Solo, Storm and I all approached the tea house at just about the same time.
Solobill Laville: May I come in?
Pema Pera: of course!!!
Solobill Laville: Hello!
Pema Pera: Hi Solo!
Pema Pera: make yourself comfortable
Pema Pera: And hi Storm!
Solobill Laville: Hi Storm!
Storm Nordwind: Hi Solobill
Solobill Laville: Is it late for you?
Storm Nordwind: It’s certainly late for me - 3:00am!
Pema Pera: wow, Storm!!
Storm Nordwind: I’ll probably not stay too long
Pema Pera: actually, for a chance this time I have to drop out at 7:30 SLT
Pema Pera: since there is a Qwaq meeting I have to attend at that time
Pema Pera: a rare conflict in my timing.
SL still seemed to be unstable: Solo disappeared.
Pema Pera: oops
Pema Pera: I talked with Solo this afternoon, briefly, when we crossed paths; he was very excited about the idea of a pub.
Pema Pera: I showed him the plot
Storm Nordwind: great!
Pema Pera: very close to the zazen spot
At that point Solo reappeared.
Pema Pera: Solo, talking about the Be-IT Bar
Solobill Laville: Sorry, fellas, I crashed.
Pema Pera: wb!
Pema Pera: quick reincarnation!!
Solobill Laville: lol
Storm Nordwind: No bardo stuff for Solobill!
Pema Pera: what good intentions can do . . . .
Pema Pera: perhaps this is the Bardo?
Solobill Laville: hmmm
Storm Nordwind: haha!
Pema Pera: in Holland, in the north we have protestants and in the south catholics
Pema Pera: the churches don’t look so different
Pema Pera: but the main difference is that in the north they stand by themselves
Pema Pera: and in the south opposite each church is a cafe (in US terms: a bar)
Pema Pera: so following that example
Solobill Laville: he he
Pema Pera: the bar adjacent to the zazen spot might be a good southern-Dutch idea
Storm Nordwind: Great!
Storm Nordwind: Holland is one of my favorite places
Storm Nordwind: Though I have spent most time in the North
Storm Nordwind: And on pilgrimage once to visit places in Zeeland wrt Nehalennia
Solobill Laville: Pema, have you seen the Blarney Stone (SL)?
Pema Pera: Nehalennia?
Pema Pera: Blarney Stone?
Storm Nordwind: Nehalennia is a goddess
Solobill Laville: I’ll let you finish on Nehalennia….
Storm told us about Nehallennia.
Storm Nordwind: She was mostly known around 2000 years ago
Solobill Laville: European?
Storm Nordwind: There are many votive altars to her found on the coast
Pema Pera: I’d never heard of it . . . . sorry to say, even though it’s in my native country!
Solobill Laville: Scandanavian?
Storm Nordwind: Around places like Colijnsplaat
Storm Nordwind: No not Scandinavian
Storm Nordwind: She was germanic though
Storm Nordwind: though she was worshipped also by the celts and the romans
Solobill Laville: A nature goddess?
Storm Nordwind: I’m not sure what you mean by that
Solobill Laville: Rebirth, spring, earth
Storm Nordwind: Again, what do you mean?
Storm Nordwind: Goddesses are being. Individual entities
Storm Nordwind: beings
Storm Nordwind: They have strengths and weakness like we do
Storm Nordwind: They have favourite occupation and pastimes like we do
Solobill Laville: Just looking for historical clarity and perspective.
Storm Nordwind: but she was mostly invoked for safe passage
Storm Nordwind: and the altars found in the dunes at places like Domburg are to give thanks after she got people out of a scrape
Solobill Laville: Okay, I see, thanks, fascinating!
Solobill Laville gave you Dublin - The Blarney Stone Irish, Dublin (85, 93, 25).
Storm Nordwind: Many people - possibly not you Solobill - think of deities as being god or goddess of this or that
Storm Nordwind: and that is really not the case
Storm Nordwind: and more than I am Human of teaching! :)
Storm Nordwind: *any more
Solobill Laville: :)
Storm Nordwind: So I was clarifying that too. :)
Storm Nordwind: So it is intersting to find that some people regard, say, Thor as God of Thunder
Storm Nordwind: Whereas he has rather a lot of things he likes doing
Storm Nordwind: and also many other deities like Thunder too!
Storm Nordwind: Just my perspective as an old polytheist and seer!
Storm Nordwind: It kind of makes a difference when one is able to have two way conversations with these beings and find out what they’re really like :)
Solobill Laville: Storm, would you consider yourself a Tantric practicioner?
Storm Nordwind: Good question. I consider myself Vajrayana though my experience is only budding
Storm Nordwind: It is a way of both Sutra and Tantra
Solobill Laville: Great, thanks for the honest answer
Solobill Laville: Your passion is contagious!
Storm Nordwind: Wow - I am honoured by that remark! :)
Solobill Laville: :) True…
Pema Pera: Thanks, Storm; I had been meaning to ask you about “seer”, the word that is prominent in your blog, and that you have used to describe yourself a few times.
Pema Pera: Now is not the time to go deeply into that, given that I have to leave in 8 minutes
Pema Pera: but I’d like to hear more, before too long!
Storm Nordwind: No problem. I find being anything else other than open and honest too difficult to bother with! :)
Solobill Laville: Amen, brotha!
Storm Nordwind smiles
I then came back to Solo’s pointer to the Blarney Stone.
Pema Pera: On another brief note
Pema Pera: *brief
Pema Pera: Solo gave me a lm
Pema Pera: for an Irish pub
Pema Pera: looks nice, but probably much too high for here
Pema Pera: good atmosphere though
Storm Nordwind: This is the Blarney Stone, right?
Pema Pera: yes
Solobill Laville: Yes, good atmosphere, open and UKish, yes, Storm
Storm Nordwind: If it’s the one I’m thinking of, I think I visited it 2 years ago.
Storm Nordwind: The relaxed atmospher of an Irish or British pub could be really good
Solobill Laville: I agree totally
Storm Nordwind: I’ve been there!
Storm Nordwind: In RL
Storm Nordwind: Not called that though
Solobill Laville: llol
Pema Pera: Blarney Stone?
Solobill Laville: I have great friends in Dublin
Storm Nordwind: That pub overlooks the Liffey
Storm Nordwind: I think
Solobill Laville: That is funny, I wonder if it is the same owners
Storm Nordwind: hmmm… I was last in Dublin a year ago and my brain has been shaken up a lot since then!
Solobill Laville: Mine has been compressed!
Storm Nordwind: haha!
Pema Pera: Hopefully the expanding universe will give all of our brains a bit more room . . . .
Pema Pera: well, I have to leave now, regrettably
Solobill Laville: Yes, and what happens when all matter is torn apart Pema???
Pema Pera: we don’t know
Pema Pera: big crunch perhaps
Solobill Laville: Save that for another time
Pema Pera: or eternal expansion
Pema Pera: yeah
Storm Nordwind: See you again soon Pema
Pema Pera: thanks for coming here, Solo and Storm!
Solobill Laville: Thanks
Storm Nordwind: Namaste
Pema Pera: Namaste
