2009.01.03 19:00 - Rediscovering the Beauty Behind the Veil

I, Pema, was the guardian that evening. When I arrived, at the sound of the gong, Fefonz, Scathach and stevenaia were already in the pavillon, with a new visitor, Malika. Doug and Pila would follow on my heels; Adams and Susi would arrive just after him. A large group, nine of us right at the start of the session!

Fefonz Quan: Hi everyone :)
Pema Pera: Good evening!
Scathach Rhiadra: Hello all:)
stevenaia Michinaga: hello all
Malika Cabassoun: hi, Tarmel is teaching me how to use this
stevenaia Michinaga: this?
doug Sosa: hi all.
Malika Cabassoun: second life thing
Pila Mulligan: greetings (another laggy start:)
Malika Cabassoun: I don't know much of the language you use and i am french
Pema Pera: Hi Malika, have you been here before?
Malika Cabassoun: Only sitting next to tarmel watching her do it
Pema Pera: do what?
Malika Cabassoun: comunicate
Malika Cabassoun: chat... answer questions, ask questions...
Pema Pera: Did Tarmel tell you that we record our conversations on a blog, http://playasbeing.wik.is/ ?
stevenaia Michinaga: sounds like what we come here to do...learn how to communicate
Pema Pera: Do you mind being included there?
Malika Cabassoun: yes she did
Pema Pera: thanks!
Malika Cabassoun: no I don't mind
Pema Pera: thank you!
Adams Rubble: Hello everyone :)
Pema Pera: Quite a crowd tonight!
Fefonz Quan: HI Adams
Susi Alcott: _/!\_
Pema Pera: Would anyone like to talk about appearances, life, the Universe, . . or anything else?
Pila Mulligan: idea: what makes an intersting topic for discussion?
Adams Rubble thionks if we spend more time listening there may be less to talk about
Pila Mulligan: what charactersitics, etc.
Malika Cabassoun: appearances, took me a while to sort out my look :)
Pema Pera: hahaha, yes, Malika
Adams Rubble: :)
Susi Alcott: hi Pema, doug, Fefonz, Adams, Pila; stevenaia Malika
Pila Mulligan: Malika, appearances is also one of Pema's favorite subjects in terms of how all of reality appears
Pema Pera: Hi Susi!
Pila Mulligan: hi susi
Adams Rubble: Hello Susi
Fefonz Quan: hi Susi
Malika Cabassoun: it's interesting to see how my perspectives of change as I am getting older, talking about looks
Malika Cabassoun: I am enjoying the fact that how I look is not so important
Pila Mulligan: :)

And, what a pleasant surprise, Dakini stopped by! I had not seen her for ages.

Adams Rubble: Hello Dakini:)
Dakini Rhode: hi :)
Pema Pera: Hey Dakini, happy new year!
stevenaia Michinaga: you have been missed Dakini
doug Sosa: it always has amused me how hard i try to read the person through the appearance,and how it fails here.
Dakini Rhode: a happy and healthy new year to you :)
Pema Pera: Yes, Malika, that is one of the fun aspects of second life
Dakini Rhode: ty steve :)
Pema Pera: the flexibility
stevenaia Michinaga: what is the best way to read a person Doug?
Adams Rubble: You too Dakini (agrees with Steve)
doug Sosa: i willlet that pass for now, steve.
stevenaia Michinaga: ...smiles
Dakini Rhode: i'm an open book, doug :)
doug Sosa: open digital..
stevenaia Michinaga: I see what takes place over time serves as a good measure
stevenaia Michinaga: (not that there is time... winks)
Adams Rubble: :)
Fefonz Quan: (not that there is A constant person to read)
Pema Pera: :)
Pema Pera: I loved reading the poem on your blog, Dakini, by Rumi
Dakini Rhode: haha i've missed these chats
Pema Pera: especially the last line, about the fog
Dakini Rhode: Pema, a friend chose that for me as the poem to guide this new year
Pema Pera: http://zenretreat.blogspot.com/
Dakini Rhode: chosen at random :)
Dakini Rhode: i love it
Pema Pera: nice form of randomness!!
Dakini Rhode: it's from A Year with Rumi or something like that
Pema Pera: you've shifted your practice mostly from SL to RL the last few months?
Malika Cabassoun: yes beautiful poem
Dakini Rhode: yes my practice and my life :)
Malika Cabassoun: what is your practice Dakini
Pema Pera: Hi Stim!
Dakini Rhode: o wait isn't practice one of those REALLY BAD words?
Pema Pera: as you like, Dakini :)
Stim Morane: Hi all!
Pema Pera: exploration is fine too
Pema Pera: or "life"
Dakini Rhode: hi Stim :)
Stim Morane: :)

Stim arrived, and Dakini continued to talk about her activities.

Dakini Rhode: caring for aging parents :)
Pema Pera: !
Malika Cabassoun: big one...
stevenaia Michinaga: something we will all be someday
Dakini Rhode: in my spare time :)
Pema Pera: As for Malika's question, I guess the answer is ngondro, Dakini, judging from your blog?
Pila Mulligan: hi Stim
Dakini Rhode: oh i'm doing a little of that, too :)
Dakini Rhode: and Menla training
Dakini Rhode: contemplative healing training
Malika Cabassoun: can you say more?
Dakini Rhode: finding an URL...
Dakini Rhode: http://www.menlatraining.com/
Malika Cabassoun: thank you will check it out
Dakini Rhode: yw :)
Malika Cabassoun: i am interested because i teach anusara yoga
Dakini Rhode: where are you located?
Malika Cabassoun: Sydney
Dakini Rhode: Germany might be the closest location to you
Dakini Rhode: only in Germany and the US for now
Malika Cabassoun: germany is a possibilty when I go to France

I asked Malika about Anusara Yoga.

Pema Pera: can you tell us a bit about anusara yoga, Malika?
Malika Cabassoun: anusara means "to open to grace" you can go to anusara.com
Malika Cabassoun: anusara yoga follows tantric yoga philosophy, which I am training in at the moment
Malika Cabassoun: it is about remembering the consciousness which is in everything and at the same time honoring diversity
Pema Pera: that sounds like a great attitude!
Dakini Rhode: yes :)
Malika Cabassoun: absolutly beautiful
Pema Pera: may I ask how you open to grace, if that can be hinted at in a few words?
Malika Cabassoun: it is an attitude, like opening to the divine, opening to the flow of nature, strating from a place where we are open and soft
Malika Cabassoun: and then maintaining the softness, we bring the energy in, and out constantly, it is also called spanda
Malika Cabassoun: spanda is the pulse of the universe
Pema Pera: it sounds like what we do every fifteen minutes for 9 seconds, or at least one of the ways we do it :-)
Pema Pera: did you read/hear our approach?
Malika Cabassoun: yes:)
Pema Pera: so we trade duration for frequency
Pema Pera: many short times rather than once or twice a day a long session
Malika Cabassoun: actually i don't know about the 9 seconds

Ik summarized the PaB 9-sec exploration approach.

Pema Pera: but many of us do both
Pema Pera: every fifteen minutes we stop what we do and open up for 9 seconds
Pema Pera: in RL
Pema Pera: each in our own way
Pema Pera: and we get together here to talk about that
Malika Cabassoun: cool
Pema Pera: (although many times we just chat :-)
Pema Pera: it is a kind of time tax: 9 seconds every 900 seconds, only 1%
Malika Cabassoun: HAHAHA
Pema Pera: see http://playasbeing.wik.is/
Malika Cabassoun: thank you
Pema Pera: The key idea is : stop -> drop -> see
Fefonz Quan: (the chippest tax i've ever payed ;0)
Pema Pera: ah, that's what you think, Fef, just you wait . . . :)
Fefonz Quan: ah,the interest...
Malika Cabassoun: stopping is a very good key
Pema Pera: :)
Pema Pera: stop our mad rush, then drop our veils, and see the beauty of all that appears
Pema Pera: all appearances without judgment
Pema Pera: as they appear
Pema Pera: as divine, if you like
Pema Pera: (some of us like that word, others don't)
Malika Cabassoun: that's exactly what anusara is about, rediscover the beauty behind the veil
Pema Pera: (we are very diverse)
Pema Pera: so we are nano-anusarists perhaps?
Malika Cabassoun: HAHAHA
Pema Pera: Dakini, have you met Susi?
Dakini Rhode: hello Susi :)
Pema Pera: Susi is a healer in RL, probably has overlapping interests with you
Pema Pera: Susi, Dakini is the one who invited me to this part of SL, in March
Pema Pera: before we started Play as Being in April
Pema Pera: she lend me her tea house
Pema Pera: where we had our first session on April Foolsday
Dakini Rhode: how things have changed in less than a year :)

Indeed!

Susi Alcott: hello Dakini
Dakini Rhode: :)
Dakini Rhode: Pema, you would like one of the basic exercises of the Menla training
Dakini Rhode: we call it simply "awareness is:
Dakini Rhode: "
Dakini Rhode: Menla is also a way to transport contemplative practices (lujong and lojong, among them) to Westerners, specifically those in the health care professions -- without using the Buddhist terminology
Susi Alcott: having more than much computer probs but just 'had to' log in
Susi Alcott: even cannot much but say 'hello'
Dakini Rhode: you seem to be sufficiently here :)
Pema Pera was reading Dakini's sentence above as "awareness is <return>" (on the key board)
Dakini Rhode: oops that was supposed to be "awareness is"
Dakini Rhode: typo
Pema Pera: but I like the <return> :)
Pema Pera: to what is
Dakini Rhode: but the return adds something :)
Dakini Rhode: hmmm or subtracts
</return></return>

This had been a theme in our first few months: that Play as Being is not about adding some new gimmick or toy to our life, but rather about dropping things, subtracting rather than adding.

Pema Pera: even better!
Malika Cabassoun: ha ha
Pema Pera: Malika, most of our wisdom is generated by typos
Dakini Rhode: haha
Pema Pera: we should make a list!
Malika Cabassoun: what are typos
Dakini Rhode: the typos stop you
Pema Pera: miss spellings
Fefonz Quan: but are most of are typos generated by wisdom ? :)
Pema Pera: (like that one)
stevenaia Michinaga: thank goodness
Pema Pera: we are selective, Fef
Pema Pera: much as Steve is very very wise
Dakini Rhode: sometimes you know when you make a mistake, you stop -- and you look, and you can find wisdom
Fefonz Quan: ah, like natural selection, randomness then selectiveness :)
Pema Pera: :)
Dakini Rhode: not that i like to make mistakes my practice :)
Dakini Rhode: oops play, Stim
Dakini Rhode: :)
Pema Pera: oh, whenever you stop, and look, you see that everything has been a mistake :) -- key point of PaB
Stim Morane: ?
Dakini Rhode: haha
Pema Pera: case of mistaken identification, that is
Pema Pera: our whole life
Pema Pera: overlooking the beauty that Malika spoke about
Dakini Rhode: Stim, I think it was in one of your discussions with Pema (I read on the web) I think you stated we don't "practice" we "play" here in the playasbeing group
Stim Morane: I have no problem with the word "practice".
Dakini Rhode: so I inferred some aversion to the word - thanks :)
Stim Morane: For certain purposes, one would want to qualify it more, but that's not usually so important.
Stim Morane: No, I try to get people to "practice" as much as possible. The rest is in the details.
Dakini Rhode: well i generally make mistakes without practice anyway
Stim Morane: :)
Stim Morane: Oops, gotta go! Bye everyone!

Stim had to leave, so I quoted some of his thoughts, from a few days earlier.

Pema Pera: Stim and I had a fun dialogue about sincerity of practice, on http://playasbeing.wik.is/Chat_Logs/..._Pema_and_Stim
Pema Pera: bye Stim!
stevenaia Michinaga: seem my "Professional Practice" more as "Professional Play" for me
Dakini Rhode: bye Stim
Pema Pera: if I may quote briefly, now that Stim is not hear himself to talk:
Pema Pera:
Stim: Dogen said that there is no "high" practice or "low" practice, but only sincere practice and insincere practice (which is to say, bogus practice). I think sincere practice already is free of the most toxic aspects of practice.
Stim: Again, the appreciative "play" emphasized in PaB seems to be a good balance, a based solution.
Pema Pera: yes, me too, Steve
stevenaia Michinaga: perhaps the difference between practice and play is level of enjoyment
Fefonz Quan: and the "target" issue too
stevenaia Michinaga: which makes you smile wider
Pila Mulligan: there may be sincere play and insincere play, also, to further Stim and Dogen's distinction
Fefonz Quan: like in playing basketball, do we pratctice to win more or playing to have fun? or both
stevenaia Michinaga: have you ever seen a child play insincerely?
Pila Mulligan: that they seem to have to learn, and unfortunately they often do as they age
Malika Cabassoun: thak you so much and see you again
Pema Pera: (just reading the "about" part of http://www.anusara.com/: "This community feels like it has the tightness of a family, yet the looseness of a merry band of bohemian artists." That does sound very much like our Play as Being group!
Pila Mulligan: bye Malika
Pema Pera: thanks for dropping by, Malika!
Pema Pera: we meet here every day four times 1 am 7 am 1 pm 7 pm
Malika Cabassoun: yes it is a bit the same bye merry go band

Malika left, and it became time for me to leave as well.

Susi Alcott: _/!\_
Fefonz Quan: (Susi - is this a "namaste" emotion?)
Susi Alcott: you can use that expression too if U want
Fefonz Quan: cool :)
Pema Pera: (I learned it from Dakini)
Pema Pera: (way back when)
Dakini Rhode: I thought i learned it from you Pema :)
Dakini Rhode: must have been Isen
Pema Pera: nono!
Dakini Rhode: :)
Pema Pera: ah, yes, likely!
Pema Pera: very isenesque
Dakini Rhode: you had the cat face
Pema Pera: =^+^=
Dakini Rhode: yes, that !
Pema Pera: (*^_^*)
Dakini Rhode: ;->
Pema Pera: o(*^_^*)o
Susi Alcott: to me it's basicly to give so called extra light energy; honouring, respect, love
Pema Pera: a wonderful way of reading it, Susi!
Pema Pera: I'll have to be on my way -- thanks for stopping by, Dakini!
Pema Pera: see you all soon again
Pila Mulligan: bye Pema
Fefonz Quan: bye Pema
Scathach Rhiadra: bye Pema
stevenaia Michinaga: bye Pema