Practice
The massage recipient changes into loose, comfortable clothes and lies on a mat or firm mattress on the floor. It can be done solo or in a group of a dozen or so patients in the same large room. The receiver may be positioned in a variety of yoga-like positions during the course of the massage, but deep static and rhythmic pressures form the core of the massage.
The massage practitioner leans on the recipient's body using hands and usually straight forearms locked at the elbow to apply firm rhythmic pressure. The massage generally follows the Sen lines on the body—somewhat analogous to meridians or channels and Indian nadis. Legs and feet of the giver can be used to fixate the body or limbs of the recipient. In other positions, hands fixate the body, while the feet do the massaging action. A full Thai massage session typically lasts two hours or more, and includes rhythmic pressing and stretching of the entire body; this may include pulling fingers, toes, ears, cracking the knuckles, walking on the recipient's back, and arching the recipient into bhujangasana (or cobra position). There is a standard procedure and rhythm to the massage, which the practitioner will adjust to fit each individual client.
The true practice of the art of healing in traditional nuad boran (thai massage) is the compassionate intent of the healer. The Buddhist spiritual practices associated with thai massage cultivate humility, awareness, and concentration in the healer designed to bring the practitioner to a deeper level of awareness of herself and the client. This compassionate state of being is termed "metta", which usually translates as "loving kindness".
Read more about this topic: Thai Massage
Famous quotes containing the word practice:
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We black women must forgive black men for not protecting us against slavery, racism, white men, our confusion, their doubts. And black men must forgive black women for our own sometimes dubious choices, divided loyalties, and lack of belief in their possibilities. Only when our sons and our daughters know that forgiveness is real, existent, and that those who love them practice it, can they form bonds as men and women that really can save and change our community.”
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“In a sense that I am unable to explicate further, the proponents of competing paradigms practice their trades in different worlds.”
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