2008.04.17 07:00 - Finding Each Other

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    Soon after I entered the tea house, I saw that Maxine had logged in, but I didn’t see her around. I then got an IM from here:

    IM: Maxine Walden: Pema, not sure you can here me, but I am lost out here at Miramare, trying to get to the teahouse

    I wrote her back:

    IM: Pema Pera: I will give you a tp!
    IM: Pema Pera: but this will probably let you arrive in the ceiling of the tea house ;>)
    IM: Pema Pera: let me know what happens

    A few times this had happened before. Normally when you give someone a teleport offer, the other person then materializes right in front of you, at a position several feet away. But for whatever reason, if you are seated in the tea house, the person you offer tp to then rezzes up in the attic, in the space between the ceiling and the roof, completely stuck, with no way to get out. And indeed, this is what happened again. Maxine arrived, and I heard her, but couldn’t see her.

    Maxine Walden: I think that is where I am, near the ceiling or on the roof
    Pema Pera: can you see the cushions below?
    Maxine Walden: I will try, see the rooftiles right now
    Pema Pera: if you click on a cushion it will liberate you from the attic
    Maxine Walden: I cannot see the inside of the tea house only the roof
    Pema Pera: okay, I will walk outside and tp you from there.
    Maxine Walden: I seem to be between two roofs, not sure if you can see me

    I walked to the door, opened it, and almost bumped into Sky, who was about to enter, looking at me with surprise. Too busy trying to get Maxine out quickly, I didn’t pause to explain to her why I suddenly ran out. So she walked in while I walked onto the grass, and then she turned around, puzzled, and came out as well. At that moment my second tp worked, and Maxine appeared in between Sky and me, all in one piece.

    Maxine Walden: there, thanks like magic
    Pema Pera: Sky, Maxine was stuck in the ceiling
    Pema Pera: and the only way to get her out that we knew of, was for me to walk out and give here a tp (teleport offer) from outside

    We all walked inside again, and each of us took a comfortable cushion to sit on.

    Maxine Walden: hello, sorry to be late, got lost amidst the ‘cosmos’
    Pema Pera: anyway, we are all here now (^_^)
    Pema Pera: haha big space out here in the SL world!
    Maxine Walden: hi, Sky, yes big space and when I feel lost it is even bigger…as if ‘where do I belong?’
    Sky Szimmer: ahhh. i am now oriented. boy it is not easy
    Sky Szimmer: hi everyone!
    Pema Pera: it really is like going to a new country
    Pema Pera: and figuring out how to get around
    Pema Pera: physically
    Pema Pera: culturally
    Maxine Walden: that lost in space is really for me lost in inner space, because I feel I have no inner bearings
    Pema Pera: can you say more, Maxine?
    Maxine Walden: well, let me see, yes, the lost in space feeling just then was that with a racing heart I felt somehow I had lost some inner compass which could guide me…
    Maxine Walden: like something on the inside was missing, or better, that I could not locate it. So as much I could not find the inner compass rather than the outer compass, and it was registered as anxiety which made me unable to fully think clearly
    Maxine Walden: without the tools needed to ‘come home’ (here to the teahouse), but an interesting slip in my typing in that I was writing teachouse instead of teahouse,
    Pema Pera: A fascinating reflection, Maxine! We can look at SL in two ways: as a complex piece of software we have to learn to work with, and as a world we immigrate into. Working with a new piece of software, we all know the feeling of “being lost” for a while, before becoming familiar with it and skilled at its use. But here “feelikng lost” takes on a much more direct meaning!
    Maxine Walden: yes,
    Pema Pera: It might be fun for either of you to explore a bit more what SL has to offer, in due time — but no hurry
    Sky Szimmer: i have a tiny bit. ended in some weird places
    Pema Pera: weird places plenty here, Sky!
    Maxine Walden: feeling lost which then prompted me to write teachouse instead of teahouse, which I think means
    Maxine Walden: that I had looked to the teachings in this teahouse to help me get unlost
    Sky Szimmer: nice thought, Maxine!
    Pema Pera: yes indeed!
    Maxine Walden: interesting to me how the mind ’slips’ in comments and is very revealing
    Pema Pera: so this house is teaching us, perhaps, and we are all teaching each other?
    Maxine Walden: oh yes, that seems so; in my lostness I felt ‘oh, Pema and those in the tea(c)house will help me out, be my teachers
    Pema Pera: we can help each other out of our attics (^_^)

    Sky then brought up the physical component of our explorations.

    Sky Szimmer: yesterday, Storm had noted something interesting, about physical tension
    Sky Szimmer: I have noticed that physical tension is a useful tool to show that we are not stopping
    Pema Pera: yes, Sky!
    Maxine Walden: please say more, Sky
    Sky Szimmer: well, there is this visceral tension that seems to frequently present in me.
    Sky Szimmer: this is where I tend to feel is. my gut just wretches up
    Sky Szimmer: when I find that I noticed that, then relax, it opens me up more to the present moment.
    Maxine Walden: tension as a guide, when noticed, to opening up
    Sky Szimmer: yes.
    IM: Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.
    Maxine Walden: paying attention then seems to be the help needed, which changes tension from foe into signpost
    Sky Szimmer: when the physical tension is gone, there is more of a unity with the moment
    Maxine Walden: I find that as well
    Sky Szimmer: i feel it is more than a signpost, although that is certainly the case.
    Sky Szimmer: when there is no physcial tension, i feel there is a inner energy source that is quite different
    Maxine Walden: please say more
    Sky Szimmer: then it is able to pervade when the tension is gone
    Sky Szimmer: i don’t know much more about it then that
    Maxine Walden: a kind of energy in repose?
    Sky Szimmer: yes. when the mind and body is relaxed
    Sky Szimmer: then that is when i noticed this pulsating energy
    Maxine Walden: unencumbered by tension or distraction
    Maxine Walden: those times of unencumbered unity are so awesome for me,
    Maxine Walden: by which I do feel that a kind of awe and gratitude set in
    Sky Szimmer: Yes. most definitely
    Maxine Walden: and that awe for me feels like a unity with the cosmos, both inner and in some way outer, that connectedness with everything geltly
    Maxine Walden: seems available even though the words sound grandiose, the feeling is very much otherwise
    Sky Szimmer: yes. when those moments are available, i find that there is no inner or outer
    Maxine Walden: right, a kind of connectedness…had been thinking about surrender earlier, and I think
    Maxine Walden: that those moments of connectedness are times when there is a surrender in process, surrender of one’s boundaries, individual ‘possessed’ thoughts, etc, and just gratitude to be at-one with the universe
    Sky Szimmer: yes!
    Sky Szimmer: This days, I tend to think acceptance rather than surrender
    Sky Szimmer: as the work surrender requires for me too much work
    Sky Szimmer: sorry, not work, word
    Sky Szimmer: although that is an interesting slip : )
    Maxine Walden: an interesting consideration, I am trying to think about what you said
    Sky Szimmer: These days, I have been thinking about everything being a given
    Maxine Walden: surrender for me does seem to be letting go of boundaries…not sure what you mean by ‘everything is a given’
    Sky Szimmer: all that is, is given, where there is nothing that is from “outside”
    Sky Szimmer: it is a bit hard to explain so forgive me if it is clumsy
    Sky Szimmer: normally when we encounter someone new, or that when
    Sky Szimmer: an event happens to us
    Sky Szimmer: in my mind, I tend to think that is external to me
    Sky Szimmer: like it is separate from me
    Sky Szimmer: but in thinking in terms of given,
    Sky Szimmer: all those encounters now seem to just arise and as a given
    Maxine Walden: I think my experience differs slightly but may be linked with what you are describing
    Sky Szimmer: so I am just accepting it as part of the “movie” story
    Maxine Walden: when I encounter someone or something ‘outside’
    Maxine Walden: I try to approach it as ‘I cannnot really know what is out there what I can know about is my expeirence of what that out thre event/person is, and my experience is highly influcnece by my current state of mind and my fantasies of who/what I am witnessing
    Sky Szimmer: please say more
    Maxine Walden: I will try; I am impressed that the only way I connect with ‘reality’ is via my perceptive capacities which are highly influenced by my emotional state and whatever my fantasies (ongoing inner flow of sensations and inner discourse)
    Sky Szimmer: i think i do that as well, but that is changing
    Sky Szimmer: for me
    Maxine Walden: but as I try PaB and realize how influencial these fantasies, etc are, I try to let go of them…is that what you are doing as well?
    Sky Szimmer: yes!
    Sky Szimmer: that is what I think I mean when I say acceptance
    Maxine Walden: and perhaps what I mean in surrender
    Sky Szimmer: to accept people as they are, circumstances are they are..
    Maxine Walden: yes, not to try to control or make things happen
    Sky Szimmer: right!
    Sky Szimmer: I mean yes! no judgment is that : )
    Maxine Walden: I feel a convergence in our viewpoints, experiences
    Sky Szimmer: I think we are talking about the same thing.
    Maxine Walden: yes, I would be interested what Pema is thinking about all of this
    Pema Pera: accepting, surrendering, stopping, opening up, they all have different flavors and associations, but there is also significant overlap . . . and yes, all of those are powerful ways to work with, or invoke, during our 9-seconds practice intervals.
    Pema Pera: Appreciation is another word that has come up, as well as gratitude.
    Maxine Walden: open channels
    Maxine Walden: rather than efforts to control or make something conform to expectations
    Pema Pera: subtraction rather than addition
    Maxine Walden: exactly
    Maxine Walden: it is so interesting how much of this work is getting ourselves out of the way
    Sky Szimmer: that is what i am finding too
    Maxine Walden: these are teaching times for me, quiet communications…
    Maxine Walden: which I find I do carry beyond these teachouse walls into the rest of my day
    Sky Szimmer: nice chatting with everyone. I must run.
    Sky Szimmer: have a nice day!
    Maxine Walden: very nice to see you and talk. Look forward to more
    Pema Pera: bye, Sky!

    Maxine and I lingered for a few minutes more, before each of us had to start our daily work.

    Pema Pera: Maxine, I am still reflecting on your new “teachouse” word. It is so symbolic, what happens here when we get telported-ed into the space under the roof.
    Pema Pera: so we can’t get out
    Pema Pera: someone else has to go out and invite us to escape from our attic
    Pema Pera: to come down and be grounded
    Maxine Walden: oh, nice image
    Pema Pera: this all really feels like a collaborative effort
    Maxine Walden: yes, that is exactly what I needed you to do…
    Pema Pera: and rather effortlessly so
    Pema Pera: well, I will have to go too
    Pema Pera: but what a wonderful way to start the day!
    Maxine Walden: right, and yes, wonderful way to start the day. I will be back tomorrow, same time, hopefully not in the attic
    Pema Pera: hahaha
    Maxine Walden: yes, laughable
    Pema Pera: we now know how to extract you, Maxine
    Pema Pera: but such important lessons
    Pema Pera: and it’s good we can laugh here too!
    Pema Pera: playing
    Pema Pera: as Being
    Maxine Walden: you know well, and I appreciate that; will learn more to do that myself, and yes, playing as Being
    Maxine Walden: is such a rich medium
    Pema Pera: I’m so glad to see you and Sky exploring this in such tangible ways
    Pema Pera: At first, when we here “playing as Being” it may seem to abstract . . . .
    Maxine Walden: for this. Thanks. I am enjoying that as well, and as we talked this morning it seemed much less abstract
    Maxine Walden: sharing one’s experience or all of us sharing in my lostness made it more immediate
    Maxine Walden: glad to get lost for all of us
    Maxine Walden: Better go, and try not to get too lost in the rest of the day
    Pema Pera: hahaha, thank you for teaching us, Maxine!
    Pema Pera: yes, see you later, whenever convenient!
    Maxine Walden: getting lost can be a kind of teaching I guess
    Maxine Walden: bye
    Pema Pera: bye!

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