#1 Thai Yoga Yamas
By Anthony B. James DNM(P), ND(T), MD(AM), DPHC(h.c.), DOM, RAC, SMOKH Academic Dean SomaVeda College of Natural Medicine and Thai Yoga Center (SCNM).
Yamas are good way of life but from an internal expression. Not expressing negativity and thinking good thoughts or generating boddhicitta. We have two parts here: thinking good thoughts and generating boddhicitta and not expressing negativity on the other hand. The concept of yamas is to question: how do I intentionally craft a thought life that will generate a good way of life in the external? How do I do it internally? Think good thoughts. In order to think a good thought and not express a negative one, you have to know the difference between them. As far as thinking good thoughts we have to have ideas of what is a good thought.
We think of the Metta-Sutra as a great illustration of an affirmation in support of right living and right work. We read that. It has this concept of essentially a wishing well to all living beings. May all beings be free and happy. May they be free of suffering whether they are high, middle, or low, etc. traditionally and classically we were told that thinking those kinds of thoughts is the same as generating Boddhicitta. This is the perfect thinking. Boddhicitta means ‘the mind of the Buddha’. Boddhi means ‘perfect intellect’ or perfect understanding. It means to generate the mindful character of an individual who perfectly understands…understands what? It is someone who understands the value of being intentional about thinking. Yamas is very important.
Yamas are the activities and pursuits that you do to craft a healthy way of thinking. That could be reading healthy books and reading literature that inspires you and cause you to have thoughtful, considerate and truthful kinds of thinking in your brain. It could be spiritual books. All spiritual books are not created equal. For example, if a spiritual book promotes violence, I wouldn’t recommend it. That probably will not help you to create yamas. In fact, it might do the opposite. There is this idea of discretion and discernment as far as what you are exposed to. It could be watching movies and videos that have either subtle or overt themes that are truthful and lead to higher thoughts like love, compassion and joy…correct thinking about the way of the world and so on.
Not expressing negativity is very important because we know, for example, that the cause of all illness and negative emotions are disturbances in the body’s energetic field. We know that. We also know that negativity and its expression like saying it and acting it out cause disruptions in the body’s energy field. These disruptions then cause more negative emotions. These negative emotions support negative thinking.
The disruption of the energy field, the negative emotion, the postural and physical distortion old, unresolved negative emotion and issues cause, all end up pushing us toward a negative expression of who we are in life. This corrupted and distorted expression is less than what we could be or that which we are designed for, less than our capacity for being. These kinds of ideas, this disruption and distortion and acting out, this negative emotional state of fears and phobias do not support the work of the human, biologic, transformational machine. Anything that doesn’t support the work of the human organism we want to stop and change. The beautiful part is that we’ve been given handbooks and manuals and secrets, the owner’s manuals, the back doors the engineers put into the design in order to change the way the machine operates and the operating system operates. We can reprogram the machine. We can reprogram it on purpose.
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In 2012 I recieved a certificate for the teacher training course at ITM. I have a been a registered massage therapist in Calalgary Canada for 21 years. My practice has grown offer time to become very specialized treatments.
What couse would be helpfull in my practice and do you teach ?from Chiangmai. United Sates is not an option for me at this time.
Hello and thank you for this query. You have already completed one of the best Tourist Cert courses with my associate Khruu Chongkol. I can not offer or recommend any further tourist training’s in Chiang mai or elsewhere in Thailand. We are a College of Ayurveda and Traditional Thai Medicine and can only offer or recommend professional training’s at this time either here in the US or via UTTS Ministry of Health in Thailand which require residency visa and extended stay. The UTTS courses in Thailand require Grade five Thai Language proficiency certificate to apply for entry. If your unable to travel here then sounds like your doing great on your own. Best to you.