veda Vyasa Award 2017

Veda Vyasa AAPNA Award August 2017

AAPNA Veda Vyasa Award 2017, The Association of Ayurvedic Professionals of North America (AAPNA) at the 27 Annual International Conference presented the Award of Veda Vyasa to Dr. Anthony B. James DNM(C), ND(T), MD(AM), DOM(C), DPHC(h.c.), PhD, M.Sc., RAAC, SMOKH, Professor and Dean of the Department of Sacred Natural Medicine and Ayurveda Medicine at SomaVeda College of Natural Medicine and School of Ayurveda Medicine, Brooksville, FL USA in recognition of his outstanding writing in his book “Ayurveda of Thailand, Indigenous Traditional Thai Medicine and Yoga Therapy” at the Hindu Temple of Atlanta, GA on August 5th. 2017.

The award was presented by AAPNA Directors Dr. Shekhar Annambhota, MD (Ayurveda) and Dr. Vijay Jain, MD

AAPNA International Conference August 2017

Dr. James was also privileged to present the Key Note speech opening the conference.

Two ways to get the book: Ayurveda of Thailand: Indigenous Traditional Thai Medicine and Yoga Therapy

Trade Paperback: Only $19.95: To review or order the paperback order on Amazon CLICK HERE!

Kindle Edition: Only $9.95: To review or order the Kindle version CLICK HERE!

News Update! July 2017: Just awarded the 2017 Silver Medal Winner in the eLit Awards (independent publishing) digital publishing excellence in the “New Age/ Mind-Body-Spirit award category!

For a Bio on Dr. Anthony B. James CLICK HERE!

Intro to SomaVeda Thai Yoga Tok Sen Stick Technique

July 29, 2017 by Thai1on

Intro to SomaVeda® Thai Yoga “Tok Sen” Stick Technique

Intro to using the SomaVeda® Thai Yoga Therapy Tok Sen Stick Technique in Thai Yoga therapy ministry protocols.

Demo by Aachan, Dr. Anthony B. James director of the SomaVeda College of Natural Medicine and Thai Yoga Center. “Tok Sen” technique can be a valuable adjunct for Ayurveda and Yoga Therapy protocols.

For more information on SomaVeda Indigenous Traditional Therapies® Thai Yoga Practitioner, Yoga Therapist and Teacher training visit us at http://www.ThaiYogaCenter.Com

SomaVeda® is a registered Trademark of Anthony B. James

July 20th. 2017, 2nd. Annual SomaVeda® Teacher Conference and Advanced Workshop

July 29, 2017 by Thai1on

July 20th. 2017, NAIC Seminary: 2nd. Annual SomaVeda® Teacher Conference and Advanced Workshop

NAIC/ SCNM: Thai Yoga Center for Indigenous Thai Yoga, Ayurveda, Yoga Therapy and Natural Medicine Photo’s SCNM: July 20th. to July 23rd. 2017, Four day conference and advanced workshops in Thai Yoga Therapy at The Native American Indigenous Church (NAIC): SomaVeda College of Natural Medicine and Thai Yoga Center located at the NAIC Sancturary in Brooksville, Florida.

SomaVeda® Certified Teachers and Teacher Candidates from across the country gathered to share and practice advanced SomaVeda® Ayurveda and Thai Yoga Therapy and ministry.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS!

2nd. Annual SomaVeda® Thai Yoga Teacher Conference July 2017

Visit ThaiYogaCenter.Com to learn how to become a Certified SomaVeda® Thai Yoga Practitioner, Yoga Therapist or Teacher today!

Learn more about the science behind SomaVeda® Thai Traditional Medicine at www.ThaiMassage.Com

For information on NAIC Seminary College Degree Programs visit www.SomaVeda.Org

Thai Traditional Medicine: Indigenous Traditional Thai Yoga: Traditional Thai Massage: Indigenous Traditional Medicine: Yoga Therapy: Ayurveda: Ayurveda Yoga Therapist: Ayurveda Health Counselor: Yoga Therapist: Learn Thai Yoga: Doctor of Sacred Natural Medicine. NAIC/ SCNM: Thai Yoga Center for Indigenous Thai Yoga, Ayurveda, Yoga Therapy and Natural Medicine Photo’s Sacred Ayurveda, Yoga Therapy, SomaVeda® Thai Yoga, Indigenous Traditional and Natural Medicine.

SomaVeda Integrated Traditional Therapies® is a Registered Trademark of Anthony B. James