Yoda

Killer book, thanks!

Cam, I'll send you some tapes to see if you like her. What's your address again? -Yoda

Hagar can chime in after he's done with his thesis, but in the meantime: I believe that somebody who isn't able to get the 'think positive' toolkit to heal a sickness isn't likely to be able to get the 'let go' approach to work either. The 'let go' approach is a higher, more challenging teaching, imo. But there are particular people who will take to one approach better than another, so it would be worth trying. I think the best approach to take for a challenging issue where it is difficult to change one's vibe on or let go of altogether, is meditation. It's easier to quiet the mind than to change it. Now, it's still very challenging to meditate esp when there's a lot of stress in one's life, so that's not necessarily an easy achievement either, but I believe it to be the best, fastest, easiest approach. I'd imagine that most 'think positive' and 'let go' parties would be inclined to agree. In any case, I'd try to reframe the experience of having a sickness and dying as not an embarrassment or a failure but keep in mind that sickness and dying are both a common part of the human experience and to try to focus on the positive aspects of the experience and its place in the bigger picture. While I can remember snippets of past lives, I have no memory of dying, and I'll be extremely curious to find out what's up with it when the time comes, for instance.

Thanks Hagar! Good luck on your final push! Nice meditation quote. -Yoda

Hagar, At first I was turned off by Esther b/c of the getting what you want focus, but I gradually realized that her teaching isn't about that. While she does teach "ask and ye shall receive" it's only when you "seek first the kingdom of God, that all else will be added unto you." That's why it doesn't really matter if one buys or rejects the "ask and ye shall receive" philosophy as long as the "seek ye first" thing is primary. I comparison, it's an incidental 'marketing arm' of her message. -Yoda

Max, The role of this kind of information may or may not have on the spiritual path is a good one for debate. Some say that becoming a master of karma puts you in the god realm which is a bum steer. Some say that karma theory simply adds to the delusion of the ego being separate from the world. Some say that it's not harmful to be a zillionare or anything, it's just a waste of time. At the very least, I would argue that being in this world, one needs to have some degree of mastery over karma in order to manifest enough cash and free time to practice and not to be too concerned with common worldly problems involving family, politics, the health of others, etc. You need to know enough about karma to see the bigger picture so that one can walk in joy in the midst of whatever is out there. I think that us spiritual types tend to be extremely sensitive to the suffering of the world which really keeps us down. We need some sort of uplifting bigger picture perspective that encourages more tranquility, joy, and enthusiasm to help balance us out. Aside from purely yogic applications, I'd argue that learning to "follow your bliss" more successfully snowballs on itself until eventually the bliss naturally evolves to very uplifting desires and manifestations for others. Again, I don't think that a belief in karma or law of attraction is the key, but some form of happiness-boosting philosophy is. -Yodsterz

Debating the pros and cons of the law of attraction is identical to the debate over the existence of karma: both share the same 'blame the victim' problem and both are in some respects incidental or even detrimental to the path. Actually, the 'law of attraction' is simply the 'law of karma' renamed and refocused from a past life emphasis to emphasizing its action in this life. Regarding the 'blame the victim' aspect of karma, many Buddhist teachers emphasize that the idea of karma isn't for export and proselytizing... that would be very offensive, as people would immediately think of Nazi Germany and starving children. The idea of karma is a tool to be applied to one's own life as a useful feedback device and to help cultivate an understanding of the world that would support one's practice and evolution. Mahamudra type teachers who teach at a very advanced level might say that the whole concept of karma is completely false as it focuses on an 'I' that is separate from the world and that this division needs to be left behind. I believe that the law of karma/attraction is false just like Newtonian physics is false from a deeper, quantum perspective and that it can hold one back from the deeper understandings if clung to too tightly. But, just like Newtonian physics is still used for the bulk of our day to day applications, as long as one does perceive that the 'I' is separate from the world, the law of karma/attraction is still very useful. The benefit of the law of attraction has over the law of karma, is that the focus is on this life so there's more utility to it. Also, it is freer from the trappings and moral-ism of religion and is less restrictive and judgemental about what a good desire is and a bad desire. It's an incarnation of tantra: follow your bliss no matter what it is and that bliss will grow and grow and grow into a powerful, never ending love for all of creation that can even burn through the duality of 'me' and 'you'. If one is in the mood to test out the law of attraction, there's just one catch: it can't be tested in the life of another. There's no way I can feel all the vibes of another person, so it's impossible to judge whether or not there was a manifestation that was inconsistent to another's feelings. Follow your own feelings and see if it matches. Society teaches us that there isn't a match, that random things just happen to you, that you shouldn't follow your feelings, that you should do as you are told, that you don't have power, etc. Test it for yourself. The belief in the law of karma or attraction isn't a prereq. for a happy, blissful, yogic, uplifting life in the slightest but a commitment to joy, love, appreciation, and happiness is. There's no need for anything esoteric for that. It's just a tool that some find helpful. -Yoda

Sean, Look deeper mijo. There's a great scene in "Searching for Bobby Fischer" where the Master wipes clean the board. It's like that. Helps you see. Just look for your own cause and effect in life before you look for another's. You create your reality 100%. Lezlie creates her reality 100%. You line up perfectly with each other. If one of you doesn't line up, you'll part ways. You can never know the vibration of another. -Yodaaaah

Esther is my girl!! Sean, I didn't feel like sending you the Esther tapes so I intended that you'd find a good intro on your own... You did great, by the way! And I'll send them when I feel like it. While I'm personally into this stuff, there's certainly no need for people to believe this sort of thing in the slightest. One could have a beautiful, spiritual, 100% orgasmic, uplifting life with or without it. To my mind, it's just like believing that the practice of chi kung or meditation would be appropriate and beneficial for one's life... sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. You have to follow your heart, first and foremost. -Yoda

Nice!!

Hagar is absolutely right about all that.

it seems that the general consensus is that automatic is better socially, and manual is better for the driving experience. I think of you as being into the driving side of the equation.

I've just skimmed it, but her point is that our closest animal relatives, Chimps, have approximately a 50% fruit diet, 40%greens, and 10% misc (grubs, insects, seeds, small monkeys, etc). Not much in terms of vegetables. She makes a good point that fruit, veggies, and greens need to be separated into three camps and that most people including raw folks, don't get enough greens. She blends up bananas and very large quantities of spinach. That's the key to good health. Try it for a couple of weeks and your taste sensibilities start to transform to really love greens with very little dressing. Soon, you'll find yourself eating big piles of spinach all the time. She claims that these green smoothies will cure many a malady and transform your life. So copy the monkeys and you'll be swinging with happiness and vitality. From my very limited experience on this subject, I think she might have some good points here. My experience of eating spinach salads is becoming an increasingly sensuous experience as I get used to greenery--so she could be right about that. Sounds in line with what Max says. -Yoda

cool, I was too scared to do that! I'm glad it can handle ...The Pit. But did it do anything for you?

I doubt it can handle an avocado pit, but besides that, it's up for it.

LOL!!!!

don't worry about rolling backwards, just use the handbrake if the hill is steep. You strike me as a manual woman, so honor that path. Also, Mrs Yoda doesn't know how to drive a manual, so that figures into it too.

well, auto, but I'm not excited about it. Between needing to talk on the phone, look for directions, etc it just makes driving easier. Manual is much funner--go with that.

If you want to feel good about croaking, Abraham is the bomb. Check out: http://www.abrahamfreemp3downloads.com/

So just finished the book. The author is the mother in rawfamily.com and she got interested in greens after making her family go raw. At first they had many great gains in health, but then the gains began to disappear. Presumably, the detox benefits had run their course and now they were confronting nutritional deficiencies that seem to be common to many extreme raw diets. So, she researched the hell out of Chimps... read all the Goodall stuff, visited zoos and grilled the chimp keepers with questions, etc to get to an understanding of the importance of eating 1-2 lbs of greens a day. (!) I found her chimp research to be thorough and that aspect of her message to be very compelling. Her actual smoothie recipes don't seem to add up to 1-2lbs a day, except for one of them. Maybe the recipes are to just get the ball rolling. She does say that simply drinking one green smoothie a day will naturally entice one to go raw over time. Many rawists back off the 100% raw thing after experiencing shortcomings of the diet. Perhaps if they upped their green intake to chimp level, they wouldn't have to back off? Another interesting point: when they were raw but not green, the kids complained of having sensitive teeth. That's something that I'm bumping into even in my limited experience of eating raw and even following Max's recommendation of rinsing the teeth with salt water after eating. She says upping the greens solved it. I'll check it out. She sponsored a 30 day green smoothie pilot study with volunteers and had good results. She said that eating greens increases stomach acidity and lowers heartburn and that stomach acidity is a great determination of vitality. She says that when she was raw/not green she would eat lots of beets and her urine would turn red. She says that's a sign of low stomach acidity. Now that she's green, she can eat beets without her urine changing color. She says that chimps eat a lot of different greens, so she advocates the same including many common weeds. She points out that carrot and beet greens are more nutritious than the roots. If you have to throw something out... toss the carrots into the garbage! Her whole jaw exercise thing is weird. I'm with Mythmaker on this one... use the blender for convenience, but don't live off it. The many testimonials were interesting to read as well. She recommends buying litmus paper to track the ph of your saliva. She says that ph is a fantastic indicator of health and finds it very strange that the medical community doesn't use this easy test. -Yoda

good point on the blenders: you don't need anything special to blend bananas and spinach. one thing the book says is that she lost jaw strength from just living on smoothies. Now she does daily jaw exercises and it's all good. I think smoothies are great, but let's not overdo the whole 'breaking cell walls' schtick and let's chew sometimes. Most chimps don't have blenders, after all... except for those dirty damn apes, but that's another can of worms altogether. Haven't had any internal orgasms yet. Were you wearing your aneros? (hey, that's an idea!) There's more protein per calorie in greens than in many cuts of beef, btw. I read that in Eat to Live and verified it. You have to eat *a lot* of greens like the author suggests, though. -Yoda

a good master can not only make you relax your muscles, he/she can make you contract them in various ways. That's why all the effecst are so different. One group gets 'electrocuted' and starts dancing, some people just bunny hop off the attack, and others just go slack, some really get shot to the other side of the room, etc.

I'd play out while I made Luke do his pushups.

interesting link re: effects of humming. http://www.coldcure.com/html/chronic-rhinosinusitis.html

David, It's an honor to have one of your experience posting here! If you have a link for your work, do post it. It's said that even the imperfections of a guru are really quite auspicious and should be regarded as part of his or her radiance as well. I think that is the case with the Maharishi. It compells the movement to open up and to share more, as is the case with you. GT- I think it's fine to study with them. To paraphrase Austin Powers, "They won't bite hard, baby. Yeah." -Yoda