This morning there were four of us, and Maxine started off talking
about her way of working with our form of playing:
Pema Pera: would anyone like to talk about playing with/as Being ?
Maxine Walden: I found my day 2 in playasbeing to go more smoothly than day 1, quieter yet observing and being more as ease
Pema Pera: did you get a chance to write down a few words here and there?
Maxine Walden: yes, I have a pad of paper with me and manage to write a few words to ‘envoice’ each event
Pema Pera: great!
Pema Pera: have you seen Storm’s blog, Maxine?
Maxine Walden: No, where is it located?
Pema Pera: if you click on my blog, you can find a link
Maxine Walden: great, guess it would be good to check your blog nearly everyday…
Pema Pera: my own way of working with the 9-sec has been uneven; a few hours I succeed and then it all falls apart — because I’m too busy writing about PaB to do PaB (play as Being) ; or so it seems . . . . (^_^)
Storm Nordwind: I have two full days (11 comments in all) plus three from today, including one as we have been speaking
Pema Pera: or go directly to http://stormerne.blogspot.com/
Pema Pera: comments, you mean your one-liners? or comments by others?
Storm Nordwind: Though you might want to read the whole page from bottom to top to get a little context!
Pema Pera: yes, that’s the fun thing about blogs ;>)
Storm Nordwind: I meant my one liners - I noticed you’d made a comment. Please bear in mind I’m not a Blogophile and this is my first blog
Pema Pera: my first blog too !
Pema Pera: I never liked the idea
Pema Pera: but for this purpose it seemed to be slightly better than a wiki
Pema Pera: although a wiki might be complementary as we discussed yesterday
Pema Pera: btw, Friedrich, who has been here in the evenings, wrote on his blog about these meetings: http://alchemicalmusings.org/2008/04...-zen-of-life2/
Maxine Walden: oh, would that be helpful, for us to post our ‘playasbeing’ experiences?
Maxine Walden: I have no idea whether my ‘notes’ would be helpful to post anywhere, shall I send them to you for a look, Pema?
Pema Pera: either way is fine, Maxine!
Pema Pera: the main thing is to get into the habit of taking notes
Pema Pera: that by itself gives a real sense to “life as a lab”
Pema Pera: and you will find ways to then apply them
Pema Pera: in probably quite unexpected ways
Pema Pera: first of all keep them
Maxine Walden: I have been taking notes of a sort all my professional life, this is just doing a bit of psychoanalysis on myself instead of on my patients
Pema Pera: rereading them after a few days or weeks can give quite unexpected angles and insights
Pema Pera: connecting yourself with yourself over time on a level of intuition
Maxine Walden: it may be like the dream, which can be turned and seen from different angles even in the next moment
Pema Pera: one challenge is to not analyse ;>)
Pema Pera: although I am not against analysing, for sure
Storm Nordwind: The ‘not analysing’ is a good point, one that I’d just like to make two brief comments on
Storm Nordwind: In the first instance, this is like what some people call ’silent watcher’ meditation
Storm Nordwind: You don’t identify with the thoughts as they arise
Storm Nordwind: You just let them go and not follow them or identify with them
Storm Nordwind: Secondly, this is exactly the kind of awareness that people who had trained in telepathic research have found to be the most effective for reception
Storm Nordwind: The tendency will always be to follow and analyse and dig
Storm Nordwind: But in doing that we lose our awareness of the next moment
Storm Nordwind: And we identify with something that is not necessarily us
Maxine Walden: yes, that is very interesting, to be open to the very next moment, and to let the thought go, perhaps unattended to other than just observed;
Storm Nordwind: Exactly so Maxine
Maxine Walden: a new way of working for me, who has been used to analyzing mine and others’ thoughts as I am a psychoanalyst
Pema Pera: talking about silence
Pema Pera: I really like this texting dialogue, more and more
Pema Pera: In Qwaq I got so used to only talking
Pema Pera: there is something deeply peaceful about texting, I am discovering
Pema Pera: and everyone gets more of a chance to speak up
Maxine Walden: I like it too, surprisingly, the peacefulness is something I note as well
Pema Pera: without having to wait for invisible cues
Pema Pera: fewer words are being exchanged, but more meaningful it seems to me
Maxine Walden: I agree
Caledonia Heron: texting is good for conversational asynchronous flow …however I find it diffcult when trying to effectively manage complex work issues
Pema Pera: difficult to keep it all together, Caledonia?
Maxine Walden: I could understand the problem re managment that Cal speaks of
Caledonia Heron: difficult to ascertain understanding, responsibilities, action items, deliverables, etc etc
Pema Pera: it probably depends on the degrees of motivation, responsibility, and maturity of the people involved . . .
Caledonia Heron: yes, true Pema
Toward the end we talked about our interactions in SL and about RL:
Storm Nordwind: It is apposite in my life as well, having a little time free while in Denver and following so soon after a Buddhist retreat that had a great effect
Pema Pera: how long was the retreat, Storm?
Storm Nordwind: Only a weekend, but it was intense
Pema Pera: a weekend can be very intense, yes!
Maxine Walden: can seem like a week in terms of experience
Storm Nordwind: I have to say this was more than several lifetimes in terms of experience
Caledonia Heron: strange that the intensity of time is relative
Pema Pera: time itself is a fiction — ultimately speaking — and we can really experience that more and more, when we just care and dare to look
Pema Pera: one topic I hope to ease into here
Caledonia Heron: particularly as you age - more and less relevant at the same time
Maxine Walden: I am enjoying this very much; will have to leave now but hope to see you all again very soon
Pema Pera: yes, time for me to leave too
Pema Pera: keep thinking tthat I want to stick to half an hour or even 15 minutes
Pema Pera: but this is so much fun!
Pema Pera: hard to stop
Caledonia Heron: yes, our hour is up :) is that how you say it Maxine :)
Maxine Walden: bye…
Storm Nordwind: In Glasgow they say “That’s us!”
Caledonia Heron: goodbye all
