The Secret Art of Seamm Jasani: 58 Movements for Eternal Youth from Ancient Tibet Paperback – June 23, 2003

I was suckered with my interest in everything Tibetan that Tibet actually had a Tai Chi-style martial arts/exercise. But after looking through the intro, and researching various posts regarding the Boabom organization, I've concluded that there is nothing Tibetan about any of this. Whether it serves positively as a martial arts/exercise or not, is irrelevant to the fact that they claim Tibetan origin. Nonsense.The book claims that the roots are pre-Buddhist, which implies Bon, but then says that it was learned in secrecy and that's why it's not well known.First off, by sharing it with the world, that breaks the secrecy, and if there WAS any sort of secrecy, it would have meant that it can't be shared openly without private discipleship. A book would have been out of the question. Tibetans are very conservative about what is allowed to print in publicly accessible books, as they very much emphasize learning things first hand through experience and discipleship. Even then, if anything were allowed to print, it would have been written by a Tibetan, or a disciple of a well-known Tibetan. Plus, a lineage is only as good as well-respected as the most recent teachers have been (ie the original Tibetan people who taught this to outsiders). The fact that this was supposedly learned from an unknown person adds some skepticism.Second, with anything taught in secrecy, Tibetans would be highly skeptical about sharing that with any outsiders. If anyone is willing to share with an outsider, then they would just as easily share amongs themselves and this wouldn't be so secret at that point, that some other Tibetans could at least verify the legitimacy of this. Apparently Boabom, etc were known by 'pilgrims'. How convenient that it was 'pre-Buddhist' so nobody in the Buddhist world would cry out fraud. That leaves the people of the Bon tradition, which is a small minority.Third, Tibetan Buddhists are pacifists, anything resembling a martial art or method of fighting would be completely contradictory to their entire belief system. The fact that Shaolin Buddhists have martial arts training is totally a fluke, something that was promoted by warriors/kings in hiding. But I'm getting ahead of myself, because Boabom is so ancient that it's pre-Buddhist. And so my understanding of Bon traditions is that their culture was very violent (human sacrifices, etc) - they would not have had anything as disciplined (honorable) as a martial art. A lot of even the advanced Tibetan Buddhist practices utilize gruesome items that have a very primitive and violent feeling to it - such as items made from human bones, etc.... used in rituals. Pre-Buddhism, Tibet was far too primitive to have created anything that was remotely civilized like a martial art. The existence of a martial art implies that the society has some sort of army (and thus element of war within the culture), as martial arts were originally taught to the various military. What the heck would pilgrims be needing martial arts for? The very nature of pilgrimage is that of a spiritual quest. Violence would be contradictory, and an advanced self-defense system like Boabom would have been ridiculously complicated for their needs. It doesn't fit.The entry on wikipedia for Seamm Jasani and Boabom are heavily biased and based completely on this organization's books and websites. Unfortunately, I took that as legit, given that it's wikipedia and all. Read the details explaining the legitimacy.Also, both 'Seamm' and 'Jasani' are NOT Tibetan words, but apparently Indian. Tibetans, if they didn't use their native language for words, would have maybe used Sanskrit. Which is a pre-Hindu language, and not somethin Seamm or Jasani would have come from.FINALLY, if you look at Asanaro's website (just google his name), you will see in his biography that this 'pre-Buddhist Tibet' is called 'Bod'. I wonder if he meant 'Bon', which is the native religion/culture prior to Buddhism's influence in the 12th century. There is also 'Bod' which is a name that might refer to what Tibetans call themselves, but they would spell it more like Bho or Pho. The 'Bod' spelling would have either come from an Indian origin (ie their neighbors) or maybe referenced from a historical book written in the 20's by Rolf Stein, 'Tibetan Civilization'. Totally doesn't make any sense.For anyone really wanting a martial art, pursue something Tai Chi or Kung Fu, etc.... But if you want some sort of physical exercise that has a spiritual element within Tibetan Buddhism, look for Tarthang Tulku's books on Kum Nye (more massage and relaxation, but very spiritual/mystical), or Namkai Norbu's book on Tibetan (Hatha-style) Yoga (which is more for preparation of their inner/tantric yogas). That's about as close as you're going to get. Sadly, the reality is that Tibet was for the most part a peaceful nation who resembled more of India than China in a lot of traditions. They share similar yoga practices and philosophy, and simply didn't have the capacity for violence that would necessitate a martial art. And even for those non-Buddhist pilgrims, if you know anything about Tibetan culture, they would be more into things like shamanism or voodoo than anything remotely civilized like a martial art. It simply does not fit. If you truly want something pre-Buddhist, it's going to also be pre-yoga, as yoga was introduced after Buddhism was. There are Bon traditions dealing with energy exercises in various books written by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche that are well written and informative.I wanted some way to take my spiritual practice to a physical realm, rather than it being just some philosophical one, like is common in (Tibetan) Buddhism.... But I think you're best off either doing some of the genuine relaxation/yoga methods I mentioned above, or going for more legit practices from other countries. I suppose I will try to make the most out of this book, but probably more for the purpose of making sense of the supposed teachings that I can apply to the yogic/energy practices in Tibetan/Bon systems. A different perspective.There are posts online on martial arts message boards discussing the possible fraudulent claims of Tibetan origin, including former practitioners who have been treated with harsh criticism (hardly civilized) when they've questioned anything, asked about the true origins, who these people are operating the martial arts classes (as they go by pseudonyms), etc...I feel suckered.If I'm jumping to invalid conclusions, then I would greatly appreciate some correction of the actual origins, including the names of the original teachers, the lineage, and anything else that would express it's genuineness. If there's any legitimacy, there ought to be a Tibetan person of high religious status who knows something about this, who taught this, and who had other disciples than just some white person, who could confirm something out of all of this. I'd rather be proven wrong than have some egotistic flame war criticizing me, because there's nothing civilized or spiritual in that kind of reaction.

Having practiced various martial arts, tai-chi, chi-gung, yoga and pilates for over 40 years this is by far the most effective and practical exercise I have encountered. By far. The book is excellent, the art of Seamm-Jasani is amazing.First, I was able to actually learn it from the book. I read some reviews that call the author pompous and such but I did not get that from the book at all. He is blunt and unapologetic about preferring this gentler and less violent method of exercise to say karate or weight lifting or marathon training etc. Some others observed that this is simply chi-gung revisited. Apparently these people have not had any exposure to chi-gung other than by reading books. It is not warmed over chi-gung. There are some similarities but did it ever occur to those so-called critics that this art precedes chi-gung by millennia. Chi-gung is like Seamm-Jasani not the other way around. Besides, so the genesis of the art or even the author may be in question...the results are not.My experience: I bought the book and practiced and learned many of the moves. I saw results very quickly and without any pain. I felt better, slept better and thought better after I started Seamm-Jasani. Mark me completely satisfied at that point.Then I found out that Asanaro (the author) was conducting a weekend class at the Boston Baobom School in Brookline Ma. I live in Texas on modest means but I cashed in some miles and rewards points, signed up for the session and enjoyed the best training days of my life. It turns out that the book instructions were very good and I was doing most of the movements approximately right. But the weekend transcended the practice of Seamm-Jasani. Every member of the school staff and to my pleasant surprise, each participant were simply wonderful people.As for the author himself, it would be hard to describe the humble, kind, almost monk-like Asanaro. The man exudes love, contentment and friendship. To say he is unique I would be guilty of vast understatement. He would patiently answer every question of every student until there were no more. He was such an amazing teacher that even people who had not read the book learned all the movements easily during the weekend's five mini workshops. His only request was not to practice the art in front of anyone because doing so would show ego and not be true to the energy of the art, which is after all, eternal youth and vitality. On that note I must add that upon my returning my friends and colleagues and co-workers could not stop talking about how much better I looked after my weekend trip.Let me clear up some confusion about the so-called secret part of the art of Seamm-Jasani. Each student is shown and taught all the appropriate information for their level. Each level, provides more of the art but is given as the student demonstrates the commitment to the art. There were many questions I had about things during the session and many went politely unanswered. This did not bother me, as I knew that I was simply a beginner. Some people might have a problem with that, though I can hardly imagine why. The whole process, in fact the whole art, has tremendous integrity.Great book, excellent instruction, easy to use and most of all it truly works. You may want to find and visit the Baobom website and see when they will repeat the course. It is priced incredibly low and no where near the value it provides for a lifetime.

I have the book Seamm Jasani in 58 movements. It is really a very smart and useful and kind present of Asanaro for us to improve the condition of our body, mind and health. These are basic functions of human beings, so I am really delighted to have this book for my life to be longer, more healthy, peaceful and strong. That is why I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to the author of this book, Asanaro, who is really the great master and hero of this art, this special Art of Ancient Tibet.Tibetan traditional arts are special and unique, and totally for the benefit of all human beings by all means, so these 58 movements is a big part of them, especially for the benefit and achievements for our body and mind.I am sure that you will receive very great experience by way of your lovely practice of Seamm Jasani and Boabom (I have the book The Secret Art of Boabom too). I am a simple practitioner of Buddha's teaching and now practice the teaching of Boabom, and I am sure my life will be better from these two great teachings of ancient Tibet, skills for developing the mind, body, and health.Since I have this book, I have noticed that The secret art of Seamm Jasani is really a secret art for living beings to have a meaningful life. So I am very happy to inform you the kind readers that we must take time to catch this kind and great opportunity to practice the arts of Seamm Jasani.Seamm Jasani, It is a new way of my life, a gentle art of my life. It is meaning skill and art for the benefit of my brothers and sistersSo may your life never end for us.Thupten, from Lhasa (Tibet)

I recently finished the 12-week course in this book and thought it was really great. I've been active my whole life (too active some would say—my knees were shot at 41), but I never got around to trying Tai Chi before. What a shame! There's a load of supernatural horsepucky in the text of this book (e.g. claiming humans in ancient times lived for hundreds of years due to these closely guarded secrets), but the program of movements was easy to follow and surprisingly beneficial. There's no straining or sweating, but after doing this twice a week for 12 weeks, my coordination, balance, and just awareness of my movement have all definitely improved. I'll keep this in my workout routine for years to come.

Easy to follow

Interesting book, easy to follow and understand. Other books in this genre are somewhat more 'dry' and in one case, for me, downright impossible.

チベットの秘武術ボアボムを教えるとか言う西洋の学校の健康体操の手抜き本。問い合わせしても完全に無視で渋々これを最低価格購入。文字がやたらめったらポエムチックで長いし図はボアボム教えてるとか言うシームジャサニーの動作画像すら一切無いへぼい手書き。何これ。いやいやいや、同じ武術技指南教本なら中国の方がずっとましやん！陳式太極拳なんてトップの継承者の陳正雷さんがモノクロだがみっちりびっしりと画像やら説明付きでやってますよあなた！全部中国語で上下巻セットで一万以上するけど！他の部類も本じゃなくて動画焼いて販売とか当たり前なのに西洋じゃ其れ以下なのか。最低価格で買うって？いや買わんで良い、偽物なのでお金の無駄です。アフリカで忍術学校開いてカンフーを教えてるようなもん。ついでに言えばへぼでなんちゃてなボアボム学校に行くくらいなら太極拳のほうが20倍はまし！

Complete and utter garbage. Without substance. Empty of meaning. Beyond useless. Cynical marketting exercise. IMHO