Yoda

Welcome to Taobums!

So the Terramin doesn't seem to be drying like the Sonne's, so that's good. I'll try one of those trace mineral supplements just for comparison's sake.

Mantra68, just Max then. It's *very* cool that you are allowed to chat about the esoteric dimensions of Max's experience and that sort of thing definitely has its place in terms of building faith and energy amongst his students, but I agree that that sort of thing doesn't communicate well over the Internet with people who are not direct students. Best to focus on the very mundane and here and now dimensions of his path. Rex, I forget how far I got. I like to think 40,000ish prostrations, but they were like pulling teeth. I never took to it like some of the other practitioners. Kalu Rinpoche did some ungodly high number every day of his life. I felt pretty lame. Good luck with them... it is a good practice. My ego maybe is just too big for them. Also great for fitness too... Those monks and nuns often had great bodies from the practice. Muscle built from devotion is the sexiest! Yoda

Or maybe Lama Max. Is Master Max too graphic novel?

He's Taoist? That's way cool. Mantra68, do you think it's cool for us just to call him Max or Big Max (we have another Max on board)?

Rex, That's why taobums is sending the fearless Love Bunny to the scene... As we say in the states: Love Bunny, Love Bunny he's our man! If he can't do it no one can! It sounds like you are nicely connected with traditional Tibetan Buddhism. I never could get the hang of it... Flunked prostrations and all that. Since then I've thought it was a pity that all the good stuff was inaccessible to me. So I'm all for people like Lama Dorje experimenting with greater openness. I think there have been lots of good reasons for higher teachings to be inaccessible, but now I think that the time has come for a greater degree of information to be dispersed. It's really almost an imperative, imo. And it's not just the American teachers, but even the Dalai Lama himself has broken with a lot of tradition as well. Your pal, Yoda

Golden Phoenix, Welcome to Taobums! It's great to have such a nice exchange about Lama Dorje. If you care to unpack any background, how you became a student, and what he has brought to your life, etc I'd love to hear. Yours, Yoda oh dang... Matt beat me to the door!

A little confused... the terramin people said that their clay is 7 ppm lead and the FDA max is 0.5 ppm. As long as I'm getting my jollies from it, I'm okay with it. But I wonder how they are in business at that level? ~~~ I think I figured it out... supplements are likely allowed to be higher as you aren't taking in nearly as much of it.

Going by credentials doesn't work very well, imo, even if it's the teacher's teachers are awesome doesn't necessarily follow that the teacher in question is good or good for a particular practitioner. Better to go by gut feeling, imo.

I'm already involved with another system, but I'm extremely excited about the Lama Dorje information showing up on taobums. I've not met him, but I think he has a number of unique qualities: *He looks like he's a westerner which is a *huge* plus. These eastern guys really don't understand our karma on many levels. I think Western teachers do the best job. *His photo carries the vibe of an unusually deep energy master. *He's a nice guy. A lot of these mega energy masters are freaked out thoroughbreds and not so nice. *Relatedly, his students are nice folks. They have had a nice presence on this board without needing to go ape on other systems which is unusual within energy cultivation sanghas. *His energy practice seems to connect to emptiness type philosophy, which might account for some of the mellowness. *He doesn't charge much money... basically to cover the event space and his travel money. Keeping costs down so more people can participate is a noble thing. *The smiling drill practice that Mantra68 posted kicks ass, so the style of practice sounds very pleasant and Taoist compatible So I'm excited that Cam is off to see the wizard! Hopefully, he'll be allowed to talk about what he learns there. -Yoda

I've always wanted to see colonics in action, thanks!

VC, I'll let you know. I had excellent results in my mid 20s by doing the 5 Tibetan Yogas, but they didn't help this time around. I'll keep you posted! Yoda

I've ordered "More precious than gold" and also, "Rare Earths, Forbidden Cure" by Joel Wallach co-written by a traditional Chinese doctor. Sounds like he's a nut, but there should be some good stuff in there. Recommended by the Terramin literature enclosed with the order. Wallach's website is http://www.majesticearth-minerals.com/default.php and he's pushing his own brand of trace mineral supplements. From my cursory reading, it sounds like he grows plants on enriched soil and sells the plants in a liquid concentrate. The theory being that the plants take in only the best of the minerals and fix them in a way that is easy to absorb. I will stick to clays for the time being, but if anyone has experience with trace mineral sups like this, let me know. One of the things that Wallace claims is that having your minerals in balance has a very calming, satisfying effect and being out of balance increasingly disturbs one's emotional state and desires to the point of extreme behavior. It sounds like he'd claim that lots of mentally disturbed people and cultures may have specific underlying deficiencies. Interesting to speculate. I hope there's good Chinese perspectives in the book too. He's a veterinarian with an interest in nutrition by training and seems to be implying that the awareness of the connection between mineral intake and health has been better studied in animals than humans. The Terramin people believe that people with the longest longevity on the planet also happen to be living on the best soil... with lots of volcanic ashes and old ocean sediment, etc. It's interesting to ponder that not just the longevity of a people, but even their culture's personality may be strongly determined by the quality of the soil under foot. Wallace says that in the modern world, it's impossible to get enough minerals no matter what you eat... our soil is simply too depleted. And taking regular multiminerals from the health food store is only marginally better. Just one nut's opinion, of course, but I look forward to checking out the book. As an aside, my anti-gray hair campaign may still have some hope to it... there have been a couple of 'gray hair went away' testimonials in the trace minerals circles. At 39 I feel I'm too young and precious to be seeing the beginnings of this trend, so I'll welcome any help that I can get from this department. Yoda

I think Witch is perfectly enlightened and sexy.

It's good to bring up the aluminum thing in this intro thread... there is aluminum in clay. There's aluminum in a lot of other things too that I believe it is hard to avoid if that's a priority. I personally don't have a problem with this but I'm sure that this would be a turn off to most people. I'd imagine, as with any trace mineral supplement, that there may be some genuinely bad news trace elements in there as well. The expectation is that there's a net positive effect from taking this stuff. As Agharta suggested, it's a good idea to eat clay from a source that has been popular for a number of years to reduce the risks. But there are risks. By my figuring, there's more macro and micro minerals in clay than in sea salt and that they are just as easily assimilated, but that's just based on my googling around to explain the vibe I get from this stuff, not by any deep knowledge on the subject. I'd imagine that the body can absorb the aluminum as well. And... uh... I forget what I was about to say... On a different subject, I'm going to experiment with taking clay with flax seed powder. I wonder if that would counter balance the drying effect. That Sonne's was way too drying to be used for more than just a day or two. I'll let a few days go by and get the Sonne's out of my system and maybe this will be a non-issue.

I can't stop thinking about clay... now that I've at least temporarily gotten my kidneys in line to my satisfaction, I've suddenly become this fetished out clay stalker. Oh well. Anyways, here's the newest scoop. I've been wondering what the difference is between taking clay and taking trace mineral supplements. The answer: no difference. Check it out, from the description from the Terramin site: So trace minerals rediscovered. All those descriptions from Trunk about taking ground up fossils are then 100% apropos. Come to think of it, fossils are clays, aren't they??? Bring on the dragon bones! Gotta stop thinking about this!! I need counseling. Yoda

I followed Trunk's advice and ate a bunch of Omega balanced peanut butter and chugged some fish oil and I'm optimistic that it's balancing out the clay's dryness. Since taking clay, my kidneys are becoming perfect little princes... the kind Mom would be proud of. I'm starting to be proud of those little guys too... they are minding their manners, dressing better, etc. They are starting to ask what they can do for Mrs Yoda instead trying to corner the poor girl all the time. I hope this aspect sticks around. I'm going to try the clay out on my kids at some point... mix it with chocolate milk to grease it up to their liking and so I don't find them dessicated in front of the tv or anything.

I got sick of the dry eyes and tongue that even small dosages of Sonne's was giving me. They do say it sucks up a lot of moisture and to drink extra water. So I'm trying the Terramin that just came in the mail. I'm still pretty dry, but that might be that the Sonne's takes a day or two to get out of the system. The terramin powder has a groovy vibe to it. The taste was neutral and not hard to drink. Looks like chocolate milk on the website... doesn't taste like it! Could smoke it past the kids that way, though.

The wider the appeal, the more watered down things get. I'd say lay it all out and concentrate on getting a few good students who have the right compatibility. The wave of teachers trying to impart general ideals like the Dalai Lama and the like on the Barnes and Nobles shelves are now a given. I'd like to think that the next wave of teachers are the ones who can drill down and unpack the next level of how to actually embody these ideals like David Shen, Lama Dorje, Trunk's Hard Light dude, etc. The only trick is that you have pierce the Barnes and Nobles barrier and deal with the quirks of their personalities, teaching style, sanghas, etc. Fortunately, I think you really can vibe out the basics of a teacher just looking at their image, website and maybe talking to a student or two to see if you have compatibility. The 60s are past us and we are more prepped to take responsibility for our involvement with gurus these days and it sounds like they've modified their act to be a bit more toned down as well, so I think the situation is pretty workable for everyone. ~~~ Witch, Discover magazine had a great article on epigenetics in the last year... Even by changing your environment or basic lifestyle habits, your genetics can change in short time and these changes can be passed down to following generations. I could imagine that if someone had a profound meeting with Lama Dorje and did the follow up practices, that could make a person 5%-10% happier. If something like this happened, it wouldn't be hard to believe that that could change one's epigenetic codes in a measurable way in the next couple of years that could change the family genetics for generations. Perhaps the new age 12 strand DNA thing might be off, but the essence of the idea is spot on, imo. I'd bet that your diet has improved your genetic codes in the last few years, for instance. From a past post: Here's the Discover article: http://discovermagazine.com/2006/nov/cover Yoda

Trunk, Thanks for the review! Mine is on order. Yoda ~~~ I'm trying to catch up on the whole 'Ormus' concept. Here's another intro type link: http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/dec3/carter.htm Actually, that link is pretty interesting... that by thinking happy thoughts you can better extract more Ormus from the air, water, food is in line with the claim that masters suck a tremendous amount of energy from their environment to the point that their bones are transformed into very powerful healing objects that pitch in even after they die.

Mantra68, Welcome to Taobums, it's fun to see key people beam up right while we are chatting about them. You've been with Lama Dorje for 6 years, I'd be curious to read a "before and after" report of how Lama Dorje has changed your life. Lama Dorje does strike me as a teacher worth seeing. Sean, Friends are a mixed bag... there will always be things you don't relate with in them... it's ok, just buy yourself a ticket to LA and you and Cam can ask the man. In my limited experience, optics always seem to make interesting lighting and energy phenomenon look hokey and simplified. The incredible sunsets I have photographed look lifeless and canned in the actual picture. I think that there may be situations where fun auras can authentically be caught in a photo but still come out looking like they were done in 30 seconds or less on photoshop. "Corny Photoshop" was my first impression a month or two ago when I first saw the images, but now that I've read some first hand accounts and have spent more time vibing out the dude, I'm inclined to be a believer. Yoda

WYG, I don't know how to go about getting that sort of power, but there are some leads around here. That Lama Dorje book sounds like a good place to start. Welcome to taobums, btw! Yours, Yoda

Hey the Sonne's 7 alludes to kidney detoxing right on the bottle! Don't know exactly how that works, but there you have it. Here's a nice little writeup: http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:8s0EJ...;cd=3&gl=us

Thanks... I have family members who've gone the distance w/o so that'll keep me humble. There are a lot of positive things about the do it yourself approach, definitely. But a nice teacher can definitely sweeten things up.