DHARMA HEALING INTERNATIONAL FASTING COURSES
7 to 30 Day Programs
FASTING AS A PATH OF DHARMA
I find it mind blowing to think that it was 30 years ago, November 1994, that we began receiving “fasters” for the 7-day fasting program.
At that time, it was word and mouth. We didn’t have internet, we did have a land line, but few people called in advance to let us know they were coming. Most of the “fasters” were back-packing travelers, on journeys for months and some for a year or more.
Once our fasters finished their stint with us, they carried flyers away to post at guest houses throughout Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere in the region.
During those early days of guiding, teaching and counseling about the benefits of fasting, it didn’t take long for the 7-day fasting-detox program to become a course of classes. As fasters came with loads of questions, requesting information about everything from what foods were the most toxic, how the market works, how to overcome addictions, how to break the fast properly, what foods make you enlightened, and how to fast on your own to attain that supreme peak of Light?
After just a few years, the course information grew from 1hour classes to sometimes over 3hour classes each day, the way it is today.
KOH SAMUI: The DETOX MECCA OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
Fasting and detox were becoming popular, in the early 90s, and travelers caught on to it, as word got out about Koh Samui offering these New Age life enhancement options, such as fasting-detox, eating healthy, Yoga and meditation.
As we were the 2nd fasting-detox program on Koh Samui, in Thailand and Southeast Asia, word got around very quickly, and we would host 7 to 16 or more people each week for months at a time, without a break, for years.
The first 10 years, we never took breaks. We would just wait for there to be a lull. Often during the months of May and June, Koh Samui’s hottest months, there were few fasters. Then during the November rainy season, when nobody came, we would close for the whole month, before the busy tourist season.
In those beginning days, we weren’t a company yet. It was in 1997 that we became Dharma Healing Center, or in Thai: Soon Samahn Samakki Dharma; literal translation: The Dharma Center of Healing Harmony. . . Quite lovely, I think.
WHERE DID THE NAME COME FROM?
I first began studying the Buddha Dharma in the 1970s. Then in 1986 and 87, I took every Buddhist class available to me at the Harvard Divinity School, as electives while doing my Ed.M. degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
But it was when I moved to Koh Samui in 1988 that my study became more serious when I began reading Dharma books in Thai.
WHAT IS DHARMA?
Dharma is the teachings of the Buddha. Most people think that Dharma is only a few teachings, usually the most well-known teachings, such as: Everything of the material world is impermanent—There is no such thing as an ego—Life is Suffering.
Few people know that there are a total of 88,000 Dharma teachings.
That is a great number of teachings, which makes sense once you know the reason why Buddha created them.
Buddha had the epiphany that human beings needed a lot of help. Thus, he couldn’t just live off of his Enlightenment forever without realizing that there was a great mission for him, the purpose of which, was to intimately and lovingly guide each human being into him/herself; while helping them cultivate, probably the most divinely given, awesome tips, tools and tasks, to assist them along that painful, full on, up and down journey of knowing who they are and what to do with themselves.
So, in a finite nutshell: Dharma gives each person the Path to learn everything about Your Mind and Psyche. The Dharma Teachings flaunt the best of You, support discerning, promote eliminating what is in the way, and gratify Who You Are and WILL BECOME!
FASTING AS A PATH OF DHARMA
Through study and practice I often feel kind of illuminated by some of these many teachings. And I realized by 1997 that the fasting experience was without a doubt all about each person following the “Dharma in a Nutshell”, which is:
Fasting as a Path of Dharma gives each person the Path to learn everything about Your Mind and Psyche, but is completely focused on the physical body as well.
Thus, the fasting course—which is founded on Dharma principles flaunts the best of You, as it supports physical, mental and spiritual acceptance, discernment, total elimination what is in the way—all of the toxic crap hidden within the cells--and gratifies the Absolute You—Full of Light!
The big take away is that The Dharma parallels the most valuable life lessons learned from the fasting experience.
In 1997 I chose the name of our enterprise in Thai: Soon Samahn Samakkee Dharma; translated as The Dharma Center of Healing Harmony, which few people know about. Everyone who has ever come here calls us Dharma Healing, or Dharma, for short.
For more information—please ask me anything, happy to help if I can—email me at hillaryadrian@yahoo.com or send me a facebook message at Hillary Adrian Han.
I
don’t use a smart phone.
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