It was a quiet morning in Rieul. When I arrived at the tea house. Maxine was already waiting for me.
Maxine Walden: hi, Pema
Pema Pera: Hi Maxine
Pema Pera: Good morning
Maxine Walden: yes it feels like a good morning
Pema Pera: It is becoming quite a tradition already, isn’t it, to meet here in the early morning
Maxine Walden: It is, hoping that is ok, to have a ‘tradition’ in the midst of being open to the new
Pema Pera: haha, sure
Maxine Walden: the early morning is such a creative and peaceful time for me it seems like the perfect time for these endeavors
Pema Pera: yes, for me too, I always try to postpone chores for my work till the afternoon, if possible
Maxine Walden: interesting, I am finding that works for me as well, chores later in the day
Pema Pera: I used to read email only in the afternoon, but alas, nowadays it is often hard to postpone such things, even for half a day . . . .
Maxine Walden: yes, interesting to have to portion the day for the space for creative things
Maxine Walden: not that email is not creative, but often voices, things seem to tug at the sleeve
Pema Pera: . . . when I am organizing new activities, missing email for even a few hours can lead to divergences of ideas and actions that then take longer to converge again.
Maxine Walden: isn’t that interesting, I know exactly what you mean, as if the ideas or muse-gifts seem to drift or that the input from others seems to pull attention in another direction
Pema Pera: well, yes, some emails can be creative, but once you open your inbox, you have to deal with all that is there, or alternatively you have to get into it again later, which takes even more time
Maxine Walden: you know, I have found that I am very selective when I go into my inbox, because I can get lost there…so sometimes sneak in and read only a few knowing that I have to come back, but am better at leaving others for later
Pema Pera: good for you, Maxine!
Maxine Walden: seems I lost my last little note: just said I am selective in what I read in my inbox, but do feel I am sneaking away from those left unopen
Maxine Walden: had an interesting meeting with Steven last evening, had not seen him in a couple of weeks
Pema Pera: in Qwaq?
Maxine Walden: yes, at one of the Direct Awareness meeting times
Maxine Walden: I am still a newbie there and he is advising how to begin that Direct Awareness practice
Maxine Walden: but in scanning what I am experiencing during those early morning practices I came across the dreams which I have mentioned here, and then it felt to me an intersection between this PaB
Maxine Walden: and his Direct Awareness…but that did not seem problematic, rather a conjunction
We then switched to the 9-sec practice.
Pema Pera: and how does all this connect with the 9-second practice, for you?
Maxine Walden: the 9 second practice seems to be a port-hole, an openning to this wider contemplative space
Pema Pera: are you able to do it every day, for a while each day?
Maxine Walden: yes, every day, for 3-4 hours during my work day when I have easy access to note taking, and also
Maxine Walden: on days off, but like on the weekend when I am around and about outside I do not have note taking possibilities
Maxine Walden: so at hand but I just try to register the experience for recall as possible later;
Maxine Walden: still there is a sense of registration of the 9 second experience even then
Pema Pera: I’m very pleased to hear that you are sticking with it so seriously, Maxine! So you have been doing this for two weeks now?
Maxine Walden: since April 1 officially, but I think that in some way since we met in Princeton.
Maxine Walden: It seems to be, or perhaps hoping it will be, an avenue into new ways of being, thinking…
Pema Pera: the challenge is twofold, first to see more directly into reality, second to integrate whatever you find into daily life — the second one often seems to hardest
Maxine Walden: so I it feels like some synchrony to have asked you if I could participate in some way just when you were about to begin this PaB. In having said that I am aware of the dangers of idealizing, or hoping for something specific to happen
Pema Pera: I don’t think you are idealizing, I have felt the same, in many ways, with various people I have met recently.
Maxine Walden: please, the second…
Pema Pera: As for the second part, that is core of the 9-sec method
Pema Pera: While 9 seconds is very short, seemingly laughably short compared to usual contemplation techniques, it does have the advantage of already being integrated with daily life
Pema Pera: the very fact that you come back to it every fifteen minutes does not give you a chance to drift away and forget about it altogether
Pema Pera: and when you keep doing it, you will find that the practice colors the remaining 891 seconds of the quarter of an hour as well
Pema Pera: Have you felt that in some sense? Can you say something about the time in between the 9-second periods?
Maxine Walden: Yes, I can
Maxine Walden: I agree that the rest of the time between the 9 seconds seems hued (just like the colors in the room as the sun came up here)
Pema Pera: nice image!
Maxine Walden: and that I am somehow in a slightly different place in my work and listening
Maxine Walden: thanks, interesting sometimes the images of the moment seem apt
Maxine Walden: but there is a further influence I think of the 9 sec practice: all my mental and emotional experience
Maxine Walden: is on a different plane from before, and how I think, what I write is somewhat new…the sense of’ paradigm nudge’ has been in my thoughts
Maxine Walden: entertain the more inclusive, open to the new…possible paradigm nudge position via meetings
Maxine Walden: This postion of openness and willingness to take such a stand
Maxine Walden: guess these explorations we are doing enhance my trust, my curiosity in the unknown, which you have been suggesting all along is really a part of ourselves
Pema Pera: I am very glad to hear that, Maxine, and thanks for your summary of where you stand now, that’s all good to know!
And the conversation moved on to the notion of simplicity, leading to the most simple form of practice, keeping in mind the notion of “am”.
Pema Pera: My sense is that trying to open can be helped by keeping things simple
Pema Pera: very simple
Pema Pera: I have used the picture of poking holes in our usual way of looking at things
Maxine Walden: hope it is not inundating (the swamped of the dream?), maybe your suggestion of keep it simple addresses
Maxine Walden: an ‘inundating’ or ’saturated’ quality which I can get into…where I feel or have felt to passionate aobut something it can take on an inundating quality
Pema Pera: seeing is simple, integration in daily life can take infinite shades and colors
Pema Pera: Here is a suggestion, for the time in between the 9 seconds windows: how about simply trying to stay more with what is, rather than with what you have — do you think that idea is compact and portable enough to carry along with you during the remaining almost-15 min-interval?
Maxine Walden: please say a bit more,
Pema Pera: the first step in the 9-sec practice is simply to remember to do it — to stop and do anything at all
Maxine Walden: yes, that is clear
Pema Pera: the second step is to become comfortable with it, with taking a breath, relaxing, dropping the momentum of what you were doing, and taking a short note
Maxine Walden: dropping the momentum…that seems important and I will try to look to it
Pema Pera: but then third step, which we haven’t really talked about yet, is the question of how to let these source of inspiration inundate the plains of the remaining 891 seconds ^^
Maxine Walden: I can become too intensely involved I think,…oh please say more about that third step
Pema Pera: again, simplicity first here
Maxine Walden: ok
Pema Pera: A very simple way to bridge the 9-second intervals
Pema Pera: is to keep in mind the question “who/what am I” as opposed to all that you have; you have a body, a mind, feelings, thoughts, all kind of identifications . . . .
Maxine Walden: yes,
Pema Pera: . . . but who are you? What is it that IS rather than has?
Pema Pera: Perhaps this is a simple enough idea to carry with you during the 891 seconds
Pema Pera: like a portable something
Pema Pera: a background sense of things
Pema Pera: a koan if you like, in zen terms
Pema Pera: or like being gripped by a research question
Pema Pera: or haven fallen in love
Pema Pera: or being obsessed by whatever
Maxine Walden: IS, yes you mention this again…am not sure what a koan is, but I am getting the sense..
Maxine Walden: just a moment, I may have gotten distracted: what examples were you mentioning with obsession, new love, research question…?
Pema Pera: in all of these cases, you don’t have to really try to keep some core idea in mind
Maxine Walden: these as examples of …?
Pema Pera: it is just there
Pema Pera: you don’t have to “practice” to remember the one you have fallen in love with (^_^)
Pema Pera: or if you are really gripped by a fascinating research problem that just doesn’t leave you alone . . . .
Maxine Walden: oh, yes, these are the things that are perhaps felt as the active agents
Pema Pera: or by a problem that just keeps nagging you . . .
Maxine Walden: these seem to be the background things that are ‘playing’ with us?
Pema Pera: so if you can let the question “if I shift focus from what I have to what I am” keep bugging you . . . .
Pema Pera: that will then fill the background of the 891 seconds in between th 9 seconds, every quarter of an hour
Pema Pera: but “if I shift focus from what I have to what I am” is too long a sentence to keep in mind
Pema Pera: “what am I” is much easier
Pema Pera: or “who am i”
Pema Pera: or “am”
Pema Pera: I personally find “am” nice and compact
Pema Pera: very portable
Maxine Walden: yes, maybe the ‘am’ is very portable..
Pema Pera: “if I shift focus from what I have to what I am” is like a desktop
Pema Pera: “who am I” like a laptop
Pema Pera: “am” like a blackberry or iPhone
Maxine Walden: very nice image, makes me smile
Pema Pera: haha
Pema Pera: avatar emoters are still a bit clumsy
Maxine Walden: and the simplicity again is humbling,
Pema Pera: yes, and effective!
Pema Pera: Let’s try to do this and see what happens.
Maxine Walden: makes me view once again the tensions of the ‘having the idea’ as tensions
Maxine Walden: yes, I will happily try to do the ‘am’ more
Pema Pera: I have to go now, but I’m really glad that we had a chance to talk this all through
Maxine Walden: yes, me too.
Pema Pera: This “am” practice may take a while to sink in, probably more like weeks rather than days — but then again who knows? Let’s keep an open mind, and treat every day as new, like this lovely morning, and really every quarter of an hour as new.
Maxine Walden: I will keep that with me, and be back tomorrow morning, my most reliable time.
Pema Pera: great, thanks, Maxine! I am really glad to be able to share this with you and others in our group.
Maxine Walden: I also have to go. See you tomorrow.
Pema Pera: take care, Maxine, thanks again
Pema Pera: See you soon!
Maxine Walden: thanks and bye for now
