The guardian at this meeting was Pema Pera and the comments are his.
For me it was very late in the evening in Japan by the time it was morning in SL time.
Dakini Rhode: Hey!
Dakini Rhode: konnichiwa (I may have murdered that)
Pema Pera: hi there!
Pema Pera: greetings from Kyoto!
Dakini Rhode: hi! how lovely!
Dakini Rhode: when did you arrive?
Pema Pera: not long ago
Pema Pera: via Tokyo
Pema Pera: long story
Pema Pera: plans changed
Pema Pera: I’m really tired now
Pema Pera: but very very happy
Dakini Rhode: oh my, i’ll bet you are!
Pema Pera: what a morning
Dakini Rhode: i mean tired
Pema Pera: all the above
Pema Pera: anything happening while I was in the air?
Dakini Rhode: you’re way ahead of me now
Pema Pera: I will be once I get a few hours of sleep ;>)
Dakini Rhode: other than I was grumpy in last nites PaB?
Pema Pera: grumpy????
Pema Pera: how? why?
Dakini Rhode: lol you shall see when you read the transcript :-)
Pema Pera: ah, the one where Thor and Types where the greeters, and which Thor sent me?
Dakini Rhode: Thor was great :-)
Pema Pera: which I haven’t read yet?
Dakini Rhode: oh, did Thor send it?
Pema Pera: just arrived here
Pema Pera: sent something
Dakini Rhode: cool
Pema Pera: I had a five hour train ride after my 14 hour plane flight
Pema Pera: I’m not really here (nor there)
Pema Pera: I may be falling asleep while typing
Pema Pera: not afk
Dakini Rhode: oh dear, train lag on top of jet lag on top of no sleep
Pema Pera: but aok
Pema Pera: (asleep on keyboard)
Pema Pera: hahaha
Pema Pera: but talking with you helps to keep me just a weeee bit longer awake
Later, when I read it, I understood what Dakini was refering to. She had been focusing on practice in the middle of an otherwise more theoretical discussion. It will be a challenge for all of us, to keep that balance: we need both ideas to guide us as well as practice to help us then drop the ideas. And we will always feel in keeping the balance. I know it all too wel myself, seeing myself emphasizing ideas too much one day and too little the other. That’s why a community is so important, it gives us an opportunity to correct ourselves and each other.
Dakini Rhode: i won’t keep you - i need to leave anyway
Pema Pera: well I have a commitment to be here for 30 minutes
Pema Pera: self imposed
Pema Pera: but no less a commitment
Dakini Rhode: yes i understand
Pema Pera: but if you’re in a hurry you should go of course!
Pema Pera: I did write 8 blogs in the plane
Pema Pera: catching up again
Dakini Rhode: i’m obviously not in a hurry
Pema Pera: aaahhhh
Pema Pera: don’t know whether I can keep this up
Pema Pera: but I think I can
Pema Pera: and slowly others will take over more and more
Pema Pera: I am sooooo encouraged by all the reactions!
Dakini Rhode: yes i hope others do…
Pema Pera: it was fun in the plane to read those eight sessions of the last almost three days
Pema Pera: and relive it all
Dakini Rhode: yes! fun!
Pema Pera: like normally in a month of longer
Pema Pera: boy what experience in three days
Pema Pera: those balloon parades . . . .
Pema Pera: etc etc
Dakini Rhode: i was just on the balloon surveying the new land
Pema Pera: But we now have to explain about the Guardians of the VOID
Pema Pera: I had thought you and Storm would explain further
Dakini Rhode: Storm programmed the new spots already
Pema Pera: HE HAS
Pema Pera: BLESS HIS HEART
Dakini Rhode: yes, well all in time…
Pema Pera: I can’t believe it
Pema Pera: YES
Pema Pera: all in time
Dakini Rhode: we must use our time wisely, in some cases, means lots of juggling
Pema Pera: beach front property . . . .
Pema Pera: oh yes
Pema Pera: I agree
Pema Pera: and I am not complaining ;>)
Pema Pera: and it may also be more fun to leave them in suspense a bit
Pema Pera: until the blog appears ;>)
Pema Pera: you know
Dakini Rhode: my first allegiance is to my own practice, then the zen retreat sitting group….
Dakini Rhode: which i set at an earlier time so I could get some REST haha
Pema Pera: of course, priorities are essential, Dakini
Pema Pera: you should follow them
Dakini Rhode: haha i started the zen retreat practice so i WOULDN’T stay up all nite in SL haha
Pema Pera: hahahahahahaha
Pema Pera: etc.
Pema Pera: you DO keep me awake
Dakini Rhode: I figured, 20 minutes sitting, then bed
Pema Pera: which is great!
Dakini Rhode: lol
Now that was really funny. We all know about having expectations for a project and then seeing reality setting in. Timewise, any project I’ve ever ben involved with was always way over budget, time-ways.
Pema Pera: So actually
Pema Pera: right now
Pema Pera: is a historic moment:
Pema Pera: from now on I think there will be no interruptions in an every 6 hour schedule . . . . . .
Dakini Rhode: that IS historic!
Pema Pera: it really makes my heart glow to think about the fact that
Pema Pera: anyone in need of talking about reality
Dakini Rhode: 1 more blog entry per day
Pema Pera: does not have to wait more than 1/4 day
Pema Pera: wherever they are . . . . .
Pema Pera: isn’t that something
Pema Pera: oh sure, 4 blogs/day
Pema Pera: but the guardians will soon figure out how to write their own
Dakini Rhode: It IS - now the rest of us need to gain some ability to talk about reality
Dakini Rhode: :-)
Pema Pera: and then perhaps 14 guardians or something
Pema Pera: slowly we will be able to delegate
Pema Pera: or otherwise there is something wrong with the whole idea if that is not possible
Pema Pera: all in good time!
Dakini Rhode: when you think of me, remember “Dakini need do nothing” haha
A little later, NeitherNorist walked in.
Pema Pera: tell me Dakini, about your earlier forest plans!
Pema Pera: hahahha
Pema Pera: lol
Dakini Rhode: ok 2 minute summary
Dakini Rhode: you mean way back when?
Pema Pera: yes in one session you said: remember that a long time ago I talked about forests
Pema Pera: communities
Pema Pera: and ANANDA
Pema Pera: do you know
Dakini Rhode: I have a retreat center in the woods, all my friends live nearby, and we have fascinating conversations nightly
Dakini Rhode: that is the dream
Dakini Rhode: Ananda was an attempt to live the dream
Pema Pera: that I went for the first time to ananda when I was visiting Qwaq?!!
Pema Pera: half a year ago
Pema Pera: HI NN
Dakini Rhode: no shit!
Dakini Rhode: haha
Pema Pera: small world hey?
NeitherNorist Ohl: hey Pema
Dakini Rhode: hello Neither!
Pema Pera: Hi there!
Pema Pera: Dakini
Pema Pera: just checking
NeitherNorist Ohl: Hi Dakini
Pema Pera: this is Yogananda’s ofshoot, right?
Pema Pera: the off-broadway one
Dakini Rhode: Kriyanada started it, he was Yogananda’s disciple, but went his own way
Pema Pera: led by the charismatic
Pema Pera: yes
Pema Pera: Kri-san
Pema Pera: yes
Pema Pera: I heard him give a talk
Dakini Rhode: the organization does not think highly of him
Pema Pera: in August
Pema Pera: which one were you involved with?
Dakini Rhode: really? He’s in France now, isn’t he?
Pema Pera: his branch?
Dakini Rhode: I was at Kriyananda’s place - Ananda
Pema Pera: it had a good feel to it
Dakini Rhode: I apprenticed there
Once more I was amazed to see the many ways in which our paths had crossed before we met each other.
Pema Pera: sorry NN
Pema Pera: just in the middle of something
Pema Pera: will come out soon :>)
NeitherNorist Ohl: please
Dakini Rhode: Kriyananda had the vision of returning to the simple life in a cooperative community
NeitherNorist Ohl: no worry
Pema Pera: Dakini, Yogananda was the first Hindu book that I read, autobiography of a yogi, and it moved me deeply. What Karmapa XVI was for me in Buddhism, was Yogananda for me in Hinduism . . . . .
Dakini Rhode: those are two greats, I’ve taken a similar path in a different way
Dakini Rhode: I started with Yogananda, Karmapa is more recent
Pema Pera: u 2 ?!?
Pema Pera: and half a year ago was the first time ever that I intersected in any way with any aspect of his organizations — their place is five minutes walking from Qwaq’s headquarters, isn’t that funny!
Dakini Rhode: where is Qwaq’s headquarters?
Pema Pera: I was 17 when I read the book, late high school
Pema Pera: in Palo Alto, just off the Stanford campus
Pema Pera: anyway, sorry NN, we are reminiscing here ;>)
NeitherNorist Ohl: don’t worry
Pema Pera: How are you?
NeitherNorist Ohl: i can listen
Pema Pera: anything new?
Dakini Rhode: I need to excuse myself, need to catch a meeting
NeitherNorist Ohl: i’m fine, thanks
Dakini Rhode: We’ll talk later :-)
NeitherNorist Ohl: it’s been extremely busy couple of weeks
NeitherNorist Ohl: see you, Dakini
Pema Pera: take care, Dakini!
Dakini Rhode: Namaste
Dakini Rhode: Namaste
NeitherNorist Ohl: wow, I don’t know how to do those things yet
Pema Pera: which things?
NeitherNorist Ohl: like bowing
NeitherNorist Ohl: i only know sit, stand up and walk
Pema Pera: oh, next time ask Dakini to give you the gestures
Pema Pera: haha
Pema Pera: you’ll learn
NeitherNorist Ohl: very uni-dimensional
Pema Pera: just come into SL move around hang out with others
Pema Pera: same as learning a culture, a language
NeitherNorist Ohl: very true, i should hang out here more
NeitherNorist Ohl: sometimes RL just can’t leave me alone :)
NeitherNorist Ohl: are you in NY?
NeitherNorist Ohl: Are you in the city?
Pema Pera: yes in the city
Pema Pera: called Kyoto
Pema Pera: ;>)
Pema Pera: just arrived
NeitherNorist Ohl: this setting is very much like Kyoto
Pema Pera: 14 hour flight and the 5 hours by train
Pema Pera: yes
Indeed, the tea house where we have all our gatherings has a remarkably authentic Japanese feel to it.
NeitherNorist Ohl: I’m heading to HK at the end of this month for a conference on Chinese philosophy, and I’ll visit my parents for several days after that
Pema Pera: they live in HK?
NeitherNorist Ohl: no, they are in China proper, in the southwest cit of Chengdu
NeitherNorist Ohl: I’m very much looking forward to that
Pema Pera: I can imagine!
NeitherNorist Ohl: how have you been?
Pema Pera: fine!
Pema Pera: lots and lots of new developments
Pema Pera: I just posted 7 new blog entries (wrote them all on the plane). If you browse there, you’ll catch up.
Pema Pera: I’m afraid I’m about to keel over now
Pema Pera: I really should go sleep — haven’t slept in more than 30 hours ;>)
NeitherNorist Ohl: it’s your bed time
Pema Pera: but great to see you hear again!
Pema Pera: yes, it’s close to midnight
NeitherNorist Ohl: indeed, i’ll catch up with you later
Pema Pera: next time we can talk longer
NeitherNorist Ohl: absolutely
NeitherNorist Ohl: good night
Pema Pera: I suggest you do read the blogs — lots of fascinating stuff!
Pema Pera: Good night, NN!
Pema Pera: see you soon!
NeitherNorist Ohl: soon
