Thai Massage Intro -32 Principles
Principles of Traditional Thai Medicine; Aggregates, Essences and Sen:
Thai healing evolved over time by local healers, shamans, and midwives as they integrated the best aspects of all the practices that they experienced firsthand. The system employs a holistic approach that includes massage, and meditation, external, internal, and spiritual disciplines, or herbal potions.
In the third century BC, Brahmins from India and Buddhist monks traveled through Thailand. On the way, they dispensed the beliefs they brought with them, including their medical art, Ayurveda, which is maintaining a balanced flow of energy through trajectories in the body by employing massage and herbal remedies.
Earth, wind, fire, and water are now familiar concepts in Western culture, even if it starts to sound like the name of a band. The basis for Traditional Thai healing arts theory is that these Elements must be balanced to realize optimal health.
While the Elemental theory had roots in Indian Ayurveda, Thais were already disposed to herbal cures, as had already been the nature of these people to discover solutions for survival.
Because of Thailand’s location along the Silk Road, Chinese influence also had a strong impact, bringing acupressure, acupuncture, and a multitude of animal combinations and herbal remedies.
Traditional Thai Medicine is rooted in an ancient view of health that sees the human being as a fusion of body and spirit (soul/mind/heart). For vitality to persist, all components must receive equal support and consideration.
To master TTM, the concepts you should study are:
1) The threefold division into the essences of a human being. Three essences: body, energy, and mind/heart. Each branch of Traditional Thai Medicine focuses on one of these while their goals and effects overlap. For example, herbs and diet not only heal the body, they also help purify the mind. Thai massage makes contact with the physical body, but the benefits extend into the mental and spiritual spheres. Chitta, or the mind/heart of a being, in the realm of Buddhist practice and native folk beliefs that have persisted despite the mainstream Buddhist religion. 7) Lom or Lifeforce. Pran in Thai and Prana in Sanskrit. Thai massage and yoga, whose movements are designed to optimize the flow of vital energies in the body, concern themselves with unblocking and maintaining the pathways.
2) Element Theory concerning the human body, herbs, and tastes.
3) The theory of the Sen system,.
Sen. Sen is a network of channels in the body that carry the Lom. Some say there are 72 SEN; others say 72,000 sen, but the early teachers may merely be suggesting that there are many of them, so the exact number is not really important. Ten (Sip in Thai)) are essential to practice, hence the term Sen Sip.
All Sen are beneath the body’s surface and begin just below the navel, but each line has a unique trajectory that may be thought of in terms of its terminal point. Some lines are organized in pairs, mirrored by each other on the body’s left and right sides. The Sen have many attributes that respond to massage and yoga. Lom or “wind” travels through the Sen to feed the body. Suppose a pathway is blocked, illness results. Massage and yoga manipulate the Sen to unblock the flow and restore health.
Experts recognize sources for the trajectories of the Sen, including the Wat Po marble tablets; however, each gives a different version of the pathways. The differences are not significant. What is essential in the concept is to organize one’s intention along a line rather than focusing on the body as separate physical parts.
For more detail, consult any resource for the list of Sen Lines and their Terminal Point:
Itha -left nostril/Pingala -right nostril
Sahatsarangsi -left eye/Thawari -right eye
Lawusang -left ear/Ulanga -right ear
Kalathari -fingers and toes.
Sumana -tongue
Thawari -anus
Sikinee -genitals
4) A lineage of teachers and the ability to transmit healing potential to their students.
5) Aggregates. The five aggregates are matter, senses, cognition, will, and consciousness. These are dependent on one another, and together, they form the illusory ego or “I.” The Buddhist view that a human is a composite of five parts or aggregates called “panca khanda” in Thai ขันธ์. Buddhists do not believe in reincarnation. Upon death, the ego is dissolved and only the Karma of past life continues and becomes the new life and body for the next, as in “you can never step into the same river twice because the water in the river is new. The idea of “no-self” or impermanence in general is not easy for western people to understand, let alone adopt but, it is the backbone of all Buddhist practice.