doug Sosa: the garden is weedy, the work has too many dimensions. the world is out of synch with itself. Otherwise, fine.
Rajah Yalin: hi pema
Rajah Yalin: hi tara, doug
Pema Pera: Hi everybody!
doug Sosa: hi back.
Rajah Yalin: namaste
Tara Farmer: hey
Tara Farmer hates weedy gardens
Pema Pera: Hi Tara, good seeing you again!
Pema Pera: Hi Rajah!
Pema Pera: And hi Doug, nice suprise!!
Tara Farmer: Pema, my dear, how’s the guru biznass?
Pema Pera: hahaha
doug Sosa: i dream about them, the shapes, the texture, the resistance. not bad.
Tara Farmer: I attended one of Genesis’ meetings today
Pema Pera: Tara knows how to push people’s buttons :-)
Pema Pera: ah, that was 6 hours ago, right?
Tara Farmer: yes
Pema Pera: I was fast asleep here in Tokyo
doug Sosa: genesis?
Tara Farmer: i see
Pema Pera: One of the regulars here, Doug
Pema Pera: I guess you haven’t been here in a month or so, right?
Rajah Yalin: yeah genesis was at the last one
doug Sosa: at least. it felt strange again. Love the birds.
Rajah Yalin: doug its nice to meet you
Rajah Yalin: i just started coming here not too long ago, now im here a lot
Pema Pera: so very very different from the Qwaq environment
doug Sosa: yes, well, so to speak. i don’t fully yet materialize an avatar.
I mentioned to the others how I have been working with Doug last year.
Pema Pera: Rajah and Tara, Doug and I were involved in a kind of pre-PaB exploration
Pema Pera: that was in the fall of last year
Tara Farmer: I see
Pema Pera: half a year before we started Play as Being
Pema Pera: it was called differently
Pema Pera: and not as playful :-)
Pema Pera: in a different virtual world
Pema Pera: called Qwaq Forums
doug Sosa: let me listen a bit.
Tara Farmer: Qwag?
Pema Pera: http://qwaq.com
Tara Farmer: thanks pema
Pema Pera: http://www.waysofknowing.net/VRExplorations.html
Pema Pera: is the web site that describes what we did there
Rajah Yalin: I’ll check it out, not quite this moment though, I’m having a bit of lag
Tara Farmer: so i guess all this travel probably helps you with the whole “shaking up reality” bit
Pema Pera: oh sure
Pema Pera: in and out of Japan
Pema Pera: in and out of SL
Pema Pera: in and out of dreams
Pema Pera: :-)
Tara Farmer: you dream during all that?
Tara Farmer: I would never
Pema Pera: life is a dream
Rajah Yalin: Pema I love to travel, have i told you a bit about my travels?
Tara Farmer: sweetheart
Pema Pera: and jetlag helps to show how dreamlike life is!
Tara Farmer: not really, but you told me you were all over the place
Pema Pera: no, Rajah, please do!
doug Sosa: I may say something. intersting meeting last thursday. the playwrite tom stoppard has a trilogy, played in london ny and moscow. the directors of the moscow and ny productions were at the meeting, never had met, but watched video’s of scenes from the two productions.
Rajah started telling about his background.
Rajah Yalin: well my most recent out of vanuatu was a visit to tibet in 2002
Tara Farmer: I see
Rajah Yalin: 5 years in india / nepal
Tara Farmer is so american
Tara Farmer: i have only been to mexico and canada
Rajah Yalin: and a summer in palermo, italy - I am going to the US next month
Pema Pera: Hi Steve!
Rajah Yalin: hi Steve
Pema Pera: Doug, Steve is another regular here, like Tara
stevenaia Michinaga: helllo, please continue
Pema Pera: and Rajah is quickly becoming a regular :-)
Tara Farmer: hey steve
stevenaia Michinaga: a regular listener…. smile
doug Sosa: hello steve, regular.
Rajah Yalin: yes that I am - and after thursday with all the time on my hands I’ll be here even more :O
Tara Farmer: i don’t see your name
Rajah Yalin: thats your warning
Tara Farmer: he he
Tara Farmer: LOL
Stevenaia had entered, and Tara brought up the question of Buddhism in relation to PaB.
Tara Farmer: so, i asked genesis a question and now i want your answer pema
Tara Farmer: is “PaB” directly or indirectly related to buddhism?
Pema Pera: certainly not directly
Pema Pera: and indirectly only to the extent that Playing as Being touches upon experiences
Pema Pera: that are explored in Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism
Pema Pera: as well as Sufism, Christian Mysticism, etc
Pema Pera: Buddhism is perhaps one of the most rational-sounding
Pema Pera: if not intellectual-sounding
Pema Pera: so from an academic point of view perhaps the easiest to connect with
Pema Pera: but practitioners in each of those traditions, when they start to really see, well, they see :-)
Pema Pera: reality
Pema Pera: independent of traditions
Tara Farmer: of course
Tara Farmer: isen and i were just discussing something similar
Tara Farmer: like…all rivers flow into the sea
Tara Farmer: kind of idea
doug Sosa: nothing is “direct”. There is always a space between the cue ball and the other ball. That is why there is freedom.
Tara Farmer: or the power of thought
Tara Farmer: however you want to look at it
Tara Farmer: I guess my lesson to learn with all of this religion talk and PaB and all of this is to teach me to let go of some of the self i have been trying to connect with
Tara Farmer: but that is scary
Tara Farmer: and I don’t neccesarily want to do it
Tara Farmer: the people I meet here and the things we talk about…it all points in the same direction
Tara Farmer: indirectly of course
Tara Farmer snickers
The question of “dropping the self” can be understood in many ways, some of them very helpful, other ones more of a hindrance.
Pema Pera: Tara, for me the main breakthrough came, when I had similar feelings as you, to realize that what I was struggling to give up had never ever existed
Pema Pera: so there was nothing to give up
Pema Pera: even if I wanted to
Pema Pera: nada, zip
Tara Farmer: untrue pema
Tara Farmer: there is something to give up
Tara Farmer: independence
Pema Pera: why would you want to give that up?
Tara Farmer: LOL
Tara Farmer: who knows
Pema Pera: by feeling stuck to an illusion of self, you lose independence
Pema Pera: by dropping self, you regain
Pema Pera: independance
Pema Pera: Hi Dakini!
Dakini Rhode: hi!
doug Sosa: independence is not isolation. two instruments playing a duet are independent and not, and the not makes it one but the independence makes it a duet.
Pema Pera: Hi Storm!
Tara Farmer: well, I think a major factor for me is this definition of self
Storm Nordwind: Hi
Dakini Rhode: so funny to stand outside the teahouse and hear all the typing
Tara Farmer: hey to all who just arrived
Tara Farmer: I see what you are saying doug
Dakini and Storm walked in; it turns out that they had been waiting and listening for a bit while still outside.
stevenaia Michinaga: I just had a conversations about pathes you take in life… I believe the independence I ahve is directly related to the randomness of life…or fate, how independant is that?
Tara Farmer: and it helps me to understand
Rajah Yalin: hi Storm
Storm Nordwind has been here quietly listening for five minutes! :)
Rajah Yalin: hi Dakini
Rajah Yalin didn’t notice either of you.
Tara Farmer: I guess some of this stems from finding like minds, or unlike minds, as it were
Dakini Rhode: standing here slowly rezzing….
Rajah Yalin: Dak, i dont know what happened but somehow the TV slideshow got into my inventory - i put it back but it got returned
Pema Pera: yes, Tara, sharing with others is very helpful in getting a sense of what all this talk about self and no-self is pointing to
Dakini Rhode: lol would you like to give it back to me?
Rajah Yalin: yep
Pema Pera: it can very easily be misunderstood
Dakini Rhode: haha talk about sharing… :-)
Tara Farmer: yes i think i misunderstand
Rajah Yalin: sharing is caring
doug Sosa: slideshow?
Tara Farmer: because to me , it seems like you (or not you, but the idea of no self) is telling me that it is okay to be my self if it does not bring me suffering
stevenaia Michinaga: tao of Barney?
Tara Farmer: or….
Tara Farmer: like people who have destructive behavior patterns and things of this nature, can find solace int he fact that they are suffering because of things they “thought” were true
Tara Farmer: Now, I am not perfect, but I think I am fairly enlightened (LOL) and I feel threatened when someone tells me to stop being myself, and there is nothing, and it is impossible to tell you about myself because I have no self
Talking in a few sentence about the notion of no-self is tricky, but I tried to do so anyway.
Pema Pera: well, words are very limited . . . . but we have to start somewhere . . .
Pema Pera: and we all start with who we think we are . . . .
Pema Pera: and then we may find other aspects of who we really are
Pema Pera: amazing, stunning, shocking aspects
Pema Pera: shocking in being to totally other than what we had thought
Pema Pera: so much so that the best images are
Pema Pera: waking up from a dream
Pema Pera: or realizing that a movie is just a movie
doug Sosa: any part of ourself we do not like has energy. the thing is to reclaim the positive side of that energy. jeolousy for example, shows we care, Not bad.
Pema Pera: it is impossible to convey in words how shocking that really is
Pema Pera: more shocking than if you could somehow walk through a wall . . . .
Tara Farmer: well, i guess the problem is, I think I am already there, but being told I’m not
Tara Farmer: :)
Tara Farmer: as Storm would say, others cannot tell you what you are
Tara Farmer: you said that to me right storm
Pema Pera: we have to go slow, and really take the time to look at what it is that we call “here” and “me” and “are/be”
Storm Nordwind nods
Tara Farmer: I understand pema, if you do not know the …. perspective, things could get all jumbled
Pema Pera: nobody is telling anyone here what the truth is — but when we make a statment that seems different from what someone else was saying, we have a starting point for an investigation, an exploration, together, like joint research
Pema Pera: then things get fun
Pema Pera: and playful
Tara Farmer: ha ha
Storm Nordwind: or scary
Storm Nordwind: :)
Pema Pera: oh yes!
Pema Pera: a good sign, always!
Tara then made us all curious.
Tara Farmer: well I don’t dare tell you what i really think
Tara Farmer: LOL
Pema Pera: too scary, Tara?
doug Sosa: but it would be fun.
Tara Farmer: there would be pillows flying in the teahouse
Pema Pera: hahah
Tara Farmer: no pema
Tara Farmer: too offensive
Tara Farmer: maybe
Tara Farmer: but unintentionally
Storm Nordwind unfurls his Mk3 throwing pillow
Tara Farmer: he he
Dakini Rhode: we need a pillow fight animation!
Tara Farmer: I guess I come from a background of, let’s call it…intentionality
Pema Pera: Rajah, if the tea elevates you too much, you have to stand up and sit down — a side effect of the script :-)
Dakini Rhode: oh gosh, i have one!
Tara Farmer: difficult for me to be without intention, as it were
Dakini Rhode is armed
Tara Farmer: oh i dare ya dakini
Tara Farmer: i’ll get out my frying pan
Dakini Rhode: haha
doug Sosa: omlet!
Storm Nordwind is also armed
doug Sosa: That’s hamlet in french
Tara Farmer: I’m gonna fry you WOMAN
Tara Farmer: :)
With everybody holding something weapon like, I decided to simply drink a glass of martini — it could come in handy afterwards :-). But soon I decided to switch to sake
martini: Martini time;)
Tara Farmer: see i told you
Dakini Rhode wonders if Tara means dakini or storm…
Pema Pera: I’ll drink to all that!
Tara Farmer: i told you the fur would fly
Dakini Rhode: sorry don’t mean to ruin a serious conversation
Dakini Rhode: please continue
Sake (Junmai-Shu): Junmai-Shu: 100% pure rice wine…enjoy it Pema Pera
Krewe du Jieux’s Kosher Scotch Neat whispers: Oy! There’s nothing like a single-malt mitzvah.
Tara Farmer: he he dakini
Tara Farmer: it was too serious
doug Sosa: when, where, who?
Dakini Rhode: I think you were just starting to get somewhere, and Tara since when do hold back from saying what you really think?
Tara Farmer: ok, guys, enough of this hooplah, I got a date with my baby
Dakini Rhode: That wouldn’t be authentic!
Tara Farmer: have a great night….
Tara Farmer: and I will see you all soon
Pema Pera: Bye Tara,
stevenaia Michinaga: bye Tara
Storm Nordwind: Bye for now!
Pema Pera: looking forward to hearing the rest of the story!
Pema Pera: next time!
Tara Farmer: bye everyone
doug Sosa: night.
We wouldn’t hear Tara’s story, at least not that night.
Storm Nordwind disarms and pours himself a Guinness
stevenaia Michinaga: am I hovering?
Dakini Rhode: i’m lagging badly tonight…
Dakini Rhode: i may need to relog
Dakini Rhode: yes you are Steve.. levitating
stevenaia Michinaga: must be good scotch
Pema Pera: I should be going soon too
Pema Pera: getting close to lunch time here
doug Sosa: dinner here
stevenaia Michinaga: what’s for lunch Pema?
Storm Nordwind: Dawn chorus here
Pema Pera: rice ;)
We were all quiet for a while, after detaching our various implements again. Storm put up a little storm around him instead.
stevenaia Michinaga: well pema, looks like your lunch is a show stopper
doug Sosa: and so, good night all, or day or..
Pema Pera: long line . . .
Pema Pera: perhaps
stevenaia Michinaga: nice to see you doug, love your complexion
Pema Pera: goes well with Storm’s storm!
Pema Pera: see you all soon again!
Storm Nordwind: Bye for now!
