2009.04.30 07:00 - Quiet Awareness Shining Through

The Guardian for this meeting was Adams Rubble. The comments are by Adams Rubble.

(Eliza Madrigal thanks Adams Rubble for taking this session and will offer very limited commentary therefore. Adams later added one little comment)

Adams Rubble: Hello Strannik :)
Adams Rubble: Nice to meet you :)
Strannik Zipper: Greetings! - likewise :)
Adams Rubble: Congratulations on becoming a guardian :)
Strannik Zipper: thank you, I'm excited to see how that will develop
Adams Rubble: PaB is made up of a nice group of people
Strannik Zipper: yes indeed!
Strannik Zipper: how did you discover the group?
Adams Rubble: It was back when the group met at the Zen Retreat
Adams Rubble: I wondered who the people were who were going in and out of the teahouse
Adams Rubble: finally I asked someone and here I am :)
Adams Rubble: how about you?
Strannik Zipper: haha
Strannik Zipper: I met Pema at a two week retreat about 19 years ago
Strannik Zipper: much of that retreat planted the seeds for his current work
Adams Rubble: So you go way back :)
Strannik Zipper: yeah - I didn't keep in touch, but I discovered his stuff on the internet - and found that we are still pursuing common interests
Adams Rubble: that is very interesting
Adams Rubble: :)
Adams Rubble: It is nice you found us here :)
Strannik Zipper: the retreat was based on the "Space Time and Knowledge" vision
Adams Rubble nods
Strannik Zipper: I'm amazed at how much is getting accomplished here
Adams Rubble: Pema has great visions
Strannik Zipper: indeed - I sat in for a couple of the phenomenology sessions as well
Adams Rubble: Unfortunately I am not able to make those
Adams Rubble: There are so many workshops now :)
Strannik Zipper: I couldn't really either - this format is much better for me
Adams Rubble: it is more inclusive
Strannik Zipper: and has a better range of possible times - I'm on the West Coast, and Friday afternoons are pretty busy
Adams Rubble: I remember being amazed last summer when Pema thought it would take three years to be able to find common vocabulary to talk about Being
Adams Rubble: ah, yes, these times are good for the west coast :)
Adams Rubble: and here you are 19 years later :)
Adams Rubble: I thought I would be here a month of two :)
Strannik Zipper: it has really been interesting so far
Adams Rubble: I have been here since last June
Adams Rubble: it has been quite a journey for me
Strannik Zipper: you were doing Zen before this?
Adams Rubble: No. I knew a little about Buddhism but only the basics. Nothing about Zen :)
Adams Rubble: I was quite ognorant :)
Adams Rubble: ignorant
Strannik Zipper: ah! ignorance is a very high level in Zen, I have not yet attained it
Adams Rubble: When Pema first talked about identifications I thought he was talking about name, rank and serial number
Adams Rubble: hehe. yes
Strannik Zipper: identifications can be tricky
Adams Rubble: Ignorance came naturally to me :)
Adams Rubble: but with second life i was able to come at it with an open mind
Adams Rubble: do you have a Zen background?
Strannik Zipper: SL is good for that - they are using these environments to help people with PTSD - less threatening than a physical group
Strannik Zipper: I spent some time in a Zen center
Strannik Zipper: our call to action "don't just do something, sit there""
Adams Rubble: yes, I heard that :)
Adams Rubble: have you met Isen yet?
Strannik Zipper: I don't think so
Adams Rubble: I think I heard it from him. He rarely comes to PaB but hangs around the Zen retreat. He is often there for zazen at 6pm SLT
Adams Rubble: He has a place in the Mieum sim which is a place where mutiple traditions have built places
Strannik Zipper: hmmm....I'll have to check that out
Adams Rubble: The Zen Rtereat is next door in the Rieul sim
Adams Rubble: That is now owned by Play as Being
Strannik Zipper: OK, I may have seen at least part of it
Adams Rubble: The Zen Retreat was built by Dakini, another one of our guardians
Adams Rubble: it is beautifully done

A fantastic way to discover zazen:

Strannik Zipper: cool - I actually fell out of the sky by accident and landed in the middle of zazen once
Strannik Zipper: which is how I discovered it :)
Adams Rubble: I notice you have St. Catherine Monastery in your profile. That is one of my favorite places
Adams Rubble: haha. that is funny :)
Strannik Zipper: yes - it is amazing - I actually know people who have been there, and a friend of mine is a nun from the womens monastery (attached) on the red sea
Adams Rubble: People are doing that all the time
Adams Rubble: It must be quite moving to visit the real monastery
Adams Rubble: but it is so fragile
Strannik Zipper: they have one of the most amazing libraries - a treasury of ancient manuscripts
Adams Rubble: we can kill it with too much love
Strannik Zipper: the librarian is a monk from Texas
Adams Rubble: oh yes, and the icons too
Adams Rubble: oh wow. Who would have thought :)
Adams Rubble: I saw some of the icons in the NY exhibition a few years back. They are the most moving pieces of art I have ever seen
Strannik Zipper: There is an elder (staretz, geronda - the Orthodox equivalent of Zen master)
Strannik Zipper: there as well
Strannik Zipper: Oh yes, I saw the exhibit in LA
Adams Rubble: I went back three times. I just wanted to spend as much time as I could with the icons
Strannik Zipper: those have been windows for centuries of prayers
Adams Rubble: yes
Adams Rubble: and so many destroyed in the iconoclast. If it hadn;t been for St. Catherine's we would never had known
Adams Rubble: It is humbling to know how little we know about what has gone before
Adams Rubble: we only know sometimes by accident
Strannik Zipper: right - they were able to protect from iconoclasm, the sack of constantinople and islamic conquest as well
Strannik Zipper: they actually have a letter signed by Mohammed authorizing that the monastery should not be disturbed
Adams Rubble nods
Adams Rubble: have you met Ilike Falls who created the SL version of St. Catherine's
Strannik Zipper: I'm not sure I've actually met then
Strannik Zipper: er them
Adams Rubble: Unfortunately he is going to dismantle it for lack of funds to keep it going
Adams Rubble: But it probably will stay until November
Strannik Zipper: oh dear! that would be a shame - what has he got - a whole sim?
Adams Rubble: yes
Adams Rubble: the whole island
Strannik Zipper: that does get pricey
Adams Rubble nods'
Strannik Zipper: a lot of really nice places in SL have disappeared
Adams Rubble: yes
Strannik Zipper: There ought to be a grant program or something
Adams Rubble: The Van Gogh place was a blow. There was no warning it was going to go
Strannik Zipper: for some of these exceptional sites
Adams Rubble: yes, it seems so
Adams Rubble: Have you seen our exhibit :Sacred Art in a Virtual World"?
Strannik Zipper: I walked through - I didn't have enough time to do it justice at the time
Adams Rubble: We at least are trying to have a record of them
Adams Rubble: There had been a good number of Orthodox churches which have disappeared
Adams Rubble: and a Nunnery
Strannik Zipper: I have a small skete on my island
Adams Rubble: Unfortunately we did not et them photographed before they disappeared
Adams Rubble: I will have to go see :)
Adams Rubble: thank you :)
Strannik Zipper: thats for the island
Adams Rubble: thanks :)

Roleplaying and Awareness

Adams Rubble: Did you have anything you wanted to discuss today? I have just chated away :)
Strannik Zipper: I just came here from a roleplay sim - which was causing me to think of other ways in which people "roleplay" in life
Strannik Zipper: adopt different roles or identifications at different times
Strannik Zipper: in a game it is one thing
Strannik Zipper: but it ocurred to me that the dynamic of roleplaying actually takes place in various ways in the midst of life as well
Adams Rubble nods
Adams Rubble: We can learn much about that in second life
Strannik Zipper: which is a way of focusing in one sense, but limiting being in another
Adams Rubble nods
Adams Rubble: Hello Henry
Adams Rubble: Our identities make us react differently at different times
Adams Rubble: it is hard to know that without doing some role playing
Adams Rubble: is that what you were getting at?
Strannik Zipper: right - some teachers have suggested that we are many people - that the mulitple personality disorder is only an advanced form of the human condition
Adams Rubble nods
Strannik Zipper: but that there is an essential background of awareness that is present through all of these roles
Adams Rubble: I have been playing with that in SL :)
Adams Rubble: Some of mine were fighting with each other
Strannik Zipper: in SL it can become more obvious, because you can change your av with your mood
Adams Rubble: yes
Adams Rubble: helpful
Strannik Zipper: I have seen a few different traditions that seem to address this in the same way
Adams Rubble: What you say is interesting. I have found more awareness in being able to drop them
Adams Rubble: let them go and there is a burden lifted from my shoulders
Adams Rubble: but then again, I am learning more to accept them
Strannik Zipper: right - they actually limit the personality in some way
Adams Rubble: yes

Quiet Awareness Shines Through.

Strannik Zipper: these frequent times of quiet awareness actually stop these role fragments in their tracks, and let the underlying awareness come through
Adams Rubble nods
Strannik Zipper: this awareness creates a center which can absorb these different roles into an open spontaneousness without a role
Adams Rubble: :)
Strannik Zipper: without identifications - but before that happens, it is possible to seperate and just watch the roles happen
Adams Rubble: Sometimes what happens can be amazing too :)
Strannik Zipper: if one is conscious of when one is playing a role, then it is possible to give it some space, not restrict being with it so much
Adams Rubble: yes, I can see that
Adams Rubble: Nice observation!
Strannik Zipper: well its not mine, and its not original, but a roleplay sim was a good reminder :)
Adams Rubble: I was not aware I was doing that
Adams Rubble: :)
Adams Rubble: Role playing allows us to look at things from the opposite direction
Strannik Zipper: someone else suggested to go ahead and play the role, but don't internalize it or identify with it - that is one way of not losing intrinsic awareness
Adams Rubble: Some of us have learned about awareness from the role playing though. a different starting point
Adams Rubble: but I see your point
Adams Rubble: we reach a levl of awareness and have to keep finding a way back
Strannik Zipper: in that case, perhaps it is useful to look at the same situations through different roles?
Adams Rubble: It was for me
Adams Rubble: I got an energy from role playing that kept me in motion'
Strannik Zipper: interesting
Adams Rubble: whenever I got stagnant the role playing renewed the energy
Adams Rubble: It is not so important now but it was for the first few months
Strannik Zipper: did you feel like the role provided an anchor to keep you from spacing out in some way?
Adams Rubble is thinking
Adams Rubble: I don' think i would use the word anchor but...
Strannik Zipper: perhaps directed your energy?
Adams Rubble: Hmmm
Adams Rubble: It was a reference point
Adams Rubble: It lightened things up for me
Adams Rubble: so everything you wrote except anchor applies
Adams Rubble: I was in motion, not anchored
Adams Rubble: I almost can feel the motion thinking about it
Strannik Zipper: perhaps I meant reference point instead of anchor
Adams Rubble: Pema used the metaphor of sailing
Adams Rubble: I was at sea and sailing
Strannik Zipper: how did the role fit into the sailing?
Adams Rubble: you ask tough questions. hehe
Adams Rubble: it provided the enrgy
Adams Rubble: maybe the wind in the sails :)
Strannik Zipper: I think I can "feel" the roleplaying in the sailing
Strannik Zipper: it seems to me that roleplay can also be like putting on different "hats"
Adams Rubble: Unfortunately, I must go now. It was very nice meeting you and an interesting discussion. And yes...or putting on avatars :)
Strannik Zipper: hahaha - will see you again one of these times
Adams Rubble: yes, thank you and have a good day :)