2008.07.07 19:00 - Trust

the comments are mine.

Fred, Maxine and Thorberg meet.

Maxine Walden: hi, Fred
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: hi thorberg
Maxine Walden: Hi, Thor
Thorberg Nordlicht: hello; waiting for everything to rezz; hello, everyone; can’t see *anyone* yet
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: whoa
Maxine Walden: oh, don’t see Thor yet
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: floating cushions
Maxine Walden: yes, flying carpets, floating cushions
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: this place is great for larger groups, but too big for small ones. i feel like we need a breakfast nook or something
Thorberg Nordlicht: wow! very slow to rez, tonight
Maxine Walden: yes, sometimes I think of just sitting in a smaller group but that makes it hard to feel the circle
Thorberg Nordlicht: we never know ahead of time what size group we’re going to have
Maxine Walden: right
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: well, if we could /move/ the cushions…
Thorberg Nordlicht: ah! finally, the cushions appear!
Maxine Walden: funny to feel you hovering over my shoulder, Fred
Maxine Walden: sort of like my big brother
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: you need someone over your other shoulder now
Thorberg Nordlicht: and now I can see Friedrich and Maxine
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: question is, i am your good or evil inclination
Thorberg Nordlicht: hello folks!
Maxine Walden: not Big Brother, but one of my brothers …oh, maybe I do need someone over my shoulder…right now that is a support,….hi, Thor
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: i imagine that was creeping you out
Maxine Walden: not at all, I don’t creep out easily
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: snicker. Hey! You! get off of my cloud.

More movement, and as readers we can only guess as to what exactly happened :)

Maxine Walden: yeh, now feel a bit lonely over here, might come nearer you two
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: ;-)
Maxine Walden: oh, musical chairs!
Maxine Walden: or seates
Thorberg Nordlicht: I love this game!
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: if it can hold my weight
Maxine Walden: seats
Maxine Walden: you may be doing the same magic as Fred just did, Thor
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: heh
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: i was potted
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: i guess i can sit anywhere. funny how conditioned i was to sitting on the cushions
Thorberg Nordlicht: don’t know why, but I was floating above the cushion
Maxine Walden: we get so used to sitting ‘where we expect to’
Thorberg Nordlicht: well, with just the three of us, that works just fine to have you sit there on the corner of the table, Friedrich
Maxine Walden: or are expected to
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: don’t forget the designer’s agency
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: they wanted us to sit there
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: and built in those affodances
Maxine Walden: yes, I remember
Maxine Walden: hi, Pia
Thorberg Nordlicht: hello Pia; join us
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: well, as long as I don’t spill the matcha, i’m good
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: hi pia
Pia Iger: Hi,

With Pia entering, there were four.

Thorberg Nordlicht: have a seat
Thorberg Nordlicht: right-click a cushion and select “sit here”
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: or a table or a plant ;-)
Pia Iger: why Fred looks like a teacher, we kids?
Maxine Walden: we have been playing musical seats, sort of
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: duck duck goose?
Thorberg Nordlicht: we were spread out too far, then played “musical cushions” until we ended up in this config
Thorberg Nordlicht: we’re waiting for words of wisdom from Friedrich, but he’s being too cryptic for me
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: i think this circle is too big for a small gathering. its nice to look each other in the eyes, but not be very far away
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: chew your food thoroughly before you swallow!
Maxine Walden: so we are experimenting a bit more with group gathering
Pia Iger: at least, now we can have more options.
Maxine Walden: it is easy to slip into ‘big’ and ‘little’ roles re seating
Thorberg Nordlicht: yes, chew your food
Maxine Walden: and don’t spill your milk
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: and if you do, don’t cry
Thorberg Nordlicht: tell it like it is, Maxine!
Pia Iger: Doug!
Maxine Walden: right, hi Doug
Thorberg Nordlicht: hello doug
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: hello Doug

With Doug joining in, the group grows to five.

doug Sosa: hi, sorry keyboard was off.
Thorberg Nordlicht: we’re off to a bit of a silly start, tonight, doug, so just jump right in to the conversation, anywhere
Maxine Walden: yes, we have been jumping a bit around so far
doug Sosa: i’ve just come from a three day open air painting workshop. i’m all paint and color and form.
Maxine Walden: oh, does it rub off? I mean can we get inspired from your experience, or your paint?
Pia Iger: Painting is a great exercise of appreciation.
doug Sosa: well, amazing in some ways. start with the darks, paint thm in, dark blue and crison and purple. et the architecture.
doug Sosa: “get”
doug Sosa: the inspiration might be,cutting through normal pereption to see a structure in the darks. le them connect. see tham as if snow was falling and this was ll you could see. if it makes sense you have a good painting.
doug Sosa: bell.
Maxine Walden: interesting
Maxine Walden: how we see…so many ways to perceive things and experiences
Thorberg Nordlicht: “bell”?; was that the “mindfullness bell”?
doug Sosa: yes. recalled me to be here.
Maxine Walden: ah…the silence can be very nice
Pia Iger: talk about snow, do SL has winter?
doug Sosa: i look at you all and wonder, wjo is that.., and why did they make those choices?
Thorberg Nordlicht: yes, there are “winter themed” sims in SL

Sky made a very brief appearance.

Maxine Walden: hi, Sky
Thorberg Nordlicht: hello Sky; join us
Pia Iger: Hi, Sky.
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: hello
Maxine Walden: oh, she disappeared
Thorberg Nordlicht: doug was commenting on painting; the mindfullness bell brought us back to the present moment; and someone mentioned “winter in SL”; jump right in anywhere Sky
Thorberg Nordlicht: oh, wasn’t keeping up; we lost Sky?
doug Sosa: i’l ncer get over looking at people’s hands, as if they are plauing the piano, and i want to “read” the finger movements to “hear” the structure of the song.
Maxine Walden: seems she jumped out for a moment at least, maybe crashed
Maxine Walden: you are a pianist, doug?
Windchime Bronze 12: Pia Iger picked the option ‘Volume’.
doug Sosa: no, so it surprises me that I try to do that without trying so to speak.
Windchime Bronze 12: Pia Iger picked the option ‘20%’.
Maxine Walden: each of us is speaking with our hands in some way, aren’t we?
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: not quite body language though
Thorberg Nordlicht: ah, I just turned up my volume; I can hear the windchime, now; thanks Pia
Windchime Bronze 12: Pia Iger picked the option ‘Volume’.
Maxine Walden: right
doug Sosa: that was beautiful.
Maxine Walden: oh, now we lost doug
Maxine Walden: back again, tho
Friedrich Ochsenhorn: i’ve gotta get lost soon too. but, nice seeing everyone.
doug Sosa: i stopped breathing or something.
Pia Iger: bye, Fred.
Maxine Walden: nice to see you Fred
doug Sosa: bye.
Thorberg Nordlicht: ok, glad you could make it, tonight, Fred

Fred left, and so did Maxine, leaving Doug, Pia and Thorberg.

Maxine Walden: I have a couple of more minutes myself and then have to go, hard to leave so soon into our meeting
Maxine Walden: these conversations could easily go on and on, at least for me
Maxine Walden: I’ll go now as well.
doug Sosa: some day maybe we should try going on and on..
Thorberg Nordlicht: good night Maxine; see you next time
Pia Iger: nite, Maxine
Maxine Walden: I think that would be a very nice idea, an extended meeting, of some kind
Maxine Walden: bye for now, all
doug Sosa: yes.

Back to Play as Being.

Thorberg Nordlicht: anybody been practicing the “9-second moment” meditation?
doug Sosa: yes. i try it a few times a day, and have noticed that the rst of the time becomes more like those 9 second bursts.
doug Sosa: “rest of time”
Pia Iger: that is so ideal.
Pia Iger: a few seconds diffuse into the rest of day.
doug Sosa: yes, the littel takes over the big.
doug Sosa: “little”
Pia Iger: My 9 secs are not so effective yet.
Pia Iger: The rest of day still feel similar as before, very thick and hard to break through
doug Sosa: I need to be flexible iwth what id od, so it helps. not much barrier. besides it seems like a better world.
doug Sosa: “what i do”
Pia Iger: in what sense, it is better?
doug Sosa: more alive, more respectful, less judgemental, more tuned in.
Pia Iger: I wonder if you have that kind of feeling from previous Qwaq group? or this is new?
Thorberg Nordlicht: “Qwaq”?
doug Sosa: it started there. I think i got the basic ideaa and have kept it going.
doug Sosa: are you both from qwaq? Of course I dont (yet) recognise you.
doug Sosa: Oh, silly. qwaq was a previous meditation group in a simpler VR space led by Piet.
Thorberg Nordlicht: no, I’m not “from qwaq”; ooohh, I just didn’t know what his previous group was called
Pia Iger: what was their meditation method, doug?
doug Sosa: the silly was directed at me for not cathing on, not at you. Bless.
Thorberg Nordlicht: I didn’t meet Pema, or join this group, until SL; haven’t used — or know anything about — “Qwaq”
doug Sosa: No need. we are here and this is a good step beyond qwaq. qwaq by the way was just the name of the software.
Pia Iger: did you have any special meditation method then?
Thorberg Nordlicht: yes, did Pema start the “9-second meditation” in Qwaq? and then continue it here?

No, not really. The 9-second idea was new, something that just popped up a few weeks before I started it in Second Life on April 1; we had never done anything like that in Qwaq.

doug Sosa: we tried coming to thee sapacee and describing some event during te day and then getting the groups reflections. It was a great idea and i learned a lot, but somehow we neer really quite got it to go.
doug Sosa: yes, pema eveolved he 9 from the qwaq experience.

Hmm, not sure what Doug refered to here. Perhaps he meant that we had meetings in Qwaq, for almost a year before we started Play as Being, in a group called WoK Forums, a group that I had started as well. See http://www.waysofknowing.net/VRExplorations.html.> But nothing we had done there resembled the 9-second exploration. Nor was it particularly playful. Nor did we talk about Being. The term “Play as Being” is new.

[1]doug Sosa: sorry my typing.
Pia Iger: np. We can guess.
doug Sosa: but… i should be a little more observant.
Thorberg Nordlicht: well, however this got started, I’m glad to have found this group in SL; I’ve been in SL for about 18 months, but this group is the first I have really gotten involved with on a regular basis; I really don’t relate to the SL “club” scene
doug Sosa: this is really nice and feels real.
Pia Iger: I agree.
Pia Iger: I feel the fellowship here is very real.
Thorberg Nordlicht: it seems to me like an interest in comparative religion (and the implied religious tolerance), an interest in Easter religions, Buddhism, and Zen draws a certain kind of people — a certain personality type, so to speak
Thorberg Nordlicht: *Eastern
doug Sosa: yes, at best open minde, not dogmatic, life affirming, and compassionate.
Thorberg Nordlicht: i like to think we’re all gentler, more introspective people
Thorberg Nordlicht: yes! what you said: “open minded, not dogmatic, etc.”
Pia Iger smiles
doug Sosa: It is mostly true. Let’s welcome each other.
Thorberg Nordlicht: and then once you have a group like that with common interests and temperments, we can share a lot of the same things every group goes through, but with a group of “like-minded” folks
Thorberg Nordlicht: we still explore SL, and build, and shop, have relationships, like everyone else in SL, but all from a Buddhist perspective
doug Sosa: I think here even differences are not threatening.. Te whole setting seems to make humanity more present and defenses less necessary.
doug Sosa: I trust you because of a few things, manners, openness, sincerity, without knowing much about you are your real beiefs, nor you mind.
doug Sosa: “or your”
Thorberg Nordlicht: yes, fascinating, how some things don’t translate well into SL because it’s a limited medium — cartoon-like, at best — and yet, as you suggest, there’s a certain humanity that actually comes through even more clearly
doug Sosa: wonderful, and, unfortuatly, real leife calls for dinner. This is a good conversation. I hope my see you both again soon.
Pia Iger: have a good one, Doug.
Thorberg Nordlicht: yes, a good conversation; I am “greeter” on Monday night at 7 PM, so I’m usually here then; but often busy with real life the rest of the week, so don’t get to other sessions too often
doug Sosa: Some day we can talk about the origin of that phrase. bye.

[2]Doug is taking off.

[3]Thorberg Nordlicht: hope to see you again some time soon
Thorberg Nordlicht: ok; good night doug
Thorberg Nordlicht: ((for those reading the transcript, it’s just me and the lovely Pia Iger, now))
Pia Iger: (thanks)
Pia Iger: I already can feel many ppl here have distinctive personalities, just by talking in sessions.
Thorberg Nordlicht: yes, the personalities in SL are very interesting
Thorberg Nordlicht: many, if not most, people seem to want their SL avatar to be different than their real life self
Pia Iger: in appearance?
Thorberg Nordlicht: well, most people seem to want an avatar that appears different than real life, either an imaginary creature, or younger, or the opposite sex, whatever
Thorberg Nordlicht: I keep two avatars; this one I just try to keep as close to real life as possible, hoping that will bring through something more real into SL
Thorberg Nordlicht: but I’m experimenting with other appearance for my other avatar
Pia Iger: SL give us a stage to express many aspects of us.
Pia Iger: even we have different looks, but they still represent part of us.
Thorberg Nordlicht: yes, i agree; i guess it’s taking me a while in the evolution of my SL experience to experiment with an avatar significantly different than my real world self
Thorberg Nordlicht: I *do* fly around in SL as a giant butterly sometimes, though!
Pia Iger: imagining…

Time for transformations!

[4]Thorberg Nordlicht: ((Thorberg changed into butterfly)) what do you think?
Pia Iger: first word, Freedom!
Pia Iger: free from our human form.
Thorberg Nordlicht: yeah, this is FUN; I like to cruise along the mainland roads at night and buzz newbies
Pia Iger: how do you buzz?
Thorberg Nordlicht: i just meant that figuratively; I just meant fly by them very close and very fast, as in “what the heck was that?”
Pia Iger: hehe.
Pia Iger: have you talked with newbies in this form?
Thorberg Nordlicht: yes, I like to go back to Orientation Island like this and talk to newbies
Thorberg Nordlicht: well, it’s 8 PM, and I’ll have to be leaving, now
Thorberg Nordlicht: very nice to talk to you this evening
Pia Iger: thanks for showing me the butterfly.
Pia Iger: see you soon.
Thorberg Nordlicht: haha; I don’t show that to just anyone, you know :-)
Pia Iger: :)
Thorberg Nordlicht: well, good night; have a good evening; hope to see you again soon
Pia Iger: bye.