That morning I, Pema, was the guardian on call, but I could only stay for half an hour, because of an astronomy meeting I had to attend later. Adams would send me the remaining part later.
Pema Pera: good morning, Doug!
doug Sosa: morning!
Pema Pera: Good morning, Adams!
doug Sosa: hi adams
Adams Rubble: Good Night Pema :)
Adams Rubble: Good Morning Doug :)
Pema Pera: coming to our meetings forms a peaceful center of my day
Adams Rubble: :)
Pema Pera: the combination of “just sitting here” and using text
Pema Pera: and the company of friends
Pema Pera: something quite magical
Adams Rubble: :)
doug Sosa: i am glad i am not carying the rsponsibility to the degree you are, but i suspect that actually contribtes the calm..:)
doug Sosa: to the calm..
Pema Pera: responsibility is an interesting notion
doug Sosa: like walking into my painting space is better because i know the paints and what they can do, its rcher, so being a bit detached in a rich environment..
Pema Pera: I feel responsible for doing what I can as best as I can, but not for the outcome
Pema Pera: which is totally beyond my control
Adams Rubble: :)
doug Sosa: yes.
Pema Pera: Hi Artemisia!
Pema Pera: Come join us
doug Sosa: :)
Adams Rubble: Hello Artemisia
Little did I know that this new stranger would be an old friend of mine, from way back when, oh, ten years or so ago.
Artemisia Svoboda: Hi everyone! I am Leonore in RL
Pema Pera: hi!!!!!
Artemisia Svoboda: I am visiting SL for the first time
Pema Pera: Leonore ! ! ! ! ! !
doug Sosa: please join us.
Pema Pera: how nice to see you here
Artemisia Svoboda: how do I sit down?
Adams Rubble: Welcome to SL!
doug Sosa: touch the pillow and you will see a menu
Artemisia Svoboda: Thanks, nice to see all of you1
Pema Pera: right click on the pillow
Pema Pera: you see a pie diagram
Pema Pera: yes
Pema Pera: Wow, you were “born” today!
Pema Pera: here in SL
Artemisia Svoboda: yes, just few minutes ago
!
doug Sosa: and now to get more comfortable just click on the pillow again.
Artemisia Svoboda: ok
Pema Pera: Doug, have you met Leonore in Qwaq’s WoK Forums?
doug Sosa: I don’t think so, but then i am big on faces more than names..
Artemisia Svoboda: I think we were at some Sunday talks together, but there were always many other people present
doug Sosa: good.
doug Sosa: not that other people were present but that..
doug Sosa: there may be a connection.
Pema Pera: Adams, before coming to SL, I started activities that were somewhat similar in another virtual world, that of Qwaq
Pema Pera: and Doug and Artemisia both attended those meetings, a year ago
Pema Pera: it feels like a reunion!
Adams Rubble: Ah. I saw a demo of Qwaq on YouTube
Adams Rubble: Is it still going on?
Pema Pera: Artemisia, we publish our conversations on our blog on the web http://playasbeing.wordpress.com/
Pema Pera: Yes, Adams
doug Sosa: qwaq is under intense development.
Pema Pera: is it okay with you to include you in the discussions on the blog?
Artemisia Svoboda: yes, I know, I translated some of the explanations :)
doug Sosa: it is cooler (as opposed to warm) because the avatars are more basic, which is good for some things.
Pema Pera: ah, yes, way back in April!!
doug Sosa: translated from what to what, pleae?
Artemisia helped translate into German some of the basic PaB text; see http://playasbeing.wordpress.com/summary/einfuehrung/. But I didn’t get a chance to mention that, since yet another friend of mine made his debut into PaB!
Adams Rubble: Hello Pospero
doug Sosa: please..
Adams Rubble: Prospero
Pema Pera: Hi Prospero!
Prospero Frobozz: Hey
Prospero Frobozz must be honest — he’s multitasking a bit
Pema Pera: fine!
Artemisia Svoboda: I translated part of Pema’s SL instruction website from English to German.
Adams Rubble: I may be confused. Is Qwaq the software and WoK the equivalent to PaB?
Pema Pera: welcome to our group here
Pema Pera: yes, but WoK is wider than PaB
doug Sosa: yes.
Pema Pera: more like Kira
Pema Pera: for a few years, while Kira was dormant, WoK was the follow-up of Kira
Pema Pera: and developed a VW branch in Qwaq
Adams Rubble: VW ?
Pema Pera: virtual world
Adams Rubble: ah
Pema Pera: not the car :)
Adams Rubble: Is WoK still going on. haha Pema
Pema Pera: oh yes
Pema Pera: Stim is teaching there five times a week
Adams Rubble: Wow
Pema Pera: have you gone to those sessions, Artemisia?
Artemisia Svoboda: yes, sometimes I go to Steven’s sessions
Pema Pera: http://www.waysofknowing.net/ is the general WoK web site
Pema Pera: http://www.waysofknowing.net/VRExplorations.html is the WoK part in Qwaq
Adams Rubble: Thank you
Adams Rubble ’s head is spinning
Pema Pera: hahaha
Pema Pera: PaB did not originate in a vacuum, its pedigree has a long history
Artemisia Svoboda: Adams, are you also new to SL?
Unveiling some of the history of APAPB . . .
Pema Pera: I’ll surprise you: the APAPB sentence is something that Artemisia worked on five years before Doug got started :-)
Adams Rubble: I have been here since November but only since June in PaB, Artemisia
Pema Pera: (appreciate the presence of appearance as a presentation by Being)
Adams Rubble ’s head is spinning faster
Prospero Frobozz looked at the “Who Knows?” poster in the corner, and thinks a couple should be added…. “21st Century Internet User : Google Knows!” “Transhumanist : my implants know!”
Artemisia Svoboda: what poster?
Pema Pera: hehehe
Prospero Frobozz: the one back there
Adams Rubble: :)
Pema Pera: I’d say go ahead and add those - if that could be easily done
Pema Pera: that poster was put there by one of our regulars, Threedee
Pema Pera: one of our so-called “guardians”
Prospero Frobozz: We can dream about vector textures, we can dream… :)
Pema Pera: like “barristas” in MICA
Adams Rubble: MICA?
Prospero Frobozz: Meta-Institude of Computational Astronomy
Prospero Frobozz: Another venture started by Pema — and it’s how I met him.
Pema Pera: where Pros and I have to go to in ten minutes :-)
Adams Rubble is holding on to her head
Prospero Frobozz is an astronomer — not currently a practicing professional, but I have been.
Pema Pera: as barristas in fact
MICA can be found on VRExplorations.html
Pema Pera: So Doug, you might want to look at http://lab.kira.org/experiments/APAPB.html
Pema Pera: from five years ago!
Pema Pera: Prospero is unique in having been a professional scientist for many years and now being a professional Linden!
Prospero Frobozz: I have this alt named “Prospero Linden”, but he does things sometimes that I don’t want to own up to…
Pema Pera: :-)
Adams Rubble: :)
doug Sosa: will do. not now.
Prospero Frobozz: Pema, Artemisia : was that page (APAPB) written by Artemisia?
Pema Pera: no, by a group of us
Pema Pera: another forerunner of PaB
Pema Pera: Artemisia, me, and half a dozen others
Pema Pera: much smaller group than PaB
Prospero Frobozz: OIC — yeah, scanning over it, various bits were signed by various people
Pema Pera: and using email rather than VW
Pema Pera: another Kira branch
Adams Rubble: May I ask why the thwo groups co-exist? Do they have a different purpose?
Pema Pera: which two groups?
Adams Rubble: WoK and PaB
Adams Rubble: Or is just dofferent platforms?
Adams Rubble: different
Pema Pera: rather different
Pema Pera: Kira became Wok
Adams Rubble: Hello Tara
Pema Pera: and now WoK is being reintegrated into Kira
Pema Pera: hi Tara!
Tara Farmer: oh my god i’m in limbo
Tara Farmer: PEMA!
Tara Farmer: AGAIN!
Hehe, whenever I tp Tara, she seems to get caught into something. It happened again. I continue to plead innocence.
Pema Pera: The reason for the split in the road is that WoK was the work of Stim and me, and not the three others running Kira
Tara Farmer: ahhh there we go
Pema Pera: then the other three went other ways, so by default WoK is becoming the new Kira
Tara Farmer: sorry prospero
Pema Pera: and PaB is more specific, just one activity under Kira, although by now by far the biggest one
Prospero Frobozz: :)
Pema Pera: Good seeing you again, Tara!
Pema Pera: How’ve you been?
Tara Farmer: thanks pema
Tara Farmer: great
Prospero Frobozz: “Second Life — where flying is easy, and sitting is hard.”
Tara Farmer: you are a white mist currently
Pema Pera: hehehe
Tara Farmer: guru style
Prospero Frobozz: White Mist is the “New Ruth”
Pema Pera: better than grey goo
Tara Farmer: ;)
Tara Farmer: it should be your av always
Pema Pera: :-)
Tara Farmer: i’d rather be a white mist than ruthed
Prospero Frobozz was at a meeting yesterday, and Green Linden had an av that looked like the white mist, with a little white-mist head floating above it. IT was confusing… I was wondering if he just hadn’t rezzed!
Pema Pera: And oh, Adams, to finish the older Kira story: there is a manuscript I wrote for Artemisia & company, four years ago, that you might find interesting: http://lab.kira.org/lab/index.html
Tara Farmer: Pema, do you sleep?
Adams Rubble: Thanks :)
Pema Pera: haha, Pros, what a neat idea
Pema Pera: sometimes, Tara, just two hours before now :-)
Tara Farmer: I see
Tara Farmer mutters “freakin geniuses”
Pema Pera: Pros, that reminds me of a screen saver that shows that your computer has just crashed completely
Prospero Frobozz: hee hee
Tara Farmer: :)
Adams Rubble: :)
Prospero Frobozz: Pema : yeah, I used to have one that would cycle through crash screens of a whole bunch of different OSes
Pema Pera: exactly, me too
Pema Pera: must be the same linux one
Prospero Frobozz: This was years ago, on my Amiga, actually
Prospero Frobozz: Or wait… yeah, it may have been on Linux. Don’t remember.
Pema Pera: ah!
Prospero Frobozz: ABout 10 years ago I decided to just go with an all black screen saver… ’cause I sometimes had background processes running
Pema Pera: kernel segmentation fault at a254d52
Prospero Frobozz: Yep
Prospero Frobozz: Once or twice I came and saw the Sun crash mode and had a brief panic before remembering….
Yes, I remember the feeling — that WAS a screen saver that kept confusing me on occasions too. Hard to not fall into panic mode yourself when your computer seems to have just given up the ghost.
doug Sosa: need to go, bye all. :)
Adams Rubble: bye Doug
Pema Pera: a few times I myself got confused — and SHOCKED :-)
Prospero Frobozz: Bye Doug!
Pema Pera: bye Doug
Tara Farmer: bye doug
Artemisia Svoboda: bye doug
Tara Farmer: okay so what’s on the table?
Pema Pera: bits of food?
Tara Farmer: Pab with a little kick?
Pema Pera: Pros, I’m afraid we’ll have to move to the MICA room . . . . to do the honors there
Prospero Frobozz: Indeed… nice meeting you all!
Prospero Frobozz: I hope to drop back by these sessions every so often.
Tara Farmer: oh, is it over?
Adams Rubble: Bye Pema and Prospero
Pema Pera: great, you’re welcome Pros!
Pema Pera: no no Tara
Pema Pera: but Pros and I are over
Pema Pera: or go over
Tara Farmer: hmmm
Pema Pera: (if that goes over)
Tara Farmer: ok
Pema Pera: see you soon again I hope!
Prospero Frobozz: “cross over?” That has scary metaphysical meanings….
Pema Pera: hehehe not in SL I hope
Tara Farmer wonders why everyone always leaves pab when she arrives
Tara Farmer: ;)
Pema Pera: great seeing you Artemisia!
Adams Rubble: :)
Artemisia Svoboda: great weeing you, too!
Tara Farmer: lol
Artemisia Svoboda: sorry
Artemisia Svoboda: type
Artemisia Svoboda: typo
Adams Rubble: We all do that Artemisia :)
Pema Pera: btw, is it okay to leave your real name in the blog, or shall I take that out, Artemisia?
Pema Pera: some don’t mind, many prefer not to have their real name listed
Artemisia Svoboda: yes, you can leave my real name
Pema Pera: okay
Artemisia Svoboda: maybe only first name?
Pema Pera: I do the same in my profile, but we are a minority
Pema Pera: yes
Pema Pera: you’ve only used your first name here
Pema Pera: so you will be the mysterious Leonore from the past!
Pema Pera: bye all!
Tara Farmer: bye pema
Tara Farmer: the white mist has left the building
Artemisia Svoboda: bye pema
Adams Rubble: I will send you the rest of there is any
And so she did. The remainder is what Adams provide.
Adams Rubble: Well, here we are we three. I know Tara from Zen Retreat Meditation and know only that Artemisia is a long term particpant
Adams Rubble: Are you leaving?
Tara Farmer: yep i just come to see pema every now and then
Artemisia Svoboda: not yet, I thought I ought to practice moving around in SL a bit
Tara Farmer: but i have nowhere to be
Adams Rubble: :)
Adams Rubble: I will tell you a little about me then
Tara Farmer: okay
Adams Rubble: if you like
Artemisia Svoboda: great
Tara Farmer: definitely
Tara Farmer: i love to connect
Adams Rubble: I joined PaB in early June
Adams Rubble: I had come to the Zen Retreat looking for Buddhism
Adams Rubble: I had never formally meditated
Adams Rubble: The group just happened to be meeting and I sat in
Adams Rubble: PaB group that is
Adams Rubble: Anyway, I have had a long journey these past three months
Adams Rubble: have had two mystical visions
Adams Rubble: and this week finally found the person who Nisargatadatta says…
Adams Rubble: is the person who was there when I was born and will be there when I die :)
Adams Rubble: That’s my story :)
Tara Farmer: adams, explain this other person please?
Tara Farmer: a mate?
Adams Rubble: Some people might call it ther “inner mind” or “basic person”. The one without identitites or atachments
Tara Farmer: i see
Tara Farmer: how did you recognize eachother?
Tara Farmer: :)
Adams Rubble: Well a number of things have happened
Adams Rubble: One thing that happened is that I was reminded that I have a memory of when I was 6 months old
Adams Rubble: That was the person
Adams Rubble: In short I was a “witness” to my mother’s fear or concern
Adams Rubble: But more important were the seeing exercises that Pema gave us
Adams Rubble: I began to be able to see my “self” attaching thoughts to the images I was seeing
Adams Rubble: Once I did that I found that my “self” had hidden something important from me for many long years
Tara Farmer: sneaky self
Adams Rubble: :)
Tara Farmer: what was it hiding?
Adams Rubble: The fact that my grandfather had found spiritual peace as an old man :)
Tara Farmer: hmmmm…may i share something i found interesting about my life
Adams Rubble: yes :)
Artemisia Svoboda: sure
Tara Farmer: I had never met my grandfather until I was 23
Tara Farmer: but when we met I found that we were almost identical in spirituality
Tara Farmer: which is interesting because i am all over the map with that
Tara Farmer: we only knew each other for one week
Tara Farmer: and corresponded with letters for about six months until he passed
Tara Farmer: he asked me to read his cards for him in a letter and to call him with the results
Tara Farmer: I saw his death all over the cards
Tara Farmer: painful and sudden
Tara Farmer: instead of calling him, i copied all the pages out of my book to send to him
Tara Farmer: i could not share it verbally and prefered to have him interpret them himself
Tara Farmer: he never opened the package
Tara Farmer: he died before he could
Tara Farmer: and my mother returned the envelope to me sealed
Tara Farmer: event hough it was tragic it showed me something about how everything interacts
Tara Farmer: and connects
Adams Rubble: It is very sad but good that you had the chance to connect and share
Adams Rubble: These moments seem to stick with us all our lives
Tara Farmer: yes, and he left me all of his metaphysical “tools”
Tara Farmer: so I now own his tarot deck and his crystal ball
Tara Farmer: lol
Adams Rubble: :)
Tara Farmer: which i have never read
Tara Farmer: bubble bubble baby
Tara Farmer: :)
Adams Rubble: :)
Tara Farmer: so one thing about buddhism and meditation which attraacted me was the fact that it identifies with nothing (so to speak)
Tara Farmer: it instantly removes the disstractions and correlations which are not relevant
Tara Farmer: and forces you to deal with yourself
Adams Rubble: Artemisia, is there anything we do to help you start SL?
Adams Rubble: Yes tara
Artemisia Svoboda: I guess it will take some practice to get used to this form of conversation…
Artemisia Svoboda: I will just have to come back a few times until I can fully participate
Adams Rubble: I expect it will come very quickly :)
Adams Rubble: We will be very happy to have you just sit, if you like :)
Artemisia Svoboda: we will see:)
Artemisia Svoboda: that is great
Artemisia Svoboda: if I can sit and not say much
Adams Rubble: I gave you a landmark, did you get it?
Artemisia Svoboda: a landmark?
Adams Rubble: I’ll try again, it will come as a blue box at the top right of the screen
Artemisia Svoboda accepted your inventory offer.
Adams Rubble: Just click yes to accept
Adams Rubble: ah, you did :)
Adams Rubble: That is to a store with free clothes and things for new AVs
Artemisia Svoboda: what is there?
Artemisia Svoboda: oh, that should be fun
Adams Rubble: It will reside in a folder in your inventory (see bottom right)
Adams Rubble: In the onventory is a folder called landmarks
Artemisia Svoboda: yes, I can see it, thanks!
Adams Rubble: Ask questions of any of us and we will be glad to help :)
Adams Rubble: The PaB group is like an oasis in second life :)
Adams Rubble: Everyone is so friendly
Artemisia Svoboda: yes, pema tends to attract friendly and interesting people!
Adams Rubble: I am looking forward to learning more from you when you feel comfortable with the mechanics of SL :)
Artemisia Svoboda: ok1
Artemisia Svoboda: I can tell you a little about myself now
Artemisia Svoboda: I don’t have an inspiring story at the moment but…
Artemisia Svoboda: I live in Switzerland, I study computer science
Artemisia Svoboda: but a long time ago I was in philosophy and competely absorbed in the world of academic humanities
Artemisia Svoboda: I quit philosophy because of a bad case of writer’s block
Artemisia Svoboda: and decided a few years later that I wanted to do something that doesn’t require much writing
Artemisia Svoboda: but that is still intellectually challenging
Adams Rubble: Yes :)
Adams Rubble: Uses a whole different part of the brain
Artemisia Svoboda: I met Piet for the first time at a Kira summer school in 1999
Artemisia Svoboda: and later, I was living in California and met him there again at a couple of meditation retreats
Adams Rubble: :)
Adams Rubble: I had the pleasure of meeting him a few weeks ago :)
Artemisia Svoboda: in what setting?
Adams Rubble: For lunch by myself and then dinner with a few of us :)
Artemisia Svoboda: oh, great
Adams Rubble: yes
Adams Rubble: It is great that you have have sought him out here and will meet the avatars of the rest of us :)
Artemisia Svoboda: Yes
Artemisia Svoboda: I need to leave soon, I am invited to a party in RL
Adams Rubble: I am an arthistorian/image librarian and came to SL to look at the art sites
Adams Rubble: I have found this a very powerful medium for learning.
Adams Rubble: It was very nice meeting you :)
Artemisia Svoboda: it was very nice meeting you too!
Artemisia Svoboda: and Tara
Artemisia Svoboda: now what do I do to log off?
Adams Rubble: Just click the red X on the top right
Artemisia Svoboda: ah ok.
Adams Rubble: bye :)
Artemisia Svoboda: Bye!
Adams Rubble: bye tara :)