2008.12.26 13:00 - The Party of Awareness

Solobill was the guardian for this session; though "present" in absentia...Comments are his though!

I approached the pavilion to find Scathach already there.  Pila quickly joined us, followed by Wester and Ramana.

Scathach Rhiadra: Hello Solobill
Solobill Laville: Hiya, Scath, Pila, Wester!
Scathach Rhiadra: Hello Wester, Pila
Wester Kiranov: hi all
Pila Mulligan: greetings everyone
Solobill Laville: I have to admit that I am preparing for a party at my house in RL...
Solobill Laville: So, I may be somewhat "silent"...
Scathach Rhiadra: :)
Solobill Laville: My apologies
Pila Mulligan: :)
Pila Mulligan: no problem Solobill
Solobill Laville: Hi, Adams
Scathach Rhiadra: Hello Adams
Pila Mulligan: hi Adams
Adams Rubble: hELLO pILA, sCATHBACH. bILL AND wsESTER :)
Adams Rubble: Whoops
Pila Mulligan: :)
Adams Rubble: I hope everyone is having or had a nice boxing day
Scathach Rhiadra: yes, I did anyway,
Pila Mulligan: yes, thanks Adams
Scathach Rhiadra: how was yours?
Pila Mulligan: hi Ramana
Adams Rubble: Mine was OK. I had no expectations since I hadn't heard of it before this morning ")
Adams Rubble: Hello Ramana
Ramana Sweetwater: Hy! everybody :)
Scathach Rhiadra: Hello Ramana
Pila Mulligan: Boxing Day is not really familiar to me other than by name
Ramana Sweetwater: Never heard of it as Austrian
Adams Rubble: It is a day of giving gifts to less fortunate :)
Pila Mulligan: Ramana has been here once before -- he is an old SL friend
Adams Rubble: or shopping
Pila Mulligan: ah charity and shopping -- of course :)
Ramana Sweetwater: like all this Christmas is an intelligent business idea

Charity, a Christmas-time practice of some, to depression, another and unfortunate Christmas-time practice of some...

Pila Mulligan: I suspect the commercialization accounts for some of the depression common at Christmas time
Adams Rubble: Nice to meet you Ramana
Adams Rubble: Yes, Pila and the darkness
Adams Rubble: expectations and darkness
Ramana Sweetwater: yes nice to meet you :)
Wester Kiranov: definitely the darkness, it always gets me
Wester Kiranov: oh, and nice to meet you ;)
Adams Rubble: Fael made a wonderful observation on solstice day
Adams Rubble: the ultimate glass half-full statement
Ramana Sweetwater: I always wonder as German native speaker about the flair of the word darkness, the romantic made in English...
Adams Rubble: In her country they celebrate the fact that the sun will be coming back
Ramana Sweetwater: OH, that is what Christmas is based on in Western Christian culture, originally
Wester Kiranov: in western not-yet-christian culture, actually
Ramana Sweetwater: right, the romans just wrapped their cult around it
Adams Rubble: say more about Germans and darkness Ramana, please
Adams Rubble: or English speakers and darkness
Ramana Sweetwater: I mean: on SL, especially in profiles or whole sim-styles, there I always find that strange attraction and mythology about "darkness", I really just don't understand what that is really about
Ramana Sweetwater: what's the fascination?
Ramana Sweetwater: hard enough to keep the light burning in this world!
Pila Mulligan: Darth Vader and being attracted to the dark side comes to mind :)
Ramana Sweetwater: well, but what for? what purpose?
Adams Rubble wondering if it is less and English speaking thing and more SL
Ramana Sweetwater: makes everything just difficult
Pila Mulligan: myth logically, perhaps, it was a pot of gold
Wester Kiranov: I do guess it's a reaction to all false sweetness and light that's around
Ramana Sweetwater: ah! I c! I think I get it : contra PC?
Wester Kiranov: if it's dark, at least it's not pink, neon or glittery
Adams Rubble will have to take more note of profiles

Pila switched the gears from darkness to resolutions.

Pila Mulligan: any new year's resolutions yet?
Ramana Sweetwater: a very meditative round, not hard to follow the chat ;)
Ramana Sweetwater: no, no resolutions here :)
Ramana Sweetwater: will go on smoking :)
Adams Rubble just got started on Christmas; not ready for new year

A new visitor joins us.

Ramana Sweetwater: Hy! Sama!
SamA Leborski: hi
Adams Rubble: Hello SamA
Wester Kiranov: I once had a friend who had the new year resolution to start drinking, smoking and smoking pot
SamA Leborski: can i sit with you?
Scathach Rhiadra: Hello SamA
SamA Leborski: hi
Adams Rubble: yes, please join us SamA
Wester Kiranov: and he actually did it all on January 1st
Scathach Rhiadra: heehee:)
Wester Kiranov: SamA, have you been here before?
SamA Leborski: no
SamA Leborski: i was at a party next to here
SamA Leborski: that's all
Wester Kiranov: OK
Ramana Sweetwater: we also have a party here: the party of awareness ;)
SamA Leborski: yes i prefer it
SamA Leborski: i dont like dancing
Ramana Sweetwater: and the higher awareness is very silent ;)
Wester Kiranov: we do record the conversations here
Ramana Sweetwater: recording the silence :)

Fefonz joins the group.

Adams Rubble: Hello Fefonz
Ramana Sweetwater: Hy! Fefonz!
Scathach Rhiadra: Hello Fefonz
Fefonz Quan: hello all :)
Pila Mulligan: hi
Fefonz Quan: did i come in the middle of the silent session ? :0
Pila Mulligan: :0
Pila Mulligan: yes
Scathach Rhiadra: :)
Pila Mulligan: but not required -- comments are welcome :)
Ramana Sweetwater: to better align the mental flight ;)
Adams Rubble: We were talking about darkness and all got quiet
Adams Rubble: Either we don't know anything about darkness....
Ramana Sweetwater: Would everybody talk if we talked about light?
Adams Rubble: pr we are overwhelmed by it
Ramana Sweetwater: In Europe on altitude of the alps days are so short this time of the year, absolutely no need for darkness, every small light beam is more attractive
Pila Mulligan: I'm having a rl snack after just coming inside from a torrential rain, plenty of light, but very wet
Fefonz Quan: was it visual darkness or inner one or both?
Ramana Sweetwater: just my question, what fascinates people so much about darkness
Adams Rubble: And then it went silent :)
Wester Kiranov: being as far south as the alps sounds attractive, maybe some snow for whiteness...
Ramana Sweetwater: yes, strange
Ramana Sweetwater: no snow here, too warm, but cold wind and rain
Fefonz Quan: a lot of light were i am, though now it's night time.
Ramana Sweetwater: very dark outside here, living remotely in the country
Fefonz Quan: maybe the basic experience of darkness (children often fear it) is the unknown
Fefonz Quan: we don't know what's there when there's no light to see it
Pila Mulligan: if memory serves, the fifth bardo of the Tibetan Book of the Dean is where one experiences fascination with attractive dark images, primarily sexual
Pila Mulligan: Dead*

Pila Mulligan: Dean may have been a Freudian University slip :)
Ramana Sweetwater: well, the sexual connotation is also given on SL, where I referred to profiles or other descriptive texts
Wester Kiranov: aren't dim images more attractive than bright ones (except for the enlightened) in that book?
Pila Mulligan: Wester, it has been so long since
Pila Mulligan: I read it I've forgotten :0
Wester Kiranov: So have I
Fefonz Quan: i thought the bardo stages are meant as a kind of test and as a preparation for the next life
Fefonz Quan: (out of many obviously)
Pila Mulligan: however I believe one attribute of the mantra om main padme hum is to neutralize fascination
Pila Mulligan: yes, Fefonz, a transition experience as I understood it
Fefonz Quan: mani
Pila Mulligan: thanks -- typos are my specialty
Adams Rubble wonders if the darkness is just a metaphor for the state we are in when our "self" runs amok
Ramana Sweetwater: you knew "fascination" means something like "entorchement"?
Ramana Sweetwater: fasces, the latin word for torch
Adams Rubble: :)
Fefonz Quan: that's nice :)
Fefonz Quan: the torch of craving after intellectual interest?
Ramana Sweetwater: well, originally Mussolini reused the word after a few hundreds of years again ;)
Ramana Sweetwater: fascists are nothing else than fascinated people ;)
Adams Rubble: Mussolini was only interested in the connotation to Roman power
Ramana Sweetwater: sure
Scathach Rhiadra: brb
Ramana Sweetwater: dancing between the languages I just hear differently and sometimes reflect for others ;)
Adams Rubble: :)

Another guest joins, but looking for another related venue...

Transcriptionist Writer: is this phenomenology?
Fefonz Quan: talking about appearances, it's also interesting why we connect dark to evil so automatically
Adams Rubble: Ah, almost Transcription
Adams Rubble: That is held at the Kira Cafe. Many will be going from here
Scathach Rhiadra: back
Pila Mulligan: wb S
Adams Rubble: This is a Play as Being Session
Transcriptionist Writer: okay, thanks
Wester Kiranov: pheno is at kira cafe, at 2
Ramana Sweetwater: I guess we connect, because light is needed for life, dark only tolerated for some time
Wester Kiranov: dark is needed too - without sleep we die, and if it's too light that is very hard
Fefonz Quan: in the dessert the shadow will save you
Adams Rubble: the yin yang
Wester Kiranov: dark is also rest, recovery
Adams Rubble: yes
Ramana Sweetwater: ok, we have night and are used to it, but if for instance volcanoes produce longtime night, everything 
can die
Adams Rubble: of course
Wester Kiranov: if we would have daylight for months at the time, we wouldn't do too well either
Adams Rubble: we are evolved to use both
Adams Rubble: need both
Ramana Sweetwater: not with our adaption to night, no
Ramana Sweetwater: so: yes ;)
Fefonz Quan: Ramana, i guess you are correct on the objective basis, but in our experience today, we manage both of them, so the question remains
Adams Rubble: Unfortunately I must depart. Nice talking with you all :)
Adams Rubble: bye everyone :)

Sexuality and darkness.

Ramana Sweetwater: I think we touched the point yet with sexuality and that is also a reason for the silence ;)
Scathach Rhiadra: night Adams
Ramana Sweetwater: good bye :)
Fefonz Quan: bye adams
Wester Kiranov: bye
Fefonz Quan: so sexuality needs darkness?
Ramana Sweetwater: hmm, more like an association between the two?
Wester Kiranov: closing your eyes?
Fefonz Quan: seems like the association goes through sexuality-wrong-bad-darkness
Fefonz Quan: (at least for many religions)
Wester Kiranov: I think it helps to concentrate on touch when it's dark
Fefonz Quan: so the connection darkness-bad is more basic
Wester Kiranov: does not even have to be sexual touch
Ramana Sweetwater: I was talking about fascination, not about dislikes
Scathach Rhiadra: well there is always fascination with what is perceived to be bad
Ramana Sweetwater: yes, strange
Fefonz Quan: not so strange, if the concept of bad makes those things rare,
Fefonz Quan: and rareness causes intrigue
Fefonz Quan: it's hard to be fascinated with the common
Ramana Sweetwater: good explanation
Scathach Rhiadra: true, the secret or esoteric is much more fascinating
Fefonz Quan: :)
Ramana Sweetwater: as European I guess my wondering results from different mental freedom across the atlantic
Fefonz Quan: could you explain in what sense?
Ramana Sweetwater: I have the impression like in America sexuality is slightly more suppressed

Many goodbyes...

Wester Kiranov: I'm off to the Kira cafe now. bye & thanks
Ramana Sweetwater: good bye :)
Scathach Rhiadra: see you later
Wester Kiranov: namaste
Fefonz Quan: bye,
Ramana Sweetwater: alohe
Ramana Sweetwater: aloha
Scathach Rhiadra: think I'll head to the cafe too
Fefonz Quan: i'll go to the cafe too
Scathach Rhiadra: see you all later
Ramana Sweetwater: enjoy :)
Fefonz Quan: c u later
Ramana Sweetwater: yes, c u
Ramana Sweetwater: good morning Pila :)
Pila Mulligan: back from rl phone call
Ramana Sweetwater: yes, and everybody left to the cafe
Ramana Sweetwater: that was quick :)
Pila Mulligan: the electric just went off in the storm -- need to log off now from the battery back up:)
Ramana Sweetwater: ok, nice to have met you :)
Pila Mulligan: see you next time
Ramana Sweetwater: Bye Solobill, but I guess you are afk ;)

Indeed I was Ramana, thanks!