2008.07.25 19:00 - In Fresh Snow

That evening, when I arrived at the pavilion, I met Adelene en Threedee who were already seated in the circle. I took a seat, whereupon Cal arrived as well, slowly rezzing.

Threedee Shepherd: mm, rather empty?
Adelene Dawner: Pema's online; he'll be here.
Adelene Dawner: Hi Pem :))
Pema Pera: hi Adelene, hi Threedee
Adelene Dawner has another poem :)
Threedee Shepherd: hi pema
Pema Pera is looking forward to the other poem
Pema Pera: Hi Cal!
Adelene Dawner: I'll wait for people to stop trickling in :)
Threedee Shepherd: Hello Cal
Caledonia Heron: hey there :)

At that moment, I was called upon from outside Second Life.

Pema Pera: brb, RL calling , sorry, may take a bit
Adelene Dawner: k :)
Caledonia Heron: poor session rlog
Adelene Dawner: ?
Prosper Telling: rlog?
Prosper Telling: do you know what she meant?
Adelene Dawner: nope
Threedee Shepherd: no
Prosper Telling: Then I am in good company
Threedee Shepherd: Oh, poor performance of her browser, will ReLOG
Prosper Telling: Thank you. I had missed that one.

Cal indeed relogged, and Prosper joined the group.

Caledonia Heron: hi again :)
Prosper Telling: Hi
Threedee Shepherd: better connection?
Caledonia Heron: hopefully
Adelene Dawner is trying to wait for Pema, but wil share her poem after the first bell if he's not back yet.
Caledonia Heron: sorry to interrupt, please continue, I will pick up the thread
Threedee Shepherd: we have not started a thread, yet
Caledonia Heron: ah, ok
Caledonia Heron: having a rocky start myself
Caledonia Heron: would you care to share your poem Adelene?

Adelene shared her first poem.

:: Hand
:: The hand that points to The Way -
:: Cherish it, it is of The Way.
:: The hand that points to that which is not The Way -
:: Cherish it, it is of The Way.
::
:: How can one know The Way,
:: Without knowing that which is not The Way?
:: It would be to see the moon,
:: Without thus seeing the sky.

Reading it later, now that I am commenting the chat log, I really enjoyed the simplicity and directness of this short poem. I also saw the connections with the discussions that had been going on in our PaB sessions and PaB email group exchanges, recently.

Caledonia Heron: nice - did you write it?
Adelene Dawner: Mm-hmm ^.^
Adelene Dawner: Actually... I don't remember if I shared the longer one I wrote the other day, here. (I know Pema and Threedee have seen that one,)
Caledonia Heron: I did not see it

Adelene then recited her longer poem.

:: Balance
:: Right action is found
:: by an orderly mind -
:: Action follows thought,
:: Thought follows emotion,
:: Emotion follows awareness,
:: Awareness follows perception,
:: Perception follows the world.
::
:: Each has its turn,
:: one building on the other.
::
:: Awareness without perception is
:: the root of prejudice;
:: It is to base an action
:: on ghosts, not reality.
::
:: Emotion without awareness
:: is folly,
:: The fear of the dark,
:: the fear of the other for otherness' sake.
::
:: Thought without emotion
:: is unreal;
:: Disconnected
:: from the wisdom of the Self.
::
:: Action without thought,
:: without the wisdom of emotion,
:: without the grounding of awareness,
:: without the anchor of perception,
:: Action without mindfulness
:: is not of the Way.
::
:: ---
::
:: Perception is
:: To be with the world,
:: To see without judging,
:: To face without flinching,
:: To allow the present
:: to be all that it is.
::
:: Awareness is
:: To think of the world,
:: To consider the context,
:: To weigh the consequences,
:: To see the world
:: in all its complexity.
::
:: Emotion is
:: The lessons of the past
:: The instinct of the ancestors
:: The message of the unconscious
:: The wisdom of the self
:: in all its iterations
::
:: Thought is
:: The bringing together
:: The wise weighing
:: The careful consideration
:: The compassionate judging
:: of that which is relevant.
::
:: Action is
:: To reflect the world back to itself
:: improved by compassion.
::
:: Action is
:: To return your Self to Being
:: that Being, which is your Self,
:: may be enlightened.

Adelene had indeed showed me her poem a day earlier. What a wonderful way of circling through various human aspects back onto Being!

Caledonia Heron: reading....
Caledonia Heron: wow - a lot to consider :)
Caledonia Heron: very nice, thank you :)
Adelene Dawner: :)
Caledonia Heron: poetry seems a good fit here in sl - similarities to texting, concise imagery and thought
Adelene Dawner: Yes, now that you mention it.
Pema Pera: hi, sorry
Adelene Dawner wonders if Pema has installed the poetry script she gave him yet... and tests it out to see.
Pema Pera: that was much longer than I expected
Caledonia Heron: I have been reading Adelene's poetry :)
Pema Pera: and it turns out that I have to go now
Caledonia Heron: ok, see you another time :)
Pema Pera: sorry about that! At least the poem is on my chat log
Threedee Shepherd: another time, yes :)
Adelene Dawner awws... look for the new one, Pem!
Pema Pera: and I'll see the rest later -- oh
Pema Pera: you know, I'll just park my av here
Pema Pera: if you don't mind
Pema Pera: and then I'll have the whole log later.
Threedee Shepherd: ok
Pema Pera: See you all soon!
Caledonia Heron: as you wish
Adelene Dawner gave you Hand.

After rejoining the group briefly, I had to leave again, RL still demanding my attention. I left my av in-world, to record the session, given that I was the guardian for that evening.

Caledonia Heron: we have just met recently Adelene and Threedee, and I think I asked before, are you involved with the 9sec experiment as yet?
Threedee Shepherd: yes.
Adelene Dawner: Kind of.
Caledonia Heron: and?....
Threedee Shepherd: My main awareness id often one of heightened physicalness
Threedee Shepherd: *is
Threedee Shepherd: so far
Caledonia Heron: what does that mean? you notice yourself?
Threedee Shepherd: I notice some part of myself, such as the "touchingness" of my hand on an object.
Prosper Telling: sorry for going awol... Mom called.
Caledonia Heron: :)

I guess there was a silence for a bit.

Caledonia Heron: ok then, is everyone in im or on the phone with mom? :)
Prosper Telling: Nice poetry
Adelene Dawner: thanks :)
Prosper Telling: it happens... grand karmic convergence or something
Caledonia Heron: apparently :)
Threedee Shepherd: The thing about my physical awareness in the 9-sec experiment is that I have a heightened sense of embodiment, whereas I spend LOTS of time in my head.
Adelene Dawner has gotten about 12 hours' total sleep in the last three days. She's actually not *sleepy* for some odd reason, so going to bed is unlikely to be useful, but she's not exactly 'here' either.
Caledonia Heron: interesting Threedee, kind of a balance of sorts?
Prosper Telling: I lso think of myself as spending a lot of time in my head.
Threedee Shepherd: yes, and perhaps eventually a more thorough integration
Caledonia Heron: it's funny to think of our heads and bodies as separate yet we do
Caledonia Heron: last I looked, they are pretty darn connected
Prosper Telling: Yeah, mentally I'm all head and hands
Threedee Shepherd: thoughts "feel" different than/unlike body
Threedee Shepherd: to me
Prosper Telling: The karmic convergence continues... we now have a three year old grandson on the telephone.
Caledonia Heron: yes, I get that....there are ways to bring forward the connectedness
Caledonia Heron: lol, Prosper
Threedee Shepherd: suggestions are appreciated.
Prosper Telling: But I realized lately that I often retreat into my own fantasies, ideas, the way I expect things to be or wish they were

An interesting conversation about integration.

Threedee Shepherd: perhaps it is less retreat than rehearsal, Prosper?
Prosper Telling: So I've practiced staying present, focusing on the breath...
Prosper Telling: Could be a little of both.
Prosper Telling: but it' definitely a disconnect from Being
Threedee Shepherd: perhaps, and also awareness benefits from readiness and readiness from rehearsal and practice.
Caledonia Heron: interesting
Threedee Shepherd: Cal, you said earlier in a response to me "there are ways to bring forward the connectedness" I would appreciate ideas about that you have.
Prosper Telling: me too
Caledonia Heron: there are more learned people than me :)
Caledonia Heron: I remember I used to have a similar notion about two separate things; mind and body
Prosper Telling: but I must run... dang, I will catch the log. I am being summoned for family time.
Caledonia Heron: and then I had to really help my body be well
Threedee Shepherd: ahh
Caledonia Heron: and I began to get that there is a complete circuit between the two, in fact in some senses they are the same
Threedee Shepherd: yes, I know that and need to *know* that, too
Adelene Dawner: Not to interupt, but I'm falling asleep now. This looks interesting, so I'll leave my av here to log it, but I'm going to start heading to bed.
Threedee Shepherd: g'nite, I'll look for e-mail during the week.
Adelene Dawner: 'Night, Three. Enjoy your vacation. :)

It seemed to be a night of quiet avatars :-), with Pema, Prosper and Adelene afk.

Caledonia Heron: I hope you come to it
Caledonia Heron: good night :)
Threedee Shepherd: Cal, I hope your body healed.
Caledonia Heron: sure, thanks
Caledonia Heron: lessons learned :)
Threedee Shepherd: for a different place and time than these sessions, I note from your profile that we have overlapping interests it would be fun to discuss.
Caledonia Heron: oh! let me have a look at yours...sec
Threedee Shepherd: scientific visualization, etc.
Caledonia Heron: whadduya know :)
Caledonia Heron: yes, data visualization for me....terribly geeky but fascinating to me :)
Threedee Shepherd: I am interested in all aspects of visualization and in the "benefits" of 3-dimensional vision and representation.
Caledonia Heron: yes, sl is surely one of the great representations of visual data
Threedee Shepherd: and still mainly unexplored :D
Caledonia Heron: we can hang out with our data here

A fascinating topic, close to my interests in astrophysical data visualization too! I look forward to talk more with Threedee, after he comes back from vacation.

Threedee Shepherd: in the last time here tonight (and I leave for a week on vacation tomorrow), what are some of your "9-sec" experiences?
Caledonia Heron: boy that's a loaded question
Threedee Shepherd: *remaining time I meant
Caledonia Heron: I've been doing this since April and a lot of things have happened
Threedee Shepherd: wow, that's a long effort
Caledonia Heron: I can barely give you a timeline but will rather tell you that of late things are escalating
Caledonia Heron: not sure that's the right term
Threedee Shepherd: expanding?
Caledonia Heron: uhhh....well, not like the universe :)
Caledonia Heron: today has been a humdinger, I'm not sure how to express it to you, words will fall short
Caledonia Heron: I'm just kind of sitting with it, ....I don't know the right vocabulary to talk about this stuff so I'm aprehensive it will sound silly or not convey the event
Threedee Shepherd: you know best, I try to listen...
Threedee Shepherd: silly is not likely, I assure you.

Caledonia summarized the notion of YSBS, you seeing Being seeing, our latest PaB exploration, and some of her reactions to it.

Caledonia Heron: the experiment is morphing, the ante seems upped - we are experimenting with something described as you seeing, being seeing
Caledonia Heron: shifting from you (me) seeing to dropping the "you" and letting "being" see
Threedee Shepherd: seeing, as in deeper being
Caledonia Heron: so as I do this, and it seems to be appearing on it's own from time to time there is a huge, I mean HUGE mashup going on
Threedee Shepherd: sounds like it is more than just noise, though, and if she were here I know Adelene would have something to say about it.
Caledonia Heron: by mashup I mean (grappling here) being, existing as a functioning human and at various intervals being the seeing
Threedee Shepherd: that sounds wonderful :)
Caledonia Heron: good grief - I don't know how to say it
Caledonia Heron: it's a good thing, a marvel in fact
Threedee Shepherd: sounds like an IS-ness in touch with being a part of the broadest IS-ness of all being.
Caledonia Heron: yes, it gets a bit circular and where does one stop and the other end, the line is fuzzy in retrospect
Caledonia Heron: sorry - I am typically more articulate
Threedee Shepherd: no line in the sense that all being is one, yet has extensiveness
Caledonia Heron: yes, I get that intellectually and trying to describe the experience of what I think that is doesn't seem to come close
Threedee Shepherd: I don't expect anyone can fulle *describe* such BE-ing, and your words and thoughts do give me a sense of it that leaves no need for apology on your part.
Caledonia Heron: ok, sure and thanks....I really have no idea about it at this point, everyone is having their own experiences and I am personally in fresh snow

What a nice way to put it!

Threedee Shepherd: the most interesting kind :)
Caledonia Heron: I don't really expect us all to have the same experience - that is silly - and I think the depth and breadth of our different experiences is going to be all over the map. It will be interesting to see how cohesive things are in the near term.
Threedee Shepherd: At this point I can paraphrase Adelene (she and I talk more than a bit):, and say each of us experiences the lessons from our place along the way, so the only needed cohesiveness is the way itself.
Caledonia Heron: yes, makes sense
Caledonia Heron: there is an element of compare and contrast however
Threedee Shepherd: an old habit for those of us ever involved with data ;D
Caledonia Heron: lol, guilty as charged
Threedee Shepherd: perhaps I should say, knowingly, an easy habit.
Caledonia Heron: :)
Threedee Shepherd: I can say that if in three months of 9-second meditations I have come to a place such as you are describing, I will be satisfied beyond reasonable expectation :)
Caledonia Heron: I don't know where that place is today
Threedee Shepherd: And, being, among many other things, I am also currently reading writings of the Dalai Lama :)
Threedee Shepherd: *being a professional academic, thqat is
Threedee Shepherd: you don't how to know "there" to BE there.
Caledonia Heron: that rings true
Caledonia Heron: I am in flux
Threedee Shepherd: and are the flux
Caledonia Heron: lol
Caledonia Heron: thank you :)
Threedee Shepherd: thank you :)

:)

Caledonia Heron: there is a billboard near my home with a giant picture of the Dalai Lama - he looks so happy, I'm glad he's on my path he's so happy
Threedee Shepherd: Indeed, he "radiates" something it is clearly worth partaking of.
Caledonia Heron: I know - he looks fun, like I want to hang out with him, have some tea, hear him laugh at whatever is putting that smile on his face
Threedee Shepherd: yes!
Threedee Shepherd: I am going to log off now and do some last-minute vacation preparation. I relly hope we talk again both here and also about our other common interests.
Threedee Shepherd: *really
Caledonia Heron: ok, thank you for your time and interest. Your kindness helped me sort through the tangled wires. I hope you have a wonderful vacation.
Threedee Shepherd: Your openess has shown ME much to learn from :)
Caledonia Heron: aww, shucks :)
Caledonia Heron: see you soon :)
Threedee Shepherd: g'night
Caledonia Heron: night :)
Caledonia Heron: goodnight zombie avs :)

Threedee left, and Caledonia, surrounded by zombie avatars, took off too. An hour or so later, Rajah dropped by, and so did Gaya, a while afterwards. Judging from the text, Prosper must have logged out, but Adelene and me (Pema) were still there.

Rajah Yalin: hi
Rajah Yalin: pema gaya adelene
Gaya Ethaniel: _/!\_
Gaya Ethaniel: are we having a PaB session?
Rajah Yalin: I don't know I just foudn them, they look away from keyboard
Gaya Ethaniel: oh both of them afk?
Rajah Yalin: I think
Gaya Ethaniel: i c
Rajah Yalin: they havent said anything
Gaya Ethaniel: so u just chillin out here Rajah?
Rajah Yalin: I guess so :P
Gaya Ethaniel smiles
Gaya Ethaniel: well i got up very early 5 and thought i drop by
Rajah Yalin: nnice it is 3PM here
Rajah Yalin: 3:35
Gaya Ethaniel: i c
Rajah Yalin: yep

Rajah then left, and a bit later I finally returned to my keyboard. I saw Adelene and Gaya sitting there, but didn't realize that Adelene had gone afk as well.

Pema Pera: Thank you for your poem, Adelene!
Pema Pera: Sorry that I had to leave so suddenly
Gaya Ethaniel: Adele's away i think Pema
Pema Pera: Thank you both
Pema Pera: for staying here, Gaya and Adelene
Gaya Ethaniel: did you get 'Being' poem from Adele?
Gaya Ethaniel: np good night
Pema Pera: I got The hand the points the Way
Pema Pera: is that the one you meant?
Gaya Ethaniel: oh different one - Adele told me that she was inspired by meeting me and sent me a poem :)
Gaya Ethaniel: she's a real poet i think
Pema Pera: he hand that points to The Way - Cherish it, it is of The Way. The hand that points to that which is not The Way - Cherish it, it is of The Way. How can one know The Way, Without knowing that which is not The Way? It would be to see the moon, Without thus seeing the sky.

I later found the same poem at the start of the log of this session. I had not yet installed the poetry reader that Adelene had given me the other day.

Pema Pera: yes, indeed!
Pema Pera: Well, I have to go now
Gaya Ethaniel: good night now
Pema Pera: I really appreciate you still being here
Gaya Ethaniel smiles
Pema Pera: sorry to keep you!
Pema Pera: looking forward to seeing you both soon again
Pema Pera: good night, Gaya and Adelene