Pema Pera: Hi Vera!
Vera Jonson: hello
Pema Pera: How are you?
Pema Pera: Hi Steve!
stevenaia Michinaga: hi Pema, meeting out there tonight?
Pema Pera: Vera, shall we sit down?
Pema Pera: we can go inside
Vera Jonson: have to go someplace .o.
Pema Pera: Ah, now I can see you, Steve!
Pema Pera: Last time you were completely transparent for me — funny that was
stevenaia Michinaga: the window was clear
stevenaia Michinaga: do you know if Dakini will be joining us tonight?
Pema Pera: I never know who will come here
Pema Pera: Hi Stim
Stim Morane: Hi Pema and Steve
stevenaia Michinaga: Hi Stim
Stim joined us as well, soon followed by Rowan, and by Ecstasy
stevenaia Michinaga: I had one of those strange moments today, that until I met her would have been meaningless
stevenaia Michinaga: I was driving in my car this morning and I passed a car with a license plate..”Dakini”
Pema Pera: haha
Pema Pera: how nice
Pema Pera: Hi Rowan, welcome!
Rowan Masala: Hi Pema
stevenaia Michinaga: hello Rowan
Rowan Masala: thanks :)
stevenaia Michinaga: this is my friend Pema
Pema Pera: sit down and join us, Rowan!
Rowan Masala: Hi Pema, hi Stim
stevenaia Michinaga: I’m waiting for the pillows to rezzz
stevenaia Michinaga: as usual
Pema Pera: Hi Ecstasy!
Ecstasy Dreamscape smiles “howdy!”
Rowan Masala: Hi Ecstasy :)
Ecstasy Dreamscape: Hi Rowan, welcome
Stim Morane: Hi Rowan
stevenaia Michinaga: hello Ecstasy
Stim Morane: Hi Ecstasy
Ecstasy Dreamscape nods hello to all
Ecstasy Dreamscape: Hi Stim good to see you
Rowan was here for the first time, so I gave a quick run of the PaB explorations.
Pema Pera: Rowan, has Steve told you about our playful meetings?
Rowan Masala: a bit–but tell me more
stevenaia Michinaga: you are always complete pema
Rowan Masala: and tell me about the circle symbol on the wallhanging
Pema Pera: I do not know much about the details of this tea house
Pema Pera: Dakini made it
Pema Pera: but a circle can be a symbol of emptiness
Pema Pera: which at the same time is fullness
Pema Pera: completeness
Pema Pera: openness
Pema Pera: (^_^)
Rowan Masala smiles
Pema Pera: what we do here is rather simple
Pema Pera: in RL we spend 9 seconds at a time doing miniature mediations, a few times an hour, for a couple hours or so
Pema Pera: and then we talk about what happened here in SL
Pema Pera: and we have a few opportunities every day
Pema Pera: so on the one hand it is all very short and minimal, duration wise
Pema Pera: but very intense, frequency wise
Rowan Masala nods
Pema Pera: The nicest thing, I think, is that you can always find people here to talk with
Pema Pera: about our reality explorations
Pema Pera: the longest you ever have to wait is about five hours :-)
Rowan Masala smiles
Pema Pera: since every day we meet at 1 and 7, am and pm
Pema Pera: so once every six hours
Pema Pera: and most meetings last an hour or so
Rowan Masala: wow
Pema Pera: minimally 30 minutes
Pema Pera: but often quite a bit longer
Pema Pera: My hope is that within half a year or so
Pema Pera: we may have grown to the point that there will always be people here
Pema Pera: 24/7
Pema Pera: like a neighborhood cafe
Pema Pera: in a downtown that nevers sleeps :-)
Rowan Masala smiles
Trevor joined us as well, so we began to fill up the small tea house.
Ecstasy Dreamscape nods “hey Trevor, welcome”
Pema Pera: Hi Revor
Trevor Berensohn: Hi I’m slowly rezzing tonite so sorry
Pema Pera: Trevor
Rowan Masala: Hi Trevor
Stim Morane: Hi trevor
Pema Pera: Up close and personal as usual :-)
stevenaia Michinaga: I do that everynight
Trevor Berensohn: Ooops
Rowan Masala grins
Ecstasy Dreamscape: hehehe
stevenaia Michinaga: a litttle to the right please
Pema Pera: Trevor I think you are sitting on top of Stevenaia
Trevor Berensohn: oops again
Pema Pera: slow rezzes do that . . ..
stevenaia Michinaga: well I didn;t wnat to get into any details, but yes
Trevor Berensohn: I’ll wait till I’m fully rezzed to sit
Trevor Berensohn blushes
Pema Pera: sure
Pema Pera: haha
I had tp-ed Trevor over, which is always a haphazard affair in the midst of a crowd of people, especially giving the slow rezzing that seems to be the rule these days in SL.
Pema Pera: Rowan, what is your main interest, in SL or RL or wherever :-) ?
Rowan Masala: hmmm
Trevor Berensohn: Is the seat next to Stim empty?
Rowan Masala: main interest…
Rowan Masala glances over at Steven
Pema Pera: or some interest ;-)
stevenaia Michinaga: …smile
Pema Pera: didn’t mean to put you on the spot :-)
Rowan Masala: I’m very interested in the process of immersing oneself into an avatar
Stim Morane: feel free to have a seat, Trevor!
Trevor Berensohn: O ty
Pema Pera: yes, the transitions into and out of identification with an avatar are fascinating, aren’t they?
Rowan Masala smiles and nods
Trevor Berensohn: hmmm yes
Pema Pera: We have talked about that quite a bit here — and I think you can use them as a metaphor for transitions between other ways of knowing
Pema Pera: like dreaming and waking
Pema Pera: or waking and “waking up” to a wider reality
Pema Pera: like many contemplative traditions talk abot
Pema Pera: about
Rowan Masala nods
Pema Pera: We tend to get stuck in our habits of seeing the RL world in a fixed pattern
Pema Pera: and SL can help us to shake us out of that
Trevor Berensohn: Hmm that’s why I liked the non-human colored skin
Indeed, Trevor looked more like a tree than a human, skin color wise.
Pema Pera: Our 9 sec every 15 minute practice is one such way to poke holes in our covering up of reality :-)
stevenaia Michinaga: I was going to mention this last time as it related to Ecstay, initially I came to SL as a woman to avoid the situations such as being identified as a male with preconceived motives
Pema Pera: interesting, how did that feel?
stevenaia Michinaga: well eventually I “came out” and was accepted as a male woman
Rowan Masala smiles
stevenaia Michinaga: I was quite comfortable
stevenaia Michinaga: but friends wanted me as a man in the end and they designed this avatar
Rowan Masala: I met him as a man
Rowan Masala: I mean–with him as a man
stevenaia Michinaga: but the image of myself was mainly from Dharma
stevenaia Michinaga: with a few tweaks, of course
Rowan Masala: so what is involved in the 9 second meditation?
Pema Pera: Play as Being is the title of our exploration
Pema Pera: http://playasbeing.wordpress.com/ is our web site
Pema Pera: Play means not heavy-handed, open
Pema Pera: Being means something that is hard to point to in words
Rowan Masala nods
Trevor Berensohn chuckles to himself
Pema Pera: One expression would be “the unborn” like in the wonderful quote by Klee in your profile :-)
Rowan Masala grins
I was refering to the lovely quotation “I cannot be grasped in the here and now, for I live just as well with the dead as with the unborn. Somewhat closer to the heart of creation than the usual, but far from close enough.” –Paul Klee, epitaph
Pema Pera: we are born without really taking root each moment — in RL and in SL and elsewhere
Pema Pera: Your fascination with immersion is something we all share here
Pema Pera: and ultimately there is no us, you, me, and no time to be born in
Pema Pera: yet this beautiful world seems to appear
Pema Pera: mystery of mysteries . . . .
Pema Pera: awesome beyond belief
Rowan Masala: yes
Pema Pera: There is almost nothing to say about Being — so therefore we say a lot here in playful ways, most of it just chatting, seemingly little to do with PaB, Playing as Being — we express it through building a huge forest for example, and just hanging out
Pema Pera: but the heart, the core, is Being
Pema Pera: Trevor, how is your house coming along?
Trevor Berensohn: Oh I learned to make thangkas, so now it’s acutally more mine
Trevor Berensohn: Helps me practice IRL as well
Pema Pera: wow, nice! what kind of tankas?
Trevor Berensohn: It’s neat how a SL shrine has helped my RL meditation
Trevor Berensohn: Soem Tibetan ones… Tsongkapa, Manjushri, shakyamuni
Trevor Berensohn: I’m new so keepin it simple
Trevor Berensohn: So is the when & where will this forest be, Pema?
Pema Pera: it’s there already, a significant part!
Pema Pera: We can walk over there, if you like!
Trevor Berensohn: Oh wonderful! Yes I’d like to when we’re done here
Pema Pera: I’m happy to go over now
Pema Pera: Our minimum time here is half an hour
Trevor Berensohn searches his inventory for that white hair…
Pema Pera: so that people can find us when they come in later
Pema Pera: but after that we often wonder around
Pema Pera: Rowan, do you have time to come along?
Rowan Masala: I do
Trevor Berensohn: Ah ok sound great
Pema Pera: and everybody else?
Stim Morane: I’ll stay just in case someone else shows up
Pema Pera: Ecstasy did you get a chance to see it yesterday?
Pema Pera: after I left?
stevenaia Michinaga: yes
Ecstasy Dreamscape: i did and it is wonderful
We got up and some of us started to walk toward the forest
Pema Pera: So you can all either stay here or come along–either way!
Pema Pera: I myself will have to leave in a few minutes though
Pema Pera: Early lunch here in Kyoto, Japan :-)
Pema Pera: brunch really
Pema Pera: it is Sunday here already
Pema Pera: but I can quickly walk over with y’all
Rowan Masala smiles
Ecstasy Dreamscape nods goodbye “i must take my leave now, great to see and meet everyone, take care”
Rowan Masala: you too, Ecstasy
Pema Pera: Bye Ecstasy, good seeing you again!
Pema Pera: bye Stim!
Stim Morane: Bye then, Ecstacy, and Rowan!
Ecstasy Dreamscape: hope you return Rowan
Ecstasy Dreamscape: thank you Pema, you too
Trevor Berensohn: =)
Pema Pera: lots of lag for me, sorry!
Pema Pera: bad internet connection it seems this morning
Trevor Berensohn: Oh my word
After we walked through the Hall of Appearance, Rowan caught her first glimpse of the forest, from the top of the long stairsway leading down into Magoja.
Rowan Masala: this is beautiful
Pema Pera: isn’t this wonderful!
Pema Pera: Storm made this in just a couple weeks
Trevor Berensohn looks around happily
Pema Pera: He is my neighbor here in Rieaul
Trevor Berensohn: Yes it is, Pema
You shout: Bye everybody — have to go to brunch now!
stevenaia Michinaga: thanks Pema
Pema Pera: Come back soon, Rowan, nice to meet you!
Pema Pera: Wanna hear more about immersion — wonderful topic
