Friedrich Ochsenhorn: hey
Pema Pera: Hi there, Fred!
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: early, for once.
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: evening…
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: or, morning. whatever
Pema Pera: Hi Ziana!
Pema Pera: Morning here, yes
Pema Pera: Hi Hotaru!
Pema Pera: Nice wings, Ziana!
Hotaru Myoo: hiya
Ziana Tauber: Why thank you
Hotaru Myoo: exotic!
Pema Pera: Hi Dakini!
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: wow. can you fly w/ such lacy wings?
Dakini Rhode: hi!
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: hi there
Ziana Tauber: sure can
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: nice
Ziana Tauber: see?
Pema Pera: haha
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: i must rely on the magic of the nyc subway for my super powers
Pema Pera: Hi Ayukam!
Pema Pera: Good morning!
Ayukam Harsley: hi Pema
Pema Pera: At least for the two of us
Ayukam Harsley: Good morning
Pema Pera: it is 11 am in Japan
Ayukam Harsley: oh you’re in Japan?
Hotaru Myoo: not bad
Pema Pera: yes, Mitaka Tenmondai in Tokyo
Hotaru refered back to the meeting we had twelve hours earlier.
Hotaru Myoo: better than the 11 oclock meeting
Hotaru Myoo: on the other end
Pema Pera: Astronomy Observatory, quite far from central Tokyo
Dakini Rhode: 10 o’clock here
Hotaru Myoo: 9 here
Dakini Rhode: we’re almost opposites, Pema
Ayukam Harsley: yes but Mitaka is not too far
Hotaru Myoo: how far by train?
Pema Pera: It takes almost as much time to travel from Kyoto to Tokyo as from Tokyo to MItaka
Pema Pera: About one and a half hour, trains and bus
Hotaru Myoo: ah
Pema Pera: Whereas from Kyoto to Tokyo oonly 2 hours twenty minutes
Pema Pera: by bullet train
Ayukam Harsley: haha
Pema Pera: There is a very small airport right next to the observatory
Pema Pera: but no flights to Kansai :(
Hotaru Myoo: fly private?
Pema Pera: only to the small islands South of Tokyo
Pema Pera: forgot the names
Pema Pera: Oshima or something
Pema Pera: very tiny planes
Hotaru Myoo: I’d like to see them or something
Hotaru Myoo: I fly tiny planes
Ayukam Harsley: maybe Miyake jima or Oshima
Pema Pera: yes
Pema Pera: you fly planes, Hotaru?
Hotaru Myoo: is jima =island?
Pema Pera: yes
Hotaru Myoo: ah
Ayukam Harsley: yes
Hotaru Myoo: ty
Hotaru Myoo: yes
Johnson stepped by and soon Mongo would join us well, so there were then eight of us.
Pema Pera: Hi Johnson!
Hotaru Myoo: hi Johnson
Hotaru Myoo: that was some entrance!
Pema Pera: perhaps we can get a RL meeting some day, with Hotaru flying us around!
Ayukam Harsley: hi Johnson
Hotaru Myoo: haha
Johnson Euler: Hello.
Hotaru Myoo: I break all flight rules
Hotaru Myoo: Dakini!
Dakini Rhode: hey!
Hotaru Myoo: You look pretty exotic this evening!
Dakini Rhode: :-)
Dakini Rhode: the zen archer
Ayukam Harsley: hi Dakini
Dakini Rhode: hi :-)
Ayukam Harsley: good to see you again
Hotaru Myoo: yes you are
Dakini Rhode: likewise :-)
Pema Pera: Have you been to Kumamoto, the city on the back of your shirt, Johnson?
Johnson Euler: No, I haven’t. You?
Pema Pera: yes, nice place, nice park and castle
Pema Pera: in Kyushu, not so far from Nagasaki
Hotaru Myoo: I’ve seen the castle before!
Johnson Euler: Never been to Japan. But it’s on my bucket list.
Ayukam Harsley: my mother was born in Kumamoto
Ayukam Harsley: :)
Pema Pera: Hi Mongo!
Pema Pera: Ah, what a small world, Ayukam!
Ayukam Harsley: hehe
Pema Pera: Is there a Kumamoto in SL, Ayu?
Pema Pera: I know there is a Nagasaki
Pema Pera: with a peace park
Ayukam Harsley: ah
Mongo McGinnis: hi
Ayukam Harsley: let me search
Mongo McGinnis: i have to walk my beagle hes was kicking for a reason duriing meditation
Hotaru Myoo: lol
Ayukam Harsley: haha
While Ayukam was looking up Kumamoto, I suggested getting back to the Play as Being adventures.
Pema Pera: would anybody like to say something about their play with the 9-second explorations?
Hotaru Myoo: Ayu found a castle the other day…Kenroku
Ayukam Harsley: I found some place that have Kumamoto as their name
Pema Pera: ah, in SL? Should explore that!
Ayukam Harsley: yes Kenrou-en is on my picks
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: i started to bring this up yesterday, but we didnt get into it. i have been thinking about the similarities between 9-sec play and smoke breaks
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: i don’t know if anyone here has ever smoked, i don’t (very often)
Dakini Rhode: i never smoked but i take breathing breaks
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: but, i have been wondering about this aspect of the smoke break.
Hotaru Myoo: haha
Ziana Tauber: I quit almost a year ago, and I miss the excuse to go outside
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: right right. i always joke that I don’t smoke - i just use it to regulate my breathing
Hotaru Myoo: anything that is habituated like that
Dakini Rhode: yes Fred
Dakini Rhode: and catch up on the gossip
Pema Pera: hehe
Dakini Rhode: the smokers know everything
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: and, presumably, for some, to STOP
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: have we simply reinstituted the smoke break for non-smokers?
Dakini Rhode: haha
Pema Pera: very efficient if you can finish a cigaret in 9 seconds . . . .
Hotaru Myoo: well…depends on if your 9 sec break is communal or a singular endeavor
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: one that keeps going out
Ziana Tauber: just gotta know how to hotbox
Johnson Euler: It’s coffee for me. I could drink a coffee every 15 minutes. And they don’t make you go outside to do it.
Hotaru Myoo: lol
Pema Pera: but yes, sure, there are some clear similarities — any type of breaks — haha, Johnson, yes, nice in freezing weather
Hotaru Myoo: ah…sumimasen…brb….
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: smoldering holes in reality? but, the serious side to this question is whether there are familar names for this experience we are experimenting with. its not /that/ alient
Pema Pera: I think our 9-sec breaks are a bit more radical — stopping / cutting / waking up — but sometimes smoking might trigger something similar
Dakini brought up an interesting angle on the practice.
Dakini Rhode: Pema, i have found the 9 sec breaks can seem aggressive
Pema Pera: can you say more, Dakini?
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: dakini - their frequency, or shortness?
Dakini Rhode: After doing it for awhile, i find i’d rather retain the thread of awareness consistently
Pema Pera: that would be ideal, yes
Dakini Rhode: abrupt stopping seems rather aggressive - maybe not the best word
Dakini Rhode: jarring
Dakini Rhode: not fluid
Ziana Tauber: abrupt?
Dakini Rhode: all those perhaps
Pema Pera: that is actually the goal, to keep continuity
Pema Pera: would “waking up” sound better than “stopping”?
Dakini Rhode: it’s the practice, not the name…. i think
Pema Pera: can you describe more what your version would be?
Pema Pera: perhaps the words we use are more different than what we do . . . .
Dakini Rhode: you mean, as i’ve come to practice it?
Pema Pera: yes, in how far it is not like stopping
Johnson Euler: Hmm. How to make it more fluid? Maybe shifting from tactical to strategic thinking and back?
Pema Pera: but like something more gentle or different
Pema Pera: Hi Ron!
Pema Pera: Come join us
Johnson Euler: Or small picture to big picture and back?
Ron was a new visitor, and after I invited him to join us by IM, het settled down next to Friedrich on the wooden plank next to the tea house. Friedrich made an interesting comment on theater vs. film.
Ron777 Homewood: hi pera
Dakini Rhode: Begin with a longer sitting, that sort of gives you a baseline.. which stays with me
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: this reminds me of a friend of mine who prefers
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: theater to film - he can’t stand the rapid jump cutting
Dakini Rhode: so as i go about my day, i find myself returning to that
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: i mean, our mediascape is saturated with rapid cuts like the ones we are replicating
Dakini Rhode: rather than forcing it
Pema Pera: Forcing is not good, I agree
Pema Pera: but I have always felt that reminders were good
Dakini Rhode: maybe i have too many meetings, appointments, reminders…
Dakini Rhode: 15-minute breaks starts to feel busy
Dakini Rhode: like speed meditation
Pema Pera: no matter how much I got deep into practice, at various times in my life, I did always notice that I could get deeper into it, could be more focused, could be more present — and my question was: what is holding me back? There is no barrier, nothing preventing me — just seemed I needed to remind myself, very frequently
Pema Pera: so how to you keep the liveliness, the presence?
Dakini Rhode: good question
Pema Pera: there must be many ways, I’m sure
Dakini Rhode: i get bored and lose it
Pema Pera: we all do
Dakini Rhode: i start to get somewhere then get bored
Pema Pera: so we all need something . . . . .
Dakini Rhode: haha i see a couple of excuses for laziness haha
Pema Pera: and I think for all of us it has to be frequently . . . .
Pema Pera: . . . . if we agree on that, we could make a list of tricks
Pema Pera: and see how the 9-sec trick comparese with others
Pema Pera: like Fred’s smoking breaks for example
Pema Pera: or like more gentle approaches which you may suggest, Dakini
Pema Pera: Do you have a specific alternative suggestion you can think of?
Dakini Rhode: breathing
Pema Pera: but how to remind yourself?
Dakini Rhode: i’m always breathing
Ziana brought up a kind of Buddha realm practice.
Ziana Tauber: I read about driving meditation where brakelights are viewed as buddha winking
Pema Pera: but we are also always slipping . . ..
Dakini Rhode: slipping is ok so long as you slip both ways, i think
Johnson Euler: What if it were 9 seconds of seeing yourself and everyone and your whole situation from outside yourself? That would be a form of meditation and reframing. Without losing continuity.
Dakini Rhode: slip into meditation, slip out of meditation
Dakini Rhode: or like when you change activities - go from one thing to another
Dakini Rhode: a chance for mindfulness
Dakini Rhode: phone rings, be mindful before picking it up
Pema Pera: yes, anything can be seen as reminders, as Ziana also mentioned
Dakini Rhode: scooping cat poop
Dakini Rhode: anything
Pema Pera: that too :>)
Dakini Rhode: anything is a chance to shift perspective
Dakini Rhode: or to check if you still have that wide perspective, that panoramic vision
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: but, if everything is a reminder, nothing is…
Johnson Euler: Not having a cat. One of my many blessings. :)
Dakini Rhode: even better, right?
Dakini Rhode: well, just some thoughts :-)
Pema Pera: Yes, Fred, that is the problem, in practice
Pema Pera: If you try to let everything remind you, after a few minutes fatigue may set in
Pema Pera: or a few hours
Pema Pera: or days
Pema Pera: and then what?
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: choosing seems important too, not just letting it wash over you
Pema Pera: then new reminders are needed, it seems . . . .
Hotaru Myoo: after a while do you really need reminders?
Pema Pera: I do :-)
Hotaru Myoo: isn’t it habituated?
Hotaru Myoo: like breathing?
Dakini Rhode: I think that is what I was thinking, Hotaru
Pema Pera: if you’re a fully realized being, perhaps you don’t
Hotaru Myoo: rofrbl
Pema Pera: but if you find yourself slipping out of full presence, then what?
Johnson Euler: Replacing old patterns of thought is tremendously difficult. Requires frequent reminders.
Hotaru Myoo: pop the string on your finger
Dakini pointed out that, while it had become night in Rieul, there seemed to remain a circle of light encompassing us right there, while we were sitting on the benches and standing on the grass. I had some serious lag, and at first I thought we were still talking about staying with the practice :-)
Dakini Rhode: who notices that?
Pema Pera: if you notice it you don’t need a reminder :-)
Dakini Rhode: what is the light source here?
Dakini Rhode: this spot here seems light with no light
Dakini Rhode: all around is dark
Hotaru Myoo: lol
Johnson Euler: Everyone got their streaming music on? I’m just curious what everyone else is experiencing while they’re here?
Dakini Rhode: i’m trying to see where the light is coming from
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: i hear chirmping crickets, and a bubling stream (streaming)
Johnson Euler: Yes, I still here the crickets, even with the new age symphony playing.
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: oh. i didn’t have the music playing. i thought the nature was the soundtrack. funny.
Dakini Rhode: I think it is Ayukam brings the light :-)
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: Dakini - are those firefiles?!?
Dakini Rhode: where?
Johnson Euler: Lots of bright stars up there too.
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: i am seeing dancing lights above the heads of the bench warmers
Johnson Euler: Northern lights?
Dakini Rhode: the white lights?
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: but, in the trees. white dots, not yellow.
Dakini Rhode: over the heads, the white light means voice is activated
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: its in the distnace. not over their heads. and more lights than people
Dakini Rhode: oh the little lights under the tree?
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: yeah, the fireflies ;-)
Dakini Rhode: fireflies
Dakini Rhode: :-)
Hotaru Myoo: hotaru
Dakini Rhode: :-)
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: (^_^)
It was getting time for me to leave.
Pema Pera: I’ll have to leave soon
Pema Pera: lunch in Japan is very strictly exactly at 12 noon ;>)
Johnson Euler: I just had a bunch of 9 second meditations. Felt good.
Dakini Rhode: i think eveyrone just discovered the streaming music :-)
Dakini Rhode: wow Johnson :-)
Johnson Euler: What’s for lunch, Pema?
Pema Pera: Had you done that in RL too, Johnson?
Pema Pera: teh 9-sec thingies, or just now for the first time?
Johnson Euler: Yes, in RL too!
Pema Pera: how did that go?
Pema Pera: different?
Pema Pera: lunch will be rice — surprise :-)
Dakini Rhode: haha
Dakini Rhode: i like rice :-)
Hotaru Myoo: perfect
Pema Pera: Johnson, did it feel different in SL than in RL, these 9-sec explorations?
Johnson Euler: No, about the same.
Johnson Euler: I meditate best when there’s some kind of stimulus to focus on.
Johnson Euler: SL has all kinds of that.
Pema Pera: I’d love to hear more, next time — have to run to lunch now! See you all soon, thanks for stopping by!
Dakini Rhode: Thanks for doing this, Pema
Dakini Rhode: Namaste
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: i wanna hear more about the person who meditates while driving!
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: g’night
Johnson Euler: Good night Pema.
Johnson Euler: Yes, Namaste.
Dakini Rhode: mindfulness while driving
Hotaru Myoo: Bye!!
Pema Pera: till next time!
Ayukam Harsley: take care Pema
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: yes, for sure, it is a great occasion.
Mongo McGinnis: have a good lunch
Pema Pera: I’ll fly Dakini, a bit safer ;>)
Mongo McGinnis: good day
Off I flew, in SL, and then I logged out, to get my lunch.
