Yoda

Glenn, Welcome to taobums!! Great to have you on the forum! Yours, Yoda

Junbao, Cool avatar! Welcome to taobums! Yoda

mewtwo, Thanks for the update. I had a pal who stayed with a Catholic monastery. They allowed him pretty much to go month to month and he had to have health insurance and no debt as a prereq. Somewhere in the mountains of Colorado. I could score you my pal's email if you are interested. Yoda

Hey that shtick is Yoda's!! As we say on Degoba: kick your butt I will.

Lin, I like the new avatar and I heard your last NYC class was excellent. Hope you have a fun move and don't miss China too much. Your pal, Kyle

fun website, thanks!

John, What a fun situation! Thanks for offering to brainstorm with the bums! You can post photos in the gallery section or email them to somlor at gmail d0t c0m, our fearless webmaster, and if he has time, he can post them for you if you'd like. Have you talked to the Nature Conservancy folks? I've never looked into doing any sort of arrangement like that, so I don't know what the pluses or the minuses are. If I had an extremely crisp understanding of the legalities, I would certainly consider it. Yoda

Welcome to taobums! 'Daoist bum' is a great name.

Mantra, Sorry about that... quality control isn't my strongest suit! Your pal, Yoda

the subject reminds me of discussions of training kids in general whether for specific disciplines or just general schooling. It sounds like discipline and drilling have fallen out of vogue in favor of the keep-it-fun philosophy. Whatever they are drawn to is a good rule of thumb. I also agree with Matt that third eye practices and other potentially far out practices and healing work should be postponed in the same way that heavy weight lifting is discouraged in the young. Having said that, I think that all children are natural tonglen healers and take on the negativity of those around them like sponges which can be overwhelming for them. The answer is to do one's best to keep the energy around children as clean, happy, and as relaxing as possible, to reduce television exposure, and to make sure they spend time outside.

Xenolith, It feels awesome!!! Your pal, Yoda

looks great!

I'd love to put her on Witch's diet and then get her to walk into Drew's McDonalds...

I think it all pretty much boils down to that when it comes to kids and cultivation.

This is a very interesting subject! I guess that ties in to how family members inherit the same family ghosts/issues/etc. It certainly seems to be the case in my family that each generation has healed a bit more than the last, thus providing a better platform for advancing the cause. Then add in the possibility of the same soul reincarnating into the same DNA line. Then add in the fact that all humans are essentially cousins when you go back not that far. I've also heard it said that we are working towards the enlightenment of our descendants as well. Back to kids, I definitely have the sense that kids and pets are doing all the heavy lifting in terms of alchemical work in family and society and pretty much keeping the show running. But somehow when kids turn into teenagers parents go insane. I'm not 100% sure why that is. In any case, the parents lose the benefit of the children's presence and they get cut off. Hopefully they have a dog or cat around at least. I think there will always be a generational gap, but I don't think there has to be any generational fracturing, though.

I'm also curious to hear if anyone thinks that encouraging kids to have an actual practice has any merit. My daughter easily picked up on simple practices like Kunlun, Reiki and prayer, but she wouldn't get very far with anything that requires any concentration (then again, neither does her daddy! ) and she only on occasion would think to practice anything. Also, there's the whole subject of massaging/energy working on kids... if there's nothing really out of balance with them, is there any point to doing that? And assuming you have a kid who has some interest in practicing, is that healthy mentally and physically for them? It could really make it hard for them to fit in with society possibly. Then again, it might help create some nice habits for later on in life like Vajrasattva teaching his kids to get along better with their peers obviously has applicability down the road. Right now, I'll tell my daughter about things and maybe practice together once in a blue moon but pretty much just drop it for the most part.

Craig, Thanks for the scoop! Your pal, Kyle

Karen, I'm interested in hearing more about lyme! Definitely pm me or kylebairdsen at gmail d0t com. Randi hates alternative treatment and theory even though conventional treatment isn't very effective (On the bright side, this is a nice learning experience for her in this regard.) Kyle

Vajrasattva, I have 8 and 5 year olds and have noticed that they would be better at all this than I am: from general happiness and spontaneity to greater flexibility and energy sensitivity and likely stronger healing abilities especially if they were to actually practice a little. I'm pretty sure that this would be the case for all their little friends too. My take on it is to show my 8 year old a practice or two here and there, but pretty much leave it at that. As they get older and if they have any interest in this sort of thing we could go from there. I'd love to hear your philosophy about all this. Your pal, Yoda

Ian, dragon wars and party tricks! Good to see you again! Yoda

Tastes like potassium.

welcome to taobums!

welcome to taobums!

Thanks!!

If anyone is so inspired, I'd love to see some European photos!