Frequently Asked Questions

     You can click below links and read snippets of how we talked about 9 sec practice in our daily meetings, and glimpse how the practice has changed our real life.

    What exactly should I do in those 9 seconds?

    At a minimum, three things:

    1. stop what we are doing at that moment (as long as that is easy and natural; no need to stop driving your car or stop having a conversation);
    2. focus on your next breath (doesn’t have to be extra deep or slow, but shouldn’t be shallow);
    3. write down a few words, or at most a short sentence, whatever spontaneously comes up (keep a journal for this, a small notebook or computer file).

    Besides these three, it would be good to keep the notion of Play as Being in mind as well, in a very loose way.

     

     ** A tool many of us use as a reminder to stop every 15 minutes:

    Universal alarm clock. (http://www.mindfulnessdc.org/mindfulclock.html)

    Oh, sure, however long you like. But it may be better to keep it really short, otherwise it is unlikely to be sustainable in the long run. The advantage of just one breath and just a few words jotted down is that such a 1% time tax can never become a burden.

    Here is where the notion of Play as Being comes in. Initially it is sufficient to remind yourself of this idea during the 9 second interval. But gradually you may find that the idea of playing as Being pops up in your mind at random times outside the 9 seconds as well. Ideally, the notion that we can play as if we are Being will take on its own life. And we will find that while we are playing as being Being, Being may show us how it is playing as being us. But this cannot and should not be forced. Much better to just keep the idea of play as Being in mind, loosely, as a background taste, or as something to naturally fall back on — like someone really drawn to a hobby, or someone who has fallen in love, or someone deeply puzzled by some as yet unsolved problem.

     

    Is this something anybody could try out on their own?

    The practices discussed in Play as Being groups can be life-changing--as can be the reading of a good poem, watching a good movie, having a really good talk with a good friend.  It seems that the wonderful support structure that PaB has built up in just a few months is what makes it so powerful. But the "power" of the support is a gentle power. Group members
    in general have a deep willingness to help and share, a willingness to listen to each other. That may lead to PaB participants re-evaluating their lives, looking with new eyes at the world, asking critical questions about
    assumptions they may have held onto for a long time: marvelous!!


    We are a democratic peer group of friends, working in the spirit of the open-source movement and of science in general, and we are comparing notes with each other.  Our mission is to explore reality.  As a community, we are developing strong forms of bonding between members, which is a wonderful thing, both in itself and as a means to help our exploration. As such, there is ample room to help each other as friends.

     

    What do the acronyms mean?

    Vocabulary of Play As Being

    A few acronyms are being used in the discussion logs which are explained below.  

    YS = you seeing
    ES = enlightened version of you seeing
    BS = Being seeing (although that acronym has different associations,
    this is what it means in our context
    YSBS = you seeing Being seeing
    ESBS = enlightened you seeing Being seeing
     

     

    Some hints for practice in real life / second life situations...  [from Obviously Intended to be Harmless]
    Pema Pera: how about sort-of stepping out of a situation, and watching it, gazing upon it in a gentle but somewhat distanced way
    Pema Pera: that is unlikely to hurt anyone or to let you be hurt
    Pema Pera: when you start with that view, as if a third-person witness looks upon the situation, then you can take the next step
    Pema Pera: imagine that that person is very wise
    Pema Pera: very gentle
    Pema Pera: wonderful in all ways
    Pema Pera: so then you let God see
    Pema Pera: or a saint of Boddhisattva
    Pema Pera: now a third step is to let Being see
    Pema Pera: so perhaps we can talk about all three steps, in turn
    Pema Pera: watching as a witness, as a Goddess, as Being [YS, ES, BS]
    Pema Pera: all three are different, and it helps to taste them clearly, and then to compare notes
    stevenaia Michinaga: bring that vision or watching to the moment is what needs work
    Pema Pera: that's why we do it every 15 minutes and come here every 6 hours :)
    Pema Pera: our hidden assumptions are persistent, but so are we !


     

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