The first quarter of an hour was very quiet, after I arrived at 1 am at the pavilion. Fael was the guardian for that shift, but had not shown up yet. I was about to conclude that not much would happen during that session when AlexYa dropped by, an encounter that would give me a nice chance to practice my rather broken French.
Pema Pera: hi AlexYa!
AlexYa Adamski: hi :)
Pema Pera: how are you?
AlexYa Adamski: fine thank you and you ?
Pema Pera: You’re pretty new to SL, I see! — thanks, I’m fine!
Pema Pera: are you enjoying Second Life?
AlexYa Adamski: yes !
Pema Pera: what have you explored so far, if I may ask?
AlexYa Adamski: I’m sorry but I don’t speak english verry well …. :s
Pema Pera: what languages do you speak?
AlexYa Adamski: french ^^
Pema Pera: ah!
Pema Pera: je suis Holandais
Pema Pera: de Pay Bas
Pema Pera: mais j’ai oublie tout mon Francais
Pema Pera: c’est domage
AlexYa Adamski: oui ^^
AlexYa Adamski: tu te débrouille bien pourtant
Pema Pera: merci beaucoup
AlexYa Adamski: de rien :)
Pema Pera: quand je visite Paris, dans une semaine je me rappele . . .
AlexYa Adamski: tu vas à Paris ?
Pema Pera: j’habite en New York
Pema Pera: oui
Pema Pera: pour mon travail
AlexYa Adamski: un hollandais qui vit à NY? ^^
AlexYa Adamski: ah d’accord
Pema Pera: hehe
Pema Pera: c’etais Nouveau Amsterdam
Pema Pera: dans le passee
Pema Pera: :)
AlexYa Adamski: tu dois beaucoup voyager alors
AlexYa Adamski: pour ton travail
Pema Pera: oui
Pema Pera: je suis en Japon maintenant
Pema Pera: en Kyoto
AlexYa Adamski: HAn ! la chance !
AlexYa Adamski: j’ai toujours rêvé d’y aller
While AlexYa was telling me about dreaming of visiting Kyoto, Adams joined Adamski and me. Meesha would soon follow.
Pema Pera: Bonjour, Adams!
Pema Pera: c’est tres jolie ici
Adams Rubble: Binjour!
Adams Rubble: Bonjour
AlexYa Adamski: salut
Pema Pera: c’est le premier fois, ici, pour toi, ALexYa?
AlexYa Adamski: oui
Pema Pera: hi Meesha!
Meesha Cuttita: hi everyone
Pema Pera: good seeing you again!
AlexYa Adamski: Hi !
Meesha Cuttita: nice to see you too
Pema Pera: you are both up late, right?
Adams Rubble: Hello Meesha
Meesha Cuttita: hi adams
Pema Pera: AlexYa, we get together here every day with a group of friends, in fact four times a day
Pema Pera: 4 am 10 am 4 pm 10 pm pour toi
AlexYa Adamski: okay
Pema Pera: 4, 10, 16, 22
AlexYa Adamski: je vois ^^
Pema Pera: nous avons un web site http://playasbeing.wordpress.com/
Adams Rubble thinks Adamski is much nicer name than Rubble
Pema Pera: hahaha
AlexYa Adamski: mdrr !
Pema Pera: :)
Pema Pera: AlexYa, we put our conversations on our blog. Is it okay to include your conversation in our blog too?
AlexYa Adamski: if you want :)
Pema Pera: merci beaucoup!
Adams Rubble: Hello Wol
Pema Pera: Hi Wol!
Wol Euler: good morning/afternoon/evening all!
AlexYa Adamski: good morning
Adams Rubble: Good Middle of the Night to you Wol
Wol Euler: lol
Wol dropped by as well, and for AlexYa it was time to move on, anticipating that a multi-person English conversation might become too complex to follow in detail.
AlexYa Adamski: Pema, je pense que je vais y aller
Pema Pera: oui!
Wol Euler: you#re attending every 12 hours now, adams?
AlexYa Adamski: suivre une conversation en anglais ne sera pas facile pour moi ^^
Pema Pera: oui, je comprends
Adams Rubble: Six, Wol
Wol Euler: oui, c’est vraiment pas facile.
AlexYa Adamski: so, bye everybody ^^
Pema Pera: oui, un autre temps!
AlexYa Adamski: non pas vraiment ^^
Pema Pera: au revoir!
AlexYa Adamski: bye bye :)
Wol Euler: bye alexya
Adams Rubble: Bye AlexYa
Adams Rubble: It is always sad to see an Adamski go
Pema Pera: hehehe
Pema Pera: an Adamska I would have thought . . . .
that is, if I understand correctly the way russian names change for female family members.
Adams Rubble: :)
Pema Pera: Meesha, how have you been?
Meesha Cuttita: on holiday actually
Pema Pera: very nice! Where?
Meesha Cuttita: disconnected from the internet for almost a month
Pema Pera: WOW!
Meesha Cuttita: and mobile phone switched off
Adams Rubble: Wow
Pema Pera can’t imagine how that would be . . .
Meesha Cuttita: :) it’s heaven
Pema Pera gets dizzy
Wol Euler: wow.
Meesha Cuttita: just being :))
Pema Pera: real retreat!
Meesha Cuttita: yep
Pema Pera: where in the world?
Meesha Cuttita: oh nice places in europe - rivers and lakes
Meesha Cuttita: driving around
Pema Pera: ooooo, how nice!
Wol Euler: ah :)
Meesha Cuttita: camping
Meesha Cuttita: how have you been?
Pema Pera: PaB has been quite exciting the last month
Meesha Cuttita: really
Pema Pera: you probably have a few hundred emails in your inbox :)
Meesha Cuttita: oops, haven’t checked them yet
Meesha Cuttita: sorry
Pema Pera: from playasbeing@googlegroups.com
Pema Pera: np
Pema Pera: no need to read them all!
Pema Pera: just join us and take it from here and now :-)
Meesha Cuttita: i’ll skim through them
Meesha Cuttita: great, thank you
Pema Pera: let’s see, there is a transcript of our last weekly guardian meeting that might be fun to read:
Pema Pera: http://playasbeing.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/being-and-seeing-and-sharing/
Pema Pera: perhaps the best place to start to get into the swing of it all
Pema Pera: it must feel strange to be back in the “normal” world again . . . .
Wol Euler wonders which world Pema means.
Pema Pera wonders himself
Adams Rubble: :)
Wol Euler: hehehe
Meesha Cuttita: oh sure, if it were normal, ok, but it’s not normal, is it?
Pema Pera wonders whether there is life outside SL
I meant to say: Pema Pera, the avatar, is defined as part of Second Life and as such has no life outside SL; Pema’s typist, who in RL is watching Pema and his friends on the screen, of course does have a life outside SL. However, there was no easy occasion to clarify that, in the quick exchange we had.
Meesha Cuttita: oh my
Wol Euler finds it strange enough to return to “reality” after some holidays.
Pema Pera has heard from Adams that she stepped out of SL
Pema Pera: to meet ******
Adams Rubble: :)
Wol Euler: indeed!
Pema Pera hasn’t done that feat yet
I was refering to Adams’ blog, in which she sometimes meets her RL typist ******, at which occasion the two engage in lively conversations.
Meesha Cuttita: i don’t understand this SL/RL conflict
Meesha Cuttita: some people in SL don’t even want to be reminded of RL, how can that be?
Meesha Cuttita: who’s typing then?
Adams Rubble: Pema’s AV is talking. Hello Pema :)
Pema Pera: yes, I agree Meesha, for me too the two are very close
Pema Pera: I was refering to Adams’ blog
Pema Pera: where Adams met her typist :)
Meesha Cuttita: i don’t understand
Adams Rubble: and Z self
Pema Pera: Adams, please explain
Pema Pera: :)
Adams Rubble: Oh my
Pema Pera: (you see a lot happens when you’re gone Meesha)
Meesha Cuttita: hehe, so i see
Adams Rubble: My typist, my RL person, is kind of thick
Wol Euler: lol
Adams Rubble: Seems to be the last person to get it
Pema Pera: :)
Adams Rubble: So once in a while I have to leave SL to have a talk
Meesha Cuttita: so what now you have ego, superego and slego??
Pema Pera: hahaha
Adams Rubble: hmmm
Meesha Cuttita: that’s going to get crazy
Wol Euler: complicated, yes; crazy, not necessarily.
Meesha Cuttita: what if your slego gets into another virtual reaslity?
Wol Euler: IMHO
Pema Pera: Adams has the flair to do it
Meesha Cuttita: and your sL ego becomes a typist to someone else
Adams Rubble can;t type at all
Meesha Cuttita: now even the first ego is an ilusion
Pema Pera: and in turn your RL typist can discover that he/she is not real either — there is where the fun starts
Pema Pera: yes!!!!
Pema Pera: exactly
Wol Euler nods
Meesha Cuttita: so you have sliced up illusion and now parts of it refer to each other
Pema Pera: from SL to first life back to Zeroeth Life, who you are more really
Meesha Cuttita: how is that not crazy?
Pema Pera: Z Self in Adams’ blog
Pema Pera: well, seriously Meesha
Meesha Cuttita: none of them
Meesha Cuttita: none is real
I tried to explain this notion of a zeroth life, closer to who you really are, within which you play the role of your personality in your first life, RL, where you have to option to go into a second life, SL. However, again there was no easy break in which to explain this in detail.
Pema Pera: we have dreams, movies, normal life, yes, they are all relative, second life too
Wol Euler: granting for the moment that none are real, why value the first life self higher?
Adams Rubble: This morning I woke up to hearing someone say “There goes Adams, she’s lovely” and someone else say “They don;t see she is walking with Being and Death”
Meesha Cuttita: don’t value
Wol Euler: (the question was general, but appearently I had misunderstood you)
Pema Pera: (btw, Meesha, when I let Pema say “is there life outside SL” I meant that Pema is defined by SL and can only exist in the context of SL — while his typist is free to go in and out, so to speak — but there are many sides to this)
Pema Pera: how interesting, Adams!
Meesha Cuttita: no… i’m sorry, to me this is too much conceptualization to be heathy for my already fragile mind
Wol Euler: ooooh, Adams. Deep.#
Pema Pera: well, it is not meant as conceptualization
Pema Pera: quite the opposite
Pema Pera: as ways to wake up to what we really are
Meesha Cuttita: ok
Meesha Cuttita: who are you?
Meesha asked the big question!
Pema Pera: we can use a dream as a mirror, to see how easily we can be fooled every night
Pema Pera: and SL as a mirror to see how we can be fooled by day
Pema Pera: so yes, that’s the question: who am I?
Pema Pera: we’re exploring that in Play as Being here
Meesha Cuttita: have there been any answers yet?
Adams Rubble: :)
Pema Pera: depending on what you consider answers
Meesha Cuttita: hahaha
Pema Pera: experiences yes
Meesha Cuttita: probably many
Wol Euler: heheh
Pema Pera: :>)
Meesha Cuttita: the mind is willing to provide all sorts of answers
Pema Pera: seeing is different from groping for or entertaining answers
Adams Rubble: Sometimes we are able to see the mind trying to give answers
Meesha Cuttita: then you are the observer
Adams Rubble: yes
Pema Pera: but not necessarily the you you thought you were
Meesha Cuttita: is there anything that is aware of the observer?
Adams Rubble: yes
Pema Pera: let’s find out!
Adams Rubble said “yes” to Pema’ thinking about Meesha’s question….Being
Adams Rubble: God
Adams Rubble: SWatching me play on my blog last night :)
Pema Pera admits he is a day and a half behind with Adams’ blog
Adams Rubble: Sometimes I think I am too
Adams Rubble: :)
Wol Euler: heheheheh
Meesha Cuttita: you can’t be aware of your avatar’s body
Meesha Cuttita: only your body
Wol Euler: mmmmmm, I disagree. There are people who experience “embodiment” in SL, physical response to what they see their av doing and saying.
Wol Euler: Like having ht onset of a Rl panic attack at playing SL russian roulette.
Meesha Cuttita: really? can you feel the sensation of having an arm in SL?
Meesha Cuttita: so the panic is in RL
Adams Rubble: panic?
Wol Euler: or watching myself stand in falling snow and needing to put on a sweater.
Wol Euler: sweat, racing puse, shallow breathing. the whole bsuiness.
Wol Euler: I had to log out and lie down.
Meesha Cuttita: the sensation of the body is the sensation in your body. your rl body
Meesha Cuttita: you can have absolutely no sensation in any other body than your own, ahhaha
Wol Euler smiles. That is the point, this is my body while I inhabit it.
Meesha Cuttita: what triggers it is the mind
Meesha Cuttita: or the body can trigger the mind sometimes
Wol Euler: would that make it less real?
Meesha Cuttita: any case - they are so interrelated, it’s really the bodymind
Wol Euler: true
Indeed, separating how we divide our immersed awareness over RL and SL is often not easy, perhaps not even doable.
Meesha Cuttita: the mind can go into so many places and forms, it can even slice up your identification between selves - sl self and rl self, observing self and so forth
Adams Rubble: yes
Meesha Cuttita: but ultimately, these are all formations of the mind
Meesha Cuttita: even the observing self is a mind formation
Adams Rubble: And once in a while the various sliced up selves can help one see reality a little more clearly
Meesha Cuttita: only if you see impermanence of every part, and insatisfactoriness, the non-self of every part
Adams Rubble: yes
Meesha Cuttita: but definitely not standing on the viewpoint of one of the parts, dismissinag all other parts
Meesha Cuttita: then you’re missing it
Meesha Cuttita: so to come back to a few minutes ago - none of these parts are any more valuable than others
Wol Euler: but you do just that! you dismiss the reality of the SL parts.
Wol Euler: chat lag, sorry.
Meesha Cuttita: sl is mental formation
Meesha Cuttita: just like rl personality
Adams Rubble: yes Meesha
Wol Euler: the preception of “reality” is a mental formation, if I have understood previous sessions correctly.
Adams Rubble: It must be very hard coming from camping to seeming insanity
Wol Euler chuckles. Yes, you have fallen into the deep end.
Adams Rubble: But complex, yes; insane no
Adams Rubble: I had a difficult identity that was blocking my seeing for over 40 years
Adams Rubble: I had made a decision in my teen years and there was a part of the decision I did not see
Adams Rubble: By playing around with my selves,
Meesha Cuttita: the personal experience consists of elements - matter, sensations, perceptions, mental formations, consciousness
Adams Rubble: I was able to see this idea that I had held was preventing me from seeing
Adams Rubble: That is was it is all about
Meesha Cuttita: ok guys, it was nice seeing you, hope to meet you again soon, take care!
Meesha Cuttita: bye bye
Adams Rubble: So yes, everything you say is true
Adams Rubble: bye Meesha
Wol Euler: bye meesha, take care.
The last exchange had been fast and furious, with several strands going on at the same time. Clearly, many interesting ideas had been brought up, ready to be pursued some other day. After Meesha left, we noticed that it was already 2 pm, and Adams, Wol and I decided briefly to go to Wol’s place, where we chatted a bit more, until we retired.
