2008.04.08 13:00 - Greeting Sky

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    This morning, I was sitting on the stone bench near the water, when I suddenly noticed that there was someone in the tea room where we normally gather. So I stuck my neck around the corner, and saw Maxine sitting there comfortably, sipping her tea.

    Pema Pera: Hi Maxine!
    Pema Pera: You teleported straight into the tea room?
    Maxine Walden: hi, Pema, good to see you.
    Maxine Walden: yes, straight here
    Pema Pera: ah! haha
    Pema Pera: I was sitting outside
    Pema Pera: seeing who would come first
    Pema Pera: then I noticed that someone had just popped in
    Maxine Walden: oh, I just teleported on in
    Pema Pera: an interesting world, isn’t it?
    Pema Pera: of course, that is fine!
    Pema Pera: I still have to get used to all these possibilities
    Pema Pera: on the one hand it looks so much like RL
    Pema Pera: on the other, it is also so different
    Pema Pera: “popping in” takes on a litteral meaning
    Pema Pera: pop — there you are!
    Maxine Walden: very, I had such an interesting time in this virtual environment last time, last Thurs morning I think it was, as if in a dimension that I had never experienced prior
    Pema Pera: yes
    Maxine Walden: am also aware in the daily PaB practice that I am observing myself observing, as it were
    Pema Pera: that’s great, Maxine, you’re doing it every day?
    Maxine Walden: actually I am trying to do it every day, but can only write about it, as if noting the lab experience, some times; during my out of the office times, in daily life I am not so able to write but am still trying the practice
    Pema Pera: that’s very good, really, and we should not force ourselves
    Pema Pera: starting up easy and gently is key
    Pema Pera: the more it becomes part of our life, the more natural it will become
    Pema Pera: may I ask roughly how many hours a day do you spend on this practice, on average?
    Maxine Walden: on average about 4 the first several days and more lately over the weekend 2 and then yestereday, with a heavy load in my consultation room, only about one hour, seems when my emotional attention is heavily called upon as it often is in my profession that I then cannot so easily turn my attention away…
    Pema Pera: that’s a fine start!
    Maxine Walden: thanks, I have no frame of reference;
    Maxine Walden: there is something, though, I have thought to mention to you; that I am aware that I may be bringing in some of my appreciation of the unconscious forces, presences really, such as the dreaming function, which I think goes on day and night, but in the day, like the stars it is obscured by conscious functioning — but to allow myself to be guided by these to me ‘old friends’ as they have been objects or realms of study for decades; wanted to share this propensity with you , however…
    Pema Pera: integration!
    Pema Pera: yes, that is so much part of what we are working with here
    Pema Pera: Being is shorthand for integration in the deepest sense — one of the ways to unpack the notion of Being
    Pema Pera: Thank you for bringing this up.
    Pema Pera: Each time one of us notices something like that, and we talk about it, it can be added to the Play as Being blog
    Pema Pera: And then anyone can read about it, today, tomorrow, next month, next year, who knows, decades from now . . . .
    Maxine Walden: fine, I notice it a lot, and find that as I try this ‘new practice’ some of it may not be new, in terms of many decades of atunement to the unconscious realms, which is the focus of my professional life; so don’t want to ‘turn back to an old reality;’ but some of it, the focus on the unconscious, most of it is new, as if looking into the cosmos, at least for me
    Pema Pera: yes, the key is to let it be alive. We often think that a notion like “Being” is abstract, but it can become the most concrete of all — a real resource, ground, best friend actually!
    Maxine Walden: and good to blog. Not sure if I understand, but think that you are putting these things in the blog, not that we do it individually; is that correct?
    Pema Pera: what you said reminded me of a poem by Rumi that I quoted the other day; you can find it on my blog entry http://playasbeing.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/yyy/ about half way down the page
    Maxine Walden: another thing I am noticing and might be of interest: that our personal boundaries, which I think of as our narcissism often nudges to get in the way, such as ‘my idea’ or ‘what will he think’ etc. Also these edges seem to bound the limits of what we can perceive at any moment…not putting it very well, but I am trying to envoice the advantages/disadvantages of those edges of our personality
    Pema Pera: yes, exactly!
    Pema Pera: And what I have noticed here, already in the one week that we are doing this, is how naturally this becomes a group’s way of sharing our experiences, insights, questions
    Maxine Walden: yes, I am astonished at the potential of the group and the dimension of sharing; last Thurs am it felt serene in a way which was quite moving;
    Maxine Walden: I noticed just coming to SL today some text from earlier and your wondering about writing over the weekend; felt a little sad that I had not seen that before, as I would have written; the continuity does seem important, like keeping the stream, the current going, reminds me of a little stream in the woods I saw this weekend, so precious is the ongoing flow
    Pema Pera: Don’t feel sad, Maxine, it all worked out — these things have their own flow, it really feels like one big river!
    Maxine Walden: so many strands of conversation, streams of the river
    Pema Pera: Yes!

    At this moment Sky dropped out of the sky.

    Pema Pera: Hi Sky!
    Pema Pera: Did you meet Sky yet?
    Pema Pera: An old friend of mine, recently entered SL as well
    Maxine Walden: yes, I have heard that, and I am not sure, Sky is something I greet daily, but maybe you are mentioning a specific sky, oh and old friend, not just the edges of what we can perceive…
    Pema Pera: Morning, Sky!
    Pema Pera: hahaha
    Pema Pera: Sky, meet Maxine
    Pema Pera: She thought you were the Sky she is greeting every day!
    Pema Pera: Well, actually, you may be!
    Sky Szimmer: hi there
    Sky Szimmer: good morning
    Maxine Walden: Morning, Sky, love it. I speak to it daily, oh, here is someone named Sky…hello, Sky
    Sky Szimmer: hi maxine. nice to meet you.
    Sky Szimmer: Hey!
    Pema Pera: You are learning the gestures, Sky!
    Pema Pera: Nice to explore here, isn’t it?
    Pema Pera: Maxine is also rather new to SL
    Sky Szimmer: yes. trying to get used to my new body.
    Pema Pera: Please sit down and join us!
    Sky Szimmer: i can’t seem to.
    Pema Pera: right click on the cushion in front of you
    Pema Pera: and choose “sit”
    Maxine Walden: I know that feeling, I just learned to sit down a few days ago myself
    Pema Pera: what is the problem?
    Pema Pera: there you go!
    Sky Szimmer: my view orientation is off. i am looking down on myself
    Pema Pera: click escape
    Pema Pera: that may help?
    Pema Pera: don’t be down on yourself ;>)
    Pema Pera: though fine to look down on yourself!
    Sky Szimmer: thanks :)
    Pema Pera: Maxine just told me about the Play as Being practice she has been doing now for several days, and how she discovered already many things
    Pema Pera: Maxine, would you mind summarizing in just a few words, for Sky?
    Sky Szimmer: i hope i am not interrupting but i came today because i wanted some clarity about the exercise. we are to practice 9 sec every 15 minutes throughout the day? what are we to note?
    Maxine Walden: Oh, let’s see: I have found that when I practice PaB that sometimes I observe myself observing, sometimes I do find myself just being in a quiet way, and sometimes I find that my mind is so full that it is hard to focus beyond my immediate experience…not sure if that helps
    Sky Szimmer: i would love to hear about maxine’s discoveries
    Maxine Walden: not sure if discoveries but I also find that sometimes my attention is burdened by the noise of the moment and sometimes not; when not then my sense of space and spaciousness is much more vast.
    Pema Pera: The main thing is not so much to note anything in particular, as to “stop” — like Steven Tainer has told us many times (Maxine, Sky often comes to Steven’s classes in RL)
    Maxine Walden: the notion of encumbered and unencumbered attention seems to be key in terms of my experience within the several seconds of the PaB
    Pema Pera: And the more we stop the more we notice
    Pema Pera: yes Maxine well put!!
    Sky Szimmer: i tried stopping yesterday and just feel that. stopping was very peaceful and particular
    Sky Szimmer: i was at the park yesterday and it was very much like maxine’s experience. part of it felt very much like i was at sl. it was beautiful with the late afternoon sun.
    Sky Szimmer: i was in and out of PaB i noted especially when I interacted with anyone and felt “insecure”, rather when attention was put upon me, then I was definately encumbereed.
    Maxine Walden: That can feel so painful to feel the focus upon oneself; self-consciousness is one of the things I have grappled with in many ways over time; think we all do…
    Sky Szimmer: Pema, can you talk more about stopping? and what do you do when selfconcisousness sets in
    Maxine Walden: I would love to continue this conversation and to get to know you better, Sky, but I will need to leave soon,
    Pema Pera: yes, me too, it’s been almost an hour now
    Maxine Walden: I will just say good bye for now and hope to see you again.
    Sky Szimmer: maxine, it was great chatting with you. i hope to see you here again soon.
    Pema Pera: But we do this every six hours, so there will be plenty of opportunities!
    Pema Pera: (except for when I sleep :>)
    Pema Pera: Bye, Maxine!
    Sky Szimmer: Bye Pema. It has been great to see you so often.
    Pema Pera: Nice to meet you again here, Sky!
    Pema Pera: I know there are many things to talk about further
    Pema Pera: such as time, from yesterday, and stopping, that we brought up today — but all in due time ;>)
    Sky Szimmer: i know. this is about stopping. i find myself impatient. seeing you again always brings up this feeling like I just don’t get it yet.
    Sky Szimmer: thanks. ciao
    Pema Pera: hahaha, that is actually very good!
    Pema Pera: If you thought you had gotten it, now that would hold you back!
    Pema Pera: the main point is to see in what way we don’t get it
    Pema Pera: to look deeply into that
    Pema Pera: and that will help to really see
    Pema Pera: to see that we already see . . . .
    Pema Pera: . . . . but never acknowledged it
    Sky Szimmer: thanks pema. food for thought. i know you have to run. i will see you again.
    Pema Pera: bye for now!
    Sky Szimmer: i am going to explore. ciao.

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