2008.06.04 19:00 - Next for Next Time

That evening, I met Terri and Mongo standing outside the tea house when I arrived.

Pema Pera: Hi Mongo, Hi Terri!
Terri Holrych: hi
Mongo McGinnis: i have been called away to walk my beagle
Mongo McGinnis: ttfn
Mongo McGinnis: i hoped to join you but such is life
Pema Pera: c u next time, Mongo!
Terri Holrych: hello
Pema Pera: Hi Terri!

After Mongo left, we went inside and sat down.

Terri Holrych: how are u pema
Pema Pera: Fine!
Pema Pera: And how about you?
Terri Holrych: okay
Terri Holrych: its been weird
Terri Holrych: i cant figure out where to live or what to wear
Terri Holrych: i decorated three rentals
Terri Holrych: and changed clothes five times
Terri Holrych: what do it mean when your alter ego is biggger then your ego
Pema Pera: you mean your SL ego?
Terri Holrych: atha kept me up late the other day
Terri Holrych: have u seen him
Terri Holrych: yea me Secondlife ego
Pema Pera: Atha has been here a few times recently, yes
Terri Holrych: the pot was blocking your face so i moved
Pema Pera: Yes, I’m glad we could talk with him
Terri Holrych: yeah
Pema Pera: How long have you been in SL?
Terri Holrych: about a month
Pema Pera: You’ve been exploring a lot already!

We talked a bit more about Terri’s job and housing situation, and then Rowan walked in.

Pema Pera: Hi Rowan!
Rowan Masala: Hi Pema
Rowan Masala: Hi Terri
Pema Pera: welcome back!
Terri Holrych: i gave money to a homeless person today
Rowan Masala: thanks
Terri Holrych: hi rowan
Terri Holrych: im sitting like this because i dunno why
Terri Holrych: but its kindof funny
Rowan Masala smiles
Terri Holrych: so i’ll stay here

Terri was commenting on her sitting on a tinies cushion.

Pema Pera: How have you been, Rowan?
Terri Holrych: wassup wif ewe
Rowan Masala: hmmm. ok.
Rowan Masala: and you two?
Terri Holrych: i have three barbie dream houses on SL
Terri Holrych: one has a dance floor
Terri Holrych: and a guan yin altar
Terri Holrych: hi steven
stevenaia Michinaga: superfast rezz tonight
Terri Holrych: yay more ppl
Pema Pera: Hi Steve!
Pema Pera: congratulations!
Pema Pera: Like the olden days
stevenaia Michinaga: hi Pema, Terri, rowan..smiles
Rowan Masala: hey Sweetie
Terri Holrych: is 5 mps too slow for sl

With Stevenaia joining us, there were four of us now.

Pema Pera: Rowan, have you gotten any chance to try out the 9-sec explorations?
Rowan Masala: you know, this is very embarrassing, but I seem to forget all about them until I’m here again
Pema Pera: haha, that’s fine!
Pema Pera: there are many ways to play
Rowan Masala: definitely a sign that my life is too chaotic, or at least my brain!
Pema Pera: and perhaps we can infect you with our enthusiasm
Rowan Masala: I think that’s entirely possible
Pema Pera: it seems to spread
Pema Pera: :)
Rowan Masala smiles
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, I am the same, plenty of 9 secs here
Pema Pera: :-)
Pema Pera: How about you, Terri?
Rowan Masala: but play seems to be your natural state, Steve
stevenaia Michinaga: but I find the topics usually interestinesting here
Pema Pera: glad to hear that, Steve!
stevenaia Michinaga: yes, true to my nature, Rowan
Terri Holrych: sorry
Rowan Masala smiles
Terri Holrych: i didnt
stevenaia Michinaga: one of the things I was interested in exporing is the concept of how we preceive “what’s next”
stevenaia Michinaga: not what’s next in patticular but how we believe the next step is put before us
stevenaia Michinaga: some people seem more structured, other prefer a fate driven next

I had some lag, and as a result, it took a while to get my sentence out, and only then did I see Steve’s sentence. The notion of “next” is fascinating, and I’m sorry we did not get around to folow that up. Hopefully some `next’ time soon!

Pema Pera: play has this wonderful ability to get us out of a fixed role, into other roles — but the radical thing I’d like to see happen here, over time, is for us to find ways to drop any and all roles — now that will be something — it will be incredible, inconceivable, literally
Pema Pera: but possible
stevenaia Michinaga: roles?
Pema Pera: via Being
Pema Pera: yes, identities, identifications
Rowan Masala nods
Pema Pera: in RL or SL or anyway, anywhere, anywhen
Pema Pera: pure Being
Pema Pera: is what is left
Rowan Masala: patterns that we find ourselves repeating
Pema Pera: when you drop the roles
stevenaia Michinaga: does that mean absorbtion of surroundings or excluding them
Pema Pera: pure Being is here already of course, but obscured
Terri Holrych: :)
Pema Pera: dropping
Pema Pera: stopping
Pema Pera: impossible to explain
Pema Pera: but you can demonstrate
stevenaia Michinaga: …smile
Pema Pera: and when you sense it and fall into it, life won’t be the same again
Pema Pera: (warning)
Pema Pera: hehe
Pema Pera: it is so totally other
stevenaia Michinaga: loosing your role implies dissappearing into the landscape to a degree…no?
Pema Pera: no
Rowan Masala: is it possible to fall into it? really?
Terri Holrych: light pulses 1010101
Pema Pera: and yes
Pema Pera: more appearing than disappearing
Rowan Masala: is it the absence of effort that will take us there?
Pema Pera: finally you really appear
Terri Holrych: its impossible to fall out of it

Steven brought up a central aspect, love.

stevenaia Michinaga: like love?
Pema Pera: stopping is a start yes, no effort
Pema Pera: love is what shines through, what can really shine through then, yes
stevenaia Michinaga: falling into it
Rowan Masala: ah, it’s all too possible for most of us to fall out of love, Steve. you’re just exceptional, that way
stevenaia Michinaga: you flatter me
Pema Pera: responding to praise is one of the hardest things, I feel :-)
Pema Pera: I commiserate with you, Steve :-)
Pema Pera: haha
stevenaia Michinaga: being in love …it can be a wonderful cumulative thing
Rowan Masala: with regard to responding to praise, or with never falling out of love, Pema?
Pema Pera: responding to praise, Rowan
Pema Pera: I still haven’t learned how to do that right
Pema Pera: as for love, as Terri said, if you look closely, you see there is no way to fall out
Pema Pera: but you have to really see . . . .
Rowan Masala knits her brow
Pema Pera: doesn’t come easy
stevenaia Michinaga: agreed, Pema I have learned to be thankful of it as a response
Pema Pera: yes
stevenaia Michinaga: as it usually comes as a gift

Dakini walked in, and we continued talking about how to react to praise.

Dakini Rhode: hello :-)
Rowan Masala: Hi Dakini
Terri Holrych: hi
Pema Pera: I feel if I don’t respond, I don’t seem grateful, but if I do respond it sounds like I’m affirming the praise, which I often feel is too much
Pema Pera: Hi Dakini!
Pema Pera: let’s praise Dakini!
Pema Pera: for all the good she has done here!
Pema Pera: and keeps doing day by day!
Pema Pera: yeah!!!
Terri Holrych: :)
Rowan Masala smiles at Dakini
Dakini Rhode: whaaat?
Pema Pera: hehehe
Terri Holrych: it is wonderful
Dakini Rhode: hehe
Pema Pera: we were talking about the problem of being praised
Pema Pera: and how to handle that
Pema Pera: so you’re the guinea pig!
stevenaia Michinaga: haha
Dakini Rhode: i suspected as much….
Terri Holrych: i have a friend who is obsessed with an ex boyfriend of hers
Pema Pera: you’re knowing me too well by now, Dakini
Dakini Rhode: so.
Terri Holrych: is that like praising him
Dakini Rhode: thank you sooo much as though it was real praise….
Pema Pera: it WAS real praise, Dakini!

And so it was; without Dakini there would have been no tea house and Play as Being would not have taken root here.

Pema Pera: I meant every word of it
Terri Holrych: yeah dakini this place is great
Pema Pera: but normally I hold back ’cause I don’t want to embarrass you
stevenaia Michinaga: obsession is hardly praise, terri
Dakini Rhode checks the chat log…
Terri Holrych: very creative
Dakini Rhode: you know, i’m at a business conference
Dakini Rhode: and it’s wonderful!
Dakini Rhode: and lots of people are being honored and praised
Dakini Rhode: those lines posted jumbled
Terri Holrych: well you all are well travelled
Pema Pera: I always feel that whatever good I may do is something coming through me, and I’m just being a good pipe, conduit; and what not-so-good that I’m doing is just me malfunctioning to some extent . . . dukha
Rowan Masala: dukha?
Terri Holrych: or karma
Pema Pera: out of kelter
Pema Pera: wobbling according to Isen
Pema Pera: suffering
Pema Pera: as in Buddhism
Pema Pera: friction
Dakini Rhode: i think if i do something good i already know it…
Dakini Rhode: and am happy if someone else notices too
Pema Pera: yes!
Pema Pera: that forms a bridge then
Dakini Rhode: praise when it’s not deserved tho - is a little uncomfortable
Pema Pera: more than a little!!
stevenaia Michinaga: happy, I am usually suprised
stevenaia Michinaga: doing something good out of love or goodness is it’s own praise
Pema Pera: yes, Steve, indeed!
Pema Pera: but it is nice if someone notices :-)
Pema Pera: Dakini, we started this thread by talking about roles, and playing giving a possibility to switch out of default roles, and I mentioned that Being means the option of dropping all roles altogether and finding an out-of-this-world type of freedom, literally

At this point Trevor came in, with a lot of light being sprinkled around his avatar with his even more than usually elaborate special effects.

Pema Pera: mister sunshine, welcome!
Rowan Masala: If you had to pick one, what animal would you say comes the closest to the type of Being we seek
Terri Holrych: i get pisses when i work hard and ppl disrespect me anyway
Dakini Rhode: hi Tex!
Pema Pera: animal?
Trevor Berensohn: Erm D u weren’t kidding
Terri Holrych: animal
Rowan Masala: Hi Trevor
Terri Holrych: mmmm lemme see
Terri Holrych: think imean
Pema Pera: Being is not a type of something that you can localize
Pema Pera: has no identity
Pema Pera: beyond space and time
Terri Holrych: no animal
Trevor Berensohn: Hmmm I never think of animals with this stuff
Trevor Berensohn: Hi all
Pema Pera: everything expresses Being, is Being
Pema Pera: each mote of dust is all of Being
Pema Pera: we are too
Pema Pera: Hi Trev, fully rezzed by now?
Trevor Berensohn waits for the Rez gods to do their magic
stevenaia Michinaga: I;m with you on that
Dakini Rhode: Rez gods are slow tonight
Pema Pera: ah, you may be too complex for the rezzz gods to handle, Trev :)
Rowan Masala: perhaps it’s thr runes on your trousers
Trevor Berensohn: Ha perhaps they should just sit with that then
Terri Holrych: lol
Terri Holrych: fwo gwang
Pema Pera: Trevor, a challenge to the gods!
Dakini Rhode: i typed that 5 minutes ago
Terri Holrych: rainbows coming out of his lower regions
Trevor Berensohn: Erm nope just a um, sugggggestion
Pema Pera: what did you type Dakini, 5 minutes ago?
Dakini Rhode: rez gods are slow
Pema Pera: ah!

And so they were . . . .

Rowan Masala: Dakini, sometimes things that appear late to oneself in chat have appeared to others as typed
Dakini Rhode: could be
Rowan Masala: or so I’m told
Rowan Masala: I saw your comment some time ago
Terri Holrych: time space issues
stevenaia Michinaga: makes for interesting conversation
Terri Holrych: i just saw it
Dakini Rhode: laggy packets
stevenaia Michinaga: and sometimes misundersandings
Pema Pera: like typos
stevenaia Michinaga: funny, pema
Terri Holrych: lol
Pema Pera: I’m afraid I have to go now
Terri Holrych: lunch?
Rowan Masala: as should I
Pema Pera: can someone catch the chat log, Steve perhaps?
Pema Pera: close to lunch yes
stevenaia Michinaga: sure
Pema Pera: thanks!
Terri Holrych: have a good one
Dakini Rhode: didn’t you just eat breakfast?
Pema Pera: Great seeing you all
Pema Pera: haha
Rowan Masala: good day, Pema
Dakini Rhode: bye
Pema Pera: yes, light breakfast
Pema Pera: need fuel for these sleepless SL nights . . .. .
Dakini Rhode: hmmm
Dakini Rhode: bye
Terri Holrych: lol

Stevenaia afterwards sent me the following log, for the remaining conversation after I had left.

Rowan Masala: I must go as well. Good to see you all
Dakini Rhode: bye Rowan
Terri Holrych: mee three thanks for having me
Dakini Rhode: you still here Steve?
stevenaia Michinaga: Pema must serve a good lunch
Dakini Rhode: :-)
Dakini Rhode: the time zones are challenging
Dakini Rhode: wb Trevor!
stevenaia Michinaga: interesting how this schedule melts them away 4x a day
stevenaia Michinaga: hello Trevor
Dakini Rhode: lol none of the times are good for me
Dakini Rhode: too early , too late…
stevenaia Michinaga: the structure of being a guardian and filling in seems to be a logistical nightmare
Dakini Rhode: and i do the zazen every night
Dakini Rhode: feel like i’m on a treadmill
stevenaia Michinaga: I see that, and read abit about it through a friend
stevenaia Michinaga: Trevor has a nice exit, a poof of particles
Dakini Rhode: i envy him his poof
stevenaia Michinaga: this is quite a creation of yours, how does it sustain itself
Dakini Rhode: zazen is a nice way to end the day i think
Dakini Rhode: sustain itself?
stevenaia Michinaga: I assume you pay for this sim
stevenaia Michinaga: wb Trevor
Dakini Rhode: just the land i have the zen retreat on
Dakini Rhode: not the whole sim
Trevor Berensohn: TY Steve
Dakini Rhode: i’m glad your back too, Trev
stevenaia Michinaga: oh, ok, not being a land owner I know little about that
Dakini Rhode: and not ruthed
Trevor Berensohn: hey I put pants on just for this mtg
Dakini Rhode: dang!
Trevor Berensohn: Haha
stevenaia Michinaga: thank you trevor
Trevor Berensohn: I keep forgetting to ask Pema if I can use a little bit of the land
Dakini Rhode: well you know you buy land… and pay tier for the privilege
Trevor Berensohn: But perhaps Tara Ling works too
Dakini Rhode: ah of course you can
Dakini Rhode: o i need to add you as a guardian
Trevor Berensohn: O ty Dakini
stevenaia Michinaga: I must go now…. see you soon
Trevor Berensohn: I wanna b “wobbly”
Trevor Berensohn: Good to see u Steve
Dakini Rhode: bye Steve
stevenaia Michinaga: see you soon