Dear Friends,
We all know that you can go to our website or call and ask us anything. But, sometimes many people have the same questions about Ayurveda, our various products, or issues that come up from reading our articles and books.
So, here is a place we can all share and learn from.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours,
Melanie and Robert Sachs
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2 comments:
Hello Melanie and Robert,
Recently I joined LinkedIn, a professional networking website. I joined the Ayurveda group and posted a discussion re: preserving the integrity of ayurvedic treatments in the spa industry. I believe part of my work on this planet is to help these ancient teachings remain pure. I received a response from Ysha Oakes that I should contact you as this has also been your work. Do you have any advice for me in this arena?? thank you warmly,
namaste'
Radha Rani
radharanilove@gmail.com
Dear Radha,
Thanks for your posting. It comes on the heels of us just completing a 1 day program on shirodhara for a major spa group in the US. If your eyebrows went when I said shirodhara and 1 day, I can completely understand.
What has driven - I believe - the success of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) in America is how it has wrapped itself around American lifestyle; macrobiotics, Chinese food, Chi Qoung, and martial arts. All of these have made the lexicon of Chinese Medicine familiar and, I believe, made the acceptance of TCM more possible.
Ayurveda is new on the western scene. Yoga has made Ayurveda more known - although strangely enough most yoga students have no clue as to what Ayurveda is. On the other side, Ayurveda has wanted to prove its efficacy in relation to Western medicine as well as keep its association with Hinduism closely bound arounds its presentation. The former runs up against the money and power structure in medicine in the West. The latter is just plain off-putting to a Judeo-Christian culture.
This is why we have gone to the spa industry. And, we have been working on two fronts. In the case of the 1-day program I mentioned earlier, our hope is that the staff get a taste of the paradigm and possibility of what Ayurveda has to offer. That is all that can really be accomplished. Of course, they will try to use what we have taught them and hopefully, the rudimentary way we have presented our material we hope will be used properly. We always make ourselves available for contact with therapists and spas if there are any questions.
Secondly, we try to find those techniques that best suit spas and spa therapists. Some treatments, like pizzacili and pinda swedana, are questionable in a spa environment. Also, the claims to be doing Pancha Karma when in fact they are doing purva karma.
The treatments we teach are firmly rooted in both the Indian and Tibetan traditions of Ayurveda. We have tried to maintain their spirit, while - at the same time - modifying them to fit into modern spa culture. Some think that keeping Ayurveda pure means doing abhyanga on wooden Indian tables. I wonder if the vaidyas of old had access to modern, foam covered tables, if they would have chosen them instead.
So, we look forward to continuing this discussion as we think it is a very valuable one to have in a public forum.
Yours,
Robert
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