Stim was the guardian that afternoon.
Stim Morane: Doug!
doug Sosa: hi stim
Stim Morane: How does one assume a sensible posture here these days?
doug Sosa: i think if you just click on the cushion itself
doug Sosa: hey!
Stim Morane: I see, thanks.
doug Sosa: amazig how awkward that felt when i found myself mis seating.
doug Sosa: hi.
Stim Morane: Yes, it just looked/felt weird
Gaya Ethaniel: _/!\_
Starseed Xue: Hello everyone
Stim Morane: Hi Gaya and Starseed
Stim Morane: Let’s wait a minute and see who else shows up
After waiting a minute, we started.
Stim Morane: So, is there something anyone wants to discuss?
Starseed Xue: ive been reading about spiritual awakening
doug Sosa: always but quiet is good.
doug Sosa: ah.
Stim Morane: Do you have a comment or question about what you’ve been reading, Starseed?
Starseed Xue: i guess im trying to find meaing
Stim Morane: Does anything seem to help so far?
At this point, Doug raised a question that we pursued only briefly during this meeting. Perhaps another time .
doug Sosa: is there a difference between spiritual awakening and appreciating being?
Stim Morane: AN interesting question, Doug
doug Sosa: and i don’t know the answer :)
Stim Morane: One simple difference may be that if Being is defined as being a very high-level thing, spiritual awakening can then be seen as involving a more broad, accessible range of discoveries
Stim Morane: But that depends on how you define Being.
Back to Starseed .
Stim Morane: Anyway, Starseed, have you found something encouraging or nurturing of “meaning” in your reading?
Starseed Xue: yes
Starseed Xue: the idea of being a starseed
Stim Morane: Ha.
Stim Morane: Would you like to say more about that?
Starseed Xue: im not sure if youre familiar with what a starseed is
Gaya Ethaniel: Please tell us
Stim Morane: OK. Good place to start
Starseed Xue: Its a soul sent to earth to help awaken the planet
Gaya Ethaniel smiles
Stim Morane: yes, I thought so.
Stim Morane: I have read about this
Starseed Xue: i feel like there is some higher purpose for me
Gaya Ethaniel: _/!\_
Stim Morane: well, it will be interesting to see how this unfolds
Starseed Xue: haha
Starseed Xue: very interesting
At this point, Claire joined us, upset about some things that had happened elsewhere in SL.
Stim Morane: Hi Claire, welcome
Claire Beltran: Hi… I’m a bit panicked righ now, I have to say.
Stim Morane: Welcome anyway!
Stim Morane: Hi Storm
Storm Nordwind: Hi Stim
Gaya Ethaniel: _/!\_
Claire Beltran: Yes, thank you.
Stim Morane: I hope it is not our gathering that is making you feel panicked, Claire
Claire Beltran: Not at all… it is something I may have done.
Stim Morane: Oh
Stim Morane: Well rest here for a while.
Gaya Ethaniel nods
Cup Of Green Tea whispers: Ah! Steaming Green Tea!
Claire Beltran: Can I tell you what happened?
Gaya Ethaniel: Pls
Stim Morane: If it can be described succinctly, sure. We’ll have to see after that.
Claire Beltran: Well…
Gaya Ethaniel: wb doug
Claire Beltran: I may have inadvertently started spreading rumors about someone who made me uncomfortable around a roleplaying sim.
doug Sosa: crashed.
Claire Beltran: This one other person had doen some things that upset and embarrassed me, especially since they made me think of my own insecurities about myself.
Stim Morane: So something has now been let loose that can’t be recovered?
Claire indicated being very distressed.
Claire Beltran: So I started avoiding him, and in the process I felt the need to explain *why* I was avoiding him. So I may have turned people against him.
Stim Morane: I see
Claire Beltran: And now he has told me that he has been ‘warned about me’, which has made me paranoid about the things other people might be saying about me…
Stim Morane: THe situation is perhaps typical of modern media-based interactions.
Claire Beltran: And when I told someone else about how I felt, she called me out on my own insecurity…about whether I am akind person or not.
Stim Morane: But the essence is not so unusual, just part of the human condition of action and reaction.
Claire Beltran: And now I’m just in a state of terror and self-loathing…
Stim Morane: Yes. But you can stop now.
This raised a question about what I meant.
Claire Beltran: What?
Stim Morane: Stop the chain reaction.
Gaya Ethaniel nods
Stim Morane: Here
Gaya Ethaniel asks Claire not to panic and to take a couple of deep breath
Stim Morane: We all have to do this, every moment.
doug Sosa: maybe not stop, but let …go…etc.
Stim Morane: If you act as best you can now, on behalf of all, then it will still work out.
Stim Morane: But start by stopping.
Gaya Ethaniel: Let it be. Not meddling, forcing, thinking…
Gaya Ethaniel: Past is past. Nothing you can do about it. Only thing you can do is to decide what to do with the time left to you.
At this point, Starseed lost his connection.
Stim Morane: I think we lost Starseed. Perhaps another time. Are you familiar with the Starseed movement, Storm?
Claire Beltran: I’m sorry to put all this on you.
Storm Nordwind: No I don’t think so. Can you fill me in?
Stim Morane: It’s a google-able thing. Interesting
Claire expressed regret about raising disturbing experiences.
Gaya Ethaniel smiles ‘no problem at all Claire. Just sit and take deep breath’
Stim Morane: Claire, no problem. You are welcome to rest and recover here.
Stim Morane: For PaB, the issue is to see that we are always in the midst of a kind of sanctuary and field of meaningfulness, even if we are not “special” (starseeds)
Or that we all are .
Gaya Ethaniel: wb Starseed
Stim Morane: Hi again, Starseed
Starseed Xue: hello
Stim Morane: Gaya, do you have comments about the recent Play as Being practices?
Gaya Ethaniel: Thought we are going back to Starseed… am I wrong?
Stim Morane: who knows?
Gaya Ethaniel smiles
Gaya Ethaniel: Starseed I’d be interested to hear more. Would you like to pick up from where you left?
doug Sosa: i must leave, apologies… bye :)
Gaya Ethaniel: Stim, to answer your question. I don’t have any comments at this time but will ponder on it.
Gaya Ethaniel: _/!\_
Stim Morane: OK, bye Doug
Stim Morane: THanks Gaya. Just checking in.
Gaya Ethaniel: Much appreciated Stim. Thank you.
Genesis entered .
Gaya Ethaniel: _/!\_
Stim Morane: Is Gen with us?
genesis Zhangsun: Hi Everyone :)
genesis Zhangsun: Lag
Stim Morane: I see … or actually I don’t
Stim Morane: Nice to hear you’re around though
genesis Zhangsun: Hmmm ok I will be back
Stim Morane: IS that a common thing, Storm … for one’s avatar to not be visible?
Gaya Ethaniel: wb gen
Storm Nordwind: Yes. If the avatar’s PC is having a slow connection, it cannot confirm enough info to the server
Stim Morane: Welcome gen
genesis Zhangsun: Thanks
Stim Morane: I see, Storm. Interesting. Can you tell this is happening, or must someone else point it out?
Storm Nordwind: That depends on whether you have the info cached on your machine. Sometimes you cannot tell yourself
Claire Beltran: Hello, Genesis ^-^/
Storm Nordwind: It’s a nice metaphor
genesis Zhangsun: Oh wow Hi Claire :)
Storm Nordwind: It’s hard to see ourselves as others see us!
This was a nice comment on what started as a merely technical issue.
Stim Morane: Yes.
Stim Morane: Perhaps impossible
Stim Morane: gen, we seem to be in a “hanging out together” mode today genesis Zhangsun: ah yes I see no hard topics ;)
Stim Morane: not unless you have one.
Gen did, as it turned out.
genesis Zhangsun: well since you ask I wanted to ask you about what meditation is really about if we use the starting point that we have already attained what we want
Stim Morane: have you an answer?
Gaya Ethaniel: Excuse me. Thanks for the conversation.
Gaya Ethaniel: _/!\_
genesis Zhangsun: hmmm well I guess it becomes more of a communing experience
genesis Zhangsun: bye Gaya
Stim Morane: Oh, bye Gaya.
genesis Zhangsun: hope my question didn’t put u off ;)
Stim Morane: No, it’s a fine question.
genesis Zhangsun: oh yes I meant Gaya because she took off
genesis Zhangsun: :)
Stim Morane: oh right, sorry.
genesis Zhangsun: I say communing becomes it seems like it becomes more about something like seeing as being or seeing as enlightened being
Storm Nordwind nods
genesis Zhangsun: rather than any kind of training focused on self
Stim Morane: sorry brb
Storm Nordwind: Are you asking this, gen, from your personal experience?
genesis Zhangsun: yes I just noticed that my view has shifted on meditation
Stim Morane: back
genesis Zhangsun: or that my meditation experience has shifted
Storm Nordwind: I suspect that’s a mutually dependent cycle
Stim Morane: yes
genesis Zhangsun: before I felt like meditation was a sort of hard training
genesis Zhangsun: now it feel much more effortless
Storm Nordwind nods
genesis Zhangsun: which makes me feel as though I am doing nothing
genesis Zhangsun: which is sort of a relief
I wanted to clarify gen’s question:
Stim Morane: gen, by “that we have already attained what we want”, do you mean “we have what is most important”?
genesis Zhangsun: but sometimes it leaves me with doubt
Stim Morane: I ask because this is different from alleging that we have what we want
genesis Zhangsun: well what is most important Stim?
Stim Morane: !
Storm Nordwind smiles
Stim Morane: This the question, for sure. But note that it isn’t what we usually grasp for, or wish for.
Stim Morane: It can’t be attained, but it is what we are.
This latter comment is probably the essence of most higher-level meditation instruction, but we didn’t run with it too far in this meeting.
Stim Morane: So perhaps you’re asking about meditation based on this …?
genesis Zhangsun: I guess I ask because those who are attracted to meditation tend to seek clarity
Stim Morane: Yes, sometimes
genesis Zhangsun: they want to discipline themselves their restless mind
Stim Morane: Yes. And that is part of the point.
Stim Morane: A meditation based on the view you mention, as slightly restated by me, is one that helps us point out the ways in which we still don’t accept that we are complete.
Stim Morane: A View can show what remains discrepant
genesis Zhangsun: A View?
Stim Morane: for example, the View you mentioned
Stim Morane: you asked about “what meditation is really about if we use the starting point that we have already attained what we want”
genesis Zhangsun: yes
Stim Morane: My comment is, “it’s about the fact that we don’t fully accept this nice sense of our completeness”
Stim Morane: Seeing this can be very helpful
Stim Morane: the holdouts are interesting
genesis Zhangsun: which goes back to the comment I walked in on about how we do appear to others as we appear to ourselves
genesis Zhangsun: others hold up mirrors revealing these holdouts
Stim Morane: I see
genesis Zhangsun: *do not
Stim Morane: perhaps that can happen too, yes.
A dancer glided in and entertained us for a while.
jerome Sweetwater: hello
Stim Morane: Hi Jerome
genesis Zhangsun: hey jerome
genesis Zhangsun: u are really rockin out :)
Claire Beltran: Haha! Hi, Jerome ^-^/
jerome Sweetwater: how we all doing
Stim Morane: that is our question
Dancer exits, we continue.
Stim Morane: oh well
Stim Morane: anyway, gen, your question bears on some of the recent PaB exercises, and my answer points at one possible use of such exercises, in addition to the “positive” perspectives they may engender.
genesis Zhangsun: but those “positive perspectives” are not whats important is it…seems like a side effect
genesis Zhangsun: the happiness
genesis Zhangsun: from taking the view
genesis Zhangsun: what other uses are there?
Stim Morane: there are many possibilities, partly due to people’s unique natures
Stim Morane: such exercises are mainly pointers, like so much of meditation teaching. But pointers at awakeness can be supplemented by pointers at unawakeness.
Stim Morane: Another value is simply to push us through a door, when we tend to shift about or hold back slightly
genesis Zhangsun: hmmm how so?
Stim Morane: You’re asking about the first or second of my last comments?
genesis Zhangsun: about the supplementing pointers at unawakeness
Stim Morane: I basically commented on that … perhaps there’s nothing more to add unless you can think of a question …
Stim Morane: Anyway, what do the rest of you think about these matters?
Stim Morane: by “unawakeness” I simply meant the holdouts we already mentioned, gen.
Stim Morane: Hi dowd.
genesis Zhangsun: Hey Dowd
dowd Breen: hey
dowd Breen: vs parlez franC?
Storm Nordwind: pas ici
Stim Morane: I will have to leave … will some of you be staying on for a while?
Claire Beltran: I might be.
Stim Morane: If so, could someone please send me the remainder of the chat
Stim Morane: Claire, how are you feeling now?
dowd Breen: ciao
Storm Nordwind bows and excuses himself from the gathering for this evening
genesis Zhangsun: bye
Stim Morane: Well, gotta go! Please enjoy the rest of your time together.