2008.04.01 19:00 - Habits and Mindfullness

At 7 pm we had our last session for today, with five participants. Below I, Pema, include a selection of our conversations. It is hard to convey in a blog how much fun we had, especially toward the end, when Bunan started to play the magician, Bunan, Pema and Friedrich danced the chocoreito disuko, and Dakini showed us her icecream cone dancing derwish hat.

Finally Storm dropped by to tell me that he had followed up our afternoon conversation with entries in his blog Words of a seer, which I immediately added to the blogroll to the right of this page. Thank you, Storm, I feel deeply touched by your serious and dedicated response!

Maxine Walden: Pema, I found I tried the play as Being today and found it easier than I had imagined, but found that my access to being open varied over time and what I was trying to attend to
Pema Pera: did you try it for a couple hours or so?
Maxine Walden: I was able to try it over about 4 hours today
Pema Pera: wow, that’s quite a long time!
Maxine Walden: I kept notes which turned out to be a kind of haiku,
Pema Pera: Did you get a chance to write something too?
Maxine Walden: yes, I wrote down a few words each ‘event’ and they seem to re-evoke the experience, even the blankness which I felt at times.
Pema Pera: it will be very interesting to see what we find here
Pema Pera: For me it is pretty new too
Pema Pera: When you reread what you wrote a few days later you probably get a different perspective
Pema Pera: but the main idea is
Pema Pera: to poke holes in our ideas of reality
Maxine Walden: that is interesting, I seem to lose that concept as a dream over the horizon
Bunan Bosatsu: Pema?
Pema Pera: yes?
Bunan Bosatsu: Say… a very new person had just entered the room…. who knew nothing whatsoever about Play as Being… not even its definition….
Pema Pera: yes?
Bunan Bosatsu: … what would you say to that person to bring them up to speed???
Pema Pera: well, many options
Pema Pera: I would first ask a few questions
Bunan Bosatsu: …I don’t want to single anybody out… or point fingers… but his initials are;
Bunan Bosatsu: Bunan Bosatsu Unsui!
Pema Pera: lol
Pema Pera: okay
Bunan Bosatsu: HA!
Pema Pera: here is one way
Pema Pera: we tend to spend our time wrapped up in thinking that we know who we are
Pema Pera: but if we look carefully, we see that we limit ourselves tremendously
Pema Pera: now one way to open up more to what we really are
Pema Pera: is the kind of practice you do regularly
Pema Pera: very admirable
Pema Pera: but few people have the time to do that
Pema Pera: or think they don’t have the time to do that
Pema Pera: so as an alternative I try to trade duration for frequency
Pema Pera: but as to Playing as Being
Pema Pera: in Zen terms
Pema Pera: I would say:
Pema Pera: Suchness is playing us
Bunan Bosatsu: Mindfulness practice
Pema Pera: and we can return the compliment
Pema Pera: us playing suchness
Pema Pera: to see whether we can shortcircuit both games ;>)
Pema Pera: yes, a kind of mindfullness practice
Pema Pera: but more active than sitting
Pema Pera: with anything we do
Bunan Bosatsu: Thank you for your patience…. my apologies for taking the groups time…. I think I understand now….
Pema Pera: so THAT is playing us playing THAT
Pema Pera: thank YOU all for coming here
Maxine Walden: a pleasure to be here
Pema Pera: This is the most interesting thing I can think of doing
Pema Pera: and it is fun to share
Dakini Rhode: Thanks for sharing with us, Pema
Pema Pera: btw
Pema Pera: when I write in my blog
Pema Pera: can I use your SL names?
Pema Pera: or should I say “av1″ and “av2″?
Maxine Walden: yes
Bunan Bosatsu: I would like to be identified as Johann Schlebotznik of Sheboygan Wisconson…
Pema Pera: ahaha
Pema Pera: laughing out loud in the Starbucks at Penn Station
Pema Pera: where I am now
Pema Pera: others looking at me
Pema Pera: oh well
Bunan Bosatsu: :-)
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: sure thing. I’m also happy w/ a Creative Commons licensing of my ideas
Dakini Rhode: haha we need to really get you laughing
Pema Pera: the play I have in mind
Pema Pera: the main point is to really do it during the day
Pema Pera: requires discipline
Dakini Rhode: only to remember, takes some discipline
Pema Pera: yes
Bunan Bosatsu: mindfulness bell…..
Pema Pera: like a good jazz player, you have to practice first and then you can be spontaneous
Dakini Rhode: if you notice how many times you forget to remember… wow
Pema Pera: yes!!
Maxine Walden: and for me only certain activities lend to the capacity/opportunity to do the observations at least on day one
Pema Pera: can you say more, Maxine?
Bunan Bosatsu: … you can designate a specific routine activity to be your mnemonic event… something relatively routine… passing a certain doorway… crossing your legs… what have you… your ‘mindfulness bell’
Pema Pera: yes that is a great practice
Maxine Walden: well, when I am doing certain of my professional activities I cannot (yet) feel free to do the 9 seconds but with other activities where my mind is freer to roam I can do the 9 sec much more easily.
Pema Pera: yes
Pema Pera: certainly not at first
Pema Pera: I am curious though
Pema Pera: whether we will learn to do it lightly enough
Dakini Rhode: 9 sec is quite a short time
Pema Pera: to do it in all circumstances
Pema Pera: after a few weeks
Maxine Walden: lightly?
Pema Pera: yes, like taking a deep breath
Pema Pera: as the minimal form
Pema Pera: you can do that while talking with others
Pema Pera: and it will reconnect you with the practice
Pema Pera: we are creatures of habit
Bunan Bosatsu: If we take that one simple event…. I can suggest something to deepen that practice… the breathing…
Pema Pera: and if we occasionally practice being Being, we can make that a counter-habit
Pema Pera: yes, Bunan?
Bunan Bosatsu: As we breathe in….. there is a point when the inbreath naturally becomes the outbreath… it has to do you see???
Bunan Bosatsu: As you breathe… focus on the *exact* moment when this occurs….
Pema Pera: yes, Bunan, that is a good point to focus on
Bunan Bosatsu: .. of course… this is probably not possible… but I never said it would be easy
Dakini Rhode: the gap
Bunan Bosatsu: but this is a very useful practice….
Pema Pera: good to draw that into the practice, if you like, as an extra element
Pema Pera: in fact, a lot of things can be drawn in
Pema Pera: depending on your background and preference
Dakini Rhode: i like to just take a pause - to become present
Bunan Bosatsu: Can you describe your practice to us, Pema?? if I am not being intrusive??
Pema Pera: oh no, Bunan, not at all!
Pema Pera: I’d be glad to
Bunan Bosatsu: yes… please continue….
Pema Pera: the basic idea is to temporarily suspend our common illusion that we are terribly limited, small parts of a large world
Bunan Bosatsu: If he punches me… will it hurt??
Pema Pera: ?
Bunan Bosatsu: Suspending common illusion…..
Pema Pera: ah!
Bunan Bosatsu: everybody suspended now…. just testing
Pema Pera: ;>)
Pema Pera: lol
Pema Pera: well, this is a BIG topic
Dakini Rhode: it won’t hurt Bunan
Pema Pera: we can switch from watching the movie and taking it all very seriously to looking at it in terms of light
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: but if you die in SL……
Dakini Rhode: you go home
Maxine Walden: am beginning to see that there is a quality of play in nearly everyone’s manner here, something I may need to learn a bit more of
Bunan Bosatsu: … yes… I see your point, Pema…. the same with a book!
Pema Pera: (^_^)
Pema Pera: yes!
Bunan Bosatsu: You can pull back the camera….
Dakini Rhode: Maxine these parallel chats take some getting used to
Pema Pera: and with transitions between SL and RL and SL and RL
Bunan Bosatsu: everybody can look around the room they are in in RL RIGHT NOW>.. same thing…
Pema Pera: and then one day you overshoot
Pema Pera: from SL to RL to Being ;>)
Dakini Rhode: specially when SL scrambles them
Bunan Bosatsu: POP! You are gone.. POP you are back…. this is Zen
Pema Pera: yes!
Dakini Rhode: very Zen place SL
Bunan Bosatsu: VERY much so…
Pema Pera: each moment new
Pema Pera: different
Dakini Rhode: my human feet fell asleep
Pema Pera: confusing and very fun and very serious
Bunan Bosatsu: In RL though, I seldom get stuck with my arm through my head, my head up my ass (much), or my sleeves and Geta pasted to my ass… but I take your point…!
Dakini Rhode: Bunan lol
Pema Pera: lol
Maxine Walden: I can see hanging around here will really widen my horizons :-)