I was sitting outside on the stone bench in front of the tea house, when Sky dropped out of the sky in her standard purple
Pema Pera: Hi there, Sky!
Pema Pera: Looking nice in purple under the sky!
Sky Szimmer: i am not sure if i will be able to do this today
Sky Szimmer: marco is really fussy
Pema Pera: see how far you get!
Sky Szimmer: he woke too early
Sky Szimmer: wow, that took effect just to sit
Sky Szimmer: anyway, this is better
Pema Pera: you succeeded!
Sky Szimmer: been thinking about “there is no me” or “others”
Sky Szimmer: it has been interesting
Sky Szimmer: i felt a bit scared initially
Sky Szimmer: then there was another perspective
Sky Szimmer: anyway,
Sky Szimmer: this is all a work in progress
Pema Pera: a very important work!
Pema Pera: Hi Storm!
Storm Nordwind: Hi Pema
Storm Nordwind: Hi Sky
Storm Nordwind: This is just a courtesy visit. I am busy studying this evening so won’t stay
Storm Nordwind: I have a book on Lamrim and I need to read the first 60 pages in depth before next Saturday!
Pema Pera: I wish you good luck!
We talked about Maxine’s new blog.
Pema Pera: Did you see that Maxine put up a blog as of today?
Pema Pera: I linked to it from my blog
Pema Pera: no text yet
Storm Nordwind: No. I looked earlier but there was only mine plus the other emptyone
Pema Pera: she’s figuring out the software (save vs. publish, etc)
Sky Szimmer: thats great
Storm Nordwind: oh I see
Pema Pera: they will bud!
Pema Pera: it’s spring time
Pema Pera: after all
Pema Pera: Sky, would you like to blog ;>)
Storm Nordwind: And my orchard is in perpetual flower and fruit
Sky Szimmer: no not my thing
Storm Nordwind: Not mine either SKy!
Pema Pera: that’s fine
Storm Nordwind: This my only one ever!
Pema Pera: have you seen Storm’s blog, Sky?
Sky Szimmer: no how to access?
Pema Pera: http://stormerne.blogspot.com/
Storm Nordwind laughs as he is beaten to it!
Pema Pera: or go to PaB and click on “words of a seer” under the links
Pema Pera: haha
Pema Pera: yes
Pema Pera: typing gets faster and faster here
Pema Pera: the more I come to SL
Pema Pera: typing from the hip
Storm Nordwind: Ah - I’ve been using this strange thing called a “pen” for the last hour. It is warping my brain - and my typing fingers
Pema Pera: haha yes
Pema Pera: You’ll like reading it, Sky
Sky Szimmer: i/m sure
Sky Szimmer: am typing one handed
Storm Nordwind: Please - I am not proselytising my blog!
Pema Pera: I am
Pema Pera: so you don’t have to ;>)
Storm Nordwind: It is just the words of a humble traveller
Pema Pera: I like the idea of growing a bush of blogs
Pema Pera: could be a low bush
Storm Nordwind: That is the collective noun for blogs?
Sky Szimmer: any and all different perspective helps
Pema Pera: YES!
Pema Pera: very much so
Pema Pera: a bush of blogs, why not
Pema Pera: bushy tailed scribblings
Storm Nordwind: I prefer “blush” of blogs - to get complete alliteration!
Pema Pera: ah, I see,
Pema Pera: a blurr of blogs often
Storm Nordwind: And it chimes with our modestly
Storm Nordwind: Hey you guys are distracting me! :)
Pema Pera: haha
Pema Pera: k
Storm Nordwind: I will stay on line at my gompa but please have a good discussion! :)
Pema Pera: well, good luck with your reading!
Pema Pera: c u S
Storm Nordwind: thank you
Storm Nordwind: bfn
Sky Szimmer: cu
Storm Nordwind: Namaste
Pema Pera: _/!\_
Storm took off, and Sky’s young child, Marco, clearly enjoyed seeing the maroon robed monk fly up into the sky.
Sky Szimmer: i like that
Sky Szimmer: exit
Sky Szimmer: so did marco
Pema Pera: haha
Pema Pera: the flying yo mean?
Sky Szimmer: yup
Pema Pera: soon he will be in virtual worlds himself
Pema Pera: but he’ll have to wait 16 years before being old enough to come into SL . . . .
Pema Pera: though there is the teengrid
Sky Szimmer: maybe that’s a good thing
Sky Szimmer: that he can’t come in until he’s older
Sky Szimmer: lots of weird stuff in sl
Pema Pera: for sure!
Pema Pera: you wrote:
Pema Pera: been thinking about “there is no me” or “others”
Sky Szimmer: just like you told me
Pema Pera: and that is was a bit scary . . .
Sky Szimmer: the other day
Pema Pera: yes?
Sky Szimmer: i go between being very comfortable with the idea and natural to trying to force the understanding
Pema Pera: can you say a bit more about that?
Sky Szimmer: well, there are times when I try to remind myself of this.
Sky Szimmer: you know, during the 14 minute practice ( my five on this computer is not working)
Sky Szimmer: then it seems contrived
Sky Szimmer: then other times, it feels quite right
Sky Szimmer: it did point to a very different understanding of the world, and the “me” to that world
Sky Szimmer: as usual i have a hard time articulating this
Pema Pera: oh no, you’re doing fine!
Pema Pera: perhaps can you say more about what felt contrived?
Sky Szimmer: when i try to remind myself of the view
Sky Szimmer: then there is this rebelling against the idea, and the experience doesn’t feel genuine
Sky Szimmer: yesterday, i went clothes shopping for the first time in a long while
Sky Szimmer: it was interesting to think of myself as an avatar
Pema Pera: ;)
Sky Szimmer: seeing myself as this form that i had to clothe
Sky Szimmer: it was much more fun
Sky Szimmer: usually i hate shopping
Sky Szimmer: yesterday i felt a lot of dread in my day.
Sky Szimmer: i felt like there was so much to do and not enough time to do it
Sky Szimmer: but then it was interesting to remind myself of our exercise here
Sky Szimmer: so much of that dreadful feeling is self generated
Pema Pera: were you able to do the exercise, in the middle of the dread?
Sky Szimmer: sort of
Pema Pera: sort of is perfect!
Pema Pera: The practice is not at all meant to be up to a sort of standard
Sky Szimmer: mainly it was just trying to see why i felt like that
Pema Pera: the very fact of doing it is enough
Pema Pera: frequency
Pema Pera: continuity
Pema Pera: thats
Pema Pera: what counts
Sky Szimmer: and who was causing the experience to manifest in that manner
I asked a bit more about her experiences.
Pema Pera: can you describe how it felt to do the 9-sec practice?
Sky Szimmer: is it 9 sec or 14 min
Sky Szimmer: i am confused
Pema Pera: every fifteen minutes, roughly, we stop what we are doing for 9 seconds
Sky Szimmer: anyway, i am not doing it exactly every fifteen minutes
Pema Pera: that’s fine!
Pema Pera: no need to be precise
Pema Pera: roughly four times an hour
Sky Szimmer: i try to maintain continuity throughout and just spot check appx every fifteen mintues to see if i were able to maintain contiuity
Pema Pera: that’s wonderful!
Pema Pera: That’s the best approach
Sky Szimmer: sometimes i am amzed to find i have been not doing it and thinking i was
Pema Pera: but since that is difficult I recommend to start with just the 9-sec practice
Pema Pera: yes, that is easy to fall into
Sky Szimmer: so i ahave been using the exercise to make sure i am maintaining continuity
Sky Szimmer: it is easier when i am not with people
Pema Pera: so it seems you’re ahead of all of us here, by doing it already so concertly during the fifsteen minutes
Pema Pera: can you say a bit about what you do during those fifteen minutes?
Sky Szimmer: nothing
Sky Szimmer: i do nothing
Pema Pera: hahaha
Pema Pera: that’s great
Pema Pera: wu wei
Pema Pera: not doing
Sky Szimmer: it has been great to read the blogs and meet others here and share their experiences
Sky Szimmer: it just builds momentum
Pema Pera: yes, very much so
Pema Pera: I’m really grateful to see that growing
Sky Szimmer: plus the notion that there is no others is useful in this scenario
Pema Pera: can you say more about that?
Sky Szimmer: the whole experience of what this is about, what “I” am about changes
Sky Szimmer: i don’t know what i am talking about really
Sky Szimmer: just mouthing off
Pema Pera: you’re doing quite well (^_^)
Pema Pera: seriously
Pema Pera: the sharing part and community part here is central
Sky Szimmer: i am afraid i have to go
Pema Pera: okay
Pema Pera: great talking with you, Sky
Sky Szimmer: thanks for letting me check in.
Sky Szimmer: i am going to show off my flying skills with Marco
Sky Szimmer: cu
Pema Pera: see you!
