2009.04.11 13:00 - You know what, it's fun to Play as Being

The Guardian for this meeting was Pema Pera. The comments are by Pema Pera.

Arisia Vita: Hi Dra
Arisia Vita: Welcome Eliza
Eliza Madrigal: Hello Arisia :), Drareg, hello
Eliza Madrigal: All well?
Arisia Vita: yes, and I hope you are well and happy too
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Qt
Eliza Madrigal: Yes, I am quite. Thank you :)
Qt Core: Hi all
Arisia Vita: welcome Qt
Drareg Merlin: Hello Eliza
Drareg Merlin: Hi QT
Arisia Vita: Hi Pila
Eliza Madrigal: Hey Pila!
Pila Mulligan: greetings
Qt Core: hi Pila
Drareg Merlin: Hi Pila
Arisia Vita: Hi Pema
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Pema
Pila Mulligan: hi Pema and aurel
Pema Pera: Hi everybody!
aurel Miles: hello Everyone!
Eliza Madrigal: Hello Aurel :)
Qt Core: Hi Pema
Drareg Merlin: Hi Pema
Arisia Vita: welcome aurel
Qt Core: hi Aurel
Pila Mulligan: hi Sophia
Pila Mulligan: hi Scathach
Eliza Madrigal: Sophia, and Scatach, Hi :)
Pema Pera: wow, what a crowd, right from the start!

Drareg Merlin: Hi Sofia
SophiaSharon Larnia: hi all
Scathach Rhiadra: Hello everyone:)
Qt Core: hi Sophia, Scath
Arisia Vita: Hi Scat and Sofia
Pema Pera: Good to see you again, Drareg, that has been a long long time, I believe!
Pila Mulligan: hi Ade
Eliza Madrigal: :) Adelene
Adelene Dawner: hi ^.^
Pema Pera: back in the old tea house in Rieul, perhaps?
Scathach Rhiadra: Hello Ade:)
Drareg Merlin: Perhaps
Arisia Vita: Hi Adams
Pila Mulligan: hi Adams
Scathach Rhiadra: Hello Adams
Pema Pera: Just to remind you, Drareg, our wiki is http://playasbeing.wik.is/ and we post our chat logs there
Eliza Madrigal: Hey Adams :) Nice color !
Adams Rubble: Hello Everyone :)
Pema Pera: This morning we had a fascinating discussion
Pema Pera: and halfway I made a suggestion
Pema Pera: let me see where I have the text
Drareg Merlin: OK, thks
Pema Pera: ah, it was more than halfway:
Pema Pera: [2009/04/11 7:47] Pema Pera: how about trying a new exploration? We can all try to "let Being see", but not in silence, not as a separate movement, but while we are typing and reading and sitting here?
Pema Pera: I suggest we continue doing this
Pema Pera: in other words making this one continuous session of "Being seeing"
Pema Pera: while we talk, listen, ponder, relax
Pema Pera: Hi Bert -- wow, full circle again!
Pila Mulligan: hi Bert
Adams Rubble: Hello Bertrum :)
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Bertrum :)
Pema Pera: what came up this morning is that "being seen by Being" was disconcerting . . . .
Scathach Rhiadra: Hello Bertrum
Bertrum Quan: hi everyone
Pema Pera: does anyone like to comment on that aspect?

Pila Mulligan: the idea of letting Being see reminds me of how ancestral cultures welcome the presence of their ancestors into daily life
Pema Pera: nice point, Pila !!
aurel Miles: do you mean - the way people can feel it when you look openly at them?
aurel Miles: or the way you can feel a penetrating gaze?
Eliza Madrigal: exposure
aurel Miles: a frank gaze
Pema Pera: not so specific perhaps, Aurel
Pila Mulligan: hi Fefonz
Pema Pera: although that is related
Adams Rubble: Hello Fefonz :)
Pema Pera: letting yourself be seen without hiding anything
Qt Core: the feeling of having the universe watching you all the time
Scathach Rhiadra: Hello Fefonz
Pema Pera: (by God, by ancestors, by Being, by . . . .)
Eliza Madrigal: Hello Fefonz
Fefonz Quan: Hey All :)
Qt Core: hi Fefonz
Pema Pera: how does it feel, right now, to let Being see?
Pema Pera: while we are talking?
Pema Pera: does that make any difference?
Pila Mulligan: there are quite a few aspects of modern life that negate the presence of ancestors, god, being, etc. :)
Fefonz Quan: Being seems to rez slowly today...
Pema Pera: yes, Pila, and therefore it can be quite startling to do this practice, if you're not used to it!
Pila Mulligan: thos ascpects could be part of the tinkerbell effect -- it is not something many people believe in, and so it dies
Pema Pera: until you start trying again :)
Pila Mulligan: and then tinkerbell flies
Eliza Madrigal: restful, but it seems like I came that way today... so maybe not different...hm
aurel Miles: does sl make this harder to do - or easier?
Fefonz Quan: (mkaes what if i may ask?)
Fefonz Quan: makes*
aurel Miles: "being seen by being"
Pema Pera: *Being -- Being is not a being :-)
Pila Mulligan: hi Tarmel
Pila Mulligan: that may be an essential question aurel: how much can SL help, and how much can it inhibit, this exercise -- it may not be easy to answer
aurel Miles: sorry
Adams Rubble: Hello Tarmel :)
Scathach Rhiadra: Hello Tarmel
Eliza Madrigal: SL makes it easier or possible to talk about ..to ask the question even
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Tarmel
Tarmel Udimo: (hi everyone)
Fefonz Quan: what does it mean Being seeing us?

Pema Pera: find out, Fefonz, by doing it!
aurel Miles: how so Eliza?
Eliza Madrigal: Aurel, it isn't that it is impossible in other settings, but Sl does allow for a kind of concentrated exploration
Fefonz Quan: well, wouldn't it be like Being seeing itself?
aurel Miles nods
SophiaSharon Larnia: good one fefonz
aurel Miles: sorry - i am interested in that
Pema Pera: do it, report, and then we can talk about it, Fefonz, why speculate?
Pema Pera: seriously, we can speculate forever
aurel Miles: and i was hoping you could elaborate on how that feels to you
Pema Pera: yes
Eliza Madrigal: Personally, my 'self' and so 'being' are wrung out today...so Being has less resistance I think..just today it seems like it :)
Pema Pera: btw, for those who arrived later, here is what we are trying to do at this session: [13:06] Pema Pera: [2009/04/11 7:47] Pema Pera: how about trying a new exploration? We can all try to "let Being see", but not in silence, not as a separate movement, but while we are typing and reading and sitting here?
Tarmel Udimo: don't we do that all the time pema:)
Pema Pera: would be nice, Tarmel :-)
Pema Pera: for me it makes a large difference, whenever I remind myself to let Being see
Pema Pera: physically even
Pema Pera: my whole body feels like opening up more
Pema Pera: my thoughts and feelings too
Pema Pera: less clamping down, less habitually hiding aspects of myself
aurel Miles: i find it difficult to do that deliberately because i find my own awareness of the attempt to do it gets in the way of the kind of clarity i need to just open up and do it.
Tarmel Udimo: yes and it is only a breathe away
aurel Miles: i find i am continually asking myself if i am doing it yet.
Eliza Madrigal: :)
aurel Miles: whereas - it does come up quite naturally and gracefully at other times.
Pema Pera: the challenge me be to not "do" it, Aurel, but to let Being do it . . . does that make sense, that difference?
Pema Pera: yes

Pila Mulligan: being double weighted is a Chinese term that relates to the dffference between stepping lightly in life and having the heavier tread of someone bearing a burden
Pila Mulligan: someone bearnig a very heavy phyiscal burden still can step lightly, and someone with no apparent physical burden can be double weighted
aurel Miles: yes the difference makes sense but the awareness of the attempt still clouds the process
Pila Mulligan: these conditions are transient when not noticed, they can change back and forth
Pila Mulligan: this exercise reminds me of not being double wieghted
Pema Pera: thank you, Pila!
Pema Pera: beautiful picture
Tarmel Udimo: yes
Pema Pera: Aurel, can we let it happen without "attempting"?
Pema Pera: and without "waiting" for it to happen either?
aurel Miles: well, that's what i am observing in myself
Pema Pera: "inviting" perhaps?
aurel Miles: i find it harder to turn deliberately to such a state
Pema Pera: "opening up to"
Pema Pera: how deliberate is "opening up"?
aurel Miles: when i am aware that i am choosing to do it
aurel Miles: for me? as deliberate as closing down.
aurel Miles: but i am only speaking from my own experience
Eliza Madrigal: "Being breathed" rather than breathing can calm those thoughts a little perhaps
Pema Pera: but perhaps we can see that we are closing down all the time -- and the only challenge is then to stop doing that -- does that make a difference?
Pema Pera: stopping the deliberate closing down :-)
aurel Miles: are we closing down all the time?
aurel Miles: i'm not sure i agree
Pema Pera: as for me, that helps, to look at it that way -- yes, I think so, almost all the time, to some subtle degree . . . .
Adams Rubble: I can relate to that
Pema Pera: we can always be more open . . . .
Adams Rubble: relate
Pema Pera: and even when we are much more open that usual
Pila Mulligan: maybe Pema is thinking in terms similar to entropy
Pema Pera: I feel that I am still holding back to some extent
Pema Pera: -- otherwise I would be a fully enlightened something :-)
Pema Pera: (Fefonz, sorry, I didn't mean to stop your question -- but rather to suggest that you couple the question to an experiment, to what happens when you try)
Pema Pera: (I'd love to hear your question in connection with the experiment of trying to do it, if that's okay with you)
Tarmel Udimo: There is always a sense if awareness the observer even when Being is present
Tarmel Udimo: I don't think this a problem
Tarmel Udimo: of
Fefonz Quan: RL calls bye all
Pila Mulligan: bye Fefonz

SophiaSharon Larnia: being sees everything it's hard to focus on one part, where to start
Pila Mulligan: start with everything maybe :)
Tarmel Udimo: don't start anywhere Sophia
Tarmel Udimo: just start
Tarmel Udimo: I think we make this more complicated then we need to, I know I have for years:)
Eliza Madrigal: The 15 minute pauses/meditation is important to this sort of effort
aurel Miles: oops - i must be ff
aurel Miles: off
Pema Pera: bye Aurel!
aurel Miles: bye all
Adams Rubble: bye Aurel :)
Adelene Dawner: cya :)
Eliza Madrigal: Bye aurel :) C you soon
Pila Mulligan: bye aurel
Scathach Rhiadra: bye
Pema Pera: Yes, dropping everything every 15 minutes makes everything less complicated
Pema Pera: perhaps no need to wonder where to start, Sophia
SophiaSharon Larnia: i meant where to start looking
Pema Pera: just letting Being see . . . . and letting Being figure out how to see :-)
SophiaSharon Larnia: ok
Pema Pera: you don't have to look
Pema Pera: you can let Being do all the looking :-)
Pema Pera: and yes, we may feel very uncomfortable trying to do something we don't know anything about
Pema Pera: like "how to let Being see?"
Pema Pera: but the answer is really "try it!"
Pema Pera: and then we can compare reports
Pema Pera: are we all doing that now?
Pema Pera: does anyone want to tell us how it is for him/her, to let Being see?
Pema Pera: :-)
Pema Pera: or perhaps Sophia can tell us how it feels to try to let Being see? -- what happens, when you try, do you get stuck?
Pema Pera: or does nothing happen?
SophiaSharon Larnia: I see a jabillion pictures in one breath and wonder why, get starled and come back me me
SophiaSharon Larnia: scared*
Pila Mulligan: :)
Tarmel Udimo: grins

Pema Pera: wonderful typo, starled !
SophiaSharon Larnia: sorry typos
Pema Pera: nono, nice to be led by a jabillion stars!
Pila Mulligan: you need to get it down to just a few zillion picutres SophiaSharon
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes that is why I askes the question
SophiaSharon Larnia: asked
Pema Pera: but seriously, Sophia, what feels scary about it?
SophiaSharon Larnia: difficult question to answer
Pila Mulligan: maybe because it is of unfamiliar depth it seems to lack coherence
SophiaSharon Larnia: yes
Pila Mulligan: but it may have coherence anyway :)
Eliza Madrigal: another kind of coherence..in a wider view
Pila Mulligan: :)
Tarmel Udimo: it is scary Sophia
Eliza Madrigal nods
Tarmel Udimo: I have expereinced this
Tarmel Udimo: dropping means change
SophiaSharon Larnia: dropping walls
Tarmel Udimo: and our entire sense of self rebels a little
Pema Pera: more than a little, I'd say :-)
Tarmel Udimo: yes Pema:)
Tarmel Udimo: our universe quakes at the thought
SophiaSharon Larnia: but at the same time the universe is waiting for us to do so
Tarmel Udimo: nods
Tarmel Udimo: I just keep breathing
Pila Mulligan: :)
Tarmel Udimo: you know what its fun to Play as Being
SophiaSharon Larnia: oh now i get it :)))
SophiaSharon Larnia: doh
Tarmel Udimo: hehehehe
Pila Mulligan: an particularly exhaling, sometimes in the stratling effect of this newness we forget to exhale :)
Tarmel Udimo: I felt that even through the computer:
Tarmel Udimo: Sophia
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Tarmel Udimo: yes exhaling is important Pila:)
Pila Mulligan: if people exhaled as much as they inhale they'd be more balanced :)
Tarmel Udimo: nods
Tarmel Udimo: letting it all go
Pema Pera: (I have to let myself go . . . RL calling . . .)
Pila Mulligan: bye Pema -- Be well
Tarmel Udimo: bye Pema
Scathach Rhiadra: bye Pema
Pema Pera: bye everybody, great seeing y'all !
Adelene Dawner: cya Pema :)
Eliza Madrigal: Bye Pema
Qt Core: bye Pema
Eliza Madrigal: (and Adams)
Pema Pera: I hope this was not toooo serious for a lovely Saturday afternoon
Pema Pera: :-)
SophiaSharon Larnia: :)
Eliza Madrigal: So little written, and yet so much
Pema Pera: (^_^)

Tarmel Udimo: :)
SophiaSharon Larnia: I must go too, bye everyone :)
Eliza Madrigal: Tarmel, I feel the universe quaking :)
Eliza Madrigal: Bye Sophia
Pila Mulligan: bye Sophia
Tarmel Udimo: bye Sophia
Scathach Rhiadra: bye Sophia
Qt Core: rl calling me too
Tarmel Udimo: yes is it lunch time Eliza?
Eliza Madrigal: Bye Qt
Eliza Madrigal: hhahaha
Scathach Rhiadra: bye QT
Pila Mulligan: bye Qt
Tarmel Udimo: bye Qt
Qt Core: Bye
Eliza Madrigal: I just thought that was beautiful imagery....a tangible description
Scathach Rhiadra: :)
Tarmel Udimo: ty Eliza, don't mind me - myBeing can be a little silly sometimes:)
Eliza Madrigal: :) You should see some of the things I erase ;-)
Eliza Madrigal: haha
Tarmel Udimo: and yes my universe quaked for years, still does
Tarmel Udimo: no need here, its all fun and games Eliza
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Tarmel Udimo: (Sorry dear ones, but off to work I go, waves silently goodbye)
Pila Mulligan: bye Tarmel
Eliza Madrigal: Bye Tarmel
Scathach Rhiadra: good night all, Namasté
Eliza Madrigal: Namaste, Scathach
Pila Mulligan: bye Scathach
Bertrum Quan: bye Scathach
Bertrum Quan: bye all
Eliza Madrigal: Bye Bertrum, nice to see you
Pila Mulligan: bye Bert
Pila Mulligan: bye Ade
Eliza Madrigal: I'm feeling content here today.... :)
Pila Mulligan: nice :)
Eliza Madrigal: Still sitting here thinking about Being breathing
Eliza Madrigal: You?
Pila Mulligan: happy :)
Eliza Madrigal: : )
Pila Mulligan: I'm particularly interested in the upside and downside of SL as a vechile for preactices like this
Pila Mulligan: it obviously has some strengths
Eliza Madrigal: What do you see as the downside?
Pila Mulligan: the absence of physical presence
Eliza Madrigal: yes
Pila Mulligan: like in a group meditation
Pila Mulligan: but it works surprisingly welll despite that
Eliza Madrigal: Oddly...the meditative aspect I feel almost the same at times
Pila Mulligan: yes, I've also seent hat Eliza
Pila Mulligan: but there is a missing element
Pila Mulligan: I'd call it the gestalt potential, to use an old term
Eliza Madrigal: yes?
Pila Mulligan: a term Fritz Perls used inthe 60's to describe the situation when the energy present in a group exeeds the sum of its parts
Pila Mulligan: a multiplier effect of eneregy
Pila Mulligan: that seems to need phsical presence
Eliza Madrigal: Oh, I definitely feel much of that here....but I think the articulating of it is hard
Pila Mulligan: yes, it is an interesting thing to me, and I'm not at all sure of the answers
Eliza Madrigal: Sometimes seeing the potential of something can be difficult too....having to be patient
Eliza Madrigal: More difficult to see it than not to at times :)
Pila Mulligan: well, this is a new expereince for me -- this type of practice in this type of environment -- so I am leanring :)
Eliza Madrigal: And what the internet does, is at least open the possibility that people who are at a certain place can talk about it...
Eliza Madrigal: regardless of whether they are in Hawaii and Miami respectively :)
Pila Mulligan: yes, and that is ineresting too, as one aspect of what Perls referred to as gestalt potntial related to the diversity of the group
Pila Mulligan: more diversity meant more geatalt potential
Pila Mulligan: and here we have people from al over the world :)
Eliza Madrigal: Yes ..so many different viewpoints to come from : )
Pila Mulligan: so in Perls' view, a roomful of middle age white golfers from Kansas City were less likely to expereince a gestalt than we would be, with out international group
Pila Mulligan: but we lack that critical element of being physically present
Eliza Madrigal: I can see that
Pila Mulligan: maybe we have quasi-gestalts :)
Eliza Madrigal: And maybe that element develops over time...already you all are talking retreats and such...
Pila Mulligan: there definitely seems to be an energy sharing
Pila Mulligan: yep
Eliza Madrigal: a way to dip in and out of the physical presence aspect
Pila Mulligan: :)
Eliza Madrigal: I'm sure of that Pila
Eliza Madrigal: I went over writing from a year ago today...
Eliza Madrigal: and could not believe my eyes...what I was asking for then...what I was working around the edges of....
Pila Mulligan: :) more details?
Eliza Madrigal: PaB is quite a leap and yet not. Does that makes sense?
Pila Mulligan: it makes sense, Eliza :)
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Pila Mulligan: internet chat began as just a screen with typed words appearing on it
Pila Mulligan: more like pen pals
Pila Mulligan: with instant delivery
Pila Mulligan: but even with old pen pals by mail, there was a sense of familairty and community
Pila Mulligan: here it is intensified by the animation
Pila Mulligan: it seems more lively
Eliza Madrigal: yes!
Eliza Madrigal: Sometimes we work in the underground for a long time...and keep popping up our heads to see if anyone else is working on the same thing...find "no" but then go back underground/underwater maybe
Pila Mulligan: :)
Pila Mulligan: in the end I think we find we are all pretty much working on similar things
Pila Mulligan: not exactly the same, but simimlar
Eliza Madrigal: yes....wonder if it is exactly the same though
Pila Mulligan: at seom point it may be
Pila Mulligan: but we also have diversity
Pila Mulligan: within the common framework of our life and human nature
Eliza Madrigal: yes....exploring that diversity from a level of acceptance and Being first, is a big shift from just exploring diversity
Pila Mulligan: and seriously, now, how many people do this in real life :)
Pila Mulligan: as a group :)
Eliza Madrigal: It introduces that element of timelessness
Eliza Madrigal: haha. Pila
Eliza Madrigal: You've said that before...that this isn't just everyone's idea of what to do with their time :)
Eliza Madrigal: haha
Pila Mulligan: but this is not only fun, it is re-creating a senseo fo community
Eliza Madrigal: So true
Eliza Madrigal: I hope so
Pila Mulligan: Gandhi wrote about how, in his view, the loss of community was one of the worst effects of the indurstrial revolution
Pila Mulligan: people got separated from their community into wage eraner's apartments
Eliza Madrigal: Gandhi makes a lot of sense. It was the "life as one indivisble whole" comment that brought me into Buddhism...out of bitterness...began mulling over what that meant
Eliza Madrigal: and started to let go some of my anger
Eliza Madrigal: that I could trust more in the big picture :)
Pila Mulligan: and vast suburbs are really not what creates a sense of wholeness :)
Eliza Madrigal: tell me about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Eliza Madrigal lives in a designed neighborhood where everyone has an orange roof
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eliza Madrigal: NEVER thought that would be me...but the school system arrangement sort of imposed it...
Pila Mulligan: and how many people meet and actually share their life expereinces at any level of depth :)
Eliza Madrigal: Well..only after hurricanes :)
Pila Mulligan: true ... those wake us up
Eliza Madrigal: After hurricanes we are all one
Pila Mulligan: indeed
Pila Mulligan: but there was a time when we humans lived in a more wholesome and nurturing community environments
Pila Mulligan: all the time
Pila Mulligan: not just after a disaster
Pila Mulligan: and we have a need for that in life
Eliza Madrigal nods sincerely
Pila Mulligan: however much we may like orange roofs :)
Eliza Madrigal: ha. yes, I'm not too fond of them personally...unless there is one here, one there :)
Eliza Madrigal: Did you read the "man in the house" log?
Pila Mulligan: hmmm .. yes
Pila Mulligan: trying to remmeebr it
Pila Mulligan: ahh, Pema's story about the fellow afraid of spacelessness
Eliza Madrigal: funny, but we design things the way we think...protectively or with exposure
Eliza Madrigal: yes
Eliza Madrigal: I realized after that, that my idea of no house isn't all that balanced either :)
Pila Mulligan: what is your idea of no house, Eliza? it sounds interesting
Eliza Madrigal: Well, Fef and I at the end were talking about the house more....
Eliza Madrigal: and I casually said that some of us didn't want to live in the house at all
Eliza Madrigal: Which, upon reflection, I thought is what was worrying him :)
Eliza Madrigal: So when you are talking....I am seeing a friendlier house
Eliza Madrigal: in a friendlier setting...not "no house"...
Pila Mulligan: :)
Eliza Madrigal: Which isn't really what Pema was talking about...but where it went.
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Pila Mulligan: the presence of a supportive community makes it easier to be outside
Eliza Madrigal: In a way, a strong way, I think it can be a mirror
Eliza Madrigal: YES, exactly.
Eliza Madrigal: Hi Dragon
Pila Mulligan: well, I'm going to enjoy some outside time now Elize -- nice chatting with you
Pila Mulligan: a*
Eliza Madrigal: :) Bye Pila Thanks
Pila Mulligan: thank you -- see you next time :)
Eliza Madrigal: :)
Eliza Madrigal: Dragon, you're very new to SL